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This is an article by Boyd M. Jolley published in the TREASURE magazine edition of August 1982.

Author's note: At the close of the article "Beale Code Breakthrough" in the January 1982 edition of TREASURE magazine, I invited readers to explore the mystery of the encoded Beale cyphers with me. The response was tremendous. Over 400 letters reached me through the mail. Most requested more information. Some offered information.

As I studied the various letters, one stood out uniquely among the rest. It was written by a man whom I shall refer to as "LeMarr Cross". It contained information about the long lost "key" which Thomas Beale mentioned in his last letter ... In essence LeMarr Cross claims this all-important key, which never did reach Morriss, has finally been found and that a conclusive search for Beale's treasure is now under way.

In an effort to substantiate these claims, the editor of this magazine and myself have verified as much of the information in this article as possible from sources other than Mr. Cross. The names "LeMarr Cross" and "Mark Green" are pseudonyms to protect confidentialities. All other names and places are historically accurate.

Diagram One: This grid contains the first nine numbers from Cipher 1 and shows how the code was cracked (with "original numbers" arranged across and "additional numbers" stacked vertically); unfortunately, Mr. Cross wouldn't reveal the three "additional numbers" which should be used in this grid.

... It has been speculated that Beale and his associates, including Robert Morriss, were all members of the Masonic Order. This assumption is important because it would certainly explain the reason Morriss was entrusted with so great a task, and the reason Beale had absolute control over the fortunes of thirty other men. It would also explain one of the most frequently asked questions by doubters of the story. Why didn't some of Beale's men dig up the treasure on their own? They knew where it was as they helped bury it. The oath that they were bound by, though, was sufficient to bind their tongues and keep them from private speculation. Of even greater importance, perhaps, the Masons were known to have used a coding system based on a grid, much like a tic-tac-toe grid, a game now played by children. This grid will be discussed later on in the article...

After the publication of the January article mentionned above, this writer became acquainted, via correspondence and telephone conversations, with a certain Mr. LeMarr Cross. Mr. Cross, to put it very concisely, told me that the Declaration of Independance has been used to decipher Ciphers Number One and Three!

This author is very aware that solutions to the Beale Code have been offered with regularity to the naive and uninformed, and I am not of the disposition to be duped by shysters as they wander about. What attracted my full attention to Mr. Cross was that, after communicating with him over a period of time, I could find no ulterior motive behind his revelations to me. Furthermore, I have ascertained to my own satisfaction that he not "the party of the first part" and makes no first-person claims to having cracked the code. His part in what follows has been one of mediator among myself, three other search parties, and the "party of the first part", the principal person, one Mark Green. As you will see, Mr. Cross also provided vital data to Mark Green.

"The very 'strings' (discovered by Mr. Gillogly) show more than the fact that the Declaration of Independance is the proper document to start with," states LeMarr Cross. "These strings intimate the use of all the letters in the Declaration of Independance." Any method of deciphering the code based on using every letter in the original Declaration of Independance is an extremely difficult and time-consuming task. Surely Mr. Beale didn't devise a method based on that! However, I soon discovered that, if I was to continue on with Mr. Cross, I must speak his language - namely a flawless count of every one of the 6,535 letters in the original D.O.I. (By "original" I mean the version containing the British spellings which Thomas Jefferson used. In some textbooks, you'll find these spellings have been Americanized so that "compleat" for instance, is spelled as "complete".)

"Since Beale worked his ciphers without the aid of computers, I daresay he was far advanced in the field even at a time when it (code writing) was universally popular," Mr. Cross went on. It should be noted here that code writing was practiced by many during Beale's time. Even journals were written in diverse ways, to prevent prying eyes from reading the contents. To accuse Beale of being a novice in the art may be to accuse wrongly.

Mr. Cross told me of four separate search parties, the last of which was headed by Mark Green. I will deal with the first three search parties first.

These three search parties did not know of each other at the time each of them independently decided to diagnose Plaintext Cipher Number Two, that part which Mr. Ward had deciphered. It reads as follows: ... (NB in repeating the C2-DOI solution the author places the following number in italics for emphasis... 4 miles fron Buford's... 6 feet below the surface... paper number 3... 1014 pounds of gold and 3812 pounds of silver... Nov. 1819... Dec. 1821... 1907 pounds of gold and 1288 of silver... Paper number 1...)

