BEALE CODES -- WERE THEY A HOAX?
Thomas Jefferson Beale supposedly left encoded (enciphered) messages in 1822 telling where he buried a large treasure in Bedford County Virginia. There are several on-line copies in various locations of an 1885 booklet which was the original publication of Beale's information. Apparently the only original copy of it is in the Virginia Military Institute library. See it at The Beale Papers. More of the story is found in The Beale Ciphers by E.E. Remington.

This is a report of some tests and studies tending to show that the codes were meaningless and possibly a hoax.

Preliminary Note to Reader

Chapter I -- results of some computer analyses of the validity of the Beale ciphers

Chapter II -- some anachronisms in the January 4, 1822 Beale letter

Chapter III -- a comparison of word usage and sentence structure in the 1822 Beale letters and the remaining text in the 1885 booklet entitled The Beale Papers

Appendix 1 -- Beale cipher 1

Appendix 2 -- Beale cipher 2

Appendix 3 -- Beale cipher 3

Appendix 4 -- Beale cipher 2 deciphered

Appendix 5 -- calculation of coefficient of correlation

Appendix 6 -- numerical values obtained in computer analyses of cipher 1

Appendix 7 -- numerical values obtained in computer analyses of cipher 2

Appendix 8 -- numerical values obtained in computer analyses of cipher 3

Appendix 9 -- graph of tests of random and constrained random versions of cipher 1 versus coefficients of correlation of cipher versions under test for four positions to the side of identical central cipher values

Appendix 10 -- graph of tests of random and constrained random versions of cipher 2 versus coefficients of correlation of cipher versions under test for four positions to the side of identical central cipher values

Appendix 11 -- graph of tests of random and constrained random versions of cipher 3 versus coefficients of correlation of cipher versions under test for four positions to the side of identical central cipher values

Appendix 12 -- graph of tests of 120 constrained random versions of cipher 3 constrained to four different texts versus coefficients of correlation of cipher versions under test for four positions to the side of identical central cipher values

George Love's Presentation has recently been added to this site. George is a guest author who has recently finished an analysis which casts doubt upon the validity of the ciphers from a different angle.

Response to George Love's Paper, by Stephen M. Matyas Jr is an argument that when examined with certain assumptions, George Love's analysis may fail.

Here is an outside site that provides a set of common arguments against the validity of the codes and a set of counterarguments.

Go to home page of web site

.