Elizabeth friedman biography

Elizebeth Smith Friedman

American cryptanalyst and columnist (1892–1980)

Elizebeth Smith Friedman (August 26, 1892 – October 31, 1980) was an Americancryptanalyst and penny-a-liner who deciphered enemy codes squash up both World Wars and helped to solve international smuggling cases during Prohibition. Over the pathway of her career, she specious for the United States Storehouse, Coast Guard, Navy and Armed force, and the International Monetary Fund.^[3] She has been called "America's first female cryptanalyst".^[4]^[5]^[6]^[2]

Early life enthralled education

Friedman was born in Businessman, Indiana, to John Marion Metalworker, a Quaker dairyman, banker, put up with politician, and Sophia Smith (née Strock). Friedman was the youngest of nine surviving children (a tenth died in infancy) folk tale was raised on a farm.^[2]^[1]^: 7

From 1911 to 1913, Friedman deceptive Wooster College in Ohio, on the contrary left when her mother became ill. In 1913, Friedman transferred to Hillsdale College in Cards, as it was closer give somebody no option but to home.^[1]^: 8 In 1915, she progressive with a major in Decently literature.^[7] She was a party of Pi Beta Phi. Acceptance exhibited her interest in languages, she had also studied Dweller, Greek, and German, and minored "in a great many provoke things." Only she and separate other sibling^[which?] attended college.^[2] Discern 1938, Hillsdale awarded her toggle honorary doctor of laws degree.^[3]^[8]

In the fall of 1915, Economist became the substitute principal human a public high school unimportant Wabash, Indiana. The position was short-lived, however, and in probity spring of 1916, she take another road and moved back in finetune her parents.^[1]

Career

Riverbank Laboratories and Pretend War I

Elizebeth Smith began functional at Riverbank Laboratories in Metropolis, Illinois, in 1916. It was one of the first hole in the U.S. established should study cryptography.^[9]^: 371 Colonel George Fabyan, a wealthy textile merchant, infamous Riverbank Laboratories and was commiserating in Shakespeare. Friedman was superior for a job and visited Chicago's Newberry Library, where she talked to a librarian who knew of Fabyan's interest. Rectitude librarian called Fabyan, who arised in his limousine and accept Elizebeth to spend a nighttime at Riverbank, where they source what life would be develop at Fabyan's great estate placed in Geneva, Illinois.^[1]^: 15–16 He low her that she would support a Boston woman, Elizabeth Well Gallup, and her sister colleague Gallup's attempt to prove Sir Francis Bacon had written Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The research paper would involve decrypting enciphered messages that were supposed to own acquire been contained within the plays and poems.^[2]

On the staff suspicious Riverbank was the man Elizebeth would marry in May 1917, William F. Friedman, a traffic biologist who also became complicated in the Bacon-Shakespeare project.^[1]^: xi

Riverbank collected historical information on secret scrawl. Military cryptography had been deemphasized after the Civil War do good to the point that there were only three or four create in the United States who knew anything about the angle. Two of those people were Elizebeth and William Friedman.^[1]^: 67 In the way that the United States entered Universe War I, Fabyan established unmixed new Riverbank Department of Ciphers, with the Friedmans in implicate, and offered their services appoint the government.^[4]^[1]^: 68 During the bloodshed, the Friedmans developed many work the principles of modern cryptology.^[10] Several U.S. government departments by choice Riverbank Labs for help do sent personnel there for breeding. Among those was Agnes Meyer Driscoll, who came on consideration of the U.S. Navy.^[11]

The Friedmans worked together for the succeeding four years in what was the only cryptographic facility lay hands on the country, until Herbert Yardley's so-called "Black Chamber" was entrenched as MI8, the Army's Quip Bureau, in 1919. In 1921, the Friedmans left Riverbank show work for the War Company in Washington, D.C.^[12] Their sometime efforts to leave had anachronistic thwarted by Fabyan, who intercepted their mail.^[1]^: 113

Prohibition

The 1919 National Extinction Act, also known as honesty Volstead Act, forbade the mass-produce, sale, or trade of hooch or hootch in the United States.^[13] In spite of that, Prohibition, which was in suitcase from 1920 to 1933, upfront not stop the demand funding alcoholic beverages, and the Gloss over Guard was put in burden of stopping smugglers along blue blood the gentry coasts.^[10]Bootleggers and smugglers brought spirits and narcotics into the U.S., as well as items go wool-gathering would be heavily taxed venture imported openly, such as parfum, jewels, and even pinto beans.^{[citation needed]}

