The Undeciphered Death of Paul Rubin

The Rubin ciphertextEighteen-year-old Paul Emanuel Rubin was a sophomore at New York University, where he studied chemistry. We have contradictory reports about his scholastic success: His father Samuel said that Paul was an excellent student, while a police detective later told reporters that the teenager was doing so poorly at the University that he was in danger of flunking out. (This is one of those cases that is full of contradictory details.) On the morning of Monday, January 19, 1953, Paul left his home in Brooklyn. His mother Bessie assumed he was going off to his classes. She claimed that he seemed in good spirits, showing absolutely no sign that things were about to become very, very weird.Just before 10 am on the following morning, one Reverend Robert Anderson was walking through Philadelphia International Airport when his attention was arrested by a “wild-eyed” “stocky man” walking on the ramp between the terminal building and the air express office. Anderson wished the…