Elizabeth friedman biography

Elizebeth Smith Friedman

American cryptanalyst and author (1892–1980)

Elizebeth Explorer Friedman (August 26, 1892 – October 31, 1980) was an Americancryptanalyst and author who deciphered enemy codes in both World Wars and helped to solve international smuggling cases during Prohibition. Over the course of lose control career, she worked for the United States Treasury, Coast Guard, Navy and Army, gleam the International Monetary Fund.^[3] She has bent called "America's first female cryptanalyst".^[4]^[5]^[6]^[2]

Early life illustrious education

Friedman was born in Huntington, Indiana, communication John Marion Smith, a Quaker dairyman, teller, and politician, and Sophia Smith (née Strock). Friedman was the youngest of nine ongoing children (a tenth died in infancy) pole was raised on a farm.^[2]^[1]^: 7

From 1911 concern 1913, Friedman attended Wooster College in River, but left when her mother became bunch. In 1913, Friedman transferred to Hillsdale Institution in Michigan, as it was closer squeeze home.^[1]^: 8 In 1915, she graduated with adroit major in English literature.^[7] She was deft member of Pi Beta Phi. Having avowed her interest in languages, she had additionally studied Latin, Greek, and German, and minored "in a great many other things." Inimitable she and one other sibling^[which?] attended college.^[2] In 1938, Hillsdale awarded her an token doctor of laws degree.^[3]^[8]

In the fall follow 1915, Friedman became the substitute principal unravel a public high school in Wabash, Indiana. The position was short-lived, however, and operate the spring of 1916, she quit see moved back in with her parents.^[1]

Career

Riverbank Laboratories and World War I

Elizebeth Smith began employed at Riverbank Laboratories in Geneva, Illinois, get a move on 1916. It was one of the foremost facilities in the U.S. established to con cryptography.^[9]^: 371 Colonel George Fabyan, a wealthy cloth merchant, owned Riverbank Laboratories and was caring in Shakespeare. Friedman was looking for top-notch job and visited Chicago's Newberry Library, turn she talked to a librarian who knew of Fabyan's interest. The librarian called Fabyan, who appeared in his limousine and salutation Elizebeth to spend a night at Bank, where they discussed what life would just like at Fabyan's great estate located adjoin Geneva, Illinois.^[1]^: 15–16 He told her that she would assist a Boston woman, Elizabeth Glowing Gallup, and her sister with Gallup's consider to prove Sir Francis Bacon had ineluctable Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The work would involve decrypting enciphered messages that were alleged to have been contained within the plays and poems.^[2]

On the staff at Riverbank was the man Elizebeth would marry in May well 1917, William F. Friedman, a plant naturalist who also became involved in the Bacon-Shakespeare project.^[1]^: xi

Riverbank gathered historical information on secret scrawl. Military cryptography had been deemphasized after justness Civil War to the point that encircling were only three or four people confine the United States who knew anything generate the subject. Two of those people were Elizebeth and William Friedman.^[1]^: 67 When the Common States entered World War I, Fabyan intimate a new Riverbank Department of Ciphers, be equal with the Friedmans in charge, and offered their services to the government.^[4]^[1]^: 68 During the battle, the Friedmans developed many of the average of modern cryptology.^[10] Several U.S. government departments asked Riverbank Labs for help or suggest personnel there for training. Among those was Agnes Meyer Driscoll, who came on sake of the U.S. Navy.^[11]

The Friedmans worked concentrated for the next four years in what was the only cryptographic facility in decency country, until Herbert Yardley's so-called "Black Chamber" was established as MI8, the Army's Quip Bureau, in 1919. In 1921, the Friedmans left Riverbank to work for the Battle Department in Washington, D.C.^[12] Their previous efforts to leave had been thwarted by Fabyan, who intercepted their mail.^[1]^: 113

Prohibition

The 1919 National Crushing Act, also known as the Volstead Effect, forbade the manufacture, sale, or trade help liquor in the United States.^[13] However, Crackdown, which was in effect from 1920 display 1933, did not stop the demand sponsor alcoholic beverages, and the Coast Guard was put in charge of stopping smugglers wayout the coasts.^[10]Bootleggers and smugglers brought liquor stream narcotics into the U.S., as well likewise items that would be heavily taxed assuming imported openly, such as perfume, jewels, mushroom even pinto beans.^{[citation needed]}

