In a comment here yesterday, the ever-insightful Byron Deveson raised once again the possibility that the half-a-rifle-in-the-suitcase-with-socks case might be connected with the Somerton-Man-with-no-socks-in-his-suitcase case. Put like that, you have to admit that there is a certain harmonious balance to the suggestion. 🙂
Though the Somerton Man case we already know (often in painstaking detail), the other case hasn’t yet really been explored in great depth: as for me, until yesterday I thought it would prove to be no more than a crime of opportunity. But I have now built up a very detailed scenario of what really happened there and why – and to my surprise, it (if true) would seem to explain precisely why the Somerton Man was in Glenelg.
The Evidence
The Advertiser Monday 29th November 1948 Page 6
Mystery Somerton Find
The discovery near the water’s edge at Somerton yesterday of a man’s three-piece suit, sports trousers, a shoe, several pairs of socks and an overcoat is being investigated by police. With the clothing was a rifle stock without a barrel. The articles appeared to have been in the water for some time.
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 29th November 1948 page 1
Hectic Week End For B. Hill Boy.
Adelaide. – During a hectic week-end a 17-year-old Broken Hill boy is alleged to have stolen a motor cycle from Broken Hill on Friday night and ridden it to Adelaide, abandoned the cycle in the sandhills at Glenelg, dumped a suitcase containing clothing and a rifle at Somerton beach, and illegally used a motor car at Port Noarlunga.
The lad told the police that he had dumped the clothes, which were found at Somerton yesterday.
Police found the clothes and a rifle with the barrel missing, but the youth said he had left them in the suitcase. He said he walked to Port Noarlunga, where he was later arrested for allegedly having illegal use of a motor car. He appeared in the Juvenile Court today and was remanded until tomorrow week.
The Advertiser 30th November 1948 page 6
ADELAIDE JUVENILE BEFORE MR B. J. COOMBE. SM. Charge Against Youth.— Stated by the prosecution to have run away from his home in NSW, a youth of 17 was charged yesterday with having, at Port Noarlunga on Sunday, unlawfully used a motor car belonging to Maxwell John McCormack, second-hand dealer, of Stanley street North Adelaide. Prosecuting, APP Northwood said that, shortly after the disappearance of the car had been reported to the police, the youth was stopped while he was driving it along the South road. When questioned by traffic constables he admitted the offence. Defendant was remanded in custody until December 7.
Yesterday, I found out from Trove exactly whose motorbike it was: a Mr W. H. Coffey of 637 Lane Lane. Coffey initially reported that his motorbike had been stolen during the evening of Friday 26th November 1948 at some time before 12.30am, when his shift at the Central Power Station finished. The bike was later seen by police passing through Mannahill (89 miles SW of Broken Hill), halfway down the Barrier Highway and heading in the direction of Adelaide.
The Timeline
So: the unnamed youth…
* stole a motorbike from outside the Central Power Station in Broken Hill
* used it to carry a suitcase (containing a rifle and men’s clothes) hundreds of miles to south of Adelaide
* left the suitcase on Somerton Beach
* dumped the bike in the sand dunes at Glenelg
* walked 12 or so miles to Port Noarlunga
* stole a car and headed North back past Glenelg towards Western Adelaide
* was captured by police on South Road
On reflection, I’m now completely happy to rule out the notion that this whole thing was some kind of opportunistic joy-ride. But if not that, what actually happened to connect all these scattered pieces of evidence?
The Rifle Sock Scenario
Right now, I can only see a single scenario that joins all these dots… and it goes like this.
(1) Someone near Somerton Beach wants to buy a rifle, and someone in Broken Hill wants to sell a stolen rifle. This is what drives this entire scenario: everything else clicks through as a sort of logical consequence of this shady buyer-seller attempted transaction… though, as we shall see, with an unfortunate twist.
(2) The seller’s first challenge is how to get the stolen rifle from Broken Hill to Somerton Beach without carrying it himself. He finds a do-anything 17-year-old kid who’s willing to steal a motorbike and be the courier.
