Solve the Crime in Eleven Letters or Less (Ultimate Spoiler)

[prophit]

Greetings, World of Blue.

Here is How to Solve
the Mystery of
Who killed Laura Palmer,
In Eleven Letters or Less.


Item One:
Place the first name of the hero
Next to the first name of the killer


Dale Leland


Almost a palindrome. The palindrome would be DnaleLeland, if it meant anything. It is statistically impossible for this sequence of letters to have resulted from coincidence. This wordplay was the genius of David Lynch and Mark Frost (or possibly just David).

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Item Two:

dale and lea are synonyms for valley, the land below and between the "Twin Peaks of Compassion and Insight" (if you are inclined to believe that the title originates from the Buddhist teaching by that name).

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Item Three:

Take DnaleLeland, cut out two letters, make a shorter palindrome.


DNA Leland


Look at that, a perfect nine-letter palindrome.

A brand-new, virtually magical forensic science + the name of the killer.


Cheap, fast, sensitive PCR forensic DNA technology wouldn't be available until the mid-1990s, but I have found articles in the press about the very first criminal cases litigated around DNA evidence using the RFLP analysis method, in Time, Newsweek, and the LA Times from 1987, before Lynch and Frost wrote their Revised First Draft of the Pilot (December 7, 1988).

In the forensic investigation of an assault, when the victim has fought back, a good place to find DNA evidence from the attacker is underneath the victim's fingernails. Under Teresa and Laura's fingernails, we found a T and an R... BOB was spelling his name backwards. In 1989, BOB's true name was Leland - so why not try reversing the spelling?

For many years, I have remarked that if DNA technology has been available in the investigation of Laura's death, DNA evidence from the crime scene would have been identified as belonging to her father within hours of the discovery of her body; before Dale ever got a chance to sit down with his first slice of pie.

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My breakthrough came about a two weeks ago, 25 years later than the pilot, though Dale and Leland's names were right there from the very beginning.

Google produces no hits for ["dna leland" palindrome] or ["dale leland" palindrome], other than my post to USENET's alt.tv.twin-peaks, where I was a constant presence for fifteen years (as Trichome).

I am interested in your opinion regarding these discoveries, and how they might best be revealed to the broader world of Twin Peaks fans.

- Prophit

[garethw]

Nice to see you, Trichome - I used to read your stuff on usenet. I even gave you a back-handed compliment in a thread here years ago. Hope you're not too upset.

Not sure if I put much stock in this particular discovery for the same reason I'm not all that interested in numerology, but "DNA Leland" is kind of an interesting palindrome nonetheless.

Hope you stick around.

[qbin2001]

OMG Trichome! I haven't seen this name for 15 years! Oh those years on alt.tv.twin-peaks...

[prophit]

Nice to see you, Trichome - I used to read your stuff on usenet. I even gave you a back-handed compliment in a thread here years ago. Hope you're not too upset.

You are correct, frequently crotchety would be more than fair. A forum on another topic has been the beneficiary and victim of my contributions in recent years. Moderators there would say I have gained some self-control, somehow without becoming less crotchety. If I detect intolerance, I get seriously intolerant of that.

Enough of history. I am here to spread a most amazing insight.

Not sure if I put much stock in this particular discovery for the same reason I'm not all that interested in numerology, but "DNA Leland" is kind of an interesting palindrome nonetheless.

Numerology is a violation of mathematics, a perversion. A palindrome is a fact, it exists or nearly exists or does not exist. A short palindrome is easy to encounter statistically. A nine letter palindrome - by accident - is very, very improbable. Even a near nine letter palindrome is so improbable, that it must be definitely intentional.

I plan to write to Will Shortz at the NYTimes, and to a palindrome expert, for them to offer their appraisals of the statistics. My personal evaluation of this wordplay is based on 35 years of crosswords (NYT, every day for a decade, in pen; for the last few years, correctly solved without error ~99% of the time.)

We don't have to debate the odds of simply encountering a nine letter palindrome. There are additional constraints on [ D a l e L e l a n d ] that push the odds far into the range of ridiculous - these words are the names of the detective and the killer. That's foundational, that's right at the core of the Twin Peaks concept; maybe even before Laura got her name (laurels, for victory, praise and approval. Lynch used this wordplay as well when naming Lost Highway's Dick Laurent, a paragon of dickishness.)


Dale and lea are near-equivalent terms. I dare anyone to find another palindrome of nine letters containing a pair of synonyms.

Given how the killer would have been unmasked as a first degree relative by his DNA,

Can it be a coincidence that
DNA + the name of the killer
makes a palindrome?

With all those constraints put together,
it's more likely to snow chocolate milk.

I'm not moved to look for a chocolate-proof umbrella.


Wordplay is not numerology. Twin Peaks is an intentionally designed work of art, where every single aspect may represent an arbitrary, active choice by rational minds.

Of course patterns may be sought and might be found in such a work.

Hope you stick around.

