Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, plus he assumes that Zodiac made a mistake and used one of the wrong symbols in his own cipher which seems unlikely.
@@grizzlywhiskerHe had previous mistakes in his cyphers and he made frequent misspellings so it's not that unlikely. But I think the Kayr solution is still bogus. The steps are convoluted and arbitrary and there's no way to confirm it considering the short nature of the cypher. Zodiac was a serial liar who constantly taunted the police and press for attention. I think both of the short cyphers are unlikely to have a real solve and if he is still alive he is loving the chaos of people still speculating on them.
i’m sure the zodiac wherever he is is laughing at these people thinking it’s not that serious and none of this is right or what he was actually trying to say in his simple cyphers lol
@@JacobC479 He would be, at a bare minimum, 80 years old, realistically, around 90 to 95 years old. While it's possible he's alive, it's improbable. BTK and Gary Ridgway were both caught 14 years after their last known murders, and Samuel Little was caught 7 years after his last known murder. Zodiac's last known murder was 54 years ago, which puts him closer to Jack the Ripper than BTK in likelihood of being identified.
@@Pauly421 Monsiuer Faycal here, I have cracked the code of your comment to find it's true meaning. The solution reads "Faycal is a genius his solution is correcb".
If you "believe", then it doesn't matter how many letters are wrong. It's like believing in Jesus. People who believe in an immortal flying Jew don't care whether or not he actually existed, because they "believe".
One thing to remember is: the zodiac killer came the other way. He did not decipher, he encrypted. And while it's reasonable to subtract 25s to numbers higher than 25 to get to a letter,... there is basically no rhyme or reason for the zodiac killer to randomly ADD 25s to certain values. 🤔
Neither of you must have any real experience in cipherology or cryptology. You’re comment indicates you aren’t even on par with the most casual and average cryptosleuths you see online. You have a poor grasp on prime-deduction and prime-subjection, but it appears you think you excel in both. I can help both of you not come off as beginners, which it’s clear you both are. It’s a simple one day concept to learn.
One problem is not really knowing Zodiac's skill level at this. If he's just playing around with various methods (and indeed making mistakes during the process), then he might not have considered the problems a short cipher would cause. If he's smarter than that, then there's probably a way to know you're on the right track using other information he's given. It seems to me that the purpose was never to send in something that couldn't be cracked, but rather something that would take a little while and would then propel him into the headlines at various intervals as they were solved. For this reason, I doubt he'd ever intentionally give himself away.
The Zodiac isn't Cicada 3301. He doesn't have PGP and RSA and whatnot. He's a guy circa 1970 with a pen and paper. I find it humorous how people were like "We sent it to the Navy for analysis, a grad student has been working day and night, we think it's a very sophisticated code compiled by computer." and some regular folks come up with "It's a substitution cipher with alternates and typos. We solved it in a day." The shorter ciphers, there's just so little information that pattern recognition is almost hopeless. So, Zodiac I think wanted these messages to be read. He seems to have done much of what he did for the lulz, as it were. In the first cipher he says he kills because it's fun. So, if you were going to send someone a 13 character cipher to solve for fun, what encryption would you choose?
I agree, I think the zodiac was narcissist who probable thought he was the smartest person in the world. The mistakes that he made kind of makes me think he was not really that smart. He got a kick out of wasting and frustrating the police, and if there is an actual true solution to the Z13 and Z34 it probably leads no where. So I agree he probably did not know the short ciphers are near impossible and his aim was not to give any real information in them anyway.
"His steps are logical and seem reasonable" Well, I'm not so sure. Using three different number systems, quite ambiguously for starters, also the circled eight doesn't seem to me as the Pisces symbol. It all sounds like a bitof a stretch and a very subjective choice of methodology. Imo Zodiac seems to have chosen pretty simple methods, almost like crudely coping methods from a textbook, so these decryption doesn't feel like it matches that style.
thats the point this video was trying to make haha, he then shows two examples of how just changing his choices a tiny bit can yield completely different answers
@@ant3978 Yes, exactly my point. It doesn't even imho need the explaining and it never seemed to me logical or reasonable. From the get go it looks unreasonably random and unnecessarily complicated and very subjective.
@@katarzynazofia Yeah I agree it is like completely altering the original letters to the point of recognition, the code maker would never think of that process himself and expect people to understand it.
Since the zodiac left a hint on the envelope "rush to the editor" which was slanted... the one David solved. So maybe there's another hint on the envelope like the direction of the stamps face is facing or the direction/placement of any wording on the envelope?
Maybe that's the exact taunt the zodiac killer was going for: that you can literally decipher thousands upon thousands of names from the z13 cipher all as valid solutions.
Another great video, David. The Zodiac would have known that such short ciphers are pretty much impossible without some internal clues to set some ground rules for solving them. This solver applied multiple arbitrary steps only to arrive at a “solution” (KAYR) that is farther away from KANE than if you just grab it directly from the original cipher text and read it as a plain text anagram (KANE MY NAM) as Harvey Hines always tried to argue, albeit with his own set of pattern-seeking prejudices guiding him. Even if we assume it’s Kane ( just for the sake of argument), why would Z go through all these extra steps only to come up with something that not only doesn’t spell anything specific, but is more vague than what he started with? We know that The Zodiac placed ACTUAL readable messages within his ciphers, so it’s more likely than not that he did so in the Z13 and Z32 as well, even if they turn out to be more of the same rhetoric. Any solution that requires arbitrary steps and conversions are a waste of time.
True. And we know from the solutions to the first 2 ciphers that the plaintexts don't really matter that much. They don't give any useful information (that we know of). So he did seem to want to waste everyone's time. It's mind-boggling to contemplate how much time everyone spent on Z340 during those 51 years.
@@doranchak Hey how do I contact you, I have information that is pretty good, sorry to be harassing but it may be very helpful/important like of great use potentially. I can give you a plethora of information that will be generally useful. Just message me and I will tell you what I know and I can prove it is true by validating it in the cipher.
I tried running it through every decoder i could possibly think of. No answer comes up except for divorce and child custody. My theory is that she doesnt love you anymore and she took the children with her to her sisters house. I know its a stretch but hear me out.
I ran it through the latest installment of the Artificial Intelligence Decoding Software or AIDS. She wants you to spin around 6 times and take a poo on the carpet
I've always felt that the best way to catch the Zodiac's identity would be to pour through evidence in unsolved murder cases in San Francisco between 1965-1974. In taunting the SFPD, he claimed 37 victims. My guess that he's telling through truth for at least some of those murders. I would use a forensic psychological profile mixed with the eyewitness description and search for a man between the ages of 25-45 (who looks to be more on the older end of this range). I strongly suspect that he was single -- probably divorced or with a deceased wife -- because of the statement about his rocks and "a" girl (not "my" or even "girls" in general -- implying he wasn't in a personal relationship. He was stocky and of above average intelligence. He may have been a diver or wannabe diver; or, he may have simply bought or inherited a Zodiac watch (or saw an advertisement in a magazine in which Zodiac used to place ads). He's familiar enough with the streets of San Francisco to get away following a murder; so, he is likely a long-time resident familiar with the city and Vallejo. He has visited South Lake Tahoe either to ski or to gamble (on the Nevada side). I suspect that he spent time in South Lake Tahoe the week before the killing -- and he probably either left abruptly or stayed around to gamble (being undeterred by the police). Yet, by or after 1974, something happened that ended this narcissist necessity to taunt. Did Zodiac die? Did he get arrested? Did he have a religious conversion? Did he get married/have children? Did he simply get scared? Given the nature of serial killers -- and their need to continue -- I don't think that something as simple as marriage, fatherhood or conversion were the cause of his silence (although I suppose that it is possible). This silence was final. Even the BTK killer's silence eventually came to an end. He thought that he was smart enough to NOT get caught; but, he was caught anyway. The fear idea is interesting -- because he may have thought that the cops were closing in on his trail. This would make anyone questioned in 1974 or after an interesting possibility. Even without the police questioning him, the Zodiac may have remembered a mistake he made and decided he didn't want to get caught. His whole "Zodiac" persona could have been a farce and he really WAS afraid of capture or death. That's a distinct possibility. Otherwise, my guess is that the most likely reason he stopped was due to death or arrest. By this time, he could have been in his 40s or 50s and may have been overweight. I wonder if police found anyone else who was arrested during or just after 1974 for something seemingly unrelated to these murders. Did he spend considerable time in prison? Did someone in their 40s or 50s die after that last letter was sent?
One thing that popped out to me in Z13 is the symmetry. If you take the circled 8s as spaces, it looks like the format of an abbreviated full name, like John K. M. Name or whatever
You are correct. The circled 8s are simply placeholders or spaces. The new symbol is a lower-case, cursive "L". Substitute 2 letters that appear twice for letters that look similar. The letter "E" looks like the letter "F", and "A" looks like "R". "DREAAOLEDO" becomes "ALFRED DOOR". Paul Alfred Doerr is the Zodiak Killer!
Another criticism of the lat/long coords is that with only 3 decimal digits of precision that describes a pretty substantial area if you assume the 4th and remaining digits were simply truncated / rounded.
"You may THINK that my solution is wrong, but actually it was just an encoding mistake. So simply replace letters in the resulting plaintext until you make whatever word or name or acronym you want. Done"
I just don't understand why people insist on him having written his name in any of the ciphers. Why would he ever take that risk? I'm sure the only way he'd be found is if the familial DNA thing that they used to catch EAR/ONS works out, not through finding his name in a cipher. Anyway, yet another great video with amazing production. Well done, sir.
