Hello from Idaho

[Sky Soldier 10SFG(A)]

Hi everyone,

I'm a retired Army Signals Intelligence Analyst. I spent the last five years of my career teaching SIGINT cryptanalysis at Goodfellow Air Force Base. I enjoy ciphers and, after watching "Zodiac", thought that taking a look at Zodiac's ciphers would be a good way to pass some time. I'm watching the History show "The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer" and I'm a bit surprised that they seem to be mainly focusing only on Ross Sullivan and slightly less at Lawrence Kane. I would like to see some investigation into Earl Van Best, Jr., whether his activities fit into the Zodiac timeline or not.

While looking at the ciphers, the thing that jumps out at me is that it looks like Zodiac might have used a combination of several different ciphers, with several different keys...I haven't had a chance to look at the entire site, so I don't know if someone has suggested this or not, in which case I'd just be reinventing the wheel. My motto is K.I.S.S.-Keep It Simple Stupid. I'd like to think that Zodiac thought this way.

I look forward to seeing what everyone here has to say and their theories.

Cheers,

Fred

[Mr lowe]

Welcome Fred.. you will fit right in
cheers

[traveller1st]

Hi Fred,

Good to have you with us and thanks for the intro.

trav.

[doranchak]

Welcome, Fred. Glad you can join us. I look forward to hearing about your perspective on the ciphers.

There is a lot of active research going on in the cipher-related threads which you can browse here:

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewforum.php?f=81

There is a lot of focus on the idea that Z340 may have been manipulated somehow before or after the plaintext was substituted with symbols. Others have suggested some form of polyalphabetism might be going on, or multiple keys might be present. Many statistical clues and oddities have been explored and I've tried to summarize them here: http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind ... servations

Thanks for joining us!

[morf13]

Welcome Fred

[Sky Soldier 10SFG(A)]

Welcome, Fred. Glad you can join us. I look forward to hearing about your perspective on the ciphers.

There is a lot of active research going on in the cipher-related threads which you can browse here:

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewforum.php?f=81

There is a lot of focus on the idea that Z340 may have been manipulated somehow before or after the plaintext was substituted with symbols. Others have suggested some form of polyalphabetism might be going on, or multiple keys might be present. Many statistical clues and oddities have been explored and I've tried to summarize them here: http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind ... servations

Thanks for joining us!

I appreciate the welcome. I have two theories about Z340. The first would be along the lines of yours, that the cipher was manipulated, after being converted from plaintext. I think he was incredibly upset, when the schoolteachers broke Z408 so quickly. Zodiac may have been mentally ill, but I think he had one hell of an egoist streak in him, which brings me to my second theory. I think Z340 could be nothing but gibberish, a retaliation of sorts for Z408’s decryption.

My first MOS in the Army was Russian Interrogator, and I enjoyed it very much, especially getting into the EPW’s head and understanding what made him tick. But, the wall had come down and the Cold War was coming to an end, so I was obsolete, which is why I switched over to SIGINT. Funny enough, I ended up using my Russian in ‘99, when I was sent to Kosovo and was as a translator on my team, as we worked with the SpetzNaz units there.

Fred

[doranchak]

The Z340 being gibberish is definitely a plausible explanation for its mystery. I am curious to how all its interesting statistical properties can be explained by the gibberish idea. It's hard to test that idea without simulating how he might have produced the gibberish in the first place. There are signs of deliberate effort in the cipher. But maybe those are just symptoms of being very deliberate about generating gibberish!

What an interesting background you have had. Thank you for your service! You must have a lot of fascinating stories about your experiences. Do you think Zodiac was a military man? Or just a civilian who picked up cipher knowledge somewhere?

[smokie treats]

Sky Soldier,

Thanks for joining the site. There are some people here who have worked incredibly hard on the 340, and the work continues. Many ideas have been tested and I am looking forward to your perspectives. It is fantastic to have a professional cryptanalyst here. If you have any questions about the 340, there is most certainly someone here who can get you up to speed on whatever of te the various subjects. Currently we are discussing encoding and the apparent regional biases for some of the symbols. We have discussed different types of transposition many times. See you in the Cipher threads.

Smokie

[Sky Soldier 10SFG(A)]

The Z340 being gibberish is definitely a plausible explanation for its mystery. I am curious to how all its interesting statistical properties can be explained by the gibberish idea. It's hard to test that idea without simulating how he might have produced the gibberish in the first place. There are signs of deliberate effort in the cipher. But maybe those are just symptoms of being very deliberate about generating gibberish!

What an interesting background you have had. Thank you for your service! You must have a lot of fascinating stories about your experiences. Do you think Zodiac was a military man? Or just a civilian who picked up cipher knowledge somewhere?

Thank you for the kind words.

There are lots of civilians who enjoy cryptoquips, sudoku or other cipher puzzles. If Zodiac was military, it wasn't for long.....discharge for psych/some less than honorable conditions. People say he was smart; he might very well have been, but my personal belief is that he was a mimic, incapable of an original thought, because of the psychosis bouncing around in his brain.

I just got back from Boston, visiting an old buddy who's in the Marine Corps, so my apologies for not responding quicker. I'm watching last week's episode right now and there seems to be confirmation of my gibberish/KISS theory by Craig Bauer. The sad part is that, if Z340 truly has been broken, it doesn't seem to really say much.

What I find interesting is that at the very end of the show, one of the guys says, "What if there were two Zodiacs"....I bounced that theory around but I think Zodiac was too much of an egoist to allow someone else into his private pleasure.