The Unread Message: The Ciphers of the Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer ciphers are among the most famous unsolved codes in the world, and after more than fifty years, two of them have still never been cracked. Between 1969 and 1970, the unidentified serial killer who called himself the Zodiac sent four coded messages to San Francisco newspapers, each a block of strange symbols mixing letters, numbers, and astrological signs. He promised that his codes would reveal his identity. The first cipher, 408 characters long, was solved in about a week by a schoolteacher and his wife at their kitchen table, but it revealed only a chilling boast, not a name. The second, known as Z340, defeated the FBI, the NSA, and the world's best codebreakers for 51 years, until an international team of three amateurs finally cracked it in December 2020, one of them working through Melbourne's COVID lockdown on the far side of the world. And two ciphers remain unsolved to this day, including a 13-character message that the Zodiac introduced with the words "My name is". In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we tell the full story of the Zodiac ciphers: how the codes worked, who solved them, why the last two may be impossible to crack, and the genuinely haunting possibility that the name of a killer who was never caught has been sitting in plain sight, printed on a newspaper page, for more than half a century, in a code that no one has ever been able to read. Settle in, get comfortable, and let us tell you the story of the unread message.

Become a Patreon or Apple + subscriber now for ealry and ad free access from as little as $1.69 a week. All the details here

Subscribe to Crime at Bedtimes Youtube channel HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(291)

The Murder of Hae Min Lee: The Adnan Syed Case

The murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of Adnan Syed became a global phenomenon through the Serial podcast. In 1999, the 18-year-old Baltimore student was strangled and buried in Leakin Park; he...

23 Syys 28min

The Ilkley Moor Alien: The 1987 UFO Photograph Mystery

The Ilkley Moor alien case is one of Britain's most famous UFO photographs. In December 1987, a retired police officer photographed a small green figure on a Yorkshire moor, then found his compass rev...

22 Syys 28min

The Claremont Serial Killings: Perth's DNA Breakthrough

The Claremont serial killings are the most infamous murders in Western Australian history. Between 1996 and 1997, three young women, Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer, and Ciara Glennon, vanished after nights...

20 Syys 32min

Two Days Before Christmas: The Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier

The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in December 1996 is one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Irish history, and one of the strangest legal sagas in modern Europe. Sophie Toscan du Plantier ...

16 Syys 24min

The Man Who Walked Off Camera: The Disappearance of Steven Koecher

The disappearance of Steven Koecher in December 2009 is one of the most quietly baffling vanishings of the modern age, and more than sixteen years later, not a single trace of him has ever been found....

15 Syys 23min

The Wrong Man: The Murder of Rachel Nickell

The murder of Rachel Nickell in July 1992 is one of the most notorious crimes in British history, and one of the most catastrophic miscarriages of justice British policing has ever produced. Rachel Ni...

13 Syys 26min

The Solway Firth Spaceman: The 1964 Photograph No One Can Explain

The Solway Firth Spaceman is one of the most famous unexplained photographs in British history, and after more than sixty years, people are still arguing about what it shows. On the afternoon of the 2...

12 Syys 27min

The Carnegie Secret: The Great Con of Cassie Chadwick

The great con of Cassie Chadwick is one of the most audacious frauds in American history, and it was built on a single, brilliant lie: that she was the secret illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie,...

9 Syys 28min