In the 340 the first occurences of every symbol appear quite early:
This can be measured by summing the first occurences of every symbol (this measurement is avaible in AZdecrypt as "appearance").
For the 340 this summed value is 2924 and for the 408 it is 2340. Versus randomizations it is a -3.59 sigma observation for the 340 and a -2.24 sigma observation for the 408. Versus a sequential homophonic substitution with cycle randomization hypothesis it is a -2.05 sigma observation for the 340 and a 0.01 sigma observation for the 408.
My hypothesis is that Zodiac created his key for the 340 on the fly as this pushes the first occurence of every symbol to the top. Versus such a hypothesis the appearance observation drops to 0.07 sigma (excellent correlation). Also, the unigram distance observation drops to 0.69 sigma.
This hypothesis may in turn also explain the odd frequency profile of the 340, as creating a key on the fly would base the key on its initial frequencies which may not reflect the plaintext in a whole very well. It also reveals that Zodiac encoded from top to bottom, as seen in the next codebox, the normal direction has a appearance value of 2924 and the reversed direction has a appearance value of 3525.
AZdecrypt plaintext encoding stats for: 340.txt -------------------------------------------------------- - Attempts to detect the encoding direction from the input given that it has sequential properties using appearance. - A lower score may be more indicative of the direction. Directional: (transposition, untransposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Normal: 2924, 2924 <--- Mirror: 2936, 2936 Flip: 3589, 3589 Reverse: 3525, 3525 -------------------------------------------------------- Columnar 1: 4138, 4090 Columnar 2: 4136, 3956 Columnar 3: 4098, 4033 Columnar 4: 4155, 4012 -------------------------------------------------------- Diagonal 1: 3453, 3486 Diagonal 2: 3432, 3601 Diagonal 3: 3613, 3647 Diagonal 4: 3949, 3616 Diagonal 5: 3526, 3431 Diagonal 6: 3429, 3471 Diagonal 7: 3602, 3817 Diagonal 8: 3874, 3741 -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 3648.68 Untransposition average: 3617.18 Offset row order: (transposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Offset row order 0: 2924 <--- Offset row order 1: 3209 Offset row order 2: 3237 Offset row order 3: 3685 Offset row order 4: 4067 Offset row order 5: 3997 Offset row order 6: 3346 Offset row order 7: 3569 Offset row order 8: 3721 Offset row order 9: 3823 Offset row order 10: 3852 Offset row order 11: 4234 Offset row order 12: 4392 Offset row order 13: 3783 Offset row order 14: 3713 Offset row order 15: 3467 Offset row order 16: 3508 Offset row order 17: 3766 Offset row order 18: 3020 Offset row order 19: 3185 -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 3624.9 Offset column order: (transposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Offset column order 0: 2924 Offset column order 1: 2919 Offset column order 2: 2948 Offset column order 3: 2909 Offset column order 4: 2904 <--- Offset column order 5: 2933 Offset column order 6: 2962 Offset column order 7: 2940 Offset column order 8: 2935 Offset column order 9: 2964 Offset column order 10: 2959 Offset column order 11: 2920 Offset column