Zodiac: Button Letter Cipher

A cipher by the Zodiac Killer that implicates Allen is the Button letter Cipher. In the envelop sent to police and the paper there is a letter, cipher, and a map of San Francisco with the Zodiac’s symbol drawn out as a compass marker. By filling in the compass with the cipher clockwise starting at north, the code is separated into more manageable sections with south being an easily deciphered message. When the letters are rearranged, “the variables at the 6 O’clock position spell ‘JFK WROTE’” (opordanalytical).

                By taking the clue of something that ‘JFK WROTE’, the rest of the cipher is a lot easier to decode. After combining West, North and East, then rearrange the letters and symbols, you get the message ‘ask not what your country can do for you’. This is of course part of the famous JFK speech given in 1961. Another interesting fact that has been noticed when trying to figure out what is implied by ‘JFK WROTE’ is that is book, Profile in Courage, won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1957. This is significant because “Arthur Leigh Allen joined the US Navy in 1957” (oppordanalytical). In addition it could be looked as a small hint he was the killer because JFK was also well regarded for being a commander on the PT-109 boat in World War II.