One thing to remember is: the zodiac killer came the other way. He did not decipher, he encrypted. And while it's reasonable to subtract 25s to numbers higher than 25 to get to a letter,... there is basically no rhyme or reason for the zodiac killer to randomly ADD 25s to certain values. 🤔
Neither of you must have any real experience in cipherology or cryptology. You’re comment indicates you aren’t even on par with the most casual and average cryptosleuths you see online. You have a poor grasp on prime-deduction and prime-subjection, but it appears you think you excel in both. I can help both of you not come off as beginners, which it’s clear you both are. It’s a simple one day concept to learn.
i’m sure the zodiac wherever he is is laughing at these people thinking it’s not that serious and none of this is right or what he was actually trying to say in his simple cyphers lol
@@JacobC479 He would be, at a bare minimum, 80 years old, realistically, around 90 to 95 years old. While it's possible he's alive, it's improbable. BTK and Gary Ridgway were both caught 14 years after their last known murders, and Samuel Little was caught 7 years after his last known murder. Zodiac's last known murder was 54 years ago, which puts him closer to Jack the Ripper than BTK in likelihood of being identified.
One problem is not really knowing Zodiac's skill level at this. If he's just playing around with various methods (and indeed making mistakes during the process), then he might not have considered the problems a short cipher would cause. If he's smarter than that, then there's probably a way to know you're on the right track using other information he's given. It seems to me that the purpose was never to send in something that couldn't be cracked, but rather something that would take a little while and would then propel him into the headlines at various intervals as they were solved. For this reason, I doubt he'd ever intentionally give himself away.
The Zodiac isn't Cicada 3301. He doesn't have PGP and RSA and whatnot. He's a guy circa 1970 with a pen and paper. I find it humorous how people were like "We sent it to the Navy for analysis, a grad student has been working day and night, we think it's a very sophisticated code compiled by computer." and some regular folks come up with "It's a substitution cipher with alternates and typos. We solved it in a day." The shorter ciphers, there's just so little information that pattern recognition is almost hopeless. So, Zodiac I think wanted these messages to be read. He seems to have done much of what he did for the lulz, as it were. In the first cipher he says he kills because it's fun. So, if you were going to send someone a 13 character cipher to solve for fun, what encryption would you choose?
I agree, I think the zodiac was narcissist who probable thought he was the smartest person in the world. The mistakes that he made kind of makes me think he was not really that smart. He got a kick out of wasting and frustrating the police, and if there is an actual true solution to the Z13 and Z34 it probably leads no where. So I agree he probably did not know the short ciphers are near impossible and his aim was not to give any real information in them anyway.
@@Pauly421 Monsiuer Faycal here, I have cracked the code of your comment to find it's true meaning. The solution reads "Faycal is a genius his solution is correcb".
If you "believe", then it doesn't matter how many letters are wrong. It's like believing in Jesus. People who believe in an immortal flying Jew don't care whether or not he actually existed, because they "believe".
"His steps are logical and seem reasonable" Well, I'm not so sure. Using three different number systems, quite ambiguously for starters, also the circled eight doesn't seem to me as the Pisces symbol. It all sounds like a bitof a stretch and a very subjective choice of methodology. Imo Zodiac seems to have chosen pretty simple methods, almost like crudely coping methods from a textbook, so these decryption doesn't feel like it matches that style.
thats the point this video was trying to make haha, he then shows two examples of how just changing his choices a tiny bit can yield completely different answers
@@ant3978 Yes, exactly my point. It doesn't even imho need the explaining and it never seemed to me logical or reasonable. From the get go it looks unreasonably random and unnecessarily complicated and very subjective.
@@katarzynazofia Yeah I agree it is like completely altering the original letters to the point of recognition, the code maker would never think of that process himself and expect people to understand it.
Another great video, David. The Zodiac would have known that such short ciphers are pretty much impossible without some internal clues to set some ground rules for solving them. This solver applied multiple arbitrary steps only to arrive at a “solution” (KAYR) that is farther away from KANE than if you just grab it directly from the original cipher text and read it as a plain text anagram (KANE MY NAM) as Harvey Hines always tried to argue, albeit with his own set of pattern-seeking prejudices guiding him. Even if we assume it’s Kane ( just for the sake of argument), why would Z go through all these extra steps only to come up with something that not only doesn’t spell anything specific, but is more vague than what he started with? We know that The Zodiac placed ACTUAL readable messages within his ciphers, so it’s more likely than not that he did so in the Z13 and Z32 as well, even if they turn out to be more of the same rhetoric. Any solution that requires arbitrary steps and conversions are a waste of time.
True. And we know from the solutions to the first 2 ciphers that the plaintexts don't really matter that much. They don't give any useful information (that we know of). So he did seem to want to waste everyone's time. It's mind-boggling to contemplate how much time everyone spent on Z340 during those 51 years.
@@doranchak Hey how do I contact you, I have information that is pretty good, sorry to be harassing but it may be very helpful/important like of great use potentially. I can give you a plethora of information that will be generally useful. Just message me and I will tell you what I know and I can prove it is true by validating it in the cipher.
"You may THINK that my solution is wrong, but actually it was just an encoding mistake. So simply replace letters in the resulting plaintext until you make whatever word or name or acronym you want. Done"
Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, plus he assumes that Zodiac made a mistake and used one of the wrong symbols in his own cipher which seems unlikely.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I am saddened to know that your mother experienced this. The Zodiac was my father. He made my life a living hell. It has only been as I resolved PTSD and many effects of life with him that I have been able to understand what really happened. He died February 18, 2009 without remorse for his crimes.
Since the zodiac left a hint on the envelope "rush to the editor" which was slanted... the one David solved. So maybe there's another hint on the envelope like the direction of the stamps face is facing or the direction/placement of any wording on the envelope?
I just don't understand why people insist on him having written his name in any of the ciphers. Why would he ever take that risk? I'm sure the only way he'd be found is if the familial DNA thing that they used to catch EAR/ONS works out, not through finding his name in a cipher. Anyway, yet another great video with amazing production. Well done, sir.
He wanted to feel smart and outright telling them his name but being confident they'd never be able to solve it would have been a powertrip. A guy who sends these sort of messages wants that feeling in the first place. I think it's possible but also very possible he would not. Or it's even possible the cipher DOES contain his 'name' in the sense it's something that could never be linked back to him, like it's a nickname he made up for himself
I feel it wasn't cancer but Pisces which would be the 12th symbol and I believe numerology should have added it to Total 6 instead of 5, 9 instead of 8, and 3 for Pisces. Especially with his 3690 denoted on cross ➕
I cannot express enough how amazing it is to see not only the work you (Jarl and Sam) have done to break the 340, but that you’re weighing in on false leads. Thank you so much for the work you put into showing how many ways we can apply ambiguity when it comes to these short codes. You’re doing the best service to the victims that could ever be done short of solving the Z case - you’re not allowing a scapegoat be ignored, and showing why a biased solution can’t be accepted unless all are. Thanks for your time and effort into making sure we can differentiate fact from possible fiction.
Thank you! It's challenging keeping up with all the solutions people submit to me. Most of them share the same problems inherent in Faycal's solutions so I thought this video might be informative, especially about all the other solution claims out there.
@@doranchak Hey Mr. Oranchak, sorry to bother you but I may have some information that is important to know regarding the decipherment of the Z32 cipher. I sent you a message on reddit and on other social media. It is legitimately important information that could enable the decipherment of the Z32 or make it much easier. I can tell you all I know just message me. I may have a number of words from the solution to Z32, like as in I know that they are in there almost 100%.
I tried running it through every decoder i could possibly think of. No answer comes up except for divorce and child custody. My theory is that she doesnt love you anymore and she took the children with her to her sisters house. I know its a stretch but hear me out.
I ran it through the latest installment of the Artificial Intelligence Decoding Software or AIDS. She wants you to spin around 6 times and take a poo on the carpet
One thing that popped out to me in Z13 is the symmetry. If you take the circled 8s as spaces, it looks like the format of an abbreviated full name, like John K. M. Name or whatever
You are correct. The circled 8s are simply placeholders or spaces. The new symbol is a lower-case, cursive "L". Substitute 2 letters that appear twice for letters that look similar. The letter "E" looks like the letter "F", and "A" looks like "R". "DREAAOLEDO" becomes "ALFRED DOOR". Paul Alfred Doerr is the Zodiak Killer!
Thank you for an excellent summary as always, Mr Oranchak. Personally, I'm quite convinced that the Zodiac didn't put his name in any of his ciphers. Here's why. After the Zodiac mailed the Z408, in a follow-up letter he wrote "when they do crack it they will have me". This was untrue, as the cipher contained his beliefs or manifesto if you will, rather than any concrete information. Again, the Z340 was written much in a similar style, with an exception of the remark about the TV show, which was the only reference to facts. There is a remarkable consistency in tone and topics covered in the ciphers, and those are different to what the Zodiac was rambling about in the letters. You could claim that by "they will have me" Zodiac meant "they will understand my motives", but the Zodiac hardly ever spoke figuratively; his messages were very literal in nature. This leads me to believe Zodiac never intended to reveal his identity in the ciphers. The solution to Z13 might thus be something in the spirit of "keep guessing", "I will not tell you", or something vague and related to Zodiac's vision of himself and his aims, that he presented in his previous ciphers, such as "not afraid of death". These are the themes hidden in his two longer ciphers. With regards to the Z32, note that Zodiac did not care to add two extra symbols at the end of Z32 to make it two lines of equal length, which to me indicates that there is also a message hidden in it. However, it probably describes a step needed to solve the Zodiac's map clue. Overall I definitely agree there's not much hope these short ciphers will be cracked. But, at the same time, it seems unlikely they contain any actually useful information, taking Z408 and Z340 into account.
