I’ll start with a quick Somerton Man announcement: Professor Derek Abbott will be doing an interactive AMA session on Reddit right at the end of this month (August 2014), which will happen at the following times:-
– Eastern Standard Time: Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 9:00:00 p.m
– Mountain Daylight Time: Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 7:00:00 p.m
– Pacific Standard Time: Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 6:00:00 p.m
– Australian Central Standard Time: Sunday, 31 August 2014 at 10:30:00 a.m
– Australian Western Standard Time: Sunday, 31 August 2014 at 9:00:00 a.m
– New Zealand Standard Time: Sunday, 31 August 2014 at 1:00:00 p.m
– Central European Summer Time: Sunday, 31 August 2014 at 3:00:00 a.m
– British Summer Time: Sunday, 31 August 2014 at 2:00:00 a.m
If you have Tamam Shud questions for him that have long been burning into your soul, perhaps that would be a good time and place to ask them.
Today’s post is about something oddly specific: what the South Australian police apparently didn’t find.
If we assume, quite reasonably, that the Somerton Man was the owner of the suitcase found at Adelaide railway station not long after his death, we end up with some curious gaps – a “missing list” of things that ought to be present but were not.
At his death, what he had on him was:
* 1 jacket
* 1 shirt
* 1 tie.
* 1 pullover (even though it was the middle of the hot Australian winter)
* 1 pair of trousers (made of Crusader Cloth)
* 1 singlet
* 1 pair of jockey underpants
* 1 pair of socks
* 1 pair of shoes (new-looking)
* 1 Army Club cigarette packet (containing cheaper Kensitas cigarettes)
* 1 quarter-full box of matches (Bryant and May)
* 1 half-full packet of chewing gum (Juicy Fruit)
* 2 combs
* 1 piece of rolled-up paper (famously bearing the words “Tamam Shud”)
* 1 used bus ticket to Glenelg
* 1 unused second-class rail ticket to Henley Beach.
Here are the contents of the stuff that was found in the (also new-looking) suitcase:-
Clothes
* 1 laundry bag (marked “Keane”)
* 4 ties (one marked “Kean”)
* 2 singlets (one marked “Kean”, the other with name tag torn off)
* 2 pairs of underpants
* 1 pair of slippers (size 8)
* 1 pair of trousers (‘Marco’ brand)
* 1 sports coat
* 1 yellow coat shirt
* 1 coat shirt
* 1 shirt (name tag removed)
* 1 scarf
* 6 handkerchiefs
* 1 dressing gown and cord
* 1 pair of pyjamas
Clothes accessories
* 2 coat hangers
* 1 front stud
* 1 back stud
* 1 button (brown)
* 3 safety pins
* 1 card of tan thread
* 1 tin of tan boot polish (Kiwi)
Work tools (it would seem)
* 1 scissors in sheath
* 1 knife in sheath
* 1 stencil brush
* 1 piece of light board (zinc?)
* 1 small screwdriver
* 1 pair of broken scissors
* 1 loupe (small ring shaped object)
Personal hygiene
* 1 razor strop
* 1 razor
* 1 shaving brush
* 1 toothbrush and toothpaste
* 1 soap dish (apparently green)
Correspondence
* 8 large and 1 small envelopes
* 6 pencils
* 2 air-mail stickers
* 1 rubber
Miscellaneous stuff
* 1 hairpin (in the soap dish)
* 1 piece light cord
* 1 cigarette lighter
* 1 6d coin (in the trouser pocket)
* 1 tea spoon
* 1 glass dish
Put all these pieces together, and you get a surprisingly long list of things that weren’t there:-
* Hat
* Outer coat
* Pen (or did he really write everything in pencil?)
* Money
* Ration card
* Identity card
* Wallet
* Socks
* Any kind of railway ticket (if he came to Adelaide by train)
* Any letters received
Were these all lost (in a bet in a pub?), dropped (in a fight in the street?), stolen (by strappers on the beach?), removed (by a spying clean-up crew?), or what? Nobody knows – not even Derek Abbott. It’s a first-class mystery, for sure.
What does it all mean?
Well… that’s the big question, isn’t it?
It’s certainly odd that the Somerton Man seems to have only owned a single pair of socks. I’ve wondered (elsewhere) whether he might have used his other socks to wrap his money in, and whether he had those socks in his outer coat’s pockets. I’m well aware that this, as explanations go, is both plausible and ridiculous at the same time… but if you have a better explanation, please say.
