In 1926 a US newspaper published a series of crime stories that involved encrypted messages. Here are four of them. Can you break them?

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (also known as The Brooklyn Eagle) was a daily newspaper published in the city/borough of Brooklyn, in New York City, from 1841 to 1955. At one point, it was the afternoon paper with the largest daily circulation in the United States.

In January 1926, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a series of fictive crime stories. Each one was about an investigator (usually a policeman, a private detective or a professional codebreaker) who had to decipher an encrypted message in order to solve a criminal case. For instance, on January 5th a “famous cryptographer” named Frank Keen faced the following ciphertext:

1926-01-05-Brooklyn-Eagle

On January 10th, Frank Keen had to solve another criminal case by breaking a secret message:

1926-01-10-Brooklyn-Eagle

On the day after a private investigator came across the following cipher mystery:

1926-01-11-Brooklyn-Eagle

On January 17th a father found the following message in his son’s room:

1926-01-17-Brooklyn-Eagle

Can you decipher these cryptograms? They are not very difficult. Apparently, the criminals of the 1920s were not the best cryptologists.

This crime story series ran for about four weeks, with about 25 stories published. After this, either the readers or the authors of the series lost interest.


Further reading: Who can decipher these two very short postcard messages?

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13501820
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/763282653806483/

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Kommentare (5)

  1. #1 Breaker
    15. September 2018

    The first one is a vertical read and a roundabout through the layout…..like a spiral

    Stock Company at the bottom gives away the best observation of the movement of the letters….

  2. #2 Thomas
    16. September 2018

    The first one (spiral, as Breaker already found out) completed:
    BUY A CME STOCK. COMPANY GOT CONTROL OF NEW OIL FIELD IN TEXAS. COMBINATION SIX TEN FIVE TWELVE

  3. #3 Rossignol
    Paris, France
    16. September 2018

    #2:

    THERE ARE CON-FIRMED RVMORS OF A LONG AOAL STRIKE THIS FALL.
    BUY ALL THE COAL YOU CAN GET AT SEVEN DOLLARS A TON OR LESS.
    STORE IT AND WAIT FOR THE FAMINE PRICES AT TWENTY FIVE A TON WE HAVE A GOOD CHANCE TO CLEAN UP A COUPLE OF MILLIONS IN A FEW MONTHS IF WE GO IN HEAVY ENOUGH ON THIS DEAL.
    TARLETON

  4. #4 Rossignol
    Paris, France
    16. September 2018

    #3 :

    WE HAVE SCHEME ALL WORKED OUT FOR GETTING THE THIRTY THOUSAND SILK MILL PAY ROLL.
    MEET ME AT THE LUPINE PLACE FRIDAY AT NINE SHARP READY EOR ACTION AND QUICK ESCAPE.
    ED.

  5. #5 Rossignol
    Paris, France
    16. September 2018

    #4:

    I HOPE YOU SEE THE
    WAY CLEAR TO DO AS
    YOUR FATHER WISHES.
    I THINK THE BEST
    THING TO DO IS TO
    MAKE GOOD IN BUS-
    INESS AND THEN WE
    CAN THINK OF OTHER
    THINGS.
    RUTH