by Jason Fagone
57 business cards “Francis Bacon,” February 10, 1917, box 14, magenta-colored scrapbook, NYPL.
“Riverbank Laboratories are a group” Letter on Bliss Fabyan letterhead, 1916.
58 a town in Russia called Kishinev Ronald Clark, “Preparation,” in The Man Who Broke Purple: Life of Colonel William F. Friedman, Who Deciphered the Japanese Code in World War II (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977), 7–26.
fluent in eight languages Ibid.
“research and ingenuity” Ibid.
an expert in heredity ESF interview with Pogue, 5.
“an agricultural expert” George Fabyan to WFF, June 14, 1915, Item 734, WFF Collection.
“I realize the value” WFF to George Fabyan (undated), Item 734, WFF Collection.
59 vague, long-winded riff George Fabyan to WFF, August 12, 1915, Item 734, WFF Collection.
“I want the father of wheat” Ibid.
“Jewish Invasion” Burton J. Hendrick, “The Jewish Invasion of America,” McClure’s Magazine, March 1913, 125.
59 “nervous, restless ambition” Ibid., 127.
60 made him miserable Clark, “Preparation,” 16–17.
“My idea of real love-making” Lyle, “Divine Fire,” 59.
youthful fascination WFF, “Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer,” in On Poe, ed. Louis J. Budd and Edward Harrison Cady (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993), 40–54.
The plot of the story Edgar Allan Poe, “The Gold-Bug,” Dollar Newspaper (Philadelphia), June 23, 1843, 1 and 4, https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/goldbga2.htm.
61 Americans associated codebreakers WFF, “Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer.”
a sketch of a long-stemmed plant WFF, “Cipher Baconis Gallup,” box 13, folder 5, NYPL.
a gray duration of pitiless wind Kopec, The Sabines at Riverbank, 3.
sit on his lap Lyle, “Divine Fire,” 53, 60.
wondering the same ESF autobiography, 9: “As we were thrown together so much in our examination of the cipher proofs, we had many . . . talks ourselves. Even that first summer we began to wonder about the authenticity of Mrs. Gallup’s ‘solution.’ ” There are no hidden messages The Friedmans, as careful scientists, never really said it this starkly, but I think this is what they believed. On the last page of Shakespearean Ciphers (288) they suggest that if the people looking for hidden messages in Shakespeare taught themselves the true science of cryptology and applied it to their efforts, the whole dispute “might cease altogether”—in other words, if the seekers really understood cryptology, they’d also understand that their quest is doomed.
CHAPTER 4: HE WHO FEARS IS HALF DEAD
63 “and then begins step step leap” Anne Carson, Float (New York: Knopf, 2016), 138.
burned its way from hand to hand Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram (New York: Ballantine, 1958), 160–72.
At 11 A.M. on February 27 Ibid., 172.
“Good Lord!” Ibid.
Germany to Mexico on January 16 Ibid., 145.
a series of number blocks Ibid., 201.
toiled for a month in a secret office Ibid., “A Telegram Waylaid,” 3–24.
64 “We intend to begin” Ibid., 146.
outrage against Germany Ibid., 184–86.
64 Her father was there ESF to WFF, January 31, 1917, ESF Collection.
pinkish fluid Ibid.
“My book-bag lies here unopened” Ibid.
65 “yours, Elsbeth” ESF to WFF, February 7, 1917, ESF Collection.
“one of the truest friends” Ibid.
“rocking” Katie Letcher Lyle, “Divine Fire: Elizebeth Smith Friedman, Cryptanalyst,” unpublished manuscript, July 4, 1991, ESF Collection, two PDF files, 53, 60. Lyle notes that at some point William also provided this “rocking” to Elizebeth’s elder sister, Edna.
“I love you / Elsbeth” ESF to WFF, January 31, 1917.
seized by a new impatience ESF to WFF, February 7, 1917.
seemed a little cruel ESF interview with Marshall staff, Tape #2, June 4, 1974, 14.
they buttonholed him ESF autobiography, 10.
He shouted them down Ibid.
66 length of three miles Richard Munson, George Fabyan: The Tycoon Who Broke Ciphers, Ended Wars, Manipulated Sound, Built a Levitation Machine, and Organized the Modern Research Center (North Charleston, SC: Porter Books, 2013), 8.
“Gentlemen,” he wrote George Fabyan to War Department Intelligence Office, 15 March 1917, Item 734, WFF Collection.
