Let's Crack Zodiac - Episode 5 - The 340 Is Solved!

On December 3rd, 2020, an international three-person team of codebreakers made a breakthrough with the Zodiac Killer's unsolved 340-character cipher.
By December 5th, the team finished cracking the cipher and sent the solution to the FBI.
This is the full message from the Zodiac Killer that was hidden in the 340-character cipher for 51 years:
I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME
THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW
WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME
I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER
BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER
BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME
WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE
SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH
I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS
LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH
The members of the team that cracked the code are:
Sam Blake (Australia)
Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium)
David Oranchak (USA)
This video is my attempt to tell the story of this long overdue breakthrough.
More details are reported in Michael Butterfield's article here:
zodiackillerfac...
Credits:
Music: Dave Miles: Movement (ZapSplat: www.zapsplat.c...)
“Thanks” animation: • Thank You Animation melissariveradesign.com
Jim Dunbar show archival footage: • Is This the Real Voice...
Mentioned in the video:
AZDecrypt code breaking software by Jarl Van Eycke: zodiackillersit...
Peek-a-boo cryptanalysis software by Heiko Kalista: www.zodiackille...
Zkdecrypto by Brax Cisco et. al.: code.google.co...
Mike Morford’s Zodiac site: zodiackillersit...
Michael Butterfield’s Zodiac site: zodiackillerfac...
Tom Voigt’s Zodiac site: zodiackiller.com
zodiackillercip...
We dedicate these efforts to the victims of the Zodiac Killer, their families and descendants.
We hope that one day justice will prevail.

[@doranchak]

The new episode of Let’s Crack Zodiac has been released! It’s about the aftermath of the 340 solution. And how the cipher might have been created. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5fVd4aofpVons0

[@jdc4316]

Ayy

[@marcuspecos8672]

(26) nCr (13).... 10,400,600 possible combinations for his name. He said "My name is "' and with 26 letters, that comes out to the equation I said before. Have you guys tried that?

[@BBTR_]

my opinion is about last part. " I am not afraid because I know that my new life is (the life he want)life and my new life will be an easy, no death in paradice "

[@nuripasa9998]

Adamsın Reis

[@jdc4316]

@@marcuspecos8672 or he could be purposely throwing them off with a fake name?

[@bruhbruh7176]

he’s talking so casually like he didn’t just make history

[@sgddfgfghfgh]

He didn't, zodiac is likely long dead. History is made if he catches/identifies him

[@bruhbruh7176]

@@sgddfgfghfgh bro you know how long this case has been on the air unsolved? who tf cares if he’s dead or old af they can still solve the case and this is the first major step in the case in decades

[@FIREatip]

He didnt make much because these codes are useless just mocking tools of the murderer

[@yeti6601]

exactly. he humble

[@laylapeanuts4791]

@@bruhbruh7176 this is probably not gonna help with the case at all since the zodiac didn’t even reveal his identity. That letter was basically just a joke and mocking everyone . Sure it probably did make history since the code was released 51years ago and was barely solved now though.

[@aarons8207]

Message 1969: *delivered* Message 2020: *read*

[@The88Cheat]

Sounds like the girls I talk to.

[@jgal7979]

@@The88Cheat haha true dat

[@MisterPenguin42]

And that's the funniest thing on the Internet today.

[@brainzucka]

basically me on tinder

[@nathanmihopoulos1138]

LOL

[@julianowak5038]

Not only he solved the code that remained a mystery for 50 years, he also managed to explain the process so clearly that even my dumb brain understans. Amazing work

[@psychoticmaniac8465]

understands*

[@pierresihite8854]

they*

[@MandatoryFruit]

I still don't get it, but I don't really care. It's cool regardless.

[@prototype8137]

Dont sell yourself so short...

[@stateyourthesis]

Haha ikr

[@rainmakermjm]

Re the last two lines: “Life is” was segregated from the transposition scheme and the last word Death is incongruent coming right after “paradice” [sic]. “Paradice” was written backward in the cipher, maybe as a backstop, or coda signifying the end of the statement. So: the last sentence- instead of inserting “life is” after the word “…new” insert it after the word “Death” but inverted (the original cipher involves an inverted triangle grid, read in columns top to bottom that became apparent upon solving) - “life is” becomes “is life” to read: “I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Death is life.” That makes more sense.

[@SonicTheo]

you should send this to him

[@korhanaydemir8366]

Holly shit

[@bens.664]

I think it's actually "BECAUSE I KNOW MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE. IN PARADICE DEATH IS LIFE"

[@guarand6329]

This seems like the best arrangement yet. My First thought was to just drop the "Life is" words, and it cleans it up from the videos' proposed solution: The "life is" definitely does not belong where the video shows them placed (11:07).

[@FraserX]

I think Brandon is on to something and I would read it as: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Life is death." Meaning he believes he will be reborn in paradice [sic] and that the only purpose to this life is death and dying, a precursor to something better. Kinda speaks to his experience in the army also. So basically I am saying to ignore the first instance of "LIFE IS" and add it before "DEATH" at the end of the line, similar to what the video says around 7:50.

[@Sk1erDev]

I am not sure what cryptography awards there are but you and your peers are deserving of it.

[@louithrottler]

Would the Zodiac win an award too? ;)

[@powerpopaholic876]

@@louithrottler You ask, "Woudl the Zodiac win an award too? ;) Answer: No.

[@louithrottler]

@@powerpopaholic876 That's just plain unfair

[@robinnico7564]

@@louithrottler it is easy to make a cipher. breaking it is the hard part. so no, the zodiac doesn't win an award.

[@kwharrison6668]

Hoping to get @Ops attention by posting reply on this post. There’s more to the cipher! It’s at least a double cipher if not more. I have another post about it in the main comments. Basically I took the key in the video and put it over the original 340 cipher. I noticed a few things. 1) there were a ton of double letters. I took these and they are an anagram saying “H Caen want death threat too”. 2) I’m pretty sure the boxes with the white corners in the original cipher are directional indicators once you apply the key. I think the Zodiak’s name is Sean (edit: I don’t this part is correct now).The last name may be in there too but I suck too much to look deeper / am using pen and paper and a grid I made on PowerPoint. Edit: there’s a ton more info in the message when the key identified by the code breakers is used, including references to “son Nate”, “love” and other messages that I think tell quite a bit about why he started killing.

[@TheSchultzZ]

the last two lines: "this message is brought to you by Skillshare"

[@shandya]

No it was Nord VPN 😂

[@ianbutler1983]

Or they want to talk to me about my car's warranty!

[@TrveIrrlicht]

"More of them at the end of this message. Please like, comment and subscribe and make sure to hit that bell button to never miss a new murder"

[@bissy97]

@@shandya No it was RAID SHADOW LEGENDS

[@gmail-rr2284]

It really reads "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine".

[@woah284]

Makes sense that this would happen 9 months into a quarantine I guess.

[@neuralmute]

You can only bake so much bread! XD

[@phaidonchristopoulos2776]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@lgbtqiarights]

12 months 😩

[@baronvonfritz]

Spot on

[@zombiefireman]

A positive note for 2020, maybe a prelude to his identity being revealed in 2021

[@demakarova]

Him: Just makes history Also him: Yeah so I solved this 340 character cipher that hasn't been solved in 50 years anyways thank you for watching and see you later

[@kobz2862]

He's talking about it like he was doing things like this everyday and yeah nothing hard waiting for more

[@mydogs5040]

BS they are translations, and they arent ciphers. They did 4 lines out of 20. Every single one is done is less than one day, really. They didnt get it, neither did any of you. Zodiac called them ciphers to trick you , which he did for 50 years, and all of you STILL believe false information.

