Hero of the Week 120

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This week's hero is...

Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Elizebeth Friedman (Elizebeth Smith) was born on August 26, 1892, in Huntington, Indiana. She was the youngest of nine children who grew up on a farm. In 1915 Elizabeth graduated from Hillsdale College with a major in English literature. Since she was an avid fan of William Shakespeare, she would often visit the famous Newberry Library in Chicago to see an original 1632 edition of Shakespeare's First Folios. Little did she know, that her interest in William Shakespeare would put her on a path toward the subject of code-breaking.

One day when she was visiting the library, Elizebeth met a textile merchant named, George Fabyan. George was looking for researchers who were interested in working on a Shakespeare code-cracking project. After learning of Elizebeth's skills, George invited her back to his estate in Geneva, Illinois. From there, she became a major expert in cracking codes within literature. While she was there, she met a fellow code-breaker named, William Friedman (her future husband). Together they attempted to prove Fabyan's theory that Sir Francis Bacon had been the actual author of Shakespeare's plays (they ended up proving that this was incorrect).

Elizebeth and William Friedman officially married in 1917. Due to their skills in deciphering codes in literature (cryptography), the two were recruited by the US government into the it's very first code-breaking unit during World War I. Their task was to intercept and decipher radio messages from German u-boats. Her skills at recognizing patterns proved to be invaluable to safe-guarding convoys across the Atlantic Ocean. After World War I ended, Elizebeth was hired by the US Coast Guard to help them monitor Prohibition-era smuggling rings. She is credited with cracking more than 12,000 encryptions which resulted 650 criminal prosecutions. However, her greatest feat would occur in 1941, during World War II.

While still working for the Coast Guard, Elizebeth began to intercept cryptic messages from Nazi spies stationed in South America. These messages were used by the Coast Guard to protect Allied convoys from German u-boat attacks. While using analog methods, she successfully broke three Enigma machine codes. By doing this, Elizabeth and her husband exposed a network Nazi informants that were based in the countries of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. The exposure of this network caused all three countries to sever diplomatic ties to Nazi Germany and support the Allied forces.

In the aftermath of World War II, Elizebeth Friedman's contributions were largely credited to her husband, William Friedman (who had also cracked codes). She however, never received any major recognition for all the work she had done for the United States. William Friedman passed away on November 12, 1969. Elizebeth eventually retired and spent the rest of her life working in libraries to preserve the achievements that she and her husband had accomplished. She passed away on October 31, 1980. Both she and William are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1999, Elizebeth Friedman was inducted into the NSA Hall of Honor. In July 2020, the US Coast Guard named a ship after her. Although, she never lived to experience it, Elizebeth Friedman finally received recognition for all she had done for the United States of America. Today, she is remembered as one of the most valuable assets to the American intelligence service.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-pbs-film-tells-story-wwii-codebreaker-elizabeth-friedman-180976759/

https://time.com/5928583/elizebeth-friedman-codebreaker/