…it’s an exceedingly unique phrase. Given the subjective nature of the loop creation and the letter alignment, I would continue looking for a more plausible phrase here.

It is! You might be right (I did find mentions of books looking hot but the whole sentence is a bit strange I agree).

And I’m curious how much your rotational key allows in terms of degrees of freedom. […], it would be interesting to know how easily this technique can create spurious messages. […] I believe it’s a credit to your proposed solution that there’s low overlap between messages and that it covers so much of the cipher.

I know D. believes this is all purely random (and I obviously respect his opinion) but for so much content to fit (more than 50%), I just feel there is something here. I am thinking about a way to try to quantify this feeling…

It also has to be noted that this decipherment is so straightforward that it could have potentially been done by hand at any point in the past 50 years by almost anyone […] So people will be more skeptical of it both initially, and probably indefinitely…

I agree and it is a depressing thought indeed.

Thanks so much for the kind words and for giving so much thought in your response. Really appreciated!

_pi

Who is Bob, L Fay and S Lee?

Robert Domingos and Linda Faye. And Paul Lee Stine.

Well I am not sure now. Largo generated it a while ago.

In reality, there are less defined symbols when using the 408 key. You can still spot "NUL" but that’s it.

Who is Bob, L Fay and S Lee?

Robert Domingos and Linda Faye. And Paul Lee Stine.

Ah, of course.

Pi, I think your approach is interesting and clever, but the solutions you produce will be impossible to discern from randomness.

Thanks for the kind words. I hope to eventually be able to quantify how this solution differs from pure randomness. Thanks for taking a look; it is always greatly appreciated to have your feedback.

Any thoughts on who "B Loony" with the little tie is?

I did find a Bob Looney who was a well-known criminal lawyer in Texas. Probably just a coincidence, though it is quite a specific surname. https://www.utnrotcalum.org/alumni/d194 … looney.htm

Any thoughts on who "B Loony" with the little tie is?

I had Betty Lou Jensen in mind; I saw "Loony" as an insult and play on words with her middle name. If you look at her photos, you’ll see many little ties…

Thanks !

Any thoughts on who "B Loony" with the little tie is?

I had Betty Lou Jensen in mind; I saw "Loony" as an insult and play on words with her middle name. If you look at her photos, you’ll see many little ties…

Thanks !

Makes sense! You have tied Rick Marshall (from Texas) to Zodiac with your previous solutions so the lawyer brought that to mind.

I hope to eventually be able to quantify how this solution differs from pure randomness. Thanks for taking a look; it is always greatly appreciated to have your feedback.

One way could be to code up an algorithm that looks for all such words and phrases, in Z340, Z408, and randomized cipher texts. Then compare the difficulty of finding them in each cipher text. It would be an interesting exercise but possibly very labor intensive.

I hope to eventually be able to quantify how this solution differs from pure randomness. Thanks for taking a look; it is always greatly appreciated to have your feedback.

One way could be to code up an algorithm that looks for all such words and phrases, in Z340, Z408, and randomized cipher texts. Then compare the difficulty of finding them in each cipher text. It would be an interesting exercise but possibly very labor intensive.

I think a Markov chain could do it fairly quickly, if you only look at continuous paths and don’t skip spaces.

I reworked this hypothetical null cipher solution into a version 2.0:

Modifications
1. The phrase containing the nature of the cipher was changed. You can actually read "<Looped null cipher>" as before but now with appended "+ xxx + old key". If you interpret "old key" as the previous z408 key, you can actually decode "xxx" into "LE ALN" which should look familiar…

4. I enriched the phrase with qualifiers I didn’t see before.

5. I modified the phrase to add the last name’s initial.

Additions
6. This phrase is actually the longest and suggests the author stole a toy bomb from a professor whose hypothetical name can be recognized.

8. Linda Edward’s bathing suit top was indeed cut in Santa Barbara.

9. Looks like a list of 4 spots to hit in San Francisco. Not sure what "Old 41" is; perhaps Pier 41. Otherwise: Coit tower, Zoo with entrance on 47th, John Muir drive.

Removal
– No more "…by gun" phrase.
– Gone are the somewhat strange "book lid" and "donuts bozo" phrases…

If nothing more, I hope you are entertained.

_pi

NULL in ASCII is NUL…

Anybody consider this? ( When translating with 408 as suggested previously. Point is, it is a valid spelling. )