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FBI: Help Us Crack This Code and Solve a Murder Case
#1
Article here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-seeks-publi...d=13256467

The FBI is looking for a few beautiful minds to help solve a murder case. If you think you have what it takes to crack a code that the best cryptanalysts in the country have failed for 12 years to master, they'd like to hear from you.

On June 30, 1999, police in St. Louis found the body of Rick McCormick, 41, who had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues the FBI found about the time leading up to his death came in the form of two pieces of paper in his pants pocket: Handwritten on the scraps were 30 lines of numbers and letters grouped into several sections.

After 12 years of trying to untangle the cryptographic mess, investigators from the FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit and the American Cryptogram Association are throwing up their hands.

This is where you come in.

"We are really good at what we do," said CRRU's Dan Olson in a statement. "But we could use a little help on this one. Breaking the code could reveal the victim's whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide."

You can see the code here and here.

Equal parts Zodiac killer and Kryptos brain teaser, the coded messages in the McCormick murder case have been released to the public.

"Even if we found out he was writing a grocery list or a love letter, we would still want to see how the code is solved," Olson wrote. "This is a cipher system we know nothing about."

To advance the cold case, investigators are also on the lookout for other examples of McCormick's encrypted messages to himself, Olson said. "Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea," wrote Olson.

McCormick was a high school drop-out -- literate and street smart -- who had written encrypted notes to himself ever since he was a child. But none of his friends or relatives had ever been given the key to his cipher, according to the FBI. Investigators suspect the notes were written up to three days before his death and unlocking the code could lead to information about the time before his death.

Hive Mind: Bring Your Brains

What's in it for you? Just "the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might help bring a killer to justice," said the statement. "Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls."

If you have any insight into McCormick's code, Olson's team is eager to hear from you. You can reach them at:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case
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#2
Somehow I don't think there are many "beautiful minds" in Ohio.
We need to punish the French, ignore the Germans and forgive the Russians - Condoleezza Rice.
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#3
(03-31-2011, 11:15 AM)Ordinary Peephole Wrote: Somehow I don't think there are many "beautiful minds" in Ohio.

Hahahahahahahaha

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw Smiley_emoticons_fies
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#4
Here's a link to the original FBI article with interesting bits: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/mar...2911/image

Breaking any code involves four basic steps:

1. determining the language used;
2. determining the system used;
3. reconstructing the key; and
4. reconstructing the plaintext.

Consider this cipher: Nffu nf bu uif qbsl bu oppo.

Now apply the four steps:

1. Determining the language allows you to compare the cipher text to the suspected language. Our cryptanalysts usually start with English.

2. Determining the system: Is this cipher using rearranged words, replaced words, or perhaps letter substitution? In this case, it’s letter substitution.

3. Reconstructing the key: This step answers the question of how the code maker changed the letters. In our example, every character shifted one letter to the right in the alphabet.

4. Reconstructing the plaintext: By applying the key from the previous step, you now have a solution: Meet me at the park at noon.
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#5
The only thing the majority of the retards in that big ass Ohio thread ever crack is the eggs for an omelette.

And even then I bet theres some bits of shell in there somewhere.
We need to punish the French, ignore the Germans and forgive the Russians - Condoleezza Rice.
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#6
(03-31-2011, 11:22 AM)Ordinary Peephole Wrote: The only thing the majority of the retards in that big ass Ohio thread ever crack is the eggs for an omelette.

And even then I bet theres some bits of shell in there somewhere.



Get used to it OP, those people are the body snatcher pods from which the new Mock is being created from.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
















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#7
Watch it be nothing more than a random string of letters and numbers that mean absolutly nothing at all. Or if it does mean something, it will be something useless like "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"
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#8
(03-31-2011, 11:36 AM)IMaDick Wrote: Get used to it OP, those people are the body snatcher pods from which the new Mock is being created from.


You've had a great deal to say about this the past nine months. The fact that you're not crazy about Mock is well known at this point so, why do you return everyday? Seriously, why, Dick? Your bitching about it is old, it's been old for a long time. You don't support Mock in any fashion, you even find it difficult to participate in any serious discussion. Your right to say whatever you want has never once been infringed on yet you find it necessary to bitch almost daily. I would never hangout someplace where I wasn't happy, that doesn't even make a little bit of sense. Do you like being known as Mock's biggest crybaby bitch? Why are you here?


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#9
(03-31-2011, 12:47 PM)Duchess Wrote:
(03-31-2011, 11:36 AM)IMaDick Wrote: Get used to it OP, those people are the body snatcher pods from which the new Mock is being created from.


You've had a great deal to say about this the past nine months. The fact that you're not crazy about Mock is well known at this point so, why do you return everyday? Seriously, why, Dick? Your bitching about it is old, it's been old for a long time. You don't support Mock in any fashion, you even find it difficult to participate in any serious discussion. Your right to say whatever you want has never once been infringed on yet you find it necessary to bitch almost daily. I would never hangout someplace where I wasn't happy, that doesn't even make a little bit of sense. Do you like being known as Mock's biggest crybaby bitch? Why are you here?

hahhah your post is infringing, do you see it?

I said what I wanted to, look at your response.



Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
















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#10


Are you really so fucking stupid that you didn't get the point I was making?
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#11
The note could be acronymns reminding him of errands, a grocery list, who knows? I read that they found his body decomposed. Does anyone know why he was never reported missing? And he was decomposed from the neck down. Isn't that a little weird when he was supposedly just off the road in a car?
[Image: 155fs853955.gif] I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it. [Image: 5yjbztv.gif]
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