Gerry Feltus very helpfully included the text of Ina Harvey’s 1st December 1982 Adelaide News interview with Tom Loftus in “The Unknown Man” (pp.197-200). Harvey recalled a “strong and fit”, “professional” man with “an air of refinement” who had checked into the Strathmore Hotel close to Adelaide’s railway station for a few days before 1st December 1948.
She noted that “[He] had no baggage, except for a small black case – such as a doctor or musician who played the flute might carry”. Because she had suspicions about the man, she asked an employee to go into the man’s room (#21 or #23, she couldn’t recall) and have a look in the mysterious case – to her surprise, “the only item in the case was a needle”. Furthermore, “[from the employee’s] description I got the impression it could have been a hypodermic syringe.”
Pete Bowes now proposes that this flute case could well have been important: he suggests that it formed some kind of signal, a “covert [sign] of identification“, a chess move played out as part of a wider spy game unfolding on the streets of Adelaide in 1948.
Well… OK. But has Pete’s instinctual metal detector found the needle in a haystack we’ve all been grasping blindly for? In this instance, I don’t honestly think so. So if not a spy narrative, then what on earth was going on with the “needle” and the small black case?
And My Suggested Explanation Is…
What if… the small black case was actually a rifle case, for a takedown (easily dismantled) .22 rimfire rifle?
And what if the “needle” were a barrel cleaning rod, for (duh) cleaning the rifle barrel?
With Fred Pruszinski’s short life and indeed the whole rifle socks scenario, we have already seen how miniature (typically .22 calibre) rifles were popular in Australia in the years after WW2, mainly because of the difficulty of getting full-calibre shot.
For this reason, many WW2-era weapons (such as the Martini Cadet training rifle) were recommissioned by companies such as Sportco as sports or competition rifles, and sold (for the most part) into rifle clubs. I’m not a rifle expert at all, but I do know that some rifles did definitely come apart into pieces: for example, the very rifle that Fred Pruszinski had in a suitcase that he took from Broken Hill to dump on Somerton Beach that very weekend was a takedown rifle – but only its stock was ever found (Pruszinski, who knew rifles well, insisted that he left both the barrel and the stock in the suitcase on the beach).
What, then, are the odds that the man staying at the Strathmore had come to town with a discreet little black carrying case for a takedown .22 calibre rifle? You know, the kind of case that a professional man would use to carry his rifle to Rifle Club meetings?
And – spookily enough – what are the odds that the rifle that Fred Pruszinski dumped on Somerton Beach was the same one that was meant to go in the Strathmore Hotel visitor’s little black case, and that was meant to be cleaned by the cleaning needle in it?
Might all these pieces, all moving around Adelaide on the same weekend, be parts of the same convoluted puzzle?
It must have been a nice piece of shooting gear, he waited three days for it.
I’m guessing that to a woman, and one unused to handling arms, an item would be described as a “needle” if it had an eye and one end and a point at the other (like a sewing needle) or it would have to include a barrel and plunger, to be likened to a hypodermic.
None of the cleaning instruments for a rimfire .22 – as far as I can see – look like that. Being myself a f-u-a, I would liken many to a screwdriver, because they have a rod in a handle, and the rest as oversized pipe-cleaners.
Admittedly the pictures I’ve looked at are on a modern website (near the end of the very long article)
http://rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html
Diane: the point of the story is that Ina Harvey never saw the “needle” herself, she had it described to her by the employee who she had asked to have a look. In that context, all bets are off. 🙂
pete: perhaps he was doing other things in town at the same time, who can tell?
The point of the post was that a small black case for a takedown .22 rifle would have been extremely close to the description given, and that perhaps these are all different sides of the same elephant around which we blindly stumble. 😉
And, perhaps the description of the ‘needle” could apply to something that appears, even today, as an 8 or 10 gauge knitting needle; some of which could be 12 to 18 inches long.
One end of the larger needles have a ‘cap’ on its end, so that the newly knitted garment won’t slip off the opposite end when being bunched and turned for the next row to be knitted. If I remember English history correctly, Lord Kitchener (?) Cardigan (?) taught knitting to his troops.
I keep in my ‘keepsakes” trunk, a cardigan sweater I knitted some twenty years ago: sheeps wool dyed in fermented juice of the prickly pear fruit — and plied with white angora rabbit fur. I have a full set of straight needles (different guages) as well as a “breakdown” set of needles which are mounted onto plastic cables for whatever size stitch or garment needed.
(Needled?) Honest, Nick, I’m NOT ‘needling’ you !
