Zodiac's Cipher 340 -- Egomania Analyzed
By: Shane Lambert
Time of writing: December 13th, 2020
One of The Zodiac Killer's notes was cracked recently with credit going to David Oranchak, Jarl Van Eycke, and Sam Blake. These individuals had a background in software development, computer programming, and mathematics respectively. The note, known as Cipher 340, went like this:
"I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me
That wasn't me on the TV show which brings up a point about me
I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice all the sooner
Because I now have enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death
I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice death."
The letter in question was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in November of 1969. The TV show mentioned is likely "The Jim Dunbar Show," which was a talk show (see the video at the end of the article). The date in question of the show, I believe, is mid-to-late October of 1969 with October 22nd, 1969 the date that I think the show aired as per the newspaper clipping below which identifies the day-before Wednesday as the date of the show. That would mean the letter was written after the show and on or before November 8th, 1969.
Cipher 340 is interesting for a couple reasons, I think. Firstly, three of the sentences start with the word "I." I recall reading several years ago about a previous deciphering of a different note. Bettye and Donald Harden, the couple that solved a previous coded message, assumed that The Zodiac Killer was an egomaniac who would often start sentences with the word "I." That Zodiac sentences have a tendency to start with that word may be a point to take away for anyone working on the other letters that remain uncracked.
A history.com article on the matter stated this about the previous deciphered note: "Inspired by the killer’s obvious craving for attention, Bettye guessed that the message would begin with the word 'I.' She also believed the word KILL or KILLING—or even the phrase I LIKE KILLING—would appear somewhere in the message. Her guesses turned out to be correct."
The previous note went like this:
"I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest, because man is the most dangerous animal of all. To kill something is the most thrilling experience. It is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl. The best part of it is that when I die, I will be reborn in paradise and all that I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife."
Now that they have two codes deciphered, it may help with the deciphering of the codes that remain, especially if clues across the two deciphered messages start to appear. For example, the use of the word "fun" appears in both messages. That might reveal how he changed his coding around or even how he kept it the same between messages when going for the same word. Also, one note has the word "nothing" while the other has the word "something" and the similar ending between the words might start opening up ways to figure other notes, if they employed similar phrases.
Another thing to take away is that this note wreaks of fear of losing a certain chess match with the police. In reading the deciphering, it's clear that The Zodiac Killer wanted to make it clear that if he got caught that he still didn't lose. That's the communicated message when he refers to his opinion that getting sent to the gas chamber would only send him to a cushy afterlife.
It creates a situation where he wins or he wins: if he doesn't get caught, he taunts the police but even if he does get caught his ego remains protected from them 'winning' because the death penalty in itself is a reward -- or so he says. It's this win-win situation that The Zodiac Killer is communicating with the note and, I think, it reveals a deep concern over being caught.
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