[@stampedetrail2003]

Following

[@WalrusRiderEntertainment]

The last two lines I think he is saying "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice" "Life is death" He is saying that his life will be a paradise after death. Would also explain why "Life is" is on it's own there. He is linking "Life is" with the last word "death".

[@opaleye42]

That's exactly what I thought too! 👏👏👏

[@Jordan-vr7ip]

Or “death is life in paradice”

[@stuartmcconnachie]

This seems a much better explanation of those "extra" words to me. Perhaps the body of the message was composed first, which left some unused spaces when placed in the grid. Rather than fill them with random symbols LIFE IS DEATH was chosen as a "sign off" and fitted into the space remaining. Bar WILL and EASY in the final section, they are the only words written linearly in the forwards direction in the entire cipher. To me that indicates they should be read together, and not split up and inserted into the main message.

[@christopherbeach7011]

I initially thought "...my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice." But yours feels better

[@helzapoppin9810]

this was my impression as well

[@robertanderson1043]

Starts KZbin channel "Let's Crack Zodiac", cracks Zodiac by episode 5. Legend!

[@MalachiHealey]

"DRINK. MORE. OVALTINE."

[@reznoire]

Cracking Zodiac Any%

[@JGanzermillerFC]

@@reznoire Speedrun

[@Jemppu]

Sponsored by 2020 home time.

[@SniperSpy10]

Time to end the channel then

[@pda5564]

"WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU REGARDING YOUR VEHICLES EXTENDED WARRANTY"

[@umbragon2814]

FIRST A WORD FROM MY SPONSOR, RAID SHADOW LEGENDS

[@tozuiyon5857]

SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GOING TO ROLL ME IM NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED

[@maxcovfefe]

It's a scam?? All this time I just figure they're calling to mock me and my sh!tty old car.

[@idontknowwhatimdoinghere]

@@tozuiyon5857 Well, I’m not the sharpest talon on the dragon either.

[@rud5101]

BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE

[@zacktomczak4962]

A KZbinr creates a series called "Let's crack zodiac" & actually cracks one of the most difficult & infamous cyphers in history.. by episode 5..👏

[@PneumaNoose]

I just noticed the dates of these episodes… and to think, it only took a global pandemic to crack Zodiac’s 340. What insanity! It just blows my mind how literally everything that happens in life is a result of specific steps which can never be predicted. It’s painful to even wrap your mind around the thought. 🤯

[@zacktomczak4962]

@@PneumaNoose agreed..👏

[@shikeridoo]

@@PneumaNoose If you google, it's actually mentioned that the NSA could've cracked it within days back then when. But they didn't attempt. I don't know if that's believable.. but yea.

[@wailnshred]

​@@shikeridoo Probably they didn't want their methods revealed.

[@lalli8152]

To my understanding one thing that makes these so difficult is that zodiac seemed to make mistakes, and likely he didnt realize how difficult cypher he created. Zodiac likely wanted someone to crack it at the time, but it was insanely difficult for the code breakers back then because computers were not good enough, and you kinda need one

[@justkelly2]

As a true crime junkie who becomes obsessed, I can't IMAGINE how excited you must have been when you saw "that wasn't me on the tv show"

[@ChescoYT]

That 'holy shit we're on to something' feeling, must have had them jumping out of their chair!!

[@markmiller3279]

Must have been amazing. So much time looking at jumbled of words that probably didn't mean anything, and then that jumps out at you. Must have been an incredible feeling.

[@Clean_Slate]

Everyone gangsta till the Zodiac killer starts sending new ciphers as a "reward". Now, that would close 2020 in good fashion...

[@royhsieh4307]

after death is new life very scorpio indeed. not great but not terrible

[@kevindelima5713]

I mean a copycat could if the original is dead, I guess you'd be able to tell though

[@WhiteredC]

@@kevindelima5713 Even nowadays, there are things about those events that were not disclosed. It's a law enforcement "trick" to ensure they can tell copycats from perpetrators. I'm pretty sure that the FBI would request such a "prove", if a self-appointed Zodiac reappeared out of the blue with a message.

[@konsul2006]

In loving memory of the victims. Not slaves, but real humans who got their life taken by a mad man :(

[@spqri3]

When a person dies, they are no longer able to perceive reality and actually become unable to understand that they ever existed in the first place. So take solace in the fact that they are not aware of the suffering that they endured.

[@myg2456]

@@spqri3 How do you know what happens after death?

[@thundabird]

@@myg2456 the experts all agree!

[@stevenunyabidness]

No they don’t.

[@anonsillybear]

@@spqri3 allegedly. Says you.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

Imagine the rush and excitement when this dude decrypted this. Would be better than winning a major lottery prize

[@soroganath2069]

And then he probably felt like he lost the lottery coupon once he realized there is nothing useful there.

[@mydogs5040]

Yeah right, these are translations of another language, they arent ciphers at all. they only did 4 lines, the remainder I did. But I showed cryptos how to solve them and they will do the correct methodology next time.

[@cotati76]

I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.

[@aeonxvii6311]

Just put the “IS LIFE” at the end. “I am not afraid because I know that my new life, will be an easy one in paradise. Death is life.”

[@federica6499]

Or, my brain automatically read : "I am not afraid because I know WHAT my new life is"! It makes kinda sense to me...

[@davidrhee6595]

Life is death? Death could be placed after the first life is

[@Dad-lu1oi]

Well now the zodiac killer sounds like a Islamic extremist

[@imike7716]

@@Dad-lu1oi So does the American Right and the Republican Party.

[@DanHamilton89]

@@federica6499 Yea I was going to comment on just this! Wonder if there was an incorrectly swapped character? Producing THAT instead of WHAT.

[@zZredXHaWKx]

I just need to live long enough for the last 2 ciphers to be solved

[@sudrora1214]

Why how old ru?

[@baberoot1998]

Hahahahaha. I hear you! I feel the same way! It drives me insane not knowing!!!

[@dom-se6eb]

does anyone have the code in deciphered form but in the original format the message and letters still in the arrangement of the original note I have something I wanna check but I can't find the solved form in the original form

[@ninjagirl226]

Sadly, I think they won't lead to much. Assuming that this is the solved cipher, it gives little information. I wonder if the Z 32 can be solved with since it has that map, but it never detonated and it was never found. To me it gives credence to the Z 13 cipher being Alfred E. Neuman (the mascot of MAD). I think it was all a messed up joke.

[@kjxnz]

We will 🙂

[@GuyNoirxyz]

Finally a credible solution to an extremely difficult code-cracking challenge that was made even more difficult because Zodiac was a poor speller.

[@jimsty5222]

He intentionally misspelled words. You see that in his letters -- certain misspelled words are later spelled correctly in the same letter.

[@TylorMyers]

@@jimsty5222 Are you Jimy Sty or James Bob who replied to me earlier? I don't know. I assume you are simply applying Cunningham's Law.

[@dabanjo]

And he couldn't do the code properly

[@GuyNoirxyz]

@@jimsty5222 I disagree, Jim. The candidate I'm thinking of displayed similar misspelling elsewhere in his "normal" handwriting long before he became the Zodiac.

