shadowangel
Black cats consider me unlucky.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2005
- Messages
- 2,373
- Reaction score
- 711
(excerpted from Wikipedia)
At about 6:30 on the morning of December 1st, 1948, the body of a man was discovered on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia. The man was believed to be 40 to 45 years old, and in excellent physical condition. He was described as having fair hair, greying at the temples, and had wide shoulders and a narrow waist. His big and little toes met in a wedge-shape, and his calf-muscles were formed "high on his leg, consistent with someone who wears high-heeled shoes". He was dressed in a gray and brown double-breasted suit, white shirt, red and blue tie, with brown pants, shoes and a brown pullover sweater. All the labels on the clothes were missing, and the body carried no identification.
A check of his pockets by police revealed only cigarettes, a comb, a used bus ticket to Glenelg (a neighboring town) and an unused rail ticket to Henley Beach. A check of his dental records revealed no matches. An autopsy revealed that his stomach was congested with blood and that his heart failed, indicating poisoning. However, no foreign substances could be detected. The autopsy did not determine the cause of death or any clue to the man's identity. Several missing persons were investigated but none matched "the Somerton man", as he came to be known.
On January 14th of 1949, a brown suitcase was found at the Adelaide Rail Station. It had been checked into the station at around 11am on November 30th, 1948. It contained a red-checked dressing gown, red slippers, pajamas, shaving gear, light brown pants with sand in the cuffs, a stencilling brush, a table knife cut down to a short, sharp instrument, and a pair of scissors "as used on merchant ships for stencilling cargo". The suitcase also contained cotton "of an unusual type", that was the same as that used to repair the pockets of the pants the dead man was wearing. Police found the name "T Keane" in three of the items, but all other identification had been removed, leading police to believe the names had been left on the clothing since it was not the dead man's real name. A missing sailor from the area, Tom Keane, was determined to not be the dead man nor did the items belong to the missing sailor.
Police, after checking train records, believed the man had arrived by train from Sydney, Melbourne, or Port Augusta. Afterward, he purchased the unused rail ticket to Henley Beach, but instead bought and used a bus ticket to Glenelg.
In April of 1949, he investigating pathologist discovered in the dead man's pants pocket a slip of paper with the words "Taman Shud" printed on it. Meaning "the end", the phrase is from the last page of the poem collection The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. When this information was made public, a local doctor from Glenelg came forward stating he had found a copy of The Rubaiyat in the backseat of his unlocked car on the night of November 30th, 1948. The book was missing the words "Taman Shud" and tests proved the paper in the dead man's pocket came from the book found by the doctor.
The back of the book contained four faint lines of pencil writing:
MRGOABABD
MTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB
Code breakers have been unable to decipher the code.
Also found in the back of the book was a woman's phone number. When contacted the woman stated she had owned a copy of the book but had given it to an army leiutentant during WWII. The leiutenant was located, alive and well, and still in possession of the book the woman had given him. The woman now lived in Glenelg but denied knowing the dead man or why he would be near her home. She asked police to not record her name due to reasons of privacy, and incredibly the police agreed.
Various details have come to light since the discovery of the body, such as flowers mysteriously appearing on his grave, and reports that a strange man had stayed in a hotel across from the railway station, leaving a medical case and hypodermic behind. Repeated attempts to crack the code have failed, and the man's identity and cause of death remain a mystery.
In looking into this case, I found a few interesting details of my own. The report of the man's wedge-shaped toes, well-developed calves, and overall excellent physical condition, made me think of a dancer, most specifically ballet. While checking records on the National Library of Australia's website, I discovered that the Lambert Ballet from London England was touring Australia at the time the body was discovered. In fact, the ballet troupe was in Adelaide from October 20th to November 13th. They then travelled to Melbourne, performing from November 19th to December 20th. After spending a few weeks in Perth, the company returned to England. However, the articles indicate that members of the company stayed behind in Australia.
One point in this...The police believed the man had arrived by train to Adelaide from Sydney, Melbourne, or Port Augusta on November 30th.
The company was in Melbourne on November 30th.
