Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 3
Points: 9
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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To Whom It May Concern:
What follows is a copy of my current (as of May 28, 2009) communiqué to all who are interested in the solution to the remaining Zodiac ciphers.
Much of the timeline info. regarding my personal involvement with the Zodiac case (specif. the 340-, 13-, and 32-symbol ciphers) you will find from my original E-mail attached below.
Sincerely,
Robert Peter Ackerman
(nr. Pittsburgh, PA)
(USA Public Library)
Date: Monday, 6 April, 2009
Subject: Discovery of Single Solution Key for Remaining Zodiac Ciphers (3)
First, allow me to congratulate Mr. Voigt on his expert decoding of Zodiac’s signature puzzle from the “Exorcist” letter. I’m certain that the glyphs do indeed coalesce to spell: “LEigh.” His solution is nothing short of a stroke of genius—actually as many strokes as are in that cleverly designed motion graphic! I realize now, his perceptive deduction from Zodiac’s body text to the signature: the gradual slackening of lowercase g’s—terminating in nothing more than a “bleeding” ink dot. Likewise, the circled dots he exaggerated (uncharacteristically) above his i’s lead Voigt's similar inference that Zodiac was drawing attention (consciously or not) to the final solitary dot intended above the lowercase i (also set apart from the scrambled ink block lettering) further taunting while adding concealment to the serial killer's true identity.
On 17 Mar., 2007, I first became acquainted with the Zodiac case through the original release of the Fincher film, based on Graysmith’s book. The movie fascinated me – I was gripped by the many enigmas of plot and subplot in and around 1969 (my birth year). Therein lay the impetus for me to research the Web: Elonka.com and Wikipedia; Re-quest.net/mystery/zodiac and Zodiackiller.com, the last two of which had posted the unsolved Zodiac ciphers that until then, I had not even known existed. I was hooked!
What I am prepared to explain to all who read this, I also intend for Mr. Graysmith. If anyone is an acquaintance of his then please transfer this information to him. Of course, I am well aware (from his books) just why he cannot make himself as accessible to the public as once he had. Being that I am an avid Rolling Stone reader, I do believe that I identified his [16 Oct., 2008] entry in “Letters to the Editor” pertaining to the Comedy Special [RS 1063]. This very brief entry was nonetheless reassuring for me to confirm that he was residing in San Francisco and evidently in good health and spirits—in so far as a reader’s positive response to a comedy issue would indicate.
In order to break the remaining three Zodiac codes, I used intuition, logic, and linguistic skills honed in my Philosophy and Cognitive Psychology education. The “brute force” solution—derived with pencil, eraser, and paper (I still do not own a computer)—took approximately three weeks of eight hours each day or evening, not to mention a good bit of curiosity and “dogged perseverance.” The last line of the 340 cipher contains the most damning evidence. In no way was this or any other line of text forced beyond the substitution rules of the evolving cipher solution key.
Since there have been numerous computer attempts over the decades to solve the Zodiac 340, allow me to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes on Artificial Intelligence by the philosopher, John Searle:
Quote:Just because a computer program can simulate a pig farm does not mean that it can produce any Bacon. [Baconian method]
I am prepared to produce some Bacon! Here is my most simplified outline just to offer the seven primary points of my discovery:
Zodiac Ciphers Solution
Why the Robert P. Ackerman Solution
Is the Only Solution
I. Solution Key evidences non-random value patterns throughout three semi-discrete sections of the 340-block cipher.
II. One Solution Key successfully translates all three ciphers into coherent English plaintext.
III. The Killer signs a confession in the last line of the 340 cipher: “LEE IS LEIGH I HIHNTT.”
IV. Deciphered phraseology matches that of previously confirmed Zodiac correspondence.
V. Poetic free verse comprises the 340 Cipher Plaintext.
VI. Activities described in the 340 cipher match the type of victims, crime scenes, and sexually sadistic methods of the Zodiac Killer M.O.
VII. Physical forensic evidence potentially exists at crime site designated in the Button letter (Bomb/Map) cipher.
Conclusion
All of these puzzle pieces integrate, and when considered in toto, prove beyond a doubt that the Robert P. Ackerman Plaintext Solution is the only solution and constitutes a signed confession from Zodiac Serial Killer: Arthur “Leigh” Allen.
