A Sense of Doubt blog post #2984 - Zodiac Killer's Cipher - SOLVED

 

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2984 - Zodiac Killer's Cipher - SOLVED

And now one from deep in the archive.

News that broke back in 2020.

Though it seems worth sharing, still, today.

Mass shooters and serial killers crave attention. It's better if we don't disseminate their manifestos.

And yet, this code by the Zodiac Killer is quite a different thing.

Besides, it was a long time ago.

Thanks for tuning in.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/12/12/0059231/the-zodiac-killers-cipher-has-been-solved-after-51-years

The Zodiac Killer's Cipher Has Been Solved After 51 Years (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday December 12, 2020 @05:00AM from the decades-later dept.

"It's taken over 50 years, but the solution to the Zodiac Killer's cipher has been found," writes Slashdot reader quonset. CNN reports:Dubbed the "340 cipher," the message was unraveled by a trio of code breakers -- David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia, Jarl Van Eycke, a Belgian computer programmer, and Sam Blake, an Australian mathematician. The Zodiac Killer is most known for leaving a trail of five unsolved murders between 1968 and 1969. He was never caught, but he gained notoriety by writing letters to police and local media up until 1974, sometimes in code, boasting of the killings. Bloody bits of clothing were included with his letters as proof of his actions. He claims he killed as many as 37 people.

Oranchak detailed the process for cracking the cipher on his website and in a YouTube video, where he used a specifically developed decryption software and a bit of luck to finally make the connection. The team used a unique program to sift through 650,000 variations of the message. In one, a couple of words appeared. "We got really lucky and found one that had part of the answer, but it wasn't obvious," Oranchak said, explaining that they then had to handpick their way through to decipher the rest of the message. The only disappointing part, Oranchak said, is that the missive contained no personally identifying information. Oranchak holds out no hope for solving the two remaining ciphers. He described the mission as "almost hopeless," as both are very short, with thousands of different names and phrases that could fit.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2304.20 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2848 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.