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

Originally posted by DigitalSea
When I look at the code, it feels like my brain understands, but at the same time doesn't understand the code. It feels like my brain gets it, but other letter get in the way and confuse my brain as to what is really there. I have an idea of how we can potentially break it.

Template approach. Don't you find it odd your brain feels like it gets it, but then doesn't get it? What if you were to take a piece of paper, block out some of the letters from view leaving only a few letters in place? Then perhaps something is done with those visible letters? Perhaps the most common letters like PRSE are the ones to be blocked out?

It's obviously a code as there are too many recurring letters for it to be nonsensical. If it were truly nonsensical why would there be a recurring theme through the letters?

What are the letters in parenthesis? The definition of parenthesis according to the Oxford English Dictionary is: An explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage with which it doesn't necessarily have any grammatical connection, and from which it is usually marked off by round or square brackets, dashes, or commas.

Could this mean something? Are those letters in brackets signifying that it's not part of the message but in-fact some kind of legend to how a particular paragraph is written and structured. What were to happen if you started to remove letters doing a find and replace in MS Word?

Maybe it's because the thingy in your skull can do about 3.75 Quadrillion (15 zeros) of instructions per second and your subconscious mind processes more than 99% of that "thinking" for you?

Your unconscious mind has probably solved the code in this thread like its child-play but it unfortunately fails to communicate that to your conscious mind because of the massive bottleneck/lag between the communication of your subconscious which is massively fast and your conscious mind which is billions of times slower...
This forces your subconscious to send an extremely oversimplified summary of the analyzation to your conscious which is way too compressed for you to understand fully.
Maybe in a few billion years when we've evolved further? :p

There you have it! A completely unnecessary and long comment for your simple question. Be careful what you ask (for)

On topic: I'm not even gonna try to break it. The kind could have used any key he could have come up with.
For all I know the first letter on every 3rd word proceeded by an A/B/C/D etc. will be the the first, then tenth, then second, then ninth etc. part of the key with the remaining 5 pieces in his head + its written from the middle to the left, right, up and then down, skipping for example part 5 of the code every time a certain symbol is written.
I know I would do something at least as complicated as that if I wanted to make an unbreakable code.


IT--

reply to post by davidgrouchy


SE is also the country of Sweden and Spectra Energy.Hmm Or South East maybe its a map to more bodies GPS corrodinates? That's a scary thought. What would a killer have to say though?

He numbered the pages they obvious go in order. It looks like a riddle with the code key maybe using substitution. letters for numbers and numbers for letters. Trying to brain storm and with my brain I only have so much to go with.

I had a friend that used to able to skillfully talk backwards to her other friend and they completely understood each other. the would quickley in their mind spell out the world and sound each word out backwards. Heck their may be a photo cut with holes and the rest of the gibberish is a decoy

Over 50% of the mccormick cryptogram is only four letters: E, S, N, and R.

The most common English letter is E, followed by T, A, O, N, I and S. By looking
at the Frequency Table and seeing which encrypted letters occur most often, you
can guess that they will probably be switched for the most common English
letters. That doesn't mean that the letter appearing the most will always be an E,
or even a T, but those would be good guesses. If you can correctly guess a few
of the letters which appear most often, it will give you many clues as to what
words are contained in the message. So it's important to make you first guesses
carefully.

If you're lucky, the message will contain some single letter words, these will
almost always be either A or I, though on rare occasions O may be a word
(usually at the beginning of a sentence). The most common two letter words are
OF, TO, IN, IS, IT, AS, HE, BE, BY, ON, OR & AT. Sometimes as you enter
guesses, you'll see a two letter word that "just can't possibly be right"... so watch
them and back-up by removing a guess that was probably incorrect.

The most common three letter words are THE and AND, followed by FOR, HIS,
NOT, BUT, YOU, ARE, HER & HAD. The most common four letter word is THAT
followed by WITH, HAVE & FROM. The "TH" combination is so common that it
often provides your best starting guesses. I look for a two letter combo that also
repeats at the beginning of longer words. You are probably on the right track if
you see some words with patterns such as these:
XRJ, XRKX, XRSB, XRJTJ, XRJBJ... which could translate to:
THE, THAT, THIS, THERE, THESE.

