Zodiac Message Deciphered

The Zodiac serial killer operated in Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s. His identity has remained a mystery, as have all but one of his four ciphered messages sent to the local Bay Area press.

According to Wikipedia, “Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. Numerous suspects have been named by law enforcement and amateur investigators but no conclusive evidence has surfaced.”

Confirmed victims
Although the Zodiac claimed 37 murders in letters to the newspapers, investigators agree on only seven confirmed victims, two of whom survived. They are:

David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia.

Michael Mageau Renault, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital.

Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969.

Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco.

Here is the only solved cipher:

Until now.

A very recent pasted document on the website Patebin.com caught my attention. It purports to solve another of the ciphers. And after reading the author’s conclusions, I would say they are probably correct.

November 8, 1969 cipher:

Hi,
I am a malware reverse engineer/analyst, had some experience in cryptography, but in different matters! i mean like malwares’ encryption algorithms and such…
but this morning as i read the reddit IAMA post about zodiac, got interested in deciphering this, it took some hours till evening (now!), but i think i did it.

http://www.zodiackiller.com/340Cipher.html

according to his(/her) previous letter from Zodiac, he/she loved to use the word “slave” i thought, so
worked on Letter-Frequencies and got this:

IWILLMAKETHISVERT
CLEARMYONEREASONI
AMKILEINGEFISONTK
ILLIAMLIKELYTTOOR
ANLENMYCHANCTTOTO
LLIATMYSLTVTNFRRF
MEEFTORLIFEEVENSH
RNLKNYMYOUCRNTFSN
CMLEAENITNSFEWAOO
INGIKOAMODLLECOMI
SLAVESWHNNSLAVESY
OUFOANHSAVEEDEASI
NACARHLCHEISEDHIS
OINCANEOAADEREMEE
REWASKECBVWRTHEUE
HFDINEFRDLMDNETHI
AFWLSAAFEEIWASHID
LLGAFNAFEYOUVVDIL
HNTEAUDSOONYSLUVE
WASCCLTANHYIRHSHE

As you can see, some letters cant be replaced! cuz it’d break down other
completed words! like “I WILL MAKE THIS VERT CLEAR”, that “t” is obviously “Y”, i consider this
as wrong letters that i made.

but without changing other words i’ve changed them into correct guessing…

—>

IWILLMAKETHISVERYCLEARMYONEREASONI
AMKILLINGIFIDONTKILLIAMLIKELYTOOAB
ANDONMYCHANCETOCOLLECTMYSLAVESFORT
HEAFTERLIFEEVENWHENIKNOWYOUCANTFIN
DMEIAMNOTSAFEWALKINGIFIAMCOLLECTMY
SLAVESWHENSLAVESYOUFOUNDSAVEDDEADI
NACARHECHANGEDHISMINDANDRAODFROMME
HEWALKEDBYWITHOUTHIDINGFROMAENOTHI
NGISSAFEHEWASHIDINGAKNIFEYOUEVENL
ISTENEDTOOMYSLAVEWASCALLINGFORHELP

and here is final editing:

==>

“I will make this very clear, my one reason I am killing, if I don’t kill I am likely too abandon my chance to collect my slaves for the afterlife.
Even when I know you can’t find me, I am not safe walking, if I am collect my slaves.
When slaves you found saved dead in a car, he changed his mind and road form me.
he walked by without hiding from me, nothing was safe. He was hiding a knife.
You even listened too my slave was calling for help.”

some sentence are meaningless, like “when slaves you found saved dead in a car” ! altho, maybe its about that survived victim who was shot in a car.

regards,
Mehrdad

The news hasn’t made it to the mainstream media or ZodiacKiller.com yet. Perhaps we can push this along. Please link to this article and spread the word.