He wanted to feel smart and outright telling them his name but being confident they'd never be able to solve it would have been a powertrip. A guy who sends these sort of messages wants that feeling in the first place. I think it's possible but also very possible he would not. Or it's even possible the cipher DOES contain his 'name' in the sense it's something that could never be linked back to him, like it's a nickname he made up for himself
My professor has asked the class to write a piece explaining who is Zodiac Killer is - it has proven to be a very difficult thing to write (currently on page 16). Stumbled across these videos during the writing process and I am very intreged by all of the work you're doing! I completely agree with your point about how the Zodiac Killer wouldn't have included his name in any of the ciphers. Instead, he enjoyed playing a game and messing with law enforcement - why would he expose his identity? It would've caused the "fun" he was having to end! In the "Examiner" letter, he even wrote: “I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP ME”. Just a thought... regardless, thank you for creating such amazing videos! I have learned a lot :)
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I am saddened to know that your mother experienced this. The Zodiac was my father. He made my life a living hell. It has only been as I resolved PTSD and many effects of life with him that I have been able to understand what really happened. He died February 18, 2009 without remorse for his crimes.
I cannot express enough how amazing it is to see not only the work you (Jarl and Sam) have done to break the 340, but that you’re weighing in on false leads. Thank you so much for the work you put into showing how many ways we can apply ambiguity when it comes to these short codes. You’re doing the best service to the victims that could ever be done short of solving the Z case - you’re not allowing a scapegoat be ignored, and showing why a biased solution can’t be accepted unless all are. Thanks for your time and effort into making sure we can differentiate fact from possible fiction.
Thank you! It's challenging keeping up with all the solutions people submit to me. Most of them share the same problems inherent in Faycal's solutions so I thought this video might be informative, especially about all the other solution claims out there.
@@doranchak Hey Mr. Oranchak, sorry to bother you but I may have some information that is important to know regarding the decipherment of the Z32 cipher. I sent you a message on reddit and on other social media. It is legitimately important information that could enable the decipherment of the Z32 or make it much easier. I can tell you all I know just message me. I may have a number of words from the solution to Z32, like as in I know that they are in there almost 100%.
The “solution” to Z13 is so… I dunno.. complicated? Like way too complicated compared to the rest of Zodiac’s decrypted ciphers. We’re really expected to believe that he went from simple substitution to three different ciphers mixed together that involved essentially one step to solve each section, to… this? And why would we assume that any of the symbols from this cipher match any of the symbols from the previous ones in meaning. Honestly, my guess is that he probably did write his name in Z13, but you don’t have to be a world renown cryptologist to know that 13 letters is too small of a sample size to find any reasonable solution. You’ve proven that point in the beginning of the video.
Exactly! The burden of proof is too high for anyone trying to solve Z13 (and Z32 as well), since there's no good test that tells us which solutions are right.
Another problem is that this decryption method involves throwing away information (i.e. in the modulo operations). This would mean that Zodiac would have had to add in arbitrary information when doing the encoding.
I love this series. I really get curious about how Zodiac would have enciphered the assumptions made about the deciphering. Would Zodiac actually have used an algorithm that is the reverse order that Ziraoui described to finally use the key to encipher? Would he have followed that process to expand a 4 character name to a 13 character cipher? Personally when Ziraoui jumps to anagrams is when he loses me. It quickly becomes guesswork and not any kind of algorithm.
I feel it wasn't cancer but Pisces which would be the 12th symbol and I believe numerology should have added it to Total 6 instead of 5, 9 instead of 8, and 3 for Pisces. Especially with his 3690 denoted on cross ➕
Hello Mr. Oranchak, Looking at the Diablo map Z32 Cipher, I mainly derive "California St"... (12 letters) ..... He uses the Greek letter delta to instruct a letter change.... The circle with a dot is the hieroglyphic for "Day", you take the letter A.... CA, the letter J Converts to L... CALI.. The darken square with letter O means distress signal and backwards K... Means strike out in baseball stats.... So we can omit these three characters, and replace them with FOR.... CALIFOR.... I make a big leap for the letter N (using semaphore communication, or taking the letter "N" from his instructions to "set to Mag. N") .... The letter I and A are provided.... We have "CALIFORNIA ".... I changed the R to S, per delta triangle... You get... ST..... this adds up to the number 12 that he Zodiac provides.... X marks the spot.... In his case I believe he insinuates: "The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb (metaphorically he is the" bomb") is set. "..... In other words he gave us the name of the street that he may have lived or worked on. I was able to spell "Omega", "police have me", "war", and "Book". Also, I was able to construct (vaguely) the symbol for Venus ♀(by altering his hair-crossed sight).
Hi David, The first thing that jumps out with z13 is that zodiak first asked the question have you cracked the last cipher I sent you (1.14) referencing z340. I think this key needs to be used and z13 would not be able to be deciphered without first revealing the previous ciphers. Also I dont think the 18 characters at the end of the z408 are gibberish or filler and could be utilised in some way to help uncover a message in his later ciphers. Again great work keep the series going
Thank you for an excellent summary as always, Mr Oranchak. Personally, I'm quite convinced that the Zodiac didn't put his name in any of his ciphers. Here's why. After the Zodiac mailed the Z408, in a follow-up letter he wrote "when they do crack it they will have me". This was untrue, as the cipher contained his beliefs or manifesto if you will, rather than any concrete information. Again, the Z340 was written much in a similar style, with an exception of the remark about the TV show, which was the only reference to facts. There is a remarkable consistency in tone and topics covered in the ciphers, and those are different to what the Zodiac was rambling about in the letters. You could claim that by "they will have me" Zodiac meant "they will understand my motives", but the Zodiac hardly ever spoke figuratively; his messages were very literal in nature. This leads me to believe Zodiac never intended to reveal his identity in the ciphers. The solution to Z13 might thus be something in the spirit of "keep guessing", "I will not tell you", or something vague and related to Zodiac's vision of himself and his aims, that he presented in his previous ciphers, such as "not afraid of death". These are the themes hidden in his two longer ciphers. With regards to the Z32, note that Zodiac did not care to add two extra symbols at the end of Z32 to make it two lines of equal length, which to me indicates that there is also a message hidden in it. However, it probably describes a step needed to solve the Zodiac's map clue. Overall I definitely agree there's not much hope these short ciphers will be cracked. But, at the same time, it seems unlikely they contain any actually useful information, taking Z408 and Z340 into account.
I think part of the intrigue around zodiac is that it's hard to tell if his mistakes are truly mistakes, for example in the map letter he calls the symbols a "code" rather than a cipher. As the sequences are too short to realistically be a cipher, and we can see obscure symbols strewn throughout his letters, I believe the 13 and 32 are based on the clues embedded in the letters, like the diagonal writing on the 340 suggested the reading rule.
In the little list letter he talks about filling in the blanks just after suggesting "wachamacallit" as a name of someone who wouldn't be missed. It's 13 characters and the A's match up positionally with the circles 8's in the z13. It would be disappointing but seems quite likely to be
Excellent, very informative video. The animations really help to better understand each step! I really think that everyone interested in Zodiac case feels that we're very lucky to have people like you trying (successfully) to crack Z's encrypted messages. Your videos are very informative and interesting.
One thing I haven't seen mention yet, is what would've stopped him from encrypting some other dudes name to throw off the scent. Imagine, years are spent trying to decipher it, then Z13 is finally cracked and the sheer joy of finally having a name makes people forget to question if it's even his own name to begin with.
Nice job. I especially like how you incorporated the older news clips, those are fascinating. And of course you have a firm debunking of the latest so-called solutions of Z13 and Z32. Your video both allows us to follow the reported steps, and also demonstrates how easy they would be to modify. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Elonka! I'm hoping that by going into so much detail on the steps in these solutions, the video will serve as a reference point when we get asked about other Z13 and Z32 solutions. Like you, I get so many solution proposals, and it's impossible to address them all. But many of the problems line up with the ones I presented. Anagramming quite often seems to be a repeat offender. :)
@@doranchak David, is it possible for a sufficiently intelligent person to deliberately encode two different plain-text messages into the same ciphered message? I am referring to messages the length of the 340.
@@godfreypigott Yes, it is possible. There was a recent paper about creating "multi-ciphers": www.evernote.com/l/AAGZjNdq1bFEjLfqpyOJBxkJOAflvytNxuU Another example is "high order homophonic". Discussion and examples here: zodiackiller.net/community/zodiac-cipher-mailings-discussion/higher-order-homophonic-cipher/
@@doranchak Thanks - I'll have a look a those when I get the time. I wonder if that could explain the apparent padding at the end of the first-decoded cipher. Has you considered giving that one another look?
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I think the weird writing on the Halloween card could be a clue about how those ciphers work. Since he gave hints about 340 like the diagonal text on envelope and he used similar wording to 340 in some letters after the cipher. So it wouldn't suprise me if he gave hints about his other two unsolved ones. The card has 14 bigger symbols and if you skip the letter A which is in the middle of the text in both PARADICE and SLAVES that is 13 letters just like z13.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Great video to demonstrate the dilemma! But I tend to believe that Zodiac actually wanted his messages to be solved. So coming up with all this stuff and ciphers to hard to be ever cracked wouldn't make sense... he must have given another clue. It just can't be that hard, I believe.
IMO there's only a very tiny chance it actually has his name in it. I think he'd be much more likely to have it be some sort of nickname like "collector for the afterlife" (yes, I know this is bigger than 13 characters, but just an example) or other such name he'd think would inspire fear and notoriety with the general public.
Boy. This solution system is a lot of work for.... I have no idea what. The videos are always so great; sophisticated yet easy enough for even someone like me to understand. Thanks again.
What really takes the cake is when the narrator scrambles the tiles and says, "It could just as easily be EMILY LOVES EGGS." Obviously, that's not the solution.
