(I’m claiming neither plaudits nor brickbats for this suggestion, it’s Pete Bowes’ bonny baby: but funnily enough, I rather like it.)
Born in 1903 in Hungary, Czechoslavakia, Vienna or somewhere else completely (nobody knows), Arnold Deutsch was a brilliant young academic (with a PhD in chemistry at just 24) with an interest in Wilhelm Reich’s sex stuff who then moved to London to become, while a psychology graduate, a devastatingly well-connected Soviet spy. In fact, the Cambridge Five (including Lil’ Kim Philby) were his boys, and it was Deutsch who came up with the strategy of embedding them deep within the Establishment.
But then in 1937 Stalin got super-edgy and paranoid, and pulled all his wildcard agents back to Moscow, to be executed and replaced by a new cadre of even more hard-core home-bred Communist crazies. However, Deutsch managed to escape that fate: and was kept on “as an expert on forgery and handwriting”, says Wikipedia (with a straight face).
However, when he finally got abroad again in the 1940s, Deutsch is believed to have died, though – as you’d expect – nobody is sure quite how, where or even when.
Might he be the Somerton Man, found dead on an Australian beach in 1948?
Facially, the photos do look quite similar: they were of similar age, and they seem to share the same propensity for mystery. And dying so publicly and yet at the same time so privately has a curious rightness to it.
Up until now, I’ve hated every single speculative spy story floated to explain the Somerton Man that crossed my path: and yet I find myself smiling with delighted intrigue at this particular one. You know, “wouldn’t it be nice if…?”
And surely the best part of it all is that Arnold Deutsch’s fingerprints must surely be somewhere – Nigel West would know, wouldn’t he? Rupert, my man, have you still got a copy of Deutsch’s file upstairs? We have a nice set of fingerprints to compare it with… 🙂
The link “Peter Bowes’ bonny baby” is borked. It directs to an admin page.
I’ll have to do a major bloody re-write if all this works out …
OK. I am entering a theory. The guy obviously has Spock ears. Spock was played by Leonard Nimoy – born in America son of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union (from what is now Ukraine). So the Somerton Man was an American from Eastern European origin – most likely Ukrainian Jewish immigrant. The biggest clue for Eastern Europe is the table knife cut down to a sharp instrument found in the brown suitcase. I use such tool every day while cooking. The knife belonged to my husband’s grandparents (and maybe his great grandparents 🙂 There is not much left from sharpening it for many decades, but for some reason this is the main knife we use and it started as a table knife somewhere in Bulgaria in the last century and is still in use in the 21st century USA 🙂
I am not sure how the camps are organized in this mystery. For start I am joining the Solomonson camp 🙂
Was the Somerton man circumcised?
Great summary Nick! “…delighted with intrigue…” is how I feel as well! Possibly fingerprints and genes too!
Can anyone provide a bit of encouragement with the ears???
Hey, Nick. Your link Pete Bowe’s site seems to be malformed.
No. SM ears look sharper.
Somerton man was not circumcised. Like my husband he had a large, uncircumcised member.
Is someone saying that plastic surgery wasn’t done in the 30’s? Otoplasty (plastic surgery on the ear) was practiced in the 5th century by the honourable Sushruta.
cf: ooops, fixed, thanks! 🙂
pete: in all likelihood, the chances of the Somerton Man’s actually being Arnold Deutsch are fairly slim – however, unlike most Somerton Man theories floating in the ether, if you can find his genuine fingerprints then you can test the idea against reality.
A fairly slim chance gets you smiling with delighted intrigue does it Nick? You’re easily pleased old lad, I’m seriously doubtful.
Ellie: he was uncircumcised, according to this:-
https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/List_of_facts_we_do_know_about_the_Somerton_Man
Ellie, According to the documents, SM was not circumcised. Does that make him a Gentile? Not necessarily, many male children were deliberately left uncircumcised to protect them from anti semetic sentiment from the late 19 th. Century onwards.
