Tipping my (virtual) hat frenetically in the direction of Zodiac Killer Cipher-meister Dave Oranchak yet again, it’s time to reveal one of the very few cipher mysteries from Ohio. (Might it be the only one? Let me know if it isn’t!)

Dave had found this story mentioned on the consistently curious (in a nice way) Futility Closet website, which itself had presumably found it from a 1916 edition of “Enigma”, the magazine of the National Puzzlers’ League (later reprinted here).

“The police department of Lima, O., is greatly puzzled over a cryptic message received in connection with the robbery of a Western Ohio ticket agent. Here it is: WAS NVKVAFT BY AAKAT TXPXSCK UPBK TXPHN OHAY YBTX CPT MXHG WAE SXFP ZAV FZ ACK THERE FIRST TXLK WEEK WAYZA WITH THX.”

As normal with such half-remembered stories, there’s no mention of anything specific that might actually help us track it down. But I decided to have a look anyway: and quickly found two mentions of it in the Lima Times-Democrat newspaper. The original mention was on the 3rd July 1916 (though the scan of it is barely readable)…

Lima-03Jul1916

i.e.

“At the request of a citizen of …… (we present?) a note written in cypher. As it is of the utmost importance that the contents of the note be ascertained. Any suggestions by readers of this paper which will …. assist in learning …. of the note will be … appreciated. The note is as follows: …”

…while there was a follow-up mention on the 7th July 1916 with a (probably spurious) guess as to the alphabet…

Lima-07Jul1916

So the NPL transcript was nearly correct, except that it had split “ZAVFZ” into “ZAV FZ” (you can just about make out “zavfz” on the original Lima Times-Democrat report) and merged “WAYX ZA” to “WAYZA”. So, the correct “Ohio cipher” ciphertext should be:

WAS NVKAFT BY AAKAT TXPXSCK UPBK TXPHN OHAY YBTX CPT MXHG WAE SXFP ZAVFZ ACK THERE FIRST TXLK WEEK WAYX ZA WITH THX

Well… given that we still don’t know the exact town or date of the incident, and the Enigma retelling of the story seems not to have quite matched what the local newspaper actually said (e.g. it was reported by a “citizen”), we’re still left with plenty of mysteries. Perhaps other newspaper reports from the time will reveal more of the story… anyone who wants to take this on, please be my guest!

All the same, to me the ciphertext does look exactly like the kind of ad hoc partially-improvised agony column ciphers Tony Gaffney used to eat for breakfast, so maybe he’ll see straight through this particular visual trick and crack it quicker than you can say “vividly ovoviviparous”… 😉

12 thoughts on “Ohio’s very own cipher mystery…

  1. Diane on July 2, 2013 at 3:13 am said:

    hahaha
    😀

  2. Mindy Dunn on July 2, 2013 at 10:14 am said:

    This is what I think it says…haven’t figured out the names yet, but:

    Was Tricked by xxx xxx (maybe James Heaton) from Niles Ohio. XXX XXX XXX (maybe Army/Navy CPT xxxx) who took money got there first last week, took it with him.

  3. Mindy Dunn on July 2, 2013 at 10:31 am said:

    I guess I should explain why I think that…so, I think the person genuinely wanted to give part of the message, but the parts which would have been recognizable he coded randomly, leaving only the correct number of letters. It is possible some of the words were clued by leaving the last letter of the word as a clue to the first letter of the word (eg NVKVAFT, where T at the end signifies the word beginning with T, leading to Tricked). However, not all the words are like this, so it may just be a coincidence for the word tricked. If this is the case, the city, Niles, could be incorrect. The city name would be a five letter name. Niles is good because its central western ohio, and it starts with an N (where TXPHN ends with N). It is possible then the name of the CPT is something like “Grey”, if it is also coded using the last letter hint. This leaves the middle part, which is WAE SXFP ZAVFZ… since there is no other part which references (thus far) what was stolen, and we know it is a robbery, the robbed item is likely in here. My guess is “Who took money”, implicating the CPT as an accomplice. That leaves the word prior to week…that? last? more likely it was “last” since it was a reported robbery, in code. the next two words before WITH (WAYX ZA) are four and two letter words…if the sentence is to make sense, and use WITH, the sentence is likely TOOK IT WITH…last word THX…HIM. This could of course be HER…but given it is 1916, and it references a CPT, it’s unlikely it’s a female. Now, if this is actually a solved mystery, then please excuse my ramblings…I was merely passing time while waiting for my brain to clear from voynichese (which by the way is still translating very well, and very historically), and thought I’d give it a 1 hour shot.

  4. Tony on July 3, 2013 at 9:13 pm said:

    Hi Nick,

    I came up with the following, to be read like a telegram –

    WAS NVKVAFT BY AAK/AT TXPX/SCK UPBK
    conditions im not at seae but wait

    TXPHN OHAY YBTX CPT MXHG WAE SXFP
    heard from Mise was very col Bena

    ZAVFZ ACK THERE FIRST TXLK WEEK
    going out there first next week

    WAYX ZA WITH THX
    come go with the …..

    the four letters in italics mark the only deviation from the cipher alphabet given below

    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ cipher
    oiu#lnyr##txvdfa##bswicemg plain

    but I don’t think we should have 2 substitutes for ‘I’

    which is similar to what the reader sent in which they’ve reproduced with at least three errors!

