MO MO - Ricky McCormick, 41, St Louis, 30 June 1999

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sfbaynancydrew said:
I was thinking this last night. I had read that he ran numbers for horse racing. Could NCBE be an abbreviation for a horse's name?

And the lines with the 71, 74, 75...I'm thinking they might be bets with symbols for what the people wanted to do.

SE might be something "put" and prse might be a bet. because he then says things like se prse on de71 for example. Could that be a horse's number? Could ncbe be a code for a bet?

I bet these are his bookie numbers encoded because what he was doing was illegal and it helped him keep track of it all without worrying about tipping off LE should lose the list.
Click to expand...

Could the 7 = 7 furlong races and the 1, 4 and 5 be age of horse?
So 74 = 7 furlong race, 4year olds

NC be person who placed bet
BE - for Beulah or Belmont park???????

Just tossing ideas out!
 
I'll bite, and I apologize in advance for the length of this.

I'm a transcriber by profession. When autocorrect came out in Word, it was a blessing. As transcribers, we type in a form of "shorthand." So, tp would expand out to "the patient," sst would expand out to she said that, etc. I also use X at the end of abbreviations for them to expand out. (Forgive me as this will be mostly medical). chfx would be congestive heart failure, whereas chf would be corrected to CHF. Furthermore to make capitalized and bolded headings, I would put a q before the heading...qhpi would be HISTORY OF THE PRESENT ILLNESS:. It is quite amazing how this can be utilized. HOWEVER, each person is different in his/her thinking pattern. Some people I know use a system similar to mine but some don't.

After a while of doing this, it becomes a subconscious thing. I even have a hard time here sometimes typing out full words. I use "revd" a lot for revealed, recd for received, etc. when transcribing pressers. If I saw my abbrevs on a piece of paper, I would know exactly what they meant, and it may not have a rhythm, so to speak, but it would have an observable pattern to most.

He started when he was 10; so right there, we have to look at a 10 y/o's mind, spelling and perceptions. I also think the placement of the strings are important too. It appears to me that at some point he started to use an informal Roman numeral pattern for note taking as evidenced by the indentions and parenthesis. Also, the circled p1 in the right-hand corner speaks to his 10 y/o schooling/mind, in my opinion.

I have a lot more to say, but limited time right now. I will go through the cypher and see what I can "see." :)
 
Okay, here are some tidbits wrt McCormick that I was able to glean from the news articles & court docs:

Vitals:
Name: Ricky (Richard?) C McCormick
Born: 1958
Children: at least 4
Health: Chronic heart & lung problems
Employment: Disabled
Education: High School dropout
Lived with: Sandra Jones
​
Died:
Found: 30 June 1999
State: Decomposed, Head injury
Location: West Alton, SE corner of cornfiled, field road & densely foliated levee, southbound side of Hwy 367 (Unfinished sec of Katy Trail)
Last seen alive: 25 June 1999 @ Forest Park Hospital (Deaconess Hospital), 6150 Oakland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO​

Known Domicile(s):
1400 Chouteau Ave, St Louis, MO 63103-3105
Belleville
Fairview Heights
2852A Pennsylvania, St Louis, MO 63118-1312​

Legal Records (Case Numbers):
22990-04198 - ST LOUIS HOUSING VS JONES, April 14, 1999, Consent Judgement off Record: $905.02
22921-03404-01 - ST V RICKY C MCCORMICK, January 4, 1993, Sexual Assault, Sentence: 3 years (Served 11 months), Judgment CVC Entered: $46.00​
​
Will try to get to the map later today.
 
Hi all, I have been following along for a few days while my account got approved. Took a little bit of time. Anyway, very fascinated by this like everyone else. Couple of things I am thinking, which of course is opinion and speculation like everything else :)

- Organized & contains "intent". This isn't bat-****-crazy writing. The "message" might be a grocery shopping list or something uninteresting, but the repetitiveness of certain phrases means there is likely a method involved in writing this out. In addition, "crossed out" or written over letters means he changed something while writing. If it was just random letters, I doubt he would care if he messed up a letter.

- Just because the guy didn't finish school doesn't mean he isn't smart. Eminem failed out of high school and is a master of words. The smartest people in the world have been autistic (Einstein, Jacob Barnett).

- If he began writing code as a ten year old, it likely got a lot better over time. I wouldn't "think like a ten year old" trying to figure this out.