As to the documents, much depends on how much confidence you have in their voracity. Many, and I don’t include Pete Bowes in this, follow their particular theories and will shift with their view according to their needs. There are a number of examples of that.
In Pete’s defence, he has been absolutely straight in his stance, he is an author with an eye for a great story and I for one will be buying his book when it hits the stands/ internet.
pete: what pleases me is not only is it a wonderfully romantic theory, but it is also one which might well be able to be definitively tested relatively quickly. Fingerprints! Fingerprints! Fingerprints! 🙂
And (of course) I look forward to collaborating with Nigel West on a bestselling account of the whole mystery. 🙂
I give it a 5% chance Nico, but if it gets past the post it’s my horse, everybody else is just on it for the ride … please say hullo to the Honourable Rupert for me will you, if he needs anything based on imagination I’m way over here, in the left field.
– and thanks for the defence GC, I didn’t know any was required
Getting warm
He was a triple agent.
This is very possible.
pete: a 5% possibility you can prove / disprove is well worth a go. 🙂
Golem of prague: I prefer triple sec, much easier to digest. 😉
Pete, Proactive..
So, Golem, I can put you down for a copy can I?
🙂
Thanks for the documents links.
Was the Somerton man old enough to be WWI veteran? The USA paid veteran benefits to Soviet immigrants who fought WWI. Maybe somebody collected his benefits and he was not reported missing so they keep collecting?
I’m giving up til someone bans xlamb.
For sure Pete. Im kean.
Jessie: that’s good.
Oscar Deutsch (of ODEON fame) was mostly likely Arnold’s cousin (vs uncle). Oscar had two boys (David and Leopold “Ronald”). Ronald was in an article about his father a little while back and he mentioned that he had three grown children in their late 50’s. So, there are relatives alive.
The only feature that looks different are the ears. Did Arnold have any brothers in the same profession?
Shurupag: nobody knows. Having said that, a number of people with the surname Deutsch arrived in Australia from Europe in 1939, so it might be a good idea to find out if any of those were related. 🙂
There is an Edwin Deutsch born 14-10-21 so he might be a bit young. But seems to be Arnold’s brother. They look very similar. I also note another Deutsch coming to australia in 1946 a glove maker. Working with tanning leather. Is there lead In tan ?
Eddy has the wrong colour eyes though. And only 5 foot 7
There is a Fourth Draft Registration Card for Thomas F Kean, of Manchester, New Hampshire, Born in Ireland in the US archives. This is the Old Man’s draft which means that the Kean in question was at least 45 in 1941. The Somerton man may have been an Irish dancer – Irish dancing shoes – high heels, pointy…
There’s lengthy and comprehensive coverage on Wikipedia for Adelaide’s Sir Mark Oliphant, nuclear physicist and member of the Manhattan Project. It will take you through the timeframe under examination for SM, includes some of Oliphant’s earlier life spent at Cambridge University, U.K., Glasgow etc. Some similar names and places pop up and worth a look perhaps if you’re setting SM into a spy theme, and it keeps influences ‘ more local’.
Mark Oliphant played a significant role in outcomes for WW2.
I’ve searched for “Arnold Deutsch” on ancestry and have not found much. I have a rudimentary family tree for him based on his relationship with Oscar Deutsch but not much else. If he was Oscar’s cousin, it’s most likely that his uncle was Leopold (Oscar’s father) and that his father’s parents were Adolf and Kati(e) Deutsch – with Kati(e) being born “Steiner”. (I can elaborate on this if required.)
Since I couldn’t find anything for an “Arnold”, I started searching generally for “Deutsch”. It’s not an extremely uncommon surname so, I tried to keep the search to time periods of relevance and, I found something that I think is quite interesting.