I think the absence of letters may also be telling. I feel reasonably sure that the Somerton Man had letters in his possession, but carried them in his pocket because at least one of them included the address he was travelling to.
I also suspect that the “T Kean[e]” was Adelaide Freemason Tom Kean, whose 1947 Will – I believe, but can’t prove – donated many of his clothes to a local charity, from where the Somerton Man received it.
But I think that perhaps the biggest clue of all in his possessions has yet to be properly mentioned by anyone – the dressing gown and slippers. I recently read a short “Out Among The People” article in Trove from the 7th November 1950 edition of the Adelaide ‘Tizer, which said that the Mission To Seamen visited sick seamen in hospital and supplied them with “cigarettes, fruit, toilet necessities, slippers, books, dressing gowns…”
The full extract goes like this:-
Missions To Seamen
In addition to providing wholesome entertainment for crews of visiting vessels at the Flying Angels at Port Adelaide and Outer Harbor, the Missions to Seamen also watches their interests if they are sick in hospital. A member of the committee cited cases in an enlightening account to me yesterday. “One patient, an Irish lad, has been in hospital for 3 1/2 years and recently was permitted to get up for the first time.” she said. “The hospital visitor has seen him regularly and has been able to do the manv little things his own family would have done in the way of shopping, business affairs, arranging for a wireless set, and so on. A young South African suffering from polio was visited daily and helped in his efforts to walk again in the hospital grounds in the evening. Just recently patients have been Swedish, Indian, Cornish, Scotch, English and Irish. An Indian from Pakistan has been in hospital for 20 weeks, and will soon undergo another operation.”
Devoted Nurses
My committee friend described the devotion of the nursing staff to these lonely overseas patients as wonderful. The Mission supplied cigarettes, fruit, toilet necessities, slippers, books, dressing gowns, had their laundry done when necessary; in fact, it did as far as possible take the place of the patient’s family. The men are most grateful and say they do not know what they would do without this thought and care. “I have been receiving letters from at least 10 former patients regularly for the past three years,” she told me. “Short motor drives and visits to private homes are arranged when, patients can get their doctor’s permission to do so. Two seamen were taken out and home to tea this week-end.”
Hmmm… I wonder who that female committee member was?
The simplest explanation of all?
Prediction #1: the Somerton Man was a foreign merchant seaman in Adelaide who had been taken seriously ill at sea, and had been visited in hospital by the Mission to Seamen. He was a Third Officer (hence his stencilling equipment for marking cargo.). He had written letters home overseas (hence the air mail stickers).
Prediction #2: the Somerton Man was Russian and needed an interpreter to help him get effective treatment. The nurse we know as “Jestyn” (who, we are now told, spoke Russian when she was younger) was asked in by the Mission for Seamen as a Russian-speaking volunteer – what we might nowadays call a ‘patient advocate’.
Prediction #3: the Somerton Man wrote letters to her in Russian from the hospital and sent them to her home address in Glenelg; and that she wrote back to him. This was a source of great comfort to him.
Prediction #4: the Somerton Man didn’t arrive in Adelaide from Melbourne, but was already in hospital there. Feeling terribly unwell and alone he decided to discharge himself from hospital and go and visit her in Glenelg. He put his possessions into a suitcase given to him by the Mission To Seamen (along with the dressing gown and slippers, etc) and checked it into the left luggage department of Adelaide railway station.
Prediction #5: that same morning, he did something simple that accidentally had the effect of making him hard to trace – he shaved off the beard that he had grown in hospital, to try and look as respectable as he could for meeting Jestyn.
Prediction #6: I believe that it wasn’t poison or a pastie that killed him, but whatever he had been suffering from in the hospital (causing his spleen to enlarge etc).
All you can know is what was found on the body. The other stuff has no ties to him and maybe disinformation. Sir Percy Sillitoe sent MI5 folks over there to make contacts to determine the extent of the soviet problem in May or early June. The Somerton man would not have been the first to fall in the line of duty.
xplor: the suitcase looks far more likely to be genuine than anything I’ve so far seen proposed about spies and (alleged) disinformation. Moreover, purported explanations that necessarily require the intervention of spy agency “clean-up crews” to massage the evidence after-the-event seem to me to be both unlikely and somewhat paranoid.
The little thing in his secret pocket Nick, you forgot that. Howabout you give us one of your more complicated scenarios, simple is simple. Comic strip stuff.
….. where does that play a part in your set of ‘predictions’?
