The cryptic message sent by the infamous ‘zodiac’ serial killer
in 1969 to San Francisco Chronicle has been solved by a team of private
citizens, New York Post reported on Friday.

The message, a jumble of letters, numbers and symbols, had
kept amateurs and professional investigators mystified for the last 51 years, who
kept having a go at the message in the hope that they may be able to find the
identity of the killer, who remains at large even now, in the missive. 

But the letter, now famously known as ‘340 cipher’, doesn’t
reveal the identity of the person, who allegedly killed 37 people in all in the
1960s and 70s.

“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me,”
the killer wrote in the bizarre coded message — sent to the paper in 1969. “I
am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the
sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me,” the deciphered message
read.

David Oranchak, a coding expert, informed the Chronicle of
the content in the cracked message, Post wrote.

“Last weekend, a team I’m on solved the 340 and submitted it
to the FBI,” he told Chronicle, according to the tabloid.

“They have confirmed the solution. No joke! This is the real
deal.”

The paper quoted an FBI spokesperson, who said the agency was aware
that message was solved by private citizens.

The serial killer, who kept many busy for years with his
puzzling clues, became the subject of ‘Zodiac’, a 2007 crime thriller directed
by David Fincher.   

In 1969, another of his cryptic messages was solved by a
school teacher and his wife from Salinas, California.

“I like killing because it is so much fun,” it read.