I found a manifest for a ship sailing from Nova Scotia to London in 1941. (Date of arrival in Liverpool on January 11, 1941.) It came up because there is a passenger on this ship with the name “E G Deutsch”. Ancestry incorrectly transcribed it as “E S” but if one looks on the original manifest itself, the initials appear to be “E G”. While scouring the manifest, my eye took in other names including a Dr. K Fuchs. (Woah…What are the chances of that?) A lot of the names seemed jewish so I went to look for more detail…Lo and behold…It’s a manifest for “Returned Alien Internees etc…As per attached list Total 287”. The ship is the SS Thysville Voyage 106. The detainees, many of them are German jews, who Churchill ordered back to England and YES, the Dr. K Fuchs appears to be the very same Dr Fuchs we know so well! Also on the manifest are Count Fredrich von Lingen, Hans Kahle, Max Purutz and our very own “E G Deutsch”!
I have no idea if it’s Arnold but it’s worth taking a closer look! (He certainly doesn’t seem to have travelled as “Arnold” despite articles that state that he travelled under his own name. So maybe he travelled with different first names?
There are many other names on this manifest that, with my limited knowledge, I am unlikely to recognize. Perhaps with others looking…there might be something to find??? I’ve done a bit of research on the Thysville and one document/book excerpt I found recounts how interns were sent back to the UK on this ship and many of the names mentioned are in fact, on this manifest! The document that comes up is from a book called “The Curtain Rises – Deemed Suspect; A Wartime Blunder”. There is mention in this book excerpt of a Captain Godfrey Barrass who established contact between Lingen (The Count) and “Athlones” but I have been unable to follow up in this to understand what it means. It is inferred that Lingen might have been wanted by Churchill as a possible exchange for British POWs?
Nick – I can provide these links to you via email, including the ancestry manifest so that you can post them.
Pete – I’ve had Arnold in my files for a while and didn’t have the courage to post. (Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!)… For being the balsy one that you are! It just seemed so improbable and like you’ve said, it’s not likely that he is SM…But but but, I am as delighted as Nick! The visual similarities are astounding. Nothing else has seemed as plausible so far; and there might just be an Irish link! (I’ll try to post about it tomorrow.) You might just have to start re-writing the whole thing! (Any which way it goes, I’d buy it!)
Nick – I posted the links. Your spam filter blocked them. If you have trouble just let me know where to send them!
Forget the finger prints, those EAR-prints are a dead- ringer !
-=se=
steve( well done )ekwall:-)
If Deutsch had entered Australia legally, he may have done it under the name Keane. There’s one reason for the absence of a war record.
If I was a gopher I’d dig for arrivals of both Deutsch and Keane – in the same time frame.
thanks misc, australia breeds ’em
The top GRU spy-master, Viktor Zaitsev, was moved from Japan to Australia in late 1942. Zaitsev had been running Richard Sorge for eight years, and the combination of Sorge and Zaitsev had proved to be of inestimable value to Stalin. The information obtained by Sorge probably saved the USSR from defeat in WW2. So, why was Zaitsev moved to an apparent backwater, particularly as Japan had recently joined the Axis powers? It does not make any sense, unless Stalin had reasons to believe that Zaitsev would be even more productive in Australia. As things turned out, Zaitsev spent nearly six years in Australia, unrecognised for what he was and not investigated by the intelligence services. Nothing is known regarding his likely activities in Australia.
It is almost certain that Stalin would have sent a top notch illegal to support Zaitsev. Somebody like Arnold Deutsch perhaps? I remember (but cannot find a reference) that Peter Wright, and I think a couple of others, said that Australia was selected as the top target for penetration during and after WW2. Apparently Stalin thought that Australia was the first domino of the Anglo-sphere. And, IMHO, Stalin was right in thinking this.
So, it is plausible that Arnold Deutsch was sent to Australia as an illegal to support Zaitsev. The timing of Deutsch’s disappearance fits. And the death of SM explains why Deutsch was never heard of again.