Please further consider the following hypothetical situation:
A citizen (civilian) who would solve—and know intuitively/rationally that he or she had solved—the remaining Zodiac ciphers, would immediately face several moral obligations:
(A) To communicate the material facts and conclusions as soon as possible to the relevant authorities.
I accomplished this in-person on 5 May, 2008 – within an FBI business day of my discovery.
The citizen should then expect a reasonable amount of time to elapse while the agents analyze the data, further disseminate their findings to specialists; reject or verify; and if compelled by discovery, take what effective and timely actions their expert conclusions warrant—covertly, as the case may be—to protect the security interests of the public.
The one year mark is fast approaching since first I delivered to relevant police departments and FBI what my Symbol Solution Key deciphers as a demonstrably obvious confession from a killer who has been deceased for almost 17 years as of the date of this writing.
(B) If the citizen who first solved the ciphers was aware that sensitive discovery was manifested in the plaintext: such as directions [i.e., Button letter (Bomb/Map) cipher] to physical evidence that may or may not exist, he or she would have the duty to await the authorities determination before divulging any information to the public (e.g., the Press, the Internet, etc.).
The one Master Solution Key that I have uncovered solves all three remaining ciphers, hence, especially sensitive information is indeed present in the Button letter cipher, therefore I have patiently (while productively) awaited for Law Enforcement to provide some form of confirmation/clearance.
As I stated in my letters to the authorities: “I have refrained from notifying the Press or Internet communities because of my concern that crime site evidence (Bomb/Map Cipher 3) if it still exists after almost forty years would be tainted by interference. . . .”
(C) The ultimate moral obligation for the citizen adhering within reason to (A) and (B) would remain to ensure that the public at large is ultimately apprised of the matter. I have, I believe given the authorities long enough to examine my claims and to reach me – to disprove me if they so choose; but certainly to inform the public in the face of overwhelming evidence. I have remained patient and undaunted. Surviving victims, families of the murdered or disappeared, even those suspects still living who deserve to have their names cleared from the notorious Zodiac case ought to be informed of the complete facts-to-date.
My intent in this posting is to be forthright with enough of my discovery while still adhering to my obligation (B) for protecting “potentially” existing physical evidence as outlined in RPA Solution, point VII.
“LEE IS LEIGH I HIHNTT” [sic]
Here, I emphasize that I did not go looking for this or any other name in the 340 cipher. While disparate parts of the 20 lines broke at varying times over a three-week period, this last line of ciphertext was also one of the last lines to surface in plaintext. But it did so only according to the parameters of Zodiac’s evolving solution key—with a method to the madness (to paraphrase Shakespeare).
So, readers can understand just why I want to congratulate both Mr. Robert Graysmith and Mr. Tom Voigt on their successful work. And as it turns out, ironically – informant, Ralph Spinelli was telling the truth!
He told Vallejo PD Capt. Roy Conway in 1991 that Allen had boasted: “LEE was in the Zodiac cipher” [Graysmith, Zodiac Unmasked, p. 300].
In 1991, obviously, Spinelli had not solved the 340 cipher and the only way he would be aware of this hidden fact is if Arthur Leigh Allen had revealed it to him.
This signed confession corroborates Tom Voigt’s examination of the signature glyphs in the "Exorcist" letter [mailed to the SF Chronicle: 29 Jan., 1974] and his discovery that a particular rearrangement of the shapes will spell: “LEigh”
Yes! “LEIGH” would end up in both the 340 and the “Exorcist” letter!
Investigators will identify the further significance of this revelation from both Mr. Graysmith's and Mr. Voigt's precisely constructed time-lines on Allen. Of course, there is something in this “hint” beyond the obvious alternate phonetic spellings of the same middle-birth and preferred nickname for lead suspect, Arthur “Leigh” (Lee) Allen.
