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FBI Wants You To Solve Encrypted Notes From Murder

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the don't-you-mean-muuuuuurder dept.

coondoggie writes "The FBI is seeking the public's help in breaking the encrypted code found in two notes discovered on the body of a murdered man in 1999. The FBI says that officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick on June 30, 1999 in a field and the clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim's pants pockets."

10 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. I've cracked it! by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first note just looks a list of IP addresses associated with Twitter accounts communicating with a "Julian_Assange" and the second note appears to be in Arabic (which I can't read).

    I don't understand what either of those have to do with a 1999 murder in Missouri though.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:I've cracked it! by thomasdz · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, no, no! It appears to be a conspiracy between Slashdot users ganjadude (952775) and elrous0 (869638) to deflect suspicion.

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      Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
    2. Re:I've cracked it! by psergiu · · Score: 4, Funny

      Unfortunatelly it's something darker. I don't dare to put the message here in plain text for all search engines to find so here's a ROT13 version of the decoded message:

      Jr'er ab fgenatref gb ybir
      Lbh xabj gur ehyrf naq fb qb V
      N shyy pbzzvgzrag'f jung V'z guvaxvat bs
      Lbh jbhyqa'g trg guvf sebz nal bgure thl
      V whfg jnaan gryy lbh ubj V'z srryvat
      Tbggn znxr lbh haqrefgnaq

      Arire tbaan tvir lbh hc
      Arire tbaan yrg lbh qbja
      Arire tbaan eha nebhaq naq qrfreg lbh
      Arire tbaan znxr lbh pel
      Arire tbaan fnl tbbqolr
      Arire tbaan gryy n yvr naq uheg lbh

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    3. Re:I've cracked it! by Al+Al+Cool+J · · Score: 4, Funny

      So chances are we'll never be able understand it. Shaka, when the walls fell.

  2. Link to the notes: by Moderator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here is a link to the notes:

    http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032911/image/gallery

    Of course, what I got out of it was:

    "You are a stupid square idiot bald git aren't you? eh? I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you, but I'm not actually addressing you, I'm addressing the one prat in the country who has bothered to get a hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got! Frankly your acts crap, anyway anybody could've done it, I hate the lot of you, bollocks to you!"

    --
    The World is Yours.
  3. And the coded message is... by wcrowe · · Score: 5, Funny

    DRINKYOUROVALTINE

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
  4. Hmm... by tool462 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There are a lot of nested parens in those notes. It's clearly Lisp code. They should bring Alan Turing in for questioning.

    1. Re:Hmm... by One+Louder · · Score: 4, Funny

      "The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and parentheses"

      It's obviously a port of sendmail written in Perl.

  5. I'd like to, but... by Steauengeglase · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't violate the DMCA. Sorry.

  6. It's not encrypted by QX-Mat · · Score: 3, Funny

    it's Welsh!