I only resort to this level of analysis when my wife says “you choose what’s for dinner” otherwise it’s superfluous . And similarly, we may never find the correct solution 😂 great vid & great points
These solutions are all too complex. While the 340 was extremely difficult to crack its logical and can be worked out with a grid and some paper once you understand it is in 3 pieces and decodes by using a clear pattern within the grid. The fact the last part is just backwards shows that even Zodiac got tired of the “work” required. His first cypher was very simple, then things got more complex, enough that he started making mistakes. Thus these last two cyphers can’t be mathematically challenging. Zodiac wasn’t *that* smart. I would take these cyphers and write them out in a grid, then read them back using simple rules. Maybe by going down vs across. However the real problem is as mentioned in the video: the short length- there is just not enough data to find “words” like in the 340 which relies on natural patterns found in the English language.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I have a question: Couldnt you use an algorithm to insert all possible names into the california vital records, check for correct dates (e.g. atleast 16 and under 50 on date of first murder)? I do not think you would have more than a thousand possible suspects, which is certainly doable to research them all.
it's a brilliant way to include your name if you think about it. a singular reference would risk capture, but including your name along with thousands of others, especially if you are already off the radar. that's not a bad way to do it.
Could you try this? To use the unusual arrangement of words in the very last sentence of the cypher you guys decrypted to use it as a key for this one. I feel like you that this is too short to solve unless zodiac was able to insert another subtle clue somewhere...
I keep thinking what if the zodiacs ‘mistakes’ aren’t mistakes at all but intentional. For example what if the ‘incorrect’ letters make up their own cypher or they need to be combined with other odds and ends from previous cyphers. Maybe this has been done before and I hoped it might have been covered in the videos so far but haven’t seen that idea explored. Especially since the 340 was cracked.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
For all we know those circled crosses could be actual spaces to denote something like Name I. N. Surname. And should that be the case... Good frigging luck actually solving it.
I think I may have a theory of what the z12 cypher says I think it says Richard Conel when it should say Richard Connell who was the author of one of his favorite books slash films the most dangerous game as mentioned by him in his first cypher, so he is playing with us again
Why would you need a map with Mount Diablo as a starting pointing if the answer to the cipher gets you coordinates? Logically it can't be a correct solution, since the second hint was radians and inches on the map.
Good video! So glad to see you keeping this series going. I don’t know how anyone can find a solution to the short ciphers without it being forced. Still if it is going to be solved there is power in persistence, hunches and luck. Tgere could still be meaning in subtle things like that semi-circle connecting letters in the Z340 cipher or something similar.
I'm 99% certain he wrote those notes with his left hand, because the ink is smudged exactly like how I used to do it also in school, being a left hander too
@@Pauly421I’m right handed and have always wrote with my write hand and have had issues of slanting down and to the right. Doesn’t mean he’s left handed
Given the map provided by the Zodiac, it is unlikely that anything even remotely close to South Lake Tahoe would work. This is because South Lake Tahoe isn't even in that map (especially given a starting point at Mt. Diablo).
I like that you go the length to understand someone else's logic /hypothesis, no matter how forced that theory looks, even prima facie. Kudos on that ; mark of an intelligent man. Having said that, I think the point you yourself make several times is key - the two ciphers are too short, and statistically would be hard to prove why one credible solution isn't as likely as the thousand others that can be arrived at. If the killer was really smart, he would know this - that a short cipher is virtually impossible tp crack. So either he wanted his name to be drowned out amongst the million other combinations or.... If he really wanted it solved, then the keys from the z340 and z408 need to be used to decipher z13 and 32 as well. Just some random thoughts. Thanks for the video!!
Has anyone tried to correlate the phone book names for CA in order to narrow down the produced names using your 340 cipher? Someone's name in the ~1970 phone book that has the correct number of characters? Even with the unknown symbols, that is still more known characters than unknown for someone's name.
That’s implying he ever gave away his identity. He promised to do so a lot, and in all confirmed ciphers, he never did. It’s much more likely that the solution is another clue, and that the clue provided leads to a different clue. He didn’t want to be found out. He wanted to keep the Cat and Mouse game going for as long as possible.
Honestly, I’d try and figure out how the zodiac figured out how to do it. There was no internet. He was either trained; in which case the suspect pool is pretty small. Or he got a few books and taught himself. I think if we can find book that were available at that time, we might find one that has these kinds of Cyphers in them. Might help
@@jfdd43 Maybe I should study cryptography, because it all seems pretty simple to me so far from an encryption perspective, as someone with no training. I think something that points to him not being trained is that he apparently didn't have a sense for how difficult his codes would be to solve, which is a limitation I think I would also have. I could generate any number of encryption algorithms by hand without being taught how, but I have no idea how hard they would be to crack.
I imagine there's some order to rearrenge the letters to, specially in Z13 (since he did that on the chyper you solved), yet I don't see how there's a way to do so and produce an unbiased result proved beyond doubt. Your work is amazing! Very clear and professional, thanks for the videos
I knew your had a familiar face, and boom there it was! I fully watched the documentary series, that you was in. I loved the show! I said to myself these guys are going to solve one day. The funny thing is when l watched your UA-cam, l didn't know it was you. Then l said to myself, "No, this guy is definitely going to crack this!!" In a way l was right two times. Jaja!! The way l stumble into your UA-cam, was because l was trying to find orginal case on the Zodiac. I was watching the show Cold Case,and they talked about the Zodiac. That was the start of it all. Congratulations David, on solving one of the hardest cipher that took years to crack!!! Hopefully, we get to solve this one, and where the location of the bomb is. Another funny thing is, that l recently got into the Zodiac case. It's crazy, because l haven't followed the case when l was younger and if l did it would have drove me nuts!!! To find out that years later you solved the one of the ciphers. I'm in my 40's and back then the only thing l knew about the Zodiac is that he gotten away with murder, and no one has caught him.
YES they are !!!!!!!!!!!!! But not a hidden cipher, it leads mostly just to another word or words that will describe him Enter the magic word after the misspellings and it is solar. That is also the first two words in Z32.
what's weird is I believe the "upside down aries" is in Z408. If you follow that key it's an R. People have argued that in Z408 the symbol for "R" is an upside down T. I am not convinced because if you look at those upside down Ts, it does a dip in the bottom where the vertical stem touches the bottom. To me it really does look like this same symbol in question here. I know it's pointless arguing it but just a thought, if anyone out there is actually trying to crack this code. Another thing that I think is a big key in solving this is the symmetry in the video that this youtuber pointed out. Something about that seems so intentional of him to write that. I think it’s vital to solving it. Something tells me we'll never know but you never know! Awesome video series btw!
Just curiosity. Have you ever thought to intersect the 70.000 names obtained from simple substitutions with the names (by male and age), in the public vital records of that time, of men living in the specific area of killing action? I think it is possible with our current technology. Anyway, I'd like to share with you some toughts of mine about the Z13. It seems to me that there are just Greek letters and 888 (which is a Christian symbol like the crosshairs or "Theta" in ancient Greek alphabet in symmetrical position to, what I suppose, the upside down lowercase Greek "tau". Satanic reference?) is 3x8=24 which is the number of the Greek letters. Maybe the circle around the 8 is a suggestion to put the letters on a three concentric wheels. We have a "t" or "Y" upside down in the Z408 and Z340, but with an upper dash and in the second case with a dot on the left. Take note that the "C" of "Paradice" is an archaic letter for capital "Σ" (our "S") used by Koine Jews from the I century BC specifically for Bible traslations into Greek. Also mind that "C" stands for "S" in the Russian/Ukrainian alphabet too. Cyrillic alphabet comes from Byzantine Greek. Maybe these are useful clues to identify the national origin of the killer's family. The simplest solution I have found is: Dream a lot ye do. You do dream a lot. Or, "Dream a lot, I do". "Yedo" in Japanese means "I do". A joke in his style. (Z340 substitution and "y" upside down.). In the Z32 the new symbol is Ω, omega, another Greek letter.
Y'know - I've been thinking, what if the Zodiac was aware that such a short cipher would be susceptible to confirmation bias and that was a conscious attempt at trying to bait the police into coming up with one of their suspect's names to pin it all on him, essentially "framing" someone, but nobody in particular. What if it's not a possible name that would be helpful but rather a name that's impossible to get as a result of the cipher? As he obviously wouldn't try to set HIMSELF up. Has anyone tried to go down the list of major suspects and see how much "massaging" it takes to get to each name in the cipher? I'm not sure if that even makes sense necessarily, I just think it's an obvious misdirect and there's no way he ever intended to give his name up in the z13 cipher.
Great video! Has anyone considered for this Z13 cipher that the first eight characters could be "My name is"? The way he wrote it above the cipher, the letters line up almost perfectly, perhaps that was a hint. Not sure if that would help in solving it or not.
When the Zodiac was active, there just weren't any truly capable researchers but also, largely, there weren't the tools they really could have used, aka, computers with the programs and/or personnel with resources to work on the case back then. Sadly, police used presumption, like most have done throughout this case, but they also were lazy and didn't REALLY follow leads like they should have. They listened to hearsay without following EVERY lead. They should have paid CLOSE ATTENTION to what Bryan Hartnell told them, and learned when to believe what the Zodiac told them, knowing when he was telling them the truth! Hartnell's testimony was the most valuable testimony. Michael Mageau's had some valuable information as well. They had all the "clues" they needed; but they just didn't have the right mindsets.
So, I was looking at the Mt Diablo Radians Letter (also called the Mikado Little List Letter) and I noticed on the last page that the hash mark # has 4 lines and the arrow below it has 3 lines. Those symbols seem to be joined with and ampersand '&'. So it's like 4 and 3. Another way to write it is 4.3 radians. Convert 4.3 rad into 246.3 degrees. Then add 17 degrees for magnetic declination to get 263.3 degrees clockwise from polar north. That angle is the same as 83.3 degrees clockwise from polar south. Also, I suspect that if you had a copy of that letter at 1:1 scale with the original, that you could just measure the cross and divide by 2 and the result might be 4 1/4 inches (I'm not sure what the true size of the paper was). Or if you had both the letter and the map, you could use a drafting compass to transfer the measure from the cross symbol to the map. If the map scale is 6.4 miles per inch, then 4.25 inches X 6.4 miles = 27.2 miles. I measured that on an interactive map from Mt Diablo. The 27.2 miles could reach several places east of Hwy 101 in the city of San Fransisco; for example India Basin Shoreline Park, or Pier-29. I don't think this is the best solution, because two digits are not accurate, and I don't have an angle measure on the interactive map. Anyway, this demonstrates a different way that Zodiak might have enciphered a number by using countable objects or direct measurements of the paper. Wow, in the text the misspelled words and invented words really need the gematrinator applied to them, before you can call it a wrap. Also I think that the text needs to be compared closely to the lyrics in the Mikado .. probably someone has already done that. Cheers.
It says on wikipedia that Lawrence Kane had suffered a brain injury. It would make sense that someone with brain damage would make so many mistakes while encoding the cypher.
The letter on the car was written with his right hand in the exact opposite direction of pen stroke then he would normally write them and the letter in the thumb mail was done the same but with the left hand instead.. just a cute detail I noticed
He was a radar operator in WWII. He used mag N and radians for what was then top secret radar functions. He just threw it in to sound sophisticate. See my comments above.
I like your point about the symetry of the cipher ( 4:50 ). AEN+0K0M0^NAM and once reversed, it almost reads as mixing NAME WANT like mentionned but why not even a little bit further... WANT0W0K0+NEA WANT T0 KN0W MY NAME...? the "^" zodiac-symbol looking like a Y upside down. Am I the only one seeing this? Not that it's supposed to mean anything further, but if that symetry was really thought on purpose (which unfortunately is a complete hypothesis), that might coincide with Zodiac irony. Just a thought...
That is exactly what I would expect him to write. If this can even be solved then the killer would never put his name in the code. We're probably looking for a taunt.
@@Jerkfaceman He does not want to put his identity in a literal translation as that would lead to his identification that does not mean he would not put his name in an alternate method like vertically in the ciphertext where he think he can get away with it.
Hee, bit late to the party, but there was 1 detail which caught my eye which was never discussed: In the follow up letter for the Mt. Diablo code(32:42 in your video) you say that the code works in radians and inches. However, in the map, Zodiac used a skewed degree system where east is 3, south 6, west 9 and north 0 (or 12 in my opinion), which is just the degrees of a compass divided by 30. I am not a big cryptographer, so I do not know if this is useful. Maybe something comes out of it when this is plugged into the program used for the history channel. This made look into the 3 symbols in between the "Radians" and "Inches" which, in my opinion, you skimmed over. The first symbol is, again in my opinion, a '+' in the sense of an 'and'. From how the symbols are positioned, I think that the zodiac wrote at first "Radians + Inches" but realized that this was not enough for some reason and added the other two symbols. The top right symbol is without a doubt a hashtag which is often used in the place of 'number' or 'number of' (as in this 'amount of apples' will shorten to '# apples'. This is logical to emphasize the "number of inches" but this seems illogical on its own since that should be clear from "Radians + Inches" so why add this? This is where the other symbol comes in: A symbol underneath another can mean multiple things: It is a triangular shape so it can mean that the author wanted to insert extra text where there was no space, it can be a weird arrow to emphasize the '#', but none of this makes sense or adds anything to clarify anything. Therefor, I think that this is a fraction in the sense of "number per something"(e.g. if I put 6 apples in a 2 meter line, that is 3#/m). The problem is the sign itself. It is a sort of weirdly triangular m. I cannot find any unit of measurement to look similar, so maybe it is just an arrow putting emphasis on the hashtag.
My thought on the round symbol with the figure 8 in the middle is very simplistic. How many different letters can that symbol make? I see “O”, “E”, “S”, and “G”. Each time the symbol is used it could be anyone of these letters.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
it seems likely that the zodiac would probably be aware that these short strings are statistically undecipherable into a unique solution, and rather sent them intentionally hoping people found red herring solutions to get the focus on other people than himself.
Donald Harden solved first Zodiac cipher in just days but was never looked at as a possible suspect...if you look hard enough, someone here on YT has been researching the Hardens for years & what he presents tells you it was not luck or skill that Donny solved the puzzle as quickly as he did.
The only method I can think of where I would believe one solution to be more plausible than any other for such short ciphers would be if you start at the other end. Based on the keys for the solved longer ciphers try and find families and patterns of how the Zodiac seemed to connect what sign with what letters. Basically by trying to reverse engineer a way the cipher was created. Even if its just was created what felt like randomly in the zodiac's head, there might be some subconscious connection between different signs and letters. Idk. But if you started with either using machine learning or some other method to try create predictions of what a sign likely was a substation for what letter, without taking anything from the cyphers themselves into mind except just the signs and their shapes. And then see if there is a pattern or correlation between shapes and letters, and have that prediction create a solution for the Z32 or Z13 that isn't just gibberish. But a solution that makes sense. But I would only see that solution as an educated guess, and not as proof. And depending on how you do it. Especially for the C13, you are still likely to get more than one solution with non-gibberish.
I cant believe he made up all those arbitrary steps and didn't even arrive at "KANE" but the gibberish "KAYR" lol
Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, plus he assumes that Zodiac made a mistake and used one of the wrong symbols in his own cipher which seems unlikely.
@@grizzlywhiskerhe’s made mistakes like that before in his other ciphers
Is it known that Zodiak did kokane?
@@grizzlywhiskerHe had previous mistakes in his cyphers and he made frequent misspellings so it's not that unlikely. But I think the Kayr solution is still bogus. The steps are convoluted and arbitrary and there's no way to confirm it considering the short nature of the cypher. Zodiac was a serial liar who constantly taunted the police and press for attention. I think both of the short cyphers are unlikely to have a real solve and if he is still alive he is loving the chaos of people still speculating on them.
I can’t believe you came up with gibberish “arbituary” 😂
The huge amount of logic and expertise that's been brought to bear on these seemingly amateurish and error-ridden ciphers is quite the paradox.
Lol, Ikr? Especially given that we *know* that the killer would sometimes make mistakes and sometimes just outright lie.
i’m sure the zodiac wherever he is is laughing at these people thinking it’s not that serious and none of this is right or what he was actually trying to say in his simple cyphers lol
@@ghhhp zodiac has been long dead
@@lavs8696not necessarily, they said the same thing about BTK and he’s still alive
@@JacobC479 He would be, at a bare minimum, 80 years old, realistically, around 90 to 95 years old. While it's possible he's alive, it's improbable. BTK and Gary Ridgway were both caught 14 years after their last known murders, and Samuel Little was caught 7 years after his last known murder. Zodiac's last known murder was 54 years ago, which puts him closer to Jack the Ripper than BTK in likelihood of being identified.
So Fayçal finds a 4 letters name, two of which are wrong and he's "confident" he's got the right guy ? That's a stretch and a half.
It must have been a slow news day in France.
His solution is total horseshit lmao
@john Wright stop spamming that crap all over comments nobody wants to click on your phony link. Gfto
@@Pauly421 Monsiuer Faycal here, I have cracked the code of your comment to find it's true meaning. The solution reads "Faycal is a genius his solution is correcb".
If you "believe", then it doesn't matter how many letters are wrong. It's like believing in Jesus. People who believe in an immortal flying Jew don't care whether or not he actually existed, because they "believe".
This is the only guy who isn’t a crackpot on the Zodiac topic.
That I can confirm. I'm also completely nuts. Which complicates things a bit.
@@EdEdwardsCiphers You think Ed is Z. Don’t you?
@@darkside7802 I do have some strong opinions. I would say I'm convinced. Why? Do you know something?
One thing to remember is: the zodiac killer came the other way. He did not decipher, he encrypted. And while it's reasonable to subtract 25s to numbers higher than 25 to get to a letter,... there is basically no rhyme or reason for the zodiac killer to randomly ADD 25s to certain values. 🤔
Yeah
This is what I was thinking the whole time
Did you find an algorithm that works? Check if it even makes sense to encrypt a message like that
@@johnwright1666 Stop spamming that shit!
This whole thing is masturbatory. It is far more likely that there is no message and it is just Zodiac goofing on people.
Neither of you must have any real experience in cipherology or cryptology. You’re comment indicates you aren’t even on par with the most casual and average cryptosleuths you see online. You have a poor grasp on prime-deduction and prime-subjection, but it appears you think you excel in both.
I can help both of you not come off as beginners, which it’s clear you both are. It’s a simple one day concept to learn.
@@Bravo-Too-Much lol, get a load of this guy. He's DEFINITELY a reddit moderator and a blast at parties.
One problem is not really knowing Zodiac's skill level at this. If he's just playing around with various methods (and indeed making mistakes during the process), then he might not have considered the problems a short cipher would cause. If he's smarter than that, then there's probably a way to know you're on the right track using other information he's given. It seems to me that the purpose was never to send in something that couldn't be cracked, but rather something that would take a little while and would then propel him into the headlines at various intervals as they were solved. For this reason, I doubt he'd ever intentionally give himself away.
Good analysis.
The Zodiac isn't Cicada 3301. He doesn't have PGP and RSA and whatnot. He's a guy circa 1970 with a pen and paper. I find it humorous how people were like "We sent it to the Navy for analysis, a grad student has been working day and night, we think it's a very sophisticated code compiled by computer." and some regular folks come up with "It's a substitution cipher with alternates and typos. We solved it in a day."
The shorter ciphers, there's just so little information that pattern recognition is almost hopeless.
