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.
Click to enlarge Thirteen days after the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher on November 8th 1969, another letter and code purporting to be from the Bay Area murderer was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969, possibly containing a threat on a "widow" in the San Jose area. Both mailings have so much in common, along with the December 7th and 16th 1969 Fairfield letters, which also contained rudimentary codes. The Zodiac Killer wrote the chronological months of his murders at the foot of the 'Dripping Pen' card: "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7". Bearing in mind that all but August were accounted for, it is now clear the card was inferring the murders of two young girls, Deborah Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found savagely stabbed on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. It is therefore no surprise that his next communication should be focused on San Jose just two weeks later. Below is part of the FBI file revealing some of its contents.
Placing "November=8" could be viewed as an extension to his "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7", indicating he was claiming another murder in November. He also began the communication with familiar words: "There's no doubt I will do my Thing". As the communication was mailed to the San Jose Police Department, we would now have three victims in San Jose to which he was laying claim to. The short code (shown above) was -- + 6 2 + --, containing two dashes either side, two pluses, and the numbers 6 and 2. Both Fairfield letters contained rudimentary codes pertaining to the 340 cipher, as though he was giving us a clue to its design. This may also have been the case when he mailed the Halloween card on October 27th 1970, intersecting the words Paradice and Slaves in a cross formation and writing "sorry no cipher" in similar fashion on the envelope. In fact, the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a design similar to the Halloween card. The 340 cipher can be shown to accommodate the words Paradice and Slaves, bisecting the cipher horizontally and vertically across its mid-section. This opened up the possibility that the San Jose code was somehow connected to this design. Both Fairfield letters harked back to the 340 cipher, so why not the San Jose code also.
The symbols contained in the San Jose code exactly mirror the order shown on the horizontal mid-section of the 340 cipher. The 10th line is where some believe the cipher could be divided, along with the possibility of the word Slaves residing. Not only do the dashes and pluses line up exactly with the San Jose code using the mid-section of the 340 cipher, but the numbers 6 and 2 would slot nicely in between. If we used basic number play, and converted 6 to F and 2 to B, both these letters can be found together on the 10th line also. All six characters from the San Jose code present on the Slaves line of the 340 cipher.
This may very well be coincidence, but with "There's no doubt I will do my Thing", "November=8" and this correspondence immediately following the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher, one could argue the Zodiac Killer was dropping us hints to the mechanics of his "crackproof" cipher. Something he would again do with the arrival of both Fairfield letters in December.
The Zodiac Killer could wait only one month after the Button letter, to give us further clues regarding the bomb he claimed to have buried, when he wrote "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". Why should the San Jose and Fairfield letters be any different?
This may very well be coincidence, but with "There's no doubt I will do my Thing", "November=8" and this correspondence immediately following the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher, one could argue the Zodiac Killer was dropping us hints to the mechanics of his "crackproof" cipher. Something he would again do with the arrival of both Fairfield letters in December.
The Zodiac Killer could wait only one month after the Button letter, to give us further clues regarding the bomb he claimed to have buried, when he wrote "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". Why should the San Jose and Fairfield letters be any different?
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