That depends on whether my posts generate the interested, intelligent responses they deserve.

- Prophit Trichome

[garethw]

Not sure why I'm doing this, but here goes.

Numerology is a violation of mathematics, a perversion.

Agreed. Mathematics is pure science. Numerology is the drawing of dubious connections between numbers.

A palindrome is a fact, it exists or nearly exists or does not exist.

No. Something is a palindrome or it is not. "Almost a palindrome" is not a thing. It's numerology applied to the alphabet.

In getting from item 1 to item 3 -- forgetting the invariant "GARLAND" part -- you mangled DALE into DNA. You dropped 2 (out of just 4!) letters and added another one. And to get from LELAND to LEA, you took the first two letters out of 6, and added 1 more.

You know what that reminds me of? Numerology.

But as I already said, Item 3 is quite an interesting palindrome. But it has nothing to do with Items 1 or 2, or Dale or a lea.

A short palindrome is easy to encounter statistically. A nine letter palindrome - by accident - is very, very improbable. Even a near nine letter palindrome is so improbable, that it must be definitely intentional.

Not sure. As crossword enthusiasts and cryptographers well know, the frequency of letters in the alphabet is far from even, and when you start looking at pairs of letters, it's even more startlingly uneven. "LE" and "ND" are actually amongst the more common sequences. I have not looked into the frequency of "AND", but from a working knowledge of English, I believe it to be a pretty common triple. We need look no further than the good Major Briggs to find another name that ends in -AND.

It may have been deliberate, I don't know. I don't know how to go about assigning a probability to something like that. But I do have some friends from South India, from Kerala, to be exact - and do you know what language they speak? Malayalam. A 9-letter palindrome in English, but not a palindrome at all in Malayalam. Now what is the "probability" of that?

I wonder what Sam Stanley's machine is, by the way. You know - the one that cracked the Whitman case. No one else could have solved that case, because they didn't have a machine like that. Some sort of nascent technology? Perhaps Sam's machine was an interpretation of what DNA testing apparatus might look like.

I plan to write to Will Shortz at the NYTimes, and to a palindrome expert, for them to offer their appraisals of the statistics. My personal evaluation of this wordplay is based on 35 years of crosswords (NYT, every day for a decade, in pen; for the last few years, correctly solved without error ~99% of the time.)

By all means, I encourage you to. I'd be interested to hear what they think of your claim.

I'd also be interested in what Mark Frost has to say about it, if you can get his attention.

Dale and lea are near-equivalent terms. I dare anyone to find another [sic] palindrome of nine letters containing a pair of synonyms.

That would be a challenge. But note, you don't have one either.

Hope you stick around.

That depends on whether my posts generate the interested, intelligent responses they deserve.

Well, I still hope you stick around.

[prophit]

A palindrome is a fact, it exists or nearly exists or does not exist.

No. Something is a palindrome or it is not. "Almost a palindrome" is not a thing. It's numerology applied to the alphabet.

Would you call that "wordology" or "wordplay"?

"Mathplay" isn't a thing - no, that's fool's "math", numerology, a method applied inappropriately to a text, looking for relationships which were not inscribed within intentionally by the authors.

I had a subscription to Games magazine in the 1980's. I bought the back issues and read them cover to cover. In the 1970's in grade school, I read numerous puzzle books in our library, filled with puzzles from British and American literary magazines from the 19th and early 20th century.

I assure you, this wordplay is nothing as crass as numerology;
but we'd all feel better to hear Will Shortz say that (he only accepts snail mail).

Wordplay is more flexible than math. Letters are sounds. An imperfect rhyme is still recognizable as a rhyme. Anagrams are far more playful than math, jumbling letters is at the heart of much wordplay. Take numbers out of sequence, they lose everything.

"almost a nine-letter palindrome" is not a previously existing concept. There has never been a use for it. Now there is - the term approximates the odds by pegging them to the odds of a nine-letter palindrome. If this were the lottery, that would still win a big second prize, because the odds are appalling bad against either a nine-letter palindrome or a [nine-letter palindrome, except with one extra letter] being accidental.

In getting from item 1 to item 3 -- forgetting the invariant "GARLAND" part

Did you mean Leland? I haven't mentioned the Major, but he is named as if he had been honored with a garland for his service.

A gar is a fish. [Fish] + land.
No idea where that would take us.

-- you mangled DALE into DNA. You dropped 2 (out of just 4!) letters and added another one. And to get from LELAND to LEA, you took the first two letters out of 6, and added 1 more.

You know what that reminds me of? Numerology.

I think you should look at more word puzzle books. The Word Ladder, for example:

Word ladder (also known as Doublets, word-links, or Word golf) is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words to link the two, in which two adjacent words (that is, words in successive steps) differ by one letter.

