Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Beale ciphers
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Authenticity== There has been considerable debate over whether the remaining two ciphertexts are real or [[hoax]]es. An early researcher, Carl Hammer of [[UNIVAC|Sperry UNIVAC]],<ref>{{cite news |author-last=Burchard |author-first=Hank |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=7 September 1979 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19790907&id=RP0jAAAAIBAJ&pg=6966,3100111 |title=Motley group gathers to solve ciphers to treasure}}</ref> used [[supercomputer]]s of the late 1960s to analyze the ciphers and found that while the ciphers were poorly encoded, the two undeciphered ones did not show the patterns one would expect of randomly chosen numbers and probably encoded an intelligible text.<ref name="Biggest Secrets">{{cite book |title=Biggest Secrets |last=Poundstone |first=William |author-link=William Poundstone |year=1993 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company]] |location=New York, NY |isbn=0-688-11529-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/biggestsecretsmo00poun_0/page/127 127] |url=https://archive.org/details/biggestsecretsmo00poun_0/page/127 }}</ref> Other questions remain about the authenticity of the pamphlet's account.<!-- In 2005, [[user:Elonka]] added the following statement to the article without properly sourcing it, because it was 2005 and the culture on Wikipedia was a bit sloppier at the time. In the words of one researcher "To me, the pamphlet story has all the earmarks of a fake . . . [There was] no evidence save the word of the unknown author of the pamphlet that he ever had the papers."<ref>Dr. Clarence Williams, a researcher at the Library of Congress, in 1934.</ref> 19 years later, she no longer remembers where she found this, (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AElonka&diff=1195493009&oldid=1195368577 and https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:DragonflySixtyseven&curid=25499473&diff=1195520256&oldid=1194965005) and the factoid has spread. If you can find a source for this statement, good, you can restore it to the article, BUT the source MUST come from before 2005. --> The pamphlet's background story has several implausibilities, and is based almost entirely on [[circumstantial evidence]] and [[hearsay]]. * Later [[cryptography|cryptographers]] have claimed that the two remaining ciphertexts have statistical characteristics which suggest that they are not actually encryptions of an English plaintext.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.fortunecity.com/jpeschel/gillog3.htm |title=The Beale Cipher: A Dissenting Opinion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060126085231/http://members.fortunecity.com/jpeschel/gillog3.htm |archive-date=26 January 2006 |author-first=James |author-last=Gillogly |author-link=James Gillogly |work=[[Cryptologia]] |date=April 1980}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.myoutbox.net/blove.htm |title=The Beale Ciphers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420134206/http://www.myoutbox.net/blove.htm |date=20 April 2006|archive-date=20 April 2006 |author-first=George |author-last=Love}}</ref> Alphabetical sequences such as {{not a typo|''abcdefghiijklmmnohpp''}} are both non-random, as indicated by Carl Hammer,<ref name="Biggest Secrets"/> and not words in English. * Others have also questioned ''why'' Beale would have bothered writing three different ciphertexts (with at least two keys, if not ciphers) for what is essentially a single message in the first place,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.angelfire.com/pro/bealeciphers/Graphics/Bamboozlement1.pdf |title=A basic probe of the Beale Cipher as bamboozlement |author-first=Louis |author-last=Kruh |work=[[Cryptologia]] |date=October 1982 }}</ref> particularly if he wanted to ensure that the next of kin received their share (as it is, with the treasure described, there is no incentive to decode the third cipher).<ref name="Biggest Secrets" /> * [[Stylometry|Analysis of the language]] used by the author of the pamphlet (the uses of punctuation, relative clauses, infinitives, conjunctives, and so on) has detected significant correlations between it and the writing style of Beale's letters, including the plaintext of the second cipher, suggesting that they may have been written by the same person.<ref name=nickell /> * The letters also contain several English words, such as "improvise", not otherwise recorded before the 1820s in English<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lEQ5AQAAMAAJ&q=improvise&pg=PA509 |title=Improvise |magazine=The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal |year=1824 |volume=12}}</ref> but used from French from 1786 in the New Orleans area,<ref>{{cite OEtymD|improvisation}}</ref> and ''stampede'' (Spanish) "an uproar".