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Discover the Truth at: http://www.theblackvault.com . .:.. ...........,.·----:- . . . . r · ... .DOCI D: '65.6_"1~ . - -·--·...-. ---·. . ---- ·~ . ··-- .. .. · ~ ~ ttle ~ tb! ~~tor & star.r.~c:h 'VaS~ pnblisbed 1n J.B8S . . . =.is ~· rec:un:1:og inte:rest •. w.:~.:r. bel..1na it to be a~ but b.sei.n:S't·- . . .1ns 'bocix. ~ stor:r ixmll."'teS ~ ~ 1 tbe aoJ ttH em io oce ar \lbieh 1.s aet ~in the &>:u e,.t. ~ c:::,-ptogn;abic IIIJtskoiz. used.~ tJle cme :=es~ -rar ';biQ tbe solnt:fC!:'l 1s ;inm in the r..o:"7 {=i ¥ai.ch. pzes•eMbl7 ~lJ.eS tbe oth=:' two ~) 1.s err 4:! aha' 1 cU 1zw'mrtt:" speci..1"'1cs117 des' e;ned to J.'are tl:ae ... Uflli4:J reader to d.-~~~ ==1 l..!:.'xx:- in ~ec'-..l;r truitlesa ~~ c:rr1 ra.tller 1 in see:rc1:d.ng ~or a ~ book. ET=. a. ~ SA Fll ., J cr: tbe sto:ry beb1 nd tl::is :1-te=l ~ o: c :::;;•) =:x:h :lO:"e spa::e ~ = be de-rated. to it ill thl.s b~ .: (:r~ ;J.S.) Releas ed by NSA on 26-Dec-2001 pursuant t o t he Fr eedom of Information Act case #: 41 052 ;. , -· -·---·'l . ~ E --· ~=:~-: =--= ;:::=--= = ····-- ,_.... ·- = :=== - .... _ --;=:.=-..-= = c==- ... _; F!"q ; =--· ~:=~· .. ""'.. · }ifr •. .illred Percy Elon .?..oad ile.d.isl)n Heights, VL"'"gini.!. Dear ur. Percy: . I wst hasten to ack::!.Owledge. .receipt. o! .TOur most. intaresting letter , o~ 5 August and ~-~dicat~· 21·sincere·appreciation~of your ~~ t.b.e trouble to ci"te me in such .detail: · J..t the moment I am much engrossed with other ma.ttera,.~ . have .fo~ it. necessar;r. to ·pm; ·or~ oe.!.llng~uth The Be!.le P!:o"ers: . liO"'f errer, I do not int.e::ld by aii3 means to drop the st.ucy w.niCS: r_ initiated .) Oil the:z~o-·aeti.!le ·s.ed• visit in yow: neighborhood, I ho?e tb.a.t:it rill incl!lde the ;~a\:h;g. or your· persone.l acqtl&intance Z!lld tiiscussi:ng the matter·. over a d.i.:mer tabla a.t which I trust that. you !ould be sa!'i"ici~~~11. gr&!:~ous to be 't:1'f' 3Uest· •. · 'Shou.J.d· I· ba:ve s"c:10Jr:~~cpp9rtw:dty" t'o make !. 'l'benk1ng.you ~-fer. your cou..-t.esy, I am • :SincerelT · ~s, : I ---=-= - - DOCID: 656729· ~ l ., ·:. J.ii.. · J(, oitorp-.-ia..ozr·~y-. .·· ·~.r~n,:·v1rg:tll:1.& l.6 J'CI:)e l.949 ·• · .· .Mrs. "'i!at~· Riven~s · · c/o_'l'lle News •. :-~ . . . . . . "Lii:Jcl:ibUrg, Virginia . . .. . . . ... De~ !U'~•r..,Ads:ls: . I sen~. a ~etter addressed to ~r~.!lrred Per~, Jr.~ ~~_Elon, • • ..... - ; ... - • •• ·- • ~-· .. • 1, • ~d·the~ pn its return~ the post office I seot'lt_to •• • • • . - ... • .. • · - ··-· • •• . • . .i. • • •• • .. ... . .. zr.c. ~- .. E~oc., Va. •.. =the latter has uso bee~. re~llr.led ~nd I,·. tperefore, . .· . am n-.iti.Ilg to ·isk_ you if you ~t give··=~ e: ::ora co~lete . . .. " . . •" .. ..... · address so that I might reach !.!t:. Percy and ask hill a. !ew . ·' questions •. ·. . · .. I em =enclo~i.ng i( selt~e.ddress~-s~p~d .!'-qTel:Ope~ror-y"Our - ... CO.t:rVenience i.u reoij-ing~· . .. - . . . . -- li"D.L~ .• Z:•. FRP-D~!Ui . . ... --· ________ .:..~-~ ... .. . ' ...... . . .· , . --.. -· ---- . . ·o~ .... < • . ---..;.. ..... :DOCID :· .. I" 1,. . -~ . I 656729 I ! CRYPTOLOGIA October 1988 Volume XII Number 4 THE BEALE CIPHER AS A BA1tiBOOZLEMENT PART II Louis Kruh ADDRESS: 17 Alfred Road West, Merrick NY 11566 USA. ABSTRACT: Based on inconsistencies in the J. B. Ward pamphlet, The Beale Paper, sta tistical stylistic comparisons of the writings of Ward and T. J. Beale, and other analyses, the author concludes that the story of a Beale treasure is a hoa.""C. KEYWORDS: Beale cipher, Beale Papers, Thomas Jefferson Beale, Robert Morriss, James B. Ward, statistical stylistic comparison. · In 1885, James B. Ward published a pamphlet, The. Beale. Papers, which prm.ided all the information 'Ward knew about the Beale treasure. Briefly, this was that in 1819 and 1821, Thomas Jefferson Beale, who headed a party of 30 hunters, buried 2,921 pounds of gold, 5,100 pounds of silver, and jewels worth $13,000 in Buford VA (now Montvale.) In the spring of 1822, Beale left a locked iron box with Robert ~Iorriss \Vhich contained two letters to Morriss and three papers with numerical ciphers. Other than receiving a letter from Beale dated 9 May 1822, Morriss never heard from or saw Beale again. In 1862, Morriss gave all the papers to James \Vard, who subsequently solved what is known as cipher number 2. It described the treasure, said that it belonged to the people named in cipher number 3, and that its exact location is given in cipher number 1. In the more than 100 years since "Ward recounted these events, there probably have been thousands of amateur and professional cryptanalysts who have tried to solve the two ciphers and \vho have thoroughly dissected and investigated every detail of the story in an effort to find the treasure. But, despite the massive amount of work, nothing substantial has been added to Ward's story and the two ciphers are still unsolved. It is also strange that the original Beale letters and papers containing the ciphers have disappeared and \Vere never seen by anyone e.""Ccept Ward. This has led to speculation that the Beale treasure is a hoax, possibly concocted by Ward. In an earlier article (2], I described inconsistencies in Ward's account which supper& that view. These include the following points. After Ward received the ciphers from Morriss he "arranged the papers in the order of their length and numbered them." But the ciphers identified by Ward as numbers 1, 2, and 3 contain 520, 763, and 618 elements, respectively. Obviously, they are not numbered in the order of their length. But, if order of length does not determine the numbering o£ the ciphers, how did 'Ward know which o£ the two unsolved ciphers was numbered 1 and which was numbered 3? And, how did Beale, who supposedly wrote the cipher message found in number 2, know that 241 ·------··-------- t>OCID: 656729 < ·•• n"f ... " ·•,.;erz "a' "'~ ', W ' ..... · . ..,. • Kruh The Beale Cipher as a Bamboozlement • Part II it would be deciphered first? If it was not solved first his references to the other ciphers would not make sense. And, if he was confident it would be solved first, why did he not refer to the other ciphers as number 2 and number 3 which would have been the normal and logical thing to do? Readability Grades: Kincaid Auto Coleman-Liau Flesch WARD BEALE 13.3 14.5 10.4 12.0 13.7 14.6 9.7 t 13.1 Sentence Information: Average sentence length Average word length Number content words Average length 168 Sent., 4,756 Words 96 Sent., 2,837 Words 28.30 4.62 49.4% 6.36 29.60 4.50 47.4% 6.23 Sentence type: Simple Comple."<: Compound Compound-comple."C Word usages: 15.0% 37.0% 18.0% 30.0% } 48%* Verb types as % of total verbs To be Aux. In f. 36% 21% 15% Type as % of total: Prepositions Conjunctions Adverbs Nouns Adjectives Pronouns N ominalizations Frequency of selected words: I The And Of We His With 12.8% 5.1% 5.0% ** 22.3% 12.8% ** 9.4% 2.0% 8.9% 5.4% 3.6% *** 3.1% 1.2% 2.0% 1.3% Figure 1. 242 } 52%* 16.0% 32.0% 20.0% 32.0% 37% 25% 20% 13.1% 5.2% 4.4% ** 21.1% 11.9% ** 10.6% 2.0% *** 8.7% 5.4% 3.7% 3.3% 1.9% 1.1% 1.1% I I \ DOC:J;D: 656729 CRYPTOLOGIA October 1988 Volume XII Number 4 * Most good documents of this type have a combined compounded percentage between 6% and 35%. ** Adjectives and adverbs are the "only two classes of words likely to repay investigation." [3, p. 101] *** ''The conjunction AND makes up around 5% of most English text." Morton. [3, p. 37]. Legend for Figure 1. Also, as others have pointed out [1] why did Beale end cipher number 2 by writing that "paper number one describes the e."ta.ct location of the vault so that p.o difficulty will be had in finding it" when that would have been obvious after it was deciphered? The suggestion is that whoever devised the cipher wanted to sell the idea. that paper number 1 was worth reading. A minor issue involves cipher number 3 which is supposed to contain the names and ad dresses of the 30 members of the Beale party plus the names and addresses of their relatives. For those roughly 60 names and addresses, cipher number 3 has only 618 numbers which appear