This past few days I have been examining the two crossed lines on the Somerton Man code page: Here they are marked up in the image below:
The top line is marked A to B and the bottom line is C to D.
I looked at the C to D line first and extracted the line of letters and numbers shown here:
23VX233437824AX2R7O42AMP878V3E822VA83PCA658VR8B38
After a few attempts to decrypt, I eventually tested this 'C-D' line using a Hill Cipher, you can read more about the cipher here:
The decoder threw up a very interesting name, GOLOS, the man you see in the photograph at the top of the page, Jacob Golos, was arguably the man who did more than any other to set up the major part of the Soviet Atom Spy network in the USA. He had escaped from imprisonment in Siberia where he had been kept for running an illegal printing press for the Bolshevik cause. Traveling by way of China and Japan he arrived in the US and in 1919 he became a charter member of the American Communist Party.
He busied himself setting up networks of influential connections, all the people he would later need to run his extraordinary network of spies including Silverman, Elizabeth Bentley. He was not to popular with his Russian Masters who forced him to hand over all of his contacts and networks. Jacob Golos supposedly died of a heart attack in New York in 1943.
Whilst he had sandy hair, Jacob was similar to Harry Gold in height, around 5 foot 2 inches. So, this is not our man, but what is his name doing in code on the Somerton Man code page?
Was there another person named GOLOS operating in Australia?
Was there another person named GOLOS operating in Australia?
you can read more here...
Here's the screen capture of the decrypt:
The decrypt reads: HAS DVR (Driver) GOLOS (The X is a null) then OLU WRG DM, I have not, as yet, been able to decrypt the last 8 letters. In 1000 lines from the decoder, this is the only line that contains an identifiable name. What qualifies this output is the fact that there are 2 discernable words, HAS and GOLOS, one of which is a two-syllable name plus, in between we have a known abbreviation DVR for DRIVER. The soviets had employees and there are references to drivers, just need to research their names for the relevant period.
A search of NAA turned up a young man CZESLAW GOLOS, he was arrested in Germany and interned before being released and resettled into Australia in 1948. He had no papers when arrested.
Whether he became an employee of the Soviets or the CPA is not as yet known.
One question we should ask is did JACOB GOLOS really die of a heart attack in 1943? These things happen in wars, especially in cold wars. Incidentally, this GOLOS was an expert at creating fake passports and documents. A Fun Fact.
NEXT STEP
The next step is to attempt line A-B, I have tried using the same HILL cipher without much success. No discernable names or words, one output line came close VZ SUDNEY, a misspelling perhaps? VZ was, I understand part of an aircraft reg number, the letters CVZ being a valid registration set for a Romanian aircraft.