67 “There were possibly three” ESF autobiography, 11.
nine-year-old “A Brief History: The Nation Calls, 1908–1923,” FBI, https://www.fbi.gov/history/brief-history.
only three hundred agents . . . half a million dollars Regin Schmidt, Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919–1943 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2000), 83.
April 6, 1917 “April 6, 2017: The 100th Anniversary of the American Entry into World War I,” American Battle Monuments Commission, https://www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/april-6-2017-100th-anniversary-american-entry-world-war-i.
seventeen officers Joseph W. Bendersky, The Jewish Threat: Anti-Semitic Politics of the U.S. Army (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 49.
codes and ciphers an “emergency” Ralph Van Deman to Acting Commandant, Army Service Schools, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, April 17, 1917, Item 734, WFF Collection.
a radio signal from a plane Paul W. Clark and Laurence A. Lyons, George Owen Squier: U.S. Army Major General, Inventor, Pioneer, Founder of Muzak (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), 187.
68 stand eye to eye ESF interview with Valaki, transcribed February 16, 2012, 2.
“the two greatest people” Joseph Mauborgne to WFF and ESF, January 8, 1956, box 1, folder 21, ESF Collection.
“to take immediate advantage” Joseph Mauborgne to chief of the War College Division, April 11, 1917, Item 734, WFF Collection.
“your exceedingly kind” Ralph Van Deman to George Fabyan, April 18, 1917, Item 734, WFF Collection.
69 intercepted by covert means WFF, Lecture V, 107, in The Friedman Legacy, Sources on Cryptologic History, no. 3 (Center for Cryptologic History: 2006).
BGVKX ESF and WFF, “Riverbank Problems in Cryptanalysis,” no. 1, Item 290, WFF Collection.
70 403,291,461,126,605,635,584,000,000 This is the number of permutations of 26 letters, a quantity written as 26! and calculated by multiplying 26 x 25 x 24 x 23 x 22 x 21 x 20 x 19 x 18 x 17 x 16 x 15 x 14 x 13 x 12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1. See Wolfram Alpha, https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26!.
A thousand computers Lambros D. Callimahos, “Summer Institute for Mathematics and Linguistics,” lecture, NSA, Fort Meade, Maryland, 1966, NSA Reading Room, https://www.nsa.gov/resources/everyone/foia/reading-room.
Monks, librarians, linguists David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet, rev. ed. (New York: Scribner, 1997), is the definitive history of the field, with hundreds of pages of this stuff.
71 a Belgian countess named Alexandrine Nadine Akkerman, “The Postmistress, the Diplomat, and a Black Chamber? Alexandrine of Taxis, Sir Balthazar Gerbier and the Power of Postal Control,” in Robyn Adams and Rosanna Cox, Diplomacy and Early Modern Culture (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 172–88.
an early example Ibid. Akkerman argues that Alexandrine’s Chamber of the Thurn and Taxis might have been the very first black chamber in Europe.
“What if this countess” Ibid.
Parker Hitt and Genevieve Hitt Betsy Rohaly Smoot, “Pioneers of U.S. Military Cryptology: Colonel Parker Hitt and His Wife, Genevieve Young Hitt,” Federal History no. 4 (2012): 87–100.
“This is a man’s size job” Ibid.
“Good work, old girl” Ibid.
72 a serious book Parker Hitt, Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Press of the Army Service Schools, 1916).
72 Aimed at Army units Ibid., 1–3.
letter is E WFF and ESF, An Introduction to Methods for the Solution of Ciphers, Riverbank, no. 17 (Geneva, IL: Riverbank Laboratories, 1918), 2.
a unique signature Hitt, Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers, 4–14.
It looks like this The frequency table here is one I made myself while playing around with the techniques described in ESF’s codebreaking book for young adults.
74 “certain internal relations” WFF and ESF, An Introduction to Methods for the Solution of Ciphers, 6.
“There lives more faith” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45349.
75 TZYTV ESF and WFF, “Riverbank Problems in Cryptanalysis,” no. 5b, Item 290, WFF Collection.
“The thrill of your life” ESF codebreaking book (unpublished manuscript), box 9, file 12, ESF Collection.
Able for the letter A WFF and ESF, An Introduction to Methods.
A single miscopied letter Ibid., 3–4.
76 The less you had to think about Ibid.
never deviated Ibid.
black with white erasers One of the old pencils is on display under glass inside the Fabyan Villa, now maintained as a museum by the Forest Preserve District of Kane County, Illinois.
graph paper WFF and ESF, An Introduction to Methods, 3.
never threw anything out Ibid.
