Zodiackiller.com Message Board: Ciphers: New take on "My name is..."

There are two symbols of interest in the cipher: the "taurus" symbol (circled 8) and the "zodiac symbol".

First, the "taurus" symbol. This symbol is rather ornate and to the best of my knowledge not used anywhere else. Furthermore, the regular and repeated pattern in the middle of the cipher is interesting. It's possible the symbol is a standard part of a substitution code. However, it seems to me the symbol may be serving the purpose of separating logical parts of the cipher. In other words, it may be functioning similarly to a period (".").

Next, the "zodiac symbol" (let's call it '+'). The cipher has only 8 unique symbols. In previous ciphers the Zodiac used upwards of 65 different symbols (admittedly including the "zodiac symbol"). Of all the symbols at his disposal, why use this symbol? One possibility is that the symbol is somehow special. Of course, there's one obvious special meaning: the signature of the Zodiac.

Now if we put these two interpretations together, we get:

_ _ _ + . _ . _ . _ _ _ _

Clearly, the part after + resembles a first initial, middle initial, last name format.

For the first three characters, I can think of two possibilities: "I am" and "The". Since + likely represents "The Zodiac", I think "I am" is more likely. Making this substitution, we get:

I a m + . _ . _ . _ m i _

Because of the 'M' symbol in the cipher, the middle initial and the last letter of the last name are the same. The first initial and first letter of the last name are indecipherable.

An interesting point about this interpretation is that the first few characters (not part of the name), are used as a key to decipher part of the last name. This seems like a logical structure.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like a distinct possibility.

For reference:

I have two new thoughts on this possible solution.

First, since starting this thread I've proposed a possible solution for the bus-bomb cipher. If, for the sake of discussion, that solution is correct the probability of this solution being correct is significantly higher because both have the same basic structure. In particular, the two structures are:

<key> <zodiac symbol> <content> - My name is...
<content> <zodiac symbol> <key> - Bus bomb

In both cases, the key is a small bit of inferable text that, because of repeated symbols, deciphers some of the content.

Next, in the original post I proposed the most likely solution for the first 3 characters (the key) is "I am". Interestingly, the first sentence after the code begins with "I am" (click here) aligned essentially under the first 3 characters of the code. Coincidence or clue?

So, does anyone have a suspect with a 4-letter last name where the middle two letters are "mi"? Something like: Amit, Emit, Imis (ha ha), Smit, Smid, etc. I guess one could argue the code could be a truncation, in which case "Smith" would fit, but I'm not very comfortable with this idea.

The less probable solution is with the key "the", in which case the name would be something like: Beth, Seth, Bets, Gets, Mets, etc.

Mike useing the Hardens break through as my roseta stone,the k was a /,but if you turned the \ it became a R. I came up with R. Hernande and the Z logo as a z makeing the last name Hernandez.

Go right to left, spin the letters around a bit, read the circle 8's as "EIGHT" or a long gutteral "A," unscramble the first three letters which become the last three, and I see "WANT TO MAKE A ZODIAC END."

Happy Halloween!