The three separate search parties each arrived at their own conclusions concerning this message. Perhaps they pondered the reason Beale chose to be so exact in describing what should have been a general reference. Did those numbers mean something far more than was obvious? They each decided that they did. Perhaps a laughable long-shot, but worth a try. Were they additional numbers that must be used with the numbers in Ciphers One and Three in order to get a meaningful message? Each party decided that they were.

The fourth search party, Mark Green, was not going through any such mental exercises. He had possession of an old family Bible that he had been searching for since his military days. However, he knew nothing about Thomas Jefferson Beale, nor his fabulous Virginia treasure. Mark thought the instructions and the three codes written out in the last few pages of the Good Book referred to his family estate. This property was not anywhere near Virginia. The instructions contained some numbers that he was to combine with the three codes. Some of those numbers were 4, 6, 3, 1014, 3812, 1819, 1821, 1907, 1288, and 1 -- the very same numbers appearing in Ward's solution of one-third of Beale's instructions!

However, since Green knew nothing of Ward nor Beale, the plaintext he was beginning to get by combining numbers did not correlate with any landmarks on the family estate. At this time he was fortunate to show the baffling codes to his friend, LeMarr Cross. Cross immediately recognized that it was the long sought-after Beale solution, or "key", and advised his friend of the same.

It should be mentionned at this time that the other three search parties had experienced some success with the first 81 numbers, and Mr. Cross recorded that they all were identical and agreed with Mark Green's solution to that point. After the first 81 numbers they all varied somewhat, and because of sometimes subtle differences in the choice of number combinations they all came up with the wrong final solutions. Each of the three separate search parties tested their own solution at the actual treasure site. One of these parties found the small marker rocks that Beale had drilled holes in, and now has them in his possession. Other immovable markers were observed by each of them as they anxiously tested their directions, and each in turn failed, although one was "within spitting distance" of the vault!

Mark Green says he has ascertained that the instructions written in his inherited family Bible were written by Beale himself. His instructions, in plaintext, pinpointed the exact vault site. Shortly before the publication of this article, Green visited the treasure site, entered a vault and "found something", according to LeMarr Cross. The actual description and value of his find will not be made known at this time. Mr. Cross did tell me that Beale's initials were scratched in the smoke-laden walls (the smoke being from Beale's lanterns).

Think of it, folks: three individuals many miles apart and with no knowledge of each other suddenly discover a series of numbers and start experimenting with them, mixing them up and adding them to the Beale ciphers. Plus, in another location and without knowledge of the other three, Mark Green discovers the waybill to Beale's massive fortune hidden in an inherited family Bible. Written in the hand of his ancestor (T.J.B.?) the complete codes and the instructions for deciphering them are laid bare before his eyes!

As the time-worn cliche tells us, the proof of any pudding is in the eating, so pull yourself up to the table and let's jab our forks into the substance of this thing. Keep in mind that I am giving you information that sent Mark Green and his confidants on a major recovery mission. Residents around the site (shown on the accompanying map) are well aware of the attempt. What the locals are not aware of is the nature and extent of Green's success. If the $30,000,000 dollars was there, Mr. Green is now an incredibly rich man. If something less than a fortune was recovered, Mr. Green still holds the distinction of having been the first to crack successfully and accurately the mystery ciphers, Number 1 and Number 3. Here is how he did it, as specified by the inherited key.

First take the numbers from Cipher Number Two, as revealed by Ward, and transpose the digits. For instance the number 1014 becomes 1104, 1140, 1041, 1401 and so forth. Do the same with each of the numbers. Do not, however, transpose the date numbers 1819 and 1821. Also include the numbers 4592, 229, 209, 1820, and 778 (none of which should be transposed). When you're done you should have assembled over sixty numbers, which we'll call the "additional numbers".

