‘Zodiac Killer’ Cypher Letter Decoded by Experts after 50 Years

[JamesG]

Taunting ‘Zodiac Killer’ Cypher Letter Decoded by Experts after 50 Years
by Bruce Haring
December 11, 2020


California’s notorious Zodiac Killer, the subject of numerous films, television series, podcasts and books over the last half-century, has finally had one of his taunting messages decoded.

A letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle was finally cracked by experts, revealing a message in which the serial murderer mocked efforts to find him.




“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me,” the killer wrote in the coded message, which was sent to the newspaper in 1969.

“I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me.”




The letter contained a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols, and has been studied by numerous authors, criminologists and detectives over the years. It still doesn’t reveal the name of the unknown killer, who emerged in Northern California in the 1960's and 1970's.

The decoding was done in hopes that it might provide new clues as to the Zodiac’s identity. The killer has been tied to at least 37 murders, many of them young couples in rural areas.




“Last weekend, a team I’m on solved the 340 (the police name for the note) and submitted it to the FBI,” coding expert David Oranchak told the Chronicle on Friday. “They have confirmed the solution. No joke! This is the real deal.”

An FBI spokesperson in San Francisco office confirmed that breakthrough.

https://deadline.com/2020/12/tauntin...rs-1234655495/

[RetroGuy2000]

Wow! Glad they solved the cypher. Too bad it doesn't reveal anything about the killer.

[James T]

Assuming it was the killer & not just a crank it is rather hilarious than he made his code so difficult to break that he likely never lived to see it. Certainly whoever this person was craved attention/publicity-yet devised a system that actually stopped it from fully happening.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by James T

Assuming it was the killer & not just a crank it is rather hilarious than he made his code so difficult to break that he likely never lived to see it. Certainly whoever this person was craved attention/publicity-yet devised a system that actually stopped it from fully happening.

It's a similar methodology as the previous code (but with the words written diagonally), and is in the same handwriting. The decoded message has the same spelling errors as the previous message ("paradice"), and the previous message included a piece of a victim's shirt as proof of its authenticity. The FBI strongly believes the second encrypted message, as well as the third, are genuine.

[Gelatinous Goo]

This is the most anticlimactic news I've read in years. A half century of effort for more meaningless nonsense.

[TheCars1986]

Yawn