- I actually assume this is NOT meant to be read out loud. Very little of the letters or words on this page look like they make sense if you read them out loud. You can occasionally find something like "74SPRKSE29KENOSOLE" and yes it does look like "74 Speakers, 29 Consoles" but the other 30 lines don't follow that pattern. It is likely written the same way throughout - at least the same method is used on each page.

- It's likely homemade. This was before computers. There is no "key" to follow, you can't reverse engineer this using a computer program. Somehow the guy had to be able to look at this and know what it meant. I am a big believer that the frequent use of "SE" and "NCBE" holds the key to figuring this out. I am not sure if it's punctuation or identifiers that a new word starts or whatever, but they are very important.

- the ()'s throw me off big time. Are they part of the code, or is it to separate different thoughts?

- This letter likely wasn't meant to be read by anyone else nor discovered, it might not be as complicated or intriguing as we think.

----

I used to write encryption code for computer programs. Nothing super advanced, but I made two different kinds. One with a key that that enabled an encrypted code to be different everytime you hit 'encrypt', with a receiving terminal that could decipher it each time. Another that was based on a math formula using the amount of characters used. Each one scrambled the letters and hid spaces, making it difficult to reverse engineer. My gut instinct is that the letters are scrambled and that certain combination of words have specific meanings... which we might never be able to figure out.
 
shadowraiths said:
Okay, here are some tidbits wrt McCormick that I was able to glean from the news articles & court docs:

Vitals:
Name: Ricky (Richard?) C McCormick
Born: 1958
Children: at least 4
Health: Chronic heart & lung problems
Employment: Disabled
Education: High School dropout
Lived with: Sandra Jones
​
Died:
Found: 30 June 1999
State: Decomposed, Head injury
Location: West Alton, SE corner of cornfiled, field road & densely foliated levee, southbound side of Hwy 367 (Unfinished sec of Katy Trail)
Last seen alive: 25 June 1999 @ Forest Park Hospital (Deaconess Hospital), 6150 Oakland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO​

Known Domicile(s):
1400 Chouteau Ave, St Louis, MO 63103-3105
Belleville
Fairview Heights
2852A Pennsylvania, St Louis, MO 63118-1312​

Legal Records (Case Numbers):
22990-04198 - ST LOUIS HOUSING VS JONES, April 14, 1999, Consent Judgement off Record: $905.02
22921-03404-01 - ST V RICKY C MCCORMICK, January 4, 1993, Sexual Assault, Sentence: 3 years (Served 11 months), Judgment CVC Entered: $46.00​
​
Will try to get to the map later today.
Click to expand...


Nice work!
 
My 2 cents FWIW:

I have been watching this thread (and others) since last night. Like everyone, when the code first came out, it only took me two minutes to realize you were not looking at a simple code–and had we been, the FBI would have solved it with their programs in two seconds flat.

The second thing I did was to compare the actual written code notes to the way the FBI said it was meant to be broken down. I post that here, not claiming they are right–just saying THEY say to use this:

Note 1 text:
( MND MUNE M RSE-N-S-M-KNARE ) ( ACSM )
· TFRNE NPINSE NPBSE RCBRNSE NPRSE INC
PRSE N MRSE OPRE HLD WLD NCBE ( TFXLF TCXLF NCBE )
AL-*RPPIT XLYPPIY NCBE MGKSE WLD RCBRNSE PRSE
WLD RCBRNSE NT SGNENTRSE - CRSLE - CITRSE WLD NCBE
AL WLD NCBE TSME LRSE RLSE URGLS ~ EAS ~ WLD NCBE
( NOPFSE NLSRE NCBE ) NTE G D DMN SENCURE RCBRNE
( TENE TFRNE NCBRTSE NCBE INC )
(FLRSE PRSE ON DE 71 NCBE )
(CDNSE PRSE ON SE 74 NCBE )
(PR+SE PRSE ON REDE 75 NCBE )
(TF N*CMSP SOLE MRDE LUSE TOTE WLD ~ WLD NCBE )
( 194 WLD's NCBE ) ( TRFXL )
Note 2 text:
ALPNTE GLSE-SE ER+E
YLSE MTSE-CSTE-WSE-FRTSE
PURTRSE ONDRSE WLD NCBE
N WLD XLR CMS? NE WLD STS ME XL
DULMT 6 TUNSE NCBEXC