So, Zodiac I think wanted these messages to be read. He seems to have done much of what he did for the lulz, as it were. In the first cipher he says he kills because it's fun.
So, if you were going to send someone a 13 character cipher to solve for fun, what encryption would you choose?
I agree, I think the zodiac was narcissist who probable thought he was the smartest person in the world. The mistakes that he made kind of makes me think he was not really that smart. He got a kick out of wasting and frustrating the police, and if there is an actual true solution to the Z13 and Z34 it probably leads no where. So I agree he probably did not know the short ciphers are near impossible and his aim was not to give any real information in them anyway.
Mmmm
M
"His steps are logical and seem reasonable" Well, I'm not so sure. Using three different number systems, quite ambiguously for starters, also the circled eight doesn't seem to me as the Pisces symbol. It all sounds like a bitof a stretch and a very subjective choice of methodology. Imo Zodiac seems to have chosen pretty simple methods, almost like crudely coping methods from a textbook, so these decryption doesn't feel like it matches that style.
Also why no-one talks about the numbers on the map. Maybe those are the inches he hinted? I'm very curious to look into this.
Exactly, such a long winded nonsensical procedure to come up with a misspelled name. Lmao
thats the point this video was trying to make haha, he then shows two examples of how just changing his choices a tiny bit can yield completely different answers
@@ant3978 Yes, exactly my point. It doesn't even imho need the explaining and it never seemed to me logical or reasonable. From the get go it looks unreasonably random and unnecessarily complicated and very subjective.
@@katarzynazofia Yeah I agree it is like completely altering the original letters to the point of recognition, the code maker would never think of that process himself and expect people to understand it.
Since the zodiac left a hint on the envelope "rush to the editor" which was slanted... the one David solved. So maybe there's another hint on the envelope like the direction of the stamps face is facing or the direction/placement of any wording on the envelope?
Up this comment
Do we still have it, though?
@@silasfrisenette9226 yes
How do you know that is a hint ?
@@mutedmutiny9542 I don't it's just a theory based on a prior hint he gave us maybe its a tell? Something similar perhaps.
Maybe that's the exact taunt the zodiac killer was going for: that you can literally decipher thousands upon thousands of names from the z13 cipher all as valid solutions.
You can't though. Lawrence.Cane is the only name of the suspects with 13 letters that fits the repetition and singular characters.
Another great video, David. The Zodiac would have known that such short ciphers are pretty much impossible without some internal clues to set some ground rules for solving them. This solver applied multiple arbitrary steps only to arrive at a “solution” (KAYR) that is farther away from KANE than if you just grab it directly from the original cipher text and read it as a plain text anagram (KANE MY NAM) as Harvey Hines always tried to argue, albeit with his own set of pattern-seeking prejudices guiding him. Even if we assume it’s Kane ( just for the sake of argument), why would Z go through all these extra steps only to come up with something that not only doesn’t spell anything specific, but is more vague than what he started with? We know that The Zodiac placed ACTUAL readable messages within his ciphers, so it’s more likely than not that he did so in the Z13 and Z32 as well, even if they turn out to be more of the same rhetoric. Any solution that requires arbitrary steps and conversions are a waste of time.
Yeah, good explanation, I agree with you that it does not make sense.
True. And we know from the solutions to the first 2 ciphers that the plaintexts don't really matter that much. They don't give any useful information (that we know of). So he did seem to want to waste everyone's time. It's mind-boggling to contemplate how much time everyone spent on Z340 during those 51 years.
@@doranchak Hey how do I contact you, I have information that is pretty good, sorry to be harassing but it may be very helpful/important like of great use potentially. I can give you a plethora of information that will be generally useful. Just message me and I will tell you what I know and I can prove it is true by validating it in the cipher.
@@doranchak Not to mention I know the identity of the killer, but what use is that really.
@@zachgraber2496 Can you share in a video? Or maybe a reddit thread? I'd be intrigued to look though it.
Can you please decode what my wife means by taking the kids and staying with her sister for the last six months? I dont understand...
I tried running it through every decoder i could possibly think of. No answer comes up except for divorce and child custody. My theory is that she doesnt love you anymore and she took the children with her to her sisters house. I know its a stretch but hear me out.
I ran it through the latest installment of the Artificial Intelligence Decoding Software or AIDS. She wants you to spin around 6 times and take a poo on the carpet
👩👧👦➡️🧍♀️➕👩👧👦
I Ran It Through Multiple Algorithms & All I Got Was:
"You Are A Lazy Dog & The Fox Jumped Away". 😢
It means she’s a lesbian
I've always felt that the best way to catch the Zodiac's identity would be to pour through evidence in unsolved murder cases in San Francisco between 1965-1974. In taunting the SFPD, he claimed 37 victims. My guess that he's telling through truth for at least some of those murders. I would use a forensic psychological profile mixed with the eyewitness description and search for a man between the ages of 25-45 (who looks to be more on the older end of this range).
I strongly suspect that he was single -- probably divorced or with a deceased wife -- because of the statement about his rocks and "a" girl (not "my" or even "girls" in general -- implying he wasn't in a personal relationship. He was stocky and of above average intelligence. He may have been a diver or wannabe diver; or, he may have simply bought or inherited a Zodiac watch (or saw an advertisement in a magazine in which Zodiac used to place ads).
He's familiar enough with the streets of San Francisco to get away following a murder; so, he is likely a long-time resident familiar with the city and Vallejo. He has visited South Lake Tahoe either to ski or to gamble (on the Nevada side). I suspect that he spent time in South Lake Tahoe the week before the killing -- and he probably either left abruptly or stayed around to gamble (being undeterred by the police).
Yet, by or after 1974, something happened that ended this narcissist necessity to taunt. Did Zodiac die? Did he get arrested? Did he have a religious conversion? Did he get married/have children? Did he simply get scared?
Given the nature of serial killers -- and their need to continue -- I don't think that something as simple as marriage, fatherhood or conversion were the cause of his silence (although I suppose that it is possible). This silence was final. Even the BTK killer's silence eventually came to an end. He thought that he was smart enough to NOT get caught; but, he was caught anyway.
The fear idea is interesting -- because he may have thought that the cops were closing in on his trail. This would make anyone questioned in 1974 or after an interesting possibility. Even without the police questioning him, the Zodiac may have remembered a mistake he made and decided he didn't want to get caught. His whole "Zodiac" persona could have been a farce and he really WAS afraid of capture or death. That's a distinct possibility.
Otherwise, my guess is that the most likely reason he stopped was due to death or arrest. By this time, he could have been in his 40s or 50s and may have been overweight. I wonder if police found anyone else who was arrested during or just after 1974 for something seemingly unrelated to these murders. Did he spend considerable time in prison? Did someone in their 40s or 50s die after that last letter was sent?
I wish I could copy your answer, this is exactly how I would start looking for suspects.
One thing that popped out to me in Z13 is the symmetry. If you take the circled 8s as spaces, it looks like the format of an abbreviated full name, like John K. M. Name or whatever
You are correct. The circled 8s are simply placeholders or spaces. The new symbol is a lower-case, cursive "L". Substitute 2 letters that appear twice for letters that look similar. The letter "E" looks like the letter "F", and "A" looks like "R". "DREAAOLEDO" becomes "ALFRED DOOR". Paul Alfred Doerr is the Zodiak Killer!
Some of the "solutions" you came up with make good band names!
Obscene Nelson
Blind for a day
Brain of Lady D
Dry Infant Blood Waters
😂
I’ve been thinking about what to name my band. Now I’m seriously considering going with Obescene Nelson. 😂
"Brain of Lady D" sounds more like a sci-fi horror flick.
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Some of my favorite bands.
Another criticism of the lat/long coords is that with only 3 decimal digits of precision that describes a pretty substantial area if you assume the 4th and remaining digits were simply truncated / rounded.
"You may THINK that my solution is wrong, but actually it was just an encoding mistake. So simply replace letters in the resulting plaintext until you make whatever word or name or acronym you want. Done"
I love simple answers. It reminds of that term. Luddites.
I just don't understand why people insist on him having written his name in any of the ciphers. Why would he ever take that risk? I'm sure the only way he'd be found is if the familial DNA thing that they used to catch EAR/ONS works out, not through finding his name in a cipher.
Anyway, yet another great video with amazing production. Well done, sir.
he could well have written it in this cypher, its just so short that its impossible to solve
coz he said he did
@@room312productions And of course the word of a murderer can be trusted.
He wanted to feel smart and outright telling them his name but being confident they'd never be able to solve it would have been a powertrip. A guy who sends these sort of messages wants that feeling in the first place. I think it's possible but also very possible he would not. Or it's even possible the cipher DOES contain his 'name' in the sense it's something that could never be linked back to him, like it's a nickname he made up for himself
@@godfreypigott well indeed why try and solve any of his ciphers at all? it's all we have to go on.
My professor has asked the class to write a piece explaining who is Zodiac Killer is - it has proven to be a very difficult thing to write (currently on page 16). Stumbled across these videos during the writing process and I am very intreged by all of the work you're doing!
I completely agree with your point about how the Zodiac Killer wouldn't have included his name in any of the ciphers. Instead, he enjoyed playing a game and messing with law enforcement - why would he expose his identity? It would've caused the "fun" he was having to end! In the "Examiner" letter, he even wrote: “I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP ME”.
Just a thought... regardless, thank you for creating such amazing videos! I have learned a lot :)
Thanks for watching, and good luck with your class assignment! Maybe you could publish it somewhere - I'd be interested to know your findings. 🙂
You have the most intelligent, articulate, and polite way of saying he’s wrong without saying he’s wrong!
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I hope we find out who he is by my mother's lifetime, she lived in the area and went through a major depression and fear because of this maniac.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Good thing she wasn’t hot.
