You say that by applying the Z340 solution the Z13 you come up with
D.E.E.A.?.A./.O.?.?.E.D.O
This does not match your suspect Lawrence Kane. So you make several arbitrary choices, or deliberate choices, to get the suspect name you had in mind to start with. So you decide, om the basis of no evidence, to declare that Zodiac was using the Trifid code from 1902. You then apply numbers for letters, but M is not 13, it is 3. You then apply numbers as distant from Z, so the number sequence becomes
4.8.5.1.4..5.4.1..5.4.5 which you say produces the letter sequence
Y.X.Y.X.X.X.Z.Z.X.Y.Z.Z
Then I do not really follow what you do next, maybe apply the Trifid code from 1902 but in binary but in base 3, to somehow get
K..A..Y..R
Two of these are in the name Kane, the K and the A. But three letters are in the name Kaczynski, the K the A and the Y. Two are in Arthur, the a and the R.
But you say Zodiac must have meant to say Kane, so you declare he made a "mistake" and meant to have it translate to KAYE.
You make several choices and decisions to arrive at something close to the suspect name. By making slightly different choices, from the original DREA?A?O??EDO result, for which you get KAYR, one could get Theodore, which has EODORE from this original sequence. The original sequence has only the letter A in common with Kane, while it has six letters in common with Theodore. With other choices one could get Allen, Gaikowski or any other name.
The same analysis, with different choices leads to you geographic coordinates pointing to South Lake Tahoe.
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Thanks AK Wilks for the feed back. However there are probably some misunderstandings. Please follow with me:
This does not match your suspect Lawrence Kane.
His name is Lawrence Kaye actually, legally.
So you make several arbitrary choices, or deliberate choices, to get the suspect name you had in mind to start with.
Actually I had no suspect in mind (easy to verify looking at my history on forums).
Those "arbitrary" choices are just the same choices used for Z32. "forcing" the same way two distinct ciphers is very unlikely to lead to consistent results.
You then apply numbers for letters, but M is not 13, it is 3.
Letters are converted to their alphabetical rank keeping only the unit in both ciphers
You then apply numbers as distant from Z, so the number sequence becomes
4.8.5.1.4..5.4.1..5.4.5 which you say produces the letter sequence
Y.X.Y.X.X.X.Z.Z.X.Y.Z.Z
This is wrong. After the NRZI variant ("distance"), you get 434333113411. The X, Y, Z syntax is just to be didactic when explaining.
Then I do not really follow what you do next, maybe apply the Trifid code from 1902 but in binary but in base 3, to somehow get
K..A..Y..R
I made a detailed post on the steps, feel free to read it again I would be pleased to explain again /differently if you do not understand.
Two of these are in the name Kane, the K and the A. But three letters are in the name Kaczynski, the K the A and the Y. Two are in Arthur, the a and the R.
His name is Kaye, not Kane, it’s actually his legal name. He also used Kay (Larry Kay) as an alias. 100% of Kay fits in the result. The "R" could be a filler, or a mistake.
But you say Zodiac must have meant to say Kane,
I’m not saying that.
Edit: actually I did. Just like you, I didn’t know at the time that Kaye was his legal name.
You make several choices and decisions to arrive at something close to the suspect name. By making slightly different choices, from the original DREA?A?O??EDO result, for which you get KAYR, one could get Theodore, which has EODORE from this original sequence. The original sequence has only the letter A in common with Kane, while it has six letters in common with Theodore. With other choices one could get Allen, Gaikowski or any other name.
I would be interrested to see this of course.
The same analysis, with different choices leads to you geographic coordinates pointing to South Lake Tahoe.
They are actually mostly the same choices.
The methods for the Z13 and Z32 are different I would say. Z32 is lacking in the Trifid and non-return-to-zero inverted. Also, how did you select 4560958719? Why not 4645609587? Or 6095871934? Again, you are seemingly forcing a certain result out of the cipher. I am absolutely positive I could get a number out of there which location relations in one way or another to one of the other suspects.
Also, when analysing the results of applying the Z340 key on the Z32 yous say you can see the words North, East and West. However, you can also read the words: reads, wrong, die, test, fan, baptise, fern, etc. Or it evens reads (without anagramming) DOB (date of birth) in the first row and then underneath it GAI (Gaikowski?). I am sure if I apply some technique and turn the remaining letters into numbers I could come up with a DOB close to Gaikowski’s (if it isn’t exact, I could just say it was because of a mistake made when Z was coding it) or maybe even the exact date. Anyway, where I am going with this is that you could interpret these solutions in a plethora of ways, and any number of results could come out. I would say we are looking for a much smoother approach that bears probably (and I say this with a certain amount of caution) a certain amount of similarity to the steps in the previous two cracked ciphers (and by that I don’t mean applying one of the keys and then delving into a number of other elaborate steps).