[@rickh3714]

Credible in standard cryptography with some transposition. But 'Zodiac' is not about credibility. But incredibility. The message retrieved is either another fob off or has further coding. We are dealing with an individual ( or sometimes a pair?) with a "v.high,v.high IQ"

[@Mellun-P]

It's funny to me how "F" in the key is literally just "F", nothing else. That's so cocky

[@PtylerBeats]

I think he also thought it would be tricky. You gotta think, in 1969, they would be doing all of these decryptions by hand. If you leave one letter unchanged, a human may get hung up on deciphering that letter, assuming that it is encrypted. A computer will just blow right through that like, “Yeah, F seems fine to me.” That really would only trick a tunnel vision human lol who, I’m sure, he expected to be the only way to solve it. I don’t think he ever imagined someone writing code to apply thousands of transpositions onto his cypher within seconds. Yeah, it took half a decade for technology and code cracking to catch up, but if this software was present in that period of time, it’s likely that he would have tried much harder to conceal that letter lol

[@legitbeans9078]

I never noticed that lol. So cheeky 😂

[@vitoc8454]

"F in the chat"

[@taliesin1077]

F

[@mydogs5040]

There is no key, those were created artifically.

[@Spacecowboy42]

I can only imagine you jumping out of your chair screaming HOLY SHIT!! What an awesome moment

[@rickh3714]

Second Meta-text has a 'Tit Willo' confirmation peg and points at Robert Hansen, the eventual Alaskan Serial killer. Thus, looks like a cult of at least 4 men with military, hunting backgrounds and possible extreme intelligence. Off the scale possibly in one case. Solution achieved as a reformatting of Oranchak solution within new horizontal 20 x17 grid constraint to achieve likely John Dee readable adjacent letter transpositions. No key as yet but should be pretty clear to those who follow these cases in terms of likely cribs etc. Press the generic R profile icon to see a short LoFi vid on the Hansen pointer and tit willo put up a few hrs ago! Thanks.

[@yeti6601]

lol

[@Abdullah-gb7kg]

@@rickh3714 ?

[@ForumcoldiArchon]

Conspiracy spambot

[@TheMusicLauncher]

Zodiacs name is Arthur Leigh Allen

[@views-xl6nr]

FBI: takes 51 years without cracking the message. David: 5 episodes

[@VideoAmericanStyle]

To be fair, as noted in the video, most of this work was done on the shoulders of giants. They merely brought it to the finish line, largely through luck in catching the words in one of the successful 'breaks'.

[@BladeJones]

Over the last 5 years, the FBI was too busy with their treasonous efforts to get rid of Trump.

[@xpan195]

Sometimes it will take amazing dedicated individuals who aren’t in the FBI to solve cold cases.

[@BladeJones]

@@xpan195 And there hasn't been a Zodiac murder in like 50 years. You have to assume that the dude is dead by now. Low priority. Just let the amateurs have at it. Their plan was to focus energy on Trump.

[@carasynthiadune9842]

Well the FBI is busy.

[@hendrickcavvendish6634]

I can't believe we're all this early to something this massive.

[@FreeMarketSecularist]

This is so exciting!!!

[@s0uls4nd]

9

[@JPF224]

It took 51 years. Crazy.

[@agreatd]

You can use same key to know his name which is paradice A E N @ ® K ® M ® ¥ N A M E C I D A R A P A ___ I E P Now just find all people in the US with this name and you have found a killer :)

[@jacksquadreturns7827]

@@agreatd lol

[@mktrafton7042]

Let's just take this in. If the zodiac created this cipher after watching the imposter call on live television and mailed this cipher two weeks later, that means it took him or her about two weeks to make it. Imagine, a two-week project that took over fifty years to be deciphered.

[@doranchak]

Good point. I wonder how much he thought out the transposition scheme before deciding on the plaintext message. And where did he get the idea for it?

[@beez991]

​@doranchak how would one know this type of coding back then and where was it used? Do you have any ideas about how intelligent the Zodic would be? Congrats on solving this! You did what many could not:)

[@MaQuGo119]

>Her

[@5wisher5weet]

The Zodiac identifies as non binary

[@vitoc8454]

And modern computer software was used to find leads "I am limited by the technology of my time."

[@WalrusRiderEntertainment]

or it could read " I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one. Death is life in paradice"

[@jimmyrotten1652]

I'm thinking something like that, or maybe reading "LIFE IS DEATH" separately.

[@ZoTrAcK]

@10:50 insert 335 through 339 in between 305 and 306 you get: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice." the words "life is" and "death" are the first and last words of the non-diagonalized encryption section in which, he randomly invert word's spelling in a normal sentence order.

[@masteroogway2725]

@@ZoTrAcK You're legit speaking in tongues for me

[@yeti6601]

@@masteroogway2725 same

[@maralehhansen1610]

@@ZoTrAcK agreed, I saw that same shift. Very interesting.

[@carykh]

whoa this is crazy, especially after 51 years! EDIT: I'm sure a few people have already said this, but my guess is that the last two lines are "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Life is death." Of course, I don't have all the years of experience that others have, so I'm probably overlooking lots of more advanced stuff. But I thought I'd just put in my two cents! Anyway it's so cool to see history happen

[@nathanhu7016]

Second

[@nathanhu7016]

BFB 27 is epic

[@cooleslaw]

Didn't expect to see you here.

[@tuturubiks4426]

😎

[@omaraljamal14]

agreed

[@joonasfi]

It's weird to think that the Zodiac killer could theoretically be watching this video and reading these comments

[@tarantulady]

If so, I hope they regret not getting hooked on phonics. Also hope their life sucks.

[@yomama9390]

the way it's written, the guy is probably long dead.

[@georgebarwood4132]

I believe the Zodiac was Edward Wayne Edwards. John Cameron came up with the theory, and then a woman came forward who was present when the Pines card was prepared ( she had to write the address, being told to mis-spell "Avery" as "Averly" ). See ededwardsserialkiller.wordpress.com/pines-card-witness/

[@omegasage777]

I'd like to think he's rotting by now

[@jdbeier38]

@@yomama9390 Doubtful. The good die young. This man is still alive.

[@TheHangman]

I'm probably late, but it makes sense to me for the end to be: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice"

[@lubje]

Thought the same thing

[@DevilWearsAdidas]

There is a better suggestion above in the top comments that reverses it to "is life" and puts those two words at the very end of the letter.

[@fizzincore817]

"I know that my death is new life", sounds more reasonable

[@passingthetorch5831]

"...my life will be an easy one in paradice." "Life is Death"

[@ItalianJonny1]

I'd argue that "Death is life." seems to fit his message better, with context. He's not afraid of death because death will bring new life from his perspective. "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradise. Death is life." I just can't find a resonable way to come up with that without swapping "Life" and "is."

[@tim_1485]

This is the first thing I thought too.

[@maulcs]

I'm also wondering if these words were inserted to make the cipher evenly rectangular - in the 408 cipher for instance he just added gibberish at the end to fill everything out (once his message was complete). But here, maybe he decided to add a separate phrase to fill out each section, instead of just random letters. It's clear that it reads immensely better without the "life is" part added as shown in the video, regardless.

[@yarhiti]

maybe he means "my new life will be an easy one. In paradise, death is life."

[@irobeth]

@@ItalianJonny1 possibly related to this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_vita_in_morte_sumus

[@RandomTens]

This is incredible! Congratulations on such an accomplishment!!!