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B Deveson: there’s a little more on Zaitsev here: http://www.nationalobserver.net/pdf/evatt_part2_natobs76.pdf
B Deveson: and here http://www.surplusvalue.org.au/McQueen/c_war_aus/c_war_aus_dom/cwar_aus_d_petrov_commission.htm . 🙂
Jessie was his handler. The ears were like that from the body being turned.
misca: for what it’s worth, I suspect you’re looking at the sea traffic moving in the reversed direction. =:-o
I think it somewhat more likely that a brother, sister, or parent of Arnold Deutsch travelled from Austria to Australia in 1939, and that when Arnold Deutsch got out of Stalinist Russia in about 1942, he therefore made his way by sea – probably under a fake passport (let’s not forget that he was an expert at handwriting forgery) – to Australia, where he had that relative to visit. That side of things will probably be the next external link to pursue (apart from the fingerprints, which is the most important by far).
Hence I don’t currently see any likely link between any of these alien internees being sent back to the UK: but perhaps the larger picture will become clear in time.
Golem of prague: where did Edwin Deutsch live? Have you got a link? (Add spaces in to get past the spam filter and I’ll reassemble it during moderation).
Zaitsev was trying to infiltrate Commonwealth investigative services , sherbakov ratted him out.
pete: Deutsch was a guy who knew everything there was to know about forging passports, so the whole passport angle might not be the most productive way of trying to track him down. 😉
http.://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3115647
Edwin is a dead ringer for Arnold. Must be related at the very least.
Nick: misca found a Deutsch on the Canada to UK vessel, sitting up in steerage with Klaus, discussing things in common.
Nick – Many German and Austrian jews were interned in the early years of the war. Fuchs was initially interned on the Isle of Man and was then sent to Canada (possibly at Ripples in New Brunswick). The manifest I sent you shows a list of these internees that were being sent back (on Churchill’s orders) to the UK. Fuchs was one of them. There are others on the list that are interesting. I have named some of them above and will try to provide additional information when I have time to put it together.
Kim Philby’s fourth wife claimed that he had drowned when heading to the US on the Donbass. We don’t know if this is true or if it is deliberate misinformation; nonetheless, there were survivors on the Donbass and they were taken as POWs. Who is to say that they weren’t shipped off to Canada and that Arnold wasn’t one of them? It’s possible.
This is well before Arnold would have entered Australia. I’m first trying to see if we can even find him “alive” after he left England in the late 30’s.
Could you possibly post the links that I sent you or did they get tossed by the spam filter?
misca: I’m not on my home PC, so if you emailed me links I won’t get them until later.
It’s normally quicker to add spaces into the links in a comment here, so I can reassemble them into valid links while moderating them. 🙂
misca: I thought the Donbass incident was in 1942 and the POW ship was in 1941, which is the wrong way round?
Yes. You’re right Nick. (I realized it while I was out grocery shopping.) It was.
Still, there is nothing to disclaim the possibility that he was taken as a POW. It’s definitely possible.
I have been unable to find information regarding his wife and child. On one article, she is referred to by the name “Josefina” and in another, she is named “Sylvia”. Apparently they had a daughter whose name was/is Felicity. Has anyone else found any information/leads regarding this?
Misca, Until June 1941, Russia was aligned with Germany thanks to their non-aggression pact. A deal was discussed between Hitler and Stalin that divided greater Europe into Axis and Soviet spheres of influence.
You would have to think that Deutsch, being a well regarded agent, would have been well aware of this and would likely have had some interaction with German intelligence operatives as a result.
Thus any events that followed the sinking of the Donbass, if he was on board, would more than likely have been known to German and Russian intelligence. The opportunity existed for him to change sides, survival being paramount, although you would have to say that his political roots and background was far from fascist.
It’s not him. My contact at MI5 showed me the British files on the case and that possibility had been considered and excluded. The identity of the man is Tommy Keane, a union organiser and KGB informant from Queensland. He was burned as a warning to KGB operatives as he had been spying on military installations since the war.
