A man showed police a 1941 edition of Edward FitzGerald's (1859) translation of Rubaiyat, published by Whitcombe and Tombs in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mack stated that the reason he did not confirm this at the viewing was a difference in the colour of the hair. In the book, it is unclear whether the first line begins with an "M" or "W", but it is widely believed to be the letter W, owing to the distinctive difference when compared to the stricken letter M. There appears to be a deleted or underlined line of text that reads "MLIAOI". 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. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Victoria detectives disproved all the claims and said that "other investigations" indicated it was unlikely that he was from Victoria. ][88], Prosper Thomson died in 1995 and Jessica Thomson died in 2007. The two daily Adelaide newspapers, The Advertiser and The News, covered the death in separate ways. [110], Abbott claimed his DNA identification from strands of hair found in the plaster death mask made by South Australian Police in the late 1940s. CNN . 8:30a.m. to 10:50am: The Somerton Man is presumed to have arrived in Adelaide by train. Abbott and Fitzpatrick have been unable to locate a photograph of Webb, but ABCs Opie reports that an image of Webbs brother Roy, who died as a prisoner of war in Malaya during World War II, bears a striking resemblance to the Somerton Man. [7] He was clean-shaven[7] and carried no identification, which led police to believe he had committed suicide. The City Baths on King William St. were accessed from the station's northern exit via a lane way. The Somerton Man had his prints taken a couple of days after he was found and a few weeks later they were forwarded to all the English speaking countries: Scotland Yard, The RCMP (Canada), the FBI, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, then the mammoth task of sending copies to every police station in Australia. There is no record of the Adelaide railway station's bathroom facilities being unavailable and no ticket in his pocket to suggest he visited the Public Baths, outside of the station. 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. [108][109], On 26 July 2022, Abbott announced that he and genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick had determined that the man was Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker born on 16 November 1905, in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne. "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. (Cryptography experts contend that the string of letters dont actually constitute a code; Abbott, for his part, tells ABC they probably represent the first names of horses Webb bet on. Theories abounded, including that the person - dubbed Somerton Man - was a spy. My thread-bare Penitence a-pieces tore.[44]. The Advertiser first mentioned the case in a small article on page three of its morning edition of 2 December 1948. Video, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, The mystery death haunting Norway for 46 years, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, NFL player's daughter, aged two, drowns in pool, Banana artwork in Seoul museum eaten by visitor, Donald Trump arrives in Scotland on golf visit, Indian 'killer' elephant relocated to tiger reserve, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion. [66] Any thoughts that a positive identification had been made were quashed, however, when Elizabeth Thompson, one of the people who had earlier positively identified the body as Walsh, retracted her statement after a second viewing of the body, where the absence of a particular scar on the body, as well as the size of the dead man's legs, led her to realise the body was not Walsh. 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? [32], In addition to intense public interest in Australia during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the case also attracted international attention. [6] He was lying back with his head resting against the seawall, with his legs extended and his feet crossed. [8] A search of his pockets revealed an unused second-class rail ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach; a bus ticket from the city that may not have been used; a narrow aluminium comb that had been manufactured in the USA; a half-empty packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum; an Army Club cigarette packet which contained seven cigarettes of a different brand, Kensitas; and a quarter-full box of Bryant & May matches. What was unusual was that there were no spare socks found in the case, and no correspondence, although the police found pencils and unused letter stationery. [45] A 2014 analysis by computational linguist John Rehling strongly supports the theory that the letters consist of the initials of some English text, but finds no match for these in a large survey of literature, and concludes that the letters were likely written as a form of shorthand, not as a code, and that the original text can likely never be determined.[46]. Red spy or red herring: Was the Somerton Man a Russian agent, or is there an Irish link? The body of a fully-clothed man was discovered by two trainee jockeys near the shore of the Somerton Park Beach, south of Adelaide, on December 1, 1948. Feltus said he was still contacted by people in Europe who believed the man was a missing relative but did not believe an exhumation and finding the man's family grouping would provide answers to relatives, as "during that period so many war criminals changed their names and came to different countries". There is no evidence that police knew in 1949 that she was not married. A half-smoked cigarette was resting on his collar, and there was a line from a Persian poem in his pocket - but investigators had no idea who he was. 