The guy who believes the Hardens were responsobile for the Zodiac murders referenced this in some of his last videos.

In the "Detective Story Magazine" number of August 27th of 1921, the main story on it is titled "Z", about a guy who murders bank presidents and employees. "Z" phonecalls a local newspaper, and presents himself according to the person who picked the call by saying "This is Z speaking".

https://archive.org/stream/dsm_1921_08_ … 0/mode/2up

(The photo is from page 39)

^^^Now, that is interesting.

That same issue of Detective Story Magazine has a cipher:

I have just recently re-read Donald Harden’s quote where he says he thinks the cipher author was not of a high intellect, and possibly got his cipher knowledge from a "not-too-high level of detective story":

I think it will be worthwhile to start cataloging the types of ciphers that appear in these magazines.

More zync: "Saved by a cipher" story, and uses the word "clew".

Source is Nov 22, 1912 issue of Coronado Eagle and Journal. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=CJ19121122.2.46

That is interesting too! Thanks for posting. That first cipher appears (for the most part) to just be scrambled. I mean, some of it I was able to read just looking at it.

That same issue of Detective Story Magazine has a cipher:

I have just recently re-read Donald Harden’s quote where he says he thinks the cipher author was not of a high intellect, and possibly got his cipher knowledge from a "not-too-high level of detective story":

I think it will be worthwhile to start cataloging the types of ciphers that appear in these magazines.

Thnx for pointing out the cypher in the magazine, doranchak. Hmm, I am so curious, that I am gonna try to write the solution right here:

First Paragraph – "Not long ago some one suggested that I run an entire article in cipher; that is, let one week’s Under the Lamp article appear, in which none of the words are written in straight English, but rather, in cryptic form. This week I decided to carry out the idea. Note: Look out, for you will find another system of cipherization in the next paragraph."

In regards to the second paragraph, I am having difficulty to understand it and solve it.

Third Paragraph – "The best and surest way to start a solution is to determine, first if, possible, whether you are working with a substitution or with a transposition cipher. This should not give you great difficulty, as the broad differences between the two great classes of ciphers are easily distinguishable. But if you cannot classify your cipher, then apply the forty thirty four per cent text. That, this by , mail to any without fail. Note: More about will spot a cypher’s classification who are interested." (the last phrase and the Note appear not to be coherent)

In regards to the fourth paragraph, I also do not understand it – I only understand that the first phrase is something like: "Next get what I call the…" then I dont understand the rest.

Maybe could any of you try to solve it, since you have more knowledge with ciphers than me? (maybe we should start a topic about this on the cipher’s section of the forum; also, we need to inform other forums on this finding, which I have believe can be comparable to the "Red Mask" comic book finding)

I have no idea really what is the "forty thirty four per cent text".

Second paragraph has a few errors, here it is, literally:

For some time I have wanted to say a few words about starting your solutions. Many persons wio set out to solve a piece of cipjer writing, wish to see the answer all in a bunch, so to say; they are rarely content to analyze, study, anw work over a solution. Bnd what brrels and brrels of fun they miss!

But if you cannot classify your cipher, then apply the forty thirty four per cent text. ??? What… ok we can’t classify the 340 Cipher… so we just need to apply the 40/34% text. (Whatever that is)

Second paragraph has a few errors, here it is, literally:

For some time I have wanted to say a few words about starting your solutions. Many persons wio set out to solve a piece of cipjer writing, wish to see the answer all in a bunch, so to say; they are rarely content to analyze, study, anw work over a solution. Bnd what brrels and brrels of fun they miss!

Nice job – so, basically replace the letter with the one which comes before it or after it, in the alphabet. Well, just the last paragraph is left to solve.

But if you cannot classify your cipher, then apply the forty thirty four per cent text. ??? What… ok we can’t classify the 340 Cipher… so we just need to apply the 40/34% text. (Whatever that is)

Yeah, I have no idea what that means either. But what is spooky is the fact that he mentions the numbers 34 and 40. You know – 340……

Btw, here is the results for the Detective Story Magazine in this site, where I saw the one form August of 1921: https://archive.org/search.php?query=%2 … agazine%22

In the less oldest one, which is from 1938, the "Under The Lamp" article is still there, but with a different person responsible for it, while in 1921 the one responsible for such articles was an Henry A. Keller. The Detective Story Magazine started publishing in 1915 and stopped in 1949.

I found something about a 40 Vingere Cipher… but since the 340 used symbols too, don’t know how that’d work

Here is all the numbers of the "Detective Story Magazine" – it has the covers of those numbers, along with a list of people who wrote for it. In 1931, it changed its title to "Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine":

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/cfi/b13.htm#A236

That same issue of Detective Story Magazine has a cipher:

Did it, just solved the last paragraph of those ciphers. Thank you Marshall for solving the 2nd paragraph. Here it is the entire deciphered text:

Not long ago some one suggested that I run an entire article in cipher; that is, let one week’s Under the Lamp article appear, in which none of the words are written in straight English, but rather, in cryptic form. This week I decided to carry out the idea. Note: Look out, for you will find another system of cipherization in the next paragraph.

For some time I have wanted to say a few words about starting your solutions. Many persons who set out to solve a piece of cipher writing, wish to see the answer all in a bunch, so to say; they are rarely content to analyze, study, any work over a solution. But what barrels and barrels of fun they miss!

The best and surest way to start a solution is to determine, first if, possible, whether you are working with a substitution or with a transposition cipher. This should not give you great difficulty, as the broad differences between the two great classes of ciphers are easily distinguishable. But if you cannot classify your cipher, then apply the forty thirty four per cent text. That, by this, mail to any without fail. Note: More about will spot a cypher’s classification who are interested.

Next get what I call the ciphers history; in other words, make a record of all the letters, figures, or symbols your cipher contains. In the case of substitution ciphers, this will enable you to apply your frequency tables of letters pairs, three letter groups and so on – there by making the road to an accurate solution most easy. Beyond this point with substitution ciphers and with transposition ciphers, generally the only advice that can be given you is to work on the distinctive features of cipher until the points about it that make it different from all others in its class become apparent to you.

Besides The Mikado, here is some "zynchronicity" related to Japan: from the many noble houses that existed in Feudal Japan, there was the Shimazu Clan, who controlled provinces in the island of Kyushu (the most southern island of Japan). The symbol of this clan is a crossed circle.