How The Code Was Cracked
Diana Dors was an avid fan of crosswords and used her interest in such puzzles to great effect when hiding her fortune. The sheet of paper that she gave her son, Mark, was written in her own hand and consisted of a top line of 17 symbols, followed by a series of groups of 5 letters set out in a table, 5 columns wide and twelve rows deep.
In attempting to crack the code, Mark consulted a member of the team that had broken the German Enigma code during the Second World War, who told him that that the key to the remaining code was most likely to be a memorable sentence or phrase chosen by his mother.
Mark also consulted Inforenz, a company specialising in encryption and codes to analyse the paper, as well as conducting his own research, which took him to the library of the Grand Lodge of England after he discovered that his grandfather had been a freemason.
It was in this library that Mark made the breakthrough that revealed what information the page held. Diana Dors had used two codes, one for the title of the page (the 17 symbol list) and another for the groups of 5 characters. Mark learned that the top line was encrypted using an old freemason code based upon a Tic-Tac-Toe board, and found that the symbols revealed the page title, "Locations and Names". However, the rest of the page appeared to use a completely different form of encryption.
Thankfully for Dawson, Inforenz had developed cryptography software that suggested a possible ten-letter key that might break the code. The key was DMARYFLUCK, a phrase immediately familiar to Mark, for his mother's real name had been Diana Mary Fluck.
When this key was used to decipher the code, it gave a list of names and locations across Britain. The first name matched that of a bank statement that had been found amongst Alan Lake's old papers, which in turn matched figures and dates listed in the 'little black books'.
Despite this confirmation, there is still insufficient detail with which to trace the money. It is possible that there may have been another sheet of paper that may have given bank details to match the names and locations but nobody knows what could have happened to such a paper and so the mystery goes on.
If you think you may be able to help solve the mystery as to the whereabouts of Diana Dors' fortune, then get in touch now...