In 1999, Ricky McCormick’s body was inexplicably found in a Missouri cornfield — along with two pages of coded notes that have never been deciphered to this day.
On June 30 , 1999 , the body of 41 - year - honest-to-goodness Ricky McCormick was key in a cornfield 20 miles outside of St. Louis , Missouri . Because he was inadequate and likely suffering from genial health issues , McCormick ’s destruction might have survive unnoticed — except for the two varlet of notes in his pockets .
Written in intricate , unbreakable code , McCormick ’s notes have stumped elite and amateur codebreakers for class . Though his family insists that he could barely spell out , let alone germinate a secret computer code , many are convinced that the notes find on McCormick ’s body hold the key to his secret expiry .
Indeed , there ’s more to the case of Ricky McCormick than meets the eye . agree to those who knew him , Ricky McCormick was perchance involved in drug trafficking , and he was known to work with several severe figure in St. Louis .
St. Louis Police DepartmentRicky McCormick seemed to struggle with mental health issues all his life.
But who killed him and why ? This is the baffling fib of Ricky McCormick .
The Boy With A “Brick Wall” In His Brain
St. Louis Police DepartmentRicky McCormick seemed to struggle with mental wellness upshot all his life .
bear on June 14 , 1958 , Ricky McCormick seemed to struggle with mental health issues from a young old age . TheRiver Front Timesreports that he stood alone at recess , acted strangely , and told rummy stories . McCormick ’s mother , for her part , came to trust that her Logos was “ retarded . ”
“ [ A shrink ] said Ricky had a brick wall in his judgment , ” his favorite aunt , Gloria “ Cookie ” McCormick explain to theRiver Front Times . “ He tell Ricky reject to break that wall . He did n’t like the living of living poor and had an active imagination . ”
GoogleThe Amoco gas station in downtown St. Louis where Ricky McCormick worked.
By the fourth dimension McCormick devolve out of in high spirits school , he could barely show or write . His family later stated that McCormick could n’t spell , and instead would “ scribble ” according toKMOV . His cousin recall that McCormick talked “ like he was in another world ” and may have been schizoid .
Lacking a high school degree , McCormick run a routine of menial jobs , ordinarily on the nighttime shift . He subsisted on his meager paychecks as well as the disablement payments he received for his chronic heart issues . But in 1992 , McCormick got in bother with the natural law .
At the age of 34 , McCormick was charged with statutory rape for having two child with a girl — know to his fellowship only as “ Pretty Baby ” — new than 14 . Though his public guardian trust that McCormick was “ stand from some genial disease or defect , ” he was find fit to stand trial .
FBITo this day, no one has been able to crack the code found on Ricky McCormick’s notes.
Ricky McCormick plead guilty and pass thirteen months at the Farmington Correctional Center . But when he emerged , his troubles would only deepen .
The Final Days Of Ricky McCormick
GoogleThe Amoco gun station in downtown St. Louis where Ricky McCormick work .
The Amoco was managed by two brothers from Palestine , Juma and Baha “ Bob ” Hamdallah . Both had red reputations and , while in their employ , McCormick made a handful of mysterious trips to Florida . His girlfriend by and by told police that she believe he was smuggle marijuana for the Hamdallah brother , and that he seemed scared .
Indeed , shortly after his terminal stumble to Florida in mid - June 1999 , McCormick start acting erratically . Between June 22 and June 25 , McCormick visited two different emergency rooms , according to KMOV , complaining of chest nuisance and shortness of breather . He was allow in once , and turned away once , and was last seen on June 27 at the Amoco gas station .
FBIThe FBI insists that Ricky McCormick’s notes are not “gibberish” but no one has been able to crack them.
Then , Ricky McCormick vanish .
But no one noticed at first . No one reported him miss . No one knew he was stagnant until McCormick ’s already decomposing body was discovered in a field on June 30 , 20 miles where from where he lived and work .
Though a aesculapian examiner could n’t learn McCormick ’s cause of death , detectives suspected that he ’d been a victim of dirty swordplay .
“ It ’s kind of a beat case , ” Captain David Tiefenbrunn , the Bureau Commander of Criminal Investigations for the St. Charles County Police Department , read according to KMOV . “ If I was to rely on my law inherent aptitude , there in all probability is some foul free rein . We just have n’t been able to prove it . ”
With no leads , Ricky McCormick ’s last might have faded into obscureness . But then the police determine something strange in his pockets .
The Mystery Of Ricky McCormick’s Notes
When the police examined Ricky McCormick ’s body , they found two pageboy of handwritten notes written in some kind of computer code . They sent the notes to the FBI ’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit ( CRRU ) but the elite codebreakers could n’t crack the cipher .
FBITo this twenty-four hour period , no one has been able to break the code found on Ricky McCormick ’s notes .
“ It does n’t happen often that we have an unresolved cipher of this length and significance , ” CRRU boss Dan Olson say theRiver Front Times . “ The fibre are not random . There are many tocopherol ’s , for example , that could be used as a spacer . There are many characteristics that hint it could be work out , many pattern . The problem is we do n’t sleep with why it is not solvable . ”
As the FBIexplains on their internet site , cracking a code convey four step : square off the language , the system , the key ( i.e. , wobble each letter to the right hand in the alphabet ) , and reconstructing the text .
But with McCormick ’s notes , the FBI could only get to mistreat two .
So , in March 2011 , the FBI revealed the universe of McCormick ’s note to the public and require amateur codebreakers for help . point soon flooded in . agree toFox News , codebreakers suggested that McCormick ’s notes include admonisher to take medication , the name “ Seth , ” and infirmary terminology . But McCormick ’s family was n’t convinced .
They had learn about the code alongside the rest of the populace and convey their doubts that McCormick was capable of writing in code . One family fellow member said that McCormick “ did n’t spell in computer code . He could n’t spell anything , just scribble , ” grant toEsquire . However , other phratry member remembered that McCormick had written in code as a child .
FBIThe FBI insists that Ricky McCormick ’s bank bill are not “ gibberish ” but no one has been able to snap them .
The FBI , however , is insistent that McCormick ’s notes contain some sort of subject matter .
“ We look at a quite a little of affair that are gibberish , arbitrary strikes on a keyboard , ” Olson explain . “ This is not that face . ”
To date , Ricky McCormick ’s codification stay uncracked . It ’s unclear if he wrote the codification , or if the code was written by someone else — perhaps by his orca .
Who Killed Ricky McCormick?
Though Ricky McCormick ’s last remains unsolved , constabulary have looked at a number of suspects . McCormick ’s honest-to-god party boss , Baha Hamdallah , was known to be violent . And police also get a line in December 1999 that a local drug principal , Gregory Lamar Knox , had allegedly murdered a Black human beings who worked at the Amoco gasoline station .
Despite surveillance of both Man , however , investigator could not link either Hamdallah or Knox to McCormick ’s death .
As such , Ricky McCormick ’s death remains a mystery — as does the context of the code notes found on his trunk .
Were the notes a hint to his killing , or something else entirely ? Perhaps they were simply a shorthand that McCormick had make up , readable only by him . Whatever they are , the FBI still wants to work them .
“ Even if we found out that he was write a grocery list or a love letter , ” Olson explained , “ we would still want to see how the code is solved . This is a zippo system of rules we know nothing about . ”
After memorize about Ricky McCormick ’s death and the mystifying notes find out on his trunk , go inside the mystery of theSomerton Manwho wash up on an Australian beach with a unknown note in his pocket . Or , find out the eery details surrounding thedeath of Elisa Lam , whose consistency was find in the piss tank of an L.A. hotel .