(MuNSA I STENMU NARSE)
KLSE-LRSTE-TR SE-TRSE-MKSE N-MRSE
(FREENSE SE N MRSE)

NMN RCBX NSE PTE 2 PTE WSRC BREXE
36 MLSE 74 SPRKSE 29 KENOS OLE + 73 RTRSE
35 SLE CLGSE OUNNTXF DKRSE PSESHLE
651 MTCSE HTLSE N CU TC TRS NMRE
99.84.8 2 UNE PLSE VCRSE AOLTSE NSKSE N SE

NSRE ONSB PUT SE WLD NCBE (3 XARL)
?NTOSE NRSE I N 2 N TRLERCB ANSE NTSRCR O NE
ASPUSE N G-SPSE MSKE R 8 SE NEBE AU XL R
HM CRENMRE ECBE 1/2 MUNDDLSE

D-W_M-Y MIL XDRLX

Next, I tried the phonetics route, thinking of a ten-year-old, and like most of you, found it mainly gibberish unless you want to stretch it.

I grew up learning two kinds of pig-Latin, one that is nearly impossible to figure out unless you are given the trick and really practice. BUT, that made me think of how twins have their own languages at times. Now if any of you have ever heard twins speak a made up language, not only would you HEAR gibberish, but you would note that it sounds like they are saying the same 15 or so words over and over, so how can they possibly be communicating, and yet they are—the reason being vocal inflection. Think of how we say "Is it ALL right?" Or "Is IT all right?" Two different questions depending where we put the inflection.

While it is possible that the repeated words of the cypher could mean different things, and only he would know because of what came first (as a vocal inflection), I still think that is doubtful. It would then be too sophisticated even for a street-smart person.

While the repeating patterns intrigue me, and I played a lot with them, I almost feel like the majority of the words are abbreviations, not so much as rec'd=received, but more like ASAP=as soon as possible.

Now think of this—if you truly were a bookie, would you not use initials of people and places to keep track of them? Probably, because WE are not thinking of encoding. But what if this was in part, POSSIBLY bookie notes, but predominantly OTHER notes on something more sinister?

Okay, so I write true crime, and my mind has that bent, but since he was incarcerated more than once, and since he was in the mental health facility JUST before he died . . . what if he stumbled onto something much bigger than he was as a simple bookie?

If you look at the actual note, you will see (as someone pointed out) that certain things are circled, and others as set aside, etc. It was as if he was compartmentalizing things or showing more import to one area, or even concentrating more on something he circled, like it held the clue.

Now, suppose someone in the asylum said something and he started to put together things that presented a much bigger picture of some huge cover-up or something, and maybe he told the wrong person he was onto something BIG and they off'd him. Easy to do in a city, putting something in his meds, or anything else.

It could be as big as some hospital cover-up, some crooked police department, or . . . something like verification of something unproven: the 9-11 conspiracy . . . . ???

I just threw that out there–not that it was, since he died before that–unless it would be something about the planning. But, let's face it, if those notes got him killed, it is bigger than a bookie issue, and probably bigger than a crooked hospital cover-up or issue. Crooked cops, maybe . . . but I think bigger than that.

THAT, my dear Watsons, is WHY the FBI after 12 years is willing to kick it our way.

But, an even bigger question should be not WHY the FBI wants us to look at it, but WHY WERE THE NOTES LEFT ON HIM??

I have a theory on that too, but for now, let's leave it at that. Start thinking that SOME of those combos are acronyms–maybe still encoded, but acronyms, none the less, and see where that takes you. Start with WLD meaning Win, Lose or Draw, and go from there.

Thanks for listening. I know this is long.

"The Truth Is Out There"
 
shadowraiths said:
Okay, here are some tidbits wrt McCormick that I was able to glean from the news articles & court docs:
Vitals:
Name: Ricky (Richard?) C McCormick
Born: 1958
Children: at least 4
Health: Chronic heart & lung problems
Employment: Disabled
Education: High School dropout
Lived with: Sandra Jones
​
Died:
Found: 30 June 1999
State: Decomposed, Head injury
Location: West Alton, SE corner of cornfiled, field road & densely foliated levee, southbound side of Hwy 367 (Unfinished sec of Katy Trail)
Last seen alive: 25 June 1999 @ Forest Park Hospital (Deaconess Hospital), 6150 Oakland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO​
Known Domicile(s):
1400 Chouteau Ave, St Louis, MO 63103-3105
Belleville
Fairview Heights
2852A Pennsylvania, St Louis, MO 63118-1312​
Legal Records (Case Numbers):
22990-04198 - ST LOUIS HOUSING VS JONES, April 14, 1999, Consent Judgement off Record: $905.02
22921-03404-01 - ST V RICKY C MCCORMICK, January 4, 1993, Sexual Assault, Sentence: 3 years (Served 11 months), Judgment CVC Entered: $46.00​
​
Will try to get to the map later today.
Click to expand...