[@SarahlynnHaynes]

Hello history.

[@Bean0]

Hi lol

[@jacksquadreturns7827]

Damn

[@punker4Real]

looks like some of the sentences are out of order as well 6:50 An easy life will be one death in paradise.

[@travismays]

@@punker4Real Not out of order. They put the end of the second part in the wrong place. It should be at the end of the third part. So it should read, "I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE. IN PARADICE, DEATH IS LIFE."

[@GasStationEncounters]

I commend you on the insane amount of work it took you to figure this out. Legendary!

[@toy4tao]

We need more car accidents videos

[@WanderingBat]

WTH is GSE doing here? Lmao

[@doranchak]

OMG Thanks - Love your channel. Maybe Zodiac was in one of your videos completely by accident. :)

[@ra1nbowstyl1n]

@@doranchak well done and thank you for getting us closer to finding who Z truly was

[@nomadicfarid6802]

I commend too

[@ScriptedSamurai]

"I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice." That is how I believe the end should be structured.

[@fizzincore817]

what about, "my death is new life"

[@yoshi314]

that's one achievement for the history books.

[@BodywiseMustard]

Not really. It's incredible to be alive right now to witness it, but in the future when people read "the code was cracked 51 years later" they'll just go "huh, cool"

[@kylepark661]

@@BodywiseMustard I mean isn't that our reaction to almost any other historical event from the past, except maybe the big wars or trageties? Do people react to historical achievements as more then that?

[@dobbehdarko]

@@BodywiseMustard my reaction to things like that is "woah it took that long!?"

[@Contollership]

This was extra tough because the Zodiac made mistakes encrypting.

[@Gail.B]

@Marc Light I agree that Zodiac made mistakes and the final clean up of the text may need too be done pre thinking modern technology techniques. This final clean up will be a profilers project now. Either way we can see that the Zodiac was evil too the core.

[@gablo1089]

@@Gail.B Evil also the core indeed.

[@vorpal22]

@@Gail.B He's also kind of a pathetic serial killer, his choice of weapon being a gun. Given truly violent serial killers who torture their victims for days and / or use extremely sadistic means of killing and their number of victims, the Zodiac Killer is pretty "tame" by comparison. The probability of him not being dead from old age or other means by now is extraordinarily low and while there are a number of suspects, we will probably never know who he was.

[@zac5572]

@@vorpal22 bruh murder is murder

[@skinach]

@@vorpal22 ok bro

[@luxaeterna101]

"We were extremely lucky to uncover the solution" There's no luck involved here, but rather tons of skill and sweat. Congratulations for the immense achievement. You guys earned every bit of praise that will come your way.

[@martinpettersson4329]

well, i think what he ment was that he was lucky to see the words from the start, "gas chamber" etc. He said it didn't appear later so he had to force them in since he had already seen it once. sry if my explaination is bad.

[@tjthegreat5727]

Luck is the result of preparation...... calling it lucky feels like it’s taking something from the people who did it!

[@cotati76]

I come back and watch this video every month or so. David and the team did such a phenomenal job. They must have been walking on air when they cracked the code. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like. Truly amazing work.

[@doranchak]

Thanks for watching! I was dumbfounded when the real plaintext started gradually peeking through the gibberish. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

[@fixxzitt]

Need to trace a person who spell paradise as paradice back in 1969

[@johnadamski9913]

he could have misspelled the word intentionally.

[@suhaniiiii_]

Or maybe someone smart enough to make such difficult ass codes? I don't think a lot of people can do that. On the other hand, idk but he kinda seems delusional too stuff like he'll be in paradise and the people he killed would be his slaves.

[@devk5645]

@@suhaniiiii_ Tbh most of his ciphers have been described as amateur, i.e. you don’t have to be that smart to make them. The hardest parts of translating them is accounting for the mistakes he made when writing his own ciphers

[@jonaboy3]

@@suhaniiiii_ Looks pretty basic TBH, I find it a bit curious why he added so much arbitrary stuff in there like the LIFEIS and splitting it into 3. It might just be because his understanding of the principles was limited so he had to follow along with the book.

[@th3highwayman]

It's sort of like how they used the Unabomber's idiolect to find out who he was. He read the Chicago Tribune as a kid, which had a ton of variant spellings when he read it because their editor was part of a fringe spelling movement.

[@AnyFactor]

Warehouse operator moonlights as a programmer. What a boss.

[@juanm7185]

He probably uses/develops warehouse management software.

[@haplessasshole9615]

It's really pretty common for super-gifted people to establish a career in a field that lets them leave their work *at* work and pays them enough to support themselves, their families, and their hobbies. You probably know a few people like that. A lot of people call them "lazy" for not scrambling up some ladder, but they and their families are really quite happy.

[@Virxas]

@@haplessasshole9615 +1 life is not a race for million dollars

[@amatsuo7659]

@@haplessasshole9615 Yeah, there is bisqwit here on youtube who can code his own 3D ray tracer and is a super programmer. Yet he drives a bus during the day. He attributed it to burnout.

[@noapparentfunction]

@@haplessasshole9615 I'm definitely not what you'd call 'super gifted' but that is my life basically. i have a ton of computer, art, and craft-related hobbies that my job as a garbage man is merely an enabler for. i don't need to climb the ladder. i'm happy enough to pursue the things I'm interested in with the amount of money i make.

[@danieltwist9027]

Last 2 lines: “I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one. Death is life in paradise”

[@Balequalm]

That sounds really good...

[@Phoenixx6]

It sounds really good. As it's translated, it moves around a lot picking words out of sequence. It would be neat to try it from the cryptograms again.

[@WilliamSpieler]

"I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death | Life will be an easy one in paradice" ?

[@06Runner]

I am not afraid because I know that my new life is paradice life will be an easy one in death

[@eeeyooohoh]

i wonder if this implies he already commit suicide? or was going to

[@Altobrun]

I wonder if he played chess. The down one row over two reminds me of how a knight moves on a chess board - perhaps he thought of himself as a knight in some way.

[@valentin.stefan]

lol true but lets be honest he should have a high iq for making these ciphers and killings

[@phillipanselmo8540]

@@valentin.stefan the ciphers aren't that hard to do, they're hard to break, but considering his method of killing he was probably very smart

[@valentin.stefan]

@@phillipanselmo8540 yeah also he had a strange face tho

[@garyjordan4735]

I believe that he was a chess expert.

[@valentin.stefan]

@@garyjordan4735 maybe

[@duncan-dean]

Would be wild if the mistakes in all the ciphers formed a key for his name.

[@Curious-Irish-Angel]

good idea

[@Jinisinsane]

Or the lyrics of rick roll

[@raribaudo]

@@Jinisinsane 😭

[@trovato455]

That's a good thought process.

[@importedmusic]

Or *her* name

[@ivun215]

It's probably: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Life is death."

[@redundantideas]

Given death stands "outside" the messge, the same as "life is", this was my initial reaction. I think any of the versions are very similar in outcome though.

[@jay26cee]

This is what I was thinking too.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

Or: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice."

[@looksee2651]

It could also be: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life in paradice will be an easy one. Death is life" or "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is life in paradice. Death will be an easy one"

[@casquith]

I think this way makes the most sense for both the code and the final message

[@mccabber24]

So who had 'Zodiac killers code gets cracked after 50 years' for December?

