The case of the Somerton Man is a curious one indeed. With many questions and few answers. While this is not a Canadian case, it is so strange I wanted to share it with everyone.
The Somerton Man is also known as the Tamam Shud case, due to a piece of paper with this phrase written on it found on the body of an unknown man on Somerton Beach in the town of Glenelg, which is just south of Adelaide, Australia.
The body of the Somerton Man was found 6:30 am, December 1, 1948. The man had no identification, nothing on him to point to who this man was. Even the tags of his clothing had been removed, making even trying to get an identification through his suit difficult. He also did not have a hat or wallet which was unusual for the time period. No identification could even be made through dental records
He was found in a sitting position leaning up against the seawall, with his legs crossed. Almost like he had been sleeping when he passed. An unlit cigarette was found on the right collar of his coat. A search of his person revealed an unused second-class rail ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach, a bus ticket that may or may not have been used, a comb, a half-empty pack of gum, a pack of matches, and a pack of cigarettes that contained cigarettes from a different brand. A more in-depth search of his clothing found a secret pocket sown in his pants that contained a small piece of paper that looked to be from a book, with the phrase "Tamam Shud" written on it. Tamam Shud was later discovered to be a phrase in Persian that means "finished" or "ending".
The phrase Tamam Shud is found on the last page of the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", a book translated from Farsi to English containing the writings of Omar Khayyam, who was described as the "Astronomer-Poet of Persia".
After a public appeal by police to find a copy of the book this was torn from, a man came forward with a copy of the book later confirmed to be the one they were searching for. He told police that the book had been left in the footwell of an unlocked car.
Written in pencil in the book was some sort of code:
WRGOABABD
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB
The second line has been struck out – a fact that is considered significant, due to its similarities to the fourth line and the possibility that it represents an error in encryption. Decoding the message proved to be unsuccessful due to how short the message was, there was too much room for error to provide a concrete answer. Indeed, I have done a little code cracking myself and while I did get some interesting answers, there was nothing I could say 100% was the decoded message, with most answers having a big chunk missing from the answer text.
A phone number was also written in the back of the book. An unlisted phone number belonging to nurse Jessica Ellen Jo Thompson. Jessica lived less than a half kilometer from where the Somerton Man was discovered, but she denied knowing this man or why he was in the area. 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". Gerry said he believed that Jessica did know the Somerton Mans identity. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Jessica's daughter Kate said she believed as well that her mother knows who the Somerton Man was.
The night before the body was discovered it is reported that someone resembling the man had been seen sitting in the same spot, who responded by raising his hand when hailed. A few more witnesses saw the man that night, one of them thinking that he must be drunk and sleeping it off because he was not reacting to the mosquitos that night. This was between 7:00 and 8:00 pm.
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| The location the Somerton Man was discovered |
The man's shoes had been recently polished and in remarkably good condition considering that people thought this man had been wandering around town on foot most of the day before his death. This lead investigating pathologist John Burton Cleland to come to the conclusion that the Somerton Man had been carried to his final resting place, noting that none of the witnesses could positively ID the man they saw the night of November 30th.
The Somerton Man was 5'11, and approximately mid-40s. Broad shoulders and slightly greying hair, the man was described as of British descent. His hands and nails showed no signs of manual labor, and his big and little toes met in a wedge shape described as being a characteristic of a ballet dancer. He also had well-developed calf muscles you would expect from a professional dancer. It was concluded at autopsy that he had died around 1:00am on December 1
More strangeness from the autopsy:
"The heart was of normal size, and normal in every way ...small vessels not commonly observed in the brain were easily discernible with congestion. 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. The stomach was deeply congested... There was congestion in the second half of the duodenum. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. Both kidneys were congested, and the liver contained a great excess of blood in its vessels. ...The spleen was strikingly large ... about 3 times normal size ... there was the destruction of the center of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. ... acute gastritis hemorrhage, extensive congestion of the liver and spleen, and the congestion to the brain."
He had eaten a pastry about 3 hours before death but nothing detected in the way of poisons. Even though poisoning was not detected it was still believed that the man had been poisoned.
On January 14, 1949, a suitcase was found at a rail station in Adelaide. Further investigation found that all identification had been removed and the suitcase had been checked in on November 30th, 1948.
Authorities believe that the suitcase belonged to the Somerton Man. In the case were a red checked dressing gown; a size seven, red felt pair of slippers; four pairs of underpants; pyjamas; shaving items; a light brown pair of trousers with sand in the cuffs; an electrician's screwdriver; a table knife cut down into a short sharp instrument; a pair of scissors with sharpened points; a small square of zinc thought to have been used as a protective sheath for the knife and scissors and a stencilling brush.
Also in the case was a type of waxed threaded cord of the same type used to repair the lining in the dead man's pants. Curiously this thread was not available in Australia at the time.
Once again all identifying tags and marks had been removed from the clothing found in the suitcase with the exception of "T.Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag and "Kean" (notice without the last "e") on a vest along with three dry-cleaning marks; 1171/7, 4393/7 and 3053/7.
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| Contents of the suitcase |
Note that wartime rationing was in effect, and it could be difficult to acquire clothing. Name tags were common, but it was also common to remove the tags on second-hand clothing. Investigators did find it curious that there were no socks and no correspondence in the suitcase even though there were paper and pencils.
Further investigation of the name T.Keane found no one of that name reported missing in any English speaking country. The only thing they could really tell about the clothing was that it had been manufactured in the United States due to the type of stitching used.
Years after the Somerton Man was discovered, the receptionist at a hotel directly across from the Adelaide rail station recalled seeing a man with a similar description at the hotel. He was carrying a case with him that a doctor or musician might carry, and when an employee had looked inside the case he saw what was described as a "needle".
Years later in 1994, the case was reviewed and Chief Justice of Victoria and Chairman of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine said: "There seems little doubt it was digitalis."
Digoxin toxicity, also known as digoxin poisoning, is a type of poisoning that occurs in people who take too much of the medication digoxin or eat plants such as foxglove that contain a similar substance. Symptoms are typically vague. They may include vomiting, loss of appetite, confusion, blurred vision, changes in color perception, and decreased energy. A lot of the symptoms look like they can be confused with someone who might be drunk.
A reoccurring theory is that the Somerton Man may have been a spy due to the strange circumstances surrounding this unknown man. This has never been confirmed.
The Somerton Man was laid to rest in Adelaide's West Terrace Cemetary in 1949. Years after, flowers began to appear on his grave, placed by an unknown person.
To this day, how and why the Somerton Man died, and what his true identity was, remains a mystery.
I hope you enjoyed reading about one of the most intriguing cases I have researched in a long time.
Thanks for reading,
See you soon.
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