From https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do
Ricky C McCormick 1958

22921-03404 - ST V RICKY C MCCORMICK
Date Filed: 11/19/1992 Location: City of St. Louis Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges Disposition: Casefile Tranf GrandJury Indmt Date of Disposition: 12/23/1992 Judge/Commissioner At Disposition: SULLIVAN, SHERRI BERKBIGLER -------------------------------> Part of the docket entries:
12/23/1992 Docket Entry: Casefile Tranf GrandJury Indmt Text: TRUE BILL RETURNED BY GRAND JURY, INDICTMENT FILED

Docket Entry: Order Text: CT-02, SEX ASLT-1ST DEG - PRIOR OFFENDER, (F). TRUE BILL RETURNED BY GRAND JURY, INDICTMENT FILED JUDGE SHERRI A. SULLIVAN, DIV 25

Docket Entry: Order Text: CT-01, RAPE - WEAPON OR INJURY - PRIOR OFF CHILD UNDER 14, (F). TRUE BILL RETURNED BY GRAND JURY, INDICTMENT FILED JUDGE SHERRI A. SULLIVAN, DIV 25

Docket Entry: Filing: Text: INDICTMENT(S) RETURNED BY GRAND JURY AND SIGNED. JUDGE THOMAS C. MUMMERT III, DIV 16
RELATED CASE: 22921-03404-01 - ST V RICKY C MCCORMICK

Date Filed: 01/04/1993 Location: City of St. Louis Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges Disposition: Guilty Plea Date of Disposition: 09/01/1993 Judge/Commissioner At Disposition: DAVID, MICHAEL PAUL Charge/Judgment Description: Sexual Assault { Felony C RSMo: 566.040 } Date: 01/04/1993 Code: 1104000 Disposition: Guilty Plea - 09/01/1993 OCN: 92125629

Arresting Agency: ST LOUIS PD-PRISONER PROC Sentence Sentence: Incarceration DOC Sentence Date: 10/08/1993 Start Date: 10/08/1993 Length: 3 Years
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date Filed: 11/19/1992 Location: City of St. Louis Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges Disposition: Casefile Tranf GrandJury Indmt Date of Disposition: 12/23/1992 Judge/Commissioner At Disposition: SULLIVAN, SHERRI BERKBIGLER


RELATED CASE:

Date Filed: 01/04/1993 Location: City of St. Louis Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges Disposition: Guilty Plea Date of Disposition: 09/01/1993 Judge/Commissioner At Disposition: DAVID, MICHAEL PAUL

Cases below are Possible - no birthdate given to verify

35R039401198 - ST V RICKY MCCORMICK


Date Filed: 09/15/1994 Location: Dunklin Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges Disposition: Guilty Plea Date of Disposition: 09/30/1994 Judge/Commissioner At Disposition: STILLMAN, JERRY C

Charge/Judgment Description: Passing Bad Check--Under { Misdemeanor A RSMo: 570.120 } Date: 09/15/1994 Code: 1902000 Disposition: Guilty Plea - 09/30/1994 Sentence Sentence: Fine Sentence Date: 09/30/1994 Start Date: 09/30/1994 Fine: $5.00 --------------------------------------------------------------------
MCCORMICK, RICKY 22877-02287
YOUNG , VICKIE , Plaintiff
MCCORMICK , RICKY , Defendant
Date Filed: 07/08/1987 Location: City of St. Louis Case Type: FC Miscellaneous Domestic Rel Disposition: Consent Judgment Date of Disposition: 09/04/1987 -----------------------------------
22990-04198 - ST LOUIS HOUSING VS JONES
ST LOUIS HOUSING AUTHORITY , Plaintiff represented by TOELLE , FREDERICK CARL , Attorney for Plaintiff 3520 PAGE BLVD
SAINT LOUIS, MO 63106

