A three-person team appears to have unlocked a previously unsolved code for the Zodiac killer, who killed at least five people in Northern California in 1968 and 1969, according to foreign media outlet CNET. The coded message, known as the “340 code” because it contains 340 characters, was sent in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969.
According to David Oranchak, a member of the team that cracked the code, “I hope you have a lot of fun trying to catch me.” Part of the message reads. The message also mentioned not being afraid of death, but provided no names or obvious clues as to the identity of the Zodiac Killer.
Oranchak posted a video on YouTube on Friday explaining in detail how he and the rest of his team, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke, cracked the code problem. Their findings were sent to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) earlier this month.
The FBI confirmed Friday that the codes were unlocked by three private individuals. “On December 5, 2020, the FBI received a solution to a cipher commonly known as Z340 from a cryptology researcher and independently verified the decryption,” the FBI said in an emailed statement. “This code was first submitted to the FBI laboratory on Nov. 13, 1969, but was not successfully decrypted. Over the past 51 years, the Cryptologic Decryption and Fraud Ransom Records Unit (CRRU) has reviewed many solutions proposed by the public – none of which had merit.”
The FBI’s San Francisco office said in a Friday tweet that the Zodiac Killer-related case is still under investigation.
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