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. Derek Abbott, from the University of Adelaide, says the body of a man found on one of the city's beaches in 1948 belonged to Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument . 30 November 1948. [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. They included a suitcase, more items of clothing with their labels removed, and incoherent writings believed to be a code. [110] Through investigative genetic genealogy, matches were found for descendants of two distant cousins of Webb, both on the paternal and on the maternal side. He had a clean-shaven face and appeared to be about 40 years old. The Somerton Man's fingerprints were sent around the world, but no one could identify him. They then used archival records to search for individuals whose biographies mirrored what was known about the Somerton Man. The man was well-built, about 40 to 50 years old, 1.8 metres tall, and had grey-blue eyes and gingery-brown hair that was greying at the sides. The coroner will be asked to confirm the identification. [24] With wartime rationing still enforced, clothing was difficult to acquire at that time. However, a bus conductor named Leslie Francis Wytkin (or Wytkins) handed in a copy of the. [49] Feltus also stated that her family did not know of her connection with the case, and he agreed not to disclose her identity or anything that might reveal it. Abbott and Rachel married in 2010 and they have three children. MLIABOAIAQC Did you talk to her about that at all?" Feltus in 2010 claimed he was given permission by Thomson's family to disclose her names and that of her husband, Prosper Thomson. 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. Was he murdered? In September 1946, Dorothy fled from her husband, following years of physical and verbal abuse. The handwriting found in the back of a book of the Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, theorised to be a sort of code. The tags on his suit had been cut off, and forensic examiners suspected he had been poisoned. Dr. Anne Coxon of Forensic Science South Australia said: "The technology available to us now is clearly light years ahead of the techniques available when this body was discovered in the late 1940s," and that tests would use "every method at our disposal to try and bring closure to this enduring mystery". The police had asked the public if anyone had a copy of the book with the last page missing, and a man came forward with the last page torn out. [32] He added that this evidence fitted in with the theory that the body may have been brought to Somerton Park beach after the man's death, accounting for the lack of evidence of vomiting and convulsions, which are the two main physiological reactions to poison. This would be consistent with the copy of the Rubaiyat, which also focuses on the subject of death. However, in July 1949, Boxall was found in Sydney and the final page of his copy of Rubaiyat (reportedly a 1924 edition published in Sydney) was intact, with the words "Tamam Shud" still in place. This may provide clues to the country where it was purchased. She recalled that he was English speaking and only carrying a small black case, not unlike one a musician or a doctor might carry. [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. Johnson, about 45, of Arthur St, Payneham, was found on Somerton Beach, opposite the Crippled Children's Home yesterday morning. 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. Police conducted an Australia-wide search to find a copy of the book that had a similarly blank verso. [72] A seaman named Tommy Reade from the SSCycle, in port at the time, was thought to be the dead man, but after some of his shipmates viewed the body at the morgue, they stated categorically that the corpse was not that of Reade. His history and the autopsy findings suggest he committed suicide by poisoning himself.[113]. 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]. "I have spoken to them, except they're all of a generation well below him and so none of them knew himand have no photos in their old family albums or in their garden sheds, unfortunately," he said. Shortly afterwards she moved to Adelaide and was listed in telephone directories under the surname of her future husband, Prosper Thomson. All Episodes Topics Blog Shop About Contact SUBMIT A LISTENER SEGUE . Webb was then a 35-year-old instrument maker. But to find out that hes Australian, from Victoria, and that he died, and no one obviously noticed he was missing, or no one followed up with the police that he was missingI find that particularly kind of tragic. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. Last month Ms Chapman said the decision to exhume the body followed "intense public interest" in the case. [5], Carl Webbs father Richard August Webb (died in 1939) had emigrated to Australia from Hamburg, Germany. It bore the phrase Tamm ShudPersian for its finished or its endedand was soon traced to The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, a 12th-century book of Persian poetry popularized by an 1859 English translation. Born in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, on November 16, 1905, Webb was the sixth child of a German-born man and an Australian woman, writes ABCs Rebecca Opie. The man's body was found propped up against the seawall at Somerton Beach in Adelaide on December 1, 1948. [note 3]. Per a 1949 inquest report, a doctor who examined the Somerton Mans remains placed his time of death around 2 a.m. Accessing the man's remains may be a first step in a process to build a DNA profile and uncover answers in one of the country's most famous cold cases. [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. In fact, all of the tags on his clothing had been deliberately removed. [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. (Supplied) The suitcase When passers-by discovered the man's body on December 1, 1948, he was dressed in a brown suit and had a half-smoked cigarette on his lapel. That's most likely what brought him to Adelaide, the professor said. The site at tamamshud.blogspot.com shows exactly how it was uncovered and gives the precise methodology so that anyone can test it for themselves. [23] It was believed that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach. The heart was of normal size, and normal in every way small vessels not commonly observed in the brain were easily discernible with congestion. [84], In 2011, an Adelaide woman contacted biological anthropologist Maciej Henneberg about an identification card[85] of an H. C. Reynolds that she had found in her father's possessions. Beyond the DNA results linking the Somerton Man to Webb, Abbott and Fitzpatrick found ample archival evidence supporting the identification. [101][102] The family has a painting of the Somerton man hanging in their home, believing him to be family. His pockets contained nothing to identify him. "Now there's the historical work of actually digging further and finding out about the man's life and his circumstances and what might have exactly led to this particular situation," he said. 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. 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. 7 p.m.8 p.m.: Various witness sightings. Read about our approach to external linking. "[82] Phillips supported his conclusion by pointing out that the organs were engorged, consistent with digitalis, the lack of evidence of natural disease and "the absence of anything seen macroscopically which could account for the death". "Sorry, The Unknown Man is (very probably) not H.C. Reynolds", "New twist in Somerton Man mystery as fresh claims emerge", "An immaculate corpse, a secret code and Australia's strangest cold case", "Somerton Man to be exhumed by police in attempt to solve mystery", "Somerton Man exhumation to be carried out in hope of solving decades-long mystery", "Complete remains of Somerton Man in 'reasonable condition' after exhumation", "Somerton man: Body exhumed in bid to solve Australian mystery". Read about our approach to external linking. Dismissing the enigmatic figure as a drunk or a soundly sleeping beachgoer, the couples made no effort to approach him. Division, ", See, for example; Gumundsson, H.H. This is just us drawing the dots. [9], Witnesses who came forward said that on the evening of 30 November, they had seen an individual resembling the dead man lying on his back in the same spot where the corpse was later found. Carolyn Bilsborow, a film-maker and director of the documentary Missing Pieces about Somerton man, said the news was incredibly exciting. 15 January 1948: Boxall arrives back in Sydney from his last active duty and is discharged from the army in April 1948. "[44] Boxall's army service record suggests that he served initially in the 4th Water Transport Company, before being seconded to the North Australia Observer Unit (NAOU) a special operations unit and that during his time with NAOU, Boxall rose rapidly in rank, being promoted from lance corporal to lieutenant within three months. [11] They speculated he had showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths (although there was no Baths ticket on his body) before returning to the railway station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50a.m. train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he did not board. A jilted lover poisoned by his paramour. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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". Also in the suitcase was a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of "an unusual type" not available in Australiait was the same as that used to repair the lining in a pocket of the trousers the dead man was wearing. [20] Although named "City Baths", the centre was not a public bathing facility, but rather a public swimming pool. August 1945: Jessica Harkness gives Alf Boxall an inscribed copy of. 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. But a professor at the University of Adelaide was on his own mission to crack it. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Although the last character in this line of text looks like an "L", it is fairly clear on closer inspection of the image that this is formed from an "I" and the extension of the line used to delete or underline that line of text. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. The man's death also coincided with a reorganisation of Australian security agencies, which would culminate the following year with the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). 10 p.m.11 p.m.: Estimated time he had eaten a pasty based on time of death. Hicks stated that if death had occurred seven hours after the man was last seen to move, it would imply a massive dose that could still have been undetectable. ITTMTSAMSTGAB[29]. 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.
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