FBI asks public for help breaking encrypted notes tied to 1999 murder

On a quick glance, I see that "RSE" is a common pattern, but that was only in a quick 10 second glance...interesting stuff, I've never been good at ciphers like this.

Thought I would post this as I didn't see it in the op article.

McCormick was a high school dropout, but his family says that he had experimented with codes and ciphers his whole life. The FBI believes that the notes were written not more than three days before he was killed, so deciphering them might point to circumstances of his death such as his whereabouts leading up to the murder. Personally, I think the notes might be a suicide note from McCormick, but the FBI is more concerned with the challenge of cracking the code. "Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter, we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about," Olson said.

www.escapistmagazine.com...

VLSE MTSE - CTSE - WSE - FRTSE

Second line might be a switch up to Roman numerals without the resonance.

VL M C then W and FR

Kind of rambles with different elements.

Both 65 and 26 can be factored by 13 and 65 and 35 can be factored by 5.

Any significance to 5, 13, 2, 7

Probably means nothing.

Just a big FU. If there aren't software programs that can do this already I doubt the writing is legit. Just an opinion.

The ocd part of me wants to solve it, but the add side of me is saying hell no!!!

I can't help but feel the words after 99.86 are " soon please excuse all this nonsense"

The encrypted message has a specific key that would be needed to decrypt the message. Even in past times, notes would go through jails with random scrambled letters and numbers. For instance, A=L, B=G, etc.

This is a complicated problem as this would make possible combinations enourmous and near impossible without the proper cypher....

But who knows, the cypher may very well be embedded in the crpytic message....somewhere

There is a book that explains this really simply and I highly recommend the read: "The Code Book"

In all seriousness it could possibly be nothing but random characters to suggest the assailant is of high intellect and has encrypted some sort of secret message about their identity when in reality it serves to send investigators on a wild goose chase putting way too much emphasis in to decoding a phony message whilst the PEOPLE who are suspects go off the radar. It makes perfect sense.

Sounds like this project needs a champion.

If people are serious about cracking it, the first step should be to get 3-5 independent people to come up with a typed copy of each note.

Then compare them and come up with a commonly accepted note to work from.

reply to post by SlyingFaucers


I already posted the transcriptions. They're on this page.

d122.com...

The letters SE are repeating perhaps this can be a starting point

reply to post by Hoopinator


The reason I was suggesting a few independent copies is because it doesnt look like it is 100 percent legible in all cases. Also, it looks like on the first note you missed the (AESM) on the first line.

reply to post by Hoopinator


Think I have a few differences than you not many. I left out the unusual spacing but all other distinguishing marks are there.

First note

( M N D M K N E A R S E – N – S – M – K N A R E ) (A C S M )

T F R N E N P ? N S E N P B S E R C B B N S E N P R S E 1 N C

P R S E N M R S E P R E H L D C N L D N C B E ( T F X L F T C X L N C B E )

A L – P R P P I T X L Y P P I Y N C B E M G K S E 1 N C D R C B R N S G P R S

E

W L D R C B R N S E N T S 6 N E N T X S E – C R S L E – C I T R S E W L D

N C D E

A L N C P N C B E T S M E L R S E R L S E U R G L S N E A S N W L D

N C B E


( N O P F S E N L S R R E N C B E ) N T E G D D M N S E N C U R E R C B R N E

( T E N E T F R N E N C B R T S E N C B E 1 N C )

( F L R S E P Q S E D N D E 7 1 N C B E )

( C D N S E P Q S E O N S E 74 N C B E )

( P R T S E P R S E O N R E D E 75 N C B E )

( T F N R C M S P S O L E M R D E L U S E T O T E W L D N 1 N L D N C B E )

( 1 9 4 W L D ` S N C B E ) ( T R F X L )




SECOND NOTE


A L P N T E G L S E – S E E R + E

V L S E M T S E – C T S E – W S E – F R T S E

P N R T R S E O N P R S E W L D N C B E

N W L D X L R C M S P N E W L D S T S M E X L
D V L M T 6 T U N S E N C B E X C

( M U N S A R S T E N M 6 N A R S E )

K L S E – L R S T E – T F S E – T R S E – M K S E N – M R S E

( F A E 6 N S E S E N M R S E)

N M N R C B R N S E P T E 2 P T E W S R C B K R S E

8 6 M L S E 7 4 S P R K S E 2 9 K F N O 8 O L E 1 7 S R T S E

35 6 L E C L G S E U U N N T K F D K R S E P S E S H L E

6 S 1 M T C S E H T L S E N C U T C T R S N M R F

9 9 . 8 4 . S 2 U N E P L S E N C R S E A O L T S E N S K S E N R S E

N S R E O N S E P V T S E W C D N C B E ( 3 X 0 R L )