I think part of the intrigue around zodiac is that it's hard to tell if his mistakes are truly mistakes, for example in the map letter he calls the symbols a "code" rather than a cipher. As the sequences are too short to realistically be a cipher, and we can see obscure symbols strewn throughout his letters, I believe the 13 and 32 are based on the clues embedded in the letters, like the diagonal writing on the 340 suggested the reading rule.
In the little list letter he talks about filling in the blanks just after suggesting "wachamacallit" as a name of someone who wouldn't be missed. It's 13 characters and the A's match up positionally with the circles 8's in the z13. It would be disappointing but seems quite likely to be
I love this series. I really get curious about how Zodiac would have enciphered the assumptions made about the deciphering. Would Zodiac actually have used an algorithm that is the reverse order that Ziraoui described to finally use the key to encipher? Would he have followed that process to expand a 4 character name to a 13 character cipher? Personally when Ziraoui jumps to anagrams is when he loses me. It quickly becomes guesswork and not any kind of algorithm.
Excellent, very informative video. The animations really help to better understand each step! I really think that everyone interested in Zodiac case feels that we're very lucky to have people like you trying (successfully) to crack Z's encrypted messages. Your videos are very informative and interesting.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I think the weird writing on the Halloween card could be a clue about how those ciphers work. Since he gave hints about 340 like the diagonal text on envelope and he used similar wording to 340 in some letters after the cipher. So it wouldn't suprise me if he gave hints about his other two unsolved ones. The card has 14 bigger symbols and if you skip the letter A which is in the middle of the text in both PARADICE and SLAVES that is 13 letters just like z13.
I've always felt that the best way to catch the Zodiac's identity would be to pour through evidence in unsolved murder cases in San Francisco between 1965-1974. In taunting the SFPD, he claimed 37 victims. My guess that he's telling through truth for at least some of those murders. I would use a forensic psychological profile mixed with the eyewitness description and search for a man between the ages of 25-45 (who looks to be more on the older end of this range). I strongly suspect that he was single -- probably divorced or with a deceased wife -- because of the statement about his rocks and "a" girl (not "my" or even "girls" in general -- implying he wasn't in a personal relationship. He was stocky and of above average intelligence. He may have been a diver or wannabe diver; or, he may have simply bought or inherited a Zodiac watch (or saw an advertisement in a magazine in which Zodiac used to place ads). He's familiar enough with the streets of San Francisco to get away following a murder; so, he is likely a long-time resident familiar with the city and Vallejo. He has visited South Lake Tahoe either to ski or to gamble (on the Nevada side). I suspect that he spent time in South Lake Tahoe the week before the killing -- and he probably either left abruptly or stayed around to gamble (being undeterred by the police). Yet, by or after 1974, something happened that ended this narcissist necessity to taunt. Did Zodiac die? Did he get arrested? Did he have a religious conversion? Did he get married/have children? Did he simply get scared? Given the nature of serial killers -- and their need to continue -- I don't think that something as simple as marriage, fatherhood or conversion were the cause of his silence (although I suppose that it is possible). This silence was final. Even the BTK killer's silence eventually came to an end. He thought that he was smart enough to NOT get caught; but, he was caught anyway. The fear idea is interesting -- because he may have thought that the cops were closing in on his trail. This would make anyone questioned in 1974 or after an interesting possibility. Even without the police questioning him, the Zodiac may have remembered a mistake he made and decided he didn't want to get caught. His whole "Zodiac" persona could have been a farce and he really WAS afraid of capture or death. That's a distinct possibility. Otherwise, my guess is that the most likely reason he stopped was due to death or arrest. By this time, he could have been in his 40s or 50s and may have been overweight. I wonder if police found anyone else who was arrested during or just after 1974 for something seemingly unrelated to these murders. Did he spend considerable time in prison? Did someone in their 40s or 50s die after that last letter was sent?
Why would you need a map with Mount Diablo as a starting pointing if the answer to the cipher gets you coordinates? Logically it can't be a correct solution, since the second hint was radians and inches on the map.
Honestly, I’d try and figure out how the zodiac figured out how to do it. There was no internet. He was either trained; in which case the suspect pool is pretty small. Or he got a few books and taught himself. I think if we can find book that were available at that time, we might find one that has these kinds of Cyphers in them. Might help
@@jfdd43 Maybe I should study cryptography, because it all seems pretty simple to me so far from an encryption perspective, as someone with no training. I think something that points to him not being trained is that he apparently didn't have a sense for how difficult his codes would be to solve, which is a limitation I think I would also have. I could generate any number of encryption algorithms by hand without being taught how, but I have no idea how hard they would be to crack.
These solutions are all too complex. While the 340 was extremely difficult to crack its logical and can be worked out with a grid and some paper once you understand it is in 3 pieces and decodes by using a clear pattern within the grid. The fact the last part is just backwards shows that even Zodiac got tired of the “work” required. His first cypher was very simple, then things got more complex, enough that he started making mistakes. Thus these last two cyphers can’t be mathematically challenging. Zodiac wasn’t *that* smart. I would take these cyphers and write them out in a grid, then read them back using simple rules. Maybe by going down vs across. However the real problem is as mentioned in the video: the short length- there is just not enough data to find “words” like in the 340 which relies on natural patterns found in the English language.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Nice job. I especially like how you incorporated the older news clips, those are fascinating. And of course you have a firm debunking of the latest so-called solutions of Z13 and Z32. Your video both allows us to follow the reported steps, and also demonstrates how easy they would be to modify. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Elonka! I'm hoping that by going into so much detail on the steps in these solutions, the video will serve as a reference point when we get asked about other Z13 and Z32 solutions. Like you, I get so many solution proposals, and it's impossible to address them all. But many of the problems line up with the ones I presented. Anagramming quite often seems to be a repeat offender. :)
@@doranchak David, is it possible for a sufficiently intelligent person to deliberately encode two different plain-text messages into the same ciphered message? I am referring to messages the length of the 340.
@@godfreypigott Yes, it is possible. There was a recent paper about creating "multi-ciphers": www.evernote.com/l/AAGZjNdq1bFEjLfqpyOJBxkJOAflvytNxuU Another example is "high order homophonic". Discussion and examples here: zodiackiller.net/community/zodiac-cipher-mailings-discussion/higher-order-homophonic-cipher/
@@doranchak Thanks - I'll have a look a those when I get the time. I wonder if that could explain the apparent padding at the end of the first-decoded cipher. Has you considered giving that one another look?
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Boy. This solution system is a lot of work for.... I have no idea what. The videos are always so great; sophisticated yet easy enough for even someone like me to understand. Thanks again.
Hi David, The first thing that jumps out with z13 is that zodiak first asked the question have you cracked the last cipher I sent you (1.14) referencing z340. I think this key needs to be used and z13 would not be able to be deciphered without first revealing the previous ciphers. Also I dont think the 18 characters at the end of the z408 are gibberish or filler and could be utilised in some way to help uncover a message in his later ciphers. Again great work keep the series going
What really takes the cake is when the narrator scrambles the tiles and says, "It could just as easily be EMILY LOVES EGGS." Obviously, that's not the solution.
Hello Mr. Oranchak, Looking at the Diablo map Z32 Cipher, I mainly derive "California St"... (12 letters) ..... He uses the Greek letter delta to instruct a letter change.... The circle with a dot is the hieroglyphic for "Day", you take the letter A.... CA, the letter J Converts to L... CALI.. The darken square with letter O means distress signal and backwards K... Means strike out in baseball stats.... So we can omit these three characters, and replace them with FOR.... CALIFOR.... I make a big leap for the letter N (using semaphore communication, or taking the letter "N" from his instructions to "set to Mag. N") .... The letter I and A are provided.... We have "CALIFORNIA ".... I changed the R to S, per delta triangle... You get... ST..... this adds up to the number 12 that he Zodiac provides.... X marks the spot.... In his case I believe he insinuates: "The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb (metaphorically he is the" bomb") is set. "..... In other words he gave us the name of the street that he may have lived or worked on. I was able to spell "Omega", "police have me", "war", and "Book". Also, I was able to construct (vaguely) the symbol for Venus ♀(by altering his hair-crossed sight).
My professor has asked the class to write a piece explaining who is Zodiac Killer is - it has proven to be a very difficult thing to write (currently on page 16). Stumbled across these videos during the writing process and I am very intreged by all of the work you're doing! I completely agree with your point about how the Zodiac Killer wouldn't have included his name in any of the ciphers. Instead, he enjoyed playing a game and messing with law enforcement - why would he expose his identity? It would've caused the "fun" he was having to end! In the "Examiner" letter, he even wrote: “I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP ME”. Just a thought... regardless, thank you for creating such amazing videos! I have learned a lot :)
The “solution” to Z13 is so… I dunno.. complicated? Like way too complicated compared to the rest of Zodiac’s decrypted ciphers. We’re really expected to believe that he went from simple substitution to three different ciphers mixed together that involved essentially one step to solve each section, to… this? And why would we assume that any of the symbols from this cipher match any of the symbols from the previous ones in meaning. Honestly, my guess is that he probably did write his name in Z13, but you don’t have to be a world renown cryptologist to know that 13 letters is too small of a sample size to find any reasonable solution. You’ve proven that point in the beginning of the video.
Exactly! The burden of proof is too high for anyone trying to solve Z13 (and Z32 as well), since there's no good test that tells us which solutions are right.