order 12: 2932 Offset column order 13: 2910 Offset column order 14: 2905 Offset column order 15: 2917 Offset column order 16: 2929 -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 2930 Period row order: (transposition, untransposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Period row order 1: 2924, 2924 <--- Period row order 2: 3706, 3347 Period row order 3: 3354, 4127 Period row order 4: 3948, 3742 Period row order 5: 3742, 3948 Period row order 6: 3686, 3413 Period row order 7: 4127, 3354 Period row order 8: 4050, 4312 Period row order 9: 3640, 3858 Period row order 10: 3347, 3706 Period row order 11: 3398, 3525 Period row order 12: 3466, 3347 Period row order 13: 3338, 3576 Period row order 14: 3416, 3535 Period row order 15: 3538, 3920 Period row order 16: 3487, 3865 Period row order 17: 3234, 3582 Period row order 18: 3066, 3254 Period row order 19: 3014, 3208 -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 3499 Untransposition average: 3607.52 Period column order: (transposition, untransposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Period column order 1: 2924, 2924 Period column order 2: 2929, 2896 <--- Period column order 3: 2917, 2915 Period column order 4: 2907, 2934 Period column order 5: 2948, 2953 Period column order 6: 2915, 2917 Period column order 7: 2906, 2933 Period column order 8: 2941, 2950 Period column order 9: 2896, 2929 <--- Period column order 10: 2908, 2937 Period column order 11: 2904, 2962 Period column order 12: 2920, 2935 Period column order 13: 2915, 2907 Period column order 14: 2908, 2910 Period column order 15: 2917, 2947 Period column order 16: 2913, 2919 -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 2916.75 Untransposition average: 2929.25 Periodic: (transposition, untransposition) -------------------------------------------------------- Period 1: 2924, 2924 <--- Period 2: 3741, 3776 Period 3: 3668, 3740 Period 4: 4044, 3625 Period 5: 4174, 4248 Period 6: 4159, 4277 Period 7: 3945, 3966 Period 8: 4200, 4272 Period 9: 4387, 4463 Period 10: 3901, 4715 Period 11: 4259, 4042 Period 12: 4178, 3810 Period 13: 4056, 3974 Period 14: 3515, 4269 Period 15: 4266, 4031 Period 16: 3854, 4300 Period 17: 4138, 4090 Period 18: 4452, 4259 Period 19: 4258, 4451 Period 20: 4090, 4138 Period 21: 4236, 4412 Period 22: 4154, 3704 Period 23: 3979, 4371 Period 24: 4190, 3412 Period 25: 4686, 3774 Period 26: 4067, 3888 Period 27: 4392, 4386 Period 28: 4316, 4036 Period 29: 4044, 4371 Period 30: 3827, 3830 Period 31: 4042, 4259 Period 32: 4334, 3696 Period 33: 4144, 3575 Period 34: 4715, 3901 Period 35: 4441, 3809 Period 36: 3872, 4070 Period 37: 3627, 4159 Period 38: 4382, 4330 Period 39: 4314, 4120 Period 40: 4613, 3810 Period 41: 4178, 4231 Period 42: 3917, 4511 Period 43: 4150, 4193 Period 44: 4116, 4010 Period 45: 4068, 4079 Period 46: 3994, 4340 Period 47: 3983, 4282 Period 48: 3737, 3962 Period 49: 4005, 3819 Period 50: 4012, 3889 Period 51: 3940, 4131 Period 52: 4146, 4225 Period 53: 4219, 3952 Period 54: 4364, 3981 Period 55: 4470, 3688 Period 56: 4220, 3785 Period 57: 4025, 4165 Period 58: 3885, 3970 Period 59: 3793, 3719 Period 60: 3663, 3674 Period 61: 3571, 4207 Period 62: 3620, 4105 Period 63: 3729, 4314 Period 64: 3890, 3701 Period 65: 3853, 3996 Period 