User:Auric/The Deadly Double

The Deadly Double was a dice game that was rumored to have involved Pearl Harbor.

Ads for the game ran in the New Yorker magazine for November 22, 1941. The text suggested that people might soon be spending their time in an air raid shelter and that the game would be a good way to pass that time.

Two weeks later, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Some people who had seen the ads started circulating a rumor that the ads had been a coded message to Japanese agents living in the United States. Eventually, the FBI tracked down the games inventors and interviewed them, but found no link between the ads and Pearl Harbor.

Despite the furor about the game, it did not sell well.

Advertisements
Under the headline “Achtung, Warning, Alerte!” was a pair of dice with the numbers 12, 24, and XX on one and 0, 5, and 7 on the other. A short tag directed readers to the main ad on page 86, which had a more elaborate illustration of couples playing the game in an underground bunker while spotlights play over a war scene aboveground. The copy read "“We hope you’ll never have to spend a long winter’s night in an air-raid shelter, but we were just thinking … it’s only common sense to be prepared. If you’re not too busy between now and Christmas, why not sit down and plan a list of the things you’ll want to have on hand. […] And though it’s no time, really, to be thinking of what’s fashionable, we bet that most of your friends will remember to include those intriguing dice and chips which make Chicago’s favorite game: THE DEADLY DOUBLE.”"

Underneath was a double-headed eagle with an "XX" on its chest and a price ($2.50 — ).

Gameplay
The game was similar to Rummy. Two alphanumeric dice were used, one with black text on white and the other with white text on black. An equal number of black and white chips were included for betting. Four regular dice were included and two dice with blue text on white.

FBI Investigation
The FBI investigated the ads after receiving numerous calls about them.

They discovered that the ads had been placed by a lone man, who paid in cash and submitted his own matrix. The clerk who had taken the ads could not remember the man who had submitted them.

They could not find any evidence of the existence of the company or the game.

Eventually, they did track down the inventors of the game and interviewed them. They found no links between the game ads and the Pearl Harbour attacks.

Theories
The most common theory is that the ads were placed to convey information to secret Japanese agents about when and where the attacks were to occour.

Ladislas Farago believed that the numbers 12 and 7 could have stood for the month and day of the attack, and the figures 5 and 0 may have been the planned time for the bombing. A double X, or Roman numeral 20, appears on another face, which could have been meant to signify the approximate latitude of Pearl Harbor. What the number 24 stood for is not explained.