I find it really hard to believe that the FBI would not be able to at least roughly decipher this if it's some variety of substitution cipher. They've had so much time to work on it.

kOre

Canada3642 Posts

March 30 2011 00:43 GMT

#44

The second last line where it has

TOTE WLDNWLDNCBE

The 2 L's could possibly be C's. If you take a look at earlier in that line where it has the

LUSE

The L is pretty well defined, same with the last line where it has

194WL

So I'm thinking those two are C's or at the very least the first one is a C and the second one could be an L.

LetoAtreides82

United States1188 Posts

March 30 2011 00:45 GMT

#45

On March 30 2011 09:41 Slithe wrote:
I find it really hard to believe that the FBI would not be able to at least roughly decipher this if it's some variety of substitution cipher. They've had so much time to work on it.

I wonder if the victim was autistic, they see the world differently from other people, probably one of the reasons he wrote encrypted notes to himself.

Icx

Belgium853 Posts

March 30 2011 00:46 GMT

#46

Well the question is, how much effort did they actually put into this?

In the case that it's actually real, and decipherable, and they had put a full team of their best people on it for 12 years, I guess they would have done it by now.

But imo (and this is just pure speculation), this was probably a case that was on the backburner, and they probably didn't invest that much resources into it, because they probably have more serious things going on (things that actually matter in terms of state security and such).

This seems to me more of a "with the amount of resources we can put into this it's just not really possible to do this in a reasonable amount of time
So making this public actually has better chances" situation then a "we just can't do this in any way".

Zim23

United States1681 Posts

March 30 2011 00:46 GMT

#47

I've noticed every single line, with the exception of 2 or 3, ends in an 'E'. This might be due to the frequency of the letter, or it might indicate a break in the writing.

Ygz

England370 Posts

March 30 2011 00:50 GMT

#48

On March 30 2011 09:43 kOre wrote:
The second last line where it has

TOTE WLDNWLDNCBE

The 2 L's could possibly be C's. If you take a look at earlier in that line where it has the

LUSE

The L is pretty well defined, same with the last line where it has

194WL

So I'm thinking those two are C's or at the very least the first one is a C and the second one could be an L.

They look like L's to me, his prior C's are quite defined, there's no ambiguity that I can find.

LetoAtreides82

United States1188 Posts

March 30 2011 00:51 GMT

#49

On March 30 2011 09:43 kOre wrote:
The second last line where it has

TOTE WLDNWLDNCBE

The 2 L's could possibly be C's. If you take a look at earlier in that line where it has the

LUSE

The L is pretty well defined, same with the last line where it has

194WL

So I'm thinking those two are C's or at the very least the first one is a C and the second one could be an L.

Very good point, he tends to write the L's with the top tip arching to the left. Those two have the top tip arching to the right (i'm looking at these letters with 4x magnification). However his C's look well defined to me. hmm. Perhaps the L's with the right arching have a different meaning than the ones with the left arching? Or maybe they are C's, lol

Bill Murray

United States9292 Posts

March 30 2011 00:52 GMT

#50

i was about to post his Ls slant left
I agree leto

Ichabod

United States1659 Posts

March 30 2011 00:53 GMT

#51

Some of the E's look like normal roman E but others look like ϵ , I'm not sure if this is significant, but it could be, unless the code-maker just got somewhat lazy/hurried.

kOre

Canada3642 Posts

March 30 2011 00:53 GMT

#52

On March 30 2011 09:51 LetoAtreides82 wrote:

Show nested quote +

On March 30 2011 09:43 kOre wrote:
The second last line where it has

TOTE WLDNWLDNCBE

The 2 L's could possibly be C's. If you take a look at earlier in that line where it has the

LUSE

The L is pretty well defined, same with the last line where it has

194WL

So I'm thinking those two are C's or at the very least the first one is a C and the second one could be an L.

Very good point, he tends to write the L's with the top tip arching to the left. Those two have the top tip arching to the right. However his C's look well defined to me. hmm. Perhaps the L's with the right arching have a different meaning than the ones with the left arching? Or maybe they are C's, lol

Yeah ... about that lol, makes this code breaking so much harder ... especially if the L's with right arches have different meanings ...

