The FBI asks for help. [UPDATED – SOLVED?]

[26 JULY 2012 UPDATE – CODE BROKEN! SEE BELOW]

[29 JULY2012 UPDATE – LINKS TO THE ORIGINAL SPANISH IN COMMENTS.]

There was a murder in the summer of 1999, and it’s remained unsolved. The FBI recently released the cryptic notes found in the victim’s pocket, and asks for help to decipher them.

www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032911

On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets.

Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

1. It’s not a sophisticated code.

2. There are no mysterious symbols, excepting what appear to be typos.

3. It’s a mnemonic code, so character/word frequency counts won’t work well.

4. The scribbled letter “n” stands for “and.”

5. Some of the characters that appear as the letter “R” are actually the letter “Q.”

6. I suspect that the character groups “WLD,” “SE” and “CBE” are the initials or references to people’s names.

7. The character group “on” means the same as the word, followed by a date.

8. “71” likely refers to July 1 1999; “74” refers to July 4; “75” refers to July 5.

9. Parentheses are parentheses. The “+” means “plus” as it’s clearly different from the capital “T” in the cryptogram.

10. The last line indicates Day-Week-Month-Year. MIL suggests the word “military.”

Have at it.

____________________________

UPDATE I: Apparently the FBI has received so many responses and tips that it’s set up a separate website for them:

http://forms.fbi.gov/code

____________________________

UPDATE II: José Galofré Manero. left a comment here with a link  to a site where he’s referred to as “Joseph from Spain.” (Gran obra, mi amigo.)

http://www.themorgandoctrine.com/2012/04/joseph-from-spain-nails-last-detail-in.html

That links to this:

http://www.themorgandoctrine.com/2011/11/fbis-best-brightest-blow-one-for-gipper.html?showComment=1335657942567#c5962089210631468045

That links to this:

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2012-06-14/news/ricky-mccormick-code-mysterious-death-st-louis/

And also leads you to Jose’s multi-part analysis.  Here’s Part 1 of several:

http://prophecyexperimentalzone.blogspot.com/2011/12/and-who-killed-mccormick-part-one.html

His conclusions are astounding. I suggested to Jose that he write it up in his native Spanish for clarity.

Jose contends that Ricky McCormick was NOT murdered, but someone else was, and to solve THAT homicide a briefcase/satchel/package must be unearthed in the outskirts of St. Louis MO. Based upon his decryption, Jose has a good idea where it might be found. So far the FBI doesn’t seem interested, but I think that’s about to change.

____________________________

UPDATE III: José posted links to his original analysis in his native Spanish below. More to come.

Continue reading “The FBI asks for help. [UPDATED – SOLVED?]”

Breakfast of Champions

Times 11. And that’s only her second stack. Don’t laugh or she’ll kick your arse… after she finishes the third stack. Suggest you run while you still have time.

[Found here.]
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Aside from that, a spammer asked me where Tacky Raccoons links were to FaceBlook and StumbleApron.  Silly me, I’d never bothered about it, and wasn’t sure how to do it, so I emailed raincoaster because she knows everything I don’t – at least about blogging.

She pointed me to a WorpDress Forum (that she moderates as a megageek Goddess of the Internest) that answered my question, and in turn I promised to hawk her chonis online:

Transformative Social Media Training

Muchisimas grassyass, rain. You made me feel like a hundred bucks.

P.S. Rain is also author of The Longest Running Thread. Four years, and it’s not dead yet.

P.P.S. If you sign up for any of raincoaster’s seminars, be sure to tell her Bunk sent you. =)

Kitchen Knife Potato 7

This image is from a book on radio sound effects. It demonstrates how to easily replicate the sound of a kitchen knife slicing into a potato.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Island Soccer, ZZ Embarasses A Keeper, Pencil Test, Technological Threat & Rocket Pen

Great video worth watching. Pure awesome. [via]

Remember “Zezu” Zidane’s infamous headbutt at the 2006 World Cup? He’s running a training camp now. Here’s some more of his dickery.

