Greg and Anthony explore their favourite unsolved ciphers.
Show Notes:
Ciphers explored:
1. Beale Papers (1885 Virginia US)
January 1820 Thomas J. Beale rode into the town of Lynchburg, Virginia, and checked himself into the Washington Hotel. He made friends with the hotel owner Robert Morriss. He left, and came back 2 years later. When he left the second time he left Robert a locked iron box which he said contained “papers of value and importance” and he would return for later. He never returned. The papers are belived to contain the location of a cache of gold and gems worth approximately $43MM today.
2. The Zodiac Killer (1969 California)
In 1960 a serial killer sent a series of encypted messages to police and newspapers. The first encryptes message was solved by two teachers. The resulting plain text was: "**I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE"**
The ciphers are usually referred to by their lengths. The solved cipher above is the 408 cipher. Two more notable ciphers:
The 340 cipher still puzzles cryptogrphers today, though many people includingRobert Graysmith (author of Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked) claims to have solved it, though the 'solution' is mostly gibberish
The 13 cipher contains the true name of the serial killer, though due to the short lenght it is not solvable. Several belive it decodes to reveal the name Ed Edwards, a suspect in the case.
3. Voynich Manuscript (15th century Italy)
The Voynich manuscript, named after Wilfred Voynich who purchased the book from an Italian College in 1912 is a 240 page beautifully detailed book with weird text, weird images of herbology, astronomy, pharmacy, human interactions.
The book has since been carbon dated back to 1420.
It exhibits characteristics of a real language though some belive it is a hoax tcreated to dupe people out of their money. Other prevailing theories are that it is a based on a language that has no previous written form or even created by wiches or aliens.
4. Kryptos (Created by Jim Sandbor 1990)
Kryptos is an art installation on the CIA grounds in Langly, Virginia. It is split into 4 quandrants. The first three quadrants have been solved, while the 4th remains unsolved.
Section 1:
key: PALIMPSEST
plain text: Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.
Section 2:
key: ABSCISSA
plain text: It was totally invisible Hows that possible? They used the Earths magnetic field X The information was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location X Does Langley know about this? They should Its buried out there somewhere X Who knows the exact location? Only WW This was his last message X Thirty eight degrees fifty seven minutes six point five seconds north Seventy seven degrees eight minutes forty four seconds west ID by rows
Section 3:
key: 0362514(KRYPTOS)
plain text: Slowly, desparatly slowly, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower Part of the doorway was removed. With trembling hands i made a tiny breach in the upper Lefthand corner and then widening the hole a little i inserted the candle and peered in. The hot air escaping from the chamber caused the flame to flicker but presently Details of the room within emerged from the mist x can you see anything q?
Section 4:
currently unsolved. Jim has provided several cribs (plain text words) BERLIN CLOCK and NORTHEAST.
Jim is currently the only person who knows the solution.
5. Tamum Shud (Adelaide 1948)
Man found dead on Somerton beach outside of Adelaide. November 30, 1948.
Dressed in a full suit. All labels ripped out, thought to be a spy?the maker’s label had been carefully snipped away.The contents of the man’s pockets were spread out on a table: tickets from Adelaide to the beach, a pack of chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of Army Club cigarettes containing seven cigarettes of another, more expensive brand called Kensitas. There was no wallet and no cash, and no ID. One pocket was repaired with an odd orange thread.
Autopsy reported stomach filled with blood and organs appeared as if poisoned but no traces of known poisons found in body. Foul play suspected.
Man had unusually large calves as if a ballet dancer. His toes were oddly wedge shaped. Embalmed his body and created death mask which you can see pictures of online.
It was discovered a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the dead man’s trousers. Previous examiners had missed it, and several accounts of the case have referred to it as a “secret pocket,” but it seems to have been intended to hold a fob watch. Inside, tightly rolled, was a minute scrap of paper, which, opened up, proved to contain two words, typeset in an elaborate printed script. The phrase read “Tamám Shud.”
A particular copy of the Rubaiyat surfaced with part of the final “Tamam Shud” page removed: it was claimed that the book had been thrown into a car parked near the same beach where the man had been found. Discovery of some faint writing on the rear page of the book. This included a local phone number (“X3239”), and several lines of cipher-like writing that were depressed into the page revealed by UV light. The phone number X3239 turned out to be that of a nurse called Jessica Ellen Thomson who claimed to know nothing. When shown the body her face said she recognized him but claimed not to. She did tell police that she had independently given a copy of the Rubaiyat to a man who was found to be alive and not the dead man on the beach. He still owned that copy.
6. Dorabella Cipher (1897 Italy)
An enciphered letter written by Italian composer Edward Elgar to Dora Penny, which was accompanied by another dated July 14, 1897. Penny never deciphered it and its meaning remains unknown.The cipher, consisting of 87 characters spread over 3 lines, appears to be made up from 24 symbols, each symbol consisting of 1, 2, or 3 approximate semicircles oriented in one of 8 directions
Several have claimed to have solved it though, however they contain many errors and inconsistencies