"Proposed" 340 cipher solutions

[Zabagliona Profile]

At the risk of repeating a huge discussion I do not know about....any chance the 340 is a Vigenere ciper with the "keyword" being something OTHER than Zodiac?

[Princein Profile]

At the risk of repeating a huge discussion I do not know about....any chance the 340 is a Vigenere ciper with the "keyword" being something OTHER than Zodiac?

I've been trying with the keyword being "mynameis". Don't know if it works or not, I'll freely admit I'm in way over my head.

[4on4off Profile]

At the risk of repeating a huge discussion I do not know about....any chance the 340 is a Vigenere ciper with the "keyword" being something OTHER than Zodiac?

Some time ago, on another board, Glurk was kind enough to give his reasoning why the 340 is not encoded using this method.

I do not recall the extent of it but it convinced me at the time and holds to this day.

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[Wrench Profile]

Was just cleaning out some old files. Where did this come from? Looks like a decrypto screen capture.

[doranchak Profile Website]

It's Smithy's cipher:

http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=444

[Wrench Profile]

Ah, yes. Thanks.

Darn. If I'd have ever have gotten that much out of the Z340 I'd remember!

Well, here's to hoping 2012 is the year.

[jeffsmusic Profile]

I was looking at the ciphers several years ago and after reading all these attempts at solutions, I came to the conclusion that they all seemed to be overly complicated. The more complication you put into something the more possible results. It's probably why there are so many "Solutions" about.

I've made a number of puzzles in the past. Some of them remain unsolved. Which amuses me because the principle behind them is quite simple. I tried to apply this when looking at the 340. I came up with something interesting. It's not a solution, but maybe a good starting point if anybody is interested in pursuing it.

I do know that opinion about this cipher is that it may be double encoded and that's where I started. If the Zodiac wanted this to be solved (and I believe he did) then I don't think that he would have created two sets of keys representing letters. It would be near impossible. So how about offsetting the characters using co-ordinates and then applying the key used in the 408.

Using this logic I assumed that if it was offset by co-ordinates or map movements, there would be instances where there were straight lines for a few letters. Maybe I didn't explain it that well. What I mean is moving about on graph paper in an adaptive differential fashion. A bit like an ADPCM audio file, but backwards as well. These numbers would be shown as something like +1,+3,-2,-4 etc (the first number representing movement horizontal and the second vertical). So a straight line would be like +2,-2,+2,-2.

I applied the original cipher key then applied offsets. First +1,+1,+1 etc. Then +1,-1,+1,-1 etc. I covered all combinations up to +25,-25. Giving me straight lines at 25 different angles.

As simple as I could explain it. Just those two steps. After browsing the results I found words in different places but none of any interest. Except when I applied the offset of +4,-4 etc. After doing this the third line read:

H KZDIEIWIJLPPZXB

The space is a character that doesn't appear in the first cipher. What's interesting here is position 5 to 12 which reads "DIEIWIJL" Something that appeared in the first code (without the J of course).

As I said I used the original key and and offset. My guess is that there is some sort of diagram or map line drawing that can be used with the original key to solve this.

Maybe someone would like to look further down this route.

As to the contents of the 340. I don't think it's going to reveal anything that will lead to the identity of the Zodiac. I have my reasons for thinking this.

Anyway. That's my two pennies on this one