(3) The seller’s second challenge is how to fit (and hide) the rifle inside a suitcase. He separates the rifle barrel from the rifle stock, and uses socks to cover up the four exposed ends, to stop the two bumping noisily around in the suitcase. He then wraps them up inside a suit and an overcoat: anyone opening that suitcase would see, well, a suit inside a case. Which is what suitcases are for.
(4) The seller’s third challenge is how to make sure the suitcase’s contents wouldn’t lead straight back to him if it fell into the wrong hands. He removes all the labels from the clothes: a mechanism already eerily familiar to almost everyone who has read about the Somerton Man case.
(5) The seller’s fourth challenge is how to get the rifle from the courier to the buyer without having the courier knowing the buyer’s name or address. His answer is to tell the courier to drop the suitcase in a certain place on Somerton Beach at a certain time, presumably near to where the buyer lives or works.
(6) The plan, then, is for the buyer to collect the suitcase with the rifle in from the beach, whereupon everything is where it needs to be (apart from payment… but more on that later).
Yet even though all six steps appear to have happened exactly as they were supposed to, the suitcase should not have ended up dumped in the sea at Somerton Beach with half a rifle in: so something clearly went very wrong indeed. But what?
How Did Such a Perfect Plan Go Wrong?
Again, I can only think of a single scenario that fits and yet explains everything we see.
(7) Before leaving the beach, the buyer decides to check the contents, and discovers that the seller omitted to describe something about the rifle stock that made it completely unusable.
For example: it was a left-handed rifle stock. Or if not that, then some other utterly fundamental aspect of the rifle stock that was sufficient to destroy the viability of the whole transaction.
Whatever the precise reason, the buyer is now so mortally offended by the rifle stock that he puts it back inside the suitcase, pockets the rifle barrel, and – still in a rage – throws the suitcase and its contents into the sea, before marching off. The rifle is unusable, the deal is off: and from now on, all outcomes are possible.
How Does This Fit With The Somerton Man?
If the seller just happened to be the Somerton Man and the buyer just happened to be Prosper McTaggart Thomson (AKA George Thomson), then what happened next surely began with the remainder of the plan that they had previously agreed.
(8) The seller travels down to Adelaide on the train, and makes his way to Somerton to collect his suitcase, clothes, and payment for the rifle. With him he has a wartime knock-off copy of the Rubaiyat: written on its soft back-cover is Jessie’s Somerton telephone number X3239 (the one that Prosper used in his advertisements).
(9) When the seller arrives, he finds Thomson won’t pay him for the rifle. He launches himself angrily at George, but the younger man is fitter and faster: all the older man manages to do is scratch his hand. He asks for his suitcase: Prosper tells him he left it on the beach – neither realises that it has been found and mentioned in the Advertiser.
(10) Somehow the seller dies…
It seems both to Byron Deveson and to me that the Somerton Man had seen his levels of lead drop down in previous weeks, suggesting that he had previously had a high level of exposure to lead (probably occupational rather than just residential, and probably from lead in its powder form rather than in ingot form), but in the previous few weeks had changed his working environment. His spleen was enlarged, implying that he was fundamentally unwell: if he was sitting on the beach unwell, without money, feeling double-crossed, he could simply have died of stress.
Though pretty much any other outcome is possible, too. 🙁
The Punchline
Even when I first dreamed up the whole rifle sock scenario, I found it hard to believe: it seemed such a gossamer web of double-dealing and interstate shadiness. What, really, are the odds that the Somerton Man was selling a left-handed rifle to Prosper Thomson?
Might the Rubaiyat code simply contain directions (somehow) to help the Somerton Man get to Somerton from Adelaide?
Anyway, I’ll let Byron Deveson have the last word here, for he uncovered a piece of evidence from 1949 that perhaps ices the whole fishy cake:-
Prosper advertised for a particular type of rifle in June 1949. To me, advertising for a particular model smells fishy and suggests that Prosper was setting up an alibi in case he was ever found with the rifle that had been dumped on Somerton beach.
