How coronavirus lockdown boredom led Melbourne mathematician Samuel Blake to cracking a Zodiac Killer cipher

Some people spent their time in COVID-19 isolation knitting or learning a musical instrument.

Melbourne applied mathematician Samuel Blake spent his extra time at home following a hobby that would lead to the cracking of a mystery which has puzzled cryptologists for more than 50 years.

For the past week, Dr Blake has been waiting for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to make public the solution he and two fellow cryptologists made to the Zodiac killer’s “340 cipher”, a distinctive code sent to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper in 1969.

Early this morning he was able to proudly announce his role in the solution, fielding media enquiries from around the world in between taking time to celebrate the achievement.

“We’ve sat on it all…