IMO there's only a very tiny chance it actually has his name in it. I think he'd be much more likely to have it be some sort of nickname like "collector for the afterlife" (yes, I know this is bigger than 13 characters, but just an example) or other such name he'd think would inspire fear and notoriety with the general public.
I'm 99% certain he wrote those notes with his left hand, because the ink is smudged exactly like how I used to do it also in school, being a left hander too
@@Pauly421I’m right handed and have always wrote with my write hand and have had issues of slanting down and to the right. Doesn’t mean he’s left handed
Has anyone tried to correlate the phone book names for CA in order to narrow down the produced names using your 340 cipher? Someone's name in the ~1970 phone book that has the correct number of characters? Even with the unknown symbols, that is still more known characters than unknown for someone's name.
That’s implying he ever gave away his identity. He promised to do so a lot, and in all confirmed ciphers, he never did. It’s much more likely that the solution is another clue, and that the clue provided leads to a different clue. He didn’t want to be found out. He wanted to keep the Cat and Mouse game going for as long as possible.
Great video to demonstrate the dilemma! But I tend to believe that Zodiac actually wanted his messages to be solved. So coming up with all this stuff and ciphers to hard to be ever cracked wouldn't make sense... he must have given another clue. It just can't be that hard, I believe.
For all we know those circled crosses could be actual spaces to denote something like Name I. N. Surname. And should that be the case... Good frigging luck actually solving it.
it's a brilliant way to include your name if you think about it. a singular reference would risk capture, but including your name along with thousands of others, especially if you are already off the radar. that's not a bad way to do it.
When the Zodiac was active, there just weren't any truly capable researchers but also, largely, there weren't the tools they really could have used, aka, computers with the programs and/or personnel with resources to work on the case back then. Sadly, police used presumption, like most have done throughout this case, but they also were lazy and didn't REALLY follow leads like they should have. They listened to hearsay without following EVERY lead. They should have paid CLOSE ATTENTION to what Bryan Hartnell told them, and learned when to believe what the Zodiac told them, knowing when he was telling them the truth! Hartnell's testimony was the most valuable testimony. Michael Mageau's had some valuable information as well. They had all the "clues" they needed; but they just didn't have the right mindsets.
Donald Harden solved first Zodiac cipher in just days but was never looked at as a possible suspect...if you look hard enough, someone here on YT has been researching the Hardens for years & what he presents tells you it was not luck or skill that Donny solved the puzzle as quickly as he did.
If the 408 revealed his identity, but didn't give his name, then maybe the final 18 gibberish letters were a birthday? DL number? SS number? Jan two three four six = 18 characters
Maybe a birth astrological symbol and Chinese birth year sign?? Aquarius the dragon = 17 symbols the gibberish letters, it's least difficult to construe... Boar Rat Rabbit
You do realize the body that was found in 1986 is fairly close to the locations you're speculating are the result of the code breaker? Which, now, 2023, has been found to be Donna Lass?
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I like your point about the symetry of the cipher ( 4:50 ). AEN+0K0M0^NAM and once reversed, it almost reads as mixing NAME WANT like mentionned but why not even a little bit further... WANT0W0K0+NEA WANT T0 KN0W MY NAME...? the "^" zodiac-symbol looking like a Y upside down. Am I the only one seeing this? Not that it's supposed to mean anything further, but if that symetry was really thought on purpose (which unfortunately is a complete hypothesis), that might coincide with Zodiac irony. Just a thought...
That is exactly what I would expect him to write. If this can even be solved then the killer would never put his name in the code. We're probably looking for a taunt.
@@Jerkfaceman He does not want to put his identity in a literal translation as that would lead to his identification that does not mean he would not put his name in an alternate method like vertically in the ciphertext where he think he can get away with it.
May I ask very simple question? Did anyone ever tried to use Zodiac´s intentional mistakes in letters as possible key for any of his ciphers? English is my second language and I´m obviously making various types of mistakes in spelling etc. but what Zodiac did with his mistakes is really weird. Just look at Belli letter, there are words which are written in correct spelling but also written in such a poor and seemingly forced spelling, that it is obviously intentional thing (I will explain later). Actually - I know my theory is crazy, but what if ciphers were just misleading stuff (trap) for Police and Public to waste their time, and real message was in letters? When I noticed this in case of Belli letter, where it was very obvious thing (that spelling mistakes are mistakes that even person with poor knowledge of English would never do), I did simple thing - I wrote all "wrong" letters in whole his letter and kept them or replaced them with correct one. I expected just bunch of useless bollocks, but it actually stunned me because it "created a sentence". It led me to the idea, what if much simplier crack code can be used on mistakes which he did in all letters? Belli letter and all spelling mistakes in letter: Christmass (added S). Extreamly (added A + and missing E), dificult (missing F), nineth (added E), posibly (missing S), victom (o instead of I), drownding (added D), triger (missing g), controol (added o).... Let´s consider the possibility that one of them is real spelling mistake (Extremly instead of extremely), result is.... S A F E - S I D - G O.... Especially misspelled word "controol" is obviously written in forced way, he wrote it correctly in passage "I will loose control" and at the very end of letter too.... so writing the word twice correctly and one with such a weird blunder is not "accident". I can assure you as person with English as 2nd language I would never write "victom" (which could be mistake written on typewriter as o and i are next to each other, but not in handwritten letter!), and I would never write "controol" even as beginner.... What do you think about this idea? For fact readers, now please stop but I´ll go even further to suggest a weird speculation, but what if Zodiac killer was some sort of "comic book evil psycho persona" (simply used to mislead public and investigators) for cold-blooded calculated hired killer who also enjoyed doing this (his despise for police forces is obvious) - so he hide hired murder (which could be Farrel or Stine) among few others done for hiding real motive... Which is IMO crucial key to solve this case - we dont know real one and there always is motive (in case of "usual" serial killers, its usually sexual devation, but clearly NOT in this case).
Another criticism of the lat/long coords is that with only 3 decimal digits of precision that describes a pretty substantial area if you assume the 4th and remaining digits were simply truncated / rounded.
I keep thinking what if the zodiacs ‘mistakes’ aren’t mistakes at all but intentional. For example what if the ‘incorrect’ letters make up their own cypher or they need to be combined with other odds and ends from previous cyphers. Maybe this has been done before and I hoped it might have been covered in the videos so far but haven’t seen that idea explored. Especially since the 340 was cracked.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993. George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968. The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front. Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next. To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here... www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I have a question: Couldnt you use an algorithm to insert all possible names into the california vital records, check for correct dates (e.g. atleast 16 and under 50 on date of first murder)? I do not think you would have more than a thousand possible suspects, which is certainly doable to research them all.
Good video! So glad to see you keeping this series going. I don’t know how anyone can find a solution to the short ciphers without it being forced. Still if it is going to be solved there is power in persistence, hunches and luck. Tgere could still be meaning in subtle things like that semi-circle connecting letters in the Z340 cipher or something similar.
I imagine there's some order to rearrenge the letters to, specially in Z13 (since he did that on the chyper you solved), yet I don't see how there's a way to do so and produce an unbiased result proved beyond doubt. Your work is amazing! Very clear and professional, thanks for the videos
I like that you go the length to understand someone else's logic /hypothesis, no matter how forced that theory looks, even prima facie. Kudos on that ; mark of an intelligent man. Having said that, I think the point you yourself make several times is key - the two ciphers are too short, and statistically would be hard to prove why one credible solution isn't as likely as the thousand others that can be arrived at. If the killer was really smart, he would know this - that a short cipher is virtually impossible tp crack. So either he wanted his name to be drowned out amongst the million other combinations or.... If he really wanted it solved, then the keys from the z340 and z408 need to be used to decipher z13 and 32 as well. Just some random thoughts. Thanks for the video!!
Given the map provided by the Zodiac, it is unlikely that anything even remotely close to South Lake Tahoe would work. This is because South Lake Tahoe isn't even in that map (especially given a starting point at Mt. Diablo).
I think I may have a theory of what the z12 cypher says I think it says Richard Conel when it should say Richard Connell who was the author of one of his favorite books slash films the most dangerous game as mentioned by him in his first cypher, so he is playing with us again
Y'know - I've been thinking, what if the Zodiac was aware that such a short cipher would be susceptible to confirmation bias and that was a conscious attempt at trying to bait the police into coming up with one of their suspect's names to pin it all on him, essentially "framing" someone, but nobody in particular. What if it's not a possible name that would be helpful but rather a name that's impossible to get as a result of the cipher? As he obviously wouldn't try to set HIMSELF up. Has anyone tried to go down the list of major suspects and see how much "massaging" it takes to get to each name in the cipher? I'm not sure if that even makes sense necessarily, I just think it's an obvious misdirect and there's no way he ever intended to give his name up in the z13 cipher.
Could you try this? To use the unusual arrangement of words in the very last sentence of the cypher you guys decrypted to use it as a key for this one. I feel like you that this is too short to solve unless zodiac was able to insert another subtle clue somewhere...
what's weird is I believe the "upside down aries" is in Z408. If you follow that key it's an R. People have argued that in Z408 the symbol for "R" is an upside down T. I am not convinced because if you look at those upside down Ts, it does a dip in the bottom where the vertical stem touches the bottom. To me it really does look like this same symbol in question here. I know it's pointless arguing it but just a thought, if anyone out there is actually trying to crack this code. Another thing that I think is a big key in solving this is the symmetry in the video that this youtuber pointed out. Something about that seems so intentional of him to write that. I think it’s vital to solving it. Something tells me we'll never know but you never know! Awesome video series btw!
