Like something out of a John Grisham novel the FBI have made public, for the first time in 12 years a coded note which once successfully deciphered could help solve a murder case.
The hand written note, (as seen above and below), was found on the body of 41 year-old Ricky McCormick on June 30th 1999, in a field in St Louis, Missouri. Ricky had been murdered and dumped there and the only clues found at the scene were two encrypted notes which were discovered in the victim’s trouser pockets.
The FBI website states:
“Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice.
The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able to read and write and was said to be “street smart.” According to members of his family, McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone besides McCormick could translate his secret language. Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pockets were written up to three days before his death.”
Unsurprisingly there has been a massive reaction to this appeal, so much so that authorities have had to set up a separate page to deal with public comments and theories. Chart a course for more information on this appeal HERE.
HMS Friday 