The Uncrackable Ciphers of the Zodiac Killer

At Krakit Escape Game we put you through the paces to solve your way out of a dodgy (but pretend) situation. But the type of thinking needed to crack our escape rooms sometimes has real-world applications …

In the late 1960s, in the San Francisco Bay Area, a serial killer known only as the Zodiac Killer murdered five people and seriously injured two. A further five killings are linked to the Zodiac, with the murderer himself claiming to have slain 37 people in total.

To this day, the murders have never been solved and the identity of the Zodiac Killer is still unknown.

However—being one of those truly annoying serial killers who taunts the authorities—the Zodiac claims to have revealed his true identity in a series of coded messages sent to San Francisco newspapers throughout the early ’70s. According to him (assuming it is a him!), the truth is out there.

It’s been more than 40 years since the Zodiac sent his last letter (in 1974), and still the ciphers of the Zodiac have yet to be solved. However, that doesn’t mean people haven’t been trying.

The Zodiac demanded that three major newspapers publish his three cryptograms, like the one below, on the front page of their August 1, 1969 editions, or else other murders would take place.

The police—along with FBI and navy cryptographers—were unable to solve the ciphers, leading the Zodiac to mock them (and, as it turns out, kill more people). However, local couple Donald and Bettye Harden managed to crack the code, starting with the basis that the Zodiac had a massive ego and therefore the message would begin with an “I.” It did, with the first line reading: “I like killing people because it is so much fun.”

Most of the ciphers remain unsolved, though—with the Zodiac’s identity contained somewhere in there.

One of the more recent attempts to crack the code comes from Ryan Garlick, a computer science professor at the University of North Texas, who led an entire class devoted to solving the cryptograms using an online tool. But, no luck so far.

Need a new obsession? See if you’ll be the one to finally crack the code.

The 10 Best Alien, Beastly, and Supernatural Captors in Film

You can’t have a great escape without a great captor, now can you? You need a really good reason to jump off that too-high cliff or claw your way out of a subterranean cave.

As much as we may loathe them, we at Krakit have got to give big screen terrorizers props for creating the escape situations that thrill and inspire us. First, we start with the 10 best beastly and supernatural captors, and next post we’ll look at those captors who are, despairingly, all too human.

10. Cooper from Super 8

He’s gigantic, he’s got a weird-looking nose, and he cocoons people like a massive spider. But ultimately he’s just trying to get home, so he’s at the bottom of our list.

9. Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi                          

No one can argue that Jabba is a captor without style. He chooses fashionable items for his captives, though his love of chains gets a little out of hand.

8. The virus from [REC]

While man plays a part in the terror of the unfortunate souls held captive in a Barcelona apartment building in REC, ultimate responsibility lies with the ruthless virus that lands them in quarantine in the first place.

7. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast

You probably didn’t expect to see a Disney film on this list, but here we have a captor who manages to induce Stockholm Syndrome through song and dance. It’s inspired.

6. The Female from Under the Skin

An alien lifeform that’s come to earth both to study mankind and to gorge herself on manflesh, The Female (Scarlett Johansson) has the most impressive captivity chamber of them all: a pool of immobilizing, flesh-liquefying goo.

5. The demon from The Exorcist

Forget trapping people in a building: the demon in The Exorcist jumps right into poor Regan’s body and takes up residence there. So much for feeling at home in your own skin.

4. H.A.L. from 2001: A Space Odyssey

What do you do when the super smart computer that runs your spaceship turns your tin-can home into a series of traps? Hope you’re really good at holding your breath, mostly.

 

3. The creature from The Host

Unlike Cooper from Super 8, the creature in The Host uses its den like a tank at a seafood market, with its unlucky human snacks stuck in a deep sewer with very smooth walls (terrible for climbing, you see).

2. It from It Follows

Why terrorize people by trapping them in, say, a haunted house, when you can instead turn the entire world into a nightmare that requires constant escape? The presence from It Follows can’t think of a better alternative.

1. Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Combining the tactics of the demon from The Exorcist and the presence from It Follows, Freddy knows the best way to keep someone under lock and key is to turn their very mind into a terrifying holding cell they can’t escape. Well done, Freddy. Well done.