The issue I find with this guy's "solution" is... it assumes too much of a level of intelligence and skill from the ZK. And frankly, the ZK showed his limited intelligence. Just... so many mistakes. Some could be argued as being signatures, like the way he spells "paradice". But not all. And yea. You soundly show that that methodology can be used to produce anything you want. His KAYR solution is no more, and easily far less valid than yours. But you aren't claiming yours point to the identity of the ZK since you know how ridiculous those steps are without a way to validate that they are intended. The Z32 and Z13 may be solvable with a KEY and procedure that holds up, but what it will take is for that solution to be comparatively simple. I have little doubt that he provided the KEY in some way. His letters and other cyphers. But... really, in the end I don't expect a usable name from the proper result. Im betting it would just be something referring to being the master of his slaves in the afterlife or something, as that would be the only name that matters to him.
The Frenchman's solution is honestly the worst I've ever heard. I'm not convinced. I for one feel z13 is probably just sarcasm. Answer: Alfred E Neuman (AEN)
It seems to me that a solution to this would probably not require additional information. Meaning he wants to be heard, so I feel like all the information necessary for solving the codes are in the codes themselves, no matter how short.
I just had a thought for the special circle symbol it looks like the sign of Taurus, also if you look at the special symbols from the 340 some have rectangles/triangles and other similar shapes which when referenced with the solutions show he is obsessed with both numbers, shapes or patterns. You might look at the symbol that looks like a circle with a cross through it as perhaps instructions to first attack the cipher diagonally then vertically or perhaps using a graphing solution similarly used in mathematics. Just some thoughts from what I have seen in your video that struck me.
Assuming the 32 cipher's two lines end with the words "radian" and "inch"... Then the first two words must be "three dot" with three blanks to fill before "radian" Only options are "one, two, six" Guessing that "DVT = dot" in the second line, and guessing that forward and backwards F represent the same letter... Then the second number in the first line is the same as the first number in the second line... Second line is, say, "one dot _ _ _ _ _ radian" Only options are "seven, eight" Because the Zodiac preferred the number 12 = 3+1+8 = 3+2+7 So I suggest... "three dot one radian One dot eight inch" Or "three dot two radian Two dot seven inch" Alternatively, both main ciphers were 17 columns = 3 + 6 + 8... "three dot six radian Six dot eight inch"
On the Mt. Diablo map, the words "is to be set to magnetic north" are written closest to the number 3. So, "3.1 radian, 1.8 inch" would point to Pittsburgh, CA. Cp. Reference to washing his "pen" possibly alluding to Pennsylvania where the original Pittsburgh is located If "washing" didn't mean "cleaning up the bomb site" then there could then be 50 year old Zodiac bomb remains near some school in Pittsburgh, CA
The Pittsburg California high school is across the street from the Pittsburg police station. Both are near a RR crossing. The railroad crossing symbol is also eerily similar to the Zodiac's own symbol.
i find the mistakes interesting it almost seems like the code is written like his letters with words end- ing like this ,it could be why he was 3 or letters 4 off in the 340 cipher just writing the it out as a letter then changing letter for letter using his own way like a polybius square maybe substituting the greek alphabet with the zodiac symbols in some way ,im new to this though so just probably making all the noob mistakes thinking about it . like the greek letter delta is a triangle and in his letter you can see him spell zodiaK using a k and the triangle filled black almost like delta for the d
The letter on the car was written with his right hand in the exact opposite direction of pen stroke then he would normally write them and the letter in the thumb mail was done the same but with the left hand instead.. just a cute detail I noticed
Just curiosity. Have you ever thought to intersect the 70.000 names obtained from simple substitutions with the names (by male and age), in the public vital records of that time, of men living in the specific area of killing action? I think it is possible with our current technology. Anyway, I'd like to share with you some toughts of mine about the Z13. It seems to me that there are just Greek letters and 888 (which is a Christian symbol like the crosshairs or "Theta" in ancient Greek alphabet in symmetrical position to, what I suppose, the upside down lowercase Greek "tau". Satanic reference?) is 3x8=24 which is the number of the Greek letters. Maybe the circle around the 8 is a suggestion to put the letters on a three concentric wheels. We have a "t" or "Y" upside down in the Z408 and Z340, but with an upper dash and in the second case with a dot on the left. Take note that the "C" of "Paradice" is an archaic letter for capital "Σ" (our "S") used by Koine Jews from the I century BC specifically for Bible traslations into Greek. Also mind that "C" stands for "S" in the Russian/Ukrainian alphabet too. Cyrillic alphabet comes from Byzantine Greek. Maybe these are useful clues to identify the national origin of the killer's family. The simplest solution I have found is: Dream a lot ye do. You do dream a lot. Or, "Dream a lot, I do". "Yedo" in Japanese means "I do". A joke in his style. (Z340 substitution and "y" upside down.). In the Z32 the new symbol is Ω, omega, another Greek letter.
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One thing to remember is: the zodiac killer came the other way. He did not decipher, he encrypted. And while it's reasonable to subtract 25s to numbers higher than 25 to get to a letter,... there is basically no rhyme or reason for the zodiac killer to randomly ADD 25s to certain values. 🤔
Yeah
This is what I was thinking the whole time
Did you find an algorithm that works? Check if it even makes sense to encrypt a message like that
@@johnwright1666 Stop spamming that shit!
This whole thing is masturbatory. It is far more likely that there is no message and it is just Zodiac goofing on people.
Neither of you must have any real experience in cipherology or cryptology. You’re comment indicates you aren’t even on par with the most casual and average cryptosleuths you see online. You have a poor grasp on prime-deduction and prime-subjection, but it appears you think you excel in both.
I can help both of you not come off as beginners, which it’s clear you both are. It’s a simple one day concept to learn.
@@Bravo-Too-Much lol, get a load of this guy. He's DEFINITELY a reddit moderator and a blast at parties.
The huge amount of logic and expertise that's been brought to bear on these seemingly amateurish and error-ridden ciphers is quite the paradox.
Lol, Ikr? Especially given that we *know* that the killer would sometimes make mistakes and sometimes just outright lie.
i’m sure the zodiac wherever he is is laughing at these people thinking it’s not that serious and none of this is right or what he was actually trying to say in his simple cyphers lol
@@ghhhp zodiac has been long dead
@@lavs8696not necessarily, they said the same thing about BTK and he’s still alive
@@JacobC479 He would be, at a bare minimum, 80 years old, realistically, around 90 to 95 years old. While it's possible he's alive, it's improbable. BTK and Gary Ridgway were both caught 14 years after their last known murders, and Samuel Little was caught 7 years after his last known murder. Zodiac's last known murder was 54 years ago, which puts him closer to Jack the Ripper than BTK in likelihood of being identified.
One problem is not really knowing Zodiac's skill level at this. If he's just playing around with various methods (and indeed making mistakes during the process), then he might not have considered the problems a short cipher would cause. If he's smarter than that, then there's probably a way to know you're on the right track using other information he's given. It seems to me that the purpose was never to send in something that couldn't be cracked, but rather something that would take a little while and would then propel him into the headlines at various intervals as they were solved. For this reason, I doubt he'd ever intentionally give himself away.
Good analysis.
The Zodiac isn't Cicada 3301. He doesn't have PGP and RSA and whatnot. He's a guy circa 1970 with a pen and paper. I find it humorous how people were like "We sent it to the Navy for analysis, a grad student has been working day and night, we think it's a very sophisticated code compiled by computer." and some regular folks come up with "It's a substitution cipher with alternates and typos. We solved it in a day."
The shorter ciphers, there's just so little information that pattern recognition is almost hopeless.
So, Zodiac I think wanted these messages to be read. He seems to have done much of what he did for the lulz, as it were. In the first cipher he says he kills because it's fun.
So, if you were going to send someone a 13 character cipher to solve for fun, what encryption would you choose?
I agree, I think the zodiac was narcissist who probable thought he was the smartest person in the world. The mistakes that he made kind of makes me think he was not really that smart. He got a kick out of wasting and frustrating the police, and if there is an actual true solution to the Z13 and Z34 it probably leads no where. So I agree he probably did not know the short ciphers are near impossible and his aim was not to give any real information in them anyway.
Mmmm
M
So Fayçal finds a 4 letters name, two of which are wrong and he's "confident" he's got the right guy ? That's a stretch and a half.
It must have been a slow news day in France.
His solution is total horseshit lmao
@john Wright stop spamming that crap all over comments nobody wants to click on your phony link. Gfto
@@Pauly421 Monsiuer Faycal here, I have cracked the code of your comment to find it's true meaning. The solution reads "Faycal is a genius his solution is correcb".
If you "believe", then it doesn't matter how many letters are wrong. It's like believing in Jesus. People who believe in an immortal flying Jew don't care whether or not he actually existed, because they "believe".
"His steps are logical and seem reasonable" Well, I'm not so sure. Using three different number systems, quite ambiguously for starters, also the circled eight doesn't seem to me as the Pisces symbol. It all sounds like a bitof a stretch and a very subjective choice of methodology. Imo Zodiac seems to have chosen pretty simple methods, almost like crudely coping methods from a textbook, so these decryption doesn't feel like it matches that style.
Also why no-one talks about the numbers on the map. Maybe those are the inches he hinted? I'm very curious to look into this.
Exactly, such a long winded nonsensical procedure to come up with a misspelled name. Lmao
thats the point this video was trying to make haha, he then shows two examples of how just changing his choices a tiny bit can yield completely different answers
@@ant3978 Yes, exactly my point. It doesn't even imho need the explaining and it never seemed to me logical or reasonable. From the get go it looks unreasonably random and unnecessarily complicated and very subjective.
