Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes
Encyclopedia
Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes are two hand-written documents found in the pockets of murder victim Ricky McCormick when his body was discovered in a field in St. Charles County, Missouri, on June 30, 1999. Attempts by the FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) and the American Cryptogram Association
failed to decipher the meanings of those two coded notes, which are listed as one of the CRRU’s top unsolved cases. On March 29, 2011, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
issued an appeal for help from the public in obtaining the meaning of the messages. A few days later, they updated their website to note the "outpouring of responses", and established a separate page where the public can offer comments and theories.
, and Fairview Heights
, sometimes living off and on with his elderly mother. According to a 1999 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, McCormick suffered from chronic heart and lung problems. He was not married, but had fathered at least four children. He had a criminal record, and had previously served 11 months of a three-year sentence for statutory rape. At the time of his death, he was 41 years old, unemployed, and on disability welfare.
. The reason for him being 15 miles from his current address is another mystery, as McCormick did not own a car, and the area is not served by public transportation. The body had already decomposed somewhat, and no official cause of death was ever determined, though an identification was obtained via the body's fingerprints. The death was not labeled a homicide, there was no indication that anyone had a motive to kill McCormick, and no one had reported him missing. The last place that McCormick had been seen alive was five days earlier, on June 25, 1999, at the St. Louis Forest Park Hospital, where he was getting a checkup.
The two notes are written in an unknown code consisting of "a jumble of letters and numbers occasionally set off with parentheses" and are believed by the FBI to possibly lead to those responsible for the killing. Dan Olson, chief of the F.B.I.’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit, said, illustrating the significance of the notes, "Breaking the code could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide.”
Attempts by both the FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) and the American Cryptogram Association
failed to decipher their meaning, and Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are currently listed as one of CRRU’s top unsolved cases, with McCormick's killer yet to be identified. According to members of McCormick's family, McCormick had used encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, either.
The FBI has had so many responses with suggestions for the cipher, that they later requested helpers do not call by phone or use email
. An FBI news release has stated, "This story has generated an outpouring of responses.
To accommodate the continuing interest in this case, we have established a page
where the public can offer their comments and theories about the coded messages."
American Cryptogram Association
The American Cryptogram Association is an American non-profit organization devoted to the hobby of cryptography, with an emphasis on types of codes, ciphers, and cryptograms that can be solved either with pencil and paper, or with computers, but not computer-only systems.-History:The ACA was formed...
failed to decipher the meanings of those two coded notes, which are listed as one of the CRRU’s top unsolved cases. On March 29, 2011, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
issued an appeal for help from the public in obtaining the meaning of the messages. A few days later, they updated their website to note the "outpouring of responses", and established a separate page where the public can offer comments and theories.
Victim
Ricky McCormick was a high school dropout who had held multiple addresses in the Missouri/Illinois region in St. Louis, BellevilleBelleville, Illinois
Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 44,478. It is the eighth-most populated city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area and the most populated city south of Springfield in the state of Illinois. It is the county...
, and Fairview Heights
Fairview Heights, Illinois
Fairview Heights is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,078 at the 2010 census. Fairview Heights is a dominant shopping center for Southwestern Illinois and includes numerous shopping plazas and the St...
, sometimes living off and on with his elderly mother. According to a 1999 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
, McCormick suffered from chronic heart and lung problems. He was not married, but had fathered at least four children. He had a criminal record, and had previously served 11 months of a three-year sentence for statutory rape. At the time of his death, he was 41 years old, unemployed, and on disability welfare.
Discovery of body
His body was found in a cornfield in St. Charles County on June 30, 1999, by someone driving along a field road near Highway 367, near West Alton, MissouriWest Alton, Missouri
West Alton is a city in St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. The population was 573 at the 2000 census. It is located at the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.-Geography:...
. The reason for him being 15 miles from his current address is another mystery, as McCormick did not own a car, and the area is not served by public transportation. The body had already decomposed somewhat, and no official cause of death was ever determined, though an identification was obtained via the body's fingerprints. The death was not labeled a homicide, there was no indication that anyone had a motive to kill McCormick, and no one had reported him missing. The last place that McCormick had been seen alive was five days earlier, on June 25, 1999, at the St. Louis Forest Park Hospital, where he was getting a checkup.
Description
News stories in 1999 did not mention anything about cipher messages, which were not announced until 12 years later when the FBI listed the death as a murder, and posted a notice for help on the main page of their website. Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pants pockets were written up to three days before his death.The two notes are written in an unknown code consisting of "a jumble of letters and numbers occasionally set off with parentheses" and are believed by the FBI to possibly lead to those responsible for the killing. Dan Olson, chief of the F.B.I.’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit, said, illustrating the significance of the notes, "Breaking the code could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide.”
Attempts by both the FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) and the American Cryptogram Association
American Cryptogram Association
The American Cryptogram Association is an American non-profit organization devoted to the hobby of cryptography, with an emphasis on types of codes, ciphers, and cryptograms that can be solved either with pencil and paper, or with computers, but not computer-only systems.-History:The ACA was formed...
failed to decipher their meaning, and Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are currently listed as one of CRRU’s top unsolved cases, with McCormick's killer yet to be identified. According to members of McCormick's family, McCormick had used encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, either.
The FBI has had so many responses with suggestions for the cipher, that they later requested helpers do not call by phone or use email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. An FBI news release has stated, "This story has generated an outpouring of responses.
To accommodate the continuing interest in this case, we have established a page
where the public can offer their comments and theories about the coded messages."