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Richard Grinell, Coventry, England
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F@@KED OVER BY THE ZODIAC

6/21/2018

 
THE 340 CIPHER WAS CRACKED ON DECEMBER 3RD 2020 BY DAVE ORANCHAK, SAM BLAKE AND JARL VAN EYCKE, SO THIS EARLIER ARTICLE SHOULD BE VIEWED IN RESPECT TO RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.

Here we will revisit an article published by the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969, in which Professor D.C.B. Marsh, president of the American Cryptogram Association laid down a challenge to Zodiac. The words he chose to use in this article may be the bedrock to much of the subsequent Zodiac communications, beginning with the 340 cipher, mailed only seventeen days after the San Francisco Examiner article. Here are the crucial extracts from that article.

'Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name-in cipher code-would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code, which will truly and honestly include his name".
It is difficult to believe that Zodiac, an avid reader of the newspapers, could resist such a challenge, particularly as he had promised to reveal his identity in the 408 cipher two months earlier but failed to do so.  
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The key section to note in the challenge by Professor D.C.B. Marsh is: "I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code, which will truly and honestly include his name". Seventeen days later, the Zodiac Killer duly obliged with the November 8th 1969 340 cipher. Could this cipher have included the killer's name, but not in the format envisaged by Professor D.C.B. Marsh?

In a previous article entitled 'Zodiac Admitted 340 Not a Real Cipher' we examined the idea that the 340 cipher was inextricably linked to the Zodiac's Halloween card, mailed on October 27th 1970. One can notice that the word "By" is located in each of the four quadrants of the 340 cipher. The author of the cipher also placed the letters F and K adjacent to one another no less than seven times (situated in each quadrant). But of particular interest was the corrected section on the sixth line of the 340 cipher, where the author chose to scrub out a forward facing K and replace it with a backwards K, elevated above the blacked out section (shown in red rectangle}.

The Zodiac Killer was known for numerous spelling errors in his communications, so why was it seemingly imperative to correct this one mistake? Was this correction crucial to the interpretation of the cipher, or was he drawing our attention to the letters in this section of the cipher? Are the F and K characters the initials of the Zodiac Killer? This observation carries little merit on its own, so to bolster any argument for the initials of the Zodiac Killer being present in the 340 cipher, we have to explore the rest of his communications, particularly from around the time of the 'Halloween' card, in which we suggested was his admission that the 340 was unfortunately "no cipher". 

Linking the Halloween card and 340 cipher through a Tim Holt comic book and explaining to us that the solution was "sorry no cipher" left us with the possibility that the 340 cipher was just a collection of puzzles, in which may have contained his name. The Zodiac Killer "wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts", but he may have given us the abridged version. We now enter the crucial phase of Zodiac communications, from the 13-Hole postcard mailed on October 5th 1970, to the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974. This critical period of four consecutive communications, is probably key to understanding the message the Zodiac Killer was trying to push. That the 340 was "sorry no cipher".    

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In the 13-Hole postcard the Zodiac Killer stated "There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fk I'm crackproof. What is the price tag now?" This section of pasted letters was placed upside down. The question one should be asking is 'what is the purpose behind this'. If its significance had no relevance to the actual postcard, did it have relevance to another communication.

The wording "FK I'm crackproof" could indicate that the killer thought he was immune from capture, however, it could also be a reference to his 340 cipher once again. The word "crackproof" is something that is unable to be cracked. The 340 cipher would certainly be impervious to cracking, and certainly resistant to the attempts of
The American Cryptogram Association had the killer devised a cipher not of conventional understanding, of which Professor D.C.B. Marsh was hoping when he laid down the challenge. The F and K text being flipped on the 13-Hole postcard reminds one of the flipped K (next to F) on the only corrected portion of the 340 cipher. If FK were the Zodiac Killer's initials, then he certainly could be declaring that he was crackproof. 

​Professor D.C.B. Marsh stated  "He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name-in cipher code-would lead to his capture". However, the Zodiac Killer could give his name in the form of initials without any fear of revealing his identity, and without risking his immediate capture. This may have manifested itself when he mailed his following cipher on April 20th 1970, when he opened with the gambit "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...."  The code placed underneath was likely an immediate rebuttal to this question. 

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All he is probably doing, is stating "My name is FK," and once again telling us he is crackproof, just like the 13-Hole postcard, which would be mailed five-and-a-half months later. The phrase "FK I'm crackproof" fits perfectly in circular formation within the 13-Symbol cipher - which itself contains a series of circled 8's. Structured in this fashion, the F and K yet again align, as does the K and M in both the cipher and phrase. 