@@katarzynazofia Yeah I agree it is like completely altering the original letters to the point of recognition, the code maker would never think of that process himself and expect people to understand it.
Some of the "solutions" you came up with make good band names!
Obscene Nelson
Blind for a day
Brain of Lady D
Dry Infant Blood Waters
😂
I’ve been thinking about what to name my band. Now I’m seriously considering going with Obescene Nelson. 😂
"Brain of Lady D" sounds more like a sci-fi horror flick.
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Some of my favorite bands.
Another great video, David. The Zodiac would have known that such short ciphers are pretty much impossible without some internal clues to set some ground rules for solving them. This solver applied multiple arbitrary steps only to arrive at a “solution” (KAYR) that is farther away from KANE than if you just grab it directly from the original cipher text and read it as a plain text anagram (KANE MY NAM) as Harvey Hines always tried to argue, albeit with his own set of pattern-seeking prejudices guiding him. Even if we assume it’s Kane ( just for the sake of argument), why would Z go through all these extra steps only to come up with something that not only doesn’t spell anything specific, but is more vague than what he started with? We know that The Zodiac placed ACTUAL readable messages within his ciphers, so it’s more likely than not that he did so in the Z13 and Z32 as well, even if they turn out to be more of the same rhetoric. Any solution that requires arbitrary steps and conversions are a waste of time.
Yeah, good explanation, I agree with you that it does not make sense.
True. And we know from the solutions to the first 2 ciphers that the plaintexts don't really matter that much. They don't give any useful information (that we know of). So he did seem to want to waste everyone's time. It's mind-boggling to contemplate how much time everyone spent on Z340 during those 51 years.
@@doranchak Hey how do I contact you, I have information that is pretty good, sorry to be harassing but it may be very helpful/important like of great use potentially. I can give you a plethora of information that will be generally useful. Just message me and I will tell you what I know and I can prove it is true by validating it in the cipher.
@@doranchak Not to mention I know the identity of the killer, but what use is that really.
@@zachgraber2496 Can you share in a video? Or maybe a reddit thread? I'd be intrigued to look though it.
"You may THINK that my solution is wrong, but actually it was just an encoding mistake. So simply replace letters in the resulting plaintext until you make whatever word or name or acronym you want. Done"
I love simple answers. It reminds of that term. Luddites.
Zodiac was a jokester. The note either said 'Want my name' or 'Want to name me.'
well that settles it
I cant believe he made up all those arbituary steps and didn't even arrive at "KANE" but the gibberish "KAYR" lol
Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, plus he assumes that Zodiac made a mistake and used one of the wrong symbols in his own cipher which seems unlikely.
@@grizzlywhiskerhe’s made mistakes like that before in his other ciphers
Is it known that Zodiak did kokane?
I hope we find out who he is by my mother's lifetime, she lived in the area and went through a major depression and fear because of this maniac.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Good thing she wasn’t hot.
Don't hold your breath. He is probably dead, and may have been gone for a long time.
I am saddened to know that your mother experienced this. The Zodiac was my father. He made my life a living hell. It has only been as I resolved PTSD and many effects of life with him that I have been able to understand what really happened. He died February 18, 2009 without remorse for his crimes.
@@RandallHigginswhy are you mocking someone's suffering with these BS lies
Since the zodiac left a hint on the envelope "rush to the editor" which was slanted... the one David solved. So maybe there's another hint on the envelope like the direction of the stamps face is facing or the direction/placement of any wording on the envelope?
Up this comment
Do we still have it, though?
@@silasfrisenette9226 yes
How do you know that is a hint ?
@@mutedmutiny9542 I don't it's just a theory based on a prior hint he gave us maybe its a tell? Something similar perhaps.
I just don't understand why people insist on him having written his name in any of the ciphers. Why would he ever take that risk? I'm sure the only way he'd be found is if the familial DNA thing that they used to catch EAR/ONS works out, not through finding his name in a cipher.
Anyway, yet another great video with amazing production. Well done, sir.
he could well have written it in this cypher, its just so short that its impossible to solve
coz he said he did
@@room312productions And of course the word of a murderer can be trusted.
He wanted to feel smart and outright telling them his name but being confident they'd never be able to solve it would have been a powertrip. A guy who sends these sort of messages wants that feeling in the first place. I think it's possible but also very possible he would not. Or it's even possible the cipher DOES contain his 'name' in the sense it's something that could never be linked back to him, like it's a nickname he made up for himself
@@godfreypigott well indeed why try and solve any of his ciphers at all? it's all we have to go on.
The fact that he discounted the Aries and Libra sign discredits his entire theory. They are there because they are important.
I feel it wasn't cancer but Pisces which would be the 12th symbol and I believe numerology should have added it to Total 6 instead of 5, 9 instead of 8, and 3 for Pisces. Especially with his 3690 denoted on cross ➕
I cannot express enough how amazing it is to see not only the work you (Jarl and Sam) have done to break the 340, but that you’re weighing in on false leads.
Thank you so much for the work you put into showing how many ways we can apply ambiguity when it comes to these short codes. You’re doing the best service to the victims that could ever be done short of solving the Z case - you’re not allowing a scapegoat be ignored, and showing why a biased solution can’t be accepted unless all are.
Thanks for your time and effort into making sure we can differentiate fact from possible fiction.
Thank you! It's challenging keeping up with all the solutions people submit to me. Most of them share the same problems inherent in Faycal's solutions so I thought this video might be informative, especially about all the other solution claims out there.
@@doranchak Hey Mr. Oranchak, sorry to bother you but I may have some information that is important to know regarding the decipherment of the Z32 cipher. I sent you a message on reddit and on other social media. It is legitimately important information that could enable the decipherment of the Z32 or make it much easier. I can tell you all I know just message me. I may have a number of words from the solution to Z32, like as in I know that they are in there almost 100%.
this is edited so well and you explain things very clearly, big respect
I appreciate that! Thanks for watching!
Can you please decode what my wife means by taking the kids and staying with her sister for the last six months? I dont understand...
I tried running it through every decoder i could possibly think of. No answer comes up except for divorce and child custody. My theory is that she doesnt love you anymore and she took the children with her to her sisters house. I know its a stretch but hear me out.
I ran it through the latest installment of the Artificial Intelligence Decoding Software or AIDS. She wants you to spin around 6 times and take a poo on the carpet
👩👧👦➡️🧍♀️➕👩👧👦
I Ran It Through Multiple Algorithms & All I Got Was:
"You Are A Lazy Dog & The Fox Jumped Away". 😢
It means she’s a lesbian
One thing that popped out to me in Z13 is the symmetry. If you take the circled 8s as spaces, it looks like the format of an abbreviated full name, like John K. M. Name or whatever
You are correct. The circled 8s are simply placeholders or spaces. The new symbol is a lower-case, cursive "L". Substitute 2 letters that appear twice for letters that look similar. The letter "E" looks like the letter "F", and "A" looks like "R". "DREAAOLEDO" becomes "ALFRED DOOR". Paul Alfred Doerr is the Zodiak Killer!
Thank you for an excellent summary as always, Mr Oranchak. Personally, I'm quite convinced that the Zodiac didn't put his name in any of his ciphers. Here's why.
After the Zodiac mailed the Z408, in a follow-up letter he wrote "when they do crack it they will have me". This was untrue, as the cipher contained his beliefs or manifesto if you will, rather than any concrete information. Again, the Z340 was written much in a similar style, with an exception of the remark about the TV show, which was the only reference to facts. There is a remarkable consistency in tone and topics covered in the ciphers, and those are different to what the Zodiac was rambling about in the letters. You could claim that by "they will have me" Zodiac meant "they will understand my motives", but the Zodiac hardly ever spoke figuratively; his messages were very literal in nature. This leads me to believe Zodiac never intended to reveal his identity in the ciphers. The solution to Z13 might thus be something in the spirit of "keep guessing", "I will not tell you", or something vague and related to Zodiac's vision of himself and his aims, that he presented in his previous ciphers, such as "not afraid of death". These are the themes hidden in his two longer ciphers. With regards to the Z32, note that Zodiac did not care to add two extra symbols at the end of Z32 to make it two lines of equal length, which to me indicates that there is also a message hidden in it. However, it probably describes a step needed to solve the Zodiac's map clue.
Overall I definitely agree there's not much hope these short ciphers will be cracked. But, at the same time, it seems unlikely they contain any actually useful information, taking Z408 and Z340 into account.
"Im just kidding" has exactly 13 letters 😄
I don't believe he revealed anything in the ciphers either.
I think part of the intrigue around zodiac is that it's hard to tell if his mistakes are truly mistakes, for example in the map letter he calls the symbols a "code" rather than a cipher. As the sequences are too short to realistically be a cipher, and we can see obscure symbols strewn throughout his letters, I believe the 13 and 32 are based on the clues embedded in the letters, like the diagonal writing on the 340 suggested the reading rule.
In the little list letter he talks about filling in the blanks just after suggesting "wachamacallit" as a name of someone who wouldn't be missed. It's 13 characters and the A's match up positionally with the circles 8's in the z13. It would be disappointing but seems quite likely to be
The Z13 cipher solution is most likely: “Alfred E Neuman” (with 1 erroneous letter, probably the M) - it was all a big joke to him
I love this series. I really get curious about how Zodiac would have enciphered the assumptions made about the deciphering. Would Zodiac actually have used an algorithm that is the reverse order that Ziraoui described to finally use the key to encipher? Would he have followed that process to expand a 4 character name to a 13 character cipher?
Personally when Ziraoui jumps to anagrams is when he loses me. It quickly becomes guesswork and not any kind of algorithm.
check out a channel called 'rick h' -some interestinh alternatives there.