All in all, the twists and turns in this case are still intriguing 60 years later.
At about 6:30 on the morning of December 1st, 1948, the body of a man was discovered on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia. The man was believed to be 40 to 45 years old, and in excellent physical condition. He was described as having fair hair, greying at the temples, and had wide shoulders and a narrow waist. His big and little toes met in a wedge-shape, and his calf-muscles were formed "high on his leg, consistent with someone who wears high-heeled shoes". He was dressed in a gray and brown double-breasted suit, white shirt, red and blue tie, with brown pants, shoes and a brown pullover sweater. All the labels on the clothes were missing, and the body carried no identification.
A check of his pockets by police revealed only cigarettes, a comb, a used bus ticket to Glenelg (a neighboring town) and an unused rail ticket to Henley Beach. A check of his dental records revealed no matches. An autopsy revealed that his stomach was congested with blood and that his heart failed, indicating poisoning. However, no foreign substances could be detected. The autopsy did not determine the cause of death or any clue to the man's identity. Several missing persons were investigated but none matched "the Somerton man", as he came to be known.
On January 14th of 1949, a brown suitcase was found at the Adelaide Rail Station. It had been checked into the station at around 11am on November 30th, 1948. It contained a red-checked dressing gown, red slippers, pajamas, shaving gear, light brown pants with sand in the cuffs, a stencilling brush, a table knife cut down to a short, sharp instrument, and a pair of scissors "as used on merchant ships for stencilling cargo". The suitcase also contained cotton "of an unusual type", that was the same as that used to repair the pockets of the pants the dead man was wearing. Police found the name "T Keane" in three of the items, but all other identification had been removed, leading police to believe the names had been left on the clothing since it was not the dead man's real name. A missing sailor from the area, Tom Keane, was determined to not be the dead man nor did the items belong to the missing sailor.
Police, after checking train records, believed the man had arrived by train from Sydney, Melbourne, or Port Augusta. Afterward, he purchased the unused rail ticket to Henley Beach, but instead bought and used a bus ticket to Glenelg.
In April of 1949, he investigating pathologist discovered in the dead man's pants pocket a slip of paper with the words "Taman Shud" printed on it. Meaning "the end", the phrase is from the last page of the poem collection The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. When this information was made public, a local doctor from Glenelg came forward stating he had found a copy of The Rubaiyat in the backseat of his unlocked car on the night of November 30th, 1948. The book was missing the words "Taman Shud" and tests proved the paper in the dead man's pocket came from the book found by the doctor.
The back of the book contained four faint lines of pencil writing:
MRGOABABD
MTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB
Code breakers have been unable to decipher the code.
Also found in the back of the book was a woman's phone number. When contacted the woman stated she had owned a copy of the book but had given it to an army leiutentant during WWII. The leiutenant was located, alive and well, and still in possession of the book the woman had given him. The woman now lived in Glenelg but denied knowing the dead man or why he would be near her home. She asked police to not record her name due to reasons of privacy, and incredibly the police agreed.
Various details have come to light since the discovery of the body, such as flowers mysteriously appearing on his grave, and reports that a strange man had stayed in a hotel across from the railway station, leaving a medical case and hypodermic behind. Repeated attempts to crack the code have failed, and the man's identity and cause of death remain a mystery.
In looking into this case, I found a few interesting details of my own. The report of the man's wedge-shaped toes, well-developed calves, and overall excellent physical condition, made me think of a dancer, most specifically ballet. While checking records on the National Library of Australia's website, I discovered that the Lambert Ballet from London England was touring Australia at the time the body was discovered. In fact, the ballet troupe was in Adelaide from October 20th to November 13th. They then travelled to Melbourne, performing from November 19th to December 20th. After spending a few weeks in Perth, the company returned to England. However, the articles indicate that members of the company stayed behind in Australia.
One point in this...The police believed the man had arrived by train to Adelaide from Sydney, Melbourne, or Port Augusta on November 30th.
The company was in Melbourne on November 30th.
All in all, the twists and turns in this case are still intriguing 60 years later.
