Thanks to Diane O’D for flagging that long-running Australian current affairs TV programme “60 Minutes” will be covering the Somerton Man this coming Sunday, with reporter Charles Wooley. The team were snapped filming in West Terrace Cemetery (where the Unknown Man’s body lies) last month.
For what it’s worth, I suspect that the fact that their interest and the Tamam Troll attacks on Cipher Mysteries all happened at basically the same time is not entirely coincidental. Perhaps that’s simply what happens when people stick their hot hands into historical hornets’ nests: someone’s gonna get stung.
But this is, of course, exactly how TV film-makers the world over make their programmes: their only concern is with the shining televisual jewel that finally emerges from the edit suite, not the wreckage that’s left behind by their underpaid & overstretched researchers trampling cavalierly over the cultural flowerbeds. It’s rare these days that this process yields even genuine reportage, let alone anything approaching (capital-H) History.
All the same, the programme makers have a moral responsibility to check their facts, to get their basic story straight: so let’s read their initial press release, to see what we should expect of them:-
We all know that fact is stranger than fiction and that’s very much the case with this story.
It’s the true tale of espionage, a love affair and murder – that wouldn’t be out of place in the movies.
Not a great start. Unless 60 Minutes have found a huge cache of evidence everyone else has missed completely (very unlikely), I think it’s important to say that we have:-
* no evidence of “espionage” at all – the “cipher” seems to be a list of initials of a set of phrases, nothing to do with spying
* no evidence of “a love affair” at all – all we have is a phone number in a book that seems to have been connected to the dead man
* no evidence of “murder” at all – the pathologists, lab analysts and coroners found no trace of poison, despite looking really hard
The year was 1948. Communism and democracy were wrestling for world supremacy. The nuclear arms race was in high gear. And there were spies everywhere, even in Australia.
All true (if a tad self-important and grandiose). But the probability that any of this is even remotely to do with a middle-aged bloke found dead on Somerton beach still seems extraordinarily low. I repeat: we still have not one jot of evidence that supports any of this speculation.
Against this sinister backdrop, an unidentified body was found on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach – the so-called Somerton Man.
TV loves sinister backdrops… but that doesn’t make the two things connected, or even likely to be connected.
Now, 65 years after he was buried there are moves to exhume him in an attempt to finally solve this lingering Cold War Mystery.
Professor Derek Abbott has indeed been trying to get the body exhumed. But – contrary to nearly every crime scene TV drama ever shown on television – the courts are respectful of the dead, and don’t allow them to be exhumed on a whim or on a fishing trip for physical evidence. Right now, we simply have insufficient tangible evidence to convince the courts that exhumation is a good idea, and – unless people actually do better quality research and find better quality evidence – that’s how it’s going to stay for the foreseeable future.
This Sunday, 60 Minutes will reveal for the first time the identity of the mysterious nurse who was romantically linked to the Somerton man, and talk to the woman who claims she’s the Somerton Man’s granddaughter.
Well… apart from the awkward fact that the identities of the nurse and her husband have been known by hundreds of researchers for many years now, perhaps we can be generous and say that “60 Minutes” will probably be the first to reveal it on TV.
All the same, the interview with “the woman who claims” (etc) will doubtless be interesting, if perhaps a bit speculative: though if they’ve hooked themselves a gee-new-wine Tamam Troll, that would turn the entire programme into a Tamam Train Wreck of spectacular proportions.
Let’s hope for some fast and furious fact-checking before Sunday! 🙂
I’m voting for the Spectacular Train Wreck at the moment, though many of these stories tend to be a beat up in the advertising and then fall miserably short, being full of speculation and general waffle.
I see from their Facebook page that good old Pete never lets a chance go by.
Ah! Well, all part of the rich tapestry of life and of course the well known adherence to truth, ethics and integrity practise by our beloved ‘Free’ press.
It is of more than passing interest that whenever new, evidence prompted, different thoughts and ideas arise or a new perspective is opened up, there’s always a news story there to smack it down. Hmm.
A well known spy in an interview in the 70s once likened the intelligence world to an orchid, ‘You think you have it understood but then it changes, quite deceptive. Nothing is ever as it seems’. Indeed we could all be surprised at who is involved in what has all the appearance of an ongoing effort to supress the truth or anything leading to it.
I really hope Dr. Abbott’s work will create legal justification for exhumation.
Maybe I’ll get a call, that means a shave and clean shirt for the interview –
Pete: strides! Strides! Don’t forget your strides! 😉
Having said that, I’d guess they probably wrapped up the edit a week ago. I mean, it’s not as if they had any facts to check, right? 😉
Nick. another post of yours has comment by Ada Hawke mentioning the television crew.
