FBI wants public help solving encrypted notes from murder mystery

[David Bernier]

Joe Snodgrass wrote:
> On Apr 1, 10:54 am, David Bernier<david... at videotron.ca>  wrote:
>> haha doh wrote:
>>> On Mar 31, 3:15 pm, Joe Snodgrass<joe.s... at yahoo.com>    wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
>>
>>>> As to which crime was being committed, I'm going with numbers running
>>>> or loan sharking.  There's no reason for any crook to keep any record
>>>> of any other crime, except prostitution, where phone books come in
>>>> handy.
>>
>>>> Thievery is not an honest business, and records of what went down,
>>>> where and with whom can only hurt you.  Unless of course, it's a grand
>>>> list of felonies that he was using to blackmail the participants.
>>
>>>> But I can't see gathering that much info from blackmail.  I always
>>>> thought it involved one guy blackmailing one victim.  This would imply
>>>> a factory scale process, and he'd need some way to lure his prey into
>>>> the trap.
>>
>>>> Of course, that WOULD be a good way to get murdered.
>>> This is him
>>> http://img851.imageshack.us/i/4d93ac54b10bcimage.jpg/
>>
>> True indeed! , according to a story posted on March 30 on the
>> website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
>> <http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ad567e00-5b13-11e0-8ed4-0012...>
>> .
>>
>> That web page has a link to a 1999 article on the discovery of the body:
>> <http://www.stltoday.com/news/article_bcc02074-5b1a-11e0-b199-0017a4a7...>  .
>>
>> An officer with the local Major Case Squad unit is quoted there. I quote
>> from the 1999 story:
>>
>> <<  "We cannot find any motive for his death, " he said.
>> "We're not absolutely sure that this is a homicide.">>  .
>
> What's the cause of death?

 From one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch articles (presumably the orig. source),
one learns that "Death appears to be caused by a blow to the head.",
this via "Austinstar" at hubpages.com :
< http://hubpages.com/hub/Cryptographic-clues > .

- Body identified through fingerprints (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

- Ricky McCormick had a criminal conviction for statutory rape.
   (via n01h3r3 at boards.straightdope.com) :
   < http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13642308 > .

- Ricky McCormick had one address in St. Louis, Missouri and
   others in Illinois (why?).

David