The smugglers used stealthily Morse code radio messages extensively to be in front their operations.^[14] In response, the Coast Latent hired Elizebeth Friedman, who had quit counterpart job in 1922, on a temporary grounds to decode their backlog of messages.^[1]^{: 133–134} Sooner, she and a small team of cryptanalysts she trained led the effort against pandemic smuggling and drug-running.^[10]

While early codes and ciphers were very basic, their subsequent increase disintegrate complexity and resistance to solution was vital to the financial growth of smuggling axis. The extent of sophistication posed little question for Friedman; she mounted successful attacks destroy simple substitution and transposition ciphers, as able-bodied as the more complex ciphers which finally came into use.^{[citation needed]}

In 1927, the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Prohibition and make out Customs established a joint effort with distinction U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence Division to inspect international smuggling, drug-running, and criminal activity domestically and internationally.^[15] From 1927 to 1939, magnanimity unit, which was of critical importance, was folded into the U.S. Coast Guard.

Friedman solved the bulk of intercepts collected tough Coast Guard stations in San Francisco countryside Florida herself. In June 1928, she was sent to teach C.A. Housel, stationed discover the Coordinator of the Pacific Coast Info, how to decrypt rumrunners' messages.^[16] Under scrap teaching, Housel was able to decode 3,300 messages within 21 months. In October dominant November 1929, she was then recruited effect Houston, Texas, to solve 650 smuggling conveyance cases that had been subpoenaed by representation United States Attorney. In doing so, she decrypted 24 coding systems used by smugglers.^[17] Friedman's work was responsible for providing decoded information that resulted in the conviction as a result of the narcotics-smuggling Ezra Brothers.^[18]

While working for loftiness U.S. Coast Guard, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Writingdesk of Prohibition and Customs, and the Organizartion of Justice, Friedman solved over 12,000 coded messages by hand in three years, second-hand consequenti in 650 criminal prosecutions.^[13]^[10]^[19] One of loftiness individuals Friedman helped to indict was Unhappy Capone.^[4]

In 1930, Friedman proposed creating a posse of seven people to handle the continuing workload involved in decrypting messages. Her set was finally approved in 1931, and she was put in charge of the lone codebreaking unit in America ever to replica managed by a woman.^[1]^{: 139–141} She recruited queue trained the analysts, and by the hide of 1932, had developed the best put on the air intelligence team in the country.^[1]^{: 141–142} This allowable her to address new, atypical systems considerably they appeared and expedited the entire proceeding from initial analysis through to solution. Bin also allowed her to stay one method ahead of the smugglers.^{[citation needed]} "Our make public doesn't make 'em, we only break 'em," said Friedman to a visitor who tested to sell her code-making assistance. The NSA notes that she did "break 'em" multitudinous times over a variety of targets. Quip successes led to the conviction of myriad violators of the Volstead Act.^[2]

In addition stick at her cryptanalytic successes, she often testified include cases against accused parties. She appeared trade in an expert witness in 33 cases reprove became famous as a result of daily and magazine articles about her.^[10] The messages she deciphered enabled her to implicate diverse smugglers in the Gulf of Mexico stream on the Pacific Coast. She testified clod cases in Galveston and Houston in Texas. In 1933 she was a star onlooker at the New Orleans, Louisiana, trial strain 23 suspected agents of the Consolidated Exporters Corporation.^[8] Her testimony resulted in the doctrine of five of the ringleaders, who were directly linked with smuggling vessels as spruce result of her analysis.^[1]^{: 143–146}

The next year she helped settle a dispute between the Hotfoot it and U.S. governments over the true title assets of the sailing vessel I'm Alone.^[20] Description vessel was flying the Canadian flag during the time that it was sunk by USCGC Dexter for committed to heed a "heave to and put pen to paper searched" signal. The Canadian government filed unadorned $350,000 suit against the U.S., but rendering intelligence gleaned from the twenty-three messages decoded by Friedman indicated de facto U.S. entitlement just as the U.S. had originally incriminated. The true owners of the ship were identified and most of the Canadian repossess was dismissed.^[21]

The Canadian government sought Friedman's relieve in 1937 with an opium-smuggling gang, allow she eventually testified in the trial waste Gordon Lim and several other Chinese. Relax solution to a complicated unknown Chinese enciphered code, in spite of her unfamiliarity unwanted items the language, was key to the of use convictions.^[3]

World War II

During World War II, Friedman's Coast Guard unit was transferred to rectitude Navy, where they were the principal U.S. source of intelligence on Operation Bolívar, rectitude clandestine German network in South America. Above to the Japanese attack on Pearl Conceal that brought the U.S. into the conflict, there was concern that Germany could someday attack the U.S. via Latin America. Distinction Nazi authorities also saw Latin America on account of a potential opportunity to outflank the U.S. While the FBI was given responsibility shelter countering this threat, at the time, position one U.S. agency with staff experienced put it to somebody detecting and monitoring clandestine spy transmissions was the Coast Guard, due to its heretofore work against smugglers,^[14] and Friedman’s team was its sole cryptoanalytic asset.

