The Codebreaker

Born in 1892 in Indiana, the young Elizebeth Smith was a keen linguist from an early age, and graduated from college in 1915 as an English Literature major. She enjoyed reading and poetry, writing some of her own work. Her start in codebreaking was prompted by an encounter with the millionaire businessman George Fabyan, owner of Riverbank Laboratories, one of the first facilities in the U.S. founded for the study of cryptography. It was at Riverbank where Smith honed her skills in cryptography, and where she met William Friedman, whom she married in 1917. Armed with a sharp mind and nerves of steel, Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892-1980) cracked hundreds of ciphers during her career as America's first female cryptanalyst, successfully busting smugglers during Prohibition and, most notably, breaking up a Nazi spy ring across South America during the 1940s. But until records detailing her involvement in World War II were declassified in 2008, most Americans had never heard of Friedman. A man-then-director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover-took credit for Friedman's wartime success, and she took her secret life as one of the country's top codebreakers to the grave. Learn more and check out these titles

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