The 340 has been solved!

[MsBetsy]

Congratulations David Oranchak, Jarl Eycke, and Sam Blake for finally cracking the code!

I do hope investigators will be able to identify the killer one day. It would be amazing if he were still alive and made some kind of response.

 

[airportwoman]

That "slaves in paradice" (sic) was basically part of BTK's delusional horrors. He really believed, and probably still does, that his victims would actually be his servants in the afterlife.

Ted Kaczynski was caught because his brother recognized some unique quirks in the manifesto, ones he had seen in letters back when they were in contact. One wonders if someone will recognize misspellings and be able to identify the Zodiac.

 

[Vaden]

This is amazing! 51 years and so many man hours were spent trying to crack the code. Amazing accomplishment guys. Here's hoping that you crack the others and solve this case. (I'm sure he never left his name in code) but you never know, and just maybe there's some other identifying clue in the others ciphers. Watching the YouTube video on his they solved it was fascinating. Good job.

 

[mrtnira]

You do have to wonder whether the misspelling was deliberate.

I'm thrilled that the cipher has been solved, but like many others, I was hoping that it would reveal Zodiac's identity. I'm still hoping that there might be a clue in there somewhere.

Supposedly, he (the Zodiac killer) left his name or a key to finding him in the coded messages. Since "paradice" is misspelled consistently within the decoded texts, might he have double ciphered that word?

In that, each letter represents another letter within the alphabet. He might have included his name in whole, or initials and last name expecting someone to capture the double encoding and to begin working on that.

 

[UncoolNegated]

I think the decipher is wrong. It actually said "I am Arthur Leigh Allen."

 

[wary]

Congratulations! Amazing work!

(I’ll confess, I saw the headline and thought: ‘yeah, sure, they all say they’ve decided it.’ My abject apologies.)

 

[dpap.psy]

If you google Paradice and slaves.....you get a song called Paradice Slaves by the group Zodiac. Coincidence? I call it creepy

⌖ ZODIAC ⌖
Interesting!

 

[Paul B.]

Can LE find the needle in this haystack:

Dyslexia
Military background
No kids
No siblings
Religious
Lived in Northern Cali
Looked like a nerd

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Can LE find the needle in this haystack:

Dyslexia
Military background
No kids
No siblings
Religious
Lived in Northern Cali
Looked like a nerd

Sounds like the history of any number of Silicon Valley tech billionaires, just as easily as becoming a serial killer...

 

[ghost story]

Question: I have been looking at the last sentence & wondering if it’s possible zodiac put the words “life is” out of order, so it should read I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE. LIFE IS DEATH. ???

I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE.
LIFE IS DEATH".

I agree completely, though I'm not sure how it impacts the cypher. Hopefully this has been considered.

 

[mrtnira]

May I make a suggestion? I'd go with what the killer wrote. His final statement is a complete idea which is simply truncated, probably to the required spacing within the constraint of the code formatting.

When building a message in a code that is based on a format, sometimes things get shortened to fit. If everything had to fit in a limited number of spaces in the pattern of a square or rectangle, then some words get left out. The idea is communicated, but the sentence structure is not fully developed.

"WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH" is the incomplete sentence which directly followed a more developed sentence about having slaves in the paradise of the afterlife. Within context we can infer a connection between the two parts of the final section, with part one (a complete sentence) leading to the idea expressed in the incomplete sentence in part two.

People use this kind of idea connection in communications today when using text messages. A limited number of characters in a text means people don't always use full statements but express ideas within a context.

 

[Manwel]

That "slaves in paradice" (sic) was basically part of BTK's delusional horrors. He really believed, and probably still does, that his victims would actually be his servants in the afterlife.

Ted Kaczynski was caught because his brother recognized some unique quirks in the manifesto, ones he had seen in letters back when they were in contact. One wonders if someone will recognize misspellings and be able to identify the Zodiac.

I have definitely joked before that BTK could be Zodiac. If he used his easy air travel because of Air Force to go between Kansas City and SF, it's not entirely impossible logistically.

 

[Manwel]

I am so happy about this! I feel like the "slaves in paradice" is something I've heard or read before. It's on the tip of my tongue and I just can't recall it. My gut tells me that the paradise misspelling is a clue. I know he misspelled a lot but I think this was an intentional one. Great work!

Could Zodiac have been a priest? Or disgraced clergy? He's talking about slaves with him in paradise. He doesn't fear death. Zodiac could still be military but I'm just wondering if a fall from religious grace set him off.

BTK was revealed to be a church leader in his community.

 

[pauldking]

I always suspected that he was afraid of the gas chamber

 

[Meffy]

Awesome work David

 

[Sooki]

I think the decipher is wrong. It actually said "I am Arthur Leigh Allen."

Methinks you are right

 

[CaMan60]

The other cipher was decoded by the Donald Har...the school teacher.
The contents are
similar to this message from zodiac. It proves Donald and his wife... were right ,
and of-course
it proves that in no way, was he working with zodiac...

 

[ekardh]

Ironic how he boasts about having no fear of capital punishment, and yet he went underground after that close-shave with Stine's murder.

 

[Ozoner]

Sounds like the history of any number of Silicon Valley tech billionaires, just as easily as becoming a serial killer...

It's known that psychopaths accumulate wealth much more easily than people who have consciences, so many if not most Silicon Valley billionaires are probably psychopaths. Still, most psychopaths never bother to commit murder. They are usually able to get what they want simply by using and manipulating people, which for them is effortless.

 

[Richard]

Immo...maybe paradice is an anogram. ..just seemed he used the word alot

It has been suggested that Zodiac was a big fan of old movies, and plays. I wonder if his use of the term "Paradice" might have been borrowed from the title of this 1930 movie: