For nearly a decade, sleuths had tried to decode a cryptic note discovered in the silk bustle dress. An analyst finally cracked the case. By Livia Albeck-Ripka Sara Rivers Cofield was on her usual ...

Usually, a story about hacking a coded message will have some computer element or, at least, a machine like an Enigma. But [Ruth Selman] recently posted a challenge asking if anyone could decrypt an ...

BISMARCK — Sara Rivers Cofield loved the dress at first sight. It was a beautiful brown silk bustle dress with original buttons from the 1880s, on sale at an antique mall in Maine. Rivers Cofield, an ...