Kaczynski Codes

[AK Wilks]

Nick Pelling recently posted about Ted's cipher journal:

http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2013/03/31/the-unabomber-cipher-journal

AK WILKS: Thanks for letting me know about that doranchak. Very interesting. I posted a link to that at http://www.unazod.com . He used some info and images Doug Oswell had found. I am sure many members there will find his ideas and work interesting, and yes I think he is likely correct, in that the FBI may have only a partial understanding at best of all of Ted's codes.

I did not see a contact email for Nick Pelling at his website. He has only an incomplete key number=letter key, I have since made a better and more complete one from an auction image. He might be interested in these other images as well. Feel free to pass them along to him.

AK WILKS UPDATE: Doranchak did pass them along and Mr. Pelling seemed to find them interesting. Doranchak also passed along to me a cleaned up and much clearer version of the large Kaczynski cipher grid, see it at the very bottom.

It would be great of someone could figure put the details of the Kaczynski code method. IMO it may also be very helpful in tackling the Zodiac 340 Code. Already possible points of interest include both Kaczynski and Zodiac using intentional misspelled words, possible secondary codes and horizontal and diagonal elements in the Kaczynski method and in the Raw Graysmith Proposed Solution to the 340.

If we knew the details of the Kaczynski code method, and IF he was the Zodiac, could that provide the breakthrough key we have all been waiting for to actually solve the 340? Well we can hope...

[AK Wilks]

Welsh Chappie and everyone - this thread is just for discussion of the Kaczynski Codes. I moved WC's very good question about alibi dates here: viewtopic.php?f=102&t=236

Thanks!

I also think a "code" or hidden meaning of some kind exists in the HERCULES letter that Ted apparently never sent.

This was in 1985. I have a fragment of it. I don't know what it means but it is interesting!

It was addressed to Professor Louis De Branges. The FBI says the letter was never sent, as I guess they found this version in Ted's cabin, though I wonder if Ted may have sent a copy. De Branges is one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. He solved one of the greatest unsolved math problems in history in 1984 (the year before Ted wrote to him or thought about writing to him) when he proved the Bieberbach Conjecture. As a student at U of M a prof presented his class with a historically famous unsolved problem, and Ted solved it and won a prize, just like De Branges would with a harder problem 20 years later.

The fragment by Ted below is weird. Ted got outstanding grades and won prizes, so the story he relates to my knowledge is made up. But maybe there was one teacher who gave him a bad grade. Or is this like the possible EAR/ONS writing, which also is a complaint about school.

I don't think Ted would have wanted to kill De Branges. De Branges like Ted was involved with pure math, not really technology. I don't know why he wrote him this letter or what it means. Could this have been intended to accompany a bomb? Prof Fischer got a bomb and he had done mathematical work on prime numbers. Or did Ted want Prof De Branges to solve something? The first four letters in the Raw Graysmith proposed solution to the Zodiac 340 are HERC.

***** ***** *****

TO PROFESSOR LOUIS DE BRANGES

The teacher took out a book, leafed through it frantically, and found what he was looking for..."I'm putting next to your name," he continued, opening his booklet, "a very bad grade." Since then, this little error has always pursued me. It has ruined my career.

HERCULES

***** ***** *****

Does anyone have any thoughts on this, what it means?

TRAVELLER1ST speculated that it could read that the name is AVERY. AVERY? Is he saying Paul AVERY, who investigated the Zodiac and connected him to the Cheri Bates murder, was "little error" that pursued him and ruined his career?

"The teacher took out a book, leafed through it frantically, and found what he was looking for..."I'm putting next to your name," he continued, opening his booklet, "a very bad grade." Since then, this little error has always pursued me. It has ruined my career.

[AK Wilks]

Instead of using Graysmith's HERCEANB as a 340 opening, which he thought was an anagram for columnist HERB CAEN, just for experimental purposes I tried instead HERCULES as an anagram opening. As HERCELSU. Not claiming a huge breakthrough here, but it did lead to some interesting results! Well, fragments of interesting results anyway.

Why did I choose an anagram for HERCULES as an opener? One, I have never been totally sold that Zodiac knew or cared about Herb Caen. He never mentioned him in any confirmed letters. Two, Ted K used HERCULES as an alias in his letter to the math professor. And three, the very letters and symbols Zodiac picked for his opening bring to mind the word HERCULES, in my opinion.

