While preparing for the next episode, I came across this November 14, 1969 article in the Golden Daily Transcript (Colorado) about DCB Marsh which I hadn’t seen before. It goes into more detail about Donald C. B. Marsh, the Colorado School of Mines professor and head of the American Cryptogram Association, and his involvement with the Zodiac ciphers.
(higher resolution, part 1)
(higher resolution, part 2)
Interesting, never heard of this. He’s working on the Z340 in the picture. Is he still alive? I wonder about his findings and thoughts on the Z340.
I think he’s still around. He goes by MARSHEN in the American Cryptogram Association. Ciphers of his construction are in the most recent issues of The Cryptogram, their publication that comes out every two months.
From Jan-Feb 1970 issue of The Cryptogram:
Interesting, never heard of this. He’s working on the Z340 in the picture. Is he still alive? I wonder about his findings and thoughts on the Z340.
one thought he has in that clipping, which i find most interesting.
That Zodiac……."is not an experienced cryptographer"
one thought he has in that clipping, which i find most interesting.
That Zodiac……."is not an experienced cryptographer"
I also appreciated that line, as I have a very similar opinion. It doesn’t take a mastermind to create a very difficult or even unsolvable cipher.
one thought he has in that clipping, which i find most interesting.
That Zodiac……."is not an experienced cryptographer"
I also appreciated that line, as I have a very similar opinion. It doesn’t take a mastermind to create a very difficult or even unsolvable cipher.
Though "is not an experienced cryptographer" was based on Zodiac’s use of symbols rather than numbers. But you can speculate that Zodiac used symbols to appeal to the masses. Zodiac did allot of things "right" and that’s why the case is still so big today.
From Jan-Feb 1970 issue of The Cryptogram:
Haven’t gone through the whole cipher but on the fifth line, the second P should be filled. And in https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewc … etd_theses they make the same error.
The 1st thing I noticed was that non of the 工 symbols have a dot on either side. 1 looks like it might but it would be on the wrong side and it looks more like a faded pen mark during the stroke.
Thought maybe this might help for comparing. I’ve gone through each character and lined it up with the 340.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Thanks traveller1st,
Spotted many more problems. Row 11, column 15, should be M instead of H. All P symbols unfilled and problems with the fillings of the circle symbols.
one thought he has in that clipping, which i find most interesting.
That Zodiac……."is not an experienced cryptographer"I also appreciated that line, as I have a very similar opinion. It doesn’t take a mastermind to create a very difficult or even unsolvable cipher.
Donald Harden had the same opinion:
I don’t think the author is a man of very high intelligence, because there is no continuity, no fidelity, in his code. I think he may have borrowed from a not-too-high level of detective story. There are no special characters in these cryptograms. They are just something he dreamed up.
Suppose that Zodiac was an amateur. Where did he came up with using homophones sequentially? Self-invented? Some book? Can this be at least an open question because no one besides me seems to be asking it. I wish we had a "book guy".
Suppose that Zodiac was an amateur. Where did he came up with using homophones sequentially? Self-invented? Some book? Can this be at least an open question because no one besides me seems to be asking it. I wish we had a "book guy".
I think Harden was right that the killer might have gotten the idea through detective stories.
If he did find the idea through old detective stories, then there is a vast amount of old magazines and books that haven’t been fully explored.
Here’s an example of scratching the surface: https://toebes.com/Flynns/Flynns.htm
Perhaps there was a story or article somewhere that had something similar to how Z408 was constructed.
Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly alone had almost a thousand issues in its run.
Another popular one that had over a thousand issues was Detective Story Magazine.
The way Zodiac wrote about himself seemed inspired by the way criminal villains are depicted in those old stories.
"This is Z speaking": http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … 862#p54862
The same issue that story is from had an article about ciphers in it: http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … 446#p53446
Suppose that Zodiac was an amateur. Where did he came up with using homophones sequentially? Self-invented? Some book? Can this be at least an open question because no one besides me seems to be asking it. I wish we had a "book guy".
is it possible that he did that to make it easier to crack the cipher? as a proven amateur i would have attempted to "randomize" everything i was doing to make the cipher harder, unless i was hoping it would eventually be solved. perhaps the 408 was solved too quickly for his liking, but is there a way to recreate his thought process in the 408 and examine what steps only an amateur would make vs what steps even an amateur would avoid?
