The Tamm Shud case AKA the disappearance of the Somerton Man is arguably one of Australia's greatest true crime mysteries and was solved in July. He was a Russian spy. Processing the results could reportedly take up to a year. In a later interview Lawson describes her behaviour as being very odd that day. The spleen was strikingly large about 3 times normal size there was destruction of the centre of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. On the night of November 30, 1948, two separate couples noticed a smartly dressed man lying on the sand, his head propped against a sea wall, according to Smithsonian magazines Mike Dash. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. Though the state coroner has yet to confirm the pairs findings, Abbott tells the Guardians Natasha May that as a scientist, he is confident in the accuracy of the analysis. I solved it when I was looking back at my old notes on the tamam shud code, which had a solution. (modern). Abbott also tracked down the Barbour waxed cotton of the period and found packaging variations. In 1945, at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in Sydney, she had given it to an Australian Army lieutenant named Alf Boxall, who was serving at the time in the Water Transport Section of the Royal Australian Engineers. Also inside were a shaving brush, shoe polish, a knife, scissors, a screwdriver and assorted attire, some of which was labeled with variants of the name T. [20] Although named "City Baths", the centre was not a public bathing facility, but rather a public swimming pool. On the inside back cover, detectives read through indentations left from previous handwriting: a local telephone number, another unidentified number, and text that resembled a coded message. 2023 BBC. [41] In the back of the book were faint indentations representing five lines of text, in capital letters. In a 1978 television interview Stuart Littlemore asks: "Mr Boxall, you had been working, hadn't you, in an intelligence unit, before you met this young woman [Jessica Harkness]. Bilsborow said: Now that weve got his name, theres still so many questions. [49], Roma Egan, the widow of Jessica Thomson's son Robin, and Robin and Roma's daughter Rachel Egan, also appeared on 60 Minutes. He had no money or identification on him, the labels in his clothing were cut off, and his minimal possessions yielded no clues. We knew this day was going to come at some point, she said. Now Australian scientists are close to solving the mystery", "Australia Exhumes the Somerton Man, and His 70-Year Mystery", "After 65 years, new picture could reveal Unknown Man's identity | News.com.au", "How the Somerton Man played cupid from the grave", "Who was the Somerton Man? A jacket and tie with their tags cut off, unused train and bus tickets and a scrap of paper with the printed words tamm shud, meaning finished in Persian. University of Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott believes the unknown man found slumped and lifeless at Adelaide's Somerton Beach on December 1, 1948, was Carl "Charles" Webb, a 43-year-old engineer and instrument maker. [50], When she was shown the plaster cast bust of the dead man by DS Leane, Thomson said she could not identify the person depicted. "Marriage and a mystery: Somerton Man's romantic twist", "The Somerton man died alone on a beach in 1948. "So When That Angel of the Darker Drink", Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, "World War II Nominal Roll, "Boxall, Alfred", "List of facts on the Taman Shud Case that are often misreported", "Somerton Man identified as Melbourne electrical engineer, researcher says", "Seven-decade mystery of Somerton Man solved", "Professor's 15-year search for answers seeks to crack the secret code to the death of the 'Somerton man' found on an Adelaide beach", Unidentified Body Found at Somerton Beach, South Australia, on 1st December 1948, "Unsolved Death from 1948: The Somerton Man (The Taman Shud Case)", 'Unparalleled Mystery' Of Somerton Body Case, Curious aspects of unsolved beach mystery, Army Officer Sought to Help Solve Somerton Body Case, Unbreakable: Somerton Man's poetic mystery, "Computational linguistic analysis of the Tamam Shud Cipher", "No Sydney Clue to Dead Man Found at Somerton, S.A.", A Body, A Secret Pocket and a Mysterious Code, 30-Year-Old Death Riddle Probed In New Series, "Jessica Thomson's reaction to the dead man's bust", Somerton body said to be that of wood cutter, Somerton Body may be that of station hand. ), Carl 'Charles' Webb's prisoner-of-war brother bears resemblance to Somerton Man https://t.co/c7KcGhtiuI. [11] Other than that, the coroner was unable to reach a conclusion as to the man's identity, cause of death, or whether the man seen alive at Somerton Beach on the evening of 30 November was the same man, as nobody had seen his face at that time. acute gastritis hemorrhage, extensive congestion of the liver and spleen, and the congestion to the brain. [45], An investigation had shown that the Somerton man's autopsy reports of 1948 and 1949 are now missing and the Barr Smith Library's collection of Cleland's notes do not contain anything on the case. The spot on Somerton beach, south of Adelaide, where the man was found on December 1, 1948. As Hilary Whiteman reports for CNN, a new DNA analysis suggests the Somerton Man is Carl Charles Webb, an electrical engineer from Melbourne who vanished from the public record in April 1947. [7] An unlit cigarette was on the right collar of his coat. A professor who has dedicated decades to solving one of Australia's most enduring mysteries claims he has discovered the identity of the Somerton man. Interestingly, the book contained several handwritten annotations, including a suspected code and the phone number of a nurse, Jessie Jo Thomson, who lived near the site where the body was discovered. [68] Detectives from Victoria initially believed the man was from there because of the similarity of the laundry marks to those used by several dry-cleaning firms in Melbourne. "The fact he [Thomson] has a rare dental and ear condition matching the Somerton Man appears to be an extraordinary coincidence.". "All this time we've been publishing the autopsy photo, and it's hard to tell what something looks like from that", Abbott said. Video, 00:02:36, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. Despite repeated requests for an exhumation, the . Most accounts state that the book was found in an unlocked car parked in Jetty Road, Glenelg either in the rear floor well, or on the back seat. | READ MORE. But a professor at the University of Adelaide was on his own mission to crack it. The 40-year mystery of the missing farmer's wife, Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, Air strikes pound Sudan capital as truce extended. She said the news also turns on its head the theory in her documentary that Australian ballet dancer Robin Thomson was the son of Somerton man. [116], Derek Abbott and Colleen Fitzpatrick believe that Carl had serious mental health issues and "spiralled down" after losing four close relatives in seven years. [33], Cedric Stanton Hicks, professor of physiology and pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, testified that of a group of drugs, variants of a drug in that group he called "number 1" and in particular "number 2" were extremely toxic in a relatively small oral dose that would be extremely difficult if not impossible to identify even if it had been suspected in the first instance. During their drinking session, the mystery man supposedly produced a military pension card bearing the name "Solomonson". [14][18] On 22 November 1959 it was reported that one E.B. Abbott speculates that Carl had may have gone to Adelaide intending to find her. Were just saying this is what the DNA tells us, says Abbott to the New York Times Alan Yuhas. The theme of Rubaiyat is that one should live life to the fullest and have no regrets when it ends. [100] The media have suggested that Robin Thomson, who was sixteen months old in 1948 and died in 2009, may have been a child of either Boxall or the Somerton man and passed off as Prosper Thomson's son. [94] The remains were deeper in the ground than previously thought. Shown the plaster cast by Paul Lawson, she does not identify the man as Alf Boxall, or any other person. Carl moved out in 1947 and no official records revealing his subsequent whereabouts have been found as of 2022.[113][116]. Early 1950: Prosper Thomson's divorce is finalised. There is some uncertainty about the circumstances under which the book was found. SA Police have been contacted for comment. In November 2013, three of their relatives gave interviews to the Channel Nine current affairs program 60 Minutes. 14 January 1949: Adelaide railway station finds the brown suitcase belonging to the man. [11] In 2009 to 2011, Derek Abbott's team concluded that it was most likely that each letter was the first letter of a word. Boxall was born in London on 16 April 1906, enlisted in the Australian Army on 12 January 1942 and was not discharged until 12 April 1948. 8:30a.m. to 10:50am: The Somerton Man is presumed to have arrived in Adelaide by train. [20] Finally, his dental records were not able to be matched to any known person. [27], Around the same time as the inquest, a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words "Tamm Shud" printed on it was found in a fob pocket sewn within the dead man's trouser pocket. [104], In July 2013, Abbott released an artistic impression he commissioned of the Somerton man, believing this might finally lead to an identification. Read about our approach to external linking. August 1945: Jessica Harkness gives Alf Boxall an inscribed copy of. Although it was a very common practice to use name tags, it was also common when buying secondhand clothing to remove the tags of the previous owners. [38] The book was missing the words "Tamm Shud" on the last page, which had a blank reverse, and microscopic tests indicated that the piece of paper was from the page torn from the book. [98] His investigations have led to questions concerning the assumptions police had made on the case. She recalled that he was English speaking and only carrying a small black case, not unlike one a musician or a doctor might carry. She said although it looked as if there was nobody alive now that would remember him, she hoped to turn to the archives to answer new questions the findings opened up. [31] Cleland, as the investigating pathologist, re-examined the body and made a number of discoveries. [76] The Mangnosons had been missing for four days. [18] All labels on his clothes had been removed,[16][19] and he had no hat (unusual