David Oranchak Thanks to the brilliance and determination of David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke, the 340 cipher was finally cracked after 51 years on December 5th 2020. However, with the exception of a few people, little has been done to find the inspiration for a killer who created a cipher that required the knight's move in chess to reconfigure the ciphertext and allow the message to be broken using homophonic substitution. The 340 cipher needed a one down, two across system to make the cipher easier to crack, with the Zodiac Killer's errors creating a further roadblock. Ciphers are mathematical, relying on algorithms, modular arithmetic, and complex equations for encryption and decryption, evolving from simple letter shifts to advanced concepts in number theory and abstract algebra for modern digital security. They use mathematical procedures to transform readable text (plaintext) into unreadable text (ciphertext) and back, making them a core part of cryptography, which sits at the intersection of math and computer science.
Radians, chosen by the Zodiac Killer for us to discover the location of his hidden (likely pretend) bomb, are fundamental to mathematics, serving as the standard unit for measuring angles, especially in calculus and physics, because they simplify formulas by relating angles directly to the circle's radius, making calculations for arc length, sectors, and trigonometric functions much cleaner than using degrees. Radians are essentially a unitless count of "radius units", making them a natural fit for mathematical expressions. This was another of Zodiac's puzzles that lay unbroken for 51 years until Zodiac researcher, Druzer, filled in the blanks on December 27th 2020. But what is another form of mathematics that may have inspired the Zodiac Killer to fashion the 340 cipher the way he did? A form of mathematics that Zodiac mentioned in his letters?
Radians, chosen by the Zodiac Killer for us to discover the location of his hidden (likely pretend) bomb, are fundamental to mathematics, serving as the standard unit for measuring angles, especially in calculus and physics, because they simplify formulas by relating angles directly to the circle's radius, making calculations for arc length, sectors, and trigonometric functions much cleaner than using degrees. Radians are essentially a unitless count of "radius units", making them a natural fit for mathematical expressions. This was another of Zodiac's puzzles that lay unbroken for 51 years until Zodiac researcher, Druzer, filled in the blanks on December 27th 2020. But what is another form of mathematics that may have inspired the Zodiac Killer to fashion the 340 cipher the way he did? A form of mathematics that Zodiac mentioned in his letters?
On July 19th 1978, a deeply controversial communication, that is almost certainly genuine Zodiac material, was mailed to the Los Angeles Times. It read: "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control". This letter probably formed the basis of Robert Graysmith's mentioning of Zodiac's crimes as an "outdoor game of chess".
Chess is deeply mathematical, relying on logic, patterns, probability, and combinatorics, even though it's not about traditional arithmetic; it's a game of finite states and algorithms with a vast solution space, making it a practical application of mathematical thinking. While you don't need advanced math skills to play, the underlying principles of strategic calculation, geometry, and problem-solving connect it directly to mathematics. Coming the day after the opening game in the World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi on July 18th 1978, this letter told of a person who had "chess sets all over California" and suggested that David Toschi, who had been demoted to pawn detail, play a game of chess with him.
If the Zodiac Killer really had an avid interest in chess and puzzles, he would very likely have known about the knight's tour challenge, a mathematical problem where you have to move a knight around a chessboard (8 X 8 grid) and visit all 64 squares without landing on a square more than once. The Knight's Tour is very well-known, recognized as a classic, over-thousand-year-old mathematical puzzle and graph theory problem, first appearing in 9th-century Sanskrit texts and later analyzed by Leonhard Euler, becoming famous for its complexity and links to magic squares, popularizing it through chess history and computer science as an illustration of algorithms.
Ciphers are essentially algorithms (or sets of rules/steps) used for encryption and decryption, transforming readable text (plaintext) into unreadable ciphertext and back again, using keys to control the process. So did the Zodiac Killer use a knowledge of chess and the well-known puzzle of the knight's tour, and create a more complex 340 cipher that required the very same move to begin decoding his message on November 8th 1969?
FURTHER READING: A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH
Chess is deeply mathematical, relying on logic, patterns, probability, and combinatorics, even though it's not about traditional arithmetic; it's a game of finite states and algorithms with a vast solution space, making it a practical application of mathematical thinking. While you don't need advanced math skills to play, the underlying principles of strategic calculation, geometry, and problem-solving connect it directly to mathematics. Coming the day after the opening game in the World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi on July 18th 1978, this letter told of a person who had "chess sets all over California" and suggested that David Toschi, who had been demoted to pawn detail, play a game of chess with him.
If the Zodiac Killer really had an avid interest in chess and puzzles, he would very likely have known about the knight's tour challenge, a mathematical problem where you have to move a knight around a chessboard (8 X 8 grid) and visit all 64 squares without landing on a square more than once. The Knight's Tour is very well-known, recognized as a classic, over-thousand-year-old mathematical puzzle and graph theory problem, first appearing in 9th-century Sanskrit texts and later analyzed by Leonhard Euler, becoming famous for its complexity and links to magic squares, popularizing it through chess history and computer science as an illustration of algorithms.
Ciphers are essentially algorithms (or sets of rules/steps) used for encryption and decryption, transforming readable text (plaintext) into unreadable ciphertext and back again, using keys to control the process. So did the Zodiac Killer use a knowledge of chess and the well-known puzzle of the knight's tour, and create a more complex 340 cipher that required the very same move to begin decoding his message on November 8th 1969?
FURTHER READING: A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH
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