Australia Australia - Tamam Shud Case - Male, Dec 1948

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The items he was carrying at the time of death were:

(1) an Army Club cigarette packet

300px-ArmyClubCigPoster.jpg

containing Kensitas cigarettes,( Club (or Kensitas Club as it was once known), is a brand of cigarette distributed by Gallaher tobacco and available only in the United Kingdom.)

(2) a box of Bryant and May matches (quarter full),
220px-Bryant_Mays_ad.jpg


(3) a packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum (half full),
200px-Juicy_Fruit.svg.png


(4) two combs,
200px-Comb.png


(5) a piece of paper bearing the words "Tamám Shud",

(6) a used bus ticket to Glenelg, and (7) an unused second-class rail ticket to Henley Beach.

One blade of barley grass was found inside one of his socks that he was wearing. For a tidy man this does seem a little strange.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case#Identifying_the_body
 
And when thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the grass
And in your joyous Errand reach the Spot
Where I made One - turn down an empty Glass

...the Rubayat's last verse contains a reference to both grass and foot...wonder if that's of significance....
 
I’d like to add to the speculation here with some more loose threads for you guys to sleuth…

1. There is a military connection—the military base would hold code breakers and mathematicians. Post WWII the coders were probably still there working and spies from our enemies were lurking.
2. The man who was killed was from Russia or the Baltic states. Potentially there as part of some espionage from Russia as this was the beginning of the cold war. Chess champions have mostly come from this part of the world.
3. The Rubaiyat, written by a mathematician, has references to chess throughout. [The code may have something to do with chess, Khayyám’s studies in geometric algebra, or the code breakers work at the nearby military base. Writing the code written in the back of the book on a block, series of blocks, or an enigma-type device would account for the mistake in the second line—didn’t rotate the code making device—the guy may not of created the coding device so made the mistake do to being inept.]
4. For Australia, there were several chess clubs and Adelaide had one.
5. The Ruse Ballets visited Adelaide apparently more than once during this time. Although I gather the guy was not a ballet dancer but a Eastern Bloc military man—like a Cossack--those guys could dance. Do a Google search for Cossack +run dmc]
6. During this post war period, Australia took in a lot of refugees from the war. Maybe this is how some of the cold war spies came in undetected.

Just food for thought. So, once you narrow down to math geniuses, chess club members, and refugees from Eastern Europe particularly those from the military and loved to dance and their acquaintances, you might at least find a photo of the person who died which may lead to a connection to the murderer. If I am a war time refugee escaping from Russians or Germans I would have kept quiet about knowing him too but their grandkids would be glad to share photos and stories to be sure. Good luck!
 
What an intriguing mystery!

Just catching up, reading through old articles, etc. I think all the theories in this thread are excellent possibilities, though I am 100% convinced that "Jestyn" was definitely the key to this case.

In the Wiki article there was mention that "in late 1948 a mystery man had asked her next door neighbour about her".

From that point, for this man to die in this manner (in the town Jestyn was currently living), and later have the text "Taman Shud" found in his pocket, torn from the page of a book that contained Jestyn's phone number in it... and not just any book- but a copy of the same book that Jestyn just happened to have given a male army lieutenant a few years prior- is just too much coincidence for me.

The police officer that questioned Jestyn made notes in his notebook that Jestyn appeared ready to faint when asked to identify the bust, though she ultimately proved unable (unwilling??) to say who it may be.

THEN, factor in that Jestyn had a son who just happened to have not one, but two of the extremely rare genetic conditions- anadontia AND an ear condition where "the cymba (upper ear hollow) is larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), a feature possessed by only 1-2% of the caucasian population"- that the Somerton man also had. What are the odds of that?

Investigators have a ton of information about all kinds of non-essential clues, but almost no information about the one person who almost definitely held the key to this entire case- Jestyn.