for 1948) or wallet. The Somerton man mystery began in the early hours of December 1, 1948, when beachgoers found a body lying on Somerton beach in Adelaide. For decades, authorities, academics and the public alike have traded theories about the identity of the mysterious Somerton Man, whose body was found on a beach outside of Adelaide, Australia, on December 1, 1948. They observed that the format of the code also appeared to follow the quatrain format of Rubaiyat, leading them to theorise that the code was a one-time pad encryption algorithm. This ticket is the first sold of only three issued between 6:15a.m. and 2 p.m. by the particular ticket clerk for the Henley Beach train. Advertising Notice The case is part of Operation Persevere, which seeks to put a name to all unidentified remains in South Australia. [110] Initially there were no known pre-death photographs of Webb, but further investigation uncovered his likely presence in a 1921 Swinburne University football team photograph, though the image did not identify Webb directly,[112] and in November 2022 Australian Story revealed photographs of Webb from the 1920s found in a Webb family photo album. Over the years many theories have swirled as to his identity, from Cold War spy to rejected lover. In his pocket were bus and train tickets, chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of cigarettes. To view this content choose accept and continue. They found that the Somerton Man belonged to haplogroup H4a1a1a, possessed by only 1% of Europeans. [36] The paper's verso side was blank. [49] She suggested that her mother and the Somerton man may both have been spies, noting that Jessica Thomson taught English to migrants, was interested in communism, and could speak Russian, although she would not disclose to Kate where she had learned it or why. [note 6] The father was taken to a hospital in a very weak condition, suffering from exposure;[75] following a medical examination, he was transferred to a mental hospital. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Maciej Henneberg, professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide, examined images of the Somerton man's ears and found that his cymba (upper ear hollow) is larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), a feature possessed by only 12% of the Caucasian population. [24] With wartime rationing still enforced, clothing was difficult to acquire at that time. The researchers hope to address these mysteries and more through archival and genetic research. And. More photos, details and tidbits about. MLIAOI Derek Abbott was able to analyse the Somerton Man's DNA using hairs preserved when authorities made a plaster model of his face. He said he had tracked down and spoken to Mr Webb's living relatives. The discovery was made by Mr J. Lyons, of Whyte Rd, Somerton. [115] South Australia Police had not verified the result, but stated they were "cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough". For 73 years, the identity of a well-dressed man found slumped by a sea wall of Somerton beach, south of Adelaide, in 1948 has been a mystery leaving room for theories featuring jilted lovers and cold war spies. [5], On 1 December 1948 at 6:30am, the police were contacted after the body of a man was discovered on Somerton Park beach near Glenelg, about 11km (7mi) southwest of Adelaide, South Australia. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. He said their investigations had also found a link to the name "TKeane" which was printed on the Somerton Man's tie. [42] In his book on the case, Gerry Feltus stated that when he interviewed Thomson in 2002, he found that she was either being "evasive" or she "just did not wish to talk about it". The truth, however, is seemingly more mundane. Detective H. Strangway and Constable J. Moss are enquiring. 614 June: The piece of paper bearing the inscription "Tamm Shud" is found in a concealed fob pocket. [11] For example, in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was unable to match the dead man's fingerprint with prints taken from files of domestic criminals. Shed been adopted as a child and grew up in New Zealand, unaware of her potential links to the cold case. This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Police arrived on the scene the following morning after receiving reports of a dead body on Somerton Beach. [42] The police agreed a decision that hampered later investigations. He buys a ticket for the 10:50a.m. train to Henley Beach but does not use it. [73] By November 1953, police announced they had recently received the 251st "solution" to the identity of the body from members of the public who claimed to have met or known him. Did you talk to her about that at all?" [17], He was dressed in a white shirt; a red, white and blue tie; brown trousers; socks and shoes; a brown knitted pullover and fashionable grey and brown double-breasted jacket of reportedly "American" tailoring. [24] He immediately checked his suitcase at the station cloak room before leaving the station and catching a city bus to Glenelg. Read about our approach to external linking. "It kind of feels like climbing Mount Everest, and having that mixture of elation that you're at the top, but also tiredness and exhaustion," he said. Australian charged 32 years after gay hate killing. Working in conjunction