    Anyway – it’s a not very convincing mess – you need to find the original note!

    Tony

    PS – Here’s another cipher for you to work out –

    http://media-cache-ec2.pinimg.com/originals/77/3f/6c/773f6c51f7e11a64b4d494f79d54d28b.jpg

  5. Diane on July 4, 2013 at 1:34 am said:

    re picture linked by Tony
    17:4
    and
    Even the Moon, obedient to his cure
    From periodic taint would be secure;
    No spots would mar the fullness of her shining
    Nor would her Birth entail her own Declining.

  6. Russell on July 22, 2013 at 5:37 pm said:

    Hi Nick,
    In the Lima Times-Democrat newspaper of the 7th July 1916 I see that the second “word” is NVKAFT but every where else (you, Futility Closet, etc..) its NVKVAFT (V en plus). Which one is correct?
    Russell

  7. Pingback: Top-25 der ungelösten Verschlüsselungen – Platz 8: Der Ticketschalter-Räuber von Ohio – Klausis Krypto Kolumne

  8. , Rick A. Roberts on February 22, 2014 at 10:02 am said:

    I live in Ohio, so I thought that I would try to unravel this message. I used the key to the cipher mentioned in the article. The message reads; “WAS TAKEN BY V.V.F. ACTING TICKET PSK EXCHANGE BACKUP TICKET PHONE NUMBER OHAY(6429?) BY TICKET CAPTAIN”. “HAS FEW FAMILY TICKET PACKS THERE FIRST TICKET WEEK.”
    Who was V.V.F ? Was this the name of the PSK Exchange Ticket Captain ? This robbery was reported to the Lima, Ohio Police Department in 1916. The four digit telephone number would have been appropriate for that time. I used my modern numbers on my telephone to get
    (6429), from (OHAY). The digit to alphabetical assignment might have been different then. Also, there was what I believe to be a PSK Railroad in Ottawa, Ohio at the time of the robbery.
    Rick A. Roberts

  9. , Rick A. Roberts on February 22, 2014 at 10:06 am said:

    The first word in second line should be, “WAS”. Thank you.
    Rick A. Roberts

  10. Pingback: Ohio Cipher - the original incident? -Cipher Mysteries

  11. I think the cipher preceded the incident. There are 93 letters, put them 3×31 in groups of 5.

    WASNV
    NOHAY
    THERE

    KAFTB
    YBTXC
    FIRST

    YAAKA
    PTMXH
    TXLKW

    TTXPX
    GWAES
    EEKWA

    SCKUP
    XFPZA
    YXZAW

    BKTXP H
    VFZAC K
    ITHTH X

    Was no “hay” there by may first. Talk wages up with Zack.

  12. Hassan Boyouk on July 21, 2022 at 2:38 pm said:

    I think I have a possible solution for the Ohio Cipher. Here are the keys; B stands for A, A stands for O, O stands for F, and F stands for B or O. U only stands for U.

    W stands for H, H stands for R, R stands for W.

    G stands for L which stands for either C or X(If L stands for C, C stands for S which stands for either C or E.). If L stands for X, X stands for E or G(If X stands for E, it may stand for X or G).

    V & K Both stand for T, T stands for N, and N stands for either V or K.

    Y stands for M, M stands for P, and P stands for Y or M

    Nothing is said about Z or I, so Z likely stands for N while I doesn’t stand for anything.

    The original Cipher;

    Was nvkaft by aakat (hoc tntoon am ooton)
    txpxsck upbk txphn ohay ybtx cpt (keyecst umft neyrt from make syn)
    mxhg wae sxfp zavfz ack there first (perlhox ceoy notbn ost nrgwg b?wer)
    txlk week wayx za with thx.(next hlgt home no h?ver kre)

    Now the deciphering(I don’t have the meaning, but I have a possible solution)
    (hoc tn to on a mooton); Hike in two; On a mountain
    (keyecst umft neyrt from make syn) closest you often hear from. Make sure
    (perlhix ceoy notbn ost nrgwg b?ewr) Sherlock see you’re right by us. First,
    we are going between there. [The word “There” is skipped while the word “first is used twice; The words themselves and then the encryption method.]
    (txlk week wayx za with thx) Next he’ll get home over there***.
    Here’s the possible solution; Hike in two; On a mountain closest you often hear from.* Make sure Sherlock** sees you’re right by us. First, we’re going between there.*** Next he’ll go home over there.

    * This is a mountain they’ve heard about, but we don’t know what the mountain is.

    **Who is Sherlock?

    *** Where is this “There”? Also, we use there, then the word “first”, then the encrypted “there”(nrgwg), then use the encrypted “first”(b?wen), then use “there” once again. Then proceed with the last line of the cryptogram.

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