🙂
Bdid1dr
very off-topic, but one of my favourite facts. The only reason that English women were allowed to learn how to knit, is because after some of the fishermen-knitters presented a pair of stockings to Elizabeth I, the whole court had to follow the new fashion, and the men couldn’t keep up with the demand, and yet go fishing.
🙂
Nick, we’re not so blind here … I can produce a pic of both a flute case and flute cleaning rod, can you find one of a case for a take-down 22 and a rifle cleaning rod?
Fair challenge?
Ina was the sister of the fellow who embalmed SM. GF probably knew this. Loftus…Maybe not.
Pete: I’m already on it, catch up will ya, mate? 😉
Your place or mine? I’m ready brother.
Misca: So Ina a would know there wasn’t a needle mark on the body.
pete: I’m not asking for a showdown at the tomsbytwo corral 🙂 , I’m just saying that I’ve already started on the process of gathering more historical information that should help to test the various hypotheses. *sigh*
Nick: why would Ina Harvey open herself for ridicule when she was one of the best to know that the Somerton Man didn’t die of a self inflicted hypodermic needle full of poison?
Feltus says her account is ‘all crap.’ DA says ‘it’s best to ignore her. Her relatives thought she was a bit queer.’
I say the man who was registered into the Stratham Hotel for three days – the fellow who carried no luggage, stayed elsewhere and didn’t drink in the bar – was not waiting for someone to arrive from the country and offer him a deal on a second hand .22 calibre rabbit killer.
pete: she didn’t see the “needle”, and says that she didn’t see the needle. All she saw with her own eyes was the small black case.
She sent a guy to look, he looked, he came back and told her he saw a needle in the bag. She told Loftus he had a needle in his bag.
We’re splitting hairs with a needle here.
“Needle” can also be a hypodermic needle. Measured amounts of oil could have been drawn up into the syringe and then administered to those parts of the rifle which needed protection from the elements and could still be fired.
The small case would probably also have had ammo (.22 or thirty ought six).
Mr Pelling,
some details of the Isdalskvinnen’s case may be of interest to your blog. Sorry for offtop, but the case bears resemblance with the Tamam Shud Mystery including some kind of code. It was allegedly represented in Osland’s book.
P. S. I couldn’t submit any link because of the adorable spam filter. See the latest reddit discussion on subject.
qualis-libet: the case of the Isdal woman is fun, but – alas – I don’t recall finding any source for scans of her cryptic diary entries that the police decrypted. So… while it is kind of a cipher mystery, it’s one which I can’t show the cipher of, and where the mystery appears not to be to do with the cipher itself. 🙂
What are the chances that the sister of the embalmer shows up two decades later to provide “additional” info? It’s a bit odd to say the least. She either knew that there was a needle mark or suspected as much. Right or wrong…She’s buried with her brother (yes, the embalmer) so the family seems to have been close.
It seems unlikely that Loftus ever knew who she was. GF probably did.
Don’t know what to make of that.
Misca, on the old Uni FB pages, we investigated a mark on the upper left arm. It could have been a smallpox jab or test scratch. There are no pics of the arm to my knowledge but quite a few that relate to the smallpox jab/scratch. A good question to ask DA.
Nick, why did your man not stay at the hotel he was registered at? Where was his luggage? How did he know the rifle he was buying didn’t have a case of its own? Have you found an image of a .22 cleaning rod? Have you found an image of a specifically built rifle case for a broken down rifle?
Am I asking too much?
I have to say, old fellow, when it comes to theories you do better on ciphers. Maybe you would be better off concentrating on what you are good at, and leave the thought balloons alone.
Pete: as yet, I have no idea what “my man” was doing, but at least I have the good grace and honesty to admit that.
Maybe you would be better off writing your books rather than trolling other people’s blogs.
So much for a discussion on a very loose hypothesis, you’re sensitivity is astounding Nick Pelling, and such names to call a fellow traveller.
Keep up the bad work.
pete
pete: for heaven’s sake, get over yourself.
Pete seems to be gone away. Pity I wanted to ask if he knew whether the law in South Australia back defined vagrant as someone without any registered address in town. Also, whether it was still usual to pay the bill when you were leaving, so even if a person was broke and luggage-less, they could still register. If I found a gun abandoned on the beach, I’d pick it up too – wouldn’t want kids getting hold of it. Maybe if I’d just arrived and was likely to be suspected of something, I wouldn’t do the sensible thing and take it to police. Maybe if I was broke, I’d see if I could sell it. Maybe finding a gun made staying where I was the better option. I think smallpox injections back then weren’t one jab, but eight or ten – often left a huge scar.
