An amateur codebreaker may have just solved the Black Dahlia and Zodiac killings

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-23/black-dahlia-zodiac-killings-connected-one-killer-theory

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122 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

0ndead@infosec.pub · 38 pts · 232d (11 replies)

Let me guess. Some guy fed it into AI.

muzzle@lemmy.zip · 37 pts · 232d (4 replies)

It's not just AI, but there is a bunch of AI:

To attack the problem, Baber used artifical intelligence and generated a list of 71 million possible 13-letter names. Using known details of the Zodiac killer, based on witness descriptions, he cross-checked those names against military, marriage, census and other public records.

At the time, the Compton bungalow complex was called the Zodiac Motel, a fact Baber discovered by using AI to unearth a newspaper ad. He thinks it inspired the name the Bay Area killer called himself.

MagicShel@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 232d (1 reply)

Did the killer name himself? I thought that usually wasn't the case.

muzzle@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 232d

He did

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Baber used artifical intelligence and generated a list of 71 million possible 13-letter names

So now making a special-purpose rainbow table is AI now, too? Or was he too ignorant to know how to do that without resorting to AI?

a fact Baber discovered by using AI to unearth a newspaper ad

AI like Google?

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 231d

Depends on whether the ad was "unearthed" or "hallucinated".

solrize@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 232d (2 replies)

No way to know for sure but the article makes the theory sound somewhat persuasive.

IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 231d

If 3 separate NSA cryptographers agree it’s a feasible solution then I’m inclined to accept that. Especially since one of them independently discovered it meant the encryption key was “Elizabeth”.

NannerBanner@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 86d

To be the devil's advocate, that is exactly what AIs are good at. They give answers that sound great, and are, in many ways, like the exceptionally charismatic friend in the group that can answer 'any' question... and the answer is great until you get 15 years down the road and finally realize the tiny mistake/lie that unravels the whole bit.

Bakkoda@lemmy.zip · -4 pts · 231d (2 replies)

That's the perfect case for it imo. Ingestion is best done by something efficient, like a scheduler. Use the tool properly and there's nothing wrong with it. Build it ethically and legally and it's a boon for mankind. Don't blame "AI" for the abomination capitalists have created.

0ndead@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Yeah, nobody’s buying your ethical AI bullshit

Bakkoda@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 231d

Good because it's a myth.

Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 232d (2 replies)

“Drink your Ovaltine”

RalphFurley@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 232d (1 reply)

Be sure to*

Stache_@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 232d

A crummy commercial? SonofaB—ch

IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 231d

Wow, the coincidences mentioned in the article are quite shocking.

  • The key to the cipher turned out to be “Elizabeth”, which was actually discovered by one of three different retired NSA cryptographers who vetted this guys work.

  • When the suspect was elderly he drew a sketch very similar to the mutilated body of Elizabeth Short, also titled “Elizabeth”. The sketch reportedly has the word “Zodiac” hidden in it.

  • The motel where she was murdered & mutilated was likely the Zodiac Motel.