[@i1a2159]

Dammit, I had it for November

[@shannonfoley8515]

Merry Christmas early

[@pozzee2809]

Only could happen in 2020

[@juri7507]

me 😐

[@lulunz6809]

@@pozzee2809 yep bound to happen this year lol

[@atiredprsn]

This is incredible! And the points people in the comments have made are very helpful. I still don’t fully understand how they did it, or how the Zodiac Killer made it, but it’s really impressive.

[@ComicArtistProSecrets]

It should read "Life is Death" at the end, I believe. Great work.

[@carlinianam0s]

This was my thought, too.

[@omaraljamal14]

@@carlinianam0s me three.

[@LureThosePixels]

Yeah it makes more sense for it to read "my new life will be an easy one" too

[@Rockybear4444]

It should read, “In paradice death is life.”

[@ellahappel3128]

that makes a lot more sense

[@daviddieffenderfer]

50 years without a solution? No problem. Sometimes it takes 51. Congrats!!! I’m stunned.

[@reamsel]

Seeing the video now and just realizing how easy it could be red. Just splitting up in 9 lines, then do 1 down 2 to the right.

[@psiphre]

lots of things are easy in retrospect

[@mizelcluett2105]

"I AM NOT AFRAID BECUASE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH IS LIFE/LIFE IS DEATH" i think this makes sense

[@skulltra]

I think it makes sense to read it like this, "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is PARADICE. Life will be an easy one in DEATH"

[@maxd1173]

Eren Yeager

[@cjozboy]

Or "Is Life Death" a question depending on which life you take.

[@Whisper555]

I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS DEATH LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE

[@andrewshirley9240]

I think "that" is probably a typo. "I am not afraid because I know what my new life is. Life will be an easy one in paradise - Death" Where "death" is what he's signing himself off as.

[@jimpollart2001]

It’s incredible how modest David is in these videos, given the magnitude of what he and his team accomplished. I find this very inspirational. It’s sort of restores my faith in humankind, as the old saying goes. Thank you David and others for your excellent work!

[@Anteater23]

Just like “LIFE IS” is separated on the top line, separate “DEATH” on the bottom line. Then you get the entire message which reads correctly then “LIFE IS DEATH” as an additional sentence.

[@nuttysquirrelracing]

This is what I thought made the most sense as well.

[@RichardFarmbrough]

I think they were throwing us a bone :) This reading jumps out. "Life is death" must have been written into the grid first, probably to make up the numbers.

[@grandrapids57]

Perfect

[@alisiabakerjb]

I thought it was a suicide letter. Just like what you wrote, I saw it as , life is death, death is life. Almost giving a reason for his killings. Life is hell, hell is life. He turned them into his slaves. I think he had schizophrenia.

[@grandrapids57]

@@alisiabakerjb I have worked with people afflicted with that in various ways, and yes that would be highly plausible.

[@DanielGonzalezL]

Pretty sad to know that the killer is probably already dead, and may never face consequences. Still, amazing video and efforts, very commendable!

[@AnnaLVajda]

Well they will burn in hell for all eternity and if any of the victims friends or family happen to be in hell too they will make it especially hellish for them.

[@stephendre2902]

@@AnnaLVajda Meh Heaven and Hell are not real. But it’s nice to imagine him being tortured in a make believe consciousness...

[@googleaccount4471]

@@AnnaLVajda You should instead pray for him instead of condeming him to hell if you are a Christian.

[@DanielGonzalezL]

Please please PLEASE don't start an argument in the comments. Don't be "that" person.

[@DanielGonzalezL]

@Tutter this is the youtube comment section though. It's probably going to become a shitshow. It's almost inevitable when the topic is religion.

[@Ieatz_]

“We” the community, couldn’t be more proud of you all. Amazing.

[@rpelletier2771]

This was an achievement of a lifetime! The three of you should be immensely proud of yourselves!!

[@awsomezach364]

and the cipher said "BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE"

[@topcat365]

Zodiac fooled everyone with a worthless cipher to throw law enforcement of his trail, by focusing on a cipher that may have solved nothing.

[@pintificate]

You might be right.

[@SkillUpMobileGaming]

@Bal Del This video proves you wrong. I'll trust the experts in cryptography over some know-it-all in the KZbin comments.

[@ThomasHenryHoran]

@@SkillUpMobileGaming How does this "solve" anything? It's just more mumbo jumbo about "paradice slaves." Does it reveal the location of the "buss bumb?" Nope. Does it reveal the names and graves of any of his "37 victoms?" Nope. Any real information at all? Nope. So, Topcat is right. It doesn't "solve" anything. IF it's the correct solution.

[@patto2k358]

@Bal Del do you understand they did actually decrypt it? if it was random there'd be nothing decrypted

[@wisniamw]

@Bal Del you are contradicting yourself, you state that serial killers like when you talk about them and we still talk about him thanks to cypher, and then you state why he would make it. You literally answered yourself in your first comment

[@MargoIndigo]

holy shit this is huge! all these years and it’s finally cracked. you and your team will go down in history for deciphering this my guy, congratulations!

[@khalidmohd4932]

Right but what about the Belgium guy who made the software

[@trishverdadan3756]

"this guy" or "my guy"?

[@bethgurney]

Footnote if he's lucky :/

[@mndvz]

Well it is world wide news at this moment. However, theres more messages out there and the one containing his actual identity has not been deciphered yet.

[@bethgurney]

@@mndvz you think he put his actual identity in that cipher? I doubt it. Wishful thinking, sure, but I don't think he did. He thought it up and as smart as he was/is, I don't think he would reveal his identity in anything that can be eventually solved

[@metalliquide2537]

I randomly ran into some files of my attempts to solve this from a couple years ago, i randomly searched for the topic on youtoube and BOOM! IT HAS BEEN SOLVED JUST A COUPLE MONTHES AGO. why is this not a headline news? You guys just made history. Congratulations!

[@doranchak]

Thanks! It did get a lot of coverage actually - here's a list of examples: zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Compilation_of_news_reports_about_the_solution

[@metalliquide2537]

@@doranchak yeah i've just watched the 6th episode, obviously i've been living under a rock. You guys did a great job. You must feel proud, and you should.

[@LHSlash]

I'm now waiting for the Netflix miniseries they'll do for this one. Great job

[@TheRumpletiltskin]

now that you've solved this, he's gonna come back. OF COURSE THIS WOULD BE THE END OF 2020.

[@LDF1218]

He would be very old if he is still alive. Not that an old guy can’t shoot a gun, I just don’t know that he’d be able to get away with it at this point if he tried again.

[@seevernet1]

@@LDF1218 Right now he is too busy being the senator from Texas.

[@theimmaculatecrown]

Although his spelling is off..he's highly intelligent..never got caught and they just cracking his message. He could use old age to his advantage. I'm just saying..

[@ahmedal-minshid9133]

I believe he made it intentionally for his writing to look off.

[@nutyyyy]

If he didn't come back in 2007 when they made a full feature film about him, I doubt he is coming back now.

[@quietsiren]

FBI after 51 years: You cracked the zodiac cypher?!? David after 7 months: what, like it’s hard?

[@DrMonty-ng5fo]

Lol in the FBI's defense they have wayyyyy better things to do then to try and solve a 51 year cipher. Like, you know, actually stop murderers that are still murdering.

[@deSeriosa]

I always appreciate a good movie reference

[@TheZodiacz]

@@DrMonty-ng5fo Like opposing a president they disagree with ideologically.