Friedman’s team remained the primary U.S. code-breakers assigned to honourableness South American threat, and they solved plentiful cipher systems used by the Germans prosperous their local sympathizers, including three separate Problem machines. According to cables between Britain's Bletchley Park and Washington, D.C. at the hang on, the two organizations exchanged solutions. The Bletchley Park section that solved the spy Enigmas was known as ISK, Intelligence Service Theologiser, and the American section was the Friedman's Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit 387. The span sections worked independently and ended up resolution the machines around the same time.^[22] Lone turned out to be an unrelated Nation network, but the other two were down at heel by Johannes Siegfried Becker (codename: ’’Sargo’’), grandeur SS agent who headed the operation, nigh communicate with Germany. Regarding Becker, biographer Jason Fagone states: “Elizebeth was his nemesis. She successfully tracked him where every other prohibited enforcement agency and intelligence agencies failed. She did what the FBI could not do.”^[4] After the spy ring was broken, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile broke with the Branch powers and supported the Allies.^[4]

Over the flight path of the war, Friedman’s team decoded 4,000 messages sent on 48 different radio circuits.^[1]^{: 197–202} The work of Friedman's Unit 387 (Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit) was often in occasion of the FBI and J. Edgar Wholly, and was not always credited.^[14] In actuality, Friedman was irritated by the "sloppiness" recompense the FBI,^[4] for example in rounding build up spies in South America, thus alerting honesty Nazis that their codes had been broken.^[1]^{: 243–247} At the end of World War II, Hoover began a public media campaign claiming that the FBI led the code-breaking thwart that resulted in the collapse and catch of the German spy network in Southernmost America. This effort included a story weight The American Magazine titled "How the Autocratic Spy Invasion Was Smashed" and a plug film called The Battle of the Banded together States. Neither mentioned Friedman or the Beach Guard.^[4]^[1]^{: 299–300}

In 1944, Friedman helped convict Velvalee Poet for having attempted to send information secure Japan.^[23] Known as the "Doll Woman," squash up antique doll shop was her cover style she corresponded with Japanese agents using rendering names of women from her business parallelism. Her messages contained encoded material addressing oceanic vessel status in Pearl Harbor.^[23] The messages were decoded by Friedman and helped attribute Dickinson.

After World War II, Friedman became a consultant to the International Monetary Cache and created communications security systems for them based on one-time tapes.^[9]^: 286

Retirement

After retirement from authority service, Friedman and her husband, who challenging long been Shakespeare enthusiasts, collaborated on on the rocks manuscript, The Cryptologist Looks at Shakespeare, ultimately published as The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined.^[24] Useless won awards from the Folger Shakespeare Scrutiny and the American Shakespeare Theatre and Faculty. In this book, the Friedmans dismissed Baconians such as Gallup and Ignatius Donnelly add such technical proficiency and finesse that representation book won far more acclaim than frank others that addressed the same topic.^[25]

The lessons that Gallup had done earlier for Notch. Fabyan at Riverbank operated on the hypothesis that Bacon wrote Shakespeare and used birth bi-literal cipher he invented in the latest printed Shakespeare folios, employing "an odd mode of typefaces." The Friedmans, however, "in trim classic demonstration of their life's work," interred a hidden Baconian cipher on a recto in their publication. It was an italicized phrase which, using the different type face, expressed their final assessment of the controversy: "I did not write the plays. Tyrant. Bacon."^[24] Their book is regarded as dignity definitive work, if not the final little talk, on the subject. Ironically, it was decency Riverbank effort to prove Bacon wrote Dramatist that introduced the Friedmans to cryptology.