with US investigator Colleen Fitzpatrick, Professor Abbott said that, in March this year, suspicions fell on Webb, who was born in 1905 but later identified "as a person with no death record". The Somerton Man has been exhumed what happens now? Both kidneys were congested, and the liver contained a great excess of blood in its vessels. after 11:15am: Buys a 7d bus ticket on a bus that departed at 11:15a.m. from the south side of. Hicks noted the only "fact" not found in relation to the body was evidence of vomiting. The case has drawn international interest and attracted plenty of sleuths online. [114], Forensic Science South Australia, who were still investigating, declined to comment on Abbott's findings. [113] Earlier the ABC had published photos of Webb's brother, Roy Webb, claiming they resembled the Somerton Man. [81], Years after the burial, flowers began appearing on the grave. At least two sites relatively close to Adelaide were of interest to spies: the Radium Hill uranium mine and the Woomera Test Range, an Anglo-Australian military research facility. The autopsy also showed that the man's last meal was a pasty eaten about three to four hours before death,[8] but tests failed to reveal any foreign substance in the body. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. 3. There is a . Of the discovery, he said: "It kind of feels like climbing Mount Everest, and having that mixture of elation that you're at the top, but also tiredness and exhaustion.". [48] Nevertheless, the names Feltus used in his book were pseudonyms. Professor Abbott said Webb was born in Footscray on November 16,1905 to Richard August Webb (1866-1939) and Eliza Amelia Morris Grace (1871-1946). Mystery of Somerton man's identity solved after 73 years, researchers in Australia say This week Prof Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide claimed to have identified Somerton man as. This article contains content provided by Twitter. [25][26] Police believed that whoever removed the clothing tags either overlooked these three items or purposely left the "Keane" tags on the clothes, knowing Keane was not the dead man's name. The case has long baffled detectives and amateur sleuths, and is regarded as one of Australia's most enduring mysteries because of strange clues linked to it, including a suspected code and a book of Persian poems. [99] In May 2009, Abbott consulted with dental experts who concluded that the Somerton Man had hypodontia (a rare genetic disorder) of both lateral incisors, a feature present in only 2% of the general population. In trying to solve the Somerton Man case, Abbott became part of it. Bilsborow says the theory that Somerton man was a Russian spy emerged in the 1970s at the time of the cold war, particularly fuelled by the writing in the copy of the Rubiyt they interpreted as code. Police questioned a woman seen leaving the cemetery but she claimed she knew nothing of the man. The pathologist, Dr. Dwyer, concluded: "I am quite convinced the death could not have been natural the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic". 27 July: Sydney detectives locate and interview Boxall. In reply, Boxall says "no", and when asked if Harkness could have known, Boxall replies: "Not unless somebody else told her." A plaster bust of the so-called Somerton Man, Investigators have never been able to decipher the code found in the man's book, Who killed 'Little Red Riding Hood'? The torn-out fragment found in the Somerton Mans pocket perfectly matched a gap on the final page of the discarded copy. Although poisoning remained a prime suspicion, the pasty was not believed to be the source. Theres almost a sequel film here, [not] of who is Somerton man?, but now its the mysterious case of Charles Webb., Remains of mystery Somerton man exhumed 70 years after his death, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. [82], Former South Australian Chief Superintendent Len Brown, who worked on the case in the 1940s, stated that he believed that the man was from a country in the Warsaw Pact, which led to the police's inability to confirm the man's identity. [93] Police stated that the remains were in "reasonable" condition and were optimistic about the prospect of DNA recovery. 15 January 1948: Boxall arrives back in Sydney from his last active duty and is discharged from the army in April 1948. [96] The authorities have said that they intend to take DNA from the remains if possible. Beyond the DNA results linking the Somerton Man to Webb, Abbott and Fitzpatrick found ample archival evidence supporting the identification. Its hard to see this as anything other than intentional, Fiona-Ellis Jones, host of The Somerton Man Mystery podcast, tells the Australian Broadcasting Companys (ABC) Bridget Judd. [14] "Francis" had not considered that the book might be connected to the case until he had seen an article in the previous day's newspaper. "[86], The ID card, numbered 58757, was issued in the United States on 28 February 1918 to H. C. Reynolds, giving his nationality as "British" and age as 18. The Somerton Man case has been an enigma since his body was discovered in 1948. An inquest into the man's death, conducted by coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland, commenced a few days following the discovery of the body but was adjourned until 17 June 1949. The