Don't hold your breath. He is probably dead, and may have been gone for a long time.
I am saddened to know that your mother experienced this. The Zodiac was my father. He made my life a living hell. It has only been as I resolved PTSD and many effects of life with him that I have been able to understand what really happened. He died February 18, 2009 without remorse for his crimes.
@@RandallHigginswhy are you mocking someone's suffering with these BS lies
I cannot express enough how amazing it is to see not only the work you (Jarl and Sam) have done to break the 340, but that you’re weighing in on false leads.
Thank you so much for the work you put into showing how many ways we can apply ambiguity when it comes to these short codes. You’re doing the best service to the victims that could ever be done short of solving the Z case - you’re not allowing a scapegoat be ignored, and showing why a biased solution can’t be accepted unless all are.
Thanks for your time and effort into making sure we can differentiate fact from possible fiction.
Thank you! It's challenging keeping up with all the solutions people submit to me. Most of them share the same problems inherent in Faycal's solutions so I thought this video might be informative, especially about all the other solution claims out there.
@@doranchak Hey Mr. Oranchak, sorry to bother you but I may have some information that is important to know regarding the decipherment of the Z32 cipher. I sent you a message on reddit and on other social media. It is legitimately important information that could enable the decipherment of the Z32 or make it much easier. I can tell you all I know just message me. I may have a number of words from the solution to Z32, like as in I know that they are in there almost 100%.
this is edited so well and you explain things very clearly, big respect
I appreciate that! Thanks for watching!
The “solution” to Z13 is so… I dunno.. complicated? Like way too complicated compared to the rest of Zodiac’s decrypted ciphers.
We’re really expected to believe that he went from simple substitution to three different ciphers mixed together that involved essentially one step to solve each section, to… this? And why would we assume that any of the symbols from this cipher match any of the symbols from the previous ones in meaning.
Honestly, my guess is that he probably did write his name in Z13, but you don’t have to be a world renown cryptologist to know that 13 letters is too small of a sample size to find any reasonable solution. You’ve proven that point in the beginning of the video.
Exactly! The burden of proof is too high for anyone trying to solve Z13 (and Z32 as well), since there's no good test that tells us which solutions are right.
Another problem is that this decryption method involves throwing away information (i.e. in the modulo operations). This would mean that Zodiac would have had to add in arbitrary information when doing the encoding.
I love this series. I really get curious about how Zodiac would have enciphered the assumptions made about the deciphering. Would Zodiac actually have used an algorithm that is the reverse order that Ziraoui described to finally use the key to encipher? Would he have followed that process to expand a 4 character name to a 13 character cipher?
Personally when Ziraoui jumps to anagrams is when he loses me. It quickly becomes guesswork and not any kind of algorithm.
check out a channel called 'rick h' -some interestinh alternatives there.
The fact that he discounted the Aries and Libra sign discredits his entire theory. They are there because they are important.
I feel it wasn't cancer but Pisces which would be the 12th symbol and I believe numerology should have added it to Total 6 instead of 5, 9 instead of 8, and 3 for Pisces. Especially with his 3690 denoted on cross ➕
Hello Mr. Oranchak,
Looking at the Diablo map Z32 Cipher, I mainly derive "California St"... (12 letters) ..... He uses the Greek letter delta to instruct a letter change.... The circle with a dot is the hieroglyphic for "Day", you take the letter A.... CA, the letter J Converts to L... CALI.. The darken square with letter O means distress signal and backwards K... Means strike out in baseball stats.... So we can omit these three characters, and replace them with FOR.... CALIFOR.... I make a big leap for the letter N (using semaphore communication, or taking the letter "N" from his instructions to "set to Mag. N") .... The letter I and A are provided.... We have "CALIFORNIA ".... I changed the R to S, per delta triangle... You get... ST..... this adds up to the number 12 that he Zodiac provides.... X marks the spot.... In his case I believe he insinuates: "The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb (metaphorically he is the" bomb") is set. "..... In other words he gave us the name of the street that he may have lived or worked on.
I was able to spell "Omega", "police have me", "war", and "Book". Also, I was able to construct (vaguely) the symbol for Venus ♀(by altering his hair-crossed sight).
Hi David, The first thing that jumps out with z13 is that zodiak first asked the question have you cracked the last cipher I sent you (1.14) referencing z340. I think this key needs to be used and z13 would not be able to be deciphered without first revealing the previous ciphers.
Also I dont think the 18 characters at the end of the z408 are gibberish or filler and could be utilised in some way to help uncover a message in his later ciphers. Again great work keep the series going
Thank you for an excellent summary as always, Mr Oranchak. Personally, I'm quite convinced that the Zodiac didn't put his name in any of his ciphers. Here's why.
After the Zodiac mailed the Z408, in a follow-up letter he wrote "when they do crack it they will have me". This was untrue, as the cipher contained his beliefs or manifesto if you will, rather than any concrete information. Again, the Z340 was written much in a similar style, with an exception of the remark about the TV show, which was the only reference to facts. There is a remarkable consistency in tone and topics covered in the ciphers, and those are different to what the Zodiac was rambling about in the letters. You could claim that by "they will have me" Zodiac meant "they will understand my motives", but the Zodiac hardly ever spoke figuratively; his messages were very literal in nature. This leads me to believe Zodiac never intended to reveal his identity in the ciphers. The solution to Z13 might thus be something in the spirit of "keep guessing", "I will not tell you", or something vague and related to Zodiac's vision of himself and his aims, that he presented in his previous ciphers, such as "not afraid of death". These are the themes hidden in his two longer ciphers. With regards to the Z32, note that Zodiac did not care to add two extra symbols at the end of Z32 to make it two lines of equal length, which to me indicates that there is also a message hidden in it. However, it probably describes a step needed to solve the Zodiac's map clue.
Overall I definitely agree there's not much hope these short ciphers will be cracked. But, at the same time, it seems unlikely they contain any actually useful information, taking Z408 and Z340 into account.
"Im just kidding" has exactly 13 letters 😄
I don't believe he revealed anything in the ciphers either.
I think part of the intrigue around zodiac is that it's hard to tell if his mistakes are truly mistakes, for example in the map letter he calls the symbols a "code" rather than a cipher. As the sequences are too short to realistically be a cipher, and we can see obscure symbols strewn throughout his letters, I believe the 13 and 32 are based on the clues embedded in the letters, like the diagonal writing on the 340 suggested the reading rule.
In the little list letter he talks about filling in the blanks just after suggesting "wachamacallit" as a name of someone who wouldn't be missed. It's 13 characters and the A's match up positionally with the circles 8's in the z13. It would be disappointing but seems quite likely to be
Excellent, very informative video. The animations really help to better understand each step! I really think that everyone interested in Zodiac case feels that we're very lucky to have people like you trying (successfully) to crack Z's encrypted messages. Your videos are very informative and interesting.
Thanks very much for your feedback. And thank you for watching!
I think his misspelling was intentional to give a clue as to the cypher.
One thing I haven't seen mention yet, is what would've stopped him from encrypting some other dudes name to throw off the scent. Imagine, years are spent trying to decipher it, then Z13 is finally cracked and the sheer joy of finally having a name makes people forget to question if it's even his own name to begin with.
Exactly! That could easily fit his pattern of screwing around with people with his letters, codes, and bomb plans.
Nice job. I especially like how you incorporated the older news clips, those are fascinating. And of course you have a firm debunking of the latest so-called solutions of Z13 and Z32. Your video both allows us to follow the reported steps, and also demonstrates how easy they would be to modify. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Elonka! I'm hoping that by going into so much detail on the steps in these solutions, the video will serve as a reference point when we get asked about other Z13 and Z32 solutions. Like you, I get so many solution proposals, and it's impossible to address them all. But many of the problems line up with the ones I presented. Anagramming quite often seems to be a repeat offender. :)
@@doranchak David, is it possible for a sufficiently intelligent person to deliberately encode two different plain-text messages into the same ciphered message? I am referring to messages the length of the 340.
@@godfreypigott Yes, it is possible. There was a recent paper about creating "multi-ciphers": www.evernote.com/l/AAGZjNdq1bFEjLfqpyOJBxkJOAflvytNxuU
Another example is "high order homophonic". Discussion and examples here: zodiackiller.net/community/zodiac-cipher-mailings-discussion/higher-order-homophonic-cipher/
@@doranchak Thanks - I'll have a look a those when I get the time. I wonder if that could explain the apparent padding at the end of the first-decoded cipher. Has you considered giving that one another look?
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I think the weird writing on the Halloween card could be a clue about how those ciphers work. Since he gave hints about 340 like the diagonal text on envelope and he used similar wording to 340 in some letters after the cipher. So it wouldn't suprise me if he gave hints about his other two unsolved ones. The card has 14 bigger symbols and if you skip the letter A which is in the middle of the text in both PARADICE and SLAVES that is 13 letters just like z13.
zodiac would have no idea what base 3 is imo
Agree…
Excellent presentation David. I think the short ciphers did have a solution, but probably only in Zodiac's head. :)
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Great video to demonstrate the dilemma! But I tend to believe that Zodiac actually wanted his messages to be solved. So coming up with all this stuff and ciphers to hard to be ever cracked wouldn't make sense... he must have given another clue. It just can't be that hard, I believe.
I don't think he applied for more than 20 minutes in his letters.
IMO there's only a very tiny chance it actually has his name in it. I think he'd be much more likely to have it be some sort of nickname like "collector for the afterlife" (yes, I know this is bigger than 13 characters, but just an example) or other such name he'd think would inspire fear and notoriety with the general public.
Boy. This solution system is a lot of work for.... I have no idea what. The videos are always so great; sophisticated yet easy enough for even someone like me to understand. Thanks again.