66: 3975, 3945 Period 67: 4007, 4166 Period 68: 4248, 4174 Period 69: 4476, 4061 Period 70: 4516, 4167 Period 71: 4438, 4104 Period 72: 4485, 3880 Period 73: 4278, 3803 Period 74: 4281, 3657 Period 75: 4240, 3994 Period 76: 4230, 4036 Period 77: 4212, 4105 Period 78: 4214, 4183 Period 79: 3817, 4086 Period 80: 3881, 3771 Period 81: 4022, 3791 Period 82: 4026, 4016 Period 83: 4132, 4182 Period 84: 3693, 4241 Period 85: 3625, 4044 Period 86: 3639, 4014 Period 87: 3628, 4376 Period 88: 3589, 4365 Period 89: 3417, 4149 Period 90: 3441, 4172 Period 91: 3382, 4003 Period 92: 3405, 3974 Period 93: 3570, 4060 Period 94: 3559, 3850 Period 95: 3596, 3743 Period 96: 3580, 3489 Period 97: 3513, 3376 Period 98: 3574, 3330 Period 99: 3610, 3235 Period 100: 3728, 3176 Period 101: 3701, 3465 Period 102: 3775, 3318 Period 103: 3654, 3281 Period 104: 3779, 3426 Period 105: 3708, 3586 Period 106: 3667, 3692 Period 107: 3941, 3886 Period 108: 4067, 3840 Period 109: 4294, 3710 Period 110: 4345, 3486 Period 111: 4534, 3491 Period 112: 4593, 3597 Period 113: 4565, 3777 Period 114: 3742, 3686 Period 115: 3652, 3551 Period 116: 3665, 3513 Period 117: 3678, 3454 Period 118: 3809, 3503 Period 119: 3795, 3378 Period 120: 3810, 3413 Period 121: 3873, 3638 Period 122: 3880, 3708 Period 123: 3892, 3778 Period 124: 3908, 3762 Period 125: 3924, 3838 Period 126: 3940, 3881 Period 127: 3956, 3977 Period 128: 3972, 3861 Period 129: 3988, 3943 Period 130: 4005, 3997 Period 131: 4024, 4004 Period 132: 3829, 4020 Period 133: 3849, 3898 Period 134: 3869, 4251 Period 135: 3889, 4409 Period 136: 3909, 4528 Period 137: 3929, 4465 Period 138: 3949, 4381 Period 139: 3970, 4411 Period 140: 3974, 4332 Period 141: 3844, 4369 Period 142: 3869, 4248 Period 143: 3907, 4241 Period 144: 3918, 4130 Period 145: 4030, 4055 Period 146: 3940, 4010 Period 147: 3854, 3983 Period 148: 3885, 3866 Period 149: 3723, 3832 Period 150: 3640, 3880 Period 151: 3627, 3860 Period 152: 3628, 3908 Period 153: 3513, 3912 Period 154: 3512, 3825 Period 155: 3436, 3773 Period 156: 3518, 3705 Period 157: 3640, 3640 Period 158: 3649, 3651 Period 159: 3701, 3555 Period 160: 3718, 3502 Period 161: 3766, 3624 Period 162: 3922, 3558 Period 163: 3976, 3514 Period 164: 3993, 3381 Period 165: 4033, 3354 Period 166: 3896, 3408 Period 167: 3922, 3443 Period 168: 3997, 3704 Period 169: 3754, 3652 Period 170: 3776, 3741 Period 171: 3781, 3760 Period 172: 3786, 3736 Period 173: 3712, 3678 Period 174: 3717, 3784 Period 175: 3722, 3764 Period 176: 3728, 3821 Period 177: 3734, 3760 Period 178: 3740, 3718 Period 179: 3746, 3707 Period 180: 3752, 3702 Period 181: 3758, 3685 Period 182: 3764, 3637 Period 183: 3770, 3676 Period 184: 3713, 3643 Period 185: 3719, 3611 Period 186: 3725, 3613 Period 187: 3731, 3599 Period 188: 3737, 3569 Period 189: 3744, 3568 Period 190: 3751, 3563 Period 191: 3727, 3514 Period 192: 3734, 3461 Period 193: 3741, 3506 Period 194: 3748, 3473 Period 195: 3742, 3480 Period 196: 3749, 3462 Period 197: 3752, 3434 Period 198: 3759, 3444 Period 199: 3766, 3466 Period 200: 3773, 3469 Period 201: 3780, 3437 Period 202: 3719, 3548 Period 203: 3726, 3523 Period 204: 3733, 3492 Period 205: 3740, 3535 Period 206: 3747, 3629 Period 207: 3754, 3655 Period 208: 3761, 3704 Period 209: 3768, 