This is the only guy who isn’t a crackpot on the Zodiac topic.
That I can confirm. I'm also completely nuts. Which complicates things a bit.
@@EdEdwardsCiphers You think Ed is Z. Don’t you?
@@darkside7802 I do have some strong opinions. I would say I'm convinced. Why? Do you know something?
Excellent, very informative video. The animations really help to better understand each step! I really think that everyone interested in Zodiac case feels that we're very lucky to have people like you trying (successfully) to crack Z's encrypted messages. Your videos are very informative and interesting.
Thanks very much for your feedback. And thank you for watching!
You have the most intelligent, articulate, and polite way of saying he’s wrong without saying he’s wrong!
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I think the weird writing on the Halloween card could be a clue about how those ciphers work. Since he gave hints about 340 like the diagonal text on envelope and he used similar wording to 340 in some letters after the cipher. So it wouldn't suprise me if he gave hints about his other two unsolved ones. The card has 14 bigger symbols and if you skip the letter A which is in the middle of the text in both PARADICE and SLAVES that is 13 letters just like z13.
I love this series so much! keep up the Amazing work!
I've always felt that the best way to catch the Zodiac's identity would be to pour through evidence in unsolved murder cases in San Francisco between 1965-1974. In taunting the SFPD, he claimed 37 victims. My guess that he's telling through truth for at least some of those murders. I would use a forensic psychological profile mixed with the eyewitness description and search for a man between the ages of 25-45 (who looks to be more on the older end of this range).
I strongly suspect that he was single -- probably divorced or with a deceased wife -- because of the statement about his rocks and "a" girl (not "my" or even "girls" in general -- implying he wasn't in a personal relationship. He was stocky and of above average intelligence. He may have been a diver or wannabe diver; or, he may have simply bought or inherited a Zodiac watch (or saw an advertisement in a magazine in which Zodiac used to place ads).
He's familiar enough with the streets of San Francisco to get away following a murder; so, he is likely a long-time resident familiar with the city and Vallejo. He has visited South Lake Tahoe either to ski or to gamble (on the Nevada side). I suspect that he spent time in South Lake Tahoe the week before the killing -- and he probably either left abruptly or stayed around to gamble (being undeterred by the police).
Yet, by or after 1974, something happened that ended this narcissist necessity to taunt. Did Zodiac die? Did he get arrested? Did he have a religious conversion? Did he get married/have children? Did he simply get scared?
Given the nature of serial killers -- and their need to continue -- I don't think that something as simple as marriage, fatherhood or conversion were the cause of his silence (although I suppose that it is possible). This silence was final. Even the BTK killer's silence eventually came to an end. He thought that he was smart enough to NOT get caught; but, he was caught anyway.
The fear idea is interesting -- because he may have thought that the cops were closing in on his trail. This would make anyone questioned in 1974 or after an interesting possibility. Even without the police questioning him, the Zodiac may have remembered a mistake he made and decided he didn't want to get caught. His whole "Zodiac" persona could have been a farce and he really WAS afraid of capture or death. That's a distinct possibility.
Otherwise, my guess is that the most likely reason he stopped was due to death or arrest. By this time, he could have been in his 40s or 50s and may have been overweight. I wonder if police found anyone else who was arrested during or just after 1974 for something seemingly unrelated to these murders. Did he spend considerable time in prison? Did someone in their 40s or 50s die after that last letter was sent?
I wish I could copy your answer, this is exactly how I would start looking for suspects.
I know that the zodiac was a bit bad at spelling but in no way would he spell his own name wrong
It's not his name that he would've messed up, rather the cipher of his name.
Even Shakespeare did.
Why would you need a map with Mount Diablo as a starting pointing if the answer to the cipher gets you coordinates? Logically it can't be a correct solution, since the second hint was radians and inches on the map.
Set radian to zero north of the third road...
I think that both Z32 and Z13 were merely a distraction
Honestly, I’d try and figure out how the zodiac figured out how to do it.
There was no internet. He was either trained; in which case the suspect pool is pretty small. Or he got a few books and taught himself. I think if we can find book that were available at that time, we might find one that has these kinds of Cyphers in them. Might help
Or maybe he just made up his own logic so he would never be caught. Like a child creating a treasure Note
@@cutelittleReis90 maybe, except the methods used in the ones that have been solved; were methods used by professional code makers
@@jfdd43 Maybe I should study cryptography, because it all seems pretty simple to me so far from an encryption perspective, as someone with no training. I think something that points to him not being trained is that he apparently didn't have a sense for how difficult his codes would be to solve, which is a limitation I think I would also have. I could generate any number of encryption algorithms by hand without being taught how, but I have no idea how hard they would be to crack.
These solutions are all too complex. While the 340 was extremely difficult to crack its logical and can be worked out with a grid and some paper once you understand it is in 3 pieces and decodes by using a clear pattern within the grid. The fact the last part is just backwards shows that even Zodiac got tired of the “work” required. His first cypher was very simple, then things got more complex, enough that he started making mistakes. Thus these last two cyphers can’t be mathematically challenging. Zodiac wasn’t *that* smart.
I would take these cyphers and write them out in a grid, then read them back using simple rules. Maybe by going down vs across. However the real problem is as mentioned in the video: the short length- there is just not enough data to find “words” like in the 340 which relies on natural patterns found in the English language.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
i fell like z13 is somehow connected to z340 because he mention it at the beggining of letter
I've wondered that a lot too.
When I used the software a couple months ago I ran "I will never tell you my name"(or something similar) for the z13, and it fit.
Well done you've cracked the case wide open
What do you mean? I don't understand what you're doing, can you explain more?
Nice job. I especially like how you incorporated the older news clips, those are fascinating. And of course you have a firm debunking of the latest so-called solutions of Z13 and Z32. Your video both allows us to follow the reported steps, and also demonstrates how easy they would be to modify. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Elonka! I'm hoping that by going into so much detail on the steps in these solutions, the video will serve as a reference point when we get asked about other Z13 and Z32 solutions. Like you, I get so many solution proposals, and it's impossible to address them all. But many of the problems line up with the ones I presented. Anagramming quite often seems to be a repeat offender. :)
@@doranchak David, is it possible for a sufficiently intelligent person to deliberately encode two different plain-text messages into the same ciphered message? I am referring to messages the length of the 340.
@@godfreypigott Yes, it is possible. There was a recent paper about creating "multi-ciphers": www.evernote.com/l/AAGZjNdq1bFEjLfqpyOJBxkJOAflvytNxuU
Another example is "high order homophonic". Discussion and examples here: zodiackiller.net/community/zodiac-cipher-mailings-discussion/higher-order-homophonic-cipher/
@@doranchak Thanks - I'll have a look a those when I get the time. I wonder if that could explain the apparent padding at the end of the first-decoded cipher. Has you considered giving that one another look?
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
Boy. This solution system is a lot of work for.... I have no idea what. The videos are always so great; sophisticated yet easy enough for even someone like me to understand. Thanks again.
Hi David, The first thing that jumps out with z13 is that zodiak first asked the question have you cracked the last cipher I sent you (1.14) referencing z340. I think this key needs to be used and z13 would not be able to be deciphered without first revealing the previous ciphers.
Also I dont think the 18 characters at the end of the z408 are gibberish or filler and could be utilised in some way to help uncover a message in his later ciphers. Again great work keep the series going
A new episode is a reason to be happy!
What really takes this video to the next level is the sound of Scrabble tiles moving against one another whenever letters are scrambled
What really takes the cake is when the narrator scrambles the tiles and says, "It could just as easily be EMILY LOVES EGGS." Obviously, that's not the solution.
Hello Mr. Oranchak,
Looking at the Diablo map Z32 Cipher, I mainly derive "California St"... (12 letters) ..... He uses the Greek letter delta to instruct a letter change.... The circle with a dot is the hieroglyphic for "Day", you take the letter A.... CA, the letter J Converts to L... CALI.. The darken square with letter O means distress signal and backwards K... Means strike out in baseball stats.... So we can omit these three characters, and replace them with FOR.... CALIFOR.... I make a big leap for the letter N (using semaphore communication, or taking the letter "N" from his instructions to "set to Mag. N") .... The letter I and A are provided.... We have "CALIFORNIA ".... I changed the R to S, per delta triangle... You get... ST..... this adds up to the number 12 that he Zodiac provides.... X marks the spot.... In his case I believe he insinuates: "The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb (metaphorically he is the" bomb") is set. "..... In other words he gave us the name of the street that he may have lived or worked on.
I was able to spell "Omega", "police have me", "war", and "Book". Also, I was able to construct (vaguely) the symbol for Venus ♀(by altering his hair-crossed sight).
My professor has asked the class to write a piece explaining who is Zodiac Killer is - it has proven to be a very difficult thing to write (currently on page 16). Stumbled across these videos during the writing process and I am very intreged by all of the work you're doing!
I completely agree with your point about how the Zodiac Killer wouldn't have included his name in any of the ciphers. Instead, he enjoyed playing a game and messing with law enforcement - why would he expose his identity? It would've caused the "fun" he was having to end! In the "Examiner" letter, he even wrote: “I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP ME”.
Just a thought... regardless, thank you for creating such amazing videos! I have learned a lot :)
Thanks for watching, and good luck with your class assignment! Maybe you could publish it somewhere - I'd be interested to know your findings. 🙂
The “solution” to Z13 is so… I dunno.. complicated? Like way too complicated compared to the rest of Zodiac’s decrypted ciphers.