[@johndor7793]

@@TheZodiacz like you're going to try and pretend Trump isn't a madman?

[@DrMonty-ng5fo]

@@TheZodiacz If I was the FBI, and I saw Trump trying to cheat an election by using the supreme court to overturn votes, I would oppose him too, lol. You have an organization that's made to protect America, and you see that they hate Trump, and so you interpret this as them being bias, while they're actually doing their fucking job. (Though the FBI has done fucked up things in the past, no doubt. But opposing criminals like Trump is literally their job.)

[@tristenweems5734]

Imagine trying to decipher this without a computer but just paper and pen 🤦🏼‍♀️

[@customamelia8824]

physically and mentally impossible

[@customamelia8824]

@John Reb not of my knowledge, the fault of the zodiac probably tho and i was exaggerating with the physically and mentally possible it would just be very hard

[@phasemontony]

@@customamelia8824probably possible but not any average guy could do it 🙃🙃🙃🥰🥰😍😍😍😍😘😘😘

[@MaskofFayt]

You'd be a absolute madman if you and your squad crack the other unsolved ones for the rest of this series

[@GreggyAck]

I think last 2 lines might be: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is paradice" "Life will be an easy one in death"

[@leticiabarros6840]

Everyone's suggesting "life is death", but your solution is really good.

[@DE4DLYX4SS4SS1N]

Best one so far

[@violetacardenas3224]

This is great!!

[@sai-fk8bg]

Damn..... Genius.

[@jaduyare]

I don't think there has to be anything wrong with the end; "I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS." He claims to know the afterlife does exist; that his new life is. The next line is a separate sentence "LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADISE DEATH" He refers to the afterlife as "Paradise Death" like his own title for the afterlife. "I am not afraid because I know my new life is. Life will be an easy one in Paradise Death."

[@lwizzit]

Confine 7 billion+ people at home and this is the result.

[@bari2883]

Lol. If only corona was around 50yrs ago. Not that it would of solved who he was with this jibberish.

[@rex-up9ln]

As the real Zodiac killer, I confirm this is indeed the correct solution

[@neolord50pro77]

I'm the real one, you're the impostor.

[@toasterstrudelfan1294]

Someone suggested at the end that it might be “DEATH IS LIFE”

[@tabaxi]

or just "life is death" because it seems like he thinks when he dies he's going to have a better life or something

[@flawlesstracks]

Remove the phrase “life is death” from the last two lines and it reads more clearly. Also, it gives the phrase “life is death” more meaning in general. Maybe it’s the name of the letter? Or it’s the last line of the cypher itself? If you do that, this is how the end of the message reads: “I am not afraid because I know that my new Life will be an easy one in paradice Life is death” Also, the phrase “life is death” can be interpreted two ways: Either straight-forward as “life is death” or if you reverse the words “Death Is Life”. What do you guys think?

[@llMojito]

@@flawlesstracks That was my immediate thought too, last lines make much more sense taking 'life is' out

[@UnelectableAirwaves]

How about “In life paradice is death”??

[@martinzuiddam3094]

This is also the first that came to mind when I was reading the sick thoughts: it seems that he wanted to show that life and death are two sides of a mirror; exchangeable. So according to his way of thinking you can say: in paradise life is death, but also in life paradise is death. Like he wanted to prove that it is insignificant that these victims died. But because he killed them and helped them pass to paradise, they will be his slaves there. So if you kill him he will only be glad because he will be the master there. So probably in this life he feels like a slave. These are Some pseudo psychology thoughts that come to my mind when I try to understand this. Maybe some schooled criminal psychology specialist could say more about this?

[@chadtucker4301]

Alternate suggestion for the last two and a half lines: "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice."

[@edamaral54]

Or another possible option that I see is: "I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE LIFE IS DEATH I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADISE".

[@judithnieborg183]

I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT death is MY NEW LIFE LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE

[@KuwaharaBMXRider]

My life is new? Maybe that’s why he disappeared

[@sonorousgaming7202]

I agree with you

[@KuwaharaBMXRider]

I am not afraid because I know that my death is new life.

[@sat0shinakamoto]

In the last 2 lines it should say: “I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice, life is death”

[@kolbyjackcorgi]

This is how I saw it too.

[@jidyck]

I had a period instead of a comma but close

[@timroff1790]

I thought the same when I read it.

[@MikeKobb]

I thought "Death is life" for the end instead -- in other words, death moves him on to his new life in paradise.

[@Jaggernaut]

I thought it could be "I am not afraid because I know that my new life is paradice. Life will be an easy one in death"

[@bro2107]

stumbled upon this and got me thinking. i changed a few words around, but if the cypher doesn't correspond to my answer then disregard as interpretation. “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. That wasn’t me on the TV show, which brings up a point about me. I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice (sic) all the sooner, because I now have enough slaves to work for me, where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradise so they are afraid of death. I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradise. Life is death."

[@senra6936]

Congrats, you did the impossible, you’re definitely going to be in the kids history books!

[@Noah-xq8cp]

Me sitting here like I know what he’s talking about

[@Jmg8792]

Lolol Seriously!!

[@mequellyall]

After three years I can finally get some sleep.... congrats guys

[@SonicSW]

Now why did you not get sleep for 3 years over this

[@Poochpatrol]

Not yet. We still don’t know his name.

[@cooleslaw]

Quite nice how I can witness such a historical moment here on KZbin. Props to you and everyone else involved with the decryption.

[@junkman25]

I believe the end should actually read: “I am not afraid of death because my new life in Paradice will be an easy one. Life is Death.”

[@xapokalypse]

I read that there was a hotel called Paradice in the 60s. Might've referred to that

[@jeffhermann]

or "...that my new life will be an easy one in paradise DEATH IS LIFE"

[@snova7437]

@@xapokalypse AYO THIS COULD BE THE NEXT STEP

[@steeevealbright]

“Death is life.”

[@snova7437]

@@c7326_ or maybe more information or another step into finding his identity

[@tuber9211]

It just baffles me how one man was able to make such a difficult and elaborate code that even modern computers have the greatest trouble solving it.

[@Kazzzzzaa23]

IMO, elaborate yes, difficult to create no. Once you have your message, you simply create a key to represent the letters in your message. You then slot the symbols of your message into lines of text. In this case, two squares and a rectangle. But I wonder why the Zodiac made an impossible to solve puzzle? Impossible at that time without the use of computers. The message wasn’t even that revealing?

[@kittynakamoto2449]

Because problems are easy to confirm but difficult to solve.

[@lordanonimmo7699]

@@Kazzzzzaa23 he made "impossible to solve" because he has a big ego,the first cipher was cracked in a week by a amateur couple,his ego couldn't take this and so he made other much harder. Also in his mind,he probably thought that no one would ever be able to solve,and he would become a legend.If he is still alive he is contorting himself.

[@Fletcher883]

@@Kazzzzzaa23 Almost certainly a pathological need to control.

[@faaaaki]

I feel like it's way easier when you are making it up yourself. Like say you're creating a new recipe, it would make sense to you but it would be harder for the next person trying to recreate it from your written recipe. idk lol

[@chimperikson8308]

God damn dude, you're a hero. You and the two other guys who helped will be remembered for your work, and hopefully it helps finding out who he is.