The Advertiser 18 June 1949 Page 17
RIFLE, automatic Winchester, model 63 or similar, for cash. Thomson 90A Moseley st., Glenelg. X3239.
What Next?
I’ve gone through all the Law Courts reports in the Advertiser for December 1948, and there seems to have been no follow-up report. But perhaps it would be worth looking at the Court files for 1948, to see if anything else is mentioned there, however small. Specificially, “GRG3/10 Court files – Adelaide Local Court” which covers from 1948 to 1970, and is held by the State Records of South Australia:-
“This series comrpises three seperate sequences of files maintained by the Adelaide Local Court from 1948 to 1970.
– Court files, annual single number, 1948 – 1970
– Australian Register of Judgement files, annual single number with ‘ARJ’ prefix, 1949 – 1968
– Register of Transferred Judgement files, annual single number with ‘RTJ’ prefix, 1948 – 1968
423 metres.”
Any ideas as to how we can identify this 17-year-old lad from Broken Hill? He may still be alive – if this scenario is right, he probably met the Somerton Man. What might he say?
For what it’s worth, the Internet says the Winchester 63 Prosper advertised for is a “take down” rifle – plenty of images on-line of it split in two leaving a one piece stock and a separate breech and barrel
I’m loving all of this … Nick, who were the Adelaide police who dealt with the lad, any mentions, anywhere?
.. and perhaps the kid took the barrel because he didn’t like the idea of anyone finding a gun that worked. He sounded like a very cool young feller … I can dig that.
Hi Nick, I’ve often thought how odd that a 17 year old would ride a bike from Broken Hill to Adelaide, walk a long distance and steal a car just as a lark. What’s strange is that the news on this event seems to have evaporated from the newspapers of the time. I would have thought this caper would have been in all the newspapers, especially when any type of crime, even minor were reported in the local press. The date itself surely, points to something significant happening at Somerton?
As someone from the US and in a rural area where firearm sales and ownership are still fairly common (my father is a gun collector and has been a licensed dealer in the past) in my opinion being specific about the model of a desired firearm is more likely to be about collector interest or even simply getting a known good model of firearm than about anything nefarious. Do not underestimate how common substandard firearms were in circulation in the 20th century and continue to be today. Be careful about reasoning based on current opinions regarding firearms which are common in many first world societies today but which I suspect were much different in decades past.
Ken: I quoted Byron Deveson with caution, because we don’t yet know any more details of the rifle-stock-in-the-suitcase case than appeared in the newspapers at the time.
In general, I suspect that we’ve now exhausted Trove’s resources, so the next step is to go looking for evidence from other archival sources: with a little luck, we’ll know more about the actual rifle then.
Pete: we’ll just have to see what the archives have to say…
Nick,
That’s fine. I guess my point is simply that the reasoning based on a desire for a specific firearm is problematic and doesn’t serve the rest of the reasoning which I think is largely fine without that point. It would be better to use any available evidence regarding Thomson’s previous interest or ownership of firearms and any contemporaneous circumstances that might have triggered the advertisement.
What affects me most is that there was a time when finding some bits of clothing on a beach meant not only that the finder went and reported it to police, but that the police thought reporting it was fair enough, and *investigated* the matter. I bet if they could they’d even return the clothes.
The other thing is (has anyone else mentioned this?) that if all a person had to do, in those days, to acquire a rifle was to put an ad. in the paper… then why would you bother doing anything more complicated?
Diane: the inference I drew from all that was that it must have been a stolen rifle.
The motorbike owner was William Horace Coffey, according to the Barrier Daily Truth, 22 December 1948 edition:-
Hi Nick, I’ve contacted “The Advertiser” but, they don’t have any indices on any of their articles! I’ve also contacted Adelaide Courts via State Library about the files you mention. I am awaiting judgement as to whether I am allowed access or not. I’m not too optimistic as I was sent an e-mail asking what ARJ & RTJ meant-that’s despite my e-mail to them spelling out the meanings!
Nick I quite like your scenario.
