Beale Treasure (here are docs)
Andy Kinsman (253-XXXX)
it is, all three parts. After several months of study, and endless
hours with a network of 30 Apollo computers, the following are
my findings, derived at over a period of five years.
For a general description of the puzzle I refer you to the human
readible clear text for part 2 below, or one of the references
at the end.
I'm told that each year a group gathers in Virginia to discuss the
past years progress at cracking this cipher.
Enjoy! -AAK
TEXT for part 1
The Locality of the Vault.
71,194,38,1701,89,76,11,83,1629,48,94,63,132,16,111,95,84,341
975,14,40,64,27,81,139,213,63,90,1120,8,15,3,126,2018,40,74
758,485,604,230,436,664,582,150,251,284,308,231,124,211,486,225
401,370,11,101,305,139,189,17,33,88,208,193,145,1,94,73,416
918,263,28,500,538,356,117,136,219,27,176,130,10,460,25,485,18
436,65,84,200,283,118,320,138,36,416,280,15,71,224,961,44,16,401
39,88,61,304,12,21,24,283,134,92,63,246,486,682,7,219,184,360,780
18,64,463,474,131,160,79,73,440,95,18,64,581,34,69,128,367,460,17
81,12,103,820,62,110,97,103,862,70,60,1317,471,540,208,121,890
346,36,150,59,568,614,13,120,63,219,812,2160,1780,99,35,18,21,136
872,15,28,170,88,4,30,44,112,18,147,436,195,320,37,122,113,6,140
8,120,305,42,58,461,44,106,301,13,408,680,93,86,116,530,82,568,9
102,38,416,89,71,216,728,965,818,2,38,121,195,14,326,148,234,18
55,131,234,361,824,5,81,623,48,961,19,26,33,10,1101,365,92,88,181
275,346,201,206,86,36,219,324,829,840,64,326,19,48,122,85,216,284
919,861,326,985,233,64,68,232,431,960,50,29,81,216,321,603,14,612
81,360,36,51,62,194,78,60,200,314,676,112,4,28,18,61,136,247,819
921,1060,464,895,10,6,66,119,38,41,49,602,423,962,302,294,875,78
14,23,111,109,62,31,501,823,216,280,34,24,150,1000,162,286,19,21
17,340,19,242,31,86,234,140,607,115,33,191,67,104,86,52,88,16,80
121,67,95,122,216,548,96,11,201,77,364,218,65,667,890,236,154,211
10,98,34,119,56,216,119,71,218,1164,1496,1817,51,39,210,36,3,19
540,232,22,141,617,84,290,80,46,207,411,150,29,38,46,172,85,194
39,261,543,897,624,18,212,416,127,931,19,4,63,96,12,101,418,16,140
230,460,538,19,27,88,612,1431,90,716,275,74,83,11,426,89,72,84
1300,1706,814,221,132,40,102,34,868,975,1101,84,16,79,23,16,81,122
324,403,912,227,936,447,55,86,34,43,212,107,96,314,264,1065,323
428,601,203,124,95,216,814,2906,654,820,2,301,112,176,213,71,87,96
202,35,10,2,41,17,84,221,736,820,214,11,60,760
TEXT for part 2
(no title exists for this part)
115,73,24,807,37,52,49,17,31,62,647,22,7,15,140,47,29,107,79,84
56,239,10,26,811,5,196,308,85,52,160,136,59,211,36,9,46,316,554
122,106,95,53,58,2,42,7,35,122,53,31,82,77,250,196,56,96,118,71
140,287,28,353,37,1005,65,147,807,24,3,8,12,47,43,59,807,45,316
101,41,78,154,1005,122,138,191,16,77,49,102,57,72,34,73,85,35,371
59,196,81,92,191,106,273,60,394,620,270,220,106,388,287,63,3,6
191,122,43,234,400,106,290,314,47,48,81,96,26,115,92,158,191,110
77,85,197,46,10,113,140,353,48,120,106,2,607,61,420,811,29,125,14
20,37,105,28,248,16,159,7,35,19,301,125,110,486,287,98,117,511,62
51,220,37,113,140,807,138,540,8,44,287,388,117,18,79,344,34,20,59
511,548,107,603,220,7,66,154,41,20,50,6,575,122,154,248,110,61,52,33
30,5,38,8,14,84,57,540,217,115,71,29,84,63,43,131,29,138,47,73,239
540,52,53,79,118,51,44,63,196,12,239,112,3,49,79,353,105,56,371,557
211,505,125,360,133,143,101,15,284,540,252,14,205,140,344,26,811,138
115,48,73,34,205,316,607,63,220,7,52,150,44,52,16,40,37,158,807,37
121,12,95,10,15,35,12,131,62,115,102,807,49,53,135,138,30,31,62,67,41
85,63,10,106,807,138,8,113,20,32,33,37,353,287,140,47,85,50,37,49,47