insufficient to provide the information described. In my previous paper (2] I also noted that Solomon Kullback, a colleague of 'William F. Friedman in the Signal Intelligence Service, ha.d written about their work on the Beale ciphers. Their conclusion, based on a. statistical stylistic comparison of the writing of ·ward with the writing of Beale, was "that the \vriters of the two texts were the same person and thus that the whole affair was a. hoa.."t." According to books on disputed authorship (3, 5], the most important stylistic comparisons are the average number of words used in a sentence, occurrences of certain words such as A~D. use of adjectives and adverbs, and various other uses of words and gTammatical structures. Because these kinds of analyses are best done on a computer, I ended my paper with a request for computer literate Beale buffs to undertake the necessary work. Not surprisingly, there were no volunteers (who \vants to debunk the possibility of finding $30,000,000), but eventually I was able to enlist the help of a friend who works with computers and has access ::o a software program which analyzes document writing for the purpose of improving readability. He ran the writing of Ward and Beale through the program. For Beale he used his letters of 4 and 5 January and 8 May 1822 to Robert ~Iorriss plus the deciphered message ·of cipher number 2. For Ward he used his pamphlet minus the above noted Beale items and the Declaration of Independence. · Figure 1 displays the comparative data for both "Ward and Beale. Note the very close readability gTades for both te.'Cts according to four different formulae. Next is average sentence length and not only is there a. close resemblance, but the computer report emphasizes that "a good average would be 20 to 25 \vords" and that both texts show a. "very high" average. In other \Vords, both texts deviate from the norm in the same direction. Also, in two other distinct areas, use of compound sentences and use of the conjunction AND, both texts again are rather close, while deviating from the average. In the use of adjectives and adverbs, another important measure, the 'Ward and Beale writings show a close match. Another analysis deals with word length. The frequency of words with 1-12 letters were counted, normalized, and then plotted on a gTaph. Figure 2 illustrates the marked similarity between the Beale and Ward texts. 243 I --- · - - · -··- - - - - - DOC,_ID: 656729 ·~ Kruh The Beale Cipher as a Bamboozlement - Part II Normalized Word Length Frequencies - Beale and Ward. 229 2139 189 168 148 128 198 88 69 48 26 ,.., '8 " Ul ! .... • Q, "' )I lo "0 ~ lo ... • N ... ';; e 0 z: e 1 I 2 J 4 12 Word Length a Beale + Wud Figure 2. Presentation of these results was going to be the end of this paper, but while it was being edited I found an article on the Beale treasure in a local historical journal written about the same time as my original paper.[4] And, coincidentally, the author not only expressed similar views, but he also arranged for statistical stylistic comparisons. Nickell, [4] an investigative writer and an English professor at the University of Kentucky, points out some other inconsistencies in Ward's pamphlet. For example, Morriss says, "It was in the month of January, 1820, while keeping the Washington Hotel, that I first saw and became. acquainted with Beale." Nickell asks how that could be, when Morriss was not associated with the Washington Hotel until 1823, and he cites a notice in the Lynchburg Virginian, dated 2 December 1823, announcing that ~1orriss is opening the Washington Inn. Nickell also questions the use of the words STAMPEDING and IMPROVISED in Beale's 4 January 1822 letter to Morriss, because the earliest known printed source for the former is 1883 and 1837 for the latter. Of course, the words may have been used in speech earlier than their first printed use, but he strongly doubts that the word STAMPEDING would have been in use in that form in 1822. Therefore, the suspicion again is that Ward was the real author in the