In 1986, this was state of the art computer animation. Here’s Pixar’s “pencil test” of the most recognizable early computer animation of all time.

In 1988,  Brian Jennings’ and Bill Kroyer’s “Technological Threat” combined digital animation with Tex Avery’s classic style. It was nominated for best animation short (but was beat out by Pixar’s “Tin Toy”).

So now, let’s fast forward to 2011. Computer animation is at its peak with this example of awesome. I love it.
[Courtesy of Bunkessa.]

And with that, have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Inflatable Cow Head. Why the F not.

[via]
Hungarian artist Géza Szöllősi is someone I’d like to meet, if only to ask, “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Here’s a guy sitting around surfing the internet on taxidermy and a lightbulb goes off in his head. “Hey guys! Check it out! I’m gonna put a basketball bladder into a cow’s head!” and all his buddies snort Dreher’s beer out of their noses and spill their tallboys onto their laps to give him an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Steamboat McGoo says “Adios Amoebas.”

It’s a quiet day in the blogosphere when one of my favorite bloggers decides to call it quits. Steamboat McGoo has already poured acetone on Aardvarks & Asshats and melted all threads prior to January 2011. (A&A was always my first stop after Drudge. Go figger.)

Here’s to you, McGoo. May you continue to piss fire on whatever is in your way. –Bunk

[Update 4 March 2011: A big fat birdy just told me that the site may be changing hands. Film at 11.]

Milking the Toad

Questions arise occasionally on where we find topics for Tacky Raccoons. This particular post resulted from a long lost .gif animation that we found behind the Rec Room couch with the cat stuff:

A  quick google search for toad lickers brought us to the Wikipuddle that mentioned The Church of the Toad of Light that in turn linked to another article that had a photo with a link entitled “Milking the Toad” that displayed this nice pen and ink sketch:

See how easy it is? Just follow your gut instincts, and you too can put up a unique and mildly disturbing post that is guaranteed to bring your blog traffic from specious sources especially when you link to this one. Now go milk them toads!

[Crossposted here.]

State of the Art Hot Links

Above: The Hav-Mor Family ca. 1947. They performed at county fairs advertising fertilizer produced by The Tennessee Corporation. (Jack “Pop” Pettett is on the right blowing smoke; Ray Courts on banjo.)

2001: A Spoof Odyessy.

Cool Food.

Random Garfield Generator, because everything is funnier than Garfield.

Pleased to meet you. What’s your name? [via]

Long time listener, first time caller Ken forwarded us this link o’ golf bloopers.

What It’s Really Like To Work In A Music Store:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

The Foxfire Project began in the early 1970s to preserve the folklore and knowledge of elderly rural Appalachians. Through taped and written interviews, high school students amassed enough stories for several volumes of pure Americana. They’re available in .pdf format here, other sources here.  (The files are huge, might take some time to download.)

Andrea Joseph’s Sketchbook is teh awesome.

I kinda like this tune by my blogbud Dorian.

i haz a static

Here is an illustration of the inspiration for Chester Carlson’s world famous invention. Guess what it was before you Google him. Seriously.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Atlas Shrugs, Wendy’s Training Rap & an Awesome Jam

Now THIS should be awesome. Part I of  Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” is scheduled for release on 15 April 2011, and the date is no coincidence. I guarantee the movie will be trashed by leftists even before it’s released, just as Terry Gilliam’s great movie  “Brazil” was panned.

Meanwhile, for those of you who don’t know how to put ice in a cup and fill it with soda, and can’t follow directions as simple as “put ice in the cup and fill it with soda,” here’s Wendy’s Rap Tutorial.

How a song was born. A lotta glorious awesome was congregated in that room and recorded on celluloid.

And with that, we’re out. See you back here tomorrow for more fun.