The claim: Serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards left a signed confession : “I killed Laci Peterson”.
Evidence
According to Marlene Newell, who followed the case right from the day after Laci disappeared [1] :
From March 22, 2005 through August 6, 2006, a poster using the handle “I Killed Laci Peterson” posted 544 messages on the Fratpack forum. As is often the case, the handle was shortened to the acronym IKLP when addressed by other members. The 544 messages mostly consisted of rhymes about the Laci Peterson case, presented as “clues” to the identity of the murderer, and taunts and jabs directed at specific members of Fratpack. IKLP outrightly claimed to be Laci’s abductor and murderer, not only by the handle but in the content of many of the rhymes.
On September 10, 2005, Edwards left a 15 digit signature: “285278240791947″ posted on the Fratpack forum [2].
Edwards used a very simple substitution cipher:
- For the letter “E” he uses the number “9”
- For the letter “D” he uses the number “8”
- For the letter “W” he uses the number “7”
- For the letter “A” he uses the number “4”
- For the letter “R” he uses the number “2”
Why these numbers? Except for the letter “R”, there is a kind of hidden logic / mnenomic technique:
- If you reflect “9” in a mirror, you get the letter “e”.
- If you take two letter copies of “D”, rotate them though 90 degrees (one clockwise, the other anti-clockwise), and stick them on top of one another, you get the number “8”.
- If you take two copies of the number “7”, rotate clockwise through 90 degrees, you get the letter “W”.
- If you take the letter “A”, rotate clockwise by about 20 degrees, and adjust the cross-bar a little, you get the number “4”
Performing the substitution on the string “Edward E” the result is
“9 8 7 4 2 8 9”.
However, Edwards presumably felt this was too obvious, and could give his name away.
So firstly, Edwards puts the numbers in a different order, the even numbers first, then “0″ as a seperator, then the odd numbers:
“8 2 8 4 0 9 9 7”
Then Edwards inserts random alternate padding digits “2 5 7 2″ and “7 1 4″ into two halves as a further disguise.
The final result: “2 8 5 2 7 8 2 4 0 7 9 1 9 4 7″ ( here the padding and the zero are shown in bold ).
This is now the exact code published in an “I Killed Laci Peterson” message, on September 10, 2005 [2].
In fact, Edwards also used a very similar short “signature” to sign the Zodiac killer letters “I’m Edward E.” [3].
Conclusion
The only reasonable conclusion: The messages were a signed confession by Edward W. Edwards : “I killed Laci Peterson”.
References
[1] Marlene Newell, http://www.pwc-sii.com/Research/editorials/games.htm
[2] Christopher J. Farmer, http://www.opordanalytical.com/pdf/The_IKLP_Investigation.pdf, page 4.
[3] John A. Cameron, http://coldcasecameron.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Edwards-Zodiac-Killer-Identity-Cipher-and-last-18-Symbols-Solved-August-2010.pdf
First published March 25, 2015, at the facebook page “Scott Peterson is Innocent”.