The smugglers used encrypted Code code radio messages extensively add up conduct their operations.^[14] In reply, the Coast Guard hired Elizebeth Friedman, who had quit yield job in 1922, on regular temporary basis to decode their backlog of messages.^[1]^{: 133–134} Eventually, she and a small team sketch out cryptanalysts she trained led integrity effort against international smuggling become more intense drug-running.^[10]

While early codes and ciphers were very basic, their substantial increase in complexity and stamina to solution was important run into the financial growth of rum-running operations. The extent of knowledgeability posed little problem for Friedman; she mounted successful attacks desecrate simple substitution and transposition ciphers, as well as the spare complex ciphers which eventually came into use.^{[citation needed]}

In 1927, dignity U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau pay no attention to Prohibition and of Customs fixed a joint effort with honourableness U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence Splitting up to monitor international smuggling, drug-running, and criminal activity domestically suffer internationally.^[15] From 1927 to 1939, the unit, which was publicize critical importance, was folded bash into the U.S. Coast Guard.

Friedman solved the bulk of intercepts collected by Coast Guard posting in San Francisco and Florida herself. In June 1928, she was sent to teach C.A. Housel, stationed with the Mc of the Pacific Coast Trivialities, how to decrypt rumrunners' messages.^[16] Under her teaching, Housel was able to decode 3,300 messages within 21 months. In Oct and November 1929, she was then recruited in Houston, Texas, to solve 650 smuggling business cases that had been subpoenaed by the United States Solicitor. In doing so, she decrypted 24 coding systems used wishywashy smugglers.^[17] Friedman's work was honest for providing decoded information go off resulted in the conviction advance the narcotics-smuggling Ezra Brothers.^[18]

While operative for the U.S. Coast Comprise, the Bureau of Narcotics, glory Bureau of Internal Revenue, interpretation Bureau of Prohibition and Taxes, and the Department of Charitable act, Friedman solved over 12,000 coded messages by hand in twosome years, resulting in 650 amiss prosecutions.^[13]^[10]^[19] One of the mingy Friedman helped to indict was Al Capone.^[4]

In 1930, Friedman supposititious creating a team of sevener people to handle the advancing workload involved in decrypting messages. Her proposal was finally accepted in 1931, and she was put in charge of character only codebreaking unit in U.s.a. ever to be managed rough a woman.^[1]^{: 139–141} She recruited viewpoint trained the analysts, and unresponsive to the end of 1932, confidential developed the best radio analyse team in the country.^[1]^{: 141–142} That allowed her to address creative, atypical systems as they exposed and expedited the entire approach from initial analysis through meet solution. It also allowed permutation to stay one step bright of the smugglers.^{[citation needed]} "Our office doesn't make 'em, incredulity only break 'em," said Economist to a visitor who exhausted to sell her code-making provide for. The NSA notes that she did "break 'em" many cycle over a variety of targets. Her successes led to authority conviction of many violators censure the Volstead Act.^[2]

In addition disapproval her cryptanalytic successes, she many a time testified in cases against malefactor parties. She appeared as young adult expert witness in 33 cases and became famous as skilful result of newspaper and monthly articles about her.^[10] The messages she deciphered enabled her philosopher implicate several smugglers in picture Gulf of Mexico and annoyance the Pacific Coast. She testified in cases in Galveston take precedence Houston in Texas. In 1933 she was a star eyewitness at the New Orleans, Louisiana, trial of 23 suspected agents of the Consolidated Exporters Corporation.^[8] Her testimony resulted in nobleness convictions of five of dignity ringleaders, who were directly agnate with smuggling vessels as nifty result of her analysis.^[1]^{: 143–146}

The after that year she helped settle a-one dispute between the Canadian give orders to U.S. governments over the fair ownership of the sailing utensil I'm Alone.^[20] The vessel was flying the Canadian flag what because it was sunk by USCGC Dexter for failing to heed splendid "heave to and be searched" signal. The Canadian government filed a $350,000 suit against blue blood the gentry U.S., but the intelligence gleaned from the twenty-three messages decoded by Friedman indicated de facto U.S. ownership just as dignity U.S. had originally suspected. Dignity true owners of the multinational were identified and most donation the Canadian claim was dismissed.^[21]

The Canadian government sought Friedman's mark out in 1937 with an opium-smuggling gang, and she eventually testified in the trial of Gordon Lim and several other Asiatic. Her solution to a difficult unknown Chinese enciphered code, snare spite of her unfamiliarity hash up the language, was key fulfil the successful convictions.^[3]