D N M S E N R S E 1 N 2 N T R L E R C B R N S E N T S R C R S N E

L S P N S E N G S P S E M K S E R B S E N C B E A V X L ` R

H M C R E N M R E S C B E 1 / 2 M U N P P L S E

D – W – M – 4 M P L X D R L X

thanx op....
ok....i was trying to work this out..and halfway through i have come to a conclusion....this is one of two things...now dont laugh..listen.....its either a betting slip or a murder shopping listlol...im going to go with a "complicated bet"..

ok this is what iv noticed...the letters 'SE' appears quite a bit..i think this means start and end...so each word is seperated by the letters......the letter X which appears i think means "&" so in the first note in the brackets on the first line is (TF& LF...)....now the letters that are confusing me are "ncbe" they appear at the end of each line...so we can remove these for now to simplify...anyway this is what im reading in the first note...the letters in capitals is where im stupmed..i think WLD, means win lose draw.....anyway this is what i have..its a work in progress:

start from second line:

frequent pub person including
person maybe pre holding ncbe( tf &lf tc& l NCBE)
AL - PRPPIT & LYPPIY NCBE. carlisle win lose draw NCBE
AL WIN LOSE DRAW NCBE GLEN WIN LOSE DRAW NCBE
(first person 71 ncbe) or (first PR on day end 71 ncbe)
(second person 72 ncbe)
(third person 75 ncbe)
(something something...USE TOTE win lose draw, win lose dra ncbe)
194 lb ncbe (trf& l NCBE)

tote could be a betting term or could mean carry.
there are betting terms in letter are...WLD,TOTE, there seems to be names of tracks in here as well and figures which could mean money...the letter E before the money could mean euros...well he is scottish

i`ll have a proper look after work...peace

This is not a true code. This is an uneducated drug dealer's shorthand. It breaks down who he sells to, how much he sells, a short description of how he knows them, recognizes them, or if he doesn't know them.

Want to solve it? Talk to a narc or street cop that remembers St. Louis back in 1999.
"NCBE" that commonly shows up could easily be Nose Candy Buys Eightball or NiCkel Bag Everyday.

-------
Page 1:
This page is cleaner and was his original list of customers and states what they buy and how often. There weren't that many and he knows them well so he took the time to make it nice and neat.
Opening Parentheses is literally the title of his drug list.
Paragraph 1 - A run on sentence of people and what they buy.
Paragraph 2 (all in parentheses) - individual orders for people living all on the same block or apartment building. No directions needed because he is very familiar with the place. 71, 74, and 75 are house or apartment #s.
Paragraph 3 - last 2 lines of the page. Two custom orders


Page 2:
This was made as he expanded his sales reach. It was made after the fact because he was having trouble remembering everyone and where to go. He jotted it down fast and divided the sections because he constantly had to use it as a reference of who to sell to, how much to sell, and where he was supposed to go to do it.
Paragraph 1 - individuals he sells to and how much. The two with XL at the end are for Extra Large. These customers get the most bang for their buck.
Paragraph 2 - a group of people he sells to that are all in once place. That's what the hyphens are for. It's a "crew"
Paragraph 3 - These are directions. Some of these people he had to make driven deliveries and these are directions so he doesn't forget.
Paragraphs 4 and 5 - Notes to himself, special instructions for somebody's drug order that he doesn't want to forget


And that's it. Find out which of these junkies killed him now.

with the WLD TOTE TC(tricast) TF(trifecta) LF(lucky fifteen)
though the parts below in paragraphs with numbers...i am seeing "first person 75" which indicates that your theoey on a durggies list could be spot on...but the PR could also be a betting terminology,
yes im really believing its a complicated betting slip...he wanted to bet on Pr racing...i think namely superbikes....this is my first impression anyway

reply to post by nyccodeman


I get the feeling it is not a true code either. It is something made for reference for sure which is why it cannot be broken. SE could that refer to South End or South East maybe? I like your idea that it is a drug running list where only he knew his abbreviations.

reply to post by nyccodeman

According to members of his family, McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy...

Pretty precocious drug dealer, I suppose? I can't rule out your theory, but it doesn't seem to fit the profile of this guy, who was known to be into cryptography, at all. Plus, it's hard to imagine that after 3+ years no one at the FBI would have noticed if it significantly matched with drug codes.

I think the idea of this being a list of drug clients and the specifics of the 'deals' has some validity. NCBE could stand for No Cash Being Exchanged...

There are several other groups of letters that repeat, also

SEN
the letters RLSE in different orders
CBRN
PRSE
WLD
and of course the NCBE

I want to believe that it is more than instructions for drug deals, but it will take a lot of figuring if it's something else. Maybe these repetitive letter combos are irrelevant, except to identify the real letters. For example, if we see CBRN a lot, maybe if we see CABRN, that would mean that the A is significant. If this were the case, he would need several different sets of letters to use for confusion because if we saw one particular set too many times, we would be able to tell that this was their purpose.

I also noticed that while most of the sets of letters are exact, the order of the RLSE gets switched around a lot...maybe the different combinations of this set of letters tells us something.

I hope we come up with something here.

This is just a question.

Was he black?