While some messages may be chosen precisely because they don't contain
many "TH" words, most will have a few and spotting them can result in the first
big crack you put on a cypher. Another "give away" pattern is XZZ... which will
often be ALL, TOO or SEE. WHERE and WHICH are also common, note the H
as a second letter and the ERE ending. Overall, the most common first letter in a
word is T, and the most common last letter is E. And don't forget to look for those
ING endings. Oh, and for what it's worth, Q is always followed by U (I think).

Punctuation can also be a big clue, especially an apostrophe ( ' ) used in a
contraction or possessive form of a word. A single letter following an apostrophe
will often be a T or an S... and a N'T ending is also common.

I still think the guy is just writing how it sounds and he can't spell on top of that so you have some kind of ebonics short hand.

apartment glass see entre while meets ? was first partners undress while in cab and while ? knows the streets me and xl don't 6 ounce in cab xl
munsa resting ? ? cause likes to try see

2 ? risk burns 36 miles 74 sparks 29 keno saw 175 ? 35 ? ? unit xed cross sachel 651 ? hustle and cut ? and remember 99 84 55 soon please increase ? and ?

Just some til I gave up for the night.

he has a history for trying to rape people proven by past criminal records (which are felonies).

what if... he was trying to commit another rape and the person clocked him in the head and left him for dead in the middle of no where and thats what he had in his pockets where these two pieces of paper from his medication? and thats why he couldnt make it back because his medication had side effects of heart disease and making it hard for him to breath after the "attack" on the other person?

Just hand the dang code to Ted Kaczynski,and offer him a few candy bars from the commissary. This would get solved in a day.MHO..........

Originally posted by Aeons
Common groupings:
PRSE
RSE
NCBE
WLD
TFRNE
INC
XL
SE
NRSE

Common groupings:
PRSE - Program in Religious Studies and Education
RSE - Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
NCBE - National Conference of Bar Examiners
WLD - www.wldranch.com...
TFRNE - ?
INC - Incorporated
XL - Relative to a ton of things.
SE - Same thing, from Securities Exchange to South East
NRSE - Google come up with this page> http < break > ://www.google.com/ < break > search? < broken here cut an pate together > client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1016&bih=571&q=wikipedia&btnG=Google+Search#sclient=psy&hl=en&client =firefox-a&hs=3TC&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&biw=1016&bih=571&q=NRSE&aq=0s&aqi=g-s1g1g-s2g1&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=3 ea5322f77d9e72d

CRC- cyclic redundancy check - an error correction code that is recorded in each sector of a magnetic disk and used to catch errors in the data
MSP - 1. (Medicine / Pharmacology) Member of the Pharmaceutical Society
NEW
LDST-Linear Dispersion Speaker Technology
ME-mechanical engineer

reply to post by toolstarr


If its what they call a "one time pad"..it will be extremely difficult to decipher

unless you have the key..

I bet the NSA could..why didnt they ask them

reply to post by Sandn


Excellent first post .

Welcome to ATS .

Hey guys.

I'm not a code-breaker by any means, but I read the OP and the article that was put out, and something sounded off to me, so I did some more research.

I found these three articles from 1999 about this guy's death:

www.stltoday.com...

nl.newsbank.com... _direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date&s_trackval=GooglePM

nl.newsbank.com... _direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date&s_trackval=GooglePM

And not one of them mentioned anything about pages with coded writing on the guy.

What if they're from somewhere/someone else? (that nuclear scientist that "suicided" off the bridge recently flashed through my mind) Also, why not ask NSA for help? Crypto is kind of their thing.

Not sure if this has already been brought up (I didn't read through all 12 pages of posts), but I thought I'd throw it out there. If it is from somewhere/someone else, that would change how you would go about solving the code, wouldn't it?

reply to post by Nomadmonkey


I have never look at breaking codes before but though I would have a quick look.

I have just search over a few of the letters and tired to work out what they could mean. Most of the stuff I have found looks like (well not to sure to be honest) Don't know if I am trying to just link what I have found or if there is a legitimate link between them. Any way this is what I have found.

