# Report the Zodiac Killer Cypher has been Solved **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839 "2020-12-11T16:20:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/1 "2020-12-11T16:20:41Z")
This seems quite definitive. [-=Linky=-](http://zodiackillerfacts.com/news-and-updates/breaking-news-the-zodiacs-340-cipher-has-been-solved/) This is the November 1969 note with 304 characters. It is commonly called the “304 Cypher.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/2 "2020-12-11T17:34:41Z")
That link doesn’t work for me, but the [Internet Archive version of the same article](https://web.archive.org/web/20201211134341/http://zodiackillerfacts.com/news-and-updates/breaking-news-the-zodiacs-340-cipher-has-been-solved/) does. The plaintext of the message is: > I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/3 "2020-12-11T17:36:29Z")
Eddie Money has just become the #1 suspect. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/4 "2020-12-11T18:19:28Z")
Here’s a video explaining how it was cracked. I’ve watched the first 5 minutes and it’s well worth it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-1oQLPRE21o/maxresdefault.jpg "Let's Crack Zodiac - Episode 5 - The 340 Is Solved!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1oQLPRE21o) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/5 "2020-12-11T18:44:17Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Eddie Money has just become the #1 suspect. No worries then, since he’s been dead for over a year! 🤑 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/6 "2020-12-11T22:30:14Z")
Paradice? Wouldn’t the number one suspect be The Gambler? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/7 "2020-12-11T23:03:23Z")
The Las Vegas Strip is actally in a semi-contrived separate town named “Paradise, NV”. Which is also why there’s a Paradise Blvd in Las Vegas. Back in the day there was a sleazy 4th rate casino call the Par-a-dice. And IIRC in another incarnation a different decade called the Pair-o-dice. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/8 "2020-12-13T15:57:08Z")
Has Sen. Ted Cruz confirmed the accuracy of the interpretation? Here’s CNN’s coverage: > **[After 51 years, the Zodiac Killer's cipher has been solved by amateur...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/11/us/zodiac-killer-cypher-340-code-trnd/index.html)** > > More than 50 years after the so-called Zodiac Killer first began terrorizing the streets of Northern California, a code-breaking team is believed to have finally cracked one of the killer's mysterious coded messages sent to the San Francisco... ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/9 "2020-12-13T16:10:59Z")
Whenever I see anything about the Zodiac Killer, I want to wear one of my dad’s watches. (ZK got his signature/sigil from the watch brand.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/10 "2020-12-13T18:14:33Z")
What was it about the cipher that made it so difficult to de-cipher? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/11 "2020-12-13T19:49:36Z")
Near the end of the video that Troutman linked to, it describes why it was difficult to decipher. Zodiac was apparently annoyed that his earlier ciphers were cracked so easily so he used several techniques to make this one more difficult: mapping each plaintext character to several ciphertext characters, and using a complicated permutation of the plaintext before enciphering. But a big stumbling block was that Zodiac made _mistakes_ in applying his own rules, so they weren’t applied consistently through the message. Part of the solution involved discovering where he had transcribed a line incorrectly and restoring the “correct” line. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/12 "2020-12-13T20:01:59Z")
In the article it discusses the varying order of the symbols, not just a simple right to left type thing, the characters direction would turn diagonal at the end of lines, and the message was broken up into three sections as well. I remember thinking long ago the cypher might require some complex instructions for the order of the characters because they were laid out in a regularly spaced matrix. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/13 "2020-12-13T22:03:24Z")
The video showed a couple of the words were also flipped backwards. It was an interesting watch/read! I wonder if they’ll ever figure out who it was - also wonder if they’ll ever tie more murders to him. From the article, it sounds like he claimed a lot more than they say are his? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-the-zodiac-killer-cypher-has-been-solved/927839/14 "2020-12-14T15:44:28Z")
> [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](#): > > From the article, it sounds like he claimed a lot more than they say are his? He has five confirmed kills (and 2 more who survived). But he also wrote a bunch of letters taking credit for more murders, but without providing any info about them that someone wouldn’t have learned from the news.