FBI's top code-breaking unit wants your help in breaking McCormick's code — one that has baffled government cryptologists for more than a decade — and perhaps solving his murder.

lifelong fan of codes, Ricky McCormick wrote out two pages of letters, numbers and symbols and stuck them in his pocket. His body was found in a Missouri cornfield in the summer of 1999, those two sheets of paper still in his pants.
ALPONTE GLSE - SE ERTE, one line read. Is that a coded plea for help? A reminder to pick up the laundry from the cleaners? The beginnings of a commentary on the weather in St. Louis?
If you know, the FBI's top code-breaking unit wants your help in breaking McCormick's code — one that has baffled government cryptologists for more than a decade — and perhaps solving his murder.
Dan Olson, chief of the FBI Laboratory's Cryptanalysis & Racketeering Records Unit, said the papers found on the body of 41-year-old McCormick could be the key in figuring out why he was murdered.
But none of their cryptologists has been able to break the code created by McCormick, a high school dropout, even after years of work, Olson said. So the FBI is turning to the public for help, hoping that someone out there recognizes the code used by McCormick on the two papers posted by the agency at http://1.usa.gov/evCb2i .
Police said McCormick had experimented with codes and ciphers for much of his life.
"We asked the family, and they said he did it quite often," said Lt. Craig McGuire of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department. "Nobody really knows what it means. It's kind of like private diary writing."
Officials said that what would help the most would be someone who has a sample of McCormick's coded system or even something similar to it so they can run a comparison.

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longest-running serial killer west of the Mississippi may have murdered eight more women

The longest-running serial killer west of the Mississippi may have murdered eight more women, Los Angeles Police said Tuesday.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., accused of being the "Grim Sleeper," is already behind bars on charges he killed 10 young women, many of them hookers, between 1985 and 2007.

Cops say "strong circumstantial evidence" collected at Franklin's Los Angeles house linked him to three of the new suspected victims. Three other missing women hung around his neighborhood.

The seventh possible victim was killed in an unsolved 1988 murder, and the eighth is an unidentified woman whose picture was recovered from Franklin's residence.

A 58-year-old mechanic, Franklin has pleaded not guilty. He was arrested last summer when DNA from the crimes was linked to a genetic sample from his jailed son.

The Grim Sleeper earned his nickname for taking a 13-year break from the bloodshed between 1988 and 2002 - although police are skeptical he actually stopped during the gap.

He reportedly used a small-caliber handgun and sexually assaulted his victims before taking Polaroid pictures and dumping their bodies in alleys and trash bins.

Police previously released 180 photos found at his house and asked for the public's help in identifying the women.

They were flooded with calls but still need help with 56 pictures.

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second teenager has been charged with two counts of attempted murder following the shooting of five-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran in Stockwell, south London.

second teenager has been charged with two counts of attempted murder following the shooting of five-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran in Stockwell, south London.

Kazeem Kolawole, 18, is due to appear at Camberwell Green magistrates' court on Wednesday charged over the shootings of Thusha and bystander Roshan Selvakumarm, 35, at the Stockwell Food and Wine shop last week.

Thusha - believed to be London's youngest gun crime victim - was hit in the chest and Selvakumar suffered a head wound as shots were fired indescriminately into the shop where two youths were hiding.

Both victims remained in a "serious but stable" condition, police said.

A second man has already been remanded in custody charged with two counts of attempted murder. Anthony McCalla, 19, of Oakdale Road, Streatham, south London, will appear at the Old Bailey on 10 June.

On Friday night, a 14-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of attempted murder was bailed to a date later this month. A 17-year-old youth, arrested yesterday, remains in custody.

Relatives are maintaining vigils at Thusha's hospital bedside while detectives build up a "continuity trail" of the attackers' movements.

Thusha's brother, 12, and three-year-old sister were also in the shop during the shooting, but were unhurt.

Last week, Thusha's mother, Sharmila Kamaleswaran, urged people to help the police.

"This incident has caused much shock for me and my family," she said. "As any mother, I have deep love for all my children and what has happened to my daughter Thusha has left me feeling empty inside.

"I cannot eat or sleep properly until she opens her eyes. My daughter Thusha is such a sweet, quiet and helpful child, always smiling and laughing. I cannot wait to hear her voice again and hold her."

Crimestoppers has offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

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