64,6,7,71,33,4,43,47,63,1,27,600,208,230,15,191,246,85,94,511,2,270
20,39,7,33,44,22,40,7,10,3,811,106,44,486,230,353,211,200,31,10,38
140,297,61,603,320,302,666,287,2,44,33,32,511,548,10,6,250,557,246
53,37,52,83,47,320,38,33,807,7,44,30,31,250,10,15,35,106,160,113,31
102,406,230,540,320,29,66,33,101,807,138,301,316,353,320,220,37,52
28,540,320,33,8,48,107,50,811,7,2,113,73,16,125,11,110,67,102,807,33
59,81,158,38,43,581,138,19,85,400,38,43,77,14,27,8,47,138,63,140,44
35,22,177,106,250,314,217,2,10,7,1005,4,20,25,44,48,7,26,46,110,230
807,191,34,112,147,44,110,121,125,96,41,51,50,140,56,47,152,540
63,807,28,42,250,138,582,98,643,32,107,140,112,26,85,138,540,53,20
125,371,38,36,10,52,118,136,102,420,150,112,71,14,20,7,24,18,12,807
37,67,110,62,33,21,95,220,511,102,811,30,83,84,305,620,15,2,108,220
106,353,105,106,60,275,72,8,50,205,185,112,125,540,65,106,807,188,96,110
16,73,32,807,150,409,400,50,154,285,96,106,316,270,205,101,811,400,8
44,37,52,40,241,34,205,38,16,46,47,85,24,44,15,64,73,138,807,85,78,110
33,420,505,53,37,38,22,31,10,110,106,101,140,15,38,3,5,44,7,98,287
135,150,96,33,84,125,807,191,96,511,118,440,370,643,466,106,41,107
603,220,275,30,150,105,49,53,287,250,208,134,7,53,12,47,85,63,138,110
21,112,140,485,486,505,14,73,84,575,1005,150,200,16,42,5,4,25,42
8,16,811,125,160,32,205,603,807,81,96,405,41,600,136,14,20,28,26
353,302,246,8,131,160,140,84,440,42,16,811,40,67,101,102,194,138
205,51,63,241,540,122,8,10,63,140,47,48,140,288
CLEAR for part 2, made human readable.
I have deposited in the county of Bedford about four miles from
Bufords in an excavation or vault six feet below the surface
of the ground the following articles belonging jointly to
the parties whose names are given in number three herewith.
The first deposit consisted of ten hundred and fourteen pounds
of gold and thirty eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver
deposited Nov eighteen nineteen. The second was made Dec
eighteen twenty one and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven
pounds of gold and twelve hundred and eighty eight of silver,
also jewels obtained in St. Louis in exchange to save transportation
and valued at thirteen [t]housand dollars. The above
is securely packed i[n] [i]ron pots with iron cov[e]rs. Th[e] vault
is roughly lined with stone and the vessels rest on solid stone
and are covered [w]ith others. Paper number one describes th[e]
exact locality of the va[u]lt so that no difficulty will be had
in finding it.
CLEAR for part 2, using only the first 480 words of the
Declaration of Independence, then blanks filled in by
inspection. ALL mistakes shown were caused by sloppy
encryption.
0----5----10---15---20---25---30---35---40---45---
0 ihavedepositedinthecountyofbedfordaboutfourmilesfr
50 ombufordsinanexcavationorvaultsixfeetbelowthesurfa
100 ceofthegroundthefollowingarticlesbelongingjointlyt
150 othepartieswhosenamesaregiveninnumberthreeherewith
200 thefirstdepositconsistcdoftenhundredandfourteenpou
250 ndsofgoldandthirtyeighthundredandtwelvepoundsofsil
300 verdepositednoveighteennineteenthesecondwasmadedec
350 eighteentwentyoneandconsistedofnineteenhundredands
400 evenpoundsofgoldandtwelvehundredandeightyeightofsi
450 lveralsojewelsobtainedinstlouisinexchangetosavetra
500 nsportationandvaluedatthirteenrhousanddollarstheab
550 oveissecurelypackeditronpotswithironcovtrsthtvault
600 isroughlylinedwithstoneandthevesselsrestonsolidsto
650 neandarecovereduithotherspapernumberonedescribesth
700 cexactlocalityofthevarltsothatnodifficultywillbeha
750 dinfindingit
TEXT for part 3
Names and Residences.
