My latest Beale Decoder 8-26-25

[chalkoutline]

Here is my latest Beale Decoder. It has added features associated with the Alphabetical Strings and "garbage letters"

As mentioned in a recent post, the cipher numbers for the alphabetical strings are not limited to the string locations but are also sprinkled throughout Cipher 1.

My previous Decoder added a new dropdown list selection, C1-No Garbage, which removes all the cipher numbers associated with the alphabetical strings from Cipher 1 in the event the strings are being used to add garbage letters to the message as added security.

Then it dawned on me that these garbage letters could be a "cipher within a cipher".
So I created two more ciphers...strings w/ ABC and strings w/o ABC.

This allows one to look specifically at the alphabetical strings cipher numbers. IOW, when you select a different document from the drop downlist for decoding, it may not reveal the Cipher 1 message but it may reveal a cipher message from the intentional embedded alphabetical strings.

Feel free to ask questions.
-CO

 

[chalkoutline]

Here is my latest Beale Decoder. It has added features associated with the Alphabetical Strings and "garbage letters"

As mentioned in a recent post, the cipher numbers for the alphabetical strings are not limited to the string locations but are also sprinkled throughout Cipher 1.

My previous Decoder added a new dropdown list selection, C1-No Garbage, which removes all the cipher numbers associated with the alphabetical strings from Cipher 1 in the event the strings are being used to add garbage letters to the message as added security.

Then it dawned on me that these garbage letters could be a "cipher within a cipher".
So I created two more ciphers...strings w/ ABC and strings w/o ABC.

This allows one to look specifically at the alphabetical strings cipher numbers. IOW, when you select a different document from the drop downlist for decoding, it may not reveal the Cipher 1 message but it may reveal a cipher message from the intentional embedded alphabetical strings.

Feel free to ask questions.
-CO

I should have mentioned...when you select one of the "string" ciphers you can shift the cipher, change the numbering, apply Caesar, vigenere and Gronsfeld ciphers just like you can on Cipher 1, 2 and 3.

 

[chalkoutline]

If you select the DOI as the document and then Cipher 1 from the drop downlists you will see the the alphabetical strings and the scattered letters in yellow.

When you select Strings w/ or w/o ABC, you will only see the yellow letters associated with the strings.
You can then manipulate the cipher looking for a hidden message.

You can repeat the process for another document by selecting from the document drop downlist.

I only have a couple of docs in there but you can add as many as you like.

 

[chalkoutline]

In one of my early posts i mentioned i gave up the search because I couldn't find my way past the alphabetical strings.

Once i read a lot of posts, some members indicated they solved the ciphers using a "key". This is when I added the Vigenere and Gronsfeld decryption. My thinking was the strings could be keys and why you'll find the strings in the Vigenere dropdown list. Once again I gave up the search.

It wasn't until this past weekend when I realized the cipher numbers for the strings are are sprinkled throughout Cipher 1. So I started working on the ciphers again.

I should point out...finding the correct document is impossible and I have thought of being so lucky; however, I also realize that many of you have researched the Beale story way more than me so it is quite possible that you have run across many documents that could be the "one". So if my decoder helps, that's great!

 

[Panda]

Here is my latest Beale Decoder. It has added features associated with the Alphabetical Strings and "garbage letters"

As mentioned in a recent post, the cipher numbers for the alphabetical strings are not limited to the string locations but are also sprinkled throughout Cipher 1.

My previous Decoder added a new dropdown list selection, C1-No Garbage, which removes all the cipher numbers associated with the alphabetical strings from Cipher 1 in the event the strings are being used to add garbage letters to the message as added security.

Then it dawned on me that these garbage letters could be a "cipher within a cipher".
So I created two more ciphers...strings w/ ABC and strings w/o ABC.

This allows one to look specifically at the alphabetical strings cipher numbers. IOW, when you select a different document from the drop downlist for decoding, it may not reveal the Cipher 1 message but it may reveal a cipher message from the intentional embedded alphabetical strings.

Feel free to ask questions.
-CO

There may be coordinates, remove the necessary numbers and everything will collapse

 

[souce19]

I don’t believe that cipher number 1 is a book cipher. When running cryptographic analysis, the numbers fall into place when looked at through the lens of an administrative ledger.

