Zodiackillersite.com

I think it's widely accepted that the last 18 symbols were included by Zodiac, simply to "square off" his third grid and thus allow him to send three equal sections to the media. However there are questions in my mind regarding exactly what he was at and at what point he decided on this course.

Would it be most logical to suggest that Z would first write his message. Perhaps then divide number of letters by 3 and then find a grid that best fit in order to square off.
It's also possible but more difficult to write a message with exactly the correct amount of letters to achieve his equal three part code.

Zodiac chose a 17 X 8 grid...136 letters/symbols per section meaning he had 18 filler symbols. But why? If that was his intention three grids of 15 X 9 would have squared off neatly leaving exactly 15 ( one line).

But there's another problem....Zodiac's actual message had 390 letters. Very simply that's three sections of 13 X 10 without any fillers. It also strikes me that he may have set out this way first. Unlike normal letters Zodiac would have had to re-read this over a few times....move to grid...allow for frequency analysis etc and there's a glaring error that he should have picked up....." All the I have killed" should probably been All those I have killed...giving a total of 392. Perhaps a deliberate error knocked that down to 390 but then for some reason he changed his mind.

Alternatively the 17 X 8 structure was more important for some reason

Wier-

I am the guy that proposed the "18 as filler" theory here:

http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/forum/ ... f=49&t=423

And I still stand by every word of that, in fact. Apparently, though, all of the posted images there have vanished. I may start a new thread on that here.

One thing that I did not mention - but perhaps should have - is that EVERY Zodiac cipher is 17 columns in width. The 408, the 340, and even the 32 character "bomb cipher." The "my name is" cipher is only 13 in length, so it doesn't count, LOL.

But I think that there is some reason for this, probably something simple. Maybe Z had some sort of graph paper that had 17 columns. Maybe he had a light table that was ruled in such a way that 17 columns were exactly centered. Maybe he just liked the look of it.

We could say all day that "it could have been 15 x 9" or "it could have been 13 x 10" or it could have been this or that. But it wasn't. Zodiac's ciphers were ALL 17 columns ("my name is" excluded).

I don't know why that is, but it is a known fact nonetheless. Personally, I don't like to deal with "would have," "could have" "should have," etc. I like to deal with what is known. And I know that Z always used 17 columns - for some reason - and yes, the final 18 of the 408 cipher are filler. There is strong evidence for it as well.

-glurk

I agree it's filler and wasn't suggesting that there was/is something to be extracted from the final 18 characters...I do not believe so. Your argument re copying from above for the last line was made back as early as 2002 and is sound in my view.
You could also be 100% correct that Z, for whatever reason, started with a 17 x 8 grid just for sh^its and grins. However for me the odds of him landing on a figure of 390 ( coincidentally allowing 3 equal sections) could well go beyond coincidence and I just wanted to explore it.

Starting with the 17 X 8 is putting the cart before the horse in my view and I think whatever he started with he would have stuck with, In any case...just exploring all possibilities

Would it make sense to run it through a decrypter without the last line to reduce the chance of filler which only adds to the mayhem of a code. For that matter run it without the first line as well! Or even just run the middle third of the code. Hope you get what I mean

Mr lowe wrote:Would it make sense to run it through a decrypter without the last line to reduce the chance of filler which only adds to the mayhem of a code. For that matter run it without the first line as well! Or even just run the middle third of the code. Hope you get what I mean

It does make sense but .... err ... it also doesn't lol.

The 18 symbols of filler being referred to are at the end of the 408 but I think you are thinking of the 340 (as yet unsolved). Even if you are thinking of the 408 I don't think there's any value in it because the 408 has already been solved, for the most part, so omitting the unsolved 18 symbols isn't going to affect that. In fact - for the most part isn't the right way to describe it because the fact that it was solved and left 18 symbols that didn't translate and, as glurk has already discovered are most likely pull downs, means that technically it's been completely solved. The message and the filler both being uncovered.

I am thinking the 340. Just in case it's got a bunch of fillers at the end that are goggldygook then won't each filler multiply the difficulty of cracking it by a power factor ratio to the amount of fillers, and for that matter any mistakes in the code as well which you can't do anything about. So leaving out the last line could reduce the processing power needed. So Im thinking reduce the amount of code trying to be opened at a time even down to a third. Although I am sure this would have been tried.

Mr lowe wrote:I am thinking the 340. Just in case it's got a bunch of fillers at the end that are goggldygook then won't each filler multiply the difficulty of cracking it by a power factor ratio to the amount of fillers, and for that matter any mistakes in the code as well which you can't do anything about. So leaving out the last line could reduce the processing power needed. So Im thinking reduce the amount of code trying to be opened at a time even down to a third. Although I am sure this would have been tried.

The problem is, or one of them if I understand correctly, is if you reduce the amount of symbols used it becomes even harder to conclusively solve it not easier and that's going on the assumption that it's a straightforward substitution cipher which it appears not to be anyway. It's a catch 22 , or a catch 17 perhaps.

Yes I understand the larger the better for the code boys BUT if you potentially have a handfull of crap at the end with a massive power factor attached then dispose of it especially since he's done it before. Just thinking out loud. And I am way out of my depth with the genius code guys on this forum.

Mr lowe wrote:Yes I understand the larger the better for the code boys BUT if you potentially have a handfull of crap at the end with a massive power factor attached then dispose of it especially since he's done it before. Just thinking out loud. And I am way out of my depth with the genius code guys on this forum.

Me too. I think it's all been tried before. Every conceivable config. I''m pretty sure I've tried it. Top half, bottom half, middle, left side, right side. If the hundreds of files in my decrypto cipher folder are anything to go by.

Notwithstanding the fact that we do not as yet know what's going on with the 340, it is not likely that the variant spelling of Zodiac came about by chance on the last line.
It could well be filler again.