Pete: sorry, boss man, will try harder next time. 🙂
Me, I happen to like simple explanations – and let’s face it, we’ve had more than enough complicated explanation-like stories run past us over the last few years, so I thought it was time for a change. 😉
It is tough being an Ian Fleming fan an not noticing the similarity to Operation Mincemeat.
Firstly I think that it is a well written and well researched piece and should be acknowledged as such. I agree that it would be good to find the identity of the committee member, it would certainly add great credibility to your case.
I do have a question though, given that this was someone who had been in the mission for some time, plenty of time to write letters etc, how is it that none of the hospital staff or other patients came forward to identify him? After all he had just discharged himself and would have been well known to the Mission staff, the Doctor who prescribed the various medicines to him. Then of course there may have been someone from the local Russian community, perhaps from St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church on Greenhill Road, who would drop by and admittedly this would be pure guesswork although you would have to think that given the nature of the mission, that organisations like the Church would have been high on the list of people to call. Bear in mind that the case and photographs were certainly well publicised around Adelaide at the time.
Simple? This from the master of Voynichism? …. give us a break Nick, the whole mystery is a cipher, that’s why all of us have stuck with it for so long.
Hi Nick, I suppose he could have called at Moseley St, no one at home, asked the neighbour at Bath St flats (for confirmation that J lived at 90a)? Walked down to the beach intending to re-visit 90a later but, fell ill, couldn’t speak English, was ignored until following morning. J. unaware that he had called at her house. This still leaves the Tamam Shud slip in his fob pocket or, was that a “plant” to be found later, months later to divert attention from another matter?
Clive: I don’t yet see how the Somerton Man and the Rubaiyat cipher are connected – the notion that they are connected is still only an assumption. With this post, all I’m doing is trying to reach out to where the rest of the physical evidence leads. My hope is that if we can find ways of testing any of my predictions, we may well gain interesting insights into what happened.
Pete: or is it? The assumption that the Somerton Man wrote the Rubaiyat cipher (or could read the cipher) is still only an assumption. The historical mystery may become significantly easier to unravel if we collectively stop obsessing over the cipher. But that’s just my point of view today, I may have a different one next week. 🙂
Gordon: I’ll be posting what I believe to be the person’s name in a later post, so we’ll see where that all leads in due course.
My suspicion is simply that he had a beard while he was in hospital, and had shaved it off that morning in town – perhaps that took longer than he thought, and so he missed his train to Henley Beach. And maybe the two combs were for his beard. Sorry for being so prosaic! 🙂
Nick: that he wrote it was never my assumption, the book may have belonged to anybody, the slip however, belonged to the dead man. You’re the guy who thinks espionage is a distraction, the slip was physical evidence, personal, but you have not played it any of your simple hands. How come?
xplor: so it’s Glyndwr Michael, is it? Nice one! 🙂
Clive: oh, and I’ve long pointed out that the whole he-died-alone-on-the-beach-and-nobody-knew scenario doesn’t square with the lividity – his body, by all the accounts given, was in the wrong position for blood to have pooled at the back of his head.
Pete: I’ll get to the “Tamam Shud” slip in due course, but I don’t yet see a single thing in the rest of the physical evidence that would connect him with ownership of the Rubaiyat.
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….’ in the rest of the physical evidence,’ when we have the key, the slip, if you were a copper young Nick, you’d be on traffic duty tomorrow – is due course coming after your post on pro signs? Are you at all worried that murder mysteries are a little outside the scope of your expertise? Me, I’m just another bullshit artist making life difficult for amateur sleuths. The surfing blog is winding down after all, and the book is nearly done .. you get to play the part if Nick Balsorini, an Italian with an automatic pistol in his glovebox and a vivid imagination with interrogation techniques, be nice or he dies. I don’t do those bloody smileys, so just imagine one, cheers.
Nick, please forgive my very frustrated note, herein, on just how fast communications can break down:
I awoke this morning to the news that there had been a 6.0 earthquake in Napa California with much damage to the town and vineyard/wineries. Last week I was Greek Festival dancing with my friends who live in Napa town. This morning I’m jarred awake by the news of extensive damage to downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. Telephone lines either down or being used by Emergency crews. I don’t have a cellphone number for them. The word is out that no one gets in until Emergency crews, Police, and Fire have made various areas available. Hospitals are jammed with wounded. Apparently one reporter was able to interview a man whose mobilehome had collapsed and burned to a pile of twisted I-beams. The fire also spread to the other mobilehomes in the park. The mobile home parks are on the outskirts of town.