 

[chalkoutline]

I don’t believe that cipher number 1 is a book cipher. When running cryptographic analysis, the numbers fall into place when looked at through the lens of an administrative ledger.

How did you deal with the four alphabetical strings?

 

[souce19]

The way I’m viewing the ledger and the B1 cipher, I’m not pulling letters. I’m treating them as a literal surveyor's traverse. Under this view and using half chains (33 feet), it puts the traverse of B1 at 4.02 miles. Which I find interesting as the Beale Letter said “about 4 miles from Buford’s”.

 

[chalkoutline]

The way I’m viewing the ledger and the B1 cipher, I’m not pulling letters. I’m treating them as a literal surveyor's traverse. Under this view and using half chains (33 feet), it puts the traverse of B1 at 4.02 miles. Which I find interesting as the Beale Letter said “about 4 miles from Buford’s”.

So what would the "key" from St louis would have look like when Robert Morriss received the letter to decode Cipher 1?

 

[souce19]

It would’ve been the starting point of the physical traverse. The letter clearly states that instructions would be given and the cipher was created so that no trouble would be had in finding it. In the 1820’s, a surveyor’s traverse would’ve been the equivalent of a modern day gps

 

[souce19]

I’d love to see what Bob Brewer would think of my hypothesis on the Beale Ciphers. My approach is vastly different than the typical approaches/potential solutions I’ve read. I’ve also got many primary source receipts to back up my hypothesis. I fundamentally believe the treasure is real. I believe that the DOI solve is a fake solve meant to get the masses looking away from the true location. I also have a working thesis on who “Thomas J Beale” actually is. I also posit that they never “found” gold in the crevices of a mountain. Any geologist will tell you that this is not how gold is found. Finally, I have a hypothesis on where the gold/silver came from and why there was a need for the cipher to be created. But full disclosure, even though I have a very strong idea of where I’d like to dig, this is all still just a theory.

 

[chalkoutline]

It would’ve been the starting point of the physical traverse. The letter clearly states that instructions would be given and the cipher was created so that no trouble would be had in finding it. In the 1820’s, a surveyor’s traverse would’ve been the equivalent of a modern day gps

So you're suggesting Robert Morriss, a hotel manager would have no trouble interpreting a surveyors traverse?

 

[souce19]

So you're suggesting Robert Morriss, a hotel manager would have no trouble interpreting a surveyors traverse?

No. I don’t believe Thomas J Beale ever intended for Robert Morriss to solve it, hence, no key was ever sent.

 

[chalkoutline]

How did you deal with the four alphabetical strings?

When you solve cipher 2 using the Declaration of Independence you will have theoretically re-created the "Key" that was never sent from St Louis.

When you apply this "Key" to cipher 1 you get four alphabetical strings located at locations 44, 84, 111 and 188. These did not occur naturally but were intentionally added.

As shown in the attachment, the cipher numbers used in these strings are sprinkled throughout cipher1.

If the numbers in cipher 1 are a surveyor's traverse, how did TB get these surveyed numbers to match up with the sequentially numbered strings created from the cipher 2 "Key"?

 

[souce19]

It Is certainly Rhythmic
If TJB were simply lazy and randomly copying numbers from a master sheet near the text hooks, we would expect massive, dense clusters of these numbers explicitly at the 40–50, 80–90, and 110–120 index marks, with the rest of the cipher being relatively empty of them.

When tracking all the numbers that make up these strings, they appear 157 times throughout the 520 integers. When broken down into 50-integer chunks, their distribution looks like this:

• Integers 1–150: ~23 occurrences per chunk.

• Integers 151–200: 23 occurrences.

• Integers 201–500: A highly stabilized rhythm of exactly 9 to 11 occurrences per every 50 integers.

The average gap between these specific numbers across the entire cipher is exactly 3.3 integers.

2. The "Null Step" (Under-90) Verification

When we filter this specifically for the numbers under 90 (the numbers that act as "Null Steps" or zero-distance compass rotations in my Modulo-90 engine), the rhythm becomes even more distinct.

There are 90 total occurrences of these sub-90 "garbage" numbers. They do not just huddle around the text strings; they are methodically spaced out, appearing between 5 to 8 times in almost every single 50-integer leg of the traverse. This proves they are rhythmic .

