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 In the article Three Months After the Mount Diablo Code we showed how the Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to his three main unsolved ciphers in three consecutive communications spanning July 26th 1970 to October 27th 1970. Here we will do exactly the same thing regarding the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter (the companion to the December 16th 1969 letter). The December 7th 1969 letter showed traits of the 408 cipher, in which the author had simply dragged characters from above to provide filler for the remaining 18 unsolved characters. In the December 7th 1969 letter he had dragged groups of characters from the 340 cipher in similar fashion.
Tahoe27 made an excellent discovery when she linked the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card to the Tim Holt comic book, showing the connection to the configuration displayed on the card in the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. However, the Zodiac Killer had likely made this connection much earlier than October 27th 1970, when he designed the December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter (shown on the left}. In this communication he gave us a rudimentary design of the Halloween Card configuration preceded by the word "death", thereby satisfying the Tim Holt comic book of "Death By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. Below I have shown the interconnectivity between the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters, demonstrating how the Tim Holt comic book played a part in the design of them all, with By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves the running theme.
Tahoe27 made an excellent discovery when she linked the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card to the Tim Holt comic book, showing the connection to the configuration displayed on the card in the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. However, the Zodiac Killer had likely made this connection much earlier than October 27th 1970, when he designed the December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter (shown on the left}. In this communication he gave us a rudimentary design of the Halloween Card configuration preceded by the word "death", thereby satisfying the Tim Holt comic book of "Death By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. Below I have shown the interconnectivity between the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters, demonstrating how the Tim Holt comic book played a part in the design of them all, with By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves the running theme.
The December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter was essentially a very rudimentary precursor to the Halloween Card design of By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves. It was also very likely a clue to the December 7th 1969 code scribbled at the base of that letter, containing 38 characters. If this code followed the same way as all the others, in that the Zodiac Killer simply provided us with the answer to his codes in later communications, then what are the chances the solution depended on the wording in the Halloween Card, which mimicked the design of the second Fairfield Letter?
The code on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter
The December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter stated "Look for more blood", then provided us with the Halloween Card style design of large crosshairs surrounded by four smaller crosshairs in each quadrant, intended to signify By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves. But the Zodiac Killer inexplicably chose the over inflated promise of 38 more victims from San Francisco, San Jose, Vallejo, Napa, Fairfield, Sacramento and Oakland. Curiously, the exact same number as characters on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter. These victims, likely to be murdered By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. So, was there a correlation between the two letters using these words? You will notice that the code above hasn't been structured uniformly like the 408 and 340 ciphers, but instead arranged in a formation of 12 characters on line one, 7 characters on line two, 5 characters on line three, 6 characters on line four and 8 characters on line five.
This may suggest that the words are contained separately on each line, without running from one line to another. We would expect Slaves and Paradice to be grouped together - and the last two lines satisfy this character count of 6 and 8. We then have three lines remaining of 12, 7 and 5 characters. By Gun satisfies the 5 characters, By Knife satisfies the 7 characters, and By Fire, By Rope satisfies the 12 characters. This forms the basis of the completed 38 character code solution, mimicking the second Fairfield Letter design and the exact wording on the Halloween Card configuration. Furthermore, no word extends from one line to another, satisfying the non-uniformity displayed by the 38 character code. We now have By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves running through four communications - that of the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters. The Zodiac Killer yet again supplying us with the answer to one of his codes in subsequent communications.
This may suggest that the words are contained separately on each line, without running from one line to another. We would expect Slaves and Paradice to be grouped together - and the last two lines satisfy this character count of 6 and 8. We then have three lines remaining of 12, 7 and 5 characters. By Gun satisfies the 5 characters, By Knife satisfies the 7 characters, and By Fire, By Rope satisfies the 12 characters. This forms the basis of the completed 38 character code solution, mimicking the second Fairfield Letter design and the exact wording on the Halloween Card configuration. Furthermore, no word extends from one line to another, satisfying the non-uniformity displayed by the 38 character code. We now have By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves running through four communications - that of the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters. The Zodiac Killer yet again supplying us with the answer to one of his codes in subsequent communications.
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