It gets better and better…..(link to Herald Sun story above):
Well the news item which has just appeared online is full of incorrect information. “New twist in Somerton Man mystery as fresh claims emerge” (Courier Mail)
I hope they reveal the extent of the DNA testing that they have already done within the family because I think that Robin is a dead ringer for Prosper, but what would I know.
Maybe they’ll call later today, I should wait for it, and watch the poms crash in the 1st test in the meantime ..
Should be a good day
I know every time someone asks a question about the family on a forum someone else gallops in on their high horse to scold them about being respectful of the familys privacy. I reckon if the family are going on Australias number 1 current affairs program they are as keen as anyone else to get to the truth.
I TOLD you! Her own daughter.
I thought Roma and Rachel’s explanation of other family descendants of Robin not wanting the SM dug up was a kind and simple way of expressing their views. Thanks Girls Xx
Important Note: Roma Egan divorced Robin Thomson well over 30 years ago. She is not Robin Thomson’s late wife.
So, is Rachel Egan really married to Abbott, and why is her surname not Thomson? The daughter had a Jewish minorah behind her and basically claimed Mummy had been a high level spy whose identity was suppressed by ASIO. You don’t get much better than that
How come Maria is alleging on the Marshall Files that the blog owner has photos of and is related to Somerton Man? Nick, I assume you know the blog owner and that this is nonsense ?
I thought the girls looked lovely and composed. 🙂
Interesting. Good to put some faces to the names and hear from Jestyns daughter. I hope the Granddaughter does get the right to exhume him. I’m studying my family history at the moment and if I was in the same situation I would like to know.
Other than that not much of breakthrough in facts. Time will tell now I suppose.
Roma Egan is one sexy woman!. I’d tap that! She has the face and the body of a 30 year old. And those lips!!!.. So sensual! I am sure 60 minutes have got it the wrong way around. Rachel looks like Roma’s mother and Roma looks likes Rachel’s daughter.
Team Roma!
I wonder if Roma and Rachel will pose topless for Maxim Australia. Anna Chapman the Russian spy posed topless after her scandal. And with Roma and Rachel claiming connections to Soviet Spies what wouldn’t be better than the girls getting their tops off for the lads. Do it for Russia Girls!
Petitioning The Honourable John Rau: Do not exhume the Somerton Man as it is not in the Public Interest.
The Somerton Man has been laid to rest and it would be immoral to exhume him just to satisfy the curiosity of a few. Kate Thomson on 60 Minutes spoke what others feel and believe. It is very simple to carry out DNA testing amongst potential family members to clear up any doubt.
https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/petitioning-the-honourable-john-rau-do-not-exhume-the-somerton-man-as-it-is-not-in-the-public-interest
Trang Pak is writing on the 38 Minutes Facebook that the mother is not even sure Robin Thomson is the girl’s father. Did he not raise her?
Robin re married but she’s Robins kid , no doubt.
There is one curious point though. Rachel is not named in Robins death notice . Three other children named , GIna RObbie and LIzzie but no RAchael . And she’s not named in JEssicas death notice either. All children , grand children and great grand children named but no Rachel.
Is she presenting under a false name or what ? I’m thinking Rachel is GIna
That a nice thing to say J.
R
For the record Gina Thomson is certainly NOT Rachel Egan.
R
After watching 60 Minutes on Sunday I was concerned that references were made to Russian Spy’s and intelligence. Russia already has a tense relationship with Australia and I am sure the interview on The Somerton Man that was shown on Sunday will be brought to the relevant departments in Russia. My main concern is the safety of the people closely associated with the case. As much as it is a ‘mystery’, situations like this can cause tense political problems between two countries and possibly lead to higher sanctions.
Да, это очень серьезный вопрос. Рома и Рэйчел Иган должны быть осторожны.
http://dystopia.me/z/taman-shud/
I want speak to Rachel Egan I want to know why she make allegations against Russia and our people. She may face serious consequences. We are already building up a file on everyone. We have people everywhere interacting.
Я хочу поговорить с Рэйчел Иган Я хочу знать, почему она делает заявления, направленные против России и нашего народа. Она может столкнуться с серьезными последствиями. Мы уже строим вверх файл на всех. У нас есть люди во всем мире взаимодействуют.
@ Concerned
вы правы чувствовать себя таким образом
you are right to feel this way
Советские офицеры союз разведки на всем протяжении Somerton человек дела. они встретились все участники от feltus для всей семьи Томсон. они просто не знают его. мы перехватили всех. мы собрали ДНК из всех. каждый окурок был проанализирован. мы были через каждые мусора. кто вы думаете вы разговариваете с на Facebook на самом деле не кто вы думаете вы разговариваете с. мы контролируем.
soviet union intelligence officers are all over the somerton man case. they have met everyone involved from feltus to the whole thomson family. they just dont know it. we have intercepted everyone. we have collected dna from everyone. every cigarette butt has been analysed. we have been through everyone garbage. who you think you are talking to on facebook is not really who you think you are talking to. we are in control.
Concerned and Anatoly:
Возможно, вы не заметили, что Сомертон Человек умер 65 лет назад, и все наши шпионы вышли на пенсию в Голд-Кост (я думаю, что шпионаж называется «преследование» теперь). У нас нет напряженные отношения, мы оба хотели пить (много) и смотреть голых русских девушек, танцующих в Интернете, так что теперь все, что вам нужно сделать, это научиться играть в крикет и остановить бурение отверстий в планете и это будет брак, заключенный на небесах.
Perhaps you haven’t noticed that the Somerton Man died 65 years ago and all our spies have retired to the Gold Coast (I think spying is called ‘stalking’ now). We do not have a tense relationship; we both like to drink (a lot) and watch naked Russian girls dancing on the internet, so now all you have to do is learn to play cricket and stop drilling holes in the planet and it will be a match made in heaven.
Debra: just when I was warming to господин сердится… 😉
I would like to state when I was interviewed by 60 minutes I did express an opinion about my mother’s involvement in this case. I did state that my mother admitted to understanding Russian. However any inference that she was a Russion spy is journalistic speculation at the very least..Understanding a language is a big jump to being a spy for a country that speaks that language. It would be a useful asset though in working for Australian intelligence. Common sense please prevail.
daughter of Jestyn: thanks very much for dropping by. The biggest problem with the Somerton Man cold case has long been not a lack of evidence, but a lack of good questions to ask: as a result, a whole culture of speculation, guesswork and (sadly) misinformation has sprung up to fill that void, with many theories about people and places based more on misconceptions and misreadings than on fact. As a result, I’m not hugely surprised that “Russian spy” / “Australian spy” / “double-agent” theories have once again jumped to the fore – but that doesn’t mean I believe any of them.
What moves these cases forward is rarely some Sherlock Holmes-style reasoning mind making brilliant deductions (the dog that didn’t bark, etc), but usually rather an idea about an historical archive that might contain one or more relevant details, or about a way of applying a modern diagnostic technique to look again at the original physical evidence (DNA, multi-spectral imaging, computer-aided cryptanalysis, etc).
Having raised the possibility that your mother may have been involved in spy-related work (which, then as now, covers a wide range of activities), the question for historians such as myself is therefore where to look to test this idea. ASIO itself was formed in 16th March 1949, and it seems likely that the archives of its Adelaide branch might be a good place to start… but it would take a certain type of investigative researcher to get even remotely close to finding out what’s there, if there is anything even there to get close to any more.
{quote NP} What moves these cases forward is rarely some Sherlock Holmes-style reasoning mind making brilliant deductions (the dog that didn’t bark, etc), but usually rather an idea about an historical archive that might contain one or more relevant details …
– and that, my dear Watson, is what’s being done, but in a manner you cannot imagine.
Jessica Thomson’s life must now be analysed in its completeness including her employment history, as must the family of Ada Frances Bernie/Gluck/GARRETT as Mrs GARRETT is inexorably linked to Jessica and sent the order for her to Terminate Thomas Keane.
Helen Foxton: who are you talking about? Or is this something from a thread on a different Somerton Man board / forum?
The TTK dossier, someone has lifted the title of my book! .. now I’ll have to start all over again, again.
I have to say that I am very much of the opinion that the most benign of cases may look very suspicious when we are not in possession of the full facts . Having said that I keep trying to come up with reasonable explanations but I keep getting stuck. The problem for me is the actual rubaiyat with codings being thrown into a car . I believe if you committed suicide you would just carry it with you. If you were spontaneously murdered you would not have the time or inclination to place pieces of
it in your trousers . If you were involved in the murder you are unlikely to hand it in at a later date . Given that no similar copy has been traced I have to take a rather Sherlockian view in that when you take away the impossible whatever is left however improbable must be the truth.
Therefore I am left with the conclusion it was not a” normal ” copy but was in fact the cover for a one time key pad which is unlikely to be broken unless we have the actual book ( very conveniently lost) . if the book was indeed found in the vehicle then either the Somerton man or someone who had a hand in his death must have placed it there. The Somerton man could have concealed it suspecting he was poisoned and possibly being followed .