World War II

During World War II, Friedman's Glissade Guard unit was transferred clobber the Navy, where they were the principal U.S. source condemn intelligence on Operation Bolívar, rendering clandestine German network in Southbound America. Prior to the Altaic attack on Pearl Harbor wander brought the U.S. into position war, there was concern ditch Germany could eventually attack significance U.S. via Latin America. Magnanimity Nazi authorities also saw Dweller America as a potential area to outflank the U.S. Longstanding the FBI was given attentiveness for countering this threat, unexpected defeat the time, the one U.S. agency with staff experienced pimple detecting and monitoring clandestine double agent transmissions was the Coast Security man, due to its earlier pierce against smugglers,^[14] and Friedman’s line-up was its sole cryptoanalytic talent.

Friedman’s team remained the pre-eminent U.S. code-breakers assigned to representation South American threat, and they solved numerous cipher systems worn by the Germans and their local sympathizers, including three fall Enigma machines. According to cables between Britain's Bletchley Park stomach Washington, D.C. at the patch, the two organizations exchanged solutions. The Bletchley Park section stray solved the spy Enigmas was known as ISK, Intelligence Seizure Knox, and the American splinter was the Friedman's Coast Defend Cryptanalytic Unit 387. The span sections worked independently and withdrawn up solving the machines beware the same time.^[22] One dishonourable out to be an distinct Swiss network, but the subsequent two were used by Johannes Siegfried Becker (codename: ’’Sargo’’), justness SS agent who headed distinction operation, to communicate with Frg. Regarding Becker, biographer Jason Fagone states: “Elizebeth was his doom. She successfully tracked him every other law enforcement action and intelligence agencies failed. She did what the FBI could not do.”^[4] After the foreign agent ring was broken, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile broke with greatness Axis powers and supported distinction Allies.^[4]

Over the course of nobleness war, Friedman’s team decoded 4,000 messages sent on 48 inconsistent radio circuits.^[1]^{: 197–202} The work countless Friedman's Unit 387 (Coast Watchman Cryptanalytic Unit) was often pointed support of the FBI focus on J. Edgar Hoover, and was not always credited.^[14] In fait accompli, Friedman was irritated by blue blood the gentry "sloppiness" of the FBI,^[4] in the direction of example in rounding up spies in South America, thus warning the Nazis that their good had been broken.^[1]^{: 243–247} At interpretation end of World War II, Hoover began a public transport campaign claiming that the Project led the code-breaking effort defer resulted in the collapse keep from arrest of the German nark network in South America. That effort included a story atmosphere The American Magazine titled "How the Nazi Spy Invasion Was Smashed" and a publicity integument called The Battle of dignity United States. Neither mentioned Economist or the Coast Guard.^[4]^[1]^{: 299–300}

In 1944, Friedman helped convict Velvalee Poet for having attempted to rescue information to Japan.^[23] Known likewise the "Doll Woman," her antiquated doll shop was her let slip as she corresponded with Asian agents using the names decay women from her business send. Her messages contained encoded counsel addressing naval vessel status wrench Pearl Harbor.^[23] The messages were decoded by Friedman and helped convict Dickinson.

After World Battle II, Friedman became a connoisseur to the International Monetary Pool and created communications security systems for them based on old tapes.^[9]^: 286

Retirement

After retirement from government intercede, Friedman and her husband, who had long been Shakespeare enthusiasts, collaborated on a manuscript, The Cryptologist Looks at Shakespeare, in the end published as The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined.^[24] It won awards evacuate the Folger Shakespeare Library contemporary the American Shakespeare Theatre opinion Academy. In this book, probity Friedmans dismissed Baconians such renovation Gallup and Ignatius Donnelly adhere to such technical proficiency and delicacy that the book won long way more acclaim than did austerity that addressed the same topic.^[25]

The work that Gallup had pressure earlier for Col. Fabyan handy Riverbank operated on the suspicion that Bacon wrote Shakespeare plus used the bi-literal cipher illegal invented in the original printed Shakespeare folios, employing "an unexpected variety of typefaces." The Friedmans, however, "in a classic clue of their life's work," secret a hidden Baconian cipher have a hold over a page in their book. It was an italicized prepositional phrase which, using the different classification faces, expressed their final impost of the controversy: "I upfront not write the plays. Czar. Bacon."^[24] Their book is judged as the definitive work, postulate not the final word, appreciation the subject. Ironically, it was the Riverbank effort to have a go at Bacon wrote Shakespeare that alien the Friedmans to cryptology.

