Welcome to my channel! I regularly post videos about the Zodiac ciphers, the mysterious puzzles created long ago by a still unidentified serial killer. Here you'll find my web series, called "Let's Crack Zodiac". It started as an exploration of topics surrounding the Zodiac ciphers. To my surprise, we cracked the famous Zodiac 340 cipher by episode 5:
kzread.info/dash/bejne/X2Wjs66JgqiYYdI.html
But the series is not over! Subscribe to watch new episodes about the intersection of true crime and classical cryptography. Watch all the episodes in the series with this playlist:
kzread.info/head/PLm7h0J9VRFvdEOv5xLHcqdNgUtKGv7p3Z
Thanks for visiting, and please subscribe!
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Imagine a strange alternate reality where zodiac was caught but the unibomber was not and his journal was mailed into a news paper. Everyone would be trying to figure out who he was.
496 131 363 1646 467444994711 added instead of subtract using Pisces as 12th equal 3
@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
@11:35 I would think the other symbol was Pisces not Cancer and I do feel that the inverse reverse mirroring is important
"drink more ovaltine"
Ibn Fadlan on Oghuz Turk funerals: "If he has killed a man and been a warrior of note, they make as many wooden statues as he killed men and set them up on his tomb, saying: ‘These are his attendants and they will serve him in Paradise.’" (Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness)
Donald Gene…
Ross Sullivan
Im guessing zodiac was affiliated with uc berkeley
What about the solution on the TV show Hunt for Zodiac ?
The solution on that show is not correct. During filming we spent a lot of time discussing why it was wrong, but the producers chose to present it as if it was correct.
@@doranchak cheers, it did seem like it worked but I guess doesn’t make great TV of it was wrong ! I enjoyed the program , kind of cheesy in places but some great details and looking into the older cases was really interesting
We had some spirited arguments with Craig about that solution. I think that would have made interesting viewing since it was kind of dramatic. But I guess it was too technical, and might have ended up boring or losing the audience.
Polices in 1969: its impossible to solve this polices after 51 years: Easy gg
why don't you write a book about Blane and use his cryptographic work as part of your research
Hey, how would one with a possible key word (something one believes would be present in the plaintext) try the key?
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.
Man can't wait to see you on Joe Rogan podcast
I have a theory that "Z" or "Zs" were active on Ham-Radio - the internet /Podcast of it's day. Certain letters, numbers or names could have been a reference to channels, frequencies or date/times of active use of ham-radio. The San Francisco ham-radio club may have leads to who was a member and had registered their band-width, whatever. It think it's worth looking into as print media & short-wave radio were the only methods of it's day to correspond. Good luck. ;)
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
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 ➕
Did you catch the cross that equates to an H is also in the 148 character cipher as well, small probability that would happen by chance.
"I am not afraid because I know that my new life Will be an easy one in paradice Death is life" Can you see anything q?
I LOVE THESE VIDEOS! also the satire at 11:21 made me laugh lol
There is a video about the Supposedly someone solving the z32 cypher and would you be able to do a video to see if his evidence lines up or is it just a hoax(by: Just a sleuth)
Something that really bothers me is howcome the messages he hid behind ciphers aren’t really that revelatory? Most of the information he wrote in normal handwriting in his letters is much more useful to identifying Zodiac than the parts he hid behind ciphers. It makes me think the two unsolved ciphers will also have meaningless information. He could have easily just written about “collecting slaves for the afterlife” in normal handwriting, in fact he did later on. I think he was trying to mess with people and waste their time, using the ciphers as a way to distract from something more important
I agree. I think he just wanted to get his name in the papers. The ciphers were effective for that. He'd get a headline for sending one in, and then another when someone solved it.
MY SCIENCE TEACHER SENT ME THIS
Are you working on Zodiac’s name?
DAVE! This is the first time I have heard anything about "random words" "spelled backwards" during the 340 transposition. Can you please tell us WHICH words were spelled backwards? I suspect they have additional meaning to some extent. Notice the final line of the cipher was "life is death". This is an inversion. Life is the opposite of death. Could this be a veiled clue that the words which were spelled backwards have further meaning? Note Zodiac seemed to think the cipher would be solved relatively quickly (albeit with more difficulty than the 408). He may have underestimated its difficulty and included further encoding in those "randomly" reversed words you mention.