That said I think whilst it joins many dots , in doing so it un joins some others. Such as where does the tool kit fit in all this?. He carried them for a reason.
Also would there be enough profit in a single rifle to go to this amount of trouble and pay a third party to deliver it to Adelaide then the cost of making the second trip?
I think there could be some facets of it that make me consider a similar scenario.
Ie yes PT was in Broken Hill around that time as well as other locations such as Port Lincoln buying and selling cars and PT did have a history of selling cars that didn’t belong to him (Perth conviction) and going back on his promises to pay (Daphne Page) dud cheques (Daphne Page case)
I am considering wether PT had been out bush and taken advantage of someone ie swapped a dud car for a good one (he advertised swap deals many times) or bought a new car with a dud check and skipped town back to Adelaide before the seller got to the bank.
As in your scenario SM comes to town with PT s number and the tools necessary to mobile the vehicle with or without PT s permission , a repossession if you like. He could have even been hired to repossess the vehicle.
As far as I’m concerned the tool kit can not be for any other logical purpose particularly taking into account the info I shared recently about the Zinc plate. I also believe the scratches SMs knuckles are a telling sign. Anyone who’s done any auto electrical work ie installed a car radio knows that its a fiddly job to work under a dashboard and you usually come out with scrapped knuckles hence this points to what he may have been doing around that time.
From that point (SM arriving in Adelaide) it plays out as you have described.
Hi Nick, Still awaiting reply from my enquiry re: Adelaide Courts.
Hi Nick, Since I’ve had no luck with the Adelaide Courts, I decided to check the Police Gazette for 1948 and, the youth, aged 17, was named as Frederick William Pruszinksi. He was fined 4 pounds and 10 pence for unlawful use of a car, so I presume, he was involved with the suitcase-no mention about stealing the motorcycle!
Hi Clive,
Did his father turn up to the court?
Dude, anyone who ferrets around in car engines gets dirty fingernails .. no?
Clive: thanks for that, much appreciated! In fact, Pruszinski’s (sadly very short) life is covered reasonably well in Trove (he died at the age of 21), so I’ll try to write it all up in a post very shortly – the details dovetail very nicely with everything else that’s come up to do with the Somerton Man lately.
Hi Diane, No mention of his father attending, just a brief paragraph giving his name, age, offence and the fine. It didn’t even give his address.
Hi Nick, Only 21 years old-not much of a life.
Hi Nick, A Frederick Arthur Pruszinski died at 21?
Clive: as promised, it’s all here – http://ciphermysteries.com/2015/02/26/richard-frederick-arthur-pruszinskis-short-broken-hill-life
Hi Nick, Just read the thread-I’m presuming his middle name was Arthur, not William!
The excellent info would seem to explain the rifle and its association.
Gordon: it certainly explains why the lad was comfortable with rifles 🙂 but I suspect that there’s a lot more to find out just yet.
However, the good news is that having his name might now make it much easier to find information about him in the various historical Police archives: at any rate, that’s one of the obvious next steps we can try to take.
Clive: seeing as you were able to see the 1948 SA Police Gazette, do you think you might have similar luck getting hold of the 1948 NSW Police Gazette? I’m guessing there will be more detail in there concerning young Mr Pruszinski…
Hi Nick, Just found out that the NSW Police Gazettes are only searchable-70 years after the event!
OK, so I gather this guy is dead. May he rest in peace.
TMI. At once, initial(s) FWP. Source info, lacking.
Everyone is dead. It’s a bit ominous, isn’t it?
Yuri: they’re not dead, they’re merely resting. That, or pining for the fjords, it’s hard to be sure. 😉
Is it known for sure that the suitcase was brought from Broken Hill, or is that just an assumption? Could the boy not have picked it up in Adelaide or perhaps somewhere else?
I’m also wondering how he was linked to the rifle stock and clothes in the first place. Did he just suddenly fess up when he was arrested for stealing the car at Port Noarlunga?
Anyone had any luck getting any more details on this case?