Why not Ray K. ?
or KRAY
Google KRAY for some interesting stuff.
I don’t believe your Z32 solution is correct and for the following reason:
According to our cipher experts, the Z32 in the letter, is too short to be solved in the conventional sense. David has stated that thousands of solutions could fit the Z32 but there is no way to confirm that any of the thousand solutions would be correct. For me I get that. However, the issue here is that the Zodiac included a map and made the statement "The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb is set." This implies that the Z32 is not a conventional cipher with a thousand and one possible solutions.
The first thing that bothers me with the statement the Zodiac made is his use of the word "code". Code and cipher are two completely different things. The Zodiac has had a past history of using both words, code and cipher and, arguments have been had as to which one he has actually meant. Many, I think, are still getting hung up on both words and how they actually work. I think thats the case here.
In this instance, given the inclusion of the map, I actually believe he meant "code" in the literal sense.
The U.S. National Security Agency defines a code as:
"A substitution cryptosystem in which the plaintext elements are primarily words, phrases, or sentences, and the code equivalents (called "code groups") typically consist of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations of identical length."
Basically, I could say that the Z32 equates to "the Zodiac killer is a dumbass bastard" and could technically be correct. The statement is 32 characters long and it does match the length of the Z32. How the statement "the Zodiac killer is a dumbass bastard" would be validated is in how I came to the conclusion that the Z32 means "the Zodiac killer is a dumbass bastard". To do this would imply the necessary use of items other than the Z32. In this case the map. That use must result in a solution that is 32 characters in length or the solution would be invalid.
I think you were on the right track in terms of your use of the map (although I cant agree with the direction you took) but where I think you fail, resulting in the solution being wrong, is that you revert back to treating the Z32 as if it were a cipher.
Correct, and as I just mentioned in the previous thread is that we should also be looking for numbers in relation to radians if we are to believe Zodiac’s clue ‘The Mt. Diablo code concerns radians + # inches along the radians’ (pointing towards # symbol). Maybe Z is saying the code will reveal # (number) of inches along certain radians. I agree with Soze that skipping the map and calculation of radians on the map altogether almost certainly invalidates this solution.
Correct, and as I just mentioned in the previous thread is that we should also be looking for numbers in relation to radians if we are to believe Zodiac’s clue ‘The Mt. Diablo code concerns radians + # inches along the radians’ (pointing towards # symbol). Maybe Z is saying the code will reveal # (number) of inches along certain radians. I agree with Soze that skipping the map and calculation of radians on the map altogether almost certainly invalidates this solution.
This would be my criticism, also. There’s a leap made in the video, where it goes from talking the solution in terms of # inches along a radian , to then discussing longitude/latitude and coordinates. I tend to think that any solutions more than 7 inches (i.e. lying outside the bounds of the Phillips 66 map) and which don’t adhere to Zodiac’s instructions, are fanciful. The operations ought to be determined by the clues that Zodiac has given in his communications.
I got into a big argument about radian angles on Reddit, whereby people aren’t prepared to accept that a radian angle can be any angle between two radii, and 1 RAD is simply a convenient standard of measurement. People generally don’t seem to get this.
We spend a lot of time speculating whether Zodiac was truthful.
I follow a theory of satisfaction. What would the Zodiac have found more satisfying? The Zodiac spoke about the game, about how he enjoyed the sport of hunting humans. It’s awful, I know, but clearly he derived satisfaction from his actions, and much of it seemed to be about tickling his own ego. With that in mind I ask, what would have been the most fun, and made him feel the smartest? I think about board games that involve giving clues, or riddles to other players. Isn’t much more satisfying to create a truly cleaver riddle, rather than a half truth, or lie? What sort of satisfaction could the Zodiac have drawn from just making up the clue about radians? Certainly you could argue that it might have been cryptic clue to something related, like coordinates, but there is something so dissatisfying about such a clue, instead of being a truly ingenious riddle, it is merely a pseudo riddle, an untruth vaguely related to the truth. I would not feel clever if I gave such a clue. Therefore I think the Zodiac was mostly likely giving a genuine clue when he talks about radians and inches.
Replaceablehead, given that Zodiac’s criminal ‘signature’ is to communicate with LE and the public–which he does at unnecessary risk to himself–I believe the purpose of the puzzles is to increase the stakes of the ‘most dangerous game’. Yes, he does include misdirection in his letters, but so far his ciphers have proven soluble and are therefore authentic. The truths that the ciphers have revealed may seem like banal fantisisation to us, yet they reveal the innermost (although insanely grandiose) beliefs of the serial killer; things he cannot tell anyone about in everyday life, since they are so repellent. I do actually think that Zodiac believed that those who could solve his riddles were worthy of being party to his core convictions.
