WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: The Beale Cypher 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:16.000 Thinking Sideways. I don't think you never know what stories 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:22.239 of things we simply don't know the answer to. Welcome back, everybody, 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.159 and thanks for coming back. I am Steve and this 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.479 is Thinking Sideways the podcast, and always, as always have 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.680 got my co host with me. I'm Devino. And by 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.440 the way, your your language is kind of exclusionary because 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.760 you're only welcoming back to people who have already listened 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.000 to us, and welcome back to all of our previous listeners, 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.880 and welcome to all of our new listeners. Yes, thank you, sir, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:50.440 appreciate you for clarifying that for me. Well, tonight we 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.520 are going to talk about a story that is a 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.440 bit of a mystery and it's not solved. It's just 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.880 a little bit of a Mrs Smitch pretty a bit. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.760 It's not yet unsolved, it's not shortly to be solved. Okay, 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.280 so it's it's it's still unsolved at this moment, but 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.360 not until you get your hands on it. Absolutely, I 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.959 got it. Okay, Sideways is going to crack this one 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:17.319 like a walnut. Apparently we do that every week. Sorry everyone, 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:19.760 all right, well let's let's get into this. So, uh, 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.800 just a little background, how I got this. This particular 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.320 story is I just finished reading recently the book The 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.280 Code Book by Simon Sing. I read that book. I 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:35.520 liked it. You didn't know are you gonna? Why would I? 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.840 You guys are now obviously like really really good at 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:45.840 this stuff, right, cryptographer, I need to get better at 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.440 the other stuff that's happening, Like who needs like three 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:55.400 code breakers? One? That's true. Obviously, we've we've given away 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.960 that The Code Book is about code breaking. It's also 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.720 about the history of and it is. It's really interesting, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.400 and it's by a guy named Simon Saying, And anybody 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.160 who's interested in Cipher's go pick that book up. It's 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.079 really awesome. That's yeah, it's a very it's a very 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.160 good and easy read. But one of the stories that 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.680 he tells in there is about the Beal Cipher and 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.320 I read about it briefly before, but once I read 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.480 his accounting of it, I really got interested in it, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.880 and I decided that we needed to take some time 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.960 to really look into it. So let's just kind of 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.400 start at the beginning, and let's start with how the 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.360 story goes, because the story has been retold a number 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.799 of times, but I'm gonna do. We're gonna do the 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.360 best we can with the accounting of it. Are we 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.280 gonna are we just gonna do like this is how 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.400 everything's kind of all the way always told or or 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.640 what well? I mean, if we if we see things 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.680 that have different accountings, I think that we'll have to 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:52.560 bring those up. Okay, maybe I thought that quick, quick abstract. 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.800 I guess he would say, Okay, bury a treasure, mysterious cipher. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.240 Everybody's puzzled for two years. Okay, there you go. All right, 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:07.320 let's get into theories. Okay. So the story begins in 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:12.440 eighteen twenty January of eighteen twenty when a gentleman by 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.440 the name of Thomas J. Beale arrives in Lynchburg, Virginia 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.640 and checks into the Washington Hotel. He stays at the 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.400 hotel that winter and then leaves in the spring, but 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.560 while he's there, he becomes friends with the owner of 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.639 the hotel, manned by the name of Robert Morris. Beale 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:36.000 comes back two years later, so this is eighteen twenty two, 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.880 and once again he spends the winter at the hotel, 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.600 but before he leaves in the spring, this time he 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:48.880 gives Morris a locked iron box, which he says contains 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.840 papers of value in importance. Lawrence, of course, being a 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.480 good guy, sticks the box in a corner on a 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.520 shelf and hangs onto it and doesn't think anything of it. Bunk. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:06.320 But Morris of course immediately opened the box. Was in there. Well, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.800 according to this story that is out there, bal never 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.920 came back, and Morris, being a good guy, was gonna wait. 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.599 And according to their and this is where the accounting 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.800 is get a little fuzzy. I've seen accountings that said 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.560 Beale told Morris not to open it for ten years. Yeah, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.600 he sent him a letter. Actually, yeah, is that how 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.800 it went because accountings both ways. Yeah, I sent a 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:31.920 letter said if you don't hear from me from ten 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.159 years past the date of this letter, then open the box. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.080 I love that his instructions to open the box first 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.839 removed the lock. And it's like okay, yeah, And and 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:47.320 so he eventually does open the box, but Morris waits 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.320 twenty three years to do it. So it's eighty five 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.039 before curiosity ever gets the better of him and he 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.880 finally pops the thing open. When he opens it, he 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.479 finds several things in there. He lines a note written 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:06.320 by Beale in English to him. And then he also 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.479 finds three sheets that are just full of numbers, and 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.880 the note evidently reveals a little bit about Beale himself 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.520 and what's going on. And here's what it is. According 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.520 to Beale. In eighteen seventeen, he and twenty nine other 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:29.800 men headed west to explore the country. And this is 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.640 pretty much the wild West, and they went all over 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:34.800 I think you said, Joe, you had seen they've been 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.960 in Mexico. Yeah, they went to Santa Fe and then 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.600 up north into Colorado. And that was Spanish America back 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.599 in those days, that back when the Spaniards ruled it. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.560 And then after that just a little bit of history, Um, 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.560 it was along and the like about one most a 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.280 Mexican revolution, Mexicans over through the Spanish. So the Spanish 0:05:55.320 --> 0:06:00.320 previously controlled that territory and the Spain Spanish. Yeah, the 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.320 Spain Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. When the Spanish were overthrown in, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.920 Spanish control authority over that that area went away, and 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.680 the Mexican government was like fairly incompetent, had enhanced full 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:14.440 at home, and so that whole part of the US 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.320 was really kind of like ignored pretty much not under 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.400 any sort of government at all. It was truly was 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.720 the wild West, and it was it was every man 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.080 for himself. Do whatever you want while you're here, pretty much. Yeah. Well, 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.360 according to this this letter eighteen seventeen, which is just 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:36.120 a little prior to that, Uh, these guys had gone 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.560 out and we're looking to make their fortune. And according 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.560 to the note, Beal says, the party encamped in a 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.479 small ravine, we're preparing their evening meal when one of 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.280 the men discovered in a cleft of the rocks something 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.240 that had the appearance of gold. Upon showing to the others, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.719 it was pronounced to be gold, and much excitement. Was 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.360 the natural consequence, like the understatement, I like the way 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.040 they wrote back in those days. Yeah, no, it's it's 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.200 it's a little flowery, but I like it. It was 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:12.280 the natural consequence of things, naturally. The note goes on 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:16.200 to explain that Beale and his men had mind that 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.440 site for eighteen months, at which point they had obviously 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:25.040 accumulated a large quantity of gold and silver, which they 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.120 seemed to have found nearby, and they agreed that they 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.080 needed to move all of this gold somewhere safe, and 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.680 they decided to take it back home to Virginia, where 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.960 they were going to hide it in a secret location. Yeah, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:45.000 and and and in this trip back to Virginia, Bale 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.960 says that he traded some of the gold and silver 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.400 for jewels, which I can understand because they would be lighter. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.760 O bal went by himself. According to his letter, he 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:01.120 doesn't mention anybody. According to his letter, its friends were like, Hey, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.960 you're the most trustworthy of the dudes. We're gonna give 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.720 you what's what equivalent to like twenty million dollars today 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.680 gold and just like send you on your merried way. Well, right, 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.080 that's what that letter says, right it does. And looking 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.120 that's the thing that's absurd about it, is like if 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.960 they're really worried about the safety or their gold, and 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.040 you send one guy off with basically twenty because I 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.520 I calculated the way of of this his first trip 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:29.880 and a two out of fifty pounds per horse, it's 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.040 about twenty horses, twenty horse pack train a single guy 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.520 and you guys are just taking Oh, I feel so 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.720 much better than Mr Beale has got all of our 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.360 gold and twenty horses. He's riding aloud to this territory 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.840 rather than us having to worry about Indian territory exactly 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.640 the territory. And they're going from where probably New Mexico is, 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:56.920 other Colorado FROMO and then up to Colorado and then um, 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:58.880 and then he was going all the way to Virginia. 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.319 And it was obviously because I mean, yeah, and if 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.600 nothing else, mean, accidents happen. So even if the Indians 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.720 don't get it with the Spanish don't get them, even 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.320 if robbers don't get them, uh you know, I mean 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.840 just and hit his head or whatever, you know. And 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:21.160 then but I actually I did hear another version of 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.599 this story in which it wasn't just him. It was 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.439 actually about almost half the group went back to Virginia 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.480 with him the first time. Uh. And so that makes 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:31.960 that makes a lot more sense, because that means if 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:33.679 you've got a bunch of guys and everybody has one 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.240 pack horse, that's he's pulling behind them all the way 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:37.680 they got the horses. I don't know they might have 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.120 traded with the Indians. It's hard to say. Yeah, I 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:41.920 feel like with that much gold you can buy kind 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:43.840 of anything. I don't know if the Indians were all 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.000 