Zagrano: hilarious. Do you also take cabaret bookings?
speak to me zag, we can do the screenplay together, I have a gap in the plot ..
Very interesting theory. I like.
Arnold had two younger brothers. One was an engraver who later became a medical student. The other brother was a tailor. Ref: The Crown Jewels. Nigel West. pp 104-113
Any recognisable names with James Cowan when he went to visit Leland Kirk in America?
BD – There is a picture of Arnold with his infant daughter in the reference you provided above. (Thanks!) Arnold’s hands look quite normal in size and he has a watch on his right wrist which would lead one to conclude that he was left-handed. Neither of these traits match with what we know of SM.
Pete – I’ll go back and check but I don’t think so…
There’s no mole above the lip (unique identifier) but it could have been deliberately concealed by him for this photo.
Drawing a long bow….What about mistaken identity.
Mr. Deutsch is similar enough to SM.
Bumping off the wrong man could explain a few things. Police make mistakes even now and they rarely tell the Public. They definitely wouldn’t be blabbing back in 1948.
So they panic a bit, then clean him up, remove his identity and place him on the beach. The book, code, spy thing is created as a cover, or someone that knows the real truth does it to embarrass or stitch up those responsible.
SM was meant to vanish perhaps, but he’s been left on the beach instead, so there’s trouble they didn’t foresee.
Now Media are involved, those Police and Government ‘higher up’ have no choice but to run with the story due to media coverage. Then Police later dump the book, code etc. because they know it’s all b/s.
The scenario is a bit complicated, but how would Police react if they really did get the wrong guy and an innocent man died in the process of finding that out.
It doesn’t explain why no-one claimed his body, but we only ever know what Police choose to tell us, and they’ve not told the Public anything more since. Dismissed as a suicide.
Just trying to stay in keeping with the ‘spy theme’.
SM could just as easily have been a nuclear scientist.
That would create the reverse, and it’s SM that becomes the target for spies in 1948.
Xlamb: perhaps the watch on his right wrist contained a concealed garrote . That he could extend by unwinding it with left hand , pulling out the sharp flexible wire. Choking the life out of people at his leasure . Using his dominent hand with the most power to secure the watch?
Does he show up in the pakies guest bo0k?
It must be difficult navigating these myriad issues for those contributors with the IQ of potted plants.
Pete – The two people on the same page as Cowan were Anna Maria Fitzgerald and Leander Edmund Fitzgerald (Journalist) as I’ve already noted. He is visiting “℅ Mr. W Jones, Editor Associated Press, Rockefeller Centre”. I haven’t found any names that are of particular interest but there are others travelling as “Government Official”‘s. A Clifford James Please (electrical engineer) coming from China from the British Res. of Shanghai, a Norman Richard Davison, Arthur Sherrard, and Standley Herbert – all electrical engineers. That’s about all that is of note. No Arnold Deutsch, no Stephan Lang/Long that I can see. : (
My name is Rabbi Wolfsohn. I can confirm that someone matching the identity of Somerton Man was a regular at Adelaide’s Mars Bar club where he performed weekly. At the local synagogue we were so used to seeing him in drag that when the papers showed his picture nobody picked up on it. He died after a Christmas party for the Golden Dawn society because the head cadaver disposal personnel didn’t like one of his jokes during he stand up phase. Rest in Peace.
He died of embarrassment. The reason he was Jewish and uncircumcised was because he had used elastic bands to perform a foreskin restoration. Yaw-h be with him.
Happy new year rabbi.
Schmenuel – Apart from your judgemental comment…What have you offered up lately? Anything of substance to add?
Misca,
the Manhattan Project required lots of electrical engineering, particularly for the magnetic separation of uranium 235 – similar to mass spectroscopy methods, but on an enormous scale.
BD – Yes, that’s why I listed the Engineers. If you want to have a closer look, they are on page 41 and 42 of the same manifest. There are also other Australian “Government Officials” listed on page 46.