No one is saying when communication systems will be back on-line. Urrrrrrgh!
bdid & p o’d !
[swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][swear][insult]
Jessie: are you trying to break my spam filter?
Pete: “in due course” means “just as soon as I get round to it”. I’ve learnt a great deal about prosigns, and do indeed need to post about them too. And investigating murder mysteries is great fun, particularly if you can prove it’s a murder. 🙂
Good luck with finishing your book, I just hope we don’t accidentally crack the whole case before you sell your first million. 🙂
Didn’t you get a laugh out of the cliff richard line
Jessie: not until now. 🙂
Thanks dome, it’s a race between the yanks and the reds to see who does him in .. even the writer is holding his breath, in a manner of speaking.
Hi Nick, Yes, it’s frustrating trying to tieup, if possible, all the threads but, the “Tamam Shud” slip was, we are told, found in his fob pocket.
Clive: as a cipher mysteries guy, I’m hardly going to let the Tamam Shud side of things drop, am I? All the same, I think the rest of the evidence is shouting a whole load of small stories at us which need exploring and testing – so perhaps for now it’s best to think of the historical and the cryptological as two independent strands to pursue and which hopefully will merge into the same larger story in due course. 🙂
The Yanks and the Brits had a preference for show trials and the Russians preferred more summary methods of dealing with errant spies. Money is therefore on the Russians doing the deed on one of their own employees who may not have been a Russian himself. A case of making an example at a time when the pressure was being applied by Australian, British and US Intelligence.
The British never found or executed any spies during the cold war. They still wont say who was the spy inside MI5 called Elli.
Xplor, I think the Brits did find quite a number of spies and arrested 22 of them following Igor Gouzenko’s 1945 revelations about the KGB infitration of MI5. Many were not put on trial but used for exchanges. Kim Philby was named at the time but the claims were dismissed, it took years, January 1963, before Philby defected and then admitted he had been a Russian Spy which was many years after Burgess and Maclean his co conspirators.
Nick, On the illness front, SM had very high/elevated levels of lead when the students at Adelaide Uni did a mass spectrometer evaluation on one of the hairs taken from the SM bust.. (I have an image of the graph and will post that today.)
There could be a number of reasons for that including, according to Prof Abbott, lead water pipes in houses, it is known that lead pipes were not installed from 1934 onwards but there would be a fair number of legacy installs.
Given the proximity of Port Pirie to Adelaide and the local industry there being Lead smelting alongside uranium processing, it crossed my mind a few months back that perhaps SM had travelled to Adelaide on one of the Adelaide Steamship Company’s regular services from Port Pirie to Port Adelaide and that he may have been suffering from lead poisoning or even some form of radiation sickness; there are some similarities in the symptoms. Having said that, the surgeons involved may have not been able to disclose the true nature of how SM died if it had been uranium related.
Some background, Port Pirie during the early cold war years used to export lead 3000 tonnes at a time to the UK and USA. Processed uranium would have been a compatible cargo.
From woomera with love.
The spies the British arrested were identified first by the Americans working at Arlington hall. None of the spies were executed and only a few served time most were just moved to other jobs.
Elli are you the one holding up the exhumation of the Somerton man?
The Gouzenko case was in Canada and he defected there. The ties between Canada and the UK were strong and they informed the Brits of the information that Gouzenko had taken from the Russian Embassy in Ottawa where he worked as a cipher clerk. The names of the UK spies were amongst that information. Arlington Hall may have been informed but they did not discover the names. As a matter of interest it was thought that the Cold Ware really began in Ottawa following that defection. The timelines are most interesting when you look at the Venona case, the discovery of the code books in Europe pre-dated the Gouzenko matter. I agree that no official executions of spies took place in the UK during the Cold War, here in Australia there was no legislation covering spying in the Cold War so nothing in the way of prosecutions for some time.
Nick, only slightly related but ‘here goes’ anyway:
National Geographic has just this morning done an online pictorial of the Napa Valley earthquake locus (and other large quake zones). Very interesting from my point of view (being just thirty miles away on the other side of St. Helena Mountain). I was able to contact my friends in Napa. Her house escaped serious damage except for a large window. Her large freezer moved two feet (which means it ‘walked’ that far. Some of her neighbors homes were ‘red-tagged’.
One photographer got a real ‘close up’ shot of a Highway Patrolman, holding a red cone (topped with a lamp) over a one-foot high buckled segment of the main road through the valley. Scary — because the streetlights lining both sides of the road were inoperative. Speed limits throughout the length of the valley are 50-55 mph.
