The fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Meet Elizebeth Friedman, the pioneering cryptanalyst who took down Al Capone and a Nazi spy ring.

• Fred Vigeant/WITF
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  Fred Vigeant is WITF's Director of Programming and Promotions for TV and Radio. Fred manages the schedules for our radio and television platforms. He also analyzes audience research and manages the public affairs program Smart Talk. Previously, Fred was at WRVO in Oswego, NY for 12 years serving in various roles including Program Director and before that Operations Manager. Fred graduated from the State University of New York College at Oswego with a B.A. in Mass Communications and Broadcasting.

 Courtesy of George C. Marshall Foundation Library

William F. Friedman and Elizebeth S. Friedman on the grounds of Riverbank Laboratories in Geneva, Illinois. 1917.

Based on the book The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies, The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1920s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII.

Her remarkable contributions to the science of cryptology would come to light decades after her death, when secret government files were unsealed. Together with her husband, the legendary cryptographer William Friedman, Elizebeth helped develop the codebreaking methods that laid the foundation for modern codebreaking today.

Watch The Codebreaker on American Experience Monday January 11 at 9:00pm on WITF. You can now watch WITF TV live through our new webstream available through our website and through the PBS Video app on Roku, Apple TV and iPhone and Andriod smart phones. The program is also available on-demand through the PBS Video app.

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