An American pioneer in the field of cryptology — the study of writing and clear unavowed codes — William Friedmanis known for his magisterial life history as an expert codebreaker with the U.S. Army during World Wars I and II . But although Friedman is one of the biggest epithet in cryptanalysis — he coined the tidings itself — historian often skip over the fact that his wife , Elizebeth , was every bit as skilled a codebreaker . Her accomplishments have been ( sometimes deliberately ) kept from the spotlight .
The youngest of nine kids in a Quaker syndicate , Elizebeth Friedman ( née Smith ) wasborn in rural Indianain 1892 . ( Her female parent import her name unusually , swop out theafor anothere , reportedly because she dislike the nickname “ Eliza . ” ) Young Elizebeth was bright and displayed a talent for languages , and was driven to go to college despite the disheartenment of her sire — so determined that she finally ended up borrowing tuition from him at a 6 percentage involvement rate . After starting out at Ohio ’s Wooster College in 1911 , she finished her degree at Hillsdale College in Michigan , major in English ignite . She also studied German , Greek , and Latin at Hillsdale , and it was there that she find out her lifelong beloved for Shakespeare .
After graduation and a brief spell as a ersatz principal at an Indiana eminent school , Elizebeth journey to Chicago in 1916 and visited the Newberry Library , where Shakespeare ’s First Folio wason display . There — having quit her principal line of work out of ennui — she asked the librarian if they roll in the hay of any research or lit Job available . Within hour , she was being bring out to the eccentric George Fabyan , who run a 500 - acre individual enquiry facility call Riverbank in nearby Geneva , Illinois . At the time , Fabyan also employed a scholar named Elizabeth Wells Gallup , who was trying to prove that Sir Francis Bacon had actually written Shakespeare ’s plays . Gallup demand a research assistant . Elizebeth was taken to Riverbank for an audience , and a few days afterwards , she was hired .
At Riverbank , Elizebeth worked on a cipher that Gallupclaimed was hiddenin Shakespeare ’s sonnet and purportedly proved Bacon ’s composition . Riverbank also employed the Russian - carry William Friedman , a Cornell - educate geneticist , to act on wheat , although he became increasingly draw to the Shakespeare project . William and Elizebeth fell in love and were married in May 1917 , one month after the U.S. entered World War I.
Riverbank was one of the first institutes to focus on cryptology , and in the former days of the war , the War Department rely upon Riverbank almost exclusively . " So little was known in this state of codification and ciphers when the United States entered World War I , that we ourselves had to be the learners , the prole and the teachers all at one and the same fourth dimension , " Elizebethwrote in her memoir .
But the Friedmans sometimes mold for other political science , too . After a testimonial from the U.S. Department of Justice , Scotland Yard convey them a trunk full of inscrutable messages the British suspected were being used to facilitate revolt in India , which was then a British settlement . By snap the codes , written in blocks of numbers pool , the Friedmans exposed the Hindu - German Conspiracy — in which Hindu militant in the U.S. were shipping weapons to India with German assistance . The resulting trial was one of the largest and most expensive in U.S. history at that time , and itended sensationallywhen a gunman opened fervidness in the courtroom , killing one of the defendant before being killed by a U.S. Marshal . Unaware of the Friedmans ' codebreaking work , he apparently believe the suspect had snitched .
The war cease in 1918 , but Elizebeth and William continued their work for the war machine , and in 1921 , they moved to Washington , D.C. to rivet on military declaration work full - sentence . Elizebeth loved the alteration of scenery , kick the bucket from the rural countryside to the city — she recalled rifle to the house several times a hebdomad when she first arrived in D.C.
After a period spent working for the Navy , she leave the pay up workforce for a few age to pop out raising her nipper , Barbara and John . But in 1925 , the Coast Guard came calling , asking for her help on forbiddance - related cases . shortly she was cracking cypher radio messages used by international liquor - smugglers whohid booze in shipmentsof jewelry , perfume , and even pinto beans .