The point of my monologue, herein, is that identities can be very quickly ‘lost’ while being in the midst of unforeseen disasters.
I do remember mentioning to you several months ago, that one of the scientists who were working with the Manhattan Project (and the White Sands facility) disappeared while he and team members were negotiating with Australian officials for the purchase of uranium from Australian mines.
It would be interesting (to me at least) if Univ. of Chicago should have a lot of stuff to say about its participation (pre AND post-war II.
I have mentioned elsewhere on your pages the use of Co60 radiation on me and untold others. I do know that UChicago followed many of the test participants for a good twenty years or so. I know this because I was unable to provide the name of the doctor that used Cobalt 60 to treat me for some minor scarring of my vocal palate.
Just goes to show how quickly identities can be ‘lost’ or ‘traded’. I won’t go into the sale of identification cards on both sides of the US/Mexican border.
In recent years, here in the US, government officials are dickering for oil (Canadian oil sands) and several oil wells on the coast of Cuba.
Many months ago, when divers found the ancient wreck of the British explorers ship(near Prince Edward Island) in the waterway we call the Northwest Passage, the divers also found oil. Our Alaska state officials have been dickering over the oil drilling rights ever since Pres. Bush Jr. left office. Just something I’m wondering if National Geographic will ever be discussing. Have they already?
;-^
Negative Xplor, I’m all for the exhumation . I believe Sm is my great grandfather .
We don’t know if the contents of the suitcase was compromised and items removed (or introduced, including a new case) while it sat unlocked and unclaimed at the railway station…and socks fit most feet. Once a fuss erupts later over SM it would be hard for anyone to own up I think.
Fountain pens can leak so don’t mix well with clothing and travel.
Look up “Six of seven sons of Frederick and Maggie Smith died in WW1” published by News Corp Australia 25/4/14 as part of Anzac Centenary.
Followed by…Great War Forums “Six of seven brothers of the AIF died overseas – really?”
And then see News Corps amended article 10/5/14
“The great Anzac mystery of the Smith brothers: Did they all die in World War 1”
In Dec. 1948 my Uncle A. L. Smith (b.1928 d. 1996) was a young Policeman in Adelaide and married to my father’s sister. He was the son of Clarence Leslie Smith (re- article 10/5/14)
As my father had past possession of the H.C. Reynolds I.D. I thought the mystery surrounding the Smith brothers was worth mentioning here.
Gordon, you are correct Gouzenko put the pieces in place. He defected on September 5, 1945
The Venona Project was initiated in 1943 then called Bride. Most of the messages which would later prove to be decipherable were intercepted between 1942 and 1945.
Elli, I am with you. The other elli was a highly placed mole in MI5. It has not been proven that it was Roger Hollis but Einar Sanden says he was recruited in 1939.
Nick;
In keeping with your “missing list” … on page 63 last paragraph ‘The Unknown Man’ it speaks of a ‘needle’ and thread of similar texture to the coat being worn. It also only mentions ‘one’ brand new handkerchief which was similar to the handkerchief found on the body. This is on first inspection of the suitcase I gather, so perhaps 4 more handkerchiefs are found later in pockets etc. making up the six you’ve listed. There’s mention of the dressing gown and slippers to match, adding “they have been worn fairly well”. If “they” is only meaning the slippers, it might rule out any recent issue via the “mission ladies”. Perhaps it’s worth a check in case my comprehension differs from yours.
Also if there’s a new handkerchief you might expect a set of new socks. I don’t recall if the condition of SM’s socks was mentioned (old with a hole at the toe or newish looking in keeping with his shoes). Handkerchiefs often come in boxes of multiples, but not sure about socks for that timeframe. However if there’s extra singlets and underpants why not socks as an essential!
The hair pin placed on your miscellaneous list seems an odd item amongst male belongings, unless it was used for the purpose of ear cleaning. It’s a simple explanation only.
The deceased was said to be well groomed, manicured nails etc. so hygiene was a priority for him I’d think. There’s no soap found in the suitcase however. There’s the razor etc. for shaving, but no lubricant (not even soap to lather), no aftershave, deodorant. You’d think the Coroner would have checked breathe for alcohol and detected ‘old spice’. On page 61 “luggage as clue to beach body” it states “He had shaved on the day of his death”. Who by and where?
Any missing clothing labels weren’t thought to be recently removed.
I also find few guild lines when it comes to rules and protocols guarding evidence. Page 65 shows that those inspecting the contents of the suitcase were also trying them on for size.
