[NP: here’s a guest post by Gordon Cramer, lightly edited to Cipher Mysteries house style and with some brief comments from me at the end]
An enormous amount of effort has been applied to this case for so many years and I agree with comments regarding the value of Gerry Feltus’ book and the work of Derek Abbott and the students at Adelaide University.
I would suggest, with great respect to all, that the following facts and questions regarding evidence and timeline be taken into consideration when reviewing this case. I hope you will bear with me whilst I attempt to unravel some aspects that I find quite unusual:
1. On December 1st 1948, the Adelaide News published a brief article on the finding of the body of a man at Somerton beach that morning. In the article the man is described as being 5ft 11 inches in height, well-built and having fair hair and hazel eyes. This information was ‘fresh’ and would have come directly from the Police and quite probably the Coroner’s officer.
If you look at the images published at the time and since, his hair was quite dark and in fact has been referred to as being auburn in colour. His eyes were later referred to as blue in colour and not hazel. You could brush this off as a simple mistake but there were quite a number of such simple mistakes as you will read.
2. On Friday 3rd December in the Advertiser, another article appeared and it refers to a ‘reconstructed’ photograph of the body of a man found on Somerton Beach. This coincides with the view I and others have that the images published at the time had in fact been altered. You of course must form your own opinion on that. The same article clearly states that his death was not natural. I mention this because it was said that the Police did not discover the fact it was an unnatural death for some time. How much credence can be placed on the published photograph’s being a true likeness of the man?
3. Around mid-January the suitcase was discovered. It contained a range of items including tools, a glass dish, a razor and more. What puzzles me, given that the death was known not to have been a natural one, is why none of the items was fingerprinted. The blade and handle on the knife, the handle on the brush, the glass dish and more were apparently not dusted for prints. In fact, the Police made it clear that the way they were able to associate the man with the suitcase was the presence of Barbour’s waxed thread used to repair the collar of his coat and a card of similar coloured thread that was found in the suitcase. Why do that when his fingerprints should have been on the items mentioned, including the card of thread and the suitcase, inside and/or outside?
3. When much later a copy of the book was found, it also was not dusted for fingerprints. It should be born in mind that Detective Jimmy Durham had earlier risen to fame because he had been able to capture a palm print from a copy of a second-hand book from a shop and that led to a successful prosecution of a lady who had stolen the book. The question here is why weren’t this book and its pages fingerprinted? The least they would have found should have been the man’s prints and who knows who else’s prints.
4. The final aspect that adds to the puzzle is the manner of his death. Most would know that it was believed with some good cause that the man had been poisoned and that Digitalis or the plant derivative had been used. At the autopsy Cleland described the man’s spleen as being three times the normal size. In a discussion with Derek Abbott his view was that the Somerton Man was very ill and that his spleen could have taken three or more days to reach that size.
Here is where any input would be greatly appreciated: for example, is it true to say that Digitalis can have this enlarging effect on the spleen? If so then we are faced with the possibility that Somerton Man had been poisoned some days earlier when he would have been in Victoria, as is widely thought, or perhaps on the train.
The question here is would a man take poison, carefully pack his suitcase supposedly with the book and then take off on a lengthy train journey not knowing if he would survive it, let alone get to Somerton beach?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[NP: my own brief comments:
(1) “…gingery coloured hair, fairly coarse and turning slightly grey at sides, back of neck and behind ears… grey eyes, clean shaven and natural teeth” according to this later police report.
(2) To be precise about the “reconstructed” picture, it was made by Police Photographer Durham, appeared in the Friday 3rd December issue of the Adelaide News, and was then referred to as a “reconstructed” photo in the Saturday 4th December issue of the Adelaide News. My own best guess is that the “reconstruction” element simply involved putting a shirt and tie on the man’s body, i.e. staging rather than photo-manipulation.
(3) The book certainly should have been fingerprinted, yes: but unfortunately detective work is often full of should haves. 🙁
(4) The man’s enlarged spleen has yet to be explained satisfactorily (and I too think it would have taken several days or indeed weeks to reach that size). But the notion that the Somerton Man was a slow-motion suicide-by-self-administered-poisoning doesn’t yet make sense to me at all. Why lug brushes and knives around if you’re about to die?
Even more to the point, I think it is well worth pointing out that the significant lividity at the back of the man’s head was highly inconsistent with the pose of his body on the beach. The distinctive lividity pattern strongly suggests to me that after dying, the man’s body was laying down (almost certainly on his back) with his head slightly lower than the rest of his body, before being carried to the beach some hours later, again almost certainly in the night hours. So, somebody took his body to the beach after a fair few hours. The pasty in his stomach sounds to me a lot like a light lunch to a man his size, so my own forensic reconstruction is that
* he died in the late afternoon [perhaps in a sequence involving vomiting into his hat and losing his dental plate, right Pete?];
* he was then laid out on his back on someone’s [probably quite small] bed with his head tipped slightly over one side;
* he was finally carried to the beach in the middle of the night to be posed with a cigarette in his mouth etc.
Feel free to comment and disagree with this, but I’m pretty sure this is as close as we can currently get to the correct sequence! ]
Laid out on a small bed?
Carried to the beach in the middle of the night?
What about the man who saw a man carrying a man on the beach in the afternoon Nick?
About the poisoning issue, I stumbled across a medical article via a pretty straightforward Google search. Some Zijad Durakovic from the Pakistan Heart Journal describes a case of digoxin intoxication in which the patient’s Tc99 scan showed an enlarged spleen (the article’s named “Pseudomyocardial Infarction, Digitalis Intoxication and Hyperkalemia”). Don’t know if the patient’s condition was subject to additional medical factors but seeing the words “digoxin” and “spleen” elevates your scenario as plausible to my untrained eye.
About the rest of your summary, did you find data in which it is categorically stated that no clues where fingerprinted? I wouldn’t find it unlikely for these kind of routine procedures to be omited from official police reports.
Umm, the police report says “natural teeth” – doesn’t this report seem odd if he lost his false teeth and had only “nine upstairs and nine downstairs. All but two at the back. He had no chewing teeth” (pete bowes) ?
Nick, what caught my attention was the mention of the dead man’s enlarged spleen (3X normal?): Besides being an emergency reservoir of red blood cells, the spleen is basically an enlarged lymph node for warding off infections. I’d have to do some more digging in my medical textbooks to see if perhaps the dead man may have died of malaria/filariosis. (?)
When my younger sister was born (1948) my mother required transfusions. The blood donors (three of them) were US Navy sailors on leave from the tropics. For years afterward, my mother would have cyclic episodes of malaria.
I like the sequence, it fits the evidence and is impossible to disprove.
The coroners estimated time of death is inconsistant though…
Splenomegaly is a common symptom of chronic lead poisoning. Acute or chronic poisoning by digitalis drugs should not enlarge the spleen, unless other factors are present. I suspect that the unusual pigment that Dwyer saw in the spleen was actually megakaryocytes, which form in large numbers in chronic lead poisoning.
Nev, he only had 18 missing, that leaves a few ‘natural’ teeth scattered here and there in his mouth. The plaster cast shows this, there was another one, of his teeth you know.
It is hard to discuss this with someone who may not have read the material available. Good luck though.
Nicky: the coroner indeed estimated the time of death as some time after 2 am. Yet there’s also the 1959 report of a well-dressed man carrying a body near the beach at 10pm – http://tomsbytwo.com/2013/11/09/the-man-who-saw-a-man-carrying-a-man/ , thanks Pete! – and the traces of blood in the dead man’s stomach (which would seem to imply vomiting, though -no- trace of that was found either at the scene or on his clothes). Throw the lividity into the mix (which, as far as I can see, is a physical constant that can’t be talked around), and it’s extremely hard to produce a scenario where all these are correct all at the same time.
Nicky: “evidence of examination of the body at 9.30 a.m. on December 1, and of the fixing of the time of death at not more than eight hours previously, was given by Dr John Berkely Bennett, of Fullerton.” – http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/74647022
Chronic lead poisoning is thought to damage the kidneys (as well as the heart and other organs), but there is still some debate about this. The susceptibility of the kidneys to damage is probably variable due to genetics. This is significant for us because digitalis cardiac glycosides are not metabolised or excreted quickly and if the kidneys aren’t in good shape the digitalis cardiac glycosides can accumulate in the body. That is, the body can not get rid of them fast enough to stop them accumulating. The elimination half life (T1/2 the time required for the body to excrete and otherwise eliminate half of the dose) for digitalis cardiac glycosides is stated to be about 33 hours in healthy young subjects, and much longer in subjects with renal insufficiency. As you will recognise, if the drug is coming in faster than it is going out, it must build up until the balance of input and elimination is restored.
Lead poisoning is also linked to various problems with the heart so it is possible that SM was prescribed digitalis cardiac glycosides. If SM had some renal insufficiency due to lead poisoning, then otherwise “normal” therapeutic doses of digitalis drugs might have killed him.
Nicky: I’ve just posted a related comment on the time of death here – http://ciphermysteries.com/2012/12/03/2012-advent-calendar-day-3-the-boxall-code#comment-296512
Nick, did you mean to say ” traces of that was NOT found…” ?
Yes, or rather “no trace of that was found…”
Submitted for a perspective on failures in tracing unknown persons. Despite lengthy investigations, including DNA and fingerprint checks with Interpol, the man’s identity remains a mystery. … between 170 and 175 cm tall, with hazel eyes and balding blonde or ginger hair. There is another in Australia with some SM characteristics: athletic physique with expensive clothes from various places in Europe. Many good clues. Many others still not identified.
doenetwork.org/cases/uid-geo-index.html#NSW
australianmissingpersonsregister.com/Remains.htm
finger-plate-articles/1996/7/19/most-anonymous/
An enlarged spleen might press on the stomach, causing the sufferer to eat small meals.
Ready-made shirts, even the “taper” type, have to be altered for men with small waists. Somerton Man folded his in from the seams and sewed along the folds (which would have been recorded by the police), the shirts were altered by a tailor, the shirts did not belong to him, or the shirts were sloppy and the tails would not stay in place (SM wouldn’t be caught dead in one). There are people who cannot wear boots because of the size of their calf muscles.
Since SM’s clothes were identified, intact tags would not have added any useful information. Are tags actually removed by spies? If they wear $3000 suits with ego tags, maybe. Otherwise, I think tag removal is spy legend. How would removal help a captured criminal? Tags might be removed from donated overstock. They might be removed by an organizational killer wanting to leave nothing to chance. And, yes, by someone who thinks they should be for reasons unknown to us.
Stealth poison has long been researched. Taipan can cause death without convulsions but wasn’t studied until after the death of SM. There are many other venomous creatures in Australia to furnish toxins. Also, what are the effects of overlong treatment with a “truth serum” or overdose? Barbiturates have sedative and anticonvulsant properties.
io9.com /5902559/ what-truths-does-truth-serum-actually-reveal
princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Sodium_thiopental.html
Co-administration of pentoxifylline and thiopental …
Two more dead ends. The second phone number belonged to a bank. Did it belong to a specific person in the bank? I suspect SM had a second suitcase or travelling bag.
B Deveson, yes I read your comments elsewhere on this blog regarding lead poisoning and the report from Adelaide University.
What immediately came to mind was the town of Port Pirie,North of Adelaide. Not generally known is that in the mid 40s Port Pirie was Australia’s fastest growing town as well as being the home of BHAS Lead smelting operations. Thousands of tons of lead were shipped from the port regularly to the United States and other locations.
Another interesting aspect of the towns significance was that in 1948 an agreement between US and UK ( Combined Development Agency) to ensure continuation of supply of uranium for nuclear weapons. Whilst a fully operational facility was not built in the town until 1955, it would be reasonable to assume that uranium was also exported from Port Pirie from the mid 40s and possibly on the same vessels.
As an aside but related comment, Adelaide Steamship Company ran a service from Port Pirie to Port Adelaide during the 40s and 50s.
The local newspaper for the town is the Port Pirie Recorder and you are able to search for content on Trove, quite a lot there.
B Deveson, yes I read your comments elsewhere on this blog regarding lead poisoning and the report from Adelaide University.
What immediately came to mind was the town of Port Pirie,North of Adelaide. Not generally known is that in the mid 40s Port Pirie was Australia’s fastest growing town as well as being the home of BHAS Lead smelting operations. Thousands of tons of lead were shipped from the port regularly to the United States and other locations.
Another interesting aspect of the towns significance was that in 1948 an agreement between US and UK ( Combined Development Agency) to ensure continuation of supply of uranium for nuclear weapons. Whilst a fully operational facility was not built in the town until 1955, it would be reasonable to assume that uranium was also exported from Port Pirie from the mid 40s and possibly on the same vessels.
As an aside but related comment, Adelaide Steamship Company ran a service from Port Pirie to Port Adelaide during the 40s and 50s.
The local newspaper for the town is the Port Pirie Recorder and you are able to search for content on Trove,
May I mention that these days clothes bought off-the-peg are the norm but before the 1930s depression, Australians were among those who did or pretended they did have most of their clothes made to order. As a child, I was also taught that it wasn’t done to let your clothing serve as free advertising for some ‘mere’ manufcuring company, and all such ‘ads’ were removed before cleaned and worn.
Only a few exceptions that I recall. So while younger people of the fifties might have retained or even flaunted some labels, to remove them wasn’t uncommon as yet.
🙂
.. were removed before *the clothing was* cleaned and worn…
Byron, can you get in touch with me at celestinelecarr at gmail dot com?
Celestine
Are you seriously saying that Max Gluck became Peter Maxwell and Frances Ada became Betty?
Sounds plausible, I think malaria would be the top cause of enlarged spleen now, and then as well. If there was some sign of the body being laid on something like a small bed, are you refering to a pattern of blood pooling? Are there any images or diagrams of this in any reports available? I haven’t read over the inquests in full yet, but that would lead me to revise my views.
Knox, barbituates were looked for and a poison like that of Australia’s Taipan species would be obvious.
T Anderson,
Dwyer specifically commented that the pigment in the spleen was not malarial, but he could not identify it.
I have always wondered what the marks/wounds(?) near his knuckles were that no one thought were relevant at the time.
Has anyone considered Australian wildlife?
Could he have been bitten by a snake or spider, or stung by a scorpian? I have no idea what types of reptiles etc are around the Adelaide area, and who knows where he came from beforehand.
What type of symptoms does a redback or whitetail cause? When we were kids we were told to be careful in the sand dunes (in NZ) because a Katipo spider could bite us.
Forget it! If it had been an accidental death, Jestyn would have coughed up his identity. She knew he had been murdered so she stayed mum.