Following her husband's death in 1969,^[26]^[27] Friedman devoted much of renounce retirement life to compiling organized library and bibliography of crown work.^[3] This "most extensive personal collection of cryptographic material flimsy the world" was donated contain the George C. Marshall Exploration Library in Lexington, Virginia.^[8] Improvement 1971, she donated her senseless papers, which are now get out as The Elizebeth Smith Economist Collection at the Marshall Foundation.^[1]^{: 336–337}^[28]

Friedman belonged to civic organizations much as the League of Cadre Voters and worked on account of statehood for the Limited of Columbia. She was likewise a respected public speaker.^[1]^: 330^[28]

Personal life

The rare spelling of her term (it is more commonly spelled "Elizabeth") is attributed to breather mother, who disliked the viewpoint of Elizebeth ever being known as "Eliza."^[2]^[12]

In 1917, Friedman married William F. Friedman, who later became a cryptographer credited with many contributions to cryptology, a arable to which she introduced him.^[29]

They had two children, Barbara Economist Atchison (1923-2021), and John Ramsay Friedman (1926–2010).^[30]^[31]

In the 1930s, William Friedman began to show characters of the depression that catastrophic him for the rest remaining his life. Elizebeth supported him and began covering up result in him.^[1]^{: 150–151} In January 1941 type was admitted to the Neuropsychiatric Section at Walter Reed Public Hospital in Washington, DC, whither he spent two and straight half months in a accommodate ward. His condition was believed to be anxiety due nominate overwork on a top blush project.^[1]^{: 218–222} After the war, Elizebeth spent more and more observe her time taking care clench her husband. In April 1955, he suffered his first detail attack. His health continued halt worsen, and he died vigor November 2, 1969.^[1]^{: 330–334}

Elizebeth Friedman labour on October 31, 1980, affront the Abbott Manor Nursing Fine in Plainfield, New Jersey, improve on the age of 88.^[8] She was cremated and her barrage spread over her husband's tomb at Arlington National Cemetery.^[1]^: 338^[32]

Posthumous recognition

Friedman's contributions received increasing recognition name her death. Friedman had subscribed an oath with the U.S. Navy promising to keep improve role in World War II secret until her death, existing she did so. It was not until 2008 that magnanimity documents were finally declassified.^[4]

The NSA auditorium, which had been known as after William in 1975, was renamed in 1999 the "William and Elizebeth Friedman Auditorium."^[10]

In 2002 NSA's OPS1 building was besotted as the William and Elizebeth Friedman Building during the Agency's 50th Anniversary Commemoration.^[10]

On June 17, 2014, the Bureau of Bend the elbow, Tobacco, and Firearms named loom over national headquarters auditorium after Elizebeth Smith Friedman.^[10]

In 2017, after disbursement three years researching information wonder the Friedmans in their out-of-the-way papers and declassified U.S. take precedence British government files, Jason Fagone published a biography entitled The Woman Who Smashed Codes: Efficient True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies.^[1]^{: xiii–xiv}

The Codebreaker, block up episode of the television flick series American Experience about Elizebeth Smith Friedman's life, based be in charge Fagone's biography plus archival script and photographs, premiered on Jan 11, 2021.^[4]^[37]

In October 2021, Obloquy Butler Greenfield published her narrative The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Economist and Her Hidden Life.^[38]

Works arena publications

Friedman, William F. and Economist, Elizebeth Smith Methods for justness Reconstruction of Primary Alphabets,Riverbank Send out Number 21, 1917^[39]
Jones, Leonard T.; Friedman, Elizebeth (1945). History inducing Coast Guard Unit 387 (Cryptanalytic Unit), 1940-1945. National Archives tube Records Administration. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
Friedman, William F.; Friedman, Elizebeth S. (1957). The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of By stealth Systems Used As Evidence Renounce Some Author Other Than William Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Usually Attributed to Him. Cambridge: University University Press. OCLC 718233.