mid-1880's. 244 DOV.ID: 656729 ~. .. . , --~-~~----------~~------------- ~ ~ ·. CRYPTOLOGIA October 1988 Volume XII Number 4 the 6.80 6.12 8.93 Beale Ward Marshall Randolph 10.34 0.00 Tucker 1.73 2.90 of and 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.86 0.00 1.82 1.54 Figure 3. Words as First Word of a Sentence. Percentage of Occurrences of Common Beale Ward Marshall Randolph Tucker commas 2.60 2.40 0.32 1.60 2.96 semicolons 0.06 0.06 0.02 0.16 0.18 Figure 4. Average Number per Sentence. Negatives I Negative I Infinitives Relative Clauses Beale 30 Ward 39 :VIars hall 8 Randolph 9 Tucker 34 * Ten of the negatives occur in one letter, in which Ran dolph tries to justify his participation in a duel. Passives 6 i 0 0 0 24 36 15 * 29 14 44 40 21 18 16 Figure 5. A valuable contribution is Nickell's stylistic comparisons which include control samples. These are writings of three other 19th century Virginians, John Marshall and John Randolph for comparison with Beale and John Randolph Tucker, a "Ward contemporary, for another comparison. The occurrences of common words in certain preferred positions, such as the the first word of a sentence, is another criterion. Figure 3 shows that while the Beale and Ward writings are similar, they contrast with the three control samples. Another analysis measured the frequency of use of commas and semicolons and Figure 4 shows how the Beale and Ward te."Cts closely match each other, but differ from the controls. Nickell provides many other examples, some of which duplicate the analyses I arranged, but with the added advantage of the control samples. All of them indicate that the Beale and 'Ward writings are the work of the same person. 245 QO~ID: 656729 'i Kruh The Beale Cipher as a. Bamboozlement - Part II Finally, Nickell also ha.d a. colleague a.t the University of Kentucky, Professor Jean G. Pival, who is a. specialist in English linguistics and rhetoric, examine the texts. She conducted a study and tabulation of the syntactical features in the Beale, Ward, and control writings and her analysis is summarized in Figure 5. Professor Pival's view is that, "Although two writers might sha.re one idiosyncratic characteristic, the sharing of several extraordinary features constitutes, I think, conclusive evidence tha.t the same ha.nd wrote both documents." Readers are urged to consult Nickell's excellent article which is available from the Virginia. Historical Society, ruchmond VA. To sum up, I believe that a. review of all the evidence -the inconsistencies in the Ward pamphlet and the comparative stylistic data.- should lead an objective viewer to the conclusion that the Beale treasure is a. very clever hoax, likely perpetrated by James B. Ward. REFERENCES ' 1. Gillogly, J. J. 1980. The Beale Cypher: A Dissenting Opinion. Cryptologia. 4: 116-119. 2. Kruh, L. 1982. A Basic Probe of the Beale Cipher as a Bamboozlement. Cryptologia. 6: 378-382. 3. Morton, A. 1978. Literary Detection: How to Prove Authorship and Fraud in Literature and Documents. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 4. Nickell, J. 1982. Discovered, The Secret of Beale's Treasure. Virginia M aga:ine of History and Biography. 90(3)(July): 310-324. 5. Williams, C. B. 1970. Style and Vocabulary: Numerical Studies. London: Charles Griffin and Co. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Louis Kruh is an indefatigable researcher and collector of cryptologic memorabilia, particu larly cipher devices. His interest in cryptology spans more than 40 years a.nd he responds knowledgeably and promptly to all queries regarding literature and equipment. He has BBA, ~IBA, and JD degrees and is co-author with Dr. C. A. Deavours, of Machine Cryptography and Modern Cryptanalysis, (Artech House, Inc. 1985). Currently he is Director of Advertising for New York Telephone. 246 TmmsuAY, S~:J'IF.Mm:n3, 1992 Md. 3 iinhiaHaa;~r•_!~~!! st'!..dr~_!a_•.~.~·~n res.e~ch~na: the Beale tre~s~re fo~ ·.11 yea~•· :f~~~~[ijm~~~~;~;;t~~1~~~'i;}a friend, ~; &ft(~~:':~~;~f.Jf:~i~:;~~~[:~'~!~~~t:: .