Several decades ago, police in Illinois were trying to narrow their list of suspects in a kidnapping case. A ransom note had demanded that money be placed in a trashcan "on the devil strip at the corner of 18th and Carlson."

Police gave the note to Roger Shuy, an expert in the field of forensic linguistics. Because the kidnapper had called the swath of grass between the highway and the street "the devil strip," a term used only in Akron, Ohio, Shuy asked the police whether any of their suspects had grown up there. One had, and he confessed.

In case you're wondering, other regional terms for the "devil strip" include "parking" or "parkway" (in parts of the Midwest and West); "boulevard" (Upper Midwest); "terrace" or "tree lawn" (Great Lakes region); "tree belt" (Massachusetts); "grassplot" (Mid-Atlantic region); and "neutral ground" (Deep South.)

In an article for the newsletter of the Dictionary of American Regional English (D.A.R.E.), Shuy described how he used regionalisms to crack two other cases.

A letter written by the Unabomber, for instance, described spending evenings "in the sierras." Because of the lack of capitalization in the use of the "sierras" as a general term for mountain areas is unique to northern California, Shuy correctly surmised that the bomber had spent significant time there.

The Unambomber's letters and manifestos also contained eccentric spellings that had been used by the Chicago Tribune during the 1940s and 1950s, when Colonel Robert McCormick, the newspaper's publisher, was trying to promote his spelling reforms. This told Shuy that the bomber had grown up in Chicago and that he was about 50 years old, all true of the perpetrator, Ted Kaczynski.

In another case, police discovered a note near the site of a Nevada train bombing that included this line: "The women awoke to say their morning prayers." Consulting the D.A.R.E., Shuy discovered that this past tense of "awake," though common in the Northeast, is very rare in the South and West.

The note also mentioned "kerosene," the usual term for this petroleum product in the Northeast but rarely used in the West, where it's called "coal oil." Police had only one suspect from the Northeast, and, when confronted with the linguistic evidence, he confessed.

Question: Why do forensic linguists seem so understanding when you express your feelings?

Because they always know where you're coming from.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.