317,8,92,73,112,89,67,318,28,96,107,41,631,78,146,397,118,98
114,246,348,116,74,88,12,65,32,14,81,19,76,121,216,85,33,66,15
108,68,77,43,24,122,96,117,36,211,301,15,44,11,46,89,18,136,68
317,28,90,82,304,71,43,221,198,176,310,319,81,99,264,380,56,37
319,2,44,53,28,44,75,98,102,37,85,107,117,64,88,136,48,154,99,175
89,315,326,78,96,214,218,311,43,89,51,90,75,128,96,33,28,103,84
65,26,41,246,84,270,98,116,32,59,74,66,69,240,15,8,121,20,77,80
31,11,106,81,191,224,328,18,75,52,82,117,201,39,23,217,27,21,84
35,54,109,128,49,77,88,1,81,217,64,55,83,116,251,269,311,96,54,32
120,18,132,102,219,211,84,150,219,275,312,64,10,106,87,75,47,21
29,37,81,44,18,126,115,132,160,181,203,76,81,299,314,337,351,96,11
28,97,318,238,106,24,93,3,19,17,26,60,73,88,14,126,138,234,286
297,321,365,264,19,22,84,56,107,98,123,111,214,136,7,33,45,40,13
28,46,42,107,196,227,344,198,203,247,116,19,8,212,230,31,6,328
65,48,52,59,41,122,33,117,11,18,25,71,36,45,83,76,89,92,31,65,70
83,96,27,33,44,50,61,24,112,136,149,176,180,194,143,171,205,296
87,12,44,51,89,98,34,41,208,173,66,9,35,16,95,8,113,175,90,56
203,19,177,183,206,157,200,218,260,291,305,618,951,320,18,124,78
65,19,32,124,48,53,57,84,96,207,244,66,82,119,71,11,86,77,213,54
82,316,245,303,86,97,106,212,18,37,15,81,89,16,7,81,39,96,14,43
216,118,29,55,109,136,172,213,64,8,227,304,611,221,364,819,375
128,296,1,18,53,76,10,15,23,19,71,84,120,134,66,73,89,96,230,48
77,26,101,127,936,218,439,178,171,61,226,313,215,102,18,167,262
114,218,66,59,48,27,19,13,82,48,162,119,34,127,139,34,128,129,74
63,120,11,54,61,73,92,180,66,75,101,124,265,89,96,126,274,896,917
434,461,235,890,312,413,328,381,96,105,217,66,118,22,77,64,42,12
7,55,24,83,67,97,109,121,135,181,203,219,228,256,21,34,77,319,374
382,675,684,717,864,203,4,18,92,16,63,82,22,46,55,69,74,112,134
186,175,119,213,416,312,343,264,119,186,218,343,417,845,951,124
209,49,617,856,924,936,72,19,28,11,35,42,40,66,85,94,112,65,82
115,119,233,244,186,172,112,85,6,56,38,44,85,72,32,47,63,96,124
217,314,319,221,644,817,821,934,922,416,975,10,22,18,46,137,181
101,39,86,103,116,138,164,212,218,296,815,380,412,460,495,675,820
952
Evidence in favor of a hoax-
. Too many players.
. Inflated quantities of treasure.
. Many discrepancies exist in all documents.
. The Declaration of Independence is too hokey a key.
. Part 3 (list of 30 names) considered too little text.
. W.F. Friedman couldn't crack it.
. Why even encrypt parts 1 & 3?
. Why use multi-part text, and why different keys for each part?
. Difficult to keep treasure in ground if 30 men know where it was buried.
. Who'd leave it with other than your own family?
. The Inn Keeper waited an extra 10 years before opening box with
ciphers in it? Who would do this, curiousity runs too deep in
humans?
. Why did anybody waste time deciphering paper 2, which had no title?
1 & 3 had titles! These should have been deciphered first?
. Why not just one single letter?
. Statistical analysis show 1&3 similar in very obscure ways, that
2 differs. Did somebody else encipher it? And why?
Check length of keytexts, and forward/backward next word
displacement selections.
. Who could cross the entire country with that much gold and only
10 men and survive back then?
. Practically everybody who visited New Mexico before 1821, left
by way of the Pearly Gates, as the Spanish got almost every
tourist:-)
References:
The Beale Treasure, by Peter Viemeister, ISBN: 0-9608598-3-7.
230 pages. 1987.
The Codebreakers, by David Kahn, pg 771, CCN 63-16109.
1967.