At the time that he was refining his 340 cipher [~Oct./Nov., 1969] Allen would be well aware of his local Vallejo police department’s nascent and nebulous search for a person of interest named Lee. At that early date, he was not yet a lead (let alone a “lead suspect”) for SFPD investigators—He had not yet even been questioned by the SFPD and would not until May, 1970—almost a year after the Blue Rock Springs attack and six months after the SF Chronicle received the Dripping Pen greeting card with the 340 cipher [mailed: 8 Nov., 1969]. Therefore, at the time of postmarking his “hint”: “LEE IS LEIGH”—just days following his questioning by Vallejo Det. Sgt. John Lynch after the Lake Berryessa attacks and murder [a Q&A which Allen himself later confirmed for Toschi and Armstrong]—Allen would feel supremely confident in mocking the early search for the serial killer and name-playing on Lee/Leigh – especially when (1) his identity would be hidden in a “crack proof” homophonic cipher, one he would heavily re-edit to be much more abstruse than his first 408; and (2) this time he would shrewdly resolve to deliver the cipher away from his hometown of Vallejo and only to the San Francisco Chronicle. If their people deciphered it in the big city, he must have reasoned, how the hell would they ever figure out which Leigh it was?
Quote:About that time, Allen is alleged to have told Don Cheney that he was fond of a waitress from that restaurant [IHOP on Tennessee Street in Vallejo, approx. 1/10 of a mile from Allen’s home at 32 Fresno St.]. Also, according to a police report, an unidentified male named “Lee” was known to associate occasionally with Darlene. (Allen was known by his middle name, spelling it “Lee.”)
Quote:Also, according to Linda [Del Buono (Darlene’s sister)] and some of her friends, there was a man bringing Darlene presents from Mexico. All they knew was that he was called [Lee]. She described him with close-cropped hair, paunch, muscular. It sounds a lot like [Allen]. Evidently she got the connection across because the police were looking into people named [Lee].
I told Toschi that Bobbie Ramos [Darlene’s co-worker at Terry’s Restaurant], when asked by the police who Darlene’s closest friends were, answered, “Sue Gilmore, Robbie, and this guy named [Lee] who used to bring her presents from Mexico.” — Robert Graysmith
[Zodiac, p. 292]
Clearly, Leigh Allen’s ego got the better of him; as Zodiac he had boasted publicly that he would encipher his true identity but then failed to deliver in the three-part 408 – Was he not up to the task? Was he chickening out? Now, like another personality, that ego must have been calling his own bluff—obsessing him—chiding him to match his self-image as the wise and all-powerful “game” hunter. If he were a real man then he would have to make good on his claim.
In the last years of his life, why did Allen, who was in chronic ill-health and well aware of his imminent death, not leave behind a posthumous confession boasting of his victory in the “game”?
Answer: Because he already had. Numerous times. Even my present discoveries may not exhaust all the hints that he provided.
For example, “rather” and “lonely” – you will note are two of Zodiac’s favored words which he repeats throughout his communications. “Lonely” is written twice in the Dripping Pen card — the very same card accompanying the 340 cipher. And, via my one solution key, I can tell you that “RATHER LONELY” is encoded in the Zodiac 340. [I did not see or read the Dripping Pen card until after solving the cipher.] Interesting, wouldn’t you agree, how these letters form the anagram: Arther Lone Ly (Lee)?
Now then, what does the “My Name Is” cipher spell out if Zodiac had already disclosed his identity?
“TWELVE VICTEMS” [sic]
And here, I absolutely did not force any meaning into the 13-symbol cipher; I did not apply trial-and-error substitution; I didn’t even analyze these 13 symbols until after I had my solution for the 340. Using the first solution key I was able to solve the second cipher with little effort in less than a minute. Of my two Eureka! moments, as I see them—The Zodiac’s real name from the 340 being the first—I consider this the more consequential of the two. Instantly it provided three intuitive verifications for my findings: verified my 340 cipher plaintext; verified a single solution key for at least the 340 and “My Name Is” ciphers; and verified Zodiac’s true identity! After all, a solution key better than one solving a single cipher, is one solving two or more.
Repeatedly for the past 11 months, I have assiduously (manually) re-tested and verified my linguistic data and color-tabulated/diagrammed solution keys.