[@lucaslucas191202]

It's not really useful for anything other than the fact that the guy who called the tv show was a false lead. But it's really impressive work nonetheless

[@alexanderthegreat1270]

@@lucaslucas191202the one massively useful piece of information is that the caller was traced to a mental institution, which caused the police to check California mental patient records to match their fingerprints to the crime scenes. No match. So whoever the Zodiac was, they did not spend time in a mental institution

[@franktehtank8078]

If you were older you would totally be a suspect now. Amazing job.

[@khk6157]

Maybe he's signing the document as "Death." Like, "Sincerely, Death."

[@jonathangaiser5641]

I was wondering this too! I was also wondering if the 13 character cipher could literally mean "My name is Death" (as opposed to his name), like maybe it was intended to be a clue for how to crack the 340 char cipher?

[@isaacingalls720]

This is exactly what I was thinking

[@ananyaghosh4271]

WOW

[@BladeJones]

"Life is death" or "death is life" could have just been his way of filling up the extra character space for a 340 character box.

[@sulufest]

Thought the same.

[@NeutralDice]

Zodiac would be so impressed that he would go to the solvers’ houses to personally congratulate them.

[@pintificate]

That would be very thoughtful of him. He could still be alive if he was less than 30 back in '69. That would clock him in at less the 80. Stranger things have happened. .

[@cyclonus759]

Imagine opening your front door and he's standing there in his black hood and knife saying "yep, you solved it, here's your reward!"

[@Musulman618]

These guys are the best, to create a code that does all this is just AMAZING. There must be some sort of recognition given to these guy, awards,money anything. They deserve it

[@XxChancex]

Maybe the end should read like: “I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Life is death.”

[@kcunlimitedeats]

He thinks death is paradise??? He is not afraid to die? Where does this guy have salves????

[@XxChancex]

@@kcunlimitedeats it’s messed up but if you want to know I’m pretty sure he believed that his victims would become his slaves in the afterlife.

[@philipp3533]

@@kcunlimitedeats In his view everyone he kills becomes his slave in the afterlife. this is why he thinks he's gonna have an easy time when he's dead ("paradise"). Also this is why he's not afraid to die (in a gas chamber).

[@gypsybrasers]

@@kcunlimitedeats or maybe he meant all the people who acted like they were him

[@dayzsaclark7543]

That’s creepy. @-@

[@empanadero_]

The last part should read “I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradise” “Death is life”

[@FamilyfarmNNW]

Or...... I am not afraid because my new life will be an easy one. Death is life in paradise.

[@TheMusicLauncher]

Zodiacs name is Arthur Leigh Allen

[@drogadepc]

@@TheMusicLauncher stop!

[@georgekouts]

@@TheMusicLauncher No... it's not!

[@stoops7831]

I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one. In paradice, death is life

[@mollekake]

Would make more sense with: "I am not afraid because i know that my new life is death, life will be an easy one in paradice."

[@desimonar]

Yes! This is what I thought. It flows better.

[@krististevens54322]

These individuals who have the patience and intelligence to cipher these are completely incredible. GREAT JOB, guys. 2 more to go!!! Are you 3 ready for another 2 tries???! I have FULL FAITH in you!!!

[@levigamerdad]

I'm so glad this was real. I was ready to be Rick Rolled when I clicked on this.

[@linn9104]

Me too

[@amandamatcha]

Omg. Same. Lmao

[@yellows8013]

"I am not afraid, because I know that my new life will be an easy one. In paradise, death is life."

[@acousticdoug]

I was thinking the same thing

[@SSGLGamesVlogs]

I was thinking many things.

[@x8zz]

The last msg was "i already death not waste time follow me

[@jl3449]

“Amateurs” my @$$. You guys are the real pros.

[@j.dragon651]

@@bretth4988 I highly doubt they want to work for the government.

[@johnadamski9913]

why couldn't the FBI, CIA or the NSA solve this?

[@j.dragon651]

@@johnadamski9913 Who knows, but they should have/

[@zombiefireman]

Completely agree. More like badasses!

[@kgkomrin]

What does the "at dollar sign dollar sign" supposed to mean? Is it a code too?

[@Elizareads]

What impresses me most about this is the perseverance. A hard problem takes effort and dedication to solve, but a hard problem which may have no solution at all, takes an iron will. Just think of how many people must have given up dismissing it as bogus and not worth the time. Endless respect and kudos for this!

[@violinmerchant]

Someone suggested this as well "Because my new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice."

[@alistair9337]

the way I read it too.

[@quasarnova]

Makes sense given how the top right section was left alone in the previous block too.

[@KaitainCPS]

The flipped version kind of works as well: "Because my new life is paradice. Life will be an easy one in death."

[@PingTheRouter]

this is what i came here to say as well, it seems great minds think alike and you had already posted it, this maybe suggests to me that he may also have killed himself already, you would think all these years later he may have taunted police of the public because no one could solve his cypher until now obviously

[@patrickberenne9035]

Legendary code-breakers: "We cracked a code 51 years old." World: "Just in case you missed it, I think you should re-arrange the last few words like this..."

[@scott6605]

You must have not watched the video then, at the end he encourages people to make suggestions in the comments

[@chillbro1010]

@@scott6605 The internet is a strange world where open friendly discourse is seen as an insult and personal attack.

[@bgee461]

Lol best comment

[@haelotny6523]

@@chillbro1010 You must be dense if you think that comment wasn't mockery. Don't be upset, this comment is open friendly discourse.

[@steeevealbright]

He asked us to!

[@MerolaC]

"Isn't this a testimony about his killings? It clearly says life is death in Paradice, and that he has more when others have nothing in Paradice. Paradice is not Paradise, it's not a mistake, i believe it's the Par-A-Dice Motel from South Lake Tahoe, a place not far from his victim Donna Lass. He mentioned this place before twice. Maybe he has more bodies or tokens, burried or hidden there, since other people have nothing there. Clearly he says "slaves", which is a degraded view of a human being, so my best guess would be buried corpses around the compound or at the bottom of the lake. Also, another take could be the Zodiac was an employee or family of the Motel owner, since all his killings were near water/lakes, given the fact he would've lived by the water all his life, he was intelligent and good with numbers, probably because of all the gambling around him, he learned this since he was young, he was complexed by his stature and loved his "achievements", meaning he was an underachiever. Also, if he was owner of the land then he would consider all the dead people from his side of the lake to be his slaves, since a lot of people die there "naturally" every year, and their bodies are persevered at the bottom of the lake due to freezing temperatures, so he was used to death (water is life, life is death, death is life, bodies are in the water). So probably when he was young he worked at or around the Motel/Casino there at the lake, or he was relative to the owner / an owner around there." Not mine, but, makes sense.

[@mariasanches4432]

Interesting it sounds likely paradice could refer to this motel u mention it still exists and under new management maybe there was some kind of shady dealings in the past like sex trafficking and this could b where the slaves come in?

[@nameslesss]

This comment needs more views

[@nameslesss]

@@mariasanches4432 maybe

[@alaraakar]

this makes a lot of sense actually; with the known number of his victims if they were the only ones, he wouldnt have said that he now have enough slaves. this indicates that the number is way higher and we probably didn’t find out about the other murders because he hid them well, which according to this theory they may have been buried around that Motel area. But still, he did have a few other spelling mistakes in his normally written letters, so it brings up the question if it was intentionally planned or not.

