Hi all.
It seems to me that there’s a speculation Zodiac was pointing at having 37 victims in one of his communications.
This could be the truth, but because there weren’t 37 victims suddenly all over the place, some have said in the past that this actually pollutes Zodiac’s authenticity, meaning he was making a meaningless boast.
Whatever those opinions are I don’t care. All I’m focusing on is that 37 has a meaning to him, or else why would he put it in when every little action or a stroke of the pen could nail him? Any communication was risky, so why make the boast from 12 to 37 over such a relatively short time? Did he scale up with a 17, 24 or 28 that I missed? Did he do this to throw people into pursuing 3 by 7 paths on the cipher sheet and committing to mathematical puzzles in order to read the cipher?
This got me thinking, as I couldn’t find the answers to the body count rising that I may have missed, as numbers are his thing (so any insights would be beautifully welcoming if he did add such figures, as even these could be relevant in what I’m exploring here).
If we take it to this point that he was say being daring enough to be truthful except for this body count figure, then what is the relevance?
This was niggling me a little, so I went back to the basics and looked again at why I would have made such a boast if I was going through all of this trouble, that could threaten my message, as such a boast I know might shove me into the absurd without the body count in my campaign of terror being claimed by me.
So here’s my imaginative little take on that magic 37 and it’s relevance:
I’m Zodiac and I’ve created this beautiful cipher that no bugger is going to be able to decipher without the means of me telling them. I obviously don’t want the cops or anyone outside of my hunting club or those of intelligence below me to know how to read it…but…damn it! There are some asses in the army who couldn’t remember how many letters were real or what the shift key was. Hmm, so how do I tell them what I need to, without revealing it? How do I cover up the reason for having a cipher in the first place, should one of my soldiers get caught with a copy, come to think of it? I know- I’ll demand that it’s available to all, in a newspaper, so anyone caught with it can just say they’re into the mystery of this Zodiac stuff as everyone likes a good puzzle!
Mind you, Larry is forgetful, so how can I tell him that there’s going to be a double amount of created symbols made, but that they can be figured into place as long as he remembers how many are real or not? Well, to begin with I’m using all 26 letters of the alphabet, and my 340 has 63 different symbols. I’ll be buggered if I’m going to make another one and go through all of this shit with the newspapers again and another cipher. I know, I’ll find a way to tell him that 63-26=37…
It’s just the beginning of something that’s been niggling me regarding the 37 figure. 63-37=26, too coincidental or another wild goose chase?
If we follow this kind of thought, was Zodiac’s claim to 12 victims prior also suggestive that there are 26 letters with 10 numbers and two indicators for possible key shifts in parts of the cipher text? That would add depth to the cipher if several techniques are used. (63 symbols – (26 alphabets – 10 numbers – 2 key shift indicators)= 25 remaining symbols to use as masks for the usual letters, which is adjustable. For simplicity he could then just use 2 symbols per letter (the alphabet original and a mask) or several masks for a few key repeating letters that would otherwise be recognised, like he did in the 408. And for good jolly, he had the freedom to include useless stuff to cause confusion to us lot here in the future.)
I think the key in this would be the frequency of repeated letters that he changed, and where he changed them to mask the obvious.
The above, by the way, is just something nerdy that I’m looking at. It could be totally off-tangent and wrong, but if I was going to create something crackproof then I would aim at several ciphering techniques that can be easily followed. I think this is more of a sounding board, so what do you think? I know the rest will kinda sink in after I’ve walked to the local garage and got some tobacco 
.
Another aspect of the above:
I was back-tracking before, trying to reverse engineer the significance of 37 being taken from 63 to leave the number of letters in the alphabet.
Some have mentioned that a few of the symbols in 340 cipher look runic and I agree. Zodiac pays reference by using a Norse/Swedish word for kill (can’t remember it off the top of my head- Slak or something similar?) Is this a hint that he used some Swedish runes?
I would suggest yes, if you play by Zodiac’s rules and listen to his hints.
For example- (trying to think like Zod the sod here:)
I’m going to mask my message with what looks like useless dribble. My message is 340 letters long. I think people are less intelligent than me, but I’m wise enough to consider that there are those who must be more intelligent. They are my threat, so I will protect my cipher from them. How? I will build a vault around it, and in order to unlock that vault you MUST have the right keys.
Only, I shall build the ultimate cipher that will be crackproof.
So how will he try that? Let’s try and think like Zodiac again:
I’ll use symbols not in the English alphabet to mask over the letters, but using just one symbol per letter would be so easy to break. I know, I’ll use several different symbols to hide the frequencies of the letters I have used. I will call this the 408 and send it out there to be tested.
Days later… Crap, it was solved so easily- so much for my 408 cipher lasting longer than a week- the people are smart.
They’re challenging me.
Round two- now for the 340, the crack-proof one that I have now prepared. Needs a bit of tweaking as the speed of the 408 being cracked made me look like a right idiot.
I’ll use runes and my symbol, changing it from a D like they recognised in the 408.
340 letters- I have to play about with the symbols, so- 26 letters of the alphabet and 10 numbers (0-9). That’s 36. If I add my symbol that makes it 37.
I like 37, blah, blah.
You know? I like runes, and the Swedish version looks pretty. It only uses 19 symbols (for example), so I can use a lot of symbols to hide just 1 letter, leaving 7 symbols for key shift indicators or special instructions/full stops.
Am I over-complicating it?
Need to simplify a tad, but make it so it can’t be read by man or computer. How do I do that?
I’ll add a special means of reading it, so if that rule isn’t followed then it’s worthless and a pile of crap.
Mixing that with the key shift indicators as well as masking the frequencies of the letters I used under the runic/created symbols will definitely make it crackproof.
Time later- damn! No-one’s cracked it! Its crack-proof and it works!
Give it time…I’m onto something but I need to argue against it first, and it’s something I’ll run through on the forums soon about the ‘my name is——-‘ 13 symbol cipher.
If what I present makes sense to you, then it actually isn’t a name. It’s another Zodiac taunt that adds depth to his background, but it is pointing me into another rabbit-hole.
God, I love this puzzle shit!
