THE MORGUE · TRUE TALES OF CIPHERS
Code Stories
Real ciphers that changed history, and the people they got killed.
340 Letters, 51 Years
Z340 held out for 51 years because everyone solved the wrong puzzle. The letters had been moved before they were ever swapped.
TRUE CRIME · 1586The Cipher That Killed Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots trusted a secret cipher with her life. The codebreaker who cracked it turned her own words into the evidence that sent her to the block in 1587.
A1Z26 Cipher: Letters to Numbers and Back
Every letter has an address: its place in the alphabet. The A1Z26 cipher is nothing more than that arithmetic, and that is exactly why it is the first code most people ever break.
FIELD GUIDE · SYMBOL CIPHERSPigpen Cipher: How to Read and Decode It
Two grids, two crosses, and an alphabet hidden in the walls. The pigpen cipher has guarded Masonic ledgers and a New York gravestone for two centuries, and it takes ten minutes to learn.
FIELD MANUAL · HOW-TOHow to Solve a Cryptogram: A Beginner's Guide
Learn how to solve a cryptogram by hand: use letter frequency, crack the short words, and follow the patterns, with a full worked example you can copy.