The Zodiac's "My Name is" Cipher

The Zodiac “My Name is Cipher”

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

On February 9^th, 2007, I posted the solution to the Zodiac’s “My Name is” cipher here, as well as adding other research that I conducted on the case.

Recently I have had some folks contact me because they did not understand how to solve the Zodiac’s “My Name is” cipher. It is a really simple cipher and the reason it had gone unsolved for so long is due to the fact that folks thought that Zodiac was giving his real name in the solution, but that is not the case.

So let’s take this step by step so anyone can solve the cipher using the Zodiac’s system of enciphering it. Zodiac’s “My Name is” cipher was written by the Zodiac in the following letter:

Now to solve it step by step, let’s focus on the cipher text:

Zodiac gave investigators the key to solving the cipher with My name is—.

Now we will fill in the key sentence to retrieve the cipher key:

My name is “Zodiac”.

That was the killer’s name.

Now for the next step—deciphering the code. To do this, we need to apply the cipher key (Zodiac) to the cipher variables:

Z O D I A C Z O D I A C Z

This gives us A+Z, O+E, D+N, I+R, A+8, C+K, Z+8, O+M, D+8, I+F, A+N, C+A, Z+M.

Now all that is left is to apply Zodiac’s alphabet system that he used to encode the cipher. Zodiac used two English alphabets in sequence:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

To make it pretty and easy to understand, we will enumerate the sequence. Most cryptographers can do this part in their heads:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Now to decode it. The first sequence is Z + A.

This gives Z = 26, A = 1, so 26 + 1 = 27. Now using Zodiac’s alphabet of encoding, the 27^th variable “A”.

See it? It is really easy.

The second sequence is O + E, which is 15 + 5 = 20. The letter at position 20 in the cipher table is “T”.

The third sequence is D + N, which is 4 + 14 = 18. The letter at position 18 in the cipher table is “R”.

The fourth sequence is I + R, which is 9 + 18 = 27. The letter at position 27 in the cipher table is “A”. (26 + 1)

The fifth sequence is A + 8. The Zodiac draws an 8 with a circle around it. This is proven because for the entire length of the cipher, the numeral 8 is used for that variable. So A + 8 = 1 + 8 = 9. The letter at position 9 n the cipher table is “I”.

The sixth sequence is C + K, which is 3 + 11 = 14. The letter at position 14 in the cipher table is “N”.

The seventh sequence is Z + 8, which is 26 + 8 = 8. The letter at position 8 in the cipher table is “H” but Zodiac uses the number 8 here which I will explain below.

The eighth sequence is O + M, which is 15 + 13 = 28. The letter at position 28 in the cipher table is “B”. (26 + 2)

The ninth sequence is D + 8, which is 4 + 8 = 12. The letter at position 12 in the cipher table is “L”.

The tenth sequence is I + F, which is 9 + 6 = 15. The letter at position 15 in the cipher table is “O”.

The eleventh sequence is A + N, which is 1 + 14 = 15. The letter at position 15 in the cipher table is “O”.

The twelfth sequence is C + A, which is 3 + 1 = 4. The letter at position 4 in the cipher table is “D”.

The thirteenth sequence is Z + M, which is 26 + 13 = 39. The letter at position 39 in the cipher table is “M”, but Zodiac uses a number here as well, the number 13 because M = 13 in the cipher table. (26 + 13)

The Solution

The solution to the cipher thus reads “A Train 8 Blood 13”.

After further research, I opine that Zodiac is saying “A Blood Train 8:13”, which is in reference to the 66^th book of the bible, the Book of Revelations. It reads:

“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe! woe! woe! to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” – Revelations, Chapter 8:13

Zodiac gave us a clue about this when he quoted the Mikado play using “Titwillo Titwillo Titwillo”. Chapter 8:13 of the Book of Revelations contains “Woe! woe! woe!”

I further opine that Zodiac got the idea of the book of revelations from the maps that he used for his Zodiac topography. The map that he submitted along with the button cipher was a “Phillips 66” map. Zodiac used this sociopathological construct to tie in the 66^th book of the bible.

Zodiac threatened to bomb trains and buses for years, and this cipher solution is just a continuance of that threat. The only bombings that occurred in San Francisco in those days were caused by the radical left-wing Marxist terrorist organization known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The SLA assassinated a San Francisco police officer with a bomb, and Zodiac wrote in to say he was not responsible for it. That said, the Zodiac then seized the sensationalism of the SLA bombing campaign in his writings, which is predictable considering the media frenzy that the SLA created and Zodiac loved to be in the news. All of the Zodiac’s mailings were clues submitted by him as to his identity, even the bomb schematics that he created.

Those that have speculated that this cipher contained Zodiac’s real name are incorrect. The key to solving the cipher was using the serial killer’s operational name, ZODIAC.

Christopher Farmer

President

OPORD Analytical

president@opordanalytical.com

http://www.opordanalytical.com

Tuesday, March 06, 2007