“a group of two operators” Ibid., 4–5.
Elizebeth filled the margins Hitt, Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers, ESF’s copy with annotations, Item 150, copy no. 3, WFF Collection.
77 eight pamphlets The first seven were written before William deployed to France in 1918 and the eighth, The Index of Coincidence, was published in 1920.
“rise up like a landmark” Kahn, The Codebreakers, 374.
Methods for the Reconstruction of Primary Alphabets WFF and ESF, Methods for the Reconstruction of Primary Alphabets, Riverbank No. 21 (Geneva, IL: Riverbank Laboratories,1918).
Methods for the Solution of Running Key Ciphers This is the Running Key paper, Riverbank No. 16. In ESF’s interview with Valaki, Valaki asks her, “You participated in writing one of the manuals though, didn’t you . . . one of the, ah, Riverbank books?” Elizebeth replies, “Yeah, the running-key cipher. Ah, admitted . . . Even in those days I was admitted to have been one of the authors.” ESF interview with Valaki, November 11, 1976, transcribed January 12, 2012, 8.
78 the drafts marked up “Chapter II: On the Flexibility of Mind Necessary for Cryptographic Analysis,” box 14, folder 2, NYPL. This is a partial typed draft of the eventual Riverbank No. 17 with editing marks in both WFF’s and ESF’s handwriting.
the historical sections “Appendix I, Historical and General,” box 14, folder 2, NYPL. This is a typed draft of pages 7 and 8 from Riverbank No. 17. Whoever typed the draft didn’t include the name of the author, but it’s fascinating to note that at the top of the draft’s first page, the words “By Elizabeth Smith Friedman” have been added in pencil—in WFF’s handwriting.
“our pamphlets” WFF to ESF, 15 July 1918, box 2, folder 14, ESF Collection.
“a piece of work” ESF interview with Valaki, November 11, 1976, transcribed January 10, 2012, 4.
“Mrs. Friedman had a tendency” Marshall Foundation to Vanessa Friedman, October 6, 1981, box 12, folder 15, ESF Collection.
“It may be egotism on my part” George Fabyan to WFF, January 12, 1922, Item 734, WFF Collection.
79 Seven of the eight Kahn, The Codebreakers, 374.
“That World War I leapt on” ESF interview with Valaki, transcribed February 16, 2012, 2.
“Nothing was ever” Ibid., 10.
“I don’t think I remember” ESF interview with Valaki, transcribed January 12, 2012, 12.
“I feel no confidence” Ibid., 8.
80 all the way from Scotland Yard ESF autobiography, 18–24.
“quite baffling” WFF to Travis Hoke (reporter at Popular Science Weekly), January 21, 1920, box 6, folder 13, ESF Collection. This is a detailed narrative of the process used by WFF and ESF to solve the conspirators’ cryptograms.
81 Of 100,000 total words Ibid.
82 “I challenge anybody” Thomas J. Tunney, Throttled: The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb Plotters in the United States (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1919), 89. See also Rose Mary Sheldon, “The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide,” rev. October 2013, Marshall Foundation, PDF file, 167, where the Friedmans point out that their solutions were included in this book without credit.
“someone had to stay behind” ESF autobiography, 24.
83 erupted in spectacle Tunney, Throttled, 103–4; ESF autobiography, 23.
83 all of the codebreaking ESF autobiography, 13.
to be indecipherable R. H. Van Deman, “Memorandum for Chief Signal Officer: Subject: Cipher with Running Key,” March 16, 1918, Item 734, WFF Collection.
84 “What Colonel Fabyan” WFF and ESF, The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined (London: Cambridge University Press, 1958), 287.
invented a new word WFF, “On the Flexibility of Mind,” box 14, folder 2, NYPL. This is a typewritten draft of a Riverbank Publication passage where you can actually see WFF cross out the word “decipherer” and write “cryptanalyst” above it.
85 Callimahos took up snuffing Lambros D. Callimahos, “The Legendary William F. Friedman,” Cryptologic Spectrum 4, no. 1 (Winter 1974): 9–17.
“cursed by luck” Callimahos, “Summer Institute.”
“Even if he computed odds” Callimahos, “The Legendary William F. Friedman.”
“Everything he touched” Ibid.
“God-given” Fred Friendly, remarks at ESF’s funeral, November 5, 1980, in “Elizebeth Smith Friedman,” Cryptologic Spectrum 10, no. 1 (Winter 1980): box 16, file 24, ESF Collection.