Gold in the Blue Ridge, The True Story of the Beale Treasure,
by P.B. Innis & Walter Dean Innis, Devon Publ. Co., Wash, D.C.
1973.
_ __
/\ /\ | | / / Andrew A. Kinsman
/ \ / \ | |/ / Eastman Kodak Co.
/ /\ \ / /\ \ | < kin...@ssd.kodak.com
/ ____ \ / ____ \ | |\ \ "Little yellow box factory"
/_/ \_\/_/ \_\|_| \_\ Packet: N2HZK@WB2WXQ
Steven Bellovin
as a Bamboozlement, Part II'', Louis Kruh, Cryptologia 12,4 (Oct.
1988). (Part I was apparently some six years earlier.) Kruh concludes
that they're most likely a hoax. Also, Jim Gillogly found some strings
in ciphers 1 and 3, the nature of which make it seem exceedingly
improbable that they contain any text. I don't have the reference to
his work handy, though I think that one version of it appeared in this
very newsgroup.
--Steve Bellovin
k...@fig.ucsb.edu
I am currently working on a term paper on the Beale Ciphers and
here is some more info (as I recall, I don't have the info with me):
1. There was a pamphlet printed, asking for help in solving these
ciphers. Writing analysis of this and the one decrypted document
indicate a very strong correllation. (I believe the pamphlet
writer's name was Ward(?))
Suspicion: That ward, down and out on his luck, was trying to make
some money by selling these pamphlets.
Rebuttal : The pamphlets were never sold, but instead sat in a
wherehouse for several months (until the wherehouse burned
down, destroying most of the pamphlets.
Side Note: It used to be believed that the pamphlets did not exist
until one was found in the possessions of the late Col.
Fabian(sp?).
2. Attempting to decode the documents using the Bill of Rights results
in a string of letters something like this: ABCDEFGHHIJKLLMN
Obviously, the likelyhood of this happening by chance is pretty dim.
--
Kevin John Phillips Phone : (805) 968-4809
Internet : 660...@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu Bitnet: 660...@ucsbuxa.bitnet
k...@cs.ucsb.edu
Doug Gwyn
>Evidence in favor of a hoax-
The Beale cryptograms are discussed not only in the references you gave,
but also in occasional articles in Cryptologia and other such journals.
> . Too many players.
I don't understand that criticism.
> . Inflated quantities of treasure.
Nor that one.
> . Many discrepancies exist in all documents.
There is only one decrypted document, plus anecdotal evidence from
Beale's innkeeper friend who supposedly held the cryptograms.
> . The Declaration of Independence is too hokey a key.
I have to definitely DISagree with this one. Beale's first two names
were Thomas Jefferson. Naturally he would be expected to be familiar
with the real T.J. and to have access to T.J.'s major writings. In
fact, the range of cipher values in message #1 is such that very few
publicly available documents could serve as a key; the one I found
that looked most promising was T.J.'s Bill to Abolish Slavery in
Virginia, which T.J. himself considered his best written work.
> . Part 3 (list of 30 names) considered too little text.
Without knowing how the names were given, that is not certain.
> . W.F. Friedman couldn't crack it.
I don't recall having heard that WFF spent appreciable effort on it.
The attempt described by Kahn was made by Carl Hammer, and from the
given description it is not clear that it was a very good study.
> . Why even encrypt parts 1 & 3?
It's obvious why part 1 was encrypted!
Part 3 could have been encrypted to prevent forgery.
> . Why use multi-part text, and why different keys for each part?
Several possible answers suggest themselves. For example, suppose it
was anticipated that the list of beneficiaries might grow in the
future, or that the treasure might be moved or another cache added.
As to different keys, why not?
> . Difficult to keep treasure in ground if 30 men know where it was buried.
Presumably they were all on the later expedition.
Besides, I suspect people were not as dishonest then as they are now.
> . Who'd leave it with other than your own family?
Did Beale have a family? Did his party agree to leave the info with
a neutral custodian?
> . The Inn Keeper waited an extra 10 years before opening box with
> ciphers in it? Who would do this, curiousity runs too deep in
> humans?
Why would he say that if he were trying to hoax us?
> . Why did anybody waste time deciphering paper 2, which had no title?
> 1 & 3 had titles! These should have been deciphered first?
I don't think any of the three had titles, at least not judging by
the copies that the ASA TIC had directly from Roanoke.
> . Why not just one single letter?
We covered that above.
> . Statistical analysis show 1&3 similar in very obscure ways, that
> 2 differs. Did somebody else encipher it? And why?
> Check length of keytexts, and forward/backward next word
> displacement selections.