3710 Period 210: 3775, 3700 Period 211: 3782, 3684 Period 212: 3789, 3654 Period 213: 3796, 3617 Period 214: 3803, 3587 Period 215: 3810, 3546 Period 216: 3817, 3528 Period 217: 3824, 3502 Period 218: 3832, 3485 Period 219: 3840, 3641 Period 220: 3812, 3693 Period 221: 3820, 3635 Period 222: 3828, 3585 Period 223: 3758, 3555 Period 224: 3766, 3616 Period 225: 3774, 3594 Period 226: 3782, 3552 Period 227: 3790, 3563 Period 228: 3798, 3560 Period 229: 3807, 3538 Period 230: 3816, 3497 Period 231: 3825, 3692 Period 232: 3834, 3686 Period 233: 3844, 3676 Period 234: 3854, 3633 Period 235: 3851, 3597 Period 236: 3861, 3687 Period 237: 3779, 3633 Period 238: 3790, 3611 Period 239: 3801, 3626 Period 240: 3633, 3613 Period 241: 3644, 3770 Period 242: 3655, 3735 Period 243: 3667, 3738 Period 244: 3679, 3754 Period 245: 3691, 3864 Period 246: 3676, 3948 Period 247: 3689, 3958 Period 248: 3702, 3903 Period 249: 3702, 3852 Period 250: 3715, 3810 Period 251: 3728, 3836 Period 252: 3741, 3865 Period 253: 3695, 3967 Period 254: 3710, 4050 Period 255: 3725, 4037 Period 256: 3740, 4007 Period 257: 3755, 3989 Period 258: 3747, 3952 Period 259: 3762, 4015 Period 260: 3777, 4025 Period 261: 3792, 4004 Period 262: 3807, 4005 Period 263: 3822, 3987 Period 264: 3837, 3974 Period 265: 3852, 3924 Period 266: 3682, 3878 Period 267: 3657, 3875 Period 268: 3674, 3881 Period 269: 3692, 3901 Period 270: 3711, 4023 Period 271: 3731, 3997 Period 272: 3723, 3973 Period 273: 3672, 3925 Period 274: 3419, 3920 Period 275: 3439, 3896 Period 276: 3378, 3858 Period 277: 3399, 3830 Period 278: 3420, 3799 Period 279: 3441, 3957 Period 280: 3439, 3931 Period 281: 3460, 3935 Period 282: 3481, 3898 Period 283: 3502, 3893 Period 284: 3524, 3847 Period 285: 3511, 3808 Period 286: 3522, 3794 Period 287: 3546, 3761 Period 288: 3571, 3716 Period 289: 3525, 3687 Period 290: 3550, 3633 Period 291: 3566, 3612 Period 292: 3593, 3579 Period 293: 3470, 3525 Period 294: 3498, 3520 Period 295: 3527, 3531 Period 296: 3556, 3497 Period 297: 3585, 3484 Period 298: 3615, 3435 Period 299: 3633, 3409 Period 300: 3545, 3406 Period 301: 3577, 3338 Period 302: 3584, 3295 Period 303: 3617, 3348 Period 304: 3549, 3323 Period 305: 3583, 3323 Period 306: 3551, 3266 Period 307: 3554, 3222 Period 308: 3590, 3268 Period 309: 3626, 3222 Period 310: 3664, 3192 Period 311: 3648, 3183 Period 312: 3658, 3180 Period 313: 3698, 3201 Period 314: 3739, 3241 Period 315: 3624, 3189 Period 316: 3666, 3222 Period 317: 3709, 3213 Period 318: 3510, 3186 Period 319: 3554, 3167 Period 320: 3497, 3159 Period 321: 3518, 3209 Period 322: 3490, 3259 Period 323: 3424, 3251 Period 324: 3459, 3196 Period 325: 3472, 3188 Period 326: 3413, 3165 Period 327: 3360, 3101 Period 328: 3336, 3065 Period 329: 3349, 3008 Period 330: 3379, 2962 Period 331: 3413, 2960 Period 332: 3355, 2954 Period 333: 3358, 2940 Period 334: 3244, 2907 <--- Period 335: 3071, 2907 <--- Period 336: 3055, 2998 Period 337: 3062, 2949 Period 338: 3071, 2920 Period 339: 3037, 2967 Period 340: 2924, 2924 <--- -------------------------------------------------------- Transposition average: 3795.71 Untransposition average: 3743.71 Randomize order: (by characters, rows, columns) -------------------------------------------------------- Trial 1: 