The Osceola times., 1883-04-14
CIPHER LETTERS.
A Chat with an Expert Declpherer on the
Various Cipher systems In Use

Various Cipher systems in Use
ST. Louis Post-Dispstch.
Jailcr siegmund yesterday intercepted
cipher letter written by Archie Ellis, $
prisoner, to Matte Miller, woman con-
fined in the female department. The
correspondence was carried on through
"trusty," who received the letters during
the exercise hour, and delivered them in
the discharge of his other duties.
The epistle was written in conventional
character, consisting of squares, circles,
curves, triangles and dashes, to which
each party had a key. The letter was
turned over to Secretary Williams, of the
Police Department, who has justly ac-
quired reputation for deciphering these
systems. 1t was found to be a love letter,
in which Ellis mourned the fact that
stone walls and iron bars separated her
from him.
Speaking of this letter Officer Williams
said, "Oh, had no difficulty in figuring
this out. The most difficult cipher ever
worked on was during the excitement
following the disappearance of Charlie
Ross. l deciphered letter in that case,
which has been embodied in the history
of the disappearance, written by the
boys father. Mr.. Ross was daily re-
ceiving hundreds of letters concerning
his boy at the time, and one day he re-
ceived a letter post-marked "St. Louis"
which contained cipher message that
another letter explained, told where the
boy was and would be rendered into
script for $500. On consultation with his
attorneys Mr.. Ross forwarded both letters
to the st. Louis Police Department.
Capt. OConner was then Chief OF De-
tectives, and after working ON the case
for several days ii was traced to man
who was living on flat boat at the foot
of Labeaume street. All his papers were
seized and it was discovered that he had
been at Pine Bluff, Ark. He denied hav-
ing written the cipher letter or being
able to transpose ii.
When confronted with what proof the
| officers had he said the letter was given
him by man who was stranger to him.
The detectives then set to work on the
letter but gave it up. Capt. O'Conner
sent for me. and, after working at it for
some hours / discovered the key. The
two first lines of the cipher were AZ fol-
lows:
Ign Kxg IA abme il yrun kmoo keb
rw nl1oo nryb. The translation
was "Thc boy is still at Pine Bluff, but
in d fferent place. The signature of the
letter in the cipher was IN. MXC PV
JAA," which, when transposed, read
"B. Douglass"
GLOW many kinds of cipher are there?"
There are any number of cipher sys-
TENS Any person can get up a system
by transferring the letters Of the alpha
bet. In the case of Samuel L. Carter who
was arrested for embezzling $4,000 from
the Bank of North America on false pre-
lenses cryptographic sy stem composed
of figures and letters was used.
/ translated this for the attorneys of
the bank and have copy of the notes
The following is a sample:
B295 402d led l753h, 304Sco c4O1d S47.
lS55h x4 1889, reading: Been worried
all day with iron company. Could not
make up my mlnu.
This was a very difficult system TO de-
cipher as the words were run together
and badly mixed up. Time, patience
and tr, ing will decipher any of the,
After discovering the Key of this system.
| ran all the words together and then di.
vided them, getting the correct transla-
ton of the sentences. There was nearly
10000 involved in this case, and at the
time it excited a great deal of interest.
Over twenty notes and kilograms written
in this cipher were found in Carter's pos
session.
rhe plan usually adopted by thieves is
to agree upon certain signs representing
certain letters and then dividing the
signs just as the words are in writing
plain English. Bad spelling is the diff
Guilty which must be surmounted in cryp-
tographic correspondence Of this char
acter, and it will often serve to mislead
man when deciphering it.
A certain sign might stand in one CON-
bination for one letter and in another
combination where all the letters are
known but one and that one should be
the same as the first sighn, you find a
different one owing to bad photography.
All this must be taken into considera-
ton.