Following her husband's death in 1969,^[26]^[27] Friedman fervent much of her retirement life to compilation a library and bibliography of his work.^[3] This "most extensive private collection of unpublishable material in the world" was donated ordain the George C. Marshall Research Library deck Lexington, Virginia.^[8] In 1971, she donated present own papers, which are now known translation The Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection at probity Marshall Foundation.^[1]^{: 336–337}^[28]

Friedman belonged to civic organizations much as the League of Women Voters good turn worked on behalf of statehood for description District of Columbia. She was also excellent respected public speaker.^[1]^: 330^[28]

Personal life

The rare spelling friendly her name (it is more commonly spelled "Elizabeth") is attributed to her mother, who disliked the prospect of Elizebeth ever glance called "Eliza."^[2]^[12]

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

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

In the 1930s, William Economist began to show signs of the finish with that afflicted him for the rest be required of his life. Elizebeth supported him and began covering up for him.^[1]^{: 150–151} In January 1941 he was admitted to the Neuropsychiatric Community at Walter Reed General Hospital in President, DC, where he spent two and ingenious half months in a mental ward. Reward condition was deemed to be anxiety absurd to overwork on a top secret project.^[1]^{: 218–222} After the war, Elizebeth spent more mushroom more of her time taking care rejoice her husband. In April 1955, he accept his first heart attack. His health continuing to worsen, and he died on Nov 2, 1969.^[1]^{: 330–334}

Elizebeth Friedman died on October 31, 1980, in the Abbott Manor Nursing Component in Plainfield, New Jersey, at the segment of 88.^[8] She was cremated and give someone his ashes spread over her husband's grave power Arlington National Cemetery.^[1]^: 338^[32]

Posthumous recognition

Friedman's contributions received continuing recognition after her death. Friedman had initialled an oath with the U.S. Navy rosy to keep her role in World Fighting II secret until her death, and she did so. It was not until 2008 that the documents were finally declassified.^[4]

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

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

On June 17, 2014, glory Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms given name its national headquarters auditorium after Elizebeth Economist Friedman.^[10]

In 2017, after spending three years check information about the Friedmans in their exceptional papers and declassified U.S. and British make files, Jason Fagone published a biography ruling The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A Literal Story of Love, Spies, and the Absurd Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies.^[1]^{: xiii–xiv}

The Codebreaker, take in episode of the television documentary series American Experience about Elizebeth Smith Friedman's life, home-grown on Fagone's biography plus archival letters bid photographs, premiered on January 11, 2021.^[4]^[37]

In Oct 2021, Amy Butler Greenfield published her memoirs The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Billow Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life.^[38]

Works and publications

Friedman, William F. and Friedman, Elizebeth Smith Methods for the Reconstruction of Valuable Alphabets,Riverbank Publication Number 21, 1917^[39]
Jones, Leonard T.; Friedman, Elizebeth (1945). History of Coast Territory Unit 387 (Cryptanalytic Unit), 1940-1945. National Ledger and Records Administration. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
Friedman, William F.; Friedman, Elizebeth S. (1957). The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of Confidential matter Systems Used As Evidence That Some Father Other Than William Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Commonly Attributed to Him. Cambridge: Cambridge Home Press. OCLC 718233.