In a surveying matrix, you cannot just drop an alphabetical text string into the middle of your map without ruining the math. You have to balance the equation. I believe TJB could’ve used these specific "garbage" integers, particularly the ones under 90, as mathematical spacers and counter-bearings.

By dropping one of these numbers roughly every 3rd or 4th step (the 3.3 gap average), TJB was actively "steering" the traverse. Every time the text-key required a number that pushed the physical map too far North or West, the author dropped a "garbage number" rotation into the sequence to correct the heading back toward the X.

That’s the best explanation I can come up with.

Question for you, the DOI Solve has long been considered inadequate and not cryptographically sound. Many liberties were taken and no one can replicate it without skipping words, numbers, or letters. So why has everyone continued to go down the same tired path of finding the “right book” or using the DOI over and over again? That’s been done for 140 years and no one has found a thing. In my theory, this was the intent of the “DOI solve”.

I find it to be the height of convenience that someone named Thomas Jefferson Beale would use the DOI, the most famous Jeffersonian document, to solve a cipher that leads to treasure in the Thomas Jefferson home state of Virginia. Not to mention the only “solved” cipher is the one saying how rich you’ll be when you find it. To me, that’s the bait to get everyone looking away from where you hid it. To be left for the rightful heirs should they understand the ciphers. By doing this, the author created a feedback loop for treasure hunters all trying to find the right book or use the DOI. Always pointing to a book cipher. Not even the NSA over the course of many decades has solved it. So it’s my opinion, that B1 is not a book cipher.

 

[chalkoutline]

Do you use any of these garbage numbers/letters in your traverse?

When making Cipher 2, TB most likely didn't write the numbers directly above the words in his copy of the DOI since their is not enough room between lines.
Most likely he copied the DOI onto another paper leaving plenty of room for writing numbers above the words.
When copying, TB skipped a fews words and in one case he skipped a line. May be by accident or by intention. This would explain all the decrepancies in the numbering of the DOI.

If you were to find the correct document to decode Cipher 1, you would not be able to read the message because all the numbers/letters of the garbage letters would act to redact the correct letters since they were assigned manually by TB and would only be correctly identified in Cipher 1 key that was never sent from St Louis.

 

[souce19]

The garbage numbers act as a “stop. Adjust your bearings to this degree, then onto the next non garbage number which tells you the distance in that new direction” this could be TBJ advising the person reading the cipher to navigate around a physical impairment such as a ridge, bluff, sinkhole, etc.

 

[souce19]

Have you read the Beale letter from January 4th from Lynchburg VA? I find the information provided regarding their travels from VA to STL, to North of Santa Fe and back, twice, very interesting. Based on the Timeline Beale gives us, I think it would’ve been impossible to make that timeline work. Considering most wagons full of silver and gold could travel 10-15 miles per day. To go that far and to cross major rivers during the wrong months of the year, little to no area for oxen to graze, this plays into my theory that the treasure was never meant to and never arrived in Bedford County, VA. They’d have to travel 28-30 miles per day to make the timeline work and that’s with no issues or events occurring.

 

[chalkoutline]

Have you read the Beale letter from January 4th from Lynchburg VA? I find the information provided regarding their travels from VA to STL, to North of Santa Fe and back, twice, very interesting. Based on the Timeline Beale gives us, I think it would’ve been impossible to make that timeline work. Considering most wagons full of silver and gold could travel 10-15 miles per day. To go that far and to cross major rivers during the wrong months of the year, little to no area for oxen to graze, this plays into my theory that the treasure was never meant to and never arrived in Bedford County, VA. They’d have to travel 28-30 miles per day to make the timeline work and that’s with no issues or events occurring.

Ive posted a timeline for these trips already. They would have used pack mules to bring back the treasure so they could split up when needed to avoid suspicion. They would have used the Wiggins ferry to cross the Mississippi.

 

[souce19]

What time of the year would they have crossed? The Mississippi is about a mile wide, it can be choppy and in winter months, freeze over or have ice chunks everywhere. That would make crossing by ferry impossible. If you read up on William Becknell (founder of the Santa Fe trail) his trip from Santa Fe to STL almost ended in disaster as they were on the brink of starvation and the weather was brutal. If I remember correctly, The Beale party would’ve had to endure something very similar and still have like 800 miles to go. Do you believe TJB is a real person? Or a pen name?