SOMERTON MAN CODE CRACKED, HOW THE CODED MESSAGES WERE WRITTEN AND READ. UPDATED 29th NOVEMBER 2020

The latest images added here were taken using an atomiser to spray the lemon juice fluid on to the surface, this was the recommended method from the Scholarly Article found here:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1141001?read-now=1&seq=1

Atomisers are readily found in places like KMART. 

M & R, 
First 2 letters on the code page

As the cracked code page slowly unravels and reveals it's 72 years old secrets, yet more questions need to be answered. We could, at one level, simply ask who was it from? What were they talking about? At another, and the preferred option at least at this stage, we should be asking how were the larger letters of the code structured and what purpose did they serve?

We may have part of the answers to the latter two questions.

How were the letters laid out/structured?

When you look at the code page you can see that three lines begin with the letter M and the other letters follow. But, in the third line we see another letter M my view is that at this point, the writer recognised that there may not be sufficient space to give each line starting with M, its own line and so they were compressed. 

Thus, using this approach, the code layout therefore should have been:

MRGOABABD

MLIADI The letter O has since been examined without the ink over and it could well be the letter D (with a line through)

MTBI

MPANETP
MLIABOAIAQCVTT
MTSA
MSTGAR

...but there simply wasn't space. Each one of the letters on the code page and the various lines and stained areas, as we now know, contain micro written code

What is the significance of each letter if the code was within them?

It's too early to be 100% precise here but let's look at what's been learned so far.

We have examined the M and the R and recently we looked at the two crossed lines in the centre of the page.

We only really discovered that the code being used was probably the HILL cipher and that was when we looked at the two crossed lines. We had thought that the part of the letter M on line 1 that we had examined was a simple SHIFT cipher.

If we now look at the letter M and R as containing a HILL ciphered message then we get a different result to the one we first extracted.

The first thing I noticed in the letter M is that it had many numbers but only one letter:

M = 1350323543272343R6242452427243583234531025525231544858543235235. Note the only letter is R and R is the very next letter to the M. 

Using the Hill Decipher tool for the entire first letter M we now get:

We can see MOBISON LEO SOE IVI

• The name Mobison hasn't as yet turned up but there was a Captain SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, a WW2 US Navy man. A spelling error" Not sure as yet
• LEO SOE Many would recognise both these groups, Leo Marks was the leading code man for SOE, (British Special Operations Executive) His specialty was using poems for his codes
• IVI, that's an acronym for 'INTRAVENOUS INJECTION'

Some interesting words and whilst it does not form a meaningful message, it is certainly of interest.

R = 234OWRC2822VRA224434527252652441295533256225344042392504

Putting the R through the HILL decipher tool we get:

A single word, in fact the only word that we find in the 1000 lines of deciphering from the tools. Itis in fact a name, a Russian surname I believe, certainly Eastern European.

WHAT DOES THIS TELL US ABOUT THE CODE STRUCTURE?

At this stage, I think there are the beginnings of a Pattern.

But first let's look at the question, were these letters for a message to be sent, or are they about messages received? Given the way that they are written in groups or 'strings', the view is that these are messages received, the person receiving knows that each line begins with M and that it shows the following letter in amongst the code. We start with M and then we have R, and the letter R is observed within the microcode of the letter M. 

Thus the operator listens and writes down the microcode within the M and prepares the next letter, R, to receive the microcode that belongs inside that letter. Obviously, we must work through the rest of the letters to confirm this thought.

What about the crossed-out line? (Line 2)

As you can see, the supposed struck out line contains microcode as does each of the letters in this image as highlighted.

No one can say just when the line that appears on the lower half of the letters within line 2, MLIADI, was put there. Was it there before the letters or was it put there afterward? And if afterward then, and given that we have indentations to work with, was the line on the same original piece of paper or on yet another piece of paper? What we do know that this line contains micro-written code letters and numbers.

And, the two crossed lines on the page?

Here we are given a clue. The letter X, it could be that the letter X symbolises two lines and, as each does in fact, contain a microcode, each stroke contains the 'address' for each line, I marked them on a recent image as being lines A to B and C to D.

When that cross appeared, the person receiving the information would have known that there were two long strings of code about to be transmitted and they would not involve any larger letters as in the earlier lines.

What about the other marked lines and flourishes?

Right now, I really don't know. I do know that they contain microcode but whether that was code received or just notes, is yet to be determined.

Just for the record:

The letters of the code page: MRGOABABDMLIADIMTBIMPANETPMLIABOAIAQCVTTMTSAMSTGAR

Do not, when put through the decoder, produce anything like a word of more than 1 syllable.

The code is now central to the investigation work and the SA Police now have a copy of the work done.