Now draw up the tic-tac-toe grid: three squares across and three squares down. Repeat drawing this grid until you have enough squares to include all of the original numbers from Ciphers One and Three, that is 522 and 618 squares. (Note: the number 49602 or 49-602 in Cipher One should be written as 4-9-60-2 and fill four squares.) Refore to the accompanying illustration of the grid (Diagram 1) to get you started. Mr. Cross has witheld the correct sequence of the additional numbers, so I cannot tell you which of those numbers to combine with the opening number of 71. However, as a verification of Green's claim, Mr. Cross has given me the answer to the final sixteen squares of Cipher Number One. This answer is the abbreviated name CAPTAIN THM J BEALL. Once again refer to the illustration (Diagram 2). (NB Diagram 2 is not included here. It is simply a picture of the codes of C1). Mr. Cross tells me that these same additional numbers appear in two other places in Cipher Number One. For instance, "209" is used a total of nine times in three different grids. With this knowledge, and some experimentation, you may be able to find out what words are spelled at those other points.

The apparent misspelling of the name "Beale" is easy to understand when you realize that it was originally a French name spelled as "Bouille". When Anglicizing it, the captain may have vacillated between the two spellings, choosing "Beale" sometimes and then using "Beall" at others. It may also be true, as Mr. Cross points out, that one could have been used as an alias for the other.

As you add the original numbers with corredponding numbers, please remember that you arrange the latter down (vertically) and read the plaintext across. If it were not for this twist, there would be no need for the tic-tac-toe grid (each number is used three times, stacked vertically, as shown in Diagram 2).

You will find, as you decipher, that Beale Ciphers One and Three were written in the form of a letter, complete with date, place of origin, a greeting, general contents and a closing (hence the name Captain Thm. J. Beall appearing at the end). Cipher Number Three should be looked on as a postscript (P.S.) to the letter. Deciphering Number Three is merely a continuation of the same process of combining the original numbers with the additional ones and arriving at the location number in the Declaration of Independence.

If you're lucky enough to decode Cipher Three, you will learn it was written to inform Mr. Morriss that the names of the individuals which were SUPPOSED to be hidden in Number Three were really concealed in the vault in the form of sworn wills. It also revealed that markers were placed to keep Morriss from going in the wrong direction. If you think about it, this makes sense, for it would be quite an accomplishment to place thirty names and addresses in 618 letter spaces.

Like the other additional numbers, the date numbers 1819 and 1821 also appear three times throughout the code, and Mr. Cross tells me that once you have the first series of additional numbers, you will see that the entire process repeats itself a total of three times throughout the entire length of Ciphers One and Three.

You will probably ask, as I did: If Green knows the exact treasure site and has entered the Beale vault, why not reveal the entire decoding process? Mr. Cross tells me that there is information in the plaintext that Mark Green does not want generally circulated at this time. If, however, anyone does decipher the message for himself, so be it. It should be mentionned here that I do not have the plaintext at the time of this writing, but will be happy to speculate with anyone who wishes to attempt a decipherment. In fact, the editors of this magazine invite your comments, and should Green or Cross release more information, it will appear first in these pages.

Referring back to the three search parties who failed: because the decoding process changes every three squares, with a new additional number (arranged vertically, not across), you can now see the reason they failed. Not knowing the correct sequence of the additional numbers, they came up with faulty directions, such as "west" instead of "left". You will soon see how easy it is to misspell and go wrong as you attempt to decipher. The first 81 letters were identical because these contain the date and place of origin of the letter -- rather easy compared to the rest of the contents, which contain mention of fourteen directional markers. You will recognize these, Green is willing to admit, as the Devil's Mound, the big bend in the north fork of Goose Creek, a left turn to be made to the end of a creek, and a specific rock to be found. Only Mark Green found the final marker rock. Contrary to some theories, trees with marks on them apparently never did exist pertaining to the Beale treasure.

LeMarr Cross says that, with these directions, a person who knows the region can find his way to within several hundred yards of the treasure site, but he wouldn't be allowed much closer because it's located on private property. One of my contacts who just visited the area found this out firsthand. He talked with several people who live nearby and learned that Green has signed an agreement with the landowner and now has heavy equipment on the property. That's as close as my contact got, though, for the site itself and the land around it are completely secure from trespassing.

Mr. Cross, realizing that doubters will be legion, states in conclusion, "I can safely say that once you start finding the date mentionned in the first nine spaces of Code One, you will suddenly realize this is the way to go, because it will fit as nothing else can with no possibility of error".

Perhaps and perhaps not, Mr. Cross. We leave it to the readers of TREASURE to vindicate your story to their own satisfaction. Of course, if the treasure has indeed been claimed by Mark Green, one of the greatest treasure hunts in all history is, at last over.