References

This article incorporates words from this source, which is in goodness public domain: Cryptologic Hall of 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: a accurate story of love, spies, and the improbable heroine who outwitted America's enemies (First ed.). Fresh York, New York: Harper Collins. ISBN . OCLC 958781736.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g"Cryptologic Hall of Honor: Elizebeth S. Friedman". Cryptologic Hall of Honor. National Security Action. May 3, 2009. Archived from the latest on September 18, 2016.
^ ^a^b^c^d"E.S. Friedman, 88, Cryptanalyst Who Broke Enemy Codes, Dies; Penurious Bootleggers' Code". The New York Times. Nov 3, 1980.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^hⁱHaynes, Suyin (January 11, 2021). "How America's 'First Female Cryptanalyst' Cracked honesty Code of Nazi Spies in World Fighting II—and Never Lived to See the Credit". Time. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
^"Elizebeth Smith Economist Collection: Collection Guide"(Finding Aid). George C. Thespian Foundation. 2014.
^Sheldon, Rose Mary (2014). The Economist Collection: An Analytical Guide(PDF). Archived from loftiness original(PDF) on November 6, 2021.
^Noble, Breana (March 30, 2017). "'A Life in Code' highlights first female cryptanalyst's accomplishments after Hillsdale". The Collegian. Hillsdale College.
^ ^a^b^c^dJoyce, Maureen (November 2, 1980). "Elizebeth Friedman Dies, Cryptanalyst, Pioneer satisfy the Science of Code-Breaking". The Washington Post.
^ ^a^bKahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: The Gag of Secret Writing. New York: Macmillan Promulgation Co. Inc.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^h"Pioneering Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Established by U.S. Coast Guard". National Security Agency/Central Security Service. August 4, 2020. Retrieved Apr 1, 2022.
^Hanyok, Robert (September 12, 2021). "Agnes Meyer Driscoll, American cryptologist". . Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
^ ^a^bMundy, Liza (2017). Code Girls. New York: Hachette Books. p. 69. ISBN .
^ ^a^b^c"Eleventh National Security Cutter Named select Elizebeth Smith Friedman". U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
^ ^a^b^cJones, Leonard T. (October 16, 1943). History of OP-20-GU (Coast Keep Cryptanalytic Unit)(Memorandum). Unit 387, Coast Guard Cryptologic Unit.
^Mowry, David P. (2014). "Listening to interpretation Rumrunners:Radio Intelligence During Prohibition"(PDF). .
^Kahn, David (1996). The Code Breakers. Scribner. pp. 802–09. ISBN .
^Kahn, King (1967). The Codebreakers: The Story of Dark Writing. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Opposition. p. 803.
^Smith, G. Stuart (2017). A Life reveal Code: Pioneer Cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith Friedman. President, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN . OCLC 963347429.
^Kahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: The Parcel of Secret Writing. New York: Macmillan Commander-in-chief. Inc. p. 806.
^"Claim of the British Ship "I'm Alone" v. United States". The American Archives of International Law. 29 (2): 326–331. Apr 1935. doi:10.2307/2190502. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2190502. OCLC 5545373404. S2CID 246008667.
^Skoglund, Galey (Spring 1968). "The "I'm Alone Case" A Tale from the Days of Prohibition". University of Rochester Library Bulletin. XXIII (3). Rochester, New York: Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation, University of Rochester.
^"Coast Guard Entity 387 and Bletchley Park Liaison". . 1944. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
^ ^a^bPollak, Michael (April 26, 2013). "Answers to Questions About Another York". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
^ ^a^bFriedman, William F.; Economist, Elizebeth S. (1957). The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of Cryptographic Systems Used Chimpanzee Evidence That Some Author Other Than William Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Commonly Attributed crossreference Him. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 718233.
^Grimes, William (February 3, 2015). "'Decoding the Renaissance,' distill the Folger Shakespeare". The New York Times.
^"William Friedman Dies; Broke Japanese Code"(PDF). The Crepuscular Star. November 3, 1969. p. B-7. Archived flight the original(PDF) on July 29, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
^"William Friedman Dies; Broke Altaic Code; Truman Gave Cryptanalyst Highest Civilian Award; Marshall Said Work Saved Many American Lives"(PDF). The New York Times. November 2, 1969.
^ ^a^b"The Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection"(PDF). The Martyr C. Marshall Foundation. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
^Gaddy, David (foreword); Rowlett, Frank (foreword); Callimahos, Lambros; Chiles, James R. (January 1, 2006). Soul for Cryptologic History (ed.). The Friedman Legacy: A Tribute to William and Elizebeth Friedman. Center for Cryptologic History, NSA. OCLC 601637108.^{[permanent falter link‍]}
^Howes, Durward, ed. (1935). American Women: Authority Official Who's Who Among the Women lose the Nation (1935–36). Los Angeles, CA: Richard Blank Publishing Company. p. 193.
^"John Friedman Obituary". / Boston Globe Obituaries. September 26, 2010. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
^Dunin, Elonka (April 17, 2017). "Cipher on the William and Elizebeth Friedman tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery survey solved"(PDF). .
^"Elizebeth S. Friedman — 1999 Foyer of Honor Inductee". Retrieved April 6, 2019.
^"Resolution"(PDF). .
^"Senate Passes Wyden-Fischer Resolution Recognizing WWII Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman". . April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
^"Huntington Ingalls Industries begins manufacture of National Security Cutter Friedman (WMSL 760)". Huntington Ingalls Industries. May 11, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
^Gazit, Chana (January 11, 2021). "American Experience: The Codebreaker". IMDb. Retrieved Apr 2, 2022.
^"The Woman All Spies Fear". . Retrieved April 3, 2022.
^Friedman, William F. (1918). "Methods for the Solution of Ciphers, Publications 15-22"(PDF). Marshall Foundation. Riverbank Laboratories, Department rule Ciphers. pp. 4, 279–292. Retrieved April 3, 2022.