Heracles was the Greek god/hero, and Hercules the Roman version of that myth, adopted in the west. Hercules beat his enemies to death with a wood club. A man who may have been Zodiac tried to abduct a college girl in Riverside in November 1966. He mentioned the Bates case, said he was not Jack the Ripper but if he wanted to kill her he would beat her to death with a piece of wood.

Trav first noted a possible cryptic read with allusions to the Zodiac case, very speculative to be sure, but interesting:

NEXT TO YOUR NAME: AVERY. BAD GRADE. THIS LITTLE ERROR ALWAYS PURSUED ME. RUINED MY CAREER.

My thought now is that if there is a meaning here, if this is not just a joke, then it may have to do with the Zodiac codes. Think about this name:

HERCULES.

Now look at the first part, the opening 8 letters of the raw unsolved Zodiac 340 Code:



Let us "turn around" the fourth and sixth symbols, so they are: < and L

So what migth we have?

H E R < _ L _ _ .

Just looking at that one possible code solution jumps to mind to fill in the blanks:

H E R C_ L _ _

H E R C U L E S


H E R C U L E S

H E R C E L S U






Word finds, most as is, some with mild anagrams. Some interesting words and even a few phrases. But it lacks overall coherency. Most researchers think the 340 is a multi stage cipher. If there is anything of value here, a second stage decode is still needed.

HERCULES A NINETH OR WEL TOO

AS IT KYKE BAN THEO

SEE A SLAY ILL OF FRI OF AL

DONT TEARS FLOW COAT

TOOL DEO HUT

THOSE FOOLS WILL SEE

KILLLER OF B

LOOK TOO BELT KOOK TOY

TEAR LABANY CUE OWL

TALK TO STEIN LENT THEIF ASK LIKE

This is the result of my experimental 340 proposed solve, as seen above. On the second to last line, a tight anagram for ALBANY appears:

HERCULES A NINETH OR WEL TOO

AS IT KYKE BAN THEO

SEE A SLAY ILL OF FRI OF AL

DONT TEARS FLOW COAT

TOOL DEO HUT

THOSE FOOLS WILL SEE

KILLLER OF B

LOOK TOO BELT KOOK TOY

TEAR LABANY CUE OWL

TALK TO STEIN LENT THEIF ASK LIKE

[ophion1031]

DONT TEARS FLOW COAT

Don't Tears Flow to CA?

[AK Wilks]

DONT TEARS FLOW COAT

Don't Tears Flow to CA?

That's an interesting idea. "CA" for California.

Of course that is both the attraction and problem with possible anagram solutions. You can devise a number of interesting possible solutions but there is no definitive way to prove or disprove them correct.

These are the actual letters. Some need anagramming, some do not. I have no idea what YRENF means!

DONTEARS FLOW YRENF COAT

----------------------------

Instead of using Graysmith's HERCEANB as a 340 opening, which he thought was an anagram for columnist HERB CAEN, just for experimental purposes I tried instead HERCULES as an anagram opening. As HERCELSU. Not claiming a huge breakthrough here, but it did lead to some interesting results! Well, fragments of interesting results anyway.

Why did I choose an anagram for HERCULES as an opener? One, I have never been totally sold that Zodiac knew or cared about Herb Caen. He never mentioned him in any confirmed letters. Two, Ted K used HERCULES as an alias in his letter to the math professor. And three, the very letters and symbols Zodiac picked for his opening bring to mind the word HERCULES, in my opinion.

Heracles was the Greek god/hero, and Hercules the Roman version of that myth, adopted in the west. Hercules beat his enemies to death with a wood club. A man who may have been Zodiac tried to abduct a college girl in Riverside in November 1966. He mentioned the Bates case, said he was not Jack the Ripper but if he wanted to kill her he would beat her to death with a piece of wood.

Trav first noted a possible cryptic read with allusions to the Zodiac case, very speculative to be sure, but interesting:

NEXT TO YOUR NAME: AVERY. BAD GRADE. THIS LITTLE ERROR ALWAYS PURSUED ME. RUINED MY CAREER.

My thought now is that if there is a meaning here, if this is not just a joke, then it may have to do with the Zodiac codes. Think about this name:

HERCULES.