In fact, I have evidence strongly suggesting that the 340 and “My Name Is” ciphers were formulated at the same time. Note: the second E in Twelve from symbol “K” is a call-back to the same mistake—the only visible mistake (intentional?)—that Zodiac had hand-corrected in the 340!
Mr. Graysmith has already researched in-depth the parallel significance of the circled Taurus to Zodiac’s own crossed-circle symbol. I can tell you that the circled Taurus is no different than 86% of all of the other symbols from the homophonic Solution Key that I have uncovered: it substitutes for more than one plaintext letter, namely C and V. [Incidentally, there are no C's in the 340 plaintext solution and only one V – substituted by one of that cipher’s many Zodiac crossed-circle symbols.]
In the “My Name Is” letter [mailed to the SF Chronicle: 20 April, 1970], one of Zodiac’s first questions is: “My name is —” [with something resembling a raised underscore drawn as if for a schoolteacher’s fill-in-the-blank]. This letter arrives at the SF Chronicle five-and-a-half months following the 340 cipher. Zodiac is obviously confident that the 340 cipher remains unsolved up to that date.
He draws a fill-in-the-blank. Why?
Answer: Because he knows that he had in fact encoded his name in the last line of the 340.
In the very next line he includes a new cipher of 13 symbols. Why?
Answer: To prompt code-breakers who have “cracked the last cipher” to apply the (near) identical solution key to reveal Zodiac’s (originally intended) kill goal: “TWELVE VICTEMS” [sic]. Observe in true Zodiac fashion: the placement on his page for this bold boast – the spelling – the numeric significance.
Compare this underscore, fill-in-the-blank to the similar introduction atop the “The Confession” letter [mailed to Riverside PD and Riverside Press-Enterprise: 29 Nov., 1966]:
“THE CONFESSION BY ____________”
Zodiac adamantly states in the body of the “My Name Is” letter that he was not “the one who wiped out that blue meannie . . . .” and that “[he has] killed ten people to date.” [emphasis added]. Why?
Answer: In order that his kill goal of Twelve Victims would not be compromised.
So, after arriving at these riveting discoveries from the first two ciphers, all that remained was to test my Symbol Solution Key on the final, Button letter (Bomb/Map) cipher. . . .
Naturally—when I knew what I had—I immediately traveled from my home to the Pittsburgh Division FBI to present my discovery in-person (Monday, 5 May, 2008). The Pittsburgh agents who interviewed me outside the gates assured me that they would transfer my claims and copy of my original seven-page documentation to the appropriate FBI jurisdiction. At first, these agents seemed reluctant to accept my paperwork in-hand; later I reasoned this to be an understandable cautionary procedure in an age of Anthrax threats.
In the intervening months I followed up twice via standard USPS mail with typed packets precisely articulating the cryptanalytical certainties that even a non-specialist would see are patently evident. I went so far as to include detailed color-coded table keys, charts and diagrams which, while not required for my original linguistic solution, highlight the startling semantic and syntactic patterns.
Based upon careful Web research for specific contacts, I mailed the first packet (29 Sept., 2008) to four CA police depts. with interest in the Zodiac case (including SF City Hall); two Sheriffs depts.; and the SF FBI.
I mailed the second packet (31 Dec., 2008) again to the SF FBI, the SFPD (City Hall) and to CIRG/ViCAP of the FBI Academy at Quantico, VA.
This follow-up packet contained zero changes to my solution’s verbiage but instead a slightly refined Symbol and Color-Code Key. I took this clarifying step after examining the much rarer high-resolution copy of the SFPD exhibit [SFPD LAB #2; 11•9•69] thanks to David Oranchak having uploaded and linked the image to his site: oranchak.com.
What have I heard? [Silence.] . . . .
. . . Save for one of the two Sheriffs Departments to whom I remain grateful. They responded via letter several months after my (29 Sept., 2008) correspondence to briefly thank me for my letter but to inform me that the case was not currently under their jurisdiction. Interestingly, they explained that their department had personally made a call to the FBI to inquire whether the Bureau was aware of my claim. The Sheriff’s letter concluded by stating that the FBI’s response was in the affirmative.