Ok, I’ll ask again – why won’t you answer common sense questions about your gunman hypothesis? It is full of gaps, impossible to maintain, but you will not discuss it … this is exasperating.
Are there some rules of discussion here that I’m not aware of? Are participants in this place not allowed to pose relevant questions of a hypothesis put forward?
Pete: do I have any answers yet? No. The point of the post was simply that I didn’t really believe that the little black case was a doctor’s case or a flautist’s flute case, and that actually I thought it far more probable that it was a case for a takedown .22 rifle, where the “needle” was for cleaning the inside of the barrel.
If this is right – and I don’t know if it is, I just think it’s more probable than the alternatives that have been suggested to date – then that gives us a number of separate incidents all happening in Adelaide / Somerton Beach in parallel over the same weekend, that may or may not be connected.
Questions are always ok, but please try to keep off the snipey dismissive asides, they really don’t show you at your best.
Probability is made more certain by providing supporting proof. How is that being ‘snipey?’
First I’m a troll, now I’m a snipe … and I’m the one you say is being busy with dismissive asides.
This is a ridiculous conversation. Absurd.
Pete: as I hope I made clear above, my judgment is that it seems more probable to me that the small black case with a needle-like thing in was a case for a takedown .22 rifle than a case for a flute, or some kind of (unspecified and unknown) doctor’s bag.
Unless Tom Loftus is still alive and still has his Ina Harvey interview notes in a box in his garage, I suspect that this is as far as anyone can sensibly get with this (for now).
If you don’t want to be called a troll, don’t do troll-like things on people’s sites.
Tricia, That’s correct but the test mark was a series of small scratches. Take a look at some images to confirm.
Australia was still completely Irish Catholic/ Anglo-Protestant in its urban attitudes, including the sort of things people bought. Australian manufacturing standards were mostly those of the north, and for birthdays etc. it was done to buy waterford crystal, or perhaps a mohair plaid rug from Scotland… that sort of thing.
A doctor’s bag, being the sort of gift given at graduation, could be expected to follow the style of English doctor’s bags, even in made in Aus.
I don’t see any from that time which look anything like a flute case – can you?
But before you assume that a nurse must have given him the bag, in my opinion, a man with little money would first go to an op.shop (e.g. red cross stall), and only reluctantly if they didnt’ have anything useful, to a pawn shop. And as for ‘cadging’ from a friend – I suppose it depends on whether the chap was Australian. If he was, then he’d probably not do it unless pressed. IMO
GC – On the old Uni FB pages…Were there pictures? Why was that FB page taken down? There must have been a lot of information exchanged there.
Maybe it was just a syringe. Before they were disposable, syringes were often carried in cases similar to a flute case, with insets to cushion the pieces (putting in image links triggered the spam filter, but you can find many on google).
Perhaps the Somerton man was a narcotics addict, which might explain a lot about his behavior: the anonymity and attempts to be inconspicuous, the moving around and waiting at new places as if to meet a stranger to acquire something or to escape detection by authorities and/or nefarious people out to get him, the seemingly clandestine communications and hush-mouthed associates. It would even provide a handy delivery system for the cause of death – he could have been given a tainted supply by someone looking to eliminate him (for ratting or failure to pay). The “tamam shud” could even have been a communique between such an assassin and their superiors.
My first thought was a needle to inject poison with. 😉
Diana’s comment about Ina’s needle needing to look like a ‘barrel & plunger’ to fit the required hypodermic element has rung a bell. Forget about the cleaning rod scenario as it would need to be 30″ or more in length and too long for a doctors valise or flute case. The Winchester 03/63 rifle had a unique magazine charger rod that fills Diane’s description to a tee being about 14″ long and having a thumb/forefinger grip to remove it from the stock. Without this needle/rod in place the gun is virtually unshootable and SM would have been more at ease with the method of delivery….By the way wasn’t the young lad dealt with rather leniently stealing a bike transporting it interstate then flogging a car for good measure. Last time I did something similar and at the same age it cost me six years and a life time of remorse. At least I’m still around to talk about it but would still like to know the deal re the young fellows drowning. Those country kids swim like fish and I doubt that Morton Boolka Ck. is a suitable venue for a case of accidental drowning.
John sanders: thank you very much! This is what seems to be more generally called the Winchester 03/63’s “inner magazine tube”. A very interesting observation indeed!