that interested in gold, though maybe the gems oh wait, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:48.839 he would have traded that in route so that he 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.920 wouldn't have had these precious gems at the start. Though. Yeah, 0:09:53.440 --> 0:10:01.920 that's good point. Just ye, they love them. That is 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:06.360 so viciously racist. I can't think of anybody who don't 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:10.240 love gold. Okay, well, and let's get back to this 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.280 what the letter said. The letter says that at the 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.960 end of the winter, when he had left Morris the 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.199 first time, so we had left the Washington Hotel in Virginia, 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.120 he had gone back and the men, of course, while 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.320 he was gone during this time, we're busy minding gold 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.360 and hiding it from him. This time around, we're busy 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.680 continuing to mind the gold. Now, mind you, is that 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.120 he got there in the winter, and he left in 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.040 the spring, which has got to be two to three months. 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.120 So this guy's had to have been gone six months 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.760 and all the buddies are just still barely working away. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.440 I don't know, you have you know, like like digging 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.000 in winter in Colorado. I don't know. They might have 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.640 been hanging up, pulled up somewhere, spending all their time 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.840 like hunting for food and stuff like that, didn't time 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.880 to stay warm. Yeah, I don't know. Beale leaves Virginia 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.319 in the what I would guess would be the spring 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.120 of eighteen one and heads back to his guys. He's 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.720 been gone a while there, of course, still mining everything, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:12.120 and they, in his absence have say, well, we've got 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.679 all this new gold that we've mined, and you've been 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.679 we should probably secure this as well. So they send 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.520 him back on another trip to put it in whatever 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.560 little heidie hole he's got it stashed away in, And 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.920 while he's at it, they tell him to find a 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:38.000 reliable person who they could confide in their secrets, so 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.480 that if something happened to them, their relatives could be 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.439 alerted of this cash of gold and silver and jewels 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:51.440 and come and take their share of the money. So 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:56.199 this is the reason that Beal supposedly left Morris with 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.599 this iron lock box with the note in it and 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.319 um and so that was a second trip back, and 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.480 again in another another telling him the story that I heard, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:07.800 Bale and all of the guys came back down that 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.319 second trip. So that is just one more version of 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.920 which makes it even weirder that they would have left 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.240 the lock box with him. Well yeah, and it doesn't 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.840 seem really necessary at that point. Yeah, that seems before 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.160 the horse. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. Sending him back 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.680 all buy his little lonesome doesn't make any sense either. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.720 So I calculated, by the way, there's some weirdness going on. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.880 I calculated the weights, uh, the weight of his second journey, 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.240 and he would have only required about fourteen pack horses 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:39.040 for that one. Well, thank goodness for that. Yeah. Well, like, 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:44.480 like we said, Morris gets the box and he opens 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.240 it and he decides, I've got to figure out what 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:53.559 this cipher says, because he is morally obligated, according to 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.160 the story, to find these relatives and get the money 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.520 to them to get their share. So look like pulls 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:07.400 out his Apple computer and saying program plus plus. Oh wait, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.840 there's a problem, Joe. They didn't have computers. Head. Oh, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.560 he's using an abacus. They didn't have computers. Then, they 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.600 haven't always had computer How did they get on the internet. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.880 How did they take selfies? They didn't? Oh my god. Okay, 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:29.000 well in eighteen sixty two, so this is seventeen years 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.920 after Morris has opened the box, because he opened it 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:37.000 in eighteen forty five, he's eighty four years old. And 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.440 again this is according to the accounting, he realizes that 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.800 he doesn't have much longer to live and he needs 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.120 to tell somebody, so he shares this story with an 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:54.600 unknown confidante, this person. We never know who this person is, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.559 but we do know two things about that person. First, 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.920 they turn around and they publish the letters from Beal 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.240 along with the cipher in a pamphlet, and began to 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:16.760 circulate that pamphlet around. And the pamphlet also evidently deciphers 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.800 one of the codes, and that and his decipher text 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.600 appeared in that first pack. It appeared in the pamphlet. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:28.360 According to this pamphlet, this guy or I guess it 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.040 could have been a woman. This person decoded, thank you 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.800 for pointing at me, while saying that, well, it would 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.840 have been worse if I pointed at Joe. Yes, it 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:42.720 could have been a woman. Yes, that point, I said, woman. 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:49.080 That's exciting. The pamphletter decodes the second page of the 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:54.800 cipher and supposedly figured out what it was. They say 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.520 that it was this This person determines that it's a 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.600 book cipher, and this second cipher has eight hundred numbers on. 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.880 We talked about book ciphers with Tom and Shrewd didn't 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:07.720 we know we were talking about like things like one 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.800 time past. There's other things like book ciphers, not the 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.240 same as this particular book cipher. But say if I 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.480 take a book like like to Have Have Not by 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.800 Ernest Hening way, starting from the first page, you know, 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:22.440 that's one way of doing and is you go from 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.920 the first the first counting the letters. Yeah, well for 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.520 the words, I should say, yeah, well, there's there's various ways. 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.320 You can just go letter by a letter, so translate 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.040 years by adding letters to letters you know, you know, 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.240 and not not skipping words or anything. And that's one 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.440 way to do it. That generates that generates a number, 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.880 or you can do like this one is where you 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.040 have a number which is the number of the word 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:45.920 in the entire sequel to the document, and you take 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.800 the first letter, which really seems to me like a 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.480 really cumbersome encryption sess technique. It is very combesome. But 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.960 evidently this guy says that he deciphered it using the 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.040 declaration of independent and the second one, not the first 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:06.000 or the third that he figures out the middle one 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.640 of the bunch, which is weird. That is a little weird, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.200 and we're gonna We're gonna share with you what this 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.880 supposedly decoded texts says, and Joe, do you mind reading 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.800 that for us? Not at all. I have deposited in 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.120 the County of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's and 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.080 Beaufords by the Way, was a tavern in an excavation 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.560 or vault six ft below the surface of the ground. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.880 The following articles belonging jointly to the parties whose names 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.280 are given in number three herewith. The first deposit consisted 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.560 of ten thousand and fourteen pounds of gold and thirty 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:45.280 eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited November eighteen nineteen. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.480 The second was made December eighty one and consisted of 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.680 nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold and twelve d 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.000 and eight of silver, also juels obtained in St. Louis 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.040 an exchange for silver to save transportation, and valued at 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.840 thirteen thousand others. The above is securely packed in iron 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.760 pots with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.600 and the vessels rest on a solid stone and are 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.359 covered with others. Paper number one describes the exact locality 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.320 of the vault, so that no difficulty will be had 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:20.480 in finding it. You you have a Yeah, Okay, I 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:25.080 understand people wrote like more eloquently and more thoroughly in 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.160 those times. Sure, but if you're writing a cipher, especially 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.080 one that this contact, why do you say something like 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:38.760 in an excavation or vault like that specifically because stand 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:43.960 out yea, because you're thinking like, h you're thinking like, wow, 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.280 this is going to add another fifteen minutes to the encryption, 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:52.439 or even like why include this, right? I mean I simplifying, right, 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:54.919 you just say like, hey, for the people who have 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.200 the key for this, this is where it is. Right, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:03.280 Why write three full different manuscripts in the super complicated 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:08.399 cipher I'm sorry, in three different super complicated ciphers cipher 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.040 with three keys, sure, and have it saved flowery like 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.920 really really crazy stuff. But you've got to remember today's 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:21.080 language is much more abbreviated and to the point, and 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.160 that to him may have been shortened in an excavation 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.000 or vault. I feel like I'm not defending it. I'm 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.040 just saying it could have been to him that was 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.679 the shortened version. Yeah, but it's like maybe maybe it was, 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:35.480 but I think that he could have pared this down 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.200 to about a quarter of his length. Totally. Yeah, you 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.720 could have just said, hey, about four months of beaufers. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.320 There's just a ton of golden silvers of jewels, and 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.560 that's all people need to hear about it, maybe six 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.679 feet on there in a stone vault. And to defend 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.040 Beal a little bit though, he does need to describe 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.240 how much is there so that everybody has an accounting. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:00.080 So if I show up and I'm taken some U 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.399 and I've already I come back for some more, and 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.040 person number two arrives is, hey, I'm here for my share. 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.960 Oh yeah, so this is what was here. I just 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.639 got here as well. You have to be able to 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.280 kind of hold everybody to some kind of honor system, 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.399 wouldn't you, I guess. But I and I think that 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.679 you know, you just like leave that in the vault, 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.879 right like that somebody somebody taking you can alter the 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.760 accounting to sure, and that's fine. But I just think that, like, 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.639 it's such a crazy, weird circumstance. As you know, I 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:37.760 understand your point, I completely do. Here is how much 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:44.119 money in today's value was in this vault, supposedly gold, silver, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.960 and gems. According to the research that people have done 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.920 based on this, they say it's thirty million dollars worth. 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:56.840 Who Yeah, it depends on when this account when they 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.399 made this calculation because of gold and silver fluctuate the 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.600 hell up? And also what gems right, yeah, it depends 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.800 on what gems are because you don't know. It's just 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:13.640 you know, basics, a lot of money, a lot of money. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.840 So here's the thing, though, is there's two other ciphers, 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:23.439 which one supposedly gives cipher Number three is supposed to 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:28.080 tell the names of the other men and or their families, 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:30.359 the next of kids, the next of kids. That seems 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.840 like one that you would maybe not code and not 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.920 necessarily necessarily because then it's you know, you can blackmail people. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.160 But then number one is supposed to give the exact 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:47.200 location of the treasure. But there's no traditional use a map. 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:52.600 You would think that nobody's been able to figure out 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.720 what the cipher says, not even the n s A. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.800 According to the n s A, all we know is 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:06.080 at it's that four miles around Buford's and people have 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:10.639 continued to go out there and dig based on where 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.840 they think the treasure is going to be and by 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.199 the way. People who own property in that four mile radius, 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:24.280 they hate this mystery thedomly find people trespassing and digging 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.199 up stuff on their property. But you know, that's all 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.400 I can take a two cool angles to this number one. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.679 It's like, if you really hate somebody, you know, you 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:34.920 could set up a fake web page, you know, claiming 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.000 to have solved the mystery and give them give the 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:42.320 directions to your enemy, says, here's another thing. Supposing supposing 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:44.359 you own some land out there and you want to say, 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.520 put in a swimming pool. You see where I'm going there, 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.679 big side in looty tune style treasure here, just dig 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.360 with a big painted on the Yeah, I can say 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:02.479 some useful permutations to the whole thing. Oh gosh, Well, 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.479 nobody has figured out people have been trying to use 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.720 the Declaration of Independence to crack the other two ciphers, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.480 which isn't working. Do we a little bit want to 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:16.119 talk about the problems with the deciphering of the second 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:18.600 one with the declaration of Independence? Well, yeah, let's do 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:20.879 that right now, and we'll start in on our theories. 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:22.800 And that's part of it. And in the first theory, 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.119 which there's a whole ream of things in this theory. 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:27.920 But the first theory is that this whole thing is 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:33.040 a hoax. But so what do you got? Well, so, 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.520 in some of the research that we were doing, um, 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.959 you know, it says, well, if you just use the 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.520 Declaration of Independence as a book cipher, right, then you 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.840 get this message exactly, but you actually don't. It turns 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.480 out that that's actually not the case. When you actually 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:55.199 use the Declaration of Independence to decipher this cipher, it 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:59.880 actually reads, I hate pided it in the count put 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:07.960 of bear hurt, a boot for miles from bolloons in bocation, 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:14.280 or asalt six fist below the surfux of the Crown. 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.600 It continues on right. But so it's so the guy 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.120 was using a wrong version of the declaration. I think 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.159 that kind of sounds, you know, like, And obviously I 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:26.440 haven't on the legwork on this. I can't tell you 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.720 personally from personal experience which one is correct. But I 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:31.919 can see how somebody would look at that text and say, oh, 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.640 that person is trying to say that. And and here's 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:37.160 what I think we need to explain for everybody. You're 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:42.920 using the official copy of the Declaration of Independence. Yeah, 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:48.399 this in the pamphlet. They discover that the version of 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:54.280 the declaration they were using, Yeah, it's an abbreviated version 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:59.359 that supposedly was being used in publications for newspapers and 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.520 stuff like that, but not like widely districted. It wasn't 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:06.160 a hugely distributed version of it. That's what they're there say. 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:08.520 He is saying, Oh, this is the one I used, 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.920 and he prints his copy I understand in this pamphlet. Yeah, 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:15.280 and I'm kind of curious about it. It's that's does 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:17.720 seemed like the abbreviated version would be more convenient for 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.400 in terms of type setting to print in your pamphlet. Oh, well, yeah, 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:23.720 I would. But that sort of puts a little cloud 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:26.719 suspicion over the whole It's a little weird. It sounds 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:29.000 like he was writing the pamphlet he and he just 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:32.760 got that and reverse engineered the cipher and the whole thing. 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:35.280 And that's what a lot of people say. And here's 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:37.240