Elizebeth prove to be a pivotal plus to the Coast Guard during forbiddance . She was the starring witness in a 1933 trial keep an eye on the bust of a million - dollar bootleg rum mathematical operation in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Coast . When asked in courtroom to prove how “ MJFAK ZYWKB QATYT JSL QATS QXYGX OGTB " could be decoded to " anchored in haven where and when are you sending fuel?"—just one of perhaps thousands of coded messages that form key grounds in the trial — Elizebeth asked the evaluator to find her a blackboard . She go along to give the courtroom a speech on simple cipher charts , mono - alphabetic ciphers , and polysyllabic cipher , then reviewed how , over the course of two long time , she and her squad fastidiously intercepted and deciphered the radio broadcasts of four illegitimate distilleries in New Orleans , explicate what each transmittal meant . Special Assistant to the Attorney General Colonel Amos W. Woodcock subsequently wrote that Elizebeth ’s obvious proficiency " made an unusual impression . "
Just a class later , Elizebeth again proved invaluable to the Coast Guard in the " I ’m Alone " cause , in which a ship flying a Canadian iris was settle by the Coast Guard after refusing to recognize a " heave to and be seek " signal . After Canada filed a lawsuit against the U.S. for $ 380,000 , including damages for the ship , its cargo ( which included liquor ) , and personnel expiration , Elizebeth came to the rescue : She was able to solve 23 separate encoded messages from the ship that shew theI’m Alonewas in reality owned by American bootleggers , despite its Canadian bait flag . The main charges against the U.S. were force out , and the Canadian regime was so impressed with Elizebeth ’s work that it demand the U.S. for her aid in charm a ring of Chinese opium smugglers . Her testimony subsequently led to five convictions .
Elizebeth and William were n’t just code - breaker by day . Their personal fascination with cryptology permeated their whole lives , in workplace and in swordplay , and build a unparalleled bond between them . The brace used ciphers in family gather with their children , and developed various codes to communicate with one another as well throughout their long relationship . They were even have intercourse to host dinner parties where themenus were encode — for keep to the next path , their guests would have to solve the puzzles .
With the start of WWII , Elizebeth get down figure out for the Coordinator of Information , an tidings table service that served as the harbinger to the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) , the predecessor of the CIA . While William won huge acclamation for leading the squad that figure out Japan’sPurple Encryption Machine — a find that pass on the U.S. government access to diplomatical communications prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor — Elizebeth ’s successes were less publicized . In fact , research worker have described hitting a " brick wall " when try out to find more details of her wartime activities . But accord to Jason Fagone , author of the recent biographyThe Woman Who Smashed Codes , Elizebeth pass the war as a Nazi spy hunter for the FBI , breaking German codes and work intimately with British intelligence to bust Axis spy rings . J. Edgar Hoover wrote her out of the history once the war had ended , classifying her files as top - secret and direct the credit rating for himself .
One spell of Elizebeth ’s work for the FBI is slightly better - known , however : Her computer code - cracking expertise was key in solving the " Doll Woman Case " of 1944 , wherein Velvalee Dickinson , an age-old doll dealer base in New York City , was convict of spying on behalf of the Nipponese government . Elizebeth ’s work helped turn out that letters Dickinson had written , though seemingly about the circumstance of antique wench , actually describe the placement of U.S. ship and other state of war - related matters and were intended for the hands of Axis functionary . As Fagone observe , although newspaper of the 24-hour interval wrote breathlessly about Dickinson as " the War ’s No . 1 woman undercover agent " and how her code were cracked by " FBI cryptographers , " Elizebeth was never refer .
Elizebeth retired in 1946 , a class after World War II end , and William did the same the following year . In 1957 , after many year of research , they finally published their masterwork on the bard , The Shakespearean Ciphers try out , which gain awarding from several Shakespeare research facilities . In contradiction to Gallup ’s theories , the Friedmans denied that Francis Bacon had written any works known as Shakespeare ’s , and they even buried a nervy subject matter to that effect on one of the pages — an italicized phrase thatwhen decipheredreads : " I did not compose the plays . F. Bacon . "
After William ’s dying in 1969 , Elizebeth dedicated large sum of money of her fourth dimension to collect and document her husband ’s work in cryptography , rather than celebrating her own extraordinary achievements in the field . The fruit of her effort would eventually become part of the George C. MarshallResearch Library , named after the WWII - era Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army .
Elizebeth herself died on Halloween 1980 and was interred with her hubby at Arlington National Cemetery . inscribe on their double tombstone is a quote , not by William Shakespeare , but commonly attributed to Francis Bacon : " KNOWLEDGE IS POWER . " It too isa cipher — when decrypted , it reads " WFF , " William Friedman ’s initials .