[@mariasanches4432]

@@alaraakar he was obviously an intelligent person to have a code like that no one has been able to crack 4 years though so maybe these spelling mistakes are intentional from him and are other hidden messages no one has yet deciphered... suppose u wouldn't know unless u cracked the case lol

[@shanebright2988]

Just watched this for what seems like the tenth time. You guys are amazing and I want to say thank you for explaining this complex solve in a way that a total noob can understand. Love the series and eagerly await a new entry.

[@doranchak]

Thanks for watching! I hope to release more episodes in the near future.

[@legitbeans9078]

I know! I keep watching it too 😂

[@codystyle]

This deserves national attention. Congratulations.

[@sporktastic21]

“Life is” should be combined with the “Death” signature. It becomes “MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE LIFE IS DEATH”

[@DigitalNabokjerring]

Exactly what I thought as well

[@chinesekungfu2031]

Death is life

[@paulanslow1142]

I had something slightly different but yours makes more sense. “My new life is death. Life will be an easy one in paradice”

[@bobbobson6867]

Yes you beat me to it.

[@graemef7172]

Just came looking for this comment

[@valleyofthedulls]

There’s no doubt that this is the message that the Zodiac left in the code, and huge congratulations are in order! However, I strongly believe that the 340 cipher has multiple uses. I believe the 340 cipher should be paired with the map that the Zodiac sent. Remember in one of Zodiacs letters, he said that the code has to do with radians and the inches along the radians. If you overlay the 340 onto the Phillips 66 map, you’ll see how some of the symbols in the code become markers for possible map locations.

[@unamejames]

I'm not familiar with the particular map and overlay you're talking about, but I know from people debunking "ley lines" that completely random lines and symbols when overlaid on a map can often be made to look meaningful if you just keep moving the overlay around and allowing the symbols to mean anything. I wouldn't be too sure it means anything just because of how it looks.

[@rickh3714]

Zodiac Killers 340 cipher, known as Z340. The 340 is the area of the sides of the rectangular grid it was written in multiplied. 17 x 20 = 340. = 340 individual character squares. The Oranchak solution needs to be rewritten accurately inside this format for the real additional messages to be read off. Open to interpretation but the clue is in the Dee in the left column if you do this. Refers to John Dee who was an Elizabethan era Cryptic coder and secret writer. Who often used adjacent letter word search like writing.

[@rickh3714]

I did a likely such decrypt on my LoFi YT channel a few days ago. I worked out that a secondary message was there, with a likely identifier, about 12 hrs after the initial announcement which to my shame 🤦‍♂️ , I was initially sceptical of. Yes, there are multiple solutions to the Z340 and many other ciphers, SOME which may be correct as well. Z was into meta-text.

[@valleyofthedulls]

@@unamejames Ah yes, I see what you mean. I was referring to the Phillips 66 Map that Zodiac sent. On that map of San Francisco and the greater area, Zodiac had drawn a compass on Mount Diablo and wrote “is to be set to magnetic North” which is a compass setting. The overlay I was mentioning was superimposing the 340 code on to the map without moving the code around the map. Then in another letter Zodiac refers to finding radians and inches along the radians. Sounds like he wanted us to find a location. How terribly brilliant would that be - he sends the 340 code which everyone was treating it like just a code when it could have another use.

[@unamejames]

@@valleyofthedulls What I meant by "moving it around the map" is without a definitive reason to place the 340 code in that position on the map besides it looks good there, you're just moving it around until you find a place that looks good. Is there a reason like that?

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

Way to go! I'm thinking the last bit could be "I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice. Life is death."

[@mombiethezombie7536]

Incredible! It’s truly intriguing and terrifying to know that someone with a mind like this was out there committing these crimes and was never caught.

[@Nick-tx2fl]

"because I know that my new life is death" I think death is just on the wrong line. "Life will be an easy one in paradice"

[@hah1738]

I think it is: I am not afraid because I know that my new life is paradice Life will be an easy one in death

[@Nick-tx2fl]

@@hah1738 yeah I could see that too

[@maggiemay1337]

If you change the "that" to "what" it reads right. "Because I know what my new life is. Life will be an easy one in paradice death." Like Lindsay Olive said above. "life is" is the end of the first line. "Death" is the end of the last line. The last 2 lines that don't fit the rules is the last sentence. And it fits contextually if you change "that" to "what". If other individual letters are wrong, why can't that one? Especially if you take the "Life is death" into account.

[@mattpears2472]

I agree

[@filibertodominguez8036]

@@maggiemay1337 This is what I thought as well

[@naterisgreater]

I love that the news articles can’t decide whether to refer to you guys as “amateur” codebreakers or “experts”. Wouldn’t solving this elevate you guys out of amateur status though?

[@lymmea]

I believe 'amateur' is used to indicate the opposite of 'professional' here - as in, people trying to crack codes like this on their own time, who aren't necessarily employed or paid by anyone to do so. Amateur has two conflicting definitions - the one people are more familiar with is synonymous with 'incompetent', but it's *also* defined as 'someone engaging in an activity on a non-professional basis'. So, depending on the context, 'amateur' and 'expert' are not actually contradicting terms at all! You can be an amateur AND an expert in something. Yes, this is the exact kind of bullshit that makes language ridiculously confusing for no real reason, and I wish the 'incompetent' definition of amateur would get dropped. If we want to say 'incompetent', we already have a word for that. But that's how it stands. But, contextually, I assure you no one is calling these guys amateurs in any sense but the not-professionally-employed-to-do-this sense.

[@Shadow63Wolf]

There are "experts" I would call amateurs and others I would simply call incompetent. However, there are "amateurs" who are way beyond the skill level of many paid professionals. In some circles you might call those highly skilled amateurs "hackers". Using correct definitions is tricky when words may have multiple meanings. You can also become an expert in one very small area. In pencil and paper cryptology, there isn't really any schools that will give you a degree in it. Therefore there are many self made "experts" who may not get paid for anything they do. In fact, there are several "experts" who have done little more than publish a book or run a blog. I don't really know about the skill levels of those involved. However, if you do enough work in cryptography long enough, you learn to see patterns and you get a feeling when letters and words appear. Sometimes they defy logic and form impossible strings and other times they just fall into place and you can tell something is right or partially right. In truth, mostly this just elevates them to a small note in history. There really isn't any great rewards for solving one of the various unsolved ciphers. In fact for some, you may get lucky to get any recognition at all.

[@irmaroberts7283]

The roots of the word 'amateur' being in 'doing a thing for the love of doing it' - with no allusion as to how well the thing was done - have somewhat been obscured by its more recent derogatory connotation alluding to incompetence or sloppiness.

[@iliketowatch.]

Amateur=Not paid, Professional=Paid.

[@jaimem1788]

@@Shadow63Wolf Dang that just reminded my of Alan Turing after watching Imitation Game. Never got any recognition when he was alive for some of the most important code breaking in history!

[@morningaftercoffee]

Thank you so much for sharing this. As a huge fan of puzzles and codes, this literally made my year already. Thank you sincerely for the work and effort you and your team and to all people mentioned in your video who have contributed to decoding the Zodiac. Let's eventually hope to be able to close the case by deciphering Zodiac's real identity one day and know what has happened to him since then.. if alive.. or not.. Whatever the case, the Zodiac has been one of the greatest puzzles/codes (not for the fact that there were murdered people involved, but for the fact that everyone has been collaborating on breaking the code, at least during some time in their lives). I'm so glad this one has been solved! Thank you again!

[@doranchak]

Thanks for your feedback! I really hope more progress gets made on this case, and maybe it will get solved one day!