<ref>{{cite OEtymD|stampede}}</ref> Beale's "stampeding" apparently first appears in print in the English language in 1832<ref>{{cite book |first = Mary Elizabeth Wilson |last = Sherwood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r8REAQAAMAAJ&q=stampeding&pg=PA107 |page = 107 |title=Etiquette, the American Code of Manners|publisher = G. Routledge & Sons|date = 1834}}</ref> but was used from 1786 to 1823 in New Orleans in French and Spanish.<ref name=nickell /> * The second message, describing the treasure, has been deciphered, but the others have not, suggesting a deliberate ploy to encourage interest in deciphering the other two texts, only to discover that they are hoaxes. In addition, the original sale price of the pamphlet, 50 cents, was a high price for the time (adjusted for [[inflation]], it is equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|0.50|1885|r=2}}}} today{{Inflation-fn|US}}), and the author writes that he expects "a wide circulation". * The third cipher appears to be too short to list thirty individuals' next of kin.<ref name="Biggest Secrets" /> * If the modified Declaration of Independence is used as a key for the first cipher, it yields alphabetical sequences such as {{not a typo|''abcdefghiijklmmnohpp''}}<ref name=Singh>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=S |title=The Code Book |year=2000 |publisher=Fourth Estate |page=97 |isbn=1-85702-889-9}}</ref> and others. According to the [[American Cryptogram Association]], the chances of such sequences appearing multiple times in the one ciphertext by chance are less than one in a hundred million million.<ref name=Singh/> Although it is conceivable that the first cipher was intended as a [[proof of concept]] letting decoders know that they were "on the right track" for one or more of the subsequent ciphers, such a proof would be redundant, as the success of the key with respect to the second document would provide the same evidence on its own. * Robert Morriss, as represented in the pamphlet, says he was running the Washington Hotel in 1820, yet contemporary records show he did not start in that position until at least 1823.<ref name="Poundstone 127β28">Poundstone, 127β128.</ref> *In fact a common [[literary device]] of fiction is the story of finding a lost treasure map from Edgar Allan Poe's "[[The Gold-Bug]]" to Robert Louis Stevenson's ''[[Treasure Island]]'' to Milton Caniff's [[Terry and the Pirates (comic strip)|''Terry and the Pirates'']]. There have been many attempts to break the remaining cipher(s). Most attempts have tried other historical texts as keys (e.g., [[Magna Carta]], various books of the [[Bible]], the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]], and the Virginia Royal Charter), assuming the ciphertexts were produced with some book cipher, but none have been recognized as successful to date. Breaking the cipher(s) may depend on random chance (as, for instance, stumbling upon a book key if the two remaining ciphertexts are actually book ciphers); so far, even the most skilled [[cryptanalysis|cryptanalysts]] who have attempted them have been defeated. Of course, Beale could have used a document that he had written himself for either or both of the remaining keys or either a document of his own or randomly selected characters for the third source, in either case rendering ''any'' further attempts to crack the codes useless. === Existence of Thomas J. Beale === A survey of [[United States census|U.S. Census]] records in 1810 shows two persons named Thomas Beale, in Connecticut and New Hampshire. However, the population schedules from the 1810 U.S. Census are completely missing for seven states, one territory, the District of Columbia, and 18 of the counties of Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~troutt/~troutt/Miscellaneous/MissingCensus.htm |title=Missing Federal Census Schedules|first = Linda Troutt |last = Murphy|date = 25 July 2006|website = Traut / Trout(t) Family|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090113022457/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~troutt/~troutt/Miscellaneous/MissingCensus.htm |archive-date = 13 January 2009}}</ref> The 1820 U.S. Census has two persons named Thomas Beale, Captain Thomas Beale of the battle of New Orleans 1815 in Louisiana originally from Virginia Botetourt County β Fincastle area 12 miles from Bedford County and one in Tennessee, and a Thomas K. Beale in Virginia, but the population schedules are completely missing for three states and one territory. Before 1850 the U.S. Census recorded the names of only the heads of households; others in the household were only counted. Beale, if he existed, may have been living in someone else's household.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |url=https://www.archives.gov/genealogy/census/1790-1840.html |title=Clues in Census Records, 1790β1840 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719221317/http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/census/1790-1840.html |archive-date=19 July 2006 }}</ref> In addition, a man named "Thomas Beall" appears in the customer lists of St. Louis Post Department in 1820. According to the pamphlet, Beale sent a letter from St. Louis in 1822.