The FBI has put out a public request for help cracking a code.  The code above was found in the pants of a murder victim over 10 years ago.  Despite some of the best code breakers in the world give it a shot, they have not been able to break the code.  I wonder if the NSA had a go at it.  Couldn’t they try brute force like in Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress?  Yes I referenced Dan Brown in the same paragraph as the NSA, deal with it.

If you think you can help send a letter to:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case

There’s no reward but you’d be helping your country.

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Jared Lander is the Chief Data Scientist of Lander Analytics a New York data science firm, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, Organizer of the New York Open Statistical Programming meetup and the New York and Washington DC R Conferences and author of R for Everyone.

4 thoughts on “The FBI Needs Your Help

  1. Ricky McCormick is a genius in his own right. He thinks in layers and writes his codes in the same manner. On his sheet you will find clues, symbols and codes. He may have only placed a few clues on his sheets of paper. One clue leads to another clue and another code. Think of it as a treasure hunt. I don’t know much about puzzles, I look at things a different way. I read pictures of people and use psychometry to figure things out. This is what I feel and see when I look at this. Latitude and Longitude. Ricky thinks in numbers and layers of complexity.. If you take the latitude and longitude of St. Louis Missouri you get this: Latitude 38.646991 and Longitude -90.224967 If you take the last two digits off each coordinate you get this: 38.646974 latitude and -90.224975 longitude. It’s the same place but look around to see what’s in the area and you this business called Piece of PI on Cozens Ave and Francis Street in St. Louis MO. Friends? Address? Code? If it’s a code then the next clue is that he created a code based on PI and that means random numbers. He may also have created a PI based code language. http://investigacio.wordpress.com/category/pi-language/
    If you look in the top right of his paper it says PI. I also saw what looked like longitude or latitude marks and math type symbols. If someone didn’t kill him for what he saw or assumed he saw they may have killed him to gain rights to his codes if he showed or shared them with anyone. I’m thinking he might be using some kind of latitude longitude grid on top of a Peace of PI symbol that is written in a circle like a compass or wheel then using this to point to numbers that are a PI language. He thinks in layers so it’s got to be something like that. Good luck. This is the best I can come up with.

    Reply
  2. People:
    Look the 2nd note,last line,said:
    “O-W-m-4 H8L XORLX”
    Can you see what letter are repetead?
    IF L=M and X= Variations of the letter C (MC, C, CK) then
    “OWN FOR I AM MCCORMICK”
    This is a SIGNATURE and Mccormick´s LAST WILL.
    This is the key master
    Bye.

    Reply
  3. Hello from Spain. UPDATE

    – The master key to understanding Mccormick´s notes should be sought in the last line of the 2nd note the signature of the deceased.

    – I saw that certain letters were repeated as in the word “Mccormick” and i remembered the joke of Arthur C. Clarrke in the movie “2oo1” (IBM= HAL 9000)

    – And this is my solution:

    “O-W-m-4 H8L XORLX” = “OWN-FOR I AM MCCORM(i)CK” because …

    + O=O, W=W and R=R
    + m=N, H=I and L=M by use Caesar code B or +1
    + 4= four= for by phonetic solution
    + 8= eight= eit= ei= letter A by phonetic solution
    + X= Variations of the letter “c” (MC, C and CK) by shorthand use.
    + The hyphen join the letters in a word.
    + Vowel “i” by usual solution in shorthand transcription

    – If you think 4 is not 4 but “Y” and 8 is not 8 but “I” then the solution is:

    +”Y”= wai= WHY or WAY by phonetic solution, similar sound.
    +”I”= ai= letter A by phonetic solution, graphic representation of a sound.

    “O-W-m-Y HIL XORLX” means “OWN-WHY? I AM MCCORMICK”
    -This is the master key.

    -The plaintext not exist
    -Only exist a stenographyc text that was hidden with a personal shorthand system with some measures of deception.

    -Finally, in Marais Temps Clair C.A. (mo) there is a suitcase buried by Mccormick with money ($99.840) and more, after the central curve in a bird watching position.
    – Good luck.

    By the way….
    1) A second unsolved murder exist, Mccormick report that in the note one, line 12.
    2) Can anyone tell me if at the northern entrance of Marais temps Clair C.A. (mo) is a house with the number 35?

    Reply
  4. Hello from Spain.
    A solution to the Kryptos sculpture – a 12 foot-high copper scroll, containing a mysterious coded message – may now finally be close (three of the four coded sections of the sculpture had been cracked) . For 20 years it has sat in the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, unsolved even by the sharp-minded agents who pass it every day.

    A portion of the code was printed on the dust jacket of The Da Vinci Code, Brown’s highly successful 2003 novel, and Kryptos was incorporated into the plot of the sequel, The Lost Symbol.

    Perhaps you can find a cryptographic solution to my solution

    + According to Occam’s razor, the simplest solution iF Letters 64-69 “NYPVTT” = “BERLIN” then K4 can be::

    …..PEOPLE TO CREATE A SAFER, FREER WORLD AND SURELY THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE THAN BERLIN THE MEETING PLACE OF EAST AND WEST…… (97 Characters).

    —by Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987.(Fragment).
    http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbrandenburggate.htm

    Because if K4 is a real text (like K3), then i should find key phrases/quotes related to Berlin (place). I look for the most important and beautiful texts (Kennedy & Reagan speeches)

    + This is a so very nice solution but I have not a mathematical or cryptographical explanation.

    Bye from Spain.

    Reply

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