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01—05Ricky McCormick
St. Charles County, Missouri · 1999Two handwritten notes were recovered when Ricky McCormick’s body was found in June 1999. The FBI released the notes and requested help interpreting them.
01 Research direction
An unusually concrete research object: original note images, an FBI laboratory release, and years of cryptanalysis. Methods can be tested against both notes rather than judged by a plausible story.
- Create two independent transcriptions, marking every ambiguous character.
- Test repeated groups and delimiters against both notes with reproducible code.
- Find additional publicly released laboratory records; distinguish lab findings from later interpretations.
02 Public timeline
03 Source library 6 starting links
01Original research object; inspect the full-size image.
OFFICIAL · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07Released FBI records; retain page numbers for citations.
ARCHIVE · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07Historical appeal. Search the PDF for Ricky McCormick.
OFFICIAL · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07Independent cryptanalysis; hypotheses require replication.
REPORTING · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07Archived 2012 article on the reporter’s site. Compare its attributed interviews with FBI records.
REPORTING · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07Later methodological discussion; test claims rather than adopting its conclusions.
REPORTING · RESEARCHED 2026-10-07The public FBI appeal dates to 2011. Reconfirm current case status and the appropriate recipient before submitting. A proposed decoding must explain its rules and reproduce the full text; apparent names are not evidence of involvement.
04 Accepted contributions
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