QuestGerm

United States18 Posts

March 30 2011 00:57 GMT

#53

You think they could be throwing this out to the public to try to find some new code breakers? Either way I'm giving it a shot.

Robellicose

England245 Posts

March 30 2011 00:58 GMT

#54

to be honest, the messages are so short that if the victim used a book cipher or similar (for instance a substitution cipher based on a paragraph of text familiar to the victim) then unless by blind chance we stumble upon the key then we'll never decipher it.

Monsen

Germany2548 Posts

March 30 2011 00:59 GMT

#55

They should show that shit to Daniel Tammet!

Bill Murray

United States9292 Posts

March 30 2011 00:59 GMT

#56

The gaps in where he starts the parenthesis could be relevant

LetoAtreides82

United States1188 Posts

March 30 2011 01:00 GMT

#57

On March 30 2011 09:53 kOre wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yeah ... about that lol, makes this code breaking so much harder ... especially if the L's with right arches have different meanings ...

Yea and now after looking at it with inverted colors and 5x magnification, I'm pretty sure they aren't C's because his C's have a well-defined curve, while the two L's in question have straighter strokes. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that either it's just an L with a right arch on it for a different meaning, or perhaps it's just a symbol he invented.

Ygz

England370 Posts

March 30 2011 01:01 GMT

#58

The slanting L's could be due to the position of his pen after writing the character before. For instance on the last line.

TRFXL7

That L could possibly pass for a C. Notice that the diagonal of the letter X follows closely to the angle of the following L.

AntiMetric

Australia4 Posts

March 30 2011 01:04 GMT

#59

On March 30 2011 09:38 never_toss wrote:
just a link to a page that discusses the issue
http://d122.com/murdermystery/

The man who wrote that blog also attempted to type up the codes. I think he's done a pretty good job:

Edit: Text format is better

Note 1:

(MNDMXNEARSE-N-STA-KNARE)
*TFRNENPINSENPBSERCBBNSENPRSEINC
PRSENMRSEOPREHLDULDNCBE(TFXLFTCXLULBE)
AL-PRPPITXLYPPIYNCBEMGKSEINLDRCBRNSEPRSE
WLDRCBRNSENTSGNENTXSE-CRSLE-CITRSEWLDNCBE
ALWLPNCBETSMELRSERLSEURGLSNEASNWLDNCBE
(NOPFSENLSRENCBE)NTEGDDMNSENCURERCBRNE
(TENETFRNENCBRTSENCBEINC)
(FLRSEPRSEONDE71NCBE)
(CDNSEPRSEONSFE74NCBE)
(PR+SEPRSEONREDE75NCBE)
(TFNRCMSPSOLEMRDELUSETOTEWLDNINLDNCBE)
(194WLD'SNCBE)(TRFXL)

Note 2:

ALPNTE GLSE-SE ER+E
VLSEMTSE-CTSE-WSE-FRTSE
PNTRTRSEONPRSEWLDNCBE
NWLDXLRCMSPNEWLDSTSMEXL
DVLMT6TUNSE NCBEC

(MUNSAISTENMUNARSE)
KLSE-LRSTE-TRSE-TRSE-MKSEN-MRSE
(SAE6NSESENMBSE)

NMNRCBRNSEP+E2PTEWSRCBRNSE
26MLSE74SPRKSE29KENOSOLE173R7RSE
356LECLGSEUUNUTREDKRSEPSESHLE
6S1MTCSEHTLSENCUTCTRSNMRE
99.84.B2UNEPLSENCRSEAOLTSENSKSENRSE
NSREOUSEPUTSEWLDUCBE(3XORL)

DNMSENRSEIN2NTRLERCBRNSENTSRCRBNE
LSPNSENGSPSEMKSERBSENCBEAVXLR
HMCRENMRESCBE 1/2MUNDDLSE

D-W-M-YHIL XDRLX

UpHeaVaL

Canada57 Posts

March 30 2011 01:07 GMT

#60

That is DEFINITELY not a straight-up substitution cypher. Stop wasting your time suggesting them. Simple software can brute-force sub cyphers. This is something else. Could be anything. Like for example overlaying a random irrational number like Pi over the message and have each digit represent a shift cypher. It's absolutely retarded to give this a go...