The solution to the so-called 340 cipher, one of the most mysterious mysteries of the murderous saga of the Zodiac killer, has been discovered by a code-breaking team from the United States, Australia and Belgium. The cipher, sent in a letter to The Chronicle in November 1969, has been confusing officials and amateur frauds since it arrived 51 years ago. Investigators believed the zodiac, which killed five people in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, would reveal his name in one of his many cryptocurrencies, but 340 did not have such a name. According to code-breaking expert David Orange, the cipher text includes the following: “I hope you have a lot of fun trying to catch me. … I was not afraid of the gas chamber because it would soon send me to paradise (sic), because now I have enough slaves to work with. “Orange, a 46-year-old web designer who lives in Virginia, has been working on zodiac signs since 2006.” It’s exciting, “Orange said in an interview Friday.” We’ve been sitting on the solution since last Saturday. Those years ago when I first started looking at zodiac cryptocurrencies I thought ‘oh, I can write a computer program and solve it’, but it kicks my a this time. Until now. “The FBI’s San Francisco office spokesman Cameron Pollen confirmed Orange’s claim Friday, saying in an email to The Chronicle:” The FBI is aware that a cryptocurrency known to the Zodiac killer has recently been solved by private citizens. The killer case is a continuing investigation for the FBI San Francisco Division and our local law enforcement partners. Due to the current situation and the respect for the victims and their families, we will not comment further at this time. “This is the second time that the zodiac cryptocurrency has been exploded. In 1969, The Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and others Since the pieces were sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald newspapers in pieces, a long cryptocurrency has been solved by a Salinas school teacher and his wife. The so-called 408 cipher goes a little beyond: “I like to kill because it’s so much fun.” To crack the 340 cipher – named for its 340 characters – Orange has teamed up with two colleagues, amateur code crackers, and has run confusing icons through special software programs. His teammates are mathematician Sam Blake in Australia and Jarl von Ike, a warehouse operator in Belgium. “I could not have done this without them,” Orange said. “All of us in the crypto community in the zodiac have found that cyber has another step beyond figuring out what characters are in the code, and that’s what we saw here.” Over the past couple of days, Orange’s findings have begun to leak into many zodiac amateur sleeve forums, such as ZodiacgliderSite.com, which has caused a great deal of excitement in the world of a wide range of real crimes. In most cryptocurrencies, as in 408, the solution is primarily to find out which characters are represented by certain symbols. In encryption 340, the alignment of words runs across the page, and they are occasionally changed to a column. This is a complex bit of code development, Orange said, but a basic plan for it can be found in at least one U.S. military code manual from the 1950s. As the group began to break down the patterns in the cipher, they did not open a couple of phrases to let them know they were on the right track. KGO-TV, which aired in October 1969, contained references to the “gas chamber” and the “television show” that appeared to refer to Jim Dunper’s “AM San Francisco” show. On that show, Dunbar and lawyer Melvin Belle called from someone who claimed to be a zodiac sign and said, “I don’t want to go to the gas chamber.” In Resolved Cryptography, Zodiac writes: “This did not make me (sic) on the TV show.” 340 Cipher Text The solution for 340 cipher, according to Orange’s team: I hope I have a lot of fun trying to catch myself, I do not know what brings me to a point because the Gas Chamber is sending me everywhere, I have enough slaves to work with now, wherever they want Have arrived, and I am dead from their new place. Keaton Bacon will speak on the zodiac on the radio, while TV Chronicle reporter Kevin Fogan will speak on the Zodiac (740 AM) with Jeff Bell and Grandma Rising at 2:20 p.m., and Henry on KTVU-TV at 6 p.m. To watch a video on how to crack cyber video code, go to: //bit.ly/2W8muCC “We know we have something because of the Dunbar show,” Orange said. “One interesting thing about this is that it compels a minimum date for the construction of the cipher – maybe he had one and fixed it, but it could not have been in that format before the Dunbar show aired on October 22. When the Chronicle received 340 Letters.” Published by The Chronicle on November 12. Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Email: [email protected] Twitter: eKevinChron