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Elizebeth Friedman’s Hidden Legacy as a Codebreaker

The youngest of nine, Elizebeth Smith Friedman was born Elizebeth Smith in Huntington, Indiana on 26 August, 1892. The spelling of her name is attributed to her mother who hated the idea of her daughter being called “Eliza”. She initially attended the University of Wooster in Ohio, eventually transferring to Hillsdale College in Michigan, graduating with a major in English Literature in 1915. While she had a wide range of academic interests, she demonstrated an especially deep passion for languages that would follow her into her career.  

After completing her degree, she began working at the Newberry Research Library in Chicago, probably attracted to the place because of an original Shakespeare folio known to be there, being a great admirer of the playwright. It was there that in 1916, she was recruited by George Fabyan to work at his private institute, Riverbank Laboratories. This was primarily an acoustical* research facility, but also oversaw research and development projects in a number of other disciplines, most notably cryptography*. 

As owner of Riverbank, Fabyan used his position to pursue his many eccentric and unusual interests, one of which was to prove that Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s works. While this was a popular conspiracy theory at the time, Fabyan took this flight of fancy a step further, believing that Shakespearian works contained hidden scientifically based codes, left there by Bacon. Mainly thanks to her passion for his works, Elizebeth was initially hired to find and decrypt them. Of course, nothing like that was hidden in Shakespeare’s writing, and eventually even Fabyan himself was forced to concede that his pursuit was fruitless. At that point, however, the brilliance of the methods she had developed were evident, and soon were put to good use in one of Riverbank’s more practical endeavors.

Elizebeth was transferred to Riverbank’s military decryption program a year after at Riverbank, where she worked with her future husband William Friedman. At the time, the prominence of radio transmission meant that codebreaking was now a valuable skill, but the US did not have a dedicated code-breaking unit and was unprepared to gather intelligence by those means. As the likelihood of the US becoming involved in the war in Europe increased, Fabyan volunteered the services and expertise of the staff at Riverbank, establishing the first code-breaking unit in America, headed by Friedman and Elizebeth. Together, they developed novel and original cyphers*. Friedman had initially been hired at Riverbank to work on a genetics project, working in cryptoanalysis only as a side-project to his primary responsibilities. He became interested both in cryptography and in Elizebeth herself. Elizebeth reciprocated this interest, and the two grew close not only as co-workers, but also as a couple. By 1917, they were married and Elizebeth Smith became Elizebeth Smith Friedman 

Just before Elizebeth and William wed, the US entered the war. The couple trained army personnel in deciphering messages, and also built their own sophisticated code systems. After the war, the Friedmans left Riverbank to work for the U.S. government. William worked for the Navy in the 1920s. Concurrently, Elizebeth ran a cryptanalytic unit under the U.S. Coast Guard to monitor illicit smuggling rings—the first woman to ever lead such an initiative. She would intercept and solve the coded messages of bootleggers* and criminals, aiding law enforcement during America’s Prohibition Era. Elizebeth and her assistants' work resulted in 650 criminal prosecutions, and she testified as an expert witness in 33 cases against narcotics smugglers.

Due to the classified nature of their respective work, William did not know what Elizebeth was working on, nor was she privy to his work. Even though they couldn’t share the content of their sensitive work with the military and law enforcement, they were permitted to share methods. This led to some very high-profile collaboration, including a popular and long enduring series of cryptography publications. Friedman and Smith co-authored these books from the 1930s through the 1950s, and the volumes became the preferred curriculum for training code breakers during that period.

Of the two, William was far better known in military and government circles. It wasn’t until 50 years later during interviews with officials in the National Security Administration (NSA) that it was discovered that Elizebeth was doing much more than anyone knew. Even William was surprised by the extent of Elizebeth’s contributions, the most significant of which were during US involvement in World War II from 1941 to 1945.

While other cryptographers became famous for using early electronic computers to break the infamous German Enigma codes, Elizebeth led a small group of pencil-and-paper code breakers, training them in her more traditional methods, which were rooted in a love for puzzles and the artistry of how cyphers work. To ascertain the extent of German influence in Latin America, she and her team tracked cyphers used by different groups living there. They decrypted messages that had been sent using Enigma machines, uncovering an entire spy network across the continent and discovering the identity of its ringmaster, Johannes Siegfried Becker. She successfully tracked him where every other law enforcement agency and intelligence agencies failed. 

Unfortunately, the secretive nature of Elizebeth Friedman’s World War II mission allowed opportunists elsewhere in the United States security apparatus* to wrongly take credit for the results. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), led by J. Edgar Hoover, claimed credit for exposing the German spies and became national heroes, even though the real credit belonged to Elizebeth’s initiative in the then-nascent NSA. Elizebeth’s accomplishments were passed over, an insult made worse by the cultural attitudes toward women at that time. In fact, while William was considered during his lifetime to be America’s leading cryptologist, and is remembered today as the godfather of the National Security Agency, Elizebeth’s achievements have only received greater recognition in recent years, after World War II records detailing her role were declassified.

Near the end of her life, as cultural attitudes towards women became more progressive, she was finally acknowledged for her work in cryptography and instrumental role in the formation of the NSA.

Glossary

  • acoustical: related to the scientific study of sound

  • cryptography: the practice of communicating in secret code and cracking the secret codes of others

  • cyphers: procedures and systems for creating or breaking secret codes

  • bootleggers: people who illegally produce something; often refers to the illegal production of alcohol

  • security apparatus: governmental agencies that defend against foreign and domestic threats


Question 10-13

Question type: Complete the sentences

Intended difficulty: Higher Intermediate

Complete the sentences below.

Choose  ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 10-13.

10.   Her conventional yet brilliant skills meant she had no need for ………….

11.   Elizebeth was never given ………… for her work until late in life.

12.   Negative …………regarding women were common in society during her lifetime.

13.   Proper recognition came with the release of official wartime ………….