Mon. Jan. 11 at 8pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | Meet Elizebeth Friedman, the pioneering cryptanalyst who took down Al Capone and a Nazi spy ring.
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 each episode at video.wkar.org during or after the premiere date.
MORE ABOUT AMERICAN EXPERIENCE:
For?more than?30 years, American Experience?has been television’s most-watched history series, bringing?to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present. American Experience?documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including 30?Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards and 18 George Foster Peabody Awards.?PBS’ signature history series?also creates original digital content that?innovates?new forms of storytelling to connect our collective past with the present.?Cameo George is the series executive producer. American Experience is produced for PBS by GBH Boston.