She had extensive ties to the military, so is it impossible to imagine she orchestrated- or at least had intimate knowledge of- this man's death? I am convinced she knew who the man was, and recognized him on sight. I also believe she knew who the "stranger" was who had inquired about her the year before the Somerton man was found dead. In addition, she very well may have remained in contact after the war with a military person that possessed the knowledge and resources to poison a man with a undetectable substance.

Perhaps she heard, through her own sources, or from correspondence from the Somerton man himself, that he was to be in town the night of November 30th. Maybe she was scared that he'd try to come by, as he'd tried to do the previous year.

Her motive was likely to protect a secret- her son was fathered by another man (the Somerton man), and not by her husband. Women do crazy things even today to hide those sorts of secrets... and we live in a much more liberal society than was present in 1949. Her son would have been a toddler at the time of the Somerton man's death.

I would love to have some information about Jestyn's husband. Was he a military man too? Did he find out that the son he thought he shared with his wife wasn't really his? Perhaps he orchestrated this, leaving cryptic clues behind that would mean nothing to anyone but Jestyn. Maybe he killed this Somerton man out of jealousy/anger/to keep him away from Jestyn's son/to protect the family secret about the love-child, and wanted Jestyn to know what he had done, even as the police couldn't tie it anything. Using the "Taman Shud" from that particular book would have told Jestyn why this murder was committed (because of her history with the text), but wouldn't have led police anywhere as far as solving the crime was concerned.

That might also explain Jestyn's demeanor when being questioned by police... as well as her request to remain anonymous. She was obviously concerned with appearances and her reputation. A love-child/love-triangle would have ruined her.

JMO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
 
I definitely see a resemblance to HC Reynolds....

This case is intriguing to me. My two sisters and I were born without enamel for our back baby molars, and my brother was born with the molars missing entirely. Not sure if that is a type of anodontia or not, but as someone who knows very little about the families of both of my grandfathers, I get excited.
 
Bump. I recently came across this case and found it absolutely fascinating. Still trying to process some of the theories before I come up with anything of value to add, but I know there are some new sleuthers on the boards that might be able to provide a fresh set of eyes.
 
I am of the opinion that the tools found in his case were art supplies, which he may have used for a hobby.

Jestyn was probably the key to solving this case, but we may never know the real story behind any of this, seeing as how they're all dead now anyway :boohoo:

Now that I think about it, H.C. Reynolds does look eerily similar....TOO similar, in fact...maybe we've found the answer to his identity, and if we did that we could maybe use that to determine who killed him and why?
 
The woman who found the HC Reynolds identification also believes that her father was involved in the Beaumont children's disappearance. She claims to have found the id in a box of her father's (still living) belongings. The expert who has supposedly reviewed the picture on the id card has not issued any formal acknowledgement (or dispute) to what she alleges as his findings.

I have done a fair amount of research on this case and am flabbergasted to have found that Jestyn's son may well have become a dancer for the Australian ballet in the mid-seventies.

Has anyone else found any other information regarding this case that could shed some new light on it all?
 
Pink Panther said:
The woman who found the HC Reynolds identification also believes that her father was involved in the Beaumont children's disappearance. She claims to have found the id in a box of her father's (still living) belongings. The expert who has supposedly reviewed the picture on the id card has not issued any formal acknowledgement (or dispute) to what she alleges as his findings.

I have done a fair amount of research on this case and am flabbergasted to have found that Jestyn's son may well have become a dancer for the Australian ballet in the mid-seventies.

Has anyone else found any other information regarding this case that could shed some new light on it all?
Click to expand...

The Beaumont children was almost certainly the work of one Bevan Spencer Von Einem, who currently resides in high security in Yatala jail marked "never to be released".

Not all that long ago, some tv people were reviewing historic news footage of the disappearance and guess who was there, standing in the crowd, looking like a concerned citizen? BSVE. This puts him definitively at the scene at the time, and also ties in with witness statements who described him to a T.

He was likely responsible for Kirsty Gordon and Joanne Ratcliff as well. One monster cost us so many children.

Bevan Spencer von Einem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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