What really takes this video to the next level is the sound of Scrabble tiles moving against one another whenever letters are scrambled
What really takes the cake is when the narrator scrambles the tiles and says, "It could just as easily be EMILY LOVES EGGS." Obviously, that's not the solution.
i fell like z13 is somehow connected to z340 because he mention it at the beggining of letter
I've wondered that a lot too.
another excellently produced video!!! thanks so much for your insights and looking forward to following this journey
I only resort to this level of analysis when my wife says “you choose what’s for dinner” otherwise it’s superfluous . And similarly, we may never find the correct solution 😂 great vid & great points
These solutions are all too complex. While the 340 was extremely difficult to crack its logical and can be worked out with a grid and some paper once you understand it is in 3 pieces and decodes by using a clear pattern within the grid. The fact the last part is just backwards shows that even Zodiac got tired of the “work” required. His first cypher was very simple, then things got more complex, enough that he started making mistakes. Thus these last two cyphers can’t be mathematically challenging. Zodiac wasn’t *that* smart.
I would take these cyphers and write them out in a grid, then read them back using simple rules. Maybe by going down vs across. However the real problem is as mentioned in the video: the short length- there is just not enough data to find “words” like in the 340 which relies on natural patterns found in the English language.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Damn! What if he knew that these could be manipulated, and is having fun watching us have a seizure trying to figure the cipher out?
I have a question:
Couldnt you use an algorithm to insert all possible names into the california vital records, check for correct dates (e.g. atleast 16 and under 50 on date of first murder)? I do not think you would have more than a thousand possible suspects, which is certainly doable to research them all.
You'd have to assume what's inside is his full name, which is very questionable.
@@leatheljamie yeah for all we know it can be a sarcastic joke like "Angel of Death"
I love this series so much! keep up the Amazing work!
This video has thoroughly taught me that cryptology is simply making arbitrary decisions and then playing sudoku by making more arbitrary decisions.
Yes, that's how a lot of people practice it. 😆
I know that the zodiac was a bit bad at spelling but in no way would he spell his own name wrong
It's not his name that he would've messed up, rather the cipher of his name.
Even Shakespeare did.
Whenever someone has to use anagrams to figure out a cipher, that's when you start to lose me.
it's a brilliant way to include your name if you think about it. a singular reference would risk capture, but including your name along with thousands of others, especially if you are already off the radar. that's not a bad way to do it.
Makes me wonder if he knew enough about ciphers to be confident that his name would be permanently hidden because of all the possibilities!
Could you try this? To use the unusual arrangement of words in the very last sentence of the cypher you guys decrypted to use it as a key for this one. I feel like you that this is too short to solve unless zodiac was able to insert another subtle clue somewhere...
I keep thinking what if the zodiacs ‘mistakes’ aren’t mistakes at all but intentional. For example what if the ‘incorrect’ letters make up their own cypher or they need to be combined with other odds and ends from previous cyphers. Maybe this has been done before and I hoped it might have been covered in the videos so far but haven’t seen that idea explored. Especially since the 340 was cracked.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
For all we know those circled crosses could be actual spaces to denote something like Name I. N. Surname. And should that be the case... Good frigging luck actually solving it.
I think I may have a theory of what the z12 cypher says I think it says Richard Conel when it should say Richard Connell who was the author of one of his favorite books slash films the most dangerous game as mentioned by him in his first cypher, so he is playing with us again
Why would you need a map with Mount Diablo as a starting pointing if the answer to the cipher gets you coordinates? Logically it can't be a correct solution, since the second hint was radians and inches on the map.
Set radian to zero north of the third road...
I think that both Z32 and Z13 were merely a distraction
Good video! So glad to see you keeping this series going. I don’t know how anyone can find a solution to the short ciphers without it being forced.
Still if it is going to be solved there is power in persistence, hunches and luck. Tgere could still be meaning in subtle things like that semi-circle connecting letters in the Z340 cipher or something similar.
Zodiac's handwriting is consistent and no one recognizing is more strange
He's definitely left handed too I used to write all slanted to the right like that when I was in school. Kinda solved it by rotating the notepad lol
That or he's right handed and wrote with his left to avoid anyone recognising his handwriting
I'm 99% certain he wrote those notes with his left hand, because the ink is smudged exactly like how I used to do it also in school, being a left hander too
@@Pauly421I’m right handed and have always wrote with my write hand and have had issues of slanting down and to the right. Doesn’t mean he’s left handed
Given the map provided by the Zodiac, it is unlikely that anything even remotely close to South Lake Tahoe would work. This is because South Lake Tahoe isn't even in that map (especially given a starting point at Mt. Diablo).
I like that you go the length to understand someone else's logic /hypothesis, no matter how forced that theory looks, even prima facie. Kudos on that ; mark of an intelligent man. Having said that, I think the point you yourself make several times is key - the two ciphers are too short, and statistically would be hard to prove why one credible solution isn't as likely as the thousand others that can be arrived at. If the killer was really smart, he would know this - that a short cipher is virtually impossible tp crack. So either he wanted his name to be drowned out amongst the million other combinations or.... If he really wanted it solved, then the keys from the z340 and z408 need to be used to decipher z13 and 32 as well. Just some random thoughts. Thanks for the video!!
I guess you've addressed this at the very end :) well, let's see if someone else can Crack the code using some more auxiliary info.
I think it says “want to know my name” in the one line cypher as a taunt
Has anyone tried to correlate the phone book names for CA in order to narrow down the produced names using your 340 cipher? Someone's name in the ~1970 phone book that has the correct number of characters? Even with the unknown symbols, that is still more known characters than unknown for someone's name.
That’s implying he ever gave away his identity. He promised to do so a lot, and in all confirmed ciphers, he never did. It’s much more likely that the solution is another clue, and that the clue provided leads to a different clue. He didn’t want to be found out. He wanted to keep the Cat and Mouse game going for as long as possible.
Honestly, I’d try and figure out how the zodiac figured out how to do it.
There was no internet. He was either trained; in which case the suspect pool is pretty small. Or he got a few books and taught himself. I think if we can find book that were available at that time, we might find one that has these kinds of Cyphers in them. Might help
Or maybe he just made up his own logic so he would never be caught. Like a child creating a treasure Note
@@cutelittleReis90 maybe, except the methods used in the ones that have been solved; were methods used by professional code makers
@@jfdd43 Maybe I should study cryptography, because it all seems pretty simple to me so far from an encryption perspective, as someone with no training. I think something that points to him not being trained is that he apparently didn't have a sense for how difficult his codes would be to solve, which is a limitation I think I would also have. I could generate any number of encryption algorithms by hand without being taught how, but I have no idea how hard they would be to crack.
I imagine there's some order to rearrenge the letters to, specially in Z13 (since he did that on the chyper you solved), yet I don't see how there's a way to do so and produce an unbiased result proved beyond doubt. Your work is amazing! Very clear and professional, thanks for the videos
I knew your had a familiar face, and boom there it was! I fully watched the documentary series, that you was in. I loved the show! I said to myself these guys are going to solve one day. The funny thing is when l watched your UA-cam, l didn't know it was you. Then l said to myself, "No, this guy is definitely going to crack this!!" In a way l was right two times. Jaja!! The way l stumble into your UA-cam, was because l was trying to find orginal case on the Zodiac. I was watching the show Cold Case,and they talked about the Zodiac. That was the start of it all. Congratulations David, on solving one of the hardest cipher that took years to crack!!! Hopefully, we get to solve this one, and where the location of the bomb is. Another funny thing is, that l recently got into the Zodiac case. It's crazy, because l haven't followed the case when l was younger and if l did it would have drove me nuts!!! To find out that years later you solved the one of the ciphers. I'm in my 40's and back then the only thing l knew about the Zodiac is that he gotten away with murder, and no one has caught him.
A new episode is a reason to be happy!
Maybe the misspellings were intentional and lead to a hidden cypher that reveals his name or paradice is referring to a 36 letter alphabet-2 dice
YES they are !!!!!!!!!!!!! But not a hidden cipher, it leads mostly just to another word or words that will describe him Enter the magic word after the misspellings and it is solar. That is also the first two words in Z32.
"My Name Is Earl" kinda brings a new meaning to the old TV-Show. . .
Every time you post something about this stuff I get focused and tuned in lol.
what's weird is I believe the "upside down aries" is in Z408. If you follow that key it's an R. People have argued that in Z408 the symbol for "R" is an upside down T. I am not convinced because if you look at those upside down Ts, it does a dip in the bottom where the vertical stem touches the bottom. To me it really does look like this same symbol in question here. I know it's pointless arguing it but just a thought, if anyone out there is actually trying to crack this code. Another thing that I think is a big key in solving this is the symmetry in the video that this youtuber pointed out. Something about that seems so intentional of him to write that. I think it’s vital to solving it. Something tells me we'll never know but you never know! Awesome video series btw!
Just curiosity. Have you ever thought to intersect the 70.000 names obtained from simple substitutions with the names (by male and age), in the public vital records of that time, of men living in the specific area of killing action? I think it is possible with our current technology.
Anyway, I'd like to share with you some toughts of mine about the Z13. It seems to me that there are just Greek letters and 888 (which is a Christian symbol like the crosshairs or "Theta" in ancient Greek alphabet in symmetrical position to, what I suppose, the upside down lowercase Greek "tau". Satanic reference?) is 3x8=24 which is the number of the Greek letters. Maybe the circle around the 8 is a suggestion to put the letters on a three concentric wheels. We have a "t" or "Y" upside down in the Z408 and Z340, but with an upper dash and in the second case with a dot on the left. Take note that the "C" of "Paradice" is an archaic letter for capital "Σ" (our "S") used by Koine Jews from the I century BC specifically for Bible traslations into Greek. Also mind that "C" stands for "S" in the Russian/Ukrainian alphabet too. Cyrillic alphabet comes from Byzantine Greek. Maybe these are useful clues to identify the national origin of the killer's family. The simplest solution I have found is: Dream a lot ye do. You do dream a lot. Or, "Dream a lot, I do". "Yedo" in Japanese means "I do". A joke in his style. (Z340 substitution and "y" upside down.). In the Z32 the new symbol is Ω, omega, another Greek letter.