We’re really expected to believe that he went from simple substitution to three different ciphers mixed together that involved essentially one step to solve each section, to… this? And why would we assume that any of the symbols from this cipher match any of the symbols from the previous ones in meaning.
Honestly, my guess is that he probably did write his name in Z13, but you don’t have to be a world renown cryptologist to know that 13 letters is too small of a sample size to find any reasonable solution. You’ve proven that point in the beginning of the video.
Exactly! The burden of proof is too high for anyone trying to solve Z13 (and Z32 as well), since there's no good test that tells us which solutions are right.
I think his misspelling was intentional to give a clue as to the cypher.
IMO there's only a very tiny chance it actually has his name in it. I think he'd be much more likely to have it be some sort of nickname like "collector for the afterlife" (yes, I know this is bigger than 13 characters, but just an example) or other such name he'd think would inspire fear and notoriety with the general public.
Zodiac's handwriting is consistent and no one recognizing is more strange
He's definitely left handed too I used to write all slanted to the right like that when I was in school. Kinda solved it by rotating the notepad lol
That or he's right handed and wrote with his left to avoid anyone recognising his handwriting
I'm 99% certain he wrote those notes with his left hand, because the ink is smudged exactly like how I used to do it also in school, being a left hander too
@@Pauly421I’m right handed and have always wrote with my write hand and have had issues of slanting down and to the right. Doesn’t mean he’s left handed
Has anyone tried to correlate the phone book names for CA in order to narrow down the produced names using your 340 cipher? Someone's name in the ~1970 phone book that has the correct number of characters? Even with the unknown symbols, that is still more known characters than unknown for someone's name.
That’s implying he ever gave away his identity. He promised to do so a lot, and in all confirmed ciphers, he never did. It’s much more likely that the solution is another clue, and that the clue provided leads to a different clue. He didn’t want to be found out. He wanted to keep the Cat and Mouse game going for as long as possible.
Great video to demonstrate the dilemma! But I tend to believe that Zodiac actually wanted his messages to be solved. So coming up with all this stuff and ciphers to hard to be ever cracked wouldn't make sense... he must have given another clue. It just can't be that hard, I believe.
I don't think he applied for more than 20 minutes in his letters.
For all we know those circled crosses could be actual spaces to denote something like Name I. N. Surname. And should that be the case... Good frigging luck actually solving it.
another excellently produced video!!! thanks so much for your insights and looking forward to following this journey
zodiac would have no idea what base 3 is imo
Agree…
it's a brilliant way to include your name if you think about it. a singular reference would risk capture, but including your name along with thousands of others, especially if you are already off the radar. that's not a bad way to do it.
Makes me wonder if he knew enough about ciphers to be confident that his name would be permanently hidden because of all the possibilities!
When the Zodiac was active, there just weren't any truly capable researchers but also, largely, there weren't the tools they really could have used, aka, computers with the programs and/or personnel with resources to work on the case back then. Sadly, police used presumption, like most have done throughout this case, but they also were lazy and didn't REALLY follow leads like they should have. They listened to hearsay without following EVERY lead. They should have paid CLOSE ATTENTION to what Bryan Hartnell told them, and learned when to believe what the Zodiac told them, knowing when he was telling them the truth! Hartnell's testimony was the most valuable testimony. Michael Mageau's had some valuable information as well. They had all the "clues" they needed; but they just didn't have the right mindsets.
Whenever someone has to use anagrams to figure out a cipher, that's when you start to lose me.
Donald Harden solved first Zodiac cipher in just days but was never looked at as a possible suspect...if you look hard enough, someone here on YT has been researching the Hardens for years & what he presents tells you it was not luck or skill that Donny solved the puzzle as quickly as he did.
If the 408 revealed his identity, but didn't give his name, then maybe the final 18 gibberish letters were a birthday? DL number? SS number?
Jan two three four six = 18 characters
Maybe a birth astrological symbol and Chinese birth year sign??
Aquarius the dragon = 17 symbols the gibberish letters, it's least difficult to construe...
Boar Rat Rabbit
Maybe the misspellings were intentional and lead to a hidden cypher that reveals his name or paradice is referring to a 36 letter alphabet-2 dice
Damn! What if he knew that these could be manipulated, and is having fun watching us have a seizure trying to figure the cipher out?
You do realize the body that was found in 1986 is fairly close to the locations you're speculating are the result of the code breaker? Which, now, 2023, has been found to be Donna Lass?
Excellent presentation David. I think the short ciphers did have a solution, but probably only in Zodiac's head. :)
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I like your point about the symetry of the cipher ( 4:50 ).
AEN+0K0M0^NAM
and once reversed, it almost reads as mixing NAME WANT like mentionned but why not even a little bit further...
WANT0W0K0+NEA
WANT T0 KN0W MY NAME...? the "^" zodiac-symbol looking like a Y upside down.
Am I the only one seeing this? Not that it's supposed to mean anything further, but if that symetry was really thought on purpose (which unfortunately is a complete hypothesis), that might coincide with Zodiac irony.
Just a thought...
That is probably the beginning I would think.
As much as I love the SAW movies… no one speaks like that in real life.
That is exactly what I would expect him to write. If this can even be solved then the killer would never put his name in the code.
We're probably looking for a taunt.
@@Jerkfaceman He does not want to put his identity in a literal translation as that would lead to his identification that does not mean he would not put his name in an alternate method like vertically in the ciphertext where he think he can get away with it.
We can't prove it to but to be honest, it's more likely you are right than that french guy though ☺️
May I ask very simple question? Did anyone ever tried to use Zodiac´s intentional mistakes in letters as possible key for any of his ciphers?
English is my second language and I´m obviously making various types of mistakes in spelling etc. but what Zodiac did with his mistakes is really weird. Just look at Belli letter, there are words which are written in correct spelling but also written in such a poor and seemingly forced spelling, that it is obviously intentional thing (I will explain later). Actually - I know my theory is crazy, but what if ciphers were just misleading stuff (trap) for Police and Public to waste their time, and real message was in letters? When I noticed this in case of Belli letter, where it was very obvious thing (that spelling mistakes are mistakes that even person with poor knowledge of English would never do), I did simple thing - I wrote all "wrong" letters in whole his letter and kept them or replaced them with correct one. I expected just bunch of useless bollocks, but it actually stunned me because it "created a sentence". It led me to the idea, what if much simplier crack code can be used on mistakes which he did in all letters?
Belli letter and all spelling mistakes in letter:
Christmass (added S). Extreamly (added A + and missing E), dificult (missing F), nineth (added E), posibly (missing S), victom (o instead of I), drownding (added D), triger (missing g), controol (added o)....
Let´s consider the possibility that one of them is real spelling mistake (Extremly instead of extremely), result is.... S A F E - S I D - G O.... Especially misspelled word "controol" is obviously written in forced way, he wrote it correctly in passage "I will loose control" and at the very end of letter too.... so writing the word twice correctly and one with such a weird blunder is not "accident". I can assure you as person with English as 2nd language I would never write "victom" (which could be mistake written on typewriter as o and i are next to each other, but not in handwritten letter!), and I would never write "controol" even as beginner.... What do you think about this idea?
For fact readers, now please stop but I´ll go even further to suggest a weird speculation, but what if Zodiac killer was some sort of "comic book evil psycho persona" (simply used to mislead public and investigators) for cold-blooded calculated hired killer who also enjoyed doing this (his despise for police forces is obvious) - so he hide hired murder (which could be Farrel or Stine) among few others done for hiding real motive... Which is IMO crucial key to solve this case - we dont know real one and there always is motive (in case of "usual" serial killers, its usually sexual devation, but clearly NOT in this case).
Another criticism of the lat/long coords is that with only 3 decimal digits of precision that describes a pretty substantial area if you assume the 4th and remaining digits were simply truncated / rounded.
Complicated, my brain is scrambled now.
I think it says “want to know my name” in the one line cypher as a taunt
I keep thinking what if the zodiacs ‘mistakes’ aren’t mistakes at all but intentional. For example what if the ‘incorrect’ letters make up their own cypher or they need to be combined with other odds and ends from previous cyphers. Maybe this has been done before and I hoped it might have been covered in the videos so far but haven’t seen that idea explored. Especially since the 340 was cracked.
The Zodiac Killer Is, Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Tip: 13 letter cipher: George L Wright
Born June 16th, 1932 - Death Aug 20, 1993.
George L Wright worked at Fiberboard Paper Mill in Port Angleses WA tell October 1968 when he was transferred to Antioch California, He bought an Oct 1968 Blue Dodge Polara, and it was Identified as a Blue seen at or near the scene of the first Double Homicide December 1968. Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968.
The second murder happened on July 5th, 1969, and the reason I know this firsthand is because my mother had brought us to visit dad in Antioch Cailfornia, my dad had a Camper and a brand new F250 Camper Special he drove to California in 1968 pretty nice front for a killer to hide in as a front.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau
On July 4th 5th my dad comes and goes with moms car here at the RV Trailer Park across the street from the Orange Grove just outside of Antioch, he does not spend a lot of time around, but he was back by the time the raido news flash came on stated the Zodiac Killer just struck, we are all in the camper together and I was scared at that moment as all looked concerned in the camper, my dad over reacted to what I said next.
To see the Zodiac Killer, go to the link below and you will find the real deal here...
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185761
I have a question:
Couldnt you use an algorithm to insert all possible names into the california vital records, check for correct dates (e.g. atleast 16 and under 50 on date of first murder)? I do not think you would have more than a thousand possible suspects, which is certainly doable to research them all.
You'd have to assume what's inside is his full name, which is very questionable.