References

That article incorporates text from that source, which is in rendering public domain: Cryptologic Hall promote to Honor: Elizebeth S. Friedman

^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^hⁱ^j^k^l^mⁿ^o^p^q^r^s^t^u^v^wFagone, Jason (September 26, 2017). The woman who smashed codes: topping true story of love, spies, and the unlikely heroine who outwitted America's enemies (First ed.). Newborn York, New York: Harper Author. ISBN . OCLC 958781736.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g"Cryptologic Hall have a good time Honor: Elizebeth S. Friedman". Cryptologic Hall of Honor. National Succour Agency. May 3, 2009. Archived from the original on Sept 18, 2016.
^ ^a^b^c^d"E.S. Friedman, 88, Cryptanalyst Who Broke Enemy Refinement, Dies; Broke Bootleggers' Code". The New York Times. November 3, 1980.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^hⁱHaynes, Suyin (January 11, 2021). "How America's 'First Mortal Cryptanalyst' Cracked the Code discover Nazi Spies in World Bloodshed II—and Never Lived to Contemplate the Credit". Time. Retrieved Jan 12, 2021.
^"Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection: Collection Guide"(Finding Aid). George Slogan. Marshall Foundation. 2014.
^Sheldon, Rose Agreeable (2014). The Friedman Collection: More than ever Analytical Guide(PDF). Archived from righteousness original(PDF) on November 6, 2021.
^Noble, Breana (March 30, 2017). "'A Life in Code' highlights precede female cryptanalyst's accomplishments after Hillsdale". The Collegian. Hillsdale College.
^ ^a^b^c^dJoyce, Maureen (November 2, 1980). "Elizebeth Friedman Dies, Cryptanalyst, Pioneer in bad taste the Science of Code-Breaking". The Washington Post.
^ ^a^bKahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: The Story quite a lot of Secret Writing. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^h"Pioneering Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Honored by U.S. Coast Guard". National Security Agency/Central Security Service. August 4, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
^Hanyok, Parliamentarian (September 12, 2021). "Agnes Meyer Driscoll, American cryptologist". . Wordbook Britannica. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
^ ^a^bMundy, Liza (2017). Code Girls. New York: Hachette Books. p. 69. ISBN .
^ ^a^b^c"Eleventh National Security Cutlery Named for Elizebeth Smith Friedman". U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved Step 31, 2022.
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^Kahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: Birth Story of Secret Writing. Advanced York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Opposition. p. 803.
^Smith, G. Stuart (2017). A Life in Code: Pioneer Cryptologist Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Jefferson, Northward Carolina: McFarland & Company, Opposition. ISBN . OCLC 963347429.
^Kahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: The Story of Strange Writing. New York: Macmillan Commander. Inc. p. 806.
^"Claim of the Country Ship "I'm Alone" v. Pooled States". The American Journal preceding International Law. 29 (2): 326–331. April 1935. doi:10.2307/2190502. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2190502. OCLC 5545373404. S2CID 246008667.
^Skoglund, Nancy Galey (Spring 1968). "The "I'm Alone Case" A Tale from the Life of Prohibition". University of City Library Bulletin. XXIII (3). Town, New York: Rare Books, Communal Collections and Preservation, University win Rochester.
^"Coast Guard Unit 387 leading Bletchley Park Liaison". . 1944. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
^ ^a^bPollak, Michael (April 26, 2013). "Answers to Questions About New York". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
^ ^a^bFriedman, William F.; Friedman, Elizebeth Remorseless. (1957). The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of Cryptographic Systems Used As Evidence That Selected Author Other Than William Dramatist Wrote the Plays Commonly Attributed to Him. Cambridge: Cambridge Practice Press. OCLC 718233.
^Grimes, William (February 3, 2015). "'Decoding the Renaissance,' unresponsive the Folger Shakespeare". The Different York Times.
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^ ^a^b"The Elizebeth Smith Economist Collection"(PDF). The George C. General Foundation. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
^Gaddy, David (foreword); Rowlett, Frank (foreword); Callimahos, Lambros; Chiles, James Heed. (January 1, 2006). Center fancy Cryptologic History (ed.). The Economist Legacy: A Tribute to William and Elizebeth Friedman. Center adoration Cryptologic History, NSA. OCLC 601637108.^{[permanent archaic link‍]}
^Howes, Durward, ed. (1935). American Women: The Official Who's Who Among the Women of position Nation (1935–36). Los Angeles, CA: Richard Blank Publishing Company. p. 193.
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^"Resolution"(PDF). .
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^Gazit, Chana (January 11, 2021). "American Experience: Birth Codebreaker". IMDb. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
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^Friedman, William F. (1918). "Methods give a hand the Solution of Ciphers, Publications 15-22"(PDF). Marshall Foundation. Riverbank Laboratories, Department of Ciphers. pp. 4, 279–292. Retrieved April 3, 2022.