Somerton Man's fingerprints were sent around the world, but no one could identify him. There was congestion of the pharynx, and the gullet was covered with whitening of superficial layers of the mucosa with a patch of ulceration in the middle of it. [44], In 1994, John Harber Phillips, Chief Justice of Victoria and Chairman of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, reviewed the case to determine the cause of death and concluded that, "There seems little doubt it was digitalis. And from 4000 names, the pair narrowed it down to one - Carl Webb. Solving Australia's coldest case", "Maternal inheritance of human mitochondrial DNA", "Ubiquitinated Sperm Mitochondria, Selective Proteolysis, and the Regulation of Mitochondrial Inheritance in Mammalian Embryos", "Somerton man mystery 'solved' as DNA points to man's identity, professor claims", "Somerton Man face search suggests correct Charles Webb is in Swinburne football photo", "Somerton Man Charles Webb's true identity revealed in family photographs and divorce papers", "Carl 'Charles' Webb's prisoner-of-war brother bears resemblance to Somerton Man", "Somerton Man mystery 'solved' as Adelaide uni researcher names body on beach", "Somerton Man cold case: SA Attorney-General Vickie Chapman grants conditional approval to exhume body", "Der Somerton Man: Eine dokumentarische Fiktion in drei Dimensionen,", Archival newspaper articles on the Taman Shud Case, Reddit AMA interview with Taman Shud researcher Derek Abbott, SA Police Historical Society Oct 2007 Newsletter on the case, SA Police Historical Society October 2010 article on Jimmy Durham who worked in the case, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Somerton_Man&oldid=1151307234, Undeciphered historical codes and ciphers, Articles containing Persian-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from December 2015, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles with self-published sources from November 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2022, Articles needing cleanup from December 2022, Articles with sections that need to be turned into prose from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Derek Abbott, a physicist and electronic engineer at the University of Adelaide, and Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist who specializes in using DNA to solve cold cases, identified the Somerton Man using hairs caught in his death mask. 10 p.m.11 p.m.: Estimated time he had eaten a pasty based on time of death. 1986: The Somerton Man's brown suitcase and contents are destroyed as "no longer required". [note 2] Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane, who led the initial investigation, often protected the privacy of witnesses in public statements by using pseudonyms;[14] Leane referred to the man who found the book by the pseudonym "Ronald Francis" and he has never been officially identified. Your Privacy Rights We had all these grandiose ideas about him being Russian, American and European. " Several years ago, Ms. Egan had her DNA analyzed, and links were found to people in the United States (including relatives of Thomas Jefferson ). Key points: The mystery Somerton Man has been identified as a Melbourne-born electrical engineer Researcher Derek Abbott spent decades researching the case He was the youngest of six siblings and married Dorothy Robertson, known as Doff Webb. x In 1948, the body of a well-dressed man was found slumped on an Australian beach. The time is estimated by a "quick opinion" on the state of. "Somerton Man mystery 'solved': Professor identifies man found on beach in 1948" from news.com.au A researcher in the case of the Somerton Man says he has solved the decades-old mystery, identifying the figure as a Melbourne-born electrical engineer. While the mystery man's remains were exhumed last year by SA Police, Professor Abbott has in the meantime persisted with his own independent efforts to crack the case. Searches conducted by the US National Archives, the UK National Archives and the Australian War Memorial Research Centre have failed to find any records relating to H. C. Reynolds. All Episodes Topics Blog Shop About Contact SUBMIT A LISTENER SEGUE . [13], Another witness came forward in 1959 and reported to the police that he and three others had seen a well-dressed man carrying another man on his shoulders along Somerton Park beach the night before the body was found. [59][60] That same day, The News published a photograph of the dead man on its front page,[61] leading to additional calls from members of the public about his possible identity. Was there a connection with Jo, the nurse? The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | Adelaide's 73-Year-Old MysteryThe Somerton Man | Unsettling & Unsolved 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or find something. The phrase was identified as coming from the classic book of Persian poetry Rubiyt of Omar Khayym. The City Baths on King William St. were accessed from the station's northern exit via a lane way. Webb was born in 1905 but was later identified as a person with no death record, Abbott said. While Henneberg found anatomical similarities in features such as the nose, lips and eyes, he believed they were not as reliable as the close similarity of the ear.
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