Continuing with our four consecutive communications from October 5th 1970 onward, we now have the October 27th 1970 Halloween card promising to yet again reveal his name:
 "I feel it in my bones, You ache to know my name, And so I'll clue you in". Again we feel disappointed only to see the word "Boo" on the card inner - but we know the Zodiac Killer isn't going to make this a conventional and straightforward offering. He offers us the phrase "sorry no cipher," but can we find his name or initials within this communication. This is where it gets more difficult, nevertheless, we are aware that within the 13 -Hole postcard he reversed or flipped the text containing "FK I'm crackproof" and he flipped the K (next to the F) on the sixth line of the 340 cipher. So the obvious conclusion, is to look for flipped or reversed text within the Halloween card.  
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The only place that F and K exist within one word on the Halloween card, is in the word "knife." either side of the reversed letter N. If we flipped the reversed N back to its appropriate position, the F and K of "knife" would be reversed yet again.

Now let us turn our attention to the peculiar configuration at the foot of the card inner. It would be extremely satisfying for the Halloween card to read "I feel it in my bones, You ache to know my name, And so I'll clue you in... FK" - so that is what we will create, by manipulating this card to read whatever we want it to. The strange symbol, reading it as true as possible, appears like a number 7, followed by four dots and the letter F.
7+4=11=K (followed by F).

Without further ado, we shall move on to the next confirmed Zodiac communication on March 13th 1971, in which the Zodiac stated "This is the Zodiac speaking. Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life. I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there. The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others". You will notice that the Zodiac Killer refers to "crackproof" once again, parroting his October 5th 1970 communication five months earlier. However, he doesn't just state he is crackproof, he reminds us that he has always been telling us he is crackproof, and quite possibly we just haven't got the message.

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Roll on the January 29th 1974 'Exorcist' letter, signed "yours truley," nearly three years later - giving us our final installment of FK contained within the array of symbols at the foot of the letter. On this occasion he mirrors the sixth line of the 340 cipher by elevating the K above the letter F, and to its left. In fact, five characters from the Exorcist letter can be found in and around the corrected sixth line of the 340 cipher, as shown here in a previous article. This was possibly the fourth consecutive communication inferring an FK link and the suggestion that the author was indeed "crackproof".
 
Was this a persistent and deliberate attempt to be true to the challenge laid down by The American Cryptogram Association and Professor D.C.B Marsh, by inserting his name (albeit initials) into the 340 cipher and subsequent communications, or just a case that my mind is F@@Ked after six exhausting years of looking for patterns where none exist.

Drew
6/22/2018 10:24:37 am

While I think Marsh was correct in his assessment that Zodiac wouldn't dare rise to such a fair challenge this is a fine compendium of the FK clues and a welcome concise read considering how difficult it is to describe how FK is in fact a compelling lead to follow. If we were to guess at initials FK remains an intriguing possibility.

The frustrating truth is that with the pattern breaking Stine murder and all the correspondences that followed a new pattern of well-crafted BS emerged with a pretty clear intention to waste the time of investigators. My brother frowns when I tell him I'm leaning towards the canonical view and keeps reminding me that we can't know what Zodiac did outside of what he explicitly claimed and that we have to allow the for the possibility that aside from the publicity campaign he may have continued killing under an unrecognizable modus-operandi. Hard to argue with that! He could have been any shade of fiend and kept certain elements of his true nature in check as he flaunted his 'safe-from-detection' deeds to the press. If he did become a home-invader type killer he would have been wise to not write zodiac on the wall (though I think he might have done just that in April 1970).

To me based off of what we know about Zodiac he was an evolving criminal who showed zero remorse for his actions. Though an argument can be made that he became fearful after the Stine attack but despite how we view the airplane cement and disguise claims he offered I can't say that his continued elaborate public needling demonstrates a fear of detection. Ultimately I think it fits that Zodiac would see Marsh's challenge as an opportunity to use his new found fame to send investigators off on a wild goose chase. The artifice implied by the symmetry of the 340 is the most compelling clue for me but of course my eyes are a bit F@@Ked at this point as well! Thanks for the work Richard