Lewiansto: I’m pretty sure he fessed up. Also: police made a note of him on the stolen motorbike halfway down the highway from Broken Hill, and I would have thought the presence of the suitcase balancing on there with him would have been fairly obvious. 🙂 But I would agree that we will need a better body of evidence to make any progress here, and this has been slow in coming. 🙁
Mod. 63 Winchester is visually the same as the 03 but ammo is not compatible. Maybe throne purchased was the wrong model
Didn’t really check your summation of the gun theory before my post above. I am full bottle on this particular weapon and I think you are spot on in your scenario which is exactly as I see it and nothing could be plainer apart from one very important detail. The 63 and its predecessor the 03 are great little break-down weapons similar to the more common Browning and its Remington copy. They all have tube magazines in the butt and the main mechanism and trigger components are in the stock leaving the breech block and receiver forming part of the barrel fore-end section. Takedown is achieved by turning a ratchet screw above the receiver without needing any tools. However if one needs to remove the slide, return spring and fore-end there are two little screws on the cocking cap housing which require the use of a small screwdriver. I might add that serial numbers are on both main sections and on the wooden butt inside the butt plate.
Now this is the interesting part (if you’re not nodding off yet) because it was also possible apparently to buy a factory-threaded barrel to take a non-factory-made silencer which although illegal in some states was OK in others. If George already had possession of the ‘trick’ barrel, why not advertise locally for another rifle in Adelaide to get what he needed and have a spare legit barrel to show the cops if necessary? I know that all this is just academic and doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter but it’s a good fill-in whilst we await the news on JA from BD and you never know how things will pan out.
Putting an Ad in the paper was a method that spies used to connect with other agents if their previous methods of contact were compromised or they somehow could not get in contact with the agent. If all three were spies, it would explain why Jessie’s number was on the back of the book. It would also explain why Jessie did not know much. She might have recognized the man, (she would have seen him in training) she wouldn’t know his real name. She would have code name and not much else. It would also explain the possible rare poison death.
Stephanie Ann Farra: ….and the code name? Why it’s Danetta of course and Jessie would be sure to have known it and also about the rare poison too no doubt…I ‘ve been checking your yummy WW1 cookie recipes and wondering if you’ve tried our ANZAC biscuits; extra ingredients being rolled oats, golden syrup and a little baking soda with the standard flour, coconut, sugar and butter batter mixture. Try it and let us know what you think.
I think the 17 yr old will have found another method of transport home, rather than walking. This could lead to another person to find.
More thoughts on rifle/socks
1. The SM suitcase at Adelaide station is too small to be the beach suitcase, it wouldn’t have fitted all the contents from both locations. A theory which gets it from A to B is pretty difficult anyway.
2. Because of the closeness of dates and complementarity of contents (socks in one, underwear in the other, suit and overcoat in one none in other) it is possible SM is moving from Broken Hill to adelaide and his entire possessions consist of the 2 suitcases, one of which he takes with him and one, sends ahead by motorbike.
3. PT doesn’t have a hissy fit about the rifle, he opens the suitcase, takes what he wants and just leaves the rest.
4. the missing barrel: the rifling in the barrel is what leaves marks on bullets which enable forensic matching of bullets to specific guns (technology has existed since the 1920s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_firearm_examination). Any unsolved rifle murders, probably .22, available?
5. So PT helps himself to this and any other incriminating evidence (including the Rubaiyat?) and dumps the rest.
6. and gives RP the bike driver a lift down the coast to Noarlunga where he steals a car.
He doesn’t steal the car as the police don’t refer to it as theft. They say taking a car without permission. It is different. It suggests he had the keys or they were left in the car.
Car theft is usually charged as Taking and Driving Away in the UK because it is hard to prove the intention to permanently deprive the owner of his car, which is required for theft. Not an Australian lawyer but it is quite likely the same technicality at work, so doesn’t justify either inference.
B. Lackdown: On what basis are you saying the suitcase is too small? Most of the contemporary newspaper reports provide a list of items that would seem to fit in the suitcase I saw. To me, the discovery of complimentary contents from a missing suitcase to that found in Adelaide station is still the elephant in the room. If they are one in the same then it places the SM (or at least his case), PT (like you, I bet the rifle is a .22 repeater) and Fred Pruszenski on the same beach, at the same time, at least 3 days before SM is meant to be in town. And if thats true then everything after this date is an exercise in misdirection and comedy policing.
David Morgan/B. Lackdown,
I’m not a lawyer or South Australian, but yes – the relevant charge there appears to be “illegal use of a motor vehicle”. (Some Australian states/territories do have criminal codes and/or an another Act that specifically defines such an offence as stealing/theft, but doesn’t appear to be one of them.)
@Jamie you have seen the suitcase? I was going by the black and white photo of 3 men standing over it and its contents, happy to accept that is an unscientific approach.
Furphy anors: Any person who, takes and carries away another persons goods or chattel of some value with intent to deprive that person of their whole title to such chattel shall be guilty of an offence…7 elements necessary to prove theft according to the NSW Crimes Act 1904, for what it’s worth, if memory serves me correctly.
Furphy,
It was really the walking for 5 hours on the off-chance he’d find a car with keys in the ignition. Why didn’t he simply wander around Glenelg to find a bike or car to steal?
It suggests to me some information made that worthwhile. Like “I threw keys to an amazing sportscar along the beach but you’d have to walk along the coast to find them”.
B.Lackdown: Yes, I’ve seen that one – the ABC documentary has some good shots of it being unpacked too. Like anyone, I can’t say one way or the other, but what was found doesn’t seem close to a suitcase-worth. For me it’s too contrived to have two suitcases, one travelling by knock-off bike before being strewn over a beach and disappearing, and another travelling by train to be anonymously dumped at left luggage. It’s possible, of course, but there must be something more likely, mustn’t there?
Jamie,
Can’t they both be the same suitcase? The police have this kid with a rifle and a suitcase and in effect could be linked to the murder of the SM that pops into the news 3 days later. They think the kid was just opportunistic in finding a suitcase and throwing it back on the beach. If they took what’s left of the suitcase contents to an Adelaide station locker and re-find it, it helps disconnect the kid. The socks wash out to sea. They don’t have to charge him with murder. They let his case drop.
If the kid robbed the old guy on the beach of his wallet with his own sawn-off rife on the 28th, he may have got the keys to his car and a small or large amount of cash. Then tossed the suitcase with clothing spilling out, leaving the rifle.
It’s infuriating how vague the reports are. They say he admitted to dumping a suitcase, meaning what? Leaving it for a specific person to pick up or leaving it as rubbish? But I don’t think randomly finding it and just leaving it is a possible interpretation.
As navigation of this site is so counterintuitive here’s some of what I said on the car thread
***
First off I don’t think this is predominantly about rifle theft because a bog standard second hand rifle isn’t worth that much. I mean, I have no idea about 1948 Australia but they are pretty simple and easily manufactured bits of kit and you can buy lots of models new in Australia today starting at 800 AusD. Why steal a motorbike to steal a rifle, and fail to monetise the motorbike? And it is surely unusual to fence on credit: you sell as seen for cash. If PMT wants to view the goods he has cars at his disposal, SM ex hypothesi does not, so he can drive to BH and view the piece before buying. Note that Pruszinksi gets fined for car theft, no mention of theft or illegal possession of firearms.
Also rifles are not made of porcelain, they are pretty robust things. if it were me I’d disassemble the thing, wrap each part once in something thick and strap them to me or the bike. Much less visible and suspicious than that size suitcase on a bike.
***
My view is still that the point of the bike ride from BH was to deliver the suitcase. I also don’t believe in the 5 hour walk. Someone drove him.
@David Morgan: I don’t think the timeline resolves very easily.
The Pruzinski suitcase happens on the 28th Nov (Sunday) and SM is found on the beach 1st Dec (Wednesday). So firstly we need to make a story for the suitcase lodged at the station (allegedly) on the 30th Nov. Secondly we need a story for SM in that time – if he had no wallet, how could he afford a train ticket and a bus ticket on Tuesday morning (and potentially a pasty or some other meal later that day).
It does raise some slightly interesting ideas though – perhaps he’d been in Adelaide for longer (there would have been a number of hotels along North Tce and Hindley St back then (and still are)) so his presence in the Railway station that morning (potentially with a suitcase – although that doesn’t really matter if we don’t think it was him who checked it) doesn’t require him to have stepped off a train.
C Webb in Broken Hill? Arriving by air from Adelaide in May 1947 (last seen by Dorothy in April 1947) … A period of working in Broken Hill? Lead in hair? If he had worked for Kelly and Lewis pump makers and engineers in Springvale in the 1930s (unconfirmed), BHP could be offer good prospects for work? The air travel seems a bit extravagant though!
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48496741?searchTerm=C%20Webb
Sorry, re the above, I don’t think he’s Charlie, there is a C Webb table tennis and snooker player, active in the Broken Hill Alma Sports Club…
B. Lackdown,
“Also rifles are not made of porcelain, they are pretty robust things. if it were me I’d disassemble the thing, wrap each part once in something thick…”
Military rifles are robust and rugged by design, and intended to be quickly disassembled and reassembled (by soldiers trained to do that). However… correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the rifle in question here of a light type, such as a .22? In which case, not so easily taken to bits/reassembled and with a wooden stock prone to warping /cracking; also some metal bits prone to bending.
Milongal,
Possibly a Glenelg detective working with crooks for cash before his retirement. There was probably no motorbike in Glenelg because the Broken Hill boy wasn’t charged with the theft of it. The suitcase on the beach had most of the identifying items removed, then taken to the Adelaide station with a ticket bought but unused. The Broken Hill boy may have arrived from Broken Hill with Carl in a car as a hitchhiker. He may have previously taken a motorbike around Broken Hill but didn’t take it all the way to Glenelg. Then he was left with Carl’s car at Port Noarlunga which he returned to drive around and got caught.
When you see all the newspaper reports together there is little scope for other conclusions that the suitcase on the beach was Carl’s.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RUXlVWyXyIhKRz-ECFKyTvS5p2KfDzXB/view?usp=sharing
When the Glenelg detective retired 1950 they gave him a wad of cash in a wallet.
What really intrigues me is the Prosper’s sudden ‘coming in to money the year after, especially when he seemed quite desperate the year before. Ads about him looking for a house to buy are in the the newspaper….also wasn’t there an ad of him trying to buy a rifle as well. I am not sure why this Prosper character wasn’t investigated properly by the police ….For all I know Jo Thomson did a hell of a job throwing everyone off the scent.
John Sanders says upthread that there were popular contemporary .22s which come to bits, though we don’t know what model this was. But the fact that onlythe stock was found is a clue.
even .22s are designed to withstand crawling around in rocks, looking for rabbits. you want to treat them with respect, but as I say, not porcelain.
The existence of the motorbike and its presence in Glenelg is about the best documented fact in the whole saga. We have reports of its being taken in BH, spotted en route to Adelaide, recovered from glenelg, returned to its owner and stolen again 2 weeks later. Why he is not charged is a mystery – perhaps the car charge was easier because the owner and witnesses were all local.
We have no mucking idea what type of rifle the stock came off. No use whatsoever arguing the toss about it now, and in any case we’ve been all over the why’s and wherefores in two related threads an eternity ago. let’s get with the program shall we fellas, there’s work to be done.
Yes, well, given the arcane non-navigability of this site, what happened an eternity ago stays an eternity ago as far as newcomers are concerned.
I have lots of ideas what sort of rifle the stock came off. It was a sort where the stock easily comes off, for starters, and there’s a million reasons for thinking it was .22 calibre.
B. Lackdown: for what it’s worth, next time you punch in to Cipher mysteries, try wacking the word ‘rifle’ next to it. That’ll take care of your so called “non navigability of this site” nonsense..and why should we be concerned about calibres, probably was a .22, we agree on that point at least.
In Summary, we have:
Freddie Pruzinksi with a dad with a motorcyle business but he steals a mororbike on the 26th Nov 1948
He is part of a rifle club – he is one the best shooters but he claims to have found the rifle stock on the Somerton beach 28th Nov 1948
He has a suitcase with the clothes of another man on the Somerton beach
He was able to get a car from Port Noarlunga but was caught within 30 minutes driving back toward Glenelg
The owner of the stolen car was a 2nd hand car dealer not a customer
Carl also seems to be linked to a 2nd hand car dealer Prosper Thomson
After his juvenile court case 30/11/1948 Freddie returned to Broken Hill working in the zinc mine
His uncle Charles Pruzinski whose real name was Carl Pruzinksi was injured in a zinc mining accident in 1947
His uncle Carl Pruzinski returned to Broken Hill from Melbourne Jan 1949 on a flight
His uncle Carl Pruszinski had a 2/- poverty payment in 1950.
Meanwhile, Carl Webb aka Charles Webb travels from Melbourne in November 1948 – assumed by train (not car or plane like Carl Pruszinski) on (or before) the 30/11/1948
Carl Webb has one suitcase left in an Adelaide train station locker not with him on the Somerton beach
Carl Webb has severe organ damage – almost like he too was involved in some zinc mining accident in 1947 like Freddie Pruzinski’s uncle Charles real name Carl
There are some interesting parallels.
He actually said that he dumped the suitcase containing the complete rifle, not that he found the stock on the beach
This is the most infuriating bit of police or journalist bit of incuriosity in the whole thing: why did nobody think to ask WHY dump a suitcase full of stuff on a beach after driving it hundreds of miles. Nicked it and got bored of it? paid by someone else to leave it in an identifiable place? Intended to come back for it later?
B. Lackdown: the negativity and pushback (from relatives) I got over my desire to know more about this story was something else.
David: I think Fred’s dad was the manager of W.Wagener’s “Blue Bell” motor and cycle works in the early 20’s, but by 1935 (so well before 1948) became a fitter and turner in the Broken Hills mines like his father and brother.
Probably coincidentally, a W.Wagener also had large car/bike breakers yards in Adelaide and, by 1947, had a branch on Currie St just round the corner from Hindley St. and our Mr Thomson – both advertised in the same paper, same page, less than 2 inches apart (Adelaide Advertiser Sat 4 Jan 1947 p13).
Find it difficult to believe that a local ex mechanic car dealer wouldn’t of known this breakers intimately (super=spurious link to Fred that it is).
Nick,
It needs a newspaper journalist who tells them they are writing this story about Freddie and Charlie and their link to the Somerton Man (now known as Carl Webb) and they would like their input.
It is amazing how the distant family of Carl Webb’s wife have such strong opinions of Carl. But none of his actual family have any recollections.
Also that Vernon Lisle who was a TV presenter for a sport programme (who knew Carl (or of him) until at least aged 18) and must have witnessed his sporting prowess in college. Did not recognise him at all in 1948. Yet someone in a modern context (grandchild of his sister?) moved Carl’s picture to Pinterest implying this distant family member did recognise him. But perhaps the back of the picture says Carl Webb and they knew he was the same one about to be in the news from the Abbott team?
Seems that the relatives don’t want to open a can of worms? If you follow the newspaper story about stealing the motorcycle with the suitcase, why would anyone, on a motorcycle, still drive the distance from BH to Adelaide with a suitcase? Was he paid to do this? Just seems a big coincidence(?) that of all the beaches in Adelaide, he arrives at Somerton. I can’t believe that anyone would walk all the way to Port Noarliunga then steal a car, what about the rest of Somerton, Glenelg, Brighton etc, plenty of places where he could have taken a car.
@ Clive Turner
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48577001
Maybe the regular train service hadn’t resumed yet, following a coal strike (as per Trove above)? It could explain the motorcycle ride as the train would usually run on a Friday night… The rest is all in the twighlight zone!