Thank you Vicki, shalom!
N E Deutsch is the daughter’s name. She was born in 1936 (Paddington, London) and might be alive. The mother’s maiden name is Rubel.
It’s NOT him
Derek Abbott is still taking questions on reddit “Unresolved mysteries: I am Professor Derek Abbott, a researcher of the Taman Shud / Somerton Man”. So anyone that thought they’d lost the opportunity to question DA can ‘ask him anything’ now.
Pete’s put through some beauties…I’m waiting for DA’s reply.
Sometimes it’s best to let ideas rest. Arnold is there. No one is taking him away.
Ok. Pete…Are you ready? There is another connection to the Manhatten Project. On the Prosper McTaggart side of things…Prosper’s father (Ernest C Thomson) was first cousins of Walter Russel Rae. (Walter’s mother is Jane Philip MacTaggert. She is/was Ernest’s mother’s sister – Annie May MacTaggert.)
Just that fact (if you look up Walter) is quite something! There is more. Walter’s daughter, Elizabeth Rae married none other than Michael J S Clapham! You can google him as well as “Tube Alloys”. We are right back into the Manhatten Project.
Provenance. Always looking for that. Oliphant. Tizard. They’re there.
Deutsch is conceded; he was the pawn, this is the next move ..http://tomsbytwo.com/2014/10/04/abbott-attacked-again/
Pete – What’s the objective of the game?
more stupidity…
misca: Deutsch was put up as a 5% chance, initially Abbott dismissed it by saying the nose and mouth were wrong, then he did some research and came up with the correct differences, Deutsch’s height and eye colour.
Deutsch was conceded immediately, but Abbott demonstrated his researching abilities.
Now we are questioning Abbott about his professional researching abilities, his own SM research papers, which have been proven to be wrong in a very critical way.
Abbotts’ researches lead him to rule out Keane, the only name in the game. Abbott stands by that statement today.
I’m the only one who has ever challenged him in an open debate, he still hasn’t answered me.
Why did you (Abbott) rule out Keane?
That’s how simple the question is misca
Even Nick won’t ask him ..
His responses, what we have so far, have been evasive and his responses so evasive,
Pete: you’ve asked Derek directly enough already, surely?
As far as the Somerton Man goes, I’ve learnt a lot from you and I’ve learnt a lot from him.
Fully agree Nick, now I’m learning how to key in the trouser code to the rubaiyat code and make sense of it without asking for help … but we stills bro’s ain’t we, old son.
So Prosper’s second cousin married someone in the Manhattan project.
Yes. Something like that.
Because ‘Somerton Man’s great-great grandchildren’s families need to keep their privacy, I can only refer you to another source which may be able to tell you a lot about the various scientists (and maybe even disclose their names) who worked on the “Manhattan Project” and at White Sands New Mexico. University of Chicago still keeps records of just where every tiny iota of nuclear by-products was distributed to physicians (in California, at least during the ’50’s) for experimental procedures for shrinking adenoidal tissue, tumors of various types, and x-ray ‘therapy’.
When Nick (Nico?) first posted the Somerton Man mystery, and I saw the photo, I immediately alerted Nick to the possibility that “Somerton Man” looked very much like one of the scientists who had been assigned to obtaining uranium from Australia — and had disappeared not long after their arrival.
So, Nick and anyone who might have contacts with Chicago, may be able to gain access to the earliest documentation of the development of “The Bomb”.
Could Arnold Deutsch have moved to Mexico City, Mexico and lived there with a wife? I know of an Arnold Deutsch who lived in Mexico during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
N.W. 6 years, 3 months and 5 days. That’s got to be some kind of record.
I don’ know the story but I do know of a family friend of the same name that lived in Mexico City. Not sure the exact year that they moved. My grandmother would visit him often. She taught Russian and traveled to Russia a few times a year. She was from Eastern Europe, so there are some coincidences.