Richard
6/22/2018 01:31:43 pm

I wouldn't argue with your brother because it's certainly possible, however, I tend to go with the canonical five also. Possibly 9 victims at most if I were pushed. The Zodiac had a slender corridor of time at LHR, just left the parking lot at BRS before the teenagers arrived, took an inordinate risk at Berryessa with only two escape routes, and ultimately got extremely lucky at Presidio Heights, where had the description been given as a WMA, I wouldn't have a website, there unlikely would have been a movie, and certainly the "legend" of Zodiac wouldn't exist. The idea that this killer could have killed 37 as he claimed is highly unlikely. Unless he had changed his MO to indoor murder such as the GSK, which didn't seem his style, then with the risk taking he employed, his luck would soon have ran out. He didn't abduct his canonical victims, so he didn't take them to pre-chosen secure areas. He killed where he found them, other than PH, but even here he guided Stine to a built up area. I certainly don't buy the "he lost his bottle" argument after the Stine murder. There is no proof he killed anybody after the Stine murder. If he wanted to prove his attachment to any future crimes, he certainly could easily have done so, by removing another portion of his victims clothing. The more victims Zodiac claimed, the less I believed him, because he gambled too much during all his first four crimes. Unless he drastically changed tack, it is likely he would eventually have been apprehended- which may have happened for a lesser offence in 1971, or possibly a much more substantial crime (or even murder) in 1974.
Whether there is any FK link, I would have to find something far more substantial to convince even myself, as I am my own biggest sceptic. But it was worth exploring under one banner.

Judith
6/23/2018 08:48:29 am

So for my suspect Peter Plante The Killing never stopped it's not something you can just turn on and off it is some kind of hideous compulsion that never goes away his identity as the zodiac was a phase in his life. According to Witnesses he continued to murder until he was no longer physically able to do so. He died of alcoholism at the age of 52. Let me tell you how horrifying it was to be his wife. I was threatened with knives, there were holes in my kitchen floor and above the dining room table in the ceiling and in the wall where knives were thrown at times and front of my very small children. I had guns held to my head at various times over the years, loaded weapons, the loaded weapons were always kept in a dresser drawer, they were never locked up, they were always ready to go. once the police were called to my home and Peter went and took a handgun and shoved it down into his arm chair then invited the police into our house and sat there and had a conversation with them in the living room all the while with a loaded gun shoved down in the chair. I tried to leave him once and when I went back to get my baby he had locked himself inside with the baby, and was holding him looking out the window at me. This baby now lives in prison. It took me 20 years to finally escape him and I was terrorized every day after I did. So the Richmond Police Department brought a case to the district attorney for terrorism. The DA declined to bring charges. In fact the Richmond Police Department was they only law enforcement agency that didn't take any crap off of Peter. Peter went out on the street in front of our house and spray painted FURPD in huge letters that you could see from a helicopter. In fact fk was his favorite word he would lace it through every sentence as an adjective or an adverb. Fk the IRS Fk Sears and Roebuck f*** the f****** pigs.

Rubislaw 32 link
6/23/2018 11:01:05 am

Very brave of you,Judith,to write about your experiences,with Peter who,surely should have been institutionalised.

Where were social services,in all this [?].

I've been round the houses,but can conclude nothing further,than ''Fk'' equalling ''F**k''.

It wasn't as if he chose the Irish ''Firk'' [?].

It just seems like an unusual form of abbreviation.Perhaps there is a specific part of the U.S.,or English speaking world,where such words are abbreviated in that way.

A clue,perhaps,to the origins of his upbringing [?].

Rubislaw 32 link
6/23/2018 01:27:19 pm

I believe I have solved the ''minor mystery'' of the term employed by Zodiac,''Fk''.

I was looking for common usage of ''Fk'',as an abbreviated term,prior to the advent of the internet.

These appeared to be :

Fat kid....French kiss.....and ''Fuck knows''.

The ''13 hole'' postcard :
--------------------------------

There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me.Fk I'm
crackproof.What is the price now ?

Had Zodiac meant ''F**k I'm crackproof '',then it would have been a statement of ''exclamation''...and should have been accompanied with an exclamation mark.

What Zodiac actually meant was ''F**k knows I'm crackproof '',as in ''It would seem to be the case that I am crackproof ''.

A tad more reserved [?].

Hence : ''Fk'' = ''F**k knows''

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

Rubislaw 32 link
6/23/2018 01:59:48 pm

Precise definition of ''F**k knows'',and out of context,is :

''It is unclear''.

Judith
6/23/2018 04:15:25 pm

I like it Rubislaw. Peter used to also say fiddle and fart around and sometimes he would say fiddle and f*** around

Larry
10/10/2018 05:27:39 pm

At least some of the ciphers were printed on paper with holes punched in the margin. Why couldn't those holes be used by him to act as a key? What a simple joke that would be on investigators to prove how inept they are.


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