4644, 4249, 2913 Trial 2: 4033, 4163, 2884 Trial 3: 3903, 3944, 2949 Trial 4: 4139, 4043, 2881 Trial 5: 3669, 4196, 2921 Trial 6: 3507, 4087, 2960 Trial 7: 4045, 4088, 2907 Trial 8: 3897, 3810, 2895 Trial 9: 3627, 4231, 2899 Trial 10: 4068, 3777, 2934 Trial 11: 4126, 4104, 2891 Trial 12: 3823, 3404, 2944 Trial 13: 4155, 3833, 2911 Trial 14: 4189, 3732, 2915 Trial 15: 4143, 4410, 2907 Trial 16: 4684, 3544, 2947 Trial 17: 4113, 3763, 2939 Trial 18: 4311, 3682, 2932 Trial 19: 4181, 4017, 2879 Trial 20: 4000, 3999, 2921 Trial 21: 3753, 3979, 2932 Trial 22: 4101, 3927, 2890 Trial 23: 4466, 3946, 2909 Trial 24: 3331, 3804, 2922 Trial 25: 3517, 3265, 2965 <--- Trial 26: 3936, 3932, 2915 Trial 27: 4122, 3787, 2934 Trial 28: 3583, 4004, 2947 Trial 29: 4280, 3752, 2962 Trial 30: 3329, 3770, 2959 <--- Trial 31: 4515, 4089, 2948 Trial 32: 3804, 3471, 2993 Trial 33: 4755, 3898, 2938 Trial 34: 4179, 3408, 2927 Trial 35: 3852, 4201, 2930 Trial 36: 4079, 4180, 2942 Trial 37: 3440, 3813, 2886 Trial 38: 3729, 3946, 2899 Trial 39: 4264, 4237, 2941 Trial 40: 4336, 3950, 2903 Trial 41: 4011, 3735, 2925 Trial 42: 4131, 3809, 2934 Trial 43: 3611, 3864, 2945 Trial 44: 4100, 3873, 2906 Trial 45: 4134, 4385, 2882 Trial 46: 3965, 3832, 2926 Trial 47: 4515, 3530, 2926 Trial 48: 3880, 3493, 2872 Trial 49: 3886, 4269, 2953 Trial 50: 4576, 3954, 2917 Trial 51: 4064, 3809, 2898 Trial 52: 4433, 4096, 2880 Trial 53: 4039, 3784, 2937 Trial 54: 3629, 3788, 2902 Trial 55: 3448, 3694, 2917 Trial 56: 3867, 3903, 2952 Trial 57: 4407, 3965, 2939 Trial 58: 4001, 3699, 2966 Trial 59: 3992, 3974, 2925 Trial 60: 4397, 3465, 2940 Trial 61: 4465, 3983, 2960 Trial 62: 3612, 3878, 2909 Trial 63: 3775, 4038, 2910 Trial 64: 3773, 3755, 2907 Trial 65: 4063, 3618, 2902 Trial 66: 3853, 3970, 2923 Trial 67: 4468, 4081, 2956 Trial 68: 4025, 3978, 2952 Trial 69: 3837, 4014, 2934 Trial 70: 3884, 4068, 2893 Trial 71: 4459, 3832, 2933 Trial 72: 4556, 4019, 2950 Trial 73: 3995, 4032, 2909 Trial 74: 3703, 4315, 2930 Trial 75: 4354, 3484, 2903 Trial 76: 3739, 4115, 2934 Trial 77: 3978, 4074, 2915 Trial 78: 4067, 3735, 2922 Trial 79: 4170, 3666, 2946 Trial 80: 3759, 3588, 2917 Trial 81: 3454, 4542, 2921 Trial 82: 3553, 3792, 2918 Trial 83: 3953, 3877, 2915 Trial 84: 3795, 3938, 2949 Trial 85: 4135, 3747, 2951 Trial 86: 3497, 3924, 2882 Trial 87: 3822, 4158, 2944 Trial 88: 4096, 4132, 2967 Trial 89: 4139, 4109, 2926 Trial 90: 4325, 4200, 2897 Trial 91: 4174, 3867, 2913 Trial 92: 4225, 4118, 2896 Trial 93: 3640, 3808, 2961 Trial 94: 3770, 3685, 2920 Trial 95: 3949, 3806, 2982 Trial 96: 4444, 4216, 2974 Trial 97: 4285, 3985, 2871 <--- Trial 98: 4456, 4174, 2943 Trial 99: 4146, 4275, 2886 Trial 100: 3974, 4103, 2912 -------------------------------------------------------- Characters average: 4020.81 Rows average: 3920.55 Columns average: 2924.46
It was a pencil and paper cipher, so do you mean that he went like this:
"I need a symbol for letter I because I am about to encode the letter I. Use @."
"I need a symbol for letter L because I am about to encode the letter L. Use #."
"I need another symbol for letter I because I am about to encode another letter I. Use $ and put it next to the @ on the key."
"I need a symbol for letter K because I am about to encode the letter K. Use %."