@@leatheljamie yeah for all we know it can be a sarcastic joke like "Angel of Death"
I want whatever that Frenchman is smoking.
Good video! So glad to see you keeping this series going. I don’t know how anyone can find a solution to the short ciphers without it being forced.
Still if it is going to be solved there is power in persistence, hunches and luck. Tgere could still be meaning in subtle things like that semi-circle connecting letters in the Z340 cipher or something similar.
I imagine there's some order to rearrenge the letters to, specially in Z13 (since he did that on the chyper you solved), yet I don't see how there's a way to do so and produce an unbiased result proved beyond doubt. Your work is amazing! Very clear and professional, thanks for the videos
I like that you go the length to understand someone else's logic /hypothesis, no matter how forced that theory looks, even prima facie. Kudos on that ; mark of an intelligent man. Having said that, I think the point you yourself make several times is key - the two ciphers are too short, and statistically would be hard to prove why one credible solution isn't as likely as the thousand others that can be arrived at. If the killer was really smart, he would know this - that a short cipher is virtually impossible tp crack. So either he wanted his name to be drowned out amongst the million other combinations or.... If he really wanted it solved, then the keys from the z340 and z408 need to be used to decipher z13 and 32 as well. Just some random thoughts. Thanks for the video!!
I guess you've addressed this at the very end :) well, let's see if someone else can Crack the code using some more auxiliary info.
Imagine my horror, when I cracked the code, only to discover that _I_ am the Zodiac killer?
Given the map provided by the Zodiac, it is unlikely that anything even remotely close to South Lake Tahoe would work. This is because South Lake Tahoe isn't even in that map (especially given a starting point at Mt. Diablo).
I think I may have a theory of what the z12 cypher says I think it says Richard Conel when it should say Richard Connell who was the author of one of his favorite books slash films the most dangerous game as mentioned by him in his first cypher, so he is playing with us again
Y'know - I've been thinking, what if the Zodiac was aware that such a short cipher would be susceptible to confirmation bias and that was a conscious attempt at trying to bait the police into coming up with one of their suspect's names to pin it all on him, essentially "framing" someone, but nobody in particular. What if it's not a possible name that would be helpful but rather a name that's impossible to get as a result of the cipher? As he obviously wouldn't try to set HIMSELF up. Has anyone tried to go down the list of major suspects and see how much "massaging" it takes to get to each name in the cipher? I'm not sure if that even makes sense necessarily, I just think it's an obvious misdirect and there's no way he ever intended to give his name up in the z13 cipher.
Daaaaammmnnn this is crazy hard . I really like you so I subbed 👍
Could you try this? To use the unusual arrangement of words in the very last sentence of the cypher you guys decrypted to use it as a key for this one. I feel like you that this is too short to solve unless zodiac was able to insert another subtle clue somewhere...
what's weird is I believe the "upside down aries" is in Z408. If you follow that key it's an R. People have argued that in Z408 the symbol for "R" is an upside down T. I am not convinced because if you look at those upside down Ts, it does a dip in the bottom where the vertical stem touches the bottom. To me it really does look like this same symbol in question here. I know it's pointless arguing it but just a thought, if anyone out there is actually trying to crack this code. Another thing that I think is a big key in solving this is the symmetry in the video that this youtuber pointed out. Something about that seems so intentional of him to write that. I think it’s vital to solving it. Something tells me we'll never know but you never know! Awesome video series btw!
These days, easier to kill someone instead of confusing brilliant people. I love all the work you put in.
The issue I find with this guy's "solution" is... it assumes too much of a level of intelligence and skill from the ZK. And frankly, the ZK showed his limited intelligence. Just... so many mistakes. Some could be argued as being signatures, like the way he spells "paradice". But not all.
And yea. You soundly show that that methodology can be used to produce anything you want. His KAYR solution is no more, and easily far less valid than yours. But you aren't claiming yours point to the identity of the ZK since you know how ridiculous those steps are without a way to validate that they are intended.
The Z32 and Z13 may be solvable with a KEY and procedure that holds up, but what it will take is for that solution to be comparatively simple. I have little doubt that he provided the KEY in some way. His letters and other cyphers. But... really, in the end I don't expect a usable name from the proper result. Im betting it would just be something referring to being the master of his slaves in the afterlife or something, as that would be the only name that matters to him.
@12:57 I would also think he's more inclined for numerology so the 18 should be nine and the 15 should be six just like in his 3690 crosshairs
*Zodiac threatens to snipe a school buses tyre and "pick off" the kids one by one*
Police arm themselves with shotguns.....
Smh
If there is so much possible results, maybe the one that is impossible to get for a given dataset is the right one
He wrote the cyphers by hand.
Every time you post something about this stuff I get focused and tuned in lol.
The Frenchman's solution is honestly the worst I've ever heard. I'm not convinced. I for one feel z13 is probably just sarcasm. Answer: Alfred E Neuman (AEN)
Norman Mingo
My name if Kane is literally the cypher.
Does anyone know what Lawrence Kane actually did while he was in the Navy?
Not convinced by Faycal's Z13 solution, but his Z32 solution is very intriguing.
Just a few minutes in but flipped over its Want to Know Name? with his signature mispellings
It seems to me that a solution to this would probably not require additional information. Meaning he wants to be heard, so I feel like all the information necessary for solving the codes are in the codes themselves, no matter how short.
I just had a thought for the special circle symbol it looks like the sign of Taurus, also if you look at the special symbols from the 340 some have rectangles/triangles and other similar shapes which when referenced with the solutions show he is obsessed with both numbers, shapes or patterns. You might look at the symbol that looks like a circle with a cross through it as perhaps instructions to first attack the cipher diagonally then vertically or perhaps using a graphing solution similarly used in mathematics. Just some thoughts from what I have seen in your video that struck me.
Assuming the 32 cipher's two lines end with the words "radian" and "inch"...
Then the first two words must be "three dot" with three blanks to fill before "radian"
Only options are "one, two, six"
Guessing that "DVT = dot" in the second line, and guessing that forward and backwards F represent the same letter...
Then the second number in the first line is the same as the first number in the second line...
Second line is, say, "one dot _ _ _ _ _ radian"
Only options are "seven, eight"
Because the Zodiac preferred the number 12 = 3+1+8 = 3+2+7
So I suggest...
"three dot one radian
One dot eight inch"
Or
"three dot two radian
Two dot seven inch"
Alternatively, both main ciphers were 17 columns = 3 + 6 + 8...
"three dot six radian
Six dot eight inch"
On the Mt. Diablo map, the words "is to be set to magnetic north" are written closest to the number 3.
So, "3.1 radian, 1.8 inch" would point to Pittsburgh, CA.
Cp. Reference to washing his "pen" possibly alluding to Pennsylvania where the original Pittsburgh is located
If "washing" didn't mean "cleaning up the bomb site" then there could then be 50 year old Zodiac bomb remains near some school in Pittsburgh, CA
The logo of the Pittsburg California High School is nearly identical to the Zodiac's symbol
The Pittsburg California high school is across the street from the Pittsburg police station. Both are near a RR crossing. The railroad crossing symbol is also eerily similar to the Zodiac's own symbol.
Feels like zodiac is saying "MYNAMEISJOKER"
Any mention of “anagram” makes me think “voldemort” 🤦🏻♂️
🤷🏻♂️😂
@11:35 I would think the other symbol was Pisces not Cancer and I do feel that the inverse reverse mirroring is important
What is the evidence that zodiac might be a group of 2-3 people?
You are too nice. The ‘solution’ is ridiculous.
i find the mistakes interesting it almost seems like the code is written like his letters with words end-
ing like this ,it could be why he was 3 or letters 4 off in the 340 cipher just writing the it out as a letter then changing letter for letter using his own way like a polybius square maybe substituting the greek alphabet with the zodiac symbols in some way ,im new to this though so just probably making all the noob mistakes thinking about it . like the greek letter delta is a triangle and in his letter you can see him spell zodiaK using a k and the triangle filled black almost like delta for the d
The letter on the car was written with his right hand in the exact opposite direction of pen stroke then he would normally write them and the letter in the thumb mail was done the same but with the left hand instead.. just a cute detail I noticed
Fayçal Ziraoui's work, I have only one word: convoluted.
hehe "Doer" at 12:14. Interesting considering Paul Doerr is the new hot POI.
Just curiosity. Have you ever thought to intersect the 70.000 names obtained from simple substitutions with the names (by male and age), in the public vital records of that time, of men living in the specific area of killing action? I think it is possible with our current technology.
Anyway, I'd like to share with you some toughts of mine about the Z13. It seems to me that there are just Greek letters and 888 (which is a Christian symbol like the crosshairs or "Theta" in ancient Greek alphabet in symmetrical position to, what I suppose, the upside down lowercase Greek "tau". Satanic reference?) is 3x8=24 which is the number of the Greek letters. Maybe the circle around the 8 is a suggestion to put the letters on a three concentric wheels. We have a "t" or "Y" upside down in the Z408 and Z340, but with an upper dash and in the second case with a dot on the left. Take note that the "C" of "Paradice" is an archaic letter for capital "Σ" (our "S") used by Koine Jews from the I century BC specifically for Bible traslations into Greek. Also mind that "C" stands for "S" in the Russian/Ukrainian alphabet too. Cyrillic alphabet comes from Byzantine Greek. Maybe these are useful clues to identify the national origin of the killer's family. The simplest solution I have found is: Dream a lot ye do. You do dream a lot. Or, "Dream a lot, I do". "Yedo" in Japanese means "I do". A joke in his style. (Z340 substitution and "y" upside down.). In the Z32 the new symbol is Ω, omega, another Greek letter.