He Was Found Dead In A Cornfield With Two Encrypted Notes In His Pockets
On June 30, 1999, the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick was found in a cornfield just 20 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri. He had been murdered, but the only clues to his death were two encrypted notes in his pant pockets.
For years, the codes have stumped expert and amateur codebreakers alike. His family insisted that he could hardly spell, so there was no way he could’ve created a secret code.
Still, many are convinced that the code can be cracked. Ricky McCormick was also possibly involved in drug trafficking and was known to work with dangerous people in St. Louis.
Ricky McCormick was born on June 14, 1958. He struggled with mental health issues from a young age. He behaved strangely, stood alone at recess, and told weird stories. He ended up dropping out of high school and could barely read or write.
McCormick’s cousin remembered that he talked as if he were from another world and may have been schizophrenic. McCormick worked a number of odd jobs and received disability payments for his chronic heart issues.
In 1992, he got in trouble with the law. At 34 years old, he was accused of having two children with a girl younger than 14.
McCormick’s public defender believed he was suffering from some kind of mental disease or defect, but he was still found fit enough to stand trial. He pled guilty and spent 13 months at the Farmington Correctional Center.
After he was released from prison, McCormick got a job at a gas station in downtown St. Louis. The gas station was managed by two brothers, Juha and Baha Hamdallah, who had violent reputations. During his employment at the gas station, McCormick took several trips to Florida.
Later, his girlfriend told the police that she believed McCormick was smuggling drugs for the Hamdallah brothers and seemed frightened.
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He started acting erratically after his last trip to Florida in June 1999. He visited two emergency rooms between June 22 and June 25 for chest pains and shortness of breath.
He was last seen at the gas station on June 27. Nobody reported him missing. On June 30, his decomposing body was discovered in a field about 20 miles from where he lived and worked.
McCormick’s cause of death could not be determined, but detectives were under the suspicion that foul play was involved.
When his body was examined, the police discovered two pages of handwritten notes written in code. Experts were unable to solve it, so in 2011, they revealed the notes to the public and asked them for help.
McCormick’s family was skeptical of his ability to write in code, but the FBI maintained the idea that his notes contained some kind of hidden message. The string of letters and numbers did not look like gibberish or mere scribbles.
To this day, McCormick’s code has not yet been cracked. It is unclear whether he wrote it himself or if it was written by someone else. Investigators were also unable to link any suspects to the murder.
You can see the notes here.
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