She gained some unwanted fame for this – unwanted because she preferred to work behind the scenes and didn’t seek out the spotlight. This work sometimes required her to testify at the trials of high level mafia figures. Elizebeth was tasked with breaking the codes of rum runners who were smuggling booze into the US during prohibition. For a while, they worked together but that didn’t last. They finally shook loose of his hold and moved to Washington DC to work for the federal government. They were ground breakers who created the science of cryptology.įollowing WWI, the Friedmans remained at Riverbank for a period of time, but grew tired of being under the thumb of the mad millionaire. This launched the careers of two of the most significant and successful cryptologists in US history. The US had just become involved in WWI and the skills of this dynamic duo were needed in the war effort. Elizebeth came to realize the project was bunk, but she and her colleague and future husband, William, had established such a strong and rare expertise in code breaking that soon the US government came calling to enlist their help on a different project. Elizebeth worked on one of his pet projects – proving that Francis Bacon placed encoded messages in the works of William Shakespeare. Through a combination of initiative and luck, Elizebeth landed a job at Riverbank, a science-focused compound founded by an eccentric millionaire. She had studied Shakespeare in college and wanted to do something “interesting” upon graduation. Bonus!Įlizebeth Friedman didn’t start her working life wanting to be a cryptologist. To understand the significance of Elizebeth’s accomplishments, the reader has to understand the context in which she worked, so the reader gets to learn about code breaking and Nazi spies in Argentina. I was expecting a straight up biography but it was more than that. This is the kind of nonfiction I like to read because it exposed me to several things that were new to me.
Added all together, it makes for a fascinating read. This book is part biography, part history of cryptology and part history of Nazi activity in South America during WWII. “The Woman Who Smashed Codes” is the true story of how a brilliant female cryptologist, Elizebeth Friedman, helped write the rules for modern cryptology and used her skills like a hammer to smash enemy codes during both world wars.
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