Cipher enthusiasts have solved a decades-old puzzle. The FBI confirmed Friday that a group of citizens decoded an encrypted note from the Zodiac Killer, the 1960s serial killer who assaulted his victims in Northern California and was not arrested.

The San Francisco division of the FBI said in a statement: “The FBI understands that the code attributed to the Zodiac Keeler was recently resolved by private citizens.” “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not provide further comments at this time.”

The coded message, known as 340 cipher (named for its 340 characters), was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 and was recently resolved by a team of cipher decoders from Australia, Belgium and the United States. The newspaper reported.

Cipher expert David Oranchak told the newspaper that the text reads in part: “I hope you had a lot of fun trying to catch me. I wasn’t on the TV show that makes a point about me. I’m not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to Heaven sooner because I have now. Enough slaves to work for me. ”

Oranchak told the newspaper that the code that had been resolved was sent to the FBI, which “confirmed the solution.” The law does not resolve the identity of the man behind the murders.

The Zodiac Killer is believed to have killed five people in Northern California in 1968 and 1969, but it is claimed to have killed 37 people. The alleged killer sent many encrypted messages to law enforcement and the media, but when he fell silent in the early 1970s, According to CBS San Francisco.

The Zodiac Killer communicated with detectives until the early 1970s before falling silent.