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Volunteer sleuths crack 'Zodiac' serial killer's coded message
https://www.ksl.com ^ | Sharon Bernstein | Dec. 14, 2020 at 2:02 p.m.

Posted on 12/15/2020 9:25:02 AM PST by Red Badger

SACRAMENTO - A team of volunteer codebreakers has cracked a mysterious cipher sent more than 50 years ago to a newspaper by the San Francisco serial killer who called himself the Zodiac, the FBI said on Friday.

The Zodiac Killer — who was never caught — shot or stabbed seven people in the San Francisco Bay Area over the course of about a year in 1968 and 1969, killing all but two of them. During his murderous spree, he sent a series of terrifying letters to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

Some of the notes were in code, including a particularly complex missive with 340 characters that became known as the 340 cipher.

"I hope you are having lots of fun trying to catch me," said the cipher, cracked last week by codebreakers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke, according to a video posted on YouTube by Oranchak. "I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice (sic) all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me."

Like the murders themselves, solving the Zodiac ciphers has become an international fixation for true-crime followers.

Oranchak, whom the San Francisco Chronicle identified as a 46-year-old Web designer who lives in Virginia, said in the video he had hoped the cipher would yield information about the killer's identity.

"The message doesn't really say a whole lot," he said. "It's more of the same attention-seeking junk from Zodiac."

The San Francisco office of the FBI on Friday confirmed that the group had cracked the coded message, and said the investigation into the half-century-old case was ongoing.

"The FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by private citizens," the FBI said in a statement posted on Twitter. "The Zodiac Killer terrorized multiple communities across Northern California, and even though decades have gone by, we continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes."

No one was ever charged in the Zodiac case, and theories abound as to the killer's real identity. The case has inspired numerous books and movies, including 1971's "Dirty Harry" starring Clint Eastwood and 2007's "Zodiac" with Robert Downey Jr.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: btkkiller; california; cryptography; davidoranchak; epigraphyandlanguage; garyfrancisposte; sanfrancisco; zodiac; zodiackiller
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To: Red Badger

[They never caught him, and he’s most likely dead of old age by now......................]

Arthur Leigh Allen was the top suspect. He died in 1992 just before authorities were ready to arrest him.

https://zodiackiller.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_Leigh_Allen


21 posted on 12/15/2020 10:06:06 AM PST by ObozoMustGo2012
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To: Red Badger

I can’t account for my whereabouts in the 60s either. I was drunk that decade.


22 posted on 12/15/2020 10:06:07 AM PST by Graybeard58 (The China virus doesn't scare me, Venezuelaism does.)
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To: Graybeard58

If you can remember the 60s you weren’t there.


23 posted on 12/15/2020 10:07:30 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger
They never caught him, and he’s most likely dead of old age by now............

You might want to have a look at my 2007 book "The Unabomber and the Zodiac." Whether the Unabomber did the Zodiac crimes or not is an open question, but Ted Kaczynski, in his seventies, is alive and kicking in the federal Supermax penitentiary, with no signs of giving up the ghost any time soon.

24 posted on 12/15/2020 10:12:33 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Red Badger

The guy was too clever to leave his name in any encrypted message, but the tenor of the deciphered text shows that he expected it would be deciphered quickly, since it all relates to recent events. Still, for Zodiac Killer enthusiasts, it’s a major disappointment.


25 posted on 12/15/2020 10:14:15 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Red Badger
W_H_A_T_'_S
T_H_E
F_R_E_Q_U_E_N_C_Y
K_E_N_N_E_T_H_?
26 posted on 12/15/2020 10:15:56 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: Red Badger

this business about having slaves in “paradice” would seem to be a useful clue — I’ve never heard of that belief, I mean, outside of the Religion of Peace...


27 posted on 12/15/2020 10:20:42 AM PST by nicollo (I said no!)
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To: dfwgator

Ah the 60’s..........
I’m told that I had a blast.


28 posted on 12/15/2020 10:34:39 AM PST by FMBass (USN 1972-75 DE-1074 NNTaleb fan )
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To: FMBass
Ah the 60’s..........

First half wasn't too bad. But, that last part was pretty much a $#!+fest.

29 posted on 12/15/2020 10:45:13 AM PST by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys )
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To: Slyfox

I wish to invoke the rights granted to me by the 5th amendment.


30 posted on 12/15/2020 11:01:23 AM PST by FMBass (USN 1972-75 DE-1074 NNTaleb fan )
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: FMBass
I wish to invoke the rights granted to me by the 5th amendment.
Flame retardant suit ON
The Bill of Rights did not “grant” any right to any one.
How so? The BoR was a keeping of a promise which the Federalists were forced to make by the Antifederalists. But they faced a tricky problem, because rights codified in the first and second amendments - to make the most obvious point - already existed in the states under the Articles of Confederation. The intent of the first eight amendments was to be a shiny object - the real deal is
Amendment 9
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
and
Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The original intent of the unamended Constitution is encapsulated in 9 and 10. And the proper meaning of 1 thru 8 is that they enumerate rights which uncontroversially preexisted the Constitution.

2A refers to “the” RKBA; in order to write the Heller decision Scalia did a deep dive into history to define exactly what the RKBA actually was when 2A referred to it. He did not just say, “anyone can have a nuclear bomb because RKBA.”

Contrariwise in the Sullivan decision the Warren Court glossed over all prior court rulings on the effect of 1A on libel law. Because they wanted to stop libel suits by public officials - and they made up a story to the effect that 1A modified libel law. When all 1A was intended to do was assure everyone that there would be no change in the right to speak and print. To have done anything else would have risked controversy which would endangered the legitimacy of the new Constitution.


32 posted on 12/15/2020 12:04:13 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Well, I guess I am now duly educated.

You sound like the type that when asked what time it is, you explain how a watch is built.


33 posted on 12/15/2020 12:20:03 PM PST by FMBass (USN 1972-75 DE-1074 NNTaleb fan )
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To: precisionshootist

I thought it had 13 characters?


34 posted on 12/15/2020 12:28:31 PM PST by scrabblehack
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To: Red Badger
"I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice (sic) all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me."

So, does this prove he is/was a Muslim?

35 posted on 12/15/2020 12:52:05 PM PST by libertylover (Remember: Deep State hated Jesus too.)
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To: libertylover

Not necessarily.

He may be/have been a Satanic cult worshiper, and his definition of ‘paradice’ is somewhat lower and hotter that ours is......


36 posted on 12/15/2020 12:57:24 PM PST by Red Badger ( “The goal of socialism is communism.”... Vladimir Lenin)
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To: Red Badger

Bkmrk


37 posted on 12/15/2020 1:31:07 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: FMBass
You sound like the type that when asked what time it is, you explain how a watch is built.
Yeah, I know - it’s my hobby horse. I heard that explanation from a Scalia video, and it really changed my outlook. So I’m a bit of an Evangelist about it ...

38 posted on 12/15/2020 2:35:01 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

You wouldn’t happen to know what time it is, would you?


39 posted on 12/15/2020 2:48:26 PM PST by FMBass (USN 1972-75 DE-1074 NNTaleb fan )
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To: FMBass

40 posted on 12/15/2020 2:59:47 PM PST by xp38
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