4100 LINDELL BLVD
SAINT LOUIS, MO 63108
Business: (314) 822-4454

JONES , SANDRA , Defendant
1400 CHOUTEAU
ST LOUIS, MO 63103-0000

MCCORMICK , RICKY , Defendant
1400 CHOUTEAU
ST LOUIS, MO 63103-0000
-----------------------------------------------------------
35O018100389 - CITY OF KENNETT V RICKY MCCORMICK -- 3 cases but they all list year of birth as 1961 ------ DO NOT THINK THESE ARE HIM -- THINK THEY ARE RICKY D. MCCORMICK
 
Maybe this sounds far-fetched but maybe the FBI is interested in this man's encryption because of:

1. Mafia?

2. Spy?

I dunno... may be silly but I was wondering the same thing on why this encryption was so important. I'm following along but don't think I can contribute anything more than what others have been saying as well! :)
 
SheerLuckHolmes --- welcome. Do you have a link for the mental illness and hospitalization. HOW DID I MISS THAT???

BRIMCFLY - welcome too, but I disagree that this was before computers. Early yes, but not what I consider before. I do however doubt it was related to computers at all!

I know my son wrote an email program (for fun) that encrypts an email or note and does it completely at random and only with a code can you see the message -- but again, that was most likely too sophisticated for the era and I would have expected to see the 'notes' printed off, not hand written with what appear to be corrections.
 
gibby207 said:
Maybe this sounds far-fetched but maybe the FBI is interested in this man's encryption because of:

1. Mafia?

2. Spy?

I dunno... may be silly but I was wondering the same thing on why this encryption was so important. I'm following along but don't think I can contribute anything more than what others have been saying as well! :)
Click to expand...

My personal opinion:
1. Not put out to solve his death as much as others possibly linked.
2. Excuse about email/server overload - well, first they asked for snail mail prior to that story and I think it because they are looking for handwriting or shall we say, they tossed a fishing line out and hope to catch someone specific! :truce:
3. To drive us crazy and get more hits per day than charlie sheen gets on twitter.
 
A_News_Junkie said:
BRIMCFLY - welcome too, but I disagree that this was before computers. Early yes, but not what I consider before. I do however doubt it was related to computers at all!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I agree :) Let me clarify... if he was relatively poor and uneducated, the chances of him having a computer AND knowing how to create his own code/program online is very tiny. Since the FBI probably used all the common encryption techniques... I lean towards this guy making this up in his head and being able to decipher it in his head as well. Which is why this is so challenging :banghead:
 
I don't think this guy was coding his medication. He is a simple person and usually the simple answer is the right one.

I really think it was a list of clients who had bets with him. I wish I could find a list of the names of race horses during 1999. THAT would be something to find. I bet we'd see some initials that might just fit! lol
 


I should mention that when I interview people (and especially if more than one person is speaking) not only do I use a combination of medical shortcuts, like q for every, and p for after, etc., but I use a bit of real shorthand from high school, and then abbreviations that I make up on the spot! I have never had difficulty deciphering what I wrote as my handwriting is very readable, BUT if anyone else looked at the notes, they would be mostly clueless.

However, one thing I always do is if something important is said halfway through the interview, as I take that note, I put a circle (mine look sort of like clouds) around that, because I know when I transcribe, it is critical I do not miss that. I also circle to compartmentalize.

I almost picture him sitting in the sun room at the sanitarium, listening to the crazies around him, AND hearing some conversation he was not meant to hear and he starts taking notes. Being used to seeing his crazy coding, no one thinks anything of it until later.

I should mention that someone named LuciBear is claiming to have cracked the whole thing nine hours after release, but says her solution was removed from online, but not before MANY law enforcement got in touch with her and she is still working with them. Evidently there were at least SIX pages of code. She could be lying, or it could be true. I do not have the time to follow that thread.

On another site, a bunch of guys say they have cracked it and it is all related to vehicles, maintenance, VIN numbers (redundant), auto descriptions, etc.

===========================
"The Truth Is Out There"
 
Sheerlock, that's interesting about Lucibear. I really hope it's right as I'm dying to know what it means! lol

Let's hope the FBI actually LETS US KNOW at least if it's cracked so we can stop trying. The worst thing is when they leave us hanging (Acala pics anyone?)
 



It is sort of fun to know that in some FBI office, at this very second, someone is reading this post, because you know they have people on every thread on every website.
 
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