So the last two lines read like this when applying the substitution key and fixing the reversed words: LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH The reversed words are: LIFE BE AN ONE IN PARADICE The normal words are: WILL EASY DEATH Leave a comment if you find some further hidden meaning! 😀
you make some erroneous claims...like he didnt use astrological symbols...he uses them in the z13...he says hes going to kill 12 people if the paper doesnt print his cipher etc.
the letter denotes an august killing, as well...was that the nurse?
disappointed you didnt give the redditor who proposed a solution to the z13 cipher acknowledgement! that solution is much more intriguing than anything about gary francis poste...and seems to even account for the anomalies left in your own decipherment! please do a video on the diablo code. i can tell you a little what i have made of it...the bus bomb diagram is almost certainly a "treasure map" of some sort, that id think could potentially contain the identity(ies) of the zodiac killer(s). it's also a wordplay troll on the ggp bombing of the police station, which some had mistakenly attributed to zodiac...as the bomb is an "underground" bomb that was supposed to be set off by "weather"...which is him trolling that it was actually the weather underground that was responsible for that bombing.
note: the reference to diablo and the redditor's claims about him playing the "devil's game"...everything about that post tracks so hard. he talks about how Paul Avery was targeted as the main "player" of the game...which makes perfect sense, considering the decipherment they put forward.
im not sure how you could gloss over observations like paradice slaves = 666 ie pair of dice 6-6 + s-l-a-v-e-s 6 pointing to it being the devil's game, among the other observations noted to reinforce it. Or, numerologically: s-l-a-v-e-s 19+12+1+22+5+19 = 78 7+8 = 15 1+5 = 6 Are you still doubting this aspect of it?
furthermore...you can use numerology to get the last 6 s-l-a-v-e-s 19+12+1+22+5+19 =78 7+8 =15 1+5 =6 still doubting???
Its ridiculous to insinuate its impossible to solve the z13...or that no astrology was utilized. The z13 is almost entirely astrologically based. With the reference to 13 being the sun and the 12 constellations of the zodiac.
He did kill someone. His friend. He lived down the road from me at the time.
Hello! Have you ever been interested in Kryptos K4 or any simmilar codes? Whats your favourite mystery?
Yes, K4 is definitely interesting. It's aggravating though since there are so many possibilities in how it might be encoded! I also like the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript.
I find it somewhat hard to believe that somebody that makes basic spelling mistakes would make a cypher that relies so much on pure mathematics and theoretical cryptology. My theory is that he more then likely was just a hobbyist cryptologist and just read a couple of books making a fancy substitution cypher or some creative concoction of his own design. As to what it says, unless we find some actual real clues i dont think we will be able to crack this cypher.
Without some kind of key or notes from Z himself, it seems futile to try and decipher some of these because there's just so many possible outcomes and ways to make them connect to a variety of suspects.
Exactly! 💯
@@doranchak My mom bought me a lightbox for drawing when I was a kid and I've always thought that Zodiac used some form of lighted drafting table (like an animator/engineer/architect might use) or overhead projector to create these ciphers. There's a lady I've seen here on KZread who got some interesting results by layering the ciphers/letters (and map) over each other in this way, but I don't think her "solution" is correct because she's so caught up on the Xenophone Anthony suspect. I think that this method could lead to some more interesting results because it's so radically different from using substitution keys and requires a more hands on visual approach. 🤷♂
😮😮😮😮😮😮😮
Ah, yes. Anagrams. That is definitely how the Zodiac Killer hid his messages and his name!
The last line is: Life is death. “Life is” is taken out of the second paragraph and the “death” in the third paragraph finishes the thought.
Zodiac will never be revealed at this stage unfortunately
There goes another great episode, thank you Dave. About those 18 symbols at the end of Z408, let's call that Z18. If you add Z13 and Z32 to it, you get 63 symbols. Is it just by chance that the Z408 is also made of 63 symbols?
Thanks for watching! Z340 uses 63 symbols (Z408 has 54). But that's an interesting coincidence! I'm not sure if he planned it that way. One of my favorite coincidences is that we solved Z340 on the 340th day of 2020. 😆
@@doranchak Thanks for the correct numbers. In a way, if he had planned "Z18", Z13 and Z32 before he published Z340, there is now a new puzzle, let's call it "Z63". There might be something in the reused symbols in all the puzzles, how they go foward in time, that could lead to further information about Zodiac's identity. We need a new key!
Nice talk, Dave!
Also, so many great questions from the students! Impressive!
Does the identified body of the woman in lake tahoe explain the Zodiac letter (peek behind the pines..)? How did they find her remains?
At 20:04 is “PARADICE” an intentional misspelling? Could it be a clue referencing Paradise, California? Could it be a clue related to gambling that involves two dice?
At 18:27 foes the word reversing indicate that Zodiac might have been dyslexic? Or was that intentional?
Please do both videos you suggested. Wacky deciphering and Ted you know who. Still mad he maimed a friend of a friend. For the wacky deciphering, I’d love it if you found a psychologist who understands why they go this and do a deep dive collaboration with him or her.
@tomvoigt you interested in Gaik’s friend’s work?
