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An unsolved message found at the University of Texas

Von / 10. Dezember 2018 / 11 Kommentare
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A cryptogram that was found on the wall of a tunnel at the University of Texas has been discussed on several websites for years. Can a reader of this blog finally find the solution?

When last week I blogged about the Somerton Man, I mentioned that the cryptogram this mysterious person left behind most likely consists of word initials. Perhaps, these word initials were meant to trigger the memory of the person who wrote them down. In a comment, blog reader and codebreaking expert Bill Briere from Wyoming supported this hypothesis and mentioned a crypto mystery that seems to have a similar background: a verse written in an underground tunnel at the University of Texas.

I had never heard of this crypto mystery before, but it was not very hard to find information about it. There are about ten websites discussing this issue that show up on a Google search. For instance, somebody has introduced this story on Reddit.

Apparently, the University of Texas, which is located at Austin, features a large network of tunnels underneath the campus that connects almost all of the buildings. These underground passages are not accessible for the public. In one of the tunnels, the following message is written on a stone pillar:

Here’s a transcription:

P D G H M P D G
P H M W T L P W O
O F PG I M U I S G
P Forgive me

If this message (I call it the University of Texas cryptogram) is really a sequence of word initials, as Bill thinks, it will be difficult to solve it – simply because there is no unique solution. The same is true for the Somerton Man cryptogram, of course.

The only chance to find the solution of a word initials cryptogram is usually to find an existing text (e.g. from a book) that fits. People who already read this blog four years ago might remember that I once introduced a word initial mystery that was solved this way:

Can you solve this cryptogram? If not, check the blog post from 2014 linked above. Perhaps, the University of Texas cryptogram can be broken in a similar way.


Further reading:An undecipherable postcard?

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Kommentare (11)

  1. #1 Thomas
    10. Dezember 2018

    The beginning might be:
    “Please dear God help me please dear God
    please help me with thy love…”
    and the end:
    “…I sinned, God, please forgive me”

  2. #2 Klaus Schmeh
    11. Dezember 2018

    Richard SantaColoma via Facebook:
    Just for jollies…

    Please don’t go home, M[ary], please don’t go.
    Please hear me with this love poem…
    xxxxxxxxxx
    Please Forgive me.

    Of course it can be anything!

    Past days gone have many people dreaming grandly.
    Perhaps happiness may wither, then pale when over.
    Oh! For petty goals, I must uncover it’s secret grave.
    Penelope, forgive me!

    People don’t give him many peanuts. Does Greg?
    Paul has many walnuts, though Peter wants olives.
    Of festive platters, gruyere is most unwanted, it smells gross.
    Pewwww! Forgive me!

    Please don’t go here. Monsters play dangerous games.
    Pythons have many weapons, they poison with odors.
    Of fetid, putrid, grimy, insects, most usually instill some grief.
    Pray Forgive Me.

  3. #3 Jim Gillogly
    11. Dezember 2018

    When I started entering Thomas’ opening, the search engine suggested “win the lottery” before I got to “with thy love.” Must be a fairly common prayer to make the list.

  4. #4 Bill Briere
    Wyoming, USA
    13. Dezember 2018

    @Klaus, your reading of the third line differs slightly from mine, but now I can see it both ways: ending either in OISG or UISG.

    @Richard SantaColoma, Those are great! Check out Oulipo, if you haven’t already. Good, fun stuff.

    @Thomas and @Jim Gillogly, my stabs at this guessing game several years ago included bits of both of your ideas. The inscription site, the message format, and the sign-off all lend credence to the idea that this is a prayer, the words to which are known only to some desperate soul and his god.