Now look at the first part, the opening 8 letters of the raw unsolved Zodiac 340 Code:



Let us "turn around" the fourth and sixth symbols, so they are: < and L

So what migth we have?

H E R < _ L _ _ .

Just looking at that one possible code solution jumps to mind to fill in the blanks:

H E R C_ L _ _

H E R C U L E S


H E R C U L E S

H E R C E L S U






Word finds, most as is, some with mild anagrams. Some interesting words and even a few phrases. But it lacks overall coherency. Most researchers think the 340 is a multi stage cipher. If there is anything of value here, a second stage decode is still needed. On the second to last line, a tight anagram for ALBANY appears:

HERCULES A NINE THOR WEL TOO

AS IT KYKE BAN THEO

SEE A SLAY ILL OF FRI OF AL

DONT TEARS FLOW YRENF TO CA

TOOL DEO HUT

THOSE FOOLS WILL SEE

KILLLER OF B

LOOK TOO BELT KOOK TOY

TEAR LABANY CUE OWL

TALK TO STEIN LENT THEIF ASK LIKE

[Victor]

In that the last ciphers have been unsolved, esp by LE, but have a few proposed solutions by amateur investigators and authors, I wonder if they really say anything worthwhile that the supposedly inclined for publicity Z. had to say before he went underground. Why make the ciphers much harder if this is obviously not just busywork?

[AK Wilks]

In that the last ciphers have been unsolved, esp by LE, but have a few proposed solutions by amateur investigators and authors, I wonder if they really say anything worthwhile that the supposedly inclined for publicity Z. had to say before he went underground. Why make the ciphers much harder if this is obviously not just busywork?

I think after his first cipher was solved so quickly, Zodiac wanted to come back with a much more difficult one to solve. Many have speculated that the codes could be gibberish. The recent study by the FBI Code Unit suggests that there IS a message in the 340 Code. I think there is very likely a message in the 340.

[Victor]

In that the last ciphers have been unsolved, esp by LE, but have a few proposed solutions by amateur investigators and authors, I wonder if they really say anything worthwhile that the supposedly inclined for publicity Z. had to say before he went underground. Why make the ciphers much harder if this is obviously not just busywork?

I think after his first cipher was solved so quickly, Zodiac wanted to come back with a much more difficult one to solve. Many have speculated that the codes could be gibberish. The recent study by the FBI Code Unit suggests that there IS a message in the 340 Code. I think there is very likely a message in the 340.

In that the first ciphers were only a bluff about containing his identity and Z. admitted his taking on a bus was also a bluff, I don't see why this cipher could be any different and or yield something of significance.

[AK Wilks]

In that the last ciphers have been unsolved, esp by LE, but have a few proposed solutions by amateur investigators and authors, I wonder if they really say anything worthwhile that the supposedly inclined for publicity Z. had to say before he went underground. Why make the ciphers much harder if this is obviously not just busywork?

I think after his first cipher was solved so quickly, Zodiac wanted to come back with a much more difficult one to solve. Many have speculated that the codes could be gibberish. The recent study by the FBI Code Unit suggests that there IS a message in the 340 Code. I think there is very likely a message in the 340.

In that the first ciphers were only a bluff about containing his identity and Z. admitted his taking on a bus was also a bluff, I don't see why this cipher could be any different and or yield something of significance.

Well I would argue that the first cipher does contain significant clues to his identity both in the last 18 "unsolved" symbols that reveal the name Theodore J Kaczynski when a Caesar shift is applied and in the other clues such as his interest in the film "Most dangerous game" and hunting and even word usage, all of which tell us something more about the code maker then we knew before. If the FBI Code Unit is right and the 340 contains a coherent message, then solving it would tell us something more about Zodiac.

[AK Wilks]

This is a new study from a member of the FBI Cryptanalysis Racketeering Records Unit on the Kaczynski codes.

It is the best most complete study I have seen to date. If TK was Zodiac, I suspect that he may have used earlier, simpler versions of some of the methods here. Some of the methods TK used to increase difficulty include, and which he may have used in the Zodiac 340, include letters for numbers, math, intentionally misspelled words, intentional encryption errors, vertical and diagonal elements, a few nonsense words and occasional words in Spanish or German.

Thanks to doranchak for passing this along to me. I did screen captures to create all the pages of the study, but if anyone wants the PDF file of the study send me a PM with your email and I will send it to you.