Could investigators already be re-opening the case(s) to determine how many more victims will be matched to new revelations in the 340 per Allen’s/Zodiac’s M.O.? Considering the vast amount of researched and documented facts already accumulated by the Graysmith–Voigt investigations, how long would this take? Doesn’t the public have a right to know? By now?
Could the authorities presently be following up on Graysmith’s “Confederate” theories, e.g., the deceased (24 Aug., 1976) Santa Rosa Junior College teacher? [Zodiac Unmasked]. Is it realistic that the FBI may be closing in on one or more suspected accomplices of Arthur Leigh Allen? [No indication of this was evident in my three plaintext solutions.] Again, would it take a year?
I continue to type up detailed analysis of my solution evidence per the ever-expanding ways that it supports the individual Graysmith and Voigt investigations. My plaintext to all three ciphers includes characteristic Zodiac misspellings; I have diagrams and tables on disk and in paper portfolio form that I am prepared immediately to demonstrate.
I can only ponder: Are the authorities waiting for Godot? Can they not see the forest for the trees? I state honestly that Mr. Tom Voigt's work on “The Arthur Leigh Allen File” and the “Exorcist” letter together with Mr. Graysmith’s considerable research, and combined with my discoveries since 1 May, 2008 all corroborate one another. The Emperor is wearing no clothes! Arthur Leigh Allen may be dead but he was – is – and will forever remain – the Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac was no “crack proof” evil genius but in reality: a pathetic, psychopathically ill mortal man named, Arthur Leigh Allen. We are inclined, as Americans who live in the post-moon-landing age, to believe that our nation merits a higher estimation in science and civilization. Sobering to consider, however, that at the same time that two of our countrymen were walking on the lunar surface owing to high-tech know-how [best exemplified in the following quotes] . . .
Quote:Automatic checkout equipment kept tabs continuously on millions of parts in the electrical, electromechanical, and hydraulic systems of the rocket and spacecraft. — John Glenn
[“Focus on Space,” World Book Year Book: A Review of the Events of 1968]
Quote:In August [1969] . . . . The new IBM machine, called the System/360 Model 195, was designed for solving difficult and diverse problems . . . . Model 195 can process an instruction in 54-billionths of a second, the time light takes to move 53 feet. Its main-core storage has a memory capacity of 4-million bytes, enough storage to handle all instructions for a space mission. — Sergei Lenormand
[“Super Memory,” World Book Year Book: A Review of the Events of 1969]
. . . an alienated and murderous underachiever back on earth was devising his own lunatic logic to puzzles that would land in the public domain but remain un-cracked for 40 years!
The 340 cipher was received by the SF Chronicle on the second week of November, 1969—just under four short months following Edwin Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collin’s mission to the moon. We have had generous leads produced by tireless, adroit investigators like Robert Graysmith, detectives Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong, and diligent citizens like Donald & Bettye Harden—we should have had our man.
I have now generated considerable analysis (ever-expanding) corroborating the evidence from other Zodiac researchers.
What is taking the FBI and Police departments so long? That mystery, I cannot answer. Please believe me when I say that I am not prone to conspiracy theories – the Zodiac case already has too many. What I do know is that my obligation defined earlier in step (C) has reached its delay limit. It is time for the victims, families, and the public to know the truth.
It is time to upload our complete and final facts in the Zodiac M.O. to our era’s criminal profiling computers and to have these results available for posterity. Furthermore, as citizen/programmers of these databases, we must adjust our social mindset so that similar catastrophic failures in criminal justice will NOT repeat.
Equally important in light of the (40+ year) cooperative resolution to the Zodiac case, we must act upon what lessons it offers for improving the humanistic perspective, more specifically, adjustments requisite to our cognitive models on sociopathy—its traits, both latent and manifest, and strategies for earlier detection, intervention, and prevention.
I am confident that together we can combine our findings into the only solution to which our work presently leads; consequently, we can cooperate on an overdue closure to these tragedies, rather than a perpetuation of sensationalized myth and mystery.
Best wishes,
Robert Peter Ackerman
(nr. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)
[Document created at my local US Public Library using OpenOffice 2.4.1]
[Originally pasted into E-mail and also Attached: converted to Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)]
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