“I was never able to decide” J. Rives Childs to Vanessa Friedman, September 28, 1981, box 12, folder 14, ESF Collection.
86 There’s a now-famous story ESF autobiography, 27–30.
87 might have used key words Ibid.
“I was sitting across the room” Ibid.
“springlike elasticity” Ibid.
“it did not occur” Ibid.
88 “The female mind” WFF, “Second Period, Communications Security” (lecture), 50, NSA.
“I came to the end of my rope” Ibid., 49.
“a wonderfully warm man” ESF to Barbara Tuchman (undated), box 14, folder 11, ESF Collection.
“the smartest man who ever lived” ESF codebreaking book, 65.
an article about ciphers John Holt Schooling, “Secrets in Cipher IV: From the Time of George II to the Present Day,” Pall Mall Magazine 8 (January–April 1896): 609–18.
This “Nihilist” cryptogram Ibid., 618.
89 “The meaning of the cipher” Ibid.
“met up with that message” ESF codebreaking book, 65–66.
“courage” Craig P. Bauer, Unsolved! The History and Mystery of the World’s Greatest Ciphers from Ancient Egypt to Online Secret Societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 145–46.
89 “Of course, when I learned” ESF codebreaking book, 65–66.
wanted her all the time WFF to ESF, December 21, 1938, large blue binder of letters donated by John Ramsay Friedman, Marshall Research Library, ESF Collection. See also WFF to ESF, September 9, 1918, box 2, folder 16, ESF Collection.
removed the pin WFF to ESF, September 9, 1918.
imagined a life with her Ibid.
“The glacial undercurrents” “Intermarriage of Jews Presents New Angle of Problem,” Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh), March 9, 1917.
90 “A part cannot become merged” “ ‘Harper’s Weekly’ Weakness,” Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh), February 24, 1905.
“WILL THE JEWS COMMIT SUICIDE” Charles Fleisher, “Will the Jews Commit Suicide Through Mixed Marriages?” Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh), October 25, 1907.
“your soul and spirit and heart” Lyle, “Divine Fire,” 8
5–86.
“skinned to a frazzle . . . You’re lots smarter” WFF to ESF, August 7, 1917, box 2, folder 15, ESF Collection.
“You can soar away” Lyle, “Divine Fire,” 85–86.
“Oh Divine Fire Mine” WFF to ESF, undated letter, box 2, folder 13, ESF Collection.
whose fire is in Zion Isaiah 31:9.
91 realized that electronic circuits C. E. Shannon, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,” Transactions of the AIEE 57, no. 12 (1938): 713–23.
secret NSA projects Transcript of Solomon Kullback oral history interview with NSA, August 26, 1982. Kullback discusses the NSA’s interest in Shannon’s research and says, “We had very close contacts with the Bell Laboratories. They were very, let’s say, willing to work along with us.”
communicating through a noisy system C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” Bell System Technical Journal 27, no. 3 (July 1948), http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6773024/.
CHAPTER 5: THE ESCAPE PLOT
93 “To be your North Star” ESF to WFF, February 7, 1917, box 2, folder 1, ESF Collection.
94 “I miss you infinitely” Ibid.
“I shall work for you” Ibid.
I have dreamed about you Ibid.
“Anyway, Billy Boy” Ibid.
“Work hard on the letter tests” ESF to WFF, January 31, 1917, box 2, folder 1, ESF Collection.
94 “There was a time” ESF diary, 46.
a careful, unemotional tone WFF to ESF, September 9, 1918, box 2, folder 16, ESF Collection.
He confessed later Ibid.
95 getting married would be silly Ibid.
fetch a newspaper ESF autobiography, 14–15.
forced William to change Ibid.
“It just didn’t go down” ESF interview with Clark, 11.
96 “make a mark in something” WFF to ESF, July 24, 1918, box 2, folder 14, ESF Collection.
they went missing “William Friedman and Miss Elizabeth [sic] Smith Were Married Monday,” Geneva Republican (Geneva, Illinois), May 23, 1917.
light-colored striped pants “Bride and Groom William F. Friedman and Elizebeth S. Friedman,” photograph, 1917, ESF Collection.
A rabbi named Hersh Ibid.
The wedding announcement Ibid.
a story about a Selective Service bill “Sheriff Richardson Gets Official Notice: The Sheriff Has Received Plans for Draft of Eligibles,” ibid.