<ref name=Singh /> Additionally, a Cheyenne legend exists about gold and silver being taken from the West and buried in mountains in the East, dating from roughly 1820.<ref name=Singh /> ===Poe's alleged authorship=== Researcher Robert Ward and others have suggested that [[Edgar Allan Poe]] has been suggested as the pamphlet's real author.<ref name=McIntee111>McIntee, David. ''Fortune and Glory: A Treasure Hunterβs Handbook''. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 111. {{ISBN|978-1-4728-0784-7}}</ref> Poe had an interest in cryptography and placed notices of his deciphering abilities in the [[Philadelphia]] paper ''Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger'' that invited submissions of ciphers for him to solve.<ref>{{cite book |last=Silverman |first=Kenneth |year=1991 |author-link=Kenneth Silverman |title=Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance |publisher=Harper Perennial |location=New York |edition=Paperback |isbn=978-0-06-092331-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/152 152] |url=https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/152 }}</ref> In 1843 he used a cryptogram as a [[plot device]] in his short story "[[The Gold-Bug]]". From 1820, he was also living in [[Richmond, Virginia]] at the time of Beale's alleged encounters with Morriss. In February 1826, Poe enrolled as a student at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]],<ref name="Poundstone 126">Poundstone, 126.</ref> but with mounting debts, Poe left for [[Boston]] in April 1827.<ref>{{cite book |last=Meyers |first=Jeffrey |year=1992 |title=Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy |publisher=Cooper Square Press |location=New York |edition=Paperback |isbn=978-0-8154-1038-6|page=32 }}</ref> One theory is that he left the Beale papers with his sister [[Rosalie Mackenzie Poe]], who gave out pieces of it along with other memorabilia related to her brother until her death in 1874.<ref name=McIntee111/> However, research and facts debunk Poe's authorship. He died in 1849, well before ''The Beale Papers'' were first published in 1885. The pamphlet also mentions the [[American Civil War]] that started in 1861. [[William Poundstone]], an American author and skeptic, had [[stylometry|stylometric analysis]] performed on the pamphlet for his 1983 book ''Biggest Secrets'', and found that Poe's [[prose]] is significantly different from the [[Syntax|grammatical structure]] used by the author who wrote ''The Beale Papers''.<ref name="Poundstone 133">Poundstone, 133.</ref> === Statistical analysis === Another method to check the validity of the ciphers is to investigate some statistical aspects in different number bases. For example, one can investigate the frequency of the last digit in each number in the ciphers. These frequencies are not uniformly distributed β some digits are more common than others. This is true for all three ciphers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wase|first=Viktor|title=Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2020 |chapter=The Role of Base 10 in the Beale Papers |date=2020|volume=171 |pages=153β157 |chapter-url=https://ep.liu.se/ecp/171/019/ecp2020_171_019.pdf|doi=10.3384/ecp2020171019 |isbn=978-91-7929-827-2 |s2cid=219488310 }}</ref> However, if one considers a base that is relatively prime to 10, then the last digits of the numbers in the unsolved ciphers turn uniform β each digit is equally common. The frequency of the solved cipher stays non-uniform. This indicates a complex behaviour in the solved cipher as one might expect from an encoded message, while the unsolved ciphers have a simpler behaviour.{{original research inline|date=April 2024}} Humans have limited abilities when it comes to generating random numbers out of thin air.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wagenaar|first=W. A.|date=1972|title=Generation of random sequences by human subject: A critical survey of literature|url=http://wexler.free.fr/library/files/wagenaar%20(1972)%20generation%20of%20random%20sequences%20by%20human%20subjects.%20a%20critical%20survey%20of%20literature.pdf|journal=Psychological Bulletin|volume=77|pages=65β72|doi=10.1037/h0032060 }}</ref> One explanation for the difference between base 10 and the other ones is that the numbers were produced by a human in base 10, which would mean that the ciphers are fraudulent. [[File:Beale last dig.png|center|frame|Statistical analysis of the last digits in the Beale Ciphers. The solved cipher (2) differs wildly from the uniform distribution in all bases, but this is only true for the unsolved ones in base 10. This indicates that the ciphers are fraudulent. The analysis is based on a permutation [[Kolmogorov-Smirnov test]].]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)