Washington: After more than 50 years, a code-breaking team has finally cracked the mysterious messages sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 by the “Zodiac Killer” who had terrorized the streets of Northern California.
According to a CNN report, dubbed “the 340 cipher,” the message was cracked by a trio of code breakers: David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia, Jarl Van Eycke, a Belgian computer programmer, and Sam Blake, a mathematician. Australian.
The cipher was sent in capital letters without punctuation and included the misspelling of paradise:
“I hope you’re having a lot of fun trying to catch me. That wasn’t me on the TV show, which brings up a point about me. I’m not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise much sooner because now I have Enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they arrive in paradise, so they are afraid of death. I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be easy in the death of paradise. “
The television show mentioned in the message is “The Jim Dunbar Show.”
The message was sent two weeks after a “Zodiac killer” called the show.
Speaking about decoding the message, Oranchak told CNN: “It was incredible. It was a huge shock, I never thought we would find something because I had gotten so used to failure.”
“When I started, I used to get excited when I saw some words – they were like false positives, ghosts. I had gotten used to that. It was a long shot, we didn’t even know. If there was a message,” he said.
The trio brought their findings to the FBI a week ago but did not reveal their progress until the FBI confirmed that authorities cleared it, CNN reported.
“The FBI knows that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by private citizens. The Zodiac Killer case is still an ongoing investigation for the FBI’s San Francisco division and our local law enforcement partners. The Zodiac Killer terrorized to various communities in Northern California, and despite the decades that have passed, we continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not provide further comment. at this time, “the FBI said on Saturday (local time).
The Zodiac Killer had the signature of leaving a trail of five unsolved murders between 1968 and 1969. According to the CNN report, he was never caught, but gained notoriety by writing letters to the police and local media until 1974, sometimes in code. . bragging about the murders.
The “Zodiac Killer” had claimed to have killed 37 people.
This story was published from a news agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the title has been changed.