Y'know - I've been thinking, what if the Zodiac was aware that such a short cipher would be susceptible to confirmation bias and that was a conscious attempt at trying to bait the police into coming up with one of their suspect's names to pin it all on him, essentially "framing" someone, but nobody in particular. What if it's not a possible name that would be helpful but rather a name that's impossible to get as a result of the cipher? As he obviously wouldn't try to set HIMSELF up. Has anyone tried to go down the list of major suspects and see how much "massaging" it takes to get to each name in the cipher? I'm not sure if that even makes sense necessarily, I just think it's an obvious misdirect and there's no way he ever intended to give his name up in the z13 cipher.
These days, easier to kill someone instead of confusing brilliant people. I love all the work you put in.
Great video! Has anyone considered for this Z13 cipher that the first eight characters could be "My name is"? The way he wrote it above the cipher, the letters line up almost perfectly, perhaps that was a hint. Not sure if that would help in solving it or not.
Great video! I'm hoping you continue to do more cryptography videos like that Claude Shannon concept you mentioned.
*Zodiac threatens to snipe a school buses tyre and "pick off" the kids one by one*
Police arm themselves with shotguns.....
Smh
Any mention of “anagram” makes me think “voldemort” 🤦🏻♂️
🤷🏻♂️😂
When the Zodiac was active, there just weren't any truly capable researchers but also, largely, there weren't the tools they really could have used, aka, computers with the programs and/or personnel with resources to work on the case back then. Sadly, police used presumption, like most have done throughout this case, but they also were lazy and didn't REALLY follow leads like they should have. They listened to hearsay without following EVERY lead. They should have paid CLOSE ATTENTION to what Bryan Hartnell told them, and learned when to believe what the Zodiac told them, knowing when he was telling them the truth! Hartnell's testimony was the most valuable testimony. Michael Mageau's had some valuable information as well. They had all the "clues" they needed; but they just didn't have the right mindsets.
Oh my gosh.. my name is…. Marshall Mathers new LP !!!!
26:32 ThIs matrix thing reminds me of all the hullabaloo over the Dead Sea Scroll codes
What were they? Did people find messages that weren't really there?
So, I was looking at the Mt Diablo Radians Letter (also called the Mikado Little List Letter) and I noticed on the last page that the hash mark # has 4 lines and the arrow below it has 3 lines. Those symbols seem to be joined with and ampersand '&'. So it's like 4 and 3. Another way to write it is 4.3 radians.
Convert 4.3 rad into 246.3 degrees. Then add 17 degrees for magnetic declination to get 263.3 degrees clockwise from polar north. That angle is the same as 83.3 degrees clockwise from polar south.
Also, I suspect that if you had a copy of that letter at 1:1 scale with the original, that you could just measure the cross and divide by 2 and the result might be 4 1/4 inches (I'm not sure what the true size of the paper was). Or if you had both the letter and the map, you could use a drafting compass to transfer the measure from the cross symbol to the map.
If the map scale is 6.4 miles per inch, then 4.25 inches X 6.4 miles = 27.2 miles. I measured that on an interactive map from Mt Diablo.
The 27.2 miles could reach several places east of Hwy 101 in the city of San Fransisco; for example India Basin Shoreline Park, or Pier-29.
I don't think this is the best solution, because two digits are not accurate, and I don't have an angle measure on the interactive map. Anyway, this demonstrates a different way that Zodiak might have enciphered a number by using countable objects or direct measurements of the paper.
Wow, in the text the misspelled words and invented words really need the gematrinator applied to them, before you can call it a wrap. Also I think that the text needs to be compared closely to the lyrics in the Mikado .. probably someone has already done that.
Cheers.
Complicated, my brain is scrambled now.
It says on wikipedia that Lawrence Kane had suffered a brain injury. It would make sense that someone with brain damage would make so many mistakes while encoding the cypher.
The letter on the car was written with his right hand in the exact opposite direction of pen stroke then he would normally write them and the letter in the thumb mail was done the same but with the left hand instead.. just a cute detail I noticed
I want whatever that Frenchman is smoking.
Great video! I think it's very interesting he used radians - not a typical way of measuring angles unless you're doing lots of maths.
He was a radar operator in WWII. He used mag N and radians for what was then top secret radar functions. He just threw it in to sound sophisticate. See my comments above.
I like your point about the symetry of the cipher ( 4:50 ).
AEN+0K0M0^NAM
and once reversed, it almost reads as mixing NAME WANT like mentionned but why not even a little bit further...
WANT0W0K0+NEA
WANT T0 KN0W MY NAME...? the "^" zodiac-symbol looking like a Y upside down.
Am I the only one seeing this? Not that it's supposed to mean anything further, but if that symetry was really thought on purpose (which unfortunately is a complete hypothesis), that might coincide with Zodiac irony.
Just a thought...
That is probably the beginning I would think.
As much as I love the SAW movies… no one speaks like that in real life.
That is exactly what I would expect him to write. If this can even be solved then the killer would never put his name in the code.
We're probably looking for a taunt.
@@Jerkfaceman He does not want to put his identity in a literal translation as that would lead to his identification that does not mean he would not put his name in an alternate method like vertically in the ciphertext where he think he can get away with it.
We can't prove it to but to be honest, it's more likely you are right than that french guy though ☺️
Daaaaammmnnn this is crazy hard . I really like you so I subbed 👍
Hee, bit late to the party, but there was 1 detail which caught my eye which was never discussed: In the follow up letter for the Mt. Diablo code(32:42 in your video) you say that the code works in radians and inches. However, in the map, Zodiac used a skewed degree system where east is 3, south 6, west 9 and north 0 (or 12 in my opinion), which is just the degrees of a compass divided by 30. I am not a big cryptographer, so I do not know if this is useful. Maybe something comes out of it when this is plugged into the program used for the history channel.
This made look into the 3 symbols in between the "Radians" and "Inches" which, in my opinion, you skimmed over. The first symbol is, again in my opinion, a '+' in the sense of an 'and'. From how the symbols are positioned, I think that the zodiac wrote at first "Radians + Inches" but realized that this was not enough for some reason and added the other two symbols.
The top right symbol is without a doubt a hashtag which is often used in the place of 'number' or 'number of' (as in this 'amount of apples' will shorten to '# apples'. This is logical to emphasize the "number of inches" but this seems illogical on its own since that should be clear from "Radians + Inches" so why add this? This is where the other symbol comes in:
A symbol underneath another can mean multiple things: It is a triangular shape so it can mean that the author wanted to insert extra text where there was no space, it can be a weird arrow to emphasize the '#', but none of this makes sense or adds anything to clarify anything. Therefor, I think that this is a fraction in the sense of "number per something"(e.g. if I put 6 apples in a 2 meter line, that is 3#/m). The problem is the sign itself. It is a sort of weirdly triangular m. I cannot find any unit of measurement to look similar, so maybe it is just an arrow putting emphasis on the hashtag.
My thought on the round symbol with the figure 8 in the middle is very simplistic. How many different letters can that symbol make? I see “O”, “E”, “S”, and “G”. Each time the symbol is used it could be anyone of these letters.
Not convinced by Faycal's Z13 solution, but his Z32 solution is very intriguing.
You should do a video about the symbol on the Halloween card, efforts to solve it, whether or not they're valid and why so, etc.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
If there is so much possible results, maybe the one that is impossible to get for a given dataset is the right one
He wrote the cyphers by hand.
The Z13 cipher solution is most likely: “Alfred E Neuman” (with 1 erroneous letter, probably the M) - it was all a big joke to him
There is no name there.
it seems likely that the zodiac would probably be aware that these short strings are statistically undecipherable into a unique solution, and rather sent them intentionally hoping people found red herring solutions to get the focus on other people than himself.
No. Zodiac explicitly asked in the letter with z13 if they cracked z340. This is because z13 must be cracked with the help of z340.
@@mwontand you believe a murder er
Fantastic run of videos. The second I saw the name Earl I thought of the TV show, My Name Is Earl. Anyway....
Thanks for watching! 🙏
Just a few minutes in but flipped over its Want to Know Name? with his signature mispellings
Donald Harden solved first Zodiac cipher in just days but was never looked at as a possible suspect...if you look hard enough, someone here on YT has been researching the Hardens for years & what he presents tells you it was not luck or skill that Donny solved the puzzle as quickly as he did.
The only method I can think of where I would believe one solution to be more plausible than any other for such short ciphers would be if you start at the other end.
Based on the keys for the solved longer ciphers try and find families and patterns of how the Zodiac seemed to connect what sign with what letters.
Basically by trying to reverse engineer a way the cipher was created. Even if its just was created what felt like randomly in the zodiac's head, there might be some subconscious connection between different signs and letters.
Idk.
But if you started with either using machine learning or some other method to try create predictions of what a sign likely was a substation for what letter, without taking anything from the cyphers themselves into mind except just the signs and their shapes.
And then see if there is a pattern or correlation between shapes and letters, and have that prediction create a solution for the Z32 or Z13 that isn't just gibberish. But a solution that makes sense.
But I would only see that solution as an educated guess, and not as proof.
And depending on how you do it. Especially for the C13, you are still likely to get more than one solution with non-gibberish.
If someone comes up with a (non-fancy) solution, is there a procedure to have it checked by a competent authority ? who should it be addressed to ?