Take a look at the hints below for guidance.

    Hint 1

    DO NOT PROCEED unless you have read ALL of the other clues and found alibis for as many of the suspects as possible. The following hints will gradually reveal who the killer was!…

    Riolo had a hotel compliment slip in his possession when he was arrested. The compliment slip is from The Highgate Hotel. According to the compliment slip, Riolo was having breakfast at 7:00am in the hotel Breakfast Room when a call came in for him from Main 0210. The compliment slip also mentions a date, 1st August, and the hotel main, Main 0205. What does that early morning call reveal?

    Riolo needs to give his Boss an update on something? That must be Sabini! The person who called didn’t give a name, and said that Riolo should call him back at 6:00pm on the same day. Using the same Mains info, what information is on this other call?

    Well that was odd. Riolo and Sabini both spoke in some sort of code, with a lot of dah’s and dit’s. Does any other piece of evidence help to decode what they were saying?

    According to the page from a 1914 Military Manual, they were speaking in morse code! Riolo and Sabini were using a form of morse code called dit-dah, where the traditional “dot” and “dash” are replaced with spoken “dit” and “dah”. We need to work out what they were saying.

    Riolo says: “Dit-dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Dah-di-di-dit / Dah-di-dit Dah-dah-dah Dah-dit Dit / Dah-dit / Di-di-dit / Dit-dah-dah Di-dit Dit-dah-di-dit Dit-dah-di-dit / Dah-dit Dah-dah-dah Dah / Dit-dah-dit Dit-dah Dah-dit-dah-dit Dit”

    Sabini replies: “Dah-dah-dit Dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Dah-di-dit”

    If you convert that into morse code you get:
    Riolo: “.— — -… / -.. — -. . / -. / … / .– .. .-.. .-.. / -. — – / .-. .- -.-. .”
    Sabini: “–. — — -..”

    Using the morse code alphabet, we can translate this coded message to reveal the hidden conversation:
    Riolo: “Job done N S will not race”
    Sabini: “Good”
    Riolo says N S will not race, this must refer to Noble Standing! We’ve already worked out Riolo couldn’t have killed the horse, so for him to be confident Noble Standing wouldn’t race, he must have killed the jockey, Brown. The hotel compliment slip does mention another call that Riolo made, maybe this will clear things up. The call apparently took place at 4:00pm the previous day, the 31st July, from the same Hotel mains, 0205. However, no receiver main is given. Maybe we just have to try them one by one until we figure out which one it is.

    Phew, that was lucky, the correct Main was 0202, so it didn’t take too long to find. The call between Riolo and Campbell (1st August, 4:00pm, Mains 0202 & 0205), tells us Riolo was in cahoots with the police to frame Tommy Shelby for murder. How did the murder weapon end up in Tommy Shelby’s possession?

    ANSWER: Ignazio Riolo is the killer! He spoke with Campbell over the phone and arranged a deal to kill Brown in exchange for police protection, also allowing Riolo to profit off his horseracing bet on Monaghan Boy with Brown out of the race. Riolo ambushed Brown just before 5:30pm on 1st August, reentering The Garrison through a back door where he bumped into Tommy Shelby, as mentioned in Tommy’s letter, placing the bloody murder weapon in Tommy’s pocket. After Brown’s body was found, Sergeant Moss immediately arrested Tommy knowing he’d find conclusive evidence to frame the leader of the Peaky Blinders.

    Head over to www.cryptickillers.com/peaky-blinders-killer and enter “Ignazio Riolo” as Clifford Brown’s killer and “Moira FitzHerrod” as Noble Standing’s killer to read a summary of the case.

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