A Life in Code: Pioneer Cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith Friedman

by G. Stuart Smith

Protesters called it an act of war when the U.S. Coast Guard sank a Canadian-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Mexico in 1929. It took a cool-headed codebreaker solving a "trunk-full" of smugglers' encrypted messages to get Uncle Sam out of the mess: Elizebeth Smith Friedman's groundbreaking work helped prove the boat was owned by American gangsters.
This book traces the career of a legendary U.S. law enforcement agent, from her work for the Allies during World War I through Prohibition, when she faced danger from mobsters while testifying in high profile trials. Friedman founded the cryptanalysis unit that provided evidence against American rum runners and Chinese drug smugglers. During World War II, her decryptions brought a Japanese spy to justice and her Coast Guard unit solved the Enigma ciphers of German spies. Friedman's "all source intelligence" model is still used today by law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies against 21st century threats.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Espionage, Science, Feminism, Military History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2017

Reviews

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A Life in Code: Pioneer Cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith Friedman,” by G. Stuart Smith (McFarland, 2017). Elizebeth Smith Friedman was the wife of William Friedman, the man who broke the Japanese Purple code, which factor allowed the Americans to ambush the Japanese at Midway and begin the defeat of Japan. But that point is only for identity purposes: Elizebeth (her mother spelled it that way so that she would not be called Eliza) was herself a supreme code-breaker, whose work was moderately known before World War II but who since has almost faded from history. (Although she is a legend in the National Security Agency, the NSA.) The story is fascinating on many levels: the indomitable tenacity of a woman in very much a man’s world—ultimately she commanded all-male units; the role of the Coast Guard and code-breaking in combating rum-runners during Prohibition and drug smugglers afterward; how as a result of its work tracking smugglers and miscellaneous crooks across the seas, the Coast Guard became a crucial force in American intelligence and counter-intelligence during the war; the bureaucratic infighting among CG, Navy, FBI, the nascent OSS; the fact that she was married to a Jew in a very anti-Semitic world, especially the Navy. And, of course, code-breaking itself. It seems that Elizebeth’s team was the first American group to break the German Enigma machine and code. This was before the development of machines and computers. Code-breakers had to take what seemed to be random blocks of letters, or completely innocuous correspondence, and figure out how messages were sent, how the letters were jumbled, disassembled, and reassembled. The oddest part is that Elizebeth got her start working for George Fabyan, a millionaire who was convinced that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays. She and William were both hired to break the Bacon/Shakespeare code, and met in 1917 at Fabyan’s Riverbank estate. (After the war, Smith and Friedman went back to the Bacon question, and destroyed it; they proved that Francis Bacon, at least, did not write the plays.) Smith burrowed through all sorts of files, unpublished manuscripts, live interviews, declassified information to unearth and assemble the story. Interestingly, much of what she actually did in World War II is still classified, and Smith did a bit of sleuthing, if not code-breaking, himself to tell it. This is a valuable achievement. Fwiw, Elizebeth was Smith’s great-aunt.

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[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating life story, told well with great detail. Informative about the field and history of codebreaking, too.

[Barbara Ruuska · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography about a woman I had never heard of before watching a PBS "American Experience" episode. She is known as "America's first female cryptanalyst."

She met her husband at Riverbanks Laboratory. They started working together on trying to break the codes of Shakespeare's writing. Their code analyses lead them both to become world renown cryptanalysts. First during WWI, then during Prohibition and finally WWII.

This was a fascinating book about the 20th century and the use of modern technology to communicate. Mrs. Friedman was well respected by her colleagues and law enforcement. I would highly recommend reading this book.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story that needed to be told.

[Balloon Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!