• : One of the most famous Beale .'mes~ges. However,' B.· Ward, supposedly ., discovered that each number in one of! the' ciphers·., corresponded with themselves and left it hidden .to . treasure seekers was Mel Fisher· ensure the prosperity of .• future generations. The group asked of Key West, Fla., ·who gained fame and millions of dollars in George /\II red Townsend, a local r .. fiW•iraiini•. f>'< the ftist'letter: of words in the Dec· . gold, silver and jewels in · 1985 Civil War reporter and· author,· to when he found the 1733 wreck of write a fictitious' story about the treasure that would confuse all a Spanish galleon three miles off- others except those who lived in shore in the Florida Keys National · 1 the area, he said. Chaney has spent years reading Creek near Montvale in the fall of Townsend's books and other liter- . ary works by authors Lewis Carroll 1989 looking for the l.leale trea- sure, but came up with little ~nore " and Mark Twain. '. ·· Carroll, a noted cryptographer, . than mud. 'were Townsend's 'of Independence. . , ': "The message that was obtained !1 revealed that the treasure consisted , of' 2,921. pounds of gold, 5,100 Marine Sanctuary. . Ward never' deciphered the two other ·:coded:.messages, but hun- dreds · oC:~J3eale. ·treasure hw1ters nationwide, and even a few from· """·~··~; .• ~~v~··!' •. ' ·pounds of silver and jewels .. ." Goldie and Barry Lynn, of Beth- . • and Twain Fisher dug up portions of Goose ·' ·.. · ~~r~~~~~~~i:.4~~~,[~;~~~~~ · C!Janey said. 1;; ~~~~~=~~~~;~~~~-~;§(~~~~~!~:~;~~t~Europe,'· still work today ·to solve the mystery.'":r'·; .·;. ·:·:·;., · · •i·' · '' to dig for the treasure in thcjeffcr- son National Forest. Goldie Lynn is · lehem, Pa., have made several trips,· friends, and Chaney· believes they also had a hand in writing what he believes 'is ·a·· fake story about ~It's held my fancy for 30 years," said Robert Caldwell, president of writing a book, which she claims Beale and his hunting party.' the Beale Cipher· Association, a will reveal what happened to the "They are responsible for creat· 1·:~1:§§~~~}~~~~~~~~~~§r~\~ group based in Beaver Falls, Pa., that has'l12 members nationwide.' · "I want to solve those codes so bad I n~~:~~~~~~~~~;':!iml~:~~~ta;,s~~t~e~:itt:/~~ 1'! ;,: '.··' ::, · · w cache of jewels. .; .. : · ···" ,., , .. !~>·' ,. · know who it went to," she said. "The treasure is long gone and I •~: .• · .... AA''·A··" in!Ro-· ·•'spondence. . · · While other treasure hunters fo-. me " ing this thing. The whole thing is a setup," Chaney said. "There was never a· Thomas 'J, ·Beale,· believe • 'i · ;who is" scheduled ·to"· cus on trying to decode the mes- .' ' Chaney has ,,·~o~l~d ~the Beale letters; the onedecodedcipher and ··the Bealeotreasure at"· sages, Chaney spends his time look- Associ-1:1. ing for clues in the Beale coree-' · the three authors' books looking fo~ : · ··, clues that .h~.believes,indicate .. th~ 'seeker! i ·. Chaney . believes the "hunting, . treasure is in tl1e.Hagerstown area. it'is lo-' 1 ' party" actually referred to a group·' lie said• only a local,!Jlan:would be ·. · ;' : :·i; of Quakers who traveled to Africa able to spot the clues;: • ;: .. · ·· ··' ' . He admits that he has no definite the trea· ; in the mid-1800s in an effort to J!Wre.wa:s,;llU~,no longer .replains, in,~·- help liberate slaves and return: proof that the treasure i~ in Hagers town. Until. he does, he said he will not div~g~~ 'fhe;!::P~1 !,h\nk~';jt. is :. ·!'I'm far·ahead··Oftthe·rest," he ... ,,..,.d,,~.Va., northwest of.:.'' Chaney said he 'believes· thei; said. ~If they want to go down and !,j; Quakers also used the mouey·for .. ;~ dig up Ro,anoke,l~t"em dig."· ... ;~ tosolvethemys-~. ,Afnca··and used 1t!to help. thet. located ... ; .• · ··":.~·· .;:.nJ,;.. . Lynchburg. One wo- 1: ·them to their native homeland. He b!l,l~~-~~f of~R-~':-rt· .,. th~ks. they found. the :riches in ·othersi ·' ''dug'iu"and·;~~.slaves. ' . .,~;;,; (: t·;: ".\•. . man ·' _,;, '·~ : .. , · · · 1-~«.qrunl.>l.te.-. : · f ' • I I' . • j . IJ IJ!;! :.\1 •'ll''i•'. } ··• • • • : I I ..