What statistical analysis is this supposed to be?
Note the possibility that 1 and 3 are forgeries and the forger
long ago ran off with the treasure.
> . Who could cross the entire country with that much gold and only
> 10 men and survive back then?
Have you heard of pack mules?
> . Practically everybody who visited New Mexico before 1821, left
> by way of the Pearly Gates, as the Spanish got almost every
> tourist:-)
What evidence do you have for such a claim? It doesn't agree with
what I learned of the history of the American Southwest.
In summary, perhaps the Beale cryptograms are a hoax and perhaps not.
However, we are being subjected to spurious argumentation rather than
proofs.
Doug Gwyn
>2. Attempting to decode the documents using the Bill of Rights results
> in a string of letters something like this: ABCDEFGHHIJKLLMN
> Obviously, the likelyhood of this happening by chance is pretty dim.
On the contrary, the likelihood of it happening deliberately are also
pretty slim. I would have expected ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP in that case.
If you look hard enough at any long "patternless" string of repeated
symbols, you can find SOME suspicious pattern. The likelihood of THAT
is very high.
John C. King
>hours with a network of 30 Apollo computers, the following are
>my findings, derived at over a period of five years.
Beg your pardon, but, what findings? You have found nothing. You've
only posted what is already known. Don't mean to be mean ;-|, but
what did you do to come up with nothing? That would be useful information.
Did you do heuristic search? What language statistics did you use? What
assumptions did you make?
>I'm told that each year a group gathers in Virginia to discuss the
>past years progress at cracking this cipher.
Yes, but we don't meet every year. The Beale Cipher Association is a loosely
organized group of interested individuals who pool their findings and use the
quarterly Newsletter as a sounding board for new ideas. Historians and
geneologists study the Beale story, while computer scientists and cryptologists
(some professional even) study the ciphers. Other armchair cryptanalysts
regularly submit bogus solutions for evaluation in the newsletter.
A few years ago at our last meeting, we met in Bedford, Virginia and had
a fun time meeting each other, driving around the beautiful Blue Ridge
Mountains visiting the sites associated with the treasure, exploring a
cave, visiting a local resident at his house (many people have dug on his
property). We had a dinner where Dr. Hammer discussed his ACM paper on
the Beale Ciphers. Viemeister (one of your references) presented his book. He
started out with all the nagging questions you listed, and believed the story
was a hoax. After his research he is now open minded because there are some
reasonable comebacks for every unanswered question. No damning evidence has
been found (i.e. a smoking gun, such as old family correspondences from the
suspected hoaxster Ward, where he might boast of his hoax). Rather, much of
the story has been verified.
The address is The Beale Cipher Association, P.O. Box 975, Beaver Falls, PA
15010. Dues are $25/year for the quarterly newsletter. Information is
free (list of publications, etc.). Write to Robert Caldwell and tell him
I posted the address.
>Evidence in favor of a hoax-
Yes there are many questions. If it is a hoax, the members of the BCA will
be content to know that, but until then, no convincing evidence either way
has been found. Lack of a solution is not convincing evidence there is no
solution. A letter written by Edgar Allen Poe (another suspected hoaxster),
admitting to the fraud, would be convincing evidence of a hoax. Treasure
or a solution leading to an empty vault dating to the early 1800's, would be
convincing evidence. Until then, it's interesting. I analyzed the Beale
Ciphers and the Zodiac Murder Ciphers in my recent master's thesis "An
Algorithmic Solution of Sequential Homophonic Ciphers". In the thesis I
also presented a cryptographic protocol that two people could use to verify
if they have the same solution, without revealing any of the solution to
a third party.
John King
===============================================================================
"card carrying member of the BCA"
===============================================================================
John C. King
>
>2. Attempting to decode the documents using the Bill of Rights results
> in a string of letters something like this: ABCDEFGHHIJKLLMN
> Obviously, the likelyhood of this happening by chance is pretty dim.
>
>
>Kevin John Phillips Phone : (805) 968-4809
>Internet : 660...@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu Bitnet: 660...@ucsbuxa.bitnet
k...@cs.ucsb.edu
It is using the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE as the key document to Beale
Cipher No. 1 that results in the apparently "non-random" strings. One
hypothesis proposed is that Ward wanted to "doctor up" the unsolved
ciphers when he published the pamphlets. Therefore, if anyone did find
the key document, their solution would have unreadable sections. They
would then have to make a deal with Ward. Ward would trade the original
cipher sections (which would provide a full solution) for part of the
treasure. Do the "non-random" strings correspond to Ward's alterations
if the hypothesis is true?
John King
=============================================================================