There has long been a tendency to frame the Somerton Man as some kind of social outsider, whether as a spy, a loner, a drifter, a criminal, or whatever. The fact that, nearly seventy years on, he remains unidentified would superficially seem to support that view.
And yet he certainly did know people.
It was revealed not so long ago by Jessica Thomson’s family that she (the nurse “Jestyn”) did know who the man was, but chose not to disclose his identity. It therefore seems highly probable (though not completely certain) that he travelled by the 11:15 bus to Glenelg for the specific purpose of visiting her or her husband Prosper Thomson, a journey that ultimately finished with the man’s lying dead on Somerton Beach.
Along with the bus ticket in the Somerton Man’s pockets, there was also an unused train ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach. It therefore seems very likely to me (though far from certain) that he was planning to catch the 10:45 train to Henley Beach to visit someone he knew, and perhaps even leave his suitcase with them.
Hence it’s an entirely plausible (but unprovable) scenario that he telephoned his Henley Beach friend(s) when he arrived at Adelaide Station that morning but got no response, and so decided to leave his suitcase at the station and go directly to Glenelg. (Though if he had missed the 10:45 Henley Beach train and found out that the next train left after one o’clock, he might well have changed his plans for the day.)
“The charge for each article (Motor Bicycles excepted) is for day of lodging and one clear day thereafter 4d. For each subsequent day 4d.”
But that’s far from the end of our search for the Somerton Man’s social network.
A suitcase was subsequently found in the station which was connected to him not only by a thread – specifically, a certain kind of thread (“Warm Sepia of Ridgway”) that both was in the suitcase and had been used to mend his trousers – but also by the same type of jockey-style underwear that he was wearing and that was in the suitcase.
And that suitcase, amongst all its pell-mell contents, contained a number of blank prepaid letters and envelopes, about which relatively little has been said so far.
John Burton Cleland’s notes
But John Burton Cleland noticed these: and in his notes to the Coroner, he wrote:
The appearance and history and social class of the deceased as revealed by the body and contents of suitcase:
1. Age: Dr. Dwyer estimated the age as probable 40 – 45. Supported by his appearance (as preserved), hair beginning to grey, several teeth missing, no appreciable atheroma in cornoaries or aorta.
2. Height: To be checked. Slimmer than I am (vide 3 in preceding section).
3. Hair: Brushed back off forehead, no parting, fair approaching sandy-coloured turning grey, rather long for a man. This item seems important in identification. Also do many Americans brush the hair backwards, more so than Britishers
4. Had shaved recently?
5. Nails of fingers and toes clean and carefully attended to – evidently particular in his appearance. Not those expected in a hard manual worker or seaman – more of a clerk or officer class.
6. Fingers tobacco stained. Shreds of tobacco in pockets of coat worn by deceased and coat in suitcase. Heavy smoker.
7. Trousers in suitcase well-pressed. Clean shirts and jockey-pants in suitcase. Garments quite clean – one slightly soiled. Particular in his dress.
8. Air-mail stickers in suitcase – corresponded with some one at a distance – other State more likely than Britain (special air-mail letter forms usually used for latter).
9. Empty squarish envelopes in suitcase suggest Christmas cards posted before November 30 (suggests overseas rather than interstate – America or Britain?).
10. Straight nose, not Jewish. Appearance not foreign. Not circumcised – Det. Leane points out [that this] excludes Turks, Egyptians, Jews.
11. New tan shoes on body, very little worn. Look as though they had just been polished and not worn all day walking about.
12. Had he been vaccinated? I could not satisfy myself that an indefinite patch below the left shoulder was a vaccinated area. Dr. Dwyer says that many service men vaccinated has ‘takes’ and showed later very little scarring.
13. Implements probably used for stencilling. A hobby or part of his work?
Cutting to the chase here, Cleland infers from the air-mail stickers found in the suitcase that the Somerton Man was corresponding interstate, and from the “empty squarish envelopes” that he had recently sent some Christmas cards (plural) overseas.
If Cleland was correct, I suspect that we perhaps can further rule out America’s West Coast as a likely location for him to be sending Christmas cards to, simply because the post boats got there too quickly from Australia.
And if we run with the American stitching in his coat and Juicy Fruit chewing gum in his pocket, we can possibly push the balance of probability away from the UK to America’s East Coast. But might he have been born in the UK circa 1900 (and not circumcised, as was more often the practice in the US then), and be writing back to family there? This is where the evidential crystal ball becomes too hazy to read.
All the same, what surely emerges overwhelmingly from all of this is simply this: that the Somerton Man was not an unknown lone wolf. He was actually connected into a wider social network of family, friends and allies… and very possibly enemies, too.
Nick, you weren’t clear as to what type of ‘friends’ the Henley Beach friends might be. If they were complicit in something illegal then you wouldn’t expect them to come forward when his body was found.
If they were innocent you might expect they would.
Add to that, if he was arriving with some illegal purpose in mind, something planned and ready to be executed with his friends (accomplices) – then you would expect them to pick up the phone on the day he was expected to arrive, not leave him free to visit an old girlfriend.
I can’t make that work old bean, and Speculate is my middle name.
Nick, it occurred to me, do you think a softcover rubaiyat might fit into one of those envelopes?
pete: there are a hundred genuinely workable scenarios that make this work ok – e.g. the Somerton Man phones his friend, says “I feel awful, like I’m going to die”, his friend says “you’d better get yourself to Glenelg, my mate Prosper’s wife’s a nurse”, etc etc.
Pete: the pocket edition of the Rubaiyat was small, sure, but I don’t believe it was small enough to fit in a Christmas card envelope. I could be wrong though…
I’m finding Clelands theory about excess Xmas cards hard to take seriously, how may are there, six?
With that many left over envelopes he had more friends than a publican
Pete: without knowing how many were normal shape and how many were square, I can’t sensibly judge either way. But there must have been at least one squarish one for Cleland to have proposed that at all.
…and maybe he did have more friends than a publican. When we determine his identity, perhaps we’ll all be surprised and find out he was the original Dave (who, in the Dave joke, knew everyone in the world).
You have a sense of humour like a mud puddle, Nick, shallow and dirty.
Pete: a new tactic – trying to kill me with kindness. I like it!
If the Somerton Man was not an unknown lone wolf and had was actually connected into a wider social network of family, friends …then why this social network of family, friends did not start to worry when he did not send them Easter cards? Mother, brothers, sisters, ex wife, mother of his child, lover, best friend, auntie, boss, work mates ??? Why were not they looking for him?
Because SM was, is and always will be Russian spy 🙂 (dressed and trained to look like an American/British, probably living many years in English speaking world