Breaking the 340 resulted in more than revealing another meaningless message. It revealed a redundant theme, the idea of slaves to work for him in ‘paradice’. The revisiting of this theme suggests it was an important theme to him. It is suggestive of an offender who doesn’t want or doesn’t think he should have to work hard. Someone who possibly has an insufficient work history, perhaps doesn't work consistently, or maybe gets fired from jobs.
That's an interesting take. What if the theme was -- of acquiring slaves in the afterlife?
Zodiac should not be compared to the Unabomber. The Zodiac had no original message of his own so he plagiarized a conglomeration of sources. The Unabomber did have an original message of his own and it was recognition of this message that led to his exposure. The Zodiac wanted to draw attention to himself. The Unabomber wanted to draw attention to his message. Perpetrators can have more than one underlying motivation but these two are worlds apart.
I'd have to disagree with the Zodiac not having a message. Is it possible no one is able to 'decipher' his message? Perhaps no one can discern the clews?
@@EdEdwardsCiphers It might sound like I am splitting hairs here but I did not say the Zodiac didn't have a message, what I said was that his message was not original. By that I meant it did not originate with him, the message may have expressed what he was feeling but the words and ideas were borrowed. This is an important difference. We would want to look for a suspect that had/has a history of doing likewise. Of having no real voice of his own but rather sponging up from sources the things that resonated with him and them regurgitating them in print or in his speech.
@@user-eo2lj4uh5m I'm not sure what you're saying. Maybe that means you're way smarter than me. And that could mean you're right. We all know the Zodiac outsmarted many of us. Good luck to you in your pursuits. May they be fruitful.
@@EdEdwardsCiphers Thanks for the good wishes Ed. I'm just working backwards from a solution to the root. Moving that direction makes it easier and clearer but none of this is easy for sure.
@@user-eo2lj4uh5m That's an interesting way of thinking. Working backwards from a solution. If only there was a word for that. I don't know. A lot of things escape me. I only know what I know.
Hi David, great series and work, I have a few questions if you could answer them at some point or if doing a Q&A episode sometime would be great to get a more in depth understanding of your work. I have watched the series and the work is really good. Do you think the last 18 characters in the 420 are filler or gibberish, or if they could be used in some way to uncover further messages? Do you think the 340 was written in one piece or in 3 seperate parts merged together,? Do you think skytale was used to create the 340 cipher / freehand or some other form? As the transposition changed in section 3 I believe it was more likely wrote out. Is there a piece of software that could allow you to scan for repeating patterns / cycling behaviour - in the 340 you highlighted evidence of cycling behaviour which showed every 19 steps in a 1 down 2 across pattern. This was a definite indication of the reading pattern that would have been useful in the beginning of your research. What are your personal thoughts about the 340s creation and what have you learned? Zodiak wrote on his next cipher, by the way have you solved the previous cipher , do you think the key for the 340 is needed somehow for his future ciphers, and what do you think about his clues provided (diagonal writing etc). Do you think zodiak wanted his ciphers solved or if he made them as difficult as possible to break, it was evident that the ciphers became more complex (with multiple transpositions / sections etc). Could you give us an insight into the amount of work / time you invested in the cipher, and after uncovering what you did what do you believe were the most important steps in deciphering the text.
These are awesome questions. I hope he responds.
The zodiac would be like 92 years old right now
Either that. Or dust.
I just wanted to say that i am SO happy to see you still making Cryptography related videos. I especially found the Ted Kaczynski episode to be among your most intriguing and well made. It's great to see you talking about cryptographic puzzles other than Zodiac, even though that is the highlight/origin of this channel and i still find Z-13 and Z-32 exceptionally puzzling, but i would love to get an update on any progress or even some brainstorming on what the keys could be given any new information we [potentially] might currently possess. P.S. Just gave the History UnXplained episode a watch, and it was very interesting! Also, i have been listening to the podcast whilst writing this. Doing my best to show love and support. I can't wait for you to upload more content soon! ❤️ Last thing; popular KZreadr LEMMiNO just released a video on KRYPTOS, it's history and the different decryption methods people have used - very concisely, with extensive knownledge from researching the subject matter and cryptography - condensed into a 50 or so minute [extremely well edited] video! Give it a watch if you haven't already. We eatin good today on YT fr 🙏🔥
Thanks for watching! I appreciate the kind comments. And thanks for the Kryptos video recommendation. I'm definitely gonna check it out when I get a chance. Sam is very interested in K4 and we've done some stuff together on it.
Lemmino is next level. I've only recently come across them from reddit. Hard to understand if it's one person producing all that high quality work. But if it is. Definitely extremely good.
I’m still catching up with this series as I only discovered it the other week, so forgive me if you’ve already covered it, but you should make a video about the KRYPTOS code (LEMMiNO has just released a video about it)
LeMMiNO is awesome. #productiongoals.