The logic behind my letter transformations was comprised of a few simple observations and discrete steps.
1) observe that D a l e L e l a n d is a flawed palindrome (though still hella unlikely by chance)
2) add the N to fix the symmetry D n a l e L e l a n d
3) observe that DNA now begins the letter sequence.
4) remember that Leland's DNA would have solved the case.
5) but DNAleLeland has two extra letters...
6) which when removed, makes a new palindrome, DNA Leland

Discovering a new palindrome is always reason for celebration.

But as I already said, Item 3 is quite an interesting palindrome. But it has nothing to do with Items 1 or 2, or Dale or a lea.

Yes, the ways they arise are unrelated; AND they point to the same very big truths, about Agent Cooper and Mr. Palmer being two sides of the same coin.

They corroborate each other by virtue of the fact that they arise independently.
The more independent constraints, the greater the odds against.

A short palindrome is easy to encounter statistically. A nine letter palindrome - by accident - is very, very improbable. Even a near nine letter palindrome is so improbable, that it must be definitely intentional.

Not sure. As crossword enthusiasts and cryptographers well know, the frequency of letters in the alphabet is far from even

I've known that fact for so long, that the letter frequency rankings for English have changed from what I memorized as a kid. ETAONRISHL....XZQ something like that.

and when you start looking at pairs of letters, it's even more startlingly uneven. "LE" and "ND" are actually amongst the more common sequences. I have not looked into the frequency of "AND", but from a working knowledge of English, I believe it to be a pretty common triple. We need look no further than the good Major Briggs to find another name that ends in -AND.

It may have been deliberate, I don't know. I don't know how to go about assigning a probability to something like that. But I do have some friends from South India, from Kerala, to be exact - and do you know what language they speak? Malayalam. A 9-letter palindrome in English, but not a palindrome at all in Malayalam. Now what is the "probability" of that?

According to Wikipedia, there are 5 other nine letter palindromes in English;
but that does not examine palindromic phrases.

Imprecisely, mind you, I call that a vanishingly small probability.
Hence, the odds of chocolate snow.

Dale and lea are near-equivalent terms. I dare anyone to find another [sic] palindrome of nine letters containing a pair of synonyms.

That would be a challenge. But note, you don't have one either.

I don't have a palindrome. You are helping me, by stressing how precise a definition of palindrome is important to you. You don't like my improvised terminology.

[nine-letter palindrome, except with one extra letter] is a clumsy short-hand for the low, low, low odds.
I will write to the word experts.

Last night, I wrote to tell John Thorne, Mr. Wrapped-In-Plastic himself.

- Prophit

[prophit]

I wonder what Sam Stanley's machine is, by the way. You know - the one that cracked the Whitman case. No one else could have solved that case, because they didn't have a machine like that. Some sort of nascent technology? Perhaps Sam's machine was an interpretation of what DNA testing apparatus might look like.

Right! Sam didn't set out to look under Teresa's fingernail for the letters of DNA, A C T G. He discover a letter we later learned belonged to the killer's name. There was at least one case before Teresa's murder which Gordon felt could be tied to Teresa's, so he gave them a designation: the blue rose. I have come to see the rose as symbolic of a fully-blossomed young woman, the object of desire. Disposal of the bodies by water, wrapped in plastic (not unlike a bouquet of flowers), could be the common factor which told Gordon that Teresa was another victim of the same killer.

Understand the object's appeal, understand the desire of the killer. Cooper was written originally to sleep with Audrey when she offered herself to him, but the network scotched that. Cooper dreamed Laura as sexually appealing to him - which is why so very briefly he intuited her to say, "My father killed me." Cooper identified successfully with the killer in his dream by lusting after a schoolgirl (though his mind aged her, to be compatible with his conscience).

Black roses convey menace, I think, so that wouldn't do.
Blue was the only common color you couldn't find on a rose in 1993.
Blue roses have been genetically engineered during the two decades since FWWM.

Lil's blue rose is fake, synthetic; and dyed from a normal rose color.
The rose is clipped from its bush, therefore dead, placed in Lil's lapel to decorate her (which does nothing to benefit the rose). Teresa and Laura were used for their youth and beauty, and killed as a result of that use.

Sam did not know ahead of time to look for anything shoved under Teresa's fingernail; perhaps no coroner found a letter on the previous victim or victims - perhaps the examiners weren't observant, or perhaps the letter washed away. I believe we might learn that there were three previous murders to Teresa's, with N, O, and S under their nails.

That way, the letters pulled from victims' fingernails, starting to spell R-O-B-E-R-T-S-O-N backwards, the last name of the man who molested Leland as a child, when he would stay with his grandparents up at Pearl Lake.

I'd also be interested in what Mark Frost has to say about it, if you can get his attention.

Mark's a good idea. Maybe after I have a bit more polish to the presentation.

- Prophit

[prophit]

I'd also be interested in what Mark Frost has to say about it, if you can get his attention.

@mfrost11 dale, lea = valley. hero+killer DaleLeland=near-palindrome DNALeland=9 letter p. Mightily intrigued, respectfully desire response.

- Prophit

[frompureair]

Leland Did It