However, these taunts could be merely designed to engross, and be ‘bussy work’ but I find this less likely, given the lengths he’s prepared to go to, to heighten the stakes of the game.
Could Kayr be Kayer? As in George Kayer he was arrested. I don’t know if he would have been alive then but it could be checked out.
First of all I want congratulate you Fayçal. I think you might have done it.
Many of us would want to be the one that breaks the code, but there can be only one in the end.
However I do not believe the Zodiac would make mistakes in his codes. He seems to detailed for it.
I even was thinking he put it there to point out on his so called mistakes.
Because his name is encapsulated in the deciphered text.
What I immediately realized when I saw KAYR.
Is that de R in the alphabet is letter 18.
And that E (5) + L (12) + A (1) = R(18).
So you then would have KAYE lA
And the R is there and when you do back in reverse you have the Y again.
And even going further back you would get AK, which could stand for Known As.
Or maybe even the other “mistakes” in his codes would reveal maybe other extra letters of his name.
By substracting the difference in value of what it should be.
Ok maybe you could see other things in it but he will but have made it that straightforward.
First of all I want congratulate you Fayçal. I think you might have done it.
Many of us would want to be the one that breaks the code, but there can be only one in the end.
This thread should probably not end on such a noncritical note (from a new member who joined the board to submit a one-time post and was not seen since…), so I repeat my post from the old board with more detail.
_____________
I think these solutions cannot be accepted as correct, due to the problems others have outlined above and additional issues; here are my two cents.
1. Short-cipher solutions are very difficult to prove unique without independent solid constraints on the content or key. This cipher has 32 symbols with very rare multiplicities (only three doubles), so claiming a solution without folding in strong constraints on content or key is absurd.
2. Moreover, multiple layers of encryption render a solution far less unique (as themikado90 and others wrote), and would make these short ciphers generally hopeless. Quantitatively, to prove a short cipher unique, one should present a metric to compute a p-value, and show that p is exceedingly small, beyond the necessary threshold. This would be impossible in the present method, as the universe of possible variants in the added layers is huge.
3. One would need particularly strong evidence to argue that Zodiac abandoned homophonic ciphers with transpositions for something so much more complicated. Such a claim could be substantiated with a very long cipher or a highly unique message, neither of which are relevant in this solution. Moreover, I think it is assumed here that Zodiac actually went backward, at least in Z13, giving up on transpositions, and that seems unnatural.
4. In the vicinity of a well-defined geographic reference, it is most natural to use polar coordinates in natural units: angle in radians (from 0 to 2*pi) + radius. This is standard practice in exact sciences and some engineering disciplines. One should present strong evidence to claim that Zodiac did not use natural polar coordinates despite his statement “radians &#inches”; replaceablehead made a good point above in this regard.
5. Geomagnetic coordinates move around a lot, so they are generally avoided in precision measurements (unlike magnetic north, which was often inevitable in the field). It is very improbable for Zodiac to adopt such a strange and rarely used coordinate system. It would have been much more practical for him to simply use a compass.
6. In 1970, the coordinates {45.609N, 58.719W} actually corresponded (according to e.g. this calculator) to a location 10 km west of Lake Tahoe, near French Meadows Reservoir, and not to the Lake Tahoe location claimed in the post. So how were the coordinates converted in the proposed solution, and using which year of reference?
7. Simplicity2 already pointed out the excessive coordinate precision. If we adopt the above coordinates with all their digits, we get better than 10-meter precision, which was impractical for Zodiac in 1970. And for such a precision, the map location provided in the post (if assumed to be correctly converted from geomagnetic) yields a very unnatural bomb location, 200 meters from the nearest road, and entirely inconsistent with Zodiac’s bomb designs.
8. The proposed solutions are not supported by any independent Zodiac ciphers or clues. One cannot invoke ‘Lake Tahoe’ mentioned in the Sierra postcard as independent support if it was already used (to pick out a non-unique selection of digits as coordinates), especially if the coordinates actually point at French Meadows Reservoir. It seems to me that the “inches” clue was ultimately ignored.
9. The Z13 solution proposed here is inconsistent with Zodiac writing that he would not reveal his name, thus indicating that Z13 is just a self-title or taunt. Revealing his real name would be illogical and inconsistent with his convertness, although some people here do not seem to agree on this point.
10. Out-of-context quotes of a cryptanalysis (or most any scientific) report as provided above should be handled with caution as possibly misleading, unless the full report is disclosed. For example, it is not uncommon to find a congratulatory sentence followed by “However, …”.
I finally finished my deep dive into Z13, Z32 and Faycal’s solutions:
