ABSTRACT
Rumrunners and bootleggers used coded radio messages to communicate from land to ship. Radios were a fairly new invention and were quite expensive, but bootlegging was a profitable business. The smugglers had the latest technology and they also used codes to fool anyone who might be listening. In 1923, Coast Guard turned over the messages to the US Treasury Department, hoping that it could make sense of the strange messages. The work was given to Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Elizebeth was an expert at cryptanalysis and had done. The bootleggers had to be surprised when Coast Guard began stopping their shipments. They figured that someone was cracking their codes, so they made them more complicated. They were still easy for Elizebeth. The bootleggers had to be surprised when the Coast Guard began stopping their shipments. They figured that someone was cracking their codes, so they made them more complicated. Elizebeth went on to work as a codebreaker during Second World War.