    I briefly mention the Somerton, McCormick, and University of Texas “codes” in a creepy lecture I call “Codes: The Secrets They Keep.” About a third of the way into my presentation, the transcript reads:

    “… McCormick hadn’t written the notes himself. He was illiterate and could barely write his own name. To me, this code bears the same signature as the Somerton Man’s code. That is, it looks exactly like this is the first letter of each word of an unknown message.” [I then advance to a PowerPoint slide with the Texas text on it.] “In 2011, the same year that the FBI went public about the McCormick code, this code was found in a tunnel under the campus of the University of Texas in Austin. Again, it appears to be the first letters of words, with ‘Forgive me’ written at the end. I’ve tried to reconstruct this from a linguistic angle and have come to the conclusion that it’s probably a sort of prayer. A desperate prayer. Of course, we can’t decrypt this, in any real sense, but a good guess might go something like: ‘Please dear God, help me. Please dear God, please help me win the lottery. Please watch over our family. Please God, I might (then something unknown for the next four letters, OISG). Please forgive me.’ If this is close, the unresolved OISG portion at the end of the third line can only be something terrible. …”

  5. #5 Thomas
    13. Dezember 2018

    @Bill Briere:
    An image of the code was already show on Feb. 12, 2006 belonging to a blog post on the tunnel system: https://web.archive.org/web/20060215041917/https://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com:80/codeorig.jpg

  6. #6 Bill Briere
    Wyoming, USA
    14. Dezember 2018

    @Thomas, nice find! I had no idea it had been around that long. A friend of mine sent me a photo of it in November 2011, and I figured it was something new at that time.

    Next time Jew-Lee and I are passing through central Texas, we’ll see if we can get some inside scoop on when this cryptogram first appeared and who might be able to give us some first- or second-hand information about it.

  7. #7 Thomas
    14. Dezember 2018

    @Bill Briere:
    If you are looking for first-hand information: This post from Feb. 12, 2006 seems to be the first that provided information on the Austin tunnel system: https://web.archive.org/web/20060214180355/https://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com/the-secret-tunnels-under-ut.htm The author was a certain “Tynan”, I assume that’s his current website: https://tynan.com, the contact data pops up when you click on his small portrait photo. If this doesn’t help: In his post a friend “Phil” is mentioned, the link leads to Phil Gilbert who is a visual designer. See his current website with contact data: https://colorblindlighting.com

  8. #8 Breaker
    20. Dezember 2018

    Notice anything here?

    PDGHMPDG
    PHMWMLYWO
    OFF6IMUSSG
    P-FORGIVEME

    When you do a layout on a keyboard the spacing changes to appear to alternate line by line

    Now the layout on a graph paper will give a cascading look with each line adding one letter to make the final look

    Also the 6 is key……as the only number there, it seems that maybe it hints at a realignment to a 6×6 leaving “ME” as the last two letters standing out from the 6×6

    PDGHMP
    DGPHMW
    MLYWOO
    FF6IMU
    SSGP-F
    ORGIVE

    ME

  9. #9 Breaker
    20. Dezember 2018

    It appears that the three observations above are also the three hints to derive multiple messages.

    Each complication method will reconfigure them to produce the individual message. The alternating method selects the letters for the reconfiguration accordingly from a vertical zig zag. The cascading method works by shifting each line and reassigning them according to acrostic reads of the layouts. The third is the classic “Yardley” magic square….

    Re-lay the cipher text into 6×6, rotate 90, then find matching pairs and remove, then re-lay the block. You know that you have hit paydirt when you have the three different messages all speaking relatively about the same thing.

    Occasionally numbers are stacked as letters to offer additional hints….doesn’t seem to be much of them here but there is the “OFF 61” that may serve as a locator of something left there underground?

    @Bill Briere thank you for your addition of the McCormick info….I have also been looking at that recently and believe I have found the Template to crack that cipher. Can contact me to collaborate on it if you would like.

  10. #10 Breaker
    20. Dezember 2018

    Also its written on a “Column” which is the “Structure” of the cipher

    UNDERGRUUND

  11. #11 Breaker
    20. Dezember 2018

    https://i67.tinypic.com/1zlvgcw.jpg
    [IMG]https://i67.tinypic.com/1zlvgcw.jpg[/IMG]

    Original picture shows a different letter in line two….shows a M in the original and in your post Klaus it shows a T with the M appearing to be edited out…..