Etc. until he decided that he had enough symbols for whatever letter and started over with the cycles?
Instead of just making a key first and encoding by that key, not knowing in advance, of course, where the symbols would eventually all appear. Because if you made the key first, some symbols may not appear at all. And some symbols would probably not appear until farther into the message.
Is that what you mean? Would it work like that? Is the difference between the two methods detectable? Have you simulated this key building process?
It was a pencil and paper cipher, so do you mean that he went like this:
"I need a symbol for letter I because I am about to encode the letter I. Use @."
"I need a symbol for letter L because I am about to encode the letter L. Use #."
"I need another symbol for letter I because I am about to encode another letter I. Use $ and put it next to the @ on the key."
"I need a symbol for letter K because I am about to encode the letter K. Use %."
Etc. until he decided that he had enough symbols for whatever letter and started over with the cycles?
Yes, that is what I mean.
Instead of just making a key first and encoding by that key, not knowing in advance, of course, where the symbols would eventually all appear. Because if you made the key first, some symbols may not appear at all. And some symbols would probably not appear until farther into the message.
Is that what you mean? Would it work like that?
Yes.
Is the difference between the two methods detectable?
Yes. If a key is made on they fly then it is based on initial letter frequencies + some personal sensibility. This means that homophones (unique symbols) are more likely to appear more early in the cipher compared to when a key is based on the letter frequencies of the whole cipher, or even that of a frequency table. To detect that, simply sum the positions of the first occurence of every symbol and compare it. A lower sum then says that the symbols occur more early in the cipher.
For the 340 this summed value is 2924 and for the 408 it is 2340. Versus randomizations it is a -3.59 sigma observation for the 340 and a -2.24 sigma observation for the 408. Versus a sequential homophonic substitution with cycle randomization hypothesis it is a -2.05 sigma observation for the 340 and a 0.01 sigma observation for the 408.
Have you simulated this key building process?
Yes. Though the encoder still needs some work, it lacks some sensibility.
Versus such a hypothesis the appearance observation drops to 0.07 sigma (excellent correlation). Also, the unigram distance observation drops to 0.69 sigma.
Here is an early example cipher with added randomization, p33 of my plaintext library, the symbol frequencies are like this by default!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 13 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 4 32 33 34 12 35 36 37 38 39 24 26 33 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 38 14 16 53 54 6 41 42 25 55 23 21 47 23 56 2 26 20 37 13 19 57 16 13 33 58 36 19 56 48 58 47 22 11 23 5 26 9 56 48 23 27 1 46 7 49 26 12 58 31 33 59 19 28 40 48 4 16 23 56 12 42 27 37 34 13 57 47 23 25 31 5 8 5 6 55 17 19 49 60 34 51 50 23 16 40 10 51 53 54 1 26 14 47 46 23 6 41 10 61 21 5 35 1 26 30 16 9 24 40 46 13 25 16 19 33 23 36 18 58 39 47 23 25 20 22 55 62 61 39 16 23 36 27 41 63 7 39 49 3 32 63 23 25 31 48 23 22 15 36 62 4 25 6 10 27 9 41 10 24 25 54 55 59 36 23 7 31 13 56 40 2 46 36 63 47 13 33 19 11 61 52 3 25 23 39 5 15 36 23 25 20 4 6 58 12 36 23 7 22 23 28 25 23 9 24 34 36 40 48 10 51 26 54 53 14 23 39 7 45 41 15 56 48 56 13 29 25 6 38 51 33 55 24 9 1 23 16 47 63 27 40 19 23 36 31 37 4 56 23 17 10 56 29 51 14 26 25 6 23 17 34 25 18 6 41 58 2 44 39 3 52 15 50 35 5 60 38 23 7 53 9
What happens when you rotate the 340 180 degrees?
I agree with this idea that it was done on the fly. I feel like the double backwards P early in the cipher is my only hangup about that though… it breaks that logic in a weird way…
I think this approach rings true for someone with a pen and paper and probably a bunch of 1/2 x 1/2" cut out symbols that he just pulled out of a drawer from his last project, adds a few more as his first step to "making it harder" (or maybe they were already there) and just starts enciphering away.
He gets low on symbols and 3 lines in or so starts doing some other stuff like wildcards and coloring in some of the similar looking symbols to confuse things even more.
Add his already characteristic mistakes and voila!
a mystery for the ages.
What happens when you rotate the 340 180 degrees?
I have contained all these stats in the main post (see codebox). The appearance measurement (lower is better) peaks in the top-to-bottom, left-to-right direction.
I agree with this idea that it was done on the fly. I feel like the double backwards P early in the cipher is my only hangup about that though… it breaks that logic in a weird way…
We know that the "p" does not seem to cycle well with other symbols so it may be a 1:1 substitution or wildcard/polyphone. There must have been an element of sensibility, because otherwise you end up spending all your homophones in the first 4 rows, and that obviously did not happen.
Take a photocopy of the 340 cipher
Cut it into 17 vertical columns and label them 1-17- note how it is quite durable and resembles shredded documents and is easily carried
Re-arrange the columns and happy reading: top and bottom lines readings make sense with each other, and with enough cross-referencing you will read a lot of things into the rest of the texts.
The people I kill for god/go prick the valejo pd/this is zodiak speak/im saint hood now/kirtll go ahead people/etc etc
Kinda been putting questions up in reference to some information I can read and cross-check with- gold road/i9/huts as good kill zone places/boats and vans being used- along with hunting zone for zodiak being from previous murders linking to the 68/69 run- south coast road (domingo/edwards/63) to san diego (swindle couple/64) whose watch was found at Riverside (Cheri Bates/66) giving the southern limits of his hunting zone- moving to the known killings he patterned out.
Moreso, there’s reference to tuesday 18th october (1966 fits) and a room, so did Cheri see something she shouldn’t have, hence she had to die?
I think you all are more familiar with zodiak than me, and I have been working with this method for a while now with noone else mentioning looking at the cipher this way, so is this a first? If so, then try looking at it this way, and if it brings up viable results then someone professionally involved might be interested.
Oh yeah,and I am pretty convinced zodiak was more than one person and the 340 cipher serve(s/d) as a communication method in say a magazine (Sierra Club mag perhaps?) or mensa affiliated type interest, or a newspaper- thats the kind of delivery system I’d use if I created this bugger.
Regarding the new History series…
In the latest episode (3) the code guys outright said we have solved the Z340 and it’s the biggest breakthrough of code breaking in 50 years. What’s the chance that this ‘teaser’ for what’s to come amounts to nothing and they haven’t actually solved it. I’m guessing a very high chance and it’s nothing but TV hype 
Here is the key used for the 408 cipher.
Regarding the new History series…
In the latest episode (3) the code guys outright said we have solved the Z340 and it’s the biggest breakthrough of code breaking in 50 years. What’s the chance that this ‘teaser’ for what’s to come amounts to nothing and they haven’t actually solved it. I’m guessing a very high chance and it’s nothing but TV hype
There have been many people to claim to have solved these indecipherable codes generated by zodiac, unfortunately I have yet to see any satisfactory solutions.
If it turns out that the cipher really was cracked, that would be amazing.
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Yes I know, and they have all been gibberish and obviously not the correct solution.
But to state it blatantly on a History channel TV show by supposed top boffins. Then for their solution to be similar broken sentences and is ‘maybe’ the solution. That’s what I’m expecting to happen and it would be a bit pathetic IMO. I hope I’m wrong though.
Yes I know, and they have all been gibberish and obviously not the correct solution.
But to state it blatantly on a History channel TV show by supposed top boffins. Then for their solution to be similar broken sentences and is ‘maybe’ the solution. That’s what I’m expecting to happen and it would be a bit pathetic IMO. I hope I’m wrong though.
How recent is this?
When Will history channel release their solution to the cipher?
I don’t watch television, so I do not know much about this history program on zodiac, this is New?
That thread is like 20 pages long, so I only skimmed through it.
History has a habit of making claims that turn out to be nothing, like with the whole oak island show, every week it was supposed to be a "ground breaking discovery" and every week it was nothing. I hope they are not doing the same thing here…
I am going to check out the show though, if I can, I don’t own a tv and viewing online is very limited.
Ok guys I want this topic back on track please. This thread is regarding the 340 key possibly being created on the fly (the clue is in the title). 
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Have you guys seen Corey Starliper’s solution to the 340?