I am new to all this and the website so please don't shoot me if I am way off.

NCBE - this seems to be the most common used in the letters. But under the link you posted with Acronyms I have tried to break it down so.
N = Newton, CB= Circuit Breaker, E= Equipment. I put this in Google and it shows Circuit equipment built by Newton. (Prob nothing but just pointing out what I have found)

Wld = Weld? as to weld metal on metal
SE = Service Entrance (Cable)
PR = Pair
AC = Acceptable levels
RSE = US reference standard Endotoxin? (when I searched this it shows a website on some company where they experimented on the EC-5 levels in humans by using different dosages 1 - 16?) Does the above AC mean (AC) Acceptable levels of (RSE) US reference standard Endotoxin?

And the most interesting on I found was NISRE = comes up as National Language Software registry?? Maybe he wanted to register his own language?

Just a though but prob nothing, comments are welcome as this is my first time of trying to crack a code

Personally I think the words in Brackets will give us the answer and the rest around is just a distraction

reply to post by Hoopinator

This may help you guys this dude seems to have a pretty good idea whats up

"Start with the obvious, which is to check the "key" at the end.

The time key is at the bottom of page 2 (which was written first and as a log of medications: this is critical for bipolars to get their meds exactly right, which takes years of variation and must be coded, since doctors require that bipolars stay closeted due to publicty regarding violent crimes) weekday triggers indicate a work trigger, month patterns indicate seasonal disorder usually starting in the 4th qtr as indicated here. Years indicate home environment. Times of day for meds indicate sleeplessness or need for a stimulant in the morning which is common in early years.

Bottom of page 2:

D-W-M-Y M,D,L = Day weekday month year: morning day or latenight
These are time designations that are critical to get your meds right with bipolar and are coded for privacy

Body of page 2:

26MLSE74SPRKSE29KENOSOLE173R7RSE

2x 6mg Serenace in 1974

99-84.B2UNEPLSENCRSEAOLTSENSKSENRSE

1999 through 1988

HMCRENMRESCBE ½MUNDDLSE

1/2 tablet

NSREOUSEPUTSEWLDUCBE(3XORL)

(3 times oral)

On page 1 are lists of manic episodes, as required to diagnose bipolar:

(FLRSEPRSEONDE71NCBE)
From late september really severe episode on December 1971: No cause before episode
(CDNSEPRSEONSF/DE74NCBE)
Chronic Depression in September, really severe episode on the start of December in 1974, no cause before episode

These logs are needed forever and are why this has been so private for so long."

McCormick was described as a 'street smart' high school drop-out, who could read and write. His family said at the time that he had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but none of his friends or relatives could decipher the code. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

This is not the killers note. He has done this since he was a child it is probable that it does not have a consistent code or even a meaning.

Has anyone considered that this is the way the writer of the note wanted this to go? That possibly he intended the message to go over the heads of the FBI so that they couldn't suppress the information and wanted it to eventually reach a broader audience?

This could be anything from complete gibberish to a profound insight (but personally I'm thinking gibberish)

Very interesting. Don't know if this matters or not but yesterday Wikipedia had the FBI's version of the note typed out. Was well organized and seperated. Today, the Wikipedia version of the SAME article, no longer includes the typed notes from the FBI!

Very Fishy!

Here is the thread that changed: Wikipedia FBI Notes

Why would someone who has been writing in code most of his life include a key on his note?

Answer - he wouldn't.

It does mess with your eyes. I think he might be using some substitution and leaving letters and spaces out.
Like, why do **I** see that he curses aol and he ate half a mudpie slice?

reply to post by LUCAPONY


L05: WLD RCBRNSENT SBNENTXE .CRSLE.CLTRS EWLD NCBE
L06: AL W CDNC BETSM ELRSERLSEURGLSNEASN WLD NCBE

L05:
the world will need a new kind of semantics to adapt its culture to the Ebe's

L06:
all Chemical and Biological Engineering and research in the world have stemmed from ebe's

Just read 12 pages of information and leads, I'll get back to ya tomorrow after i figure this out.