It all seems a bit slap dash. It has me question the handling of the evidence including access to clothing worn by the deceased when found (piece of paper in the trouser pocket).
I think you’re right to question what’s missing, what might be essential to the human side, day to day simple stuff. What’s in the suitcase and what’s missing tells a story. There’s also nothing in the suitcase to suggest he’s a spy.
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I think that really the simplest explanation of the absence of such things as socks, hat, overcoat would be that the journey with this suitcase was not intended to be a long one.
They say the clothes matched. Aren’t size 8 slippers a bit undersized for a 180 cm height man? Anyway, all these clothes may have belonged to the deceased indeed, but either just transported from one place to another, or intended for some third person or persons.
Broken scissors. Why would one devotedly carry broken scissors with him and not throw them off, especially when he is in possession of scissors in good order as well? Perhaps only as some suitable instrument. What size were those scissors and which way exactly were they broken?
Interesting post, Nick – the merchant seaman theory looks to be quite plausible. I think you mean ‘Australian summer’ though!
One more suggestive point, as someone who lives in this climate: if SM lived nearby, or was on a short visit, there’s a chance he could have packed a pullover (the clear nights can get a bit cool, but even then, he had his sports coat and outer coat). However I find it very hard to imagine anyone here packing a scarf for a December trip.
It seems more likely that he either (a) departed his place of residence in Australia earlier in the year, (b) intended to be travelling into autumn, or (c) was travelling with all his worldly possessions (which would make the missing items particularly odd).
Catching up on your recent posts, there are also a few things Derek mentioned in the AMA that seem to contradict what we think we know. If I recall correctly, he stated that:
– Jestyn spoke poor French, but claims that she spoke Russian seem to be much exaggerated.
– SM had some stubble, but it doesn’t show well in the photo due to its light colour.
– The pastie was something of a guess, based on the fact small pieces of potato were found during the autopsy.
– The lividity is possible, given the position may have caused blood to be trapped in the head/neck area.
I find the “tartan” scarf found in SM’s suitcase very odd. It seems a strange item to be carrying around in November in Adelaide. Particularly as the suitcase did not contain more important things such as socks.
The “tartan” pattern of the scarf does not appear to be a genuine tartan because the pattern is rectangular, and I can not find any genuine tartans based on a rectangular pattern. The method of weaving genuine tartans seems to preclude rectangular patterns.
The only plausible explanation that I can think of for SM carrying around this scarf is that it was a theatrical prop.
B Deveson: I haven’t really looked at the tartan scarf – what image are you working from?
There were ‘similar’ tartan scarf’s as well as dressing gowns made at Onkaparinga Woolen Mills, Adelaide Hills. Not sure about socks though 🙂
Nick,
the scarf is shown in the first image on Gordon’s site. Gordon has noted that the scarf is anomalously large – “more like a shawl.”
Gordon also noted that there is a label on the scarf, yet any information on this label was not noted by the police.
In the second image on Gordon’s site it seems that one of the ties is visible, balled up. It seems to be red and dark blue with a pronounced white stripe. An unusual pattern to my eye and a bit loud for 1948 in my opinion.
I was watching the “Lateline” TV program tonight, and there was Senator Arthur Sinodinos wearing a copy of one of SM’s ties! I suspect that the tie is a dog whistle, but to which group? Opus Dei? Anyone know? Previously I had thought that the colours and pattern of the tie were possibly of Norwegian origin.
A long shot but what about Chinese intelligence, not just KGB GRU Russian? Roger Hollis was involved in starting New Zealand intel. Anyone right of center was accused of McArthyism. Still very left spies in SIS today, Chinese… The Elligate telegram in M16 archives, does it still exist?
Sonya Fay McKenzie: from my perspective, connecting the Somerton Man to any country’s intelligence would be a long shot – if there is any actual evidence beyond pointing out that the post-War period was a politically sensitive time in Australia, I’m not aware of it.
Moveover, the point of this post back in 2014 was to point out that one could easily construct a straightforward narrative to account for the Somerton Man’s death without involving intelligence services, conspiracy theories or even any notions of romantic or familial entanglement. But feel free to construct whatever narrative you like, that’s entirely your business.
Its taken ages but here is a link to a video of the first (blue) book. I am trying to email the video too nick. I don’t have a lead to link my scanner to my PC and its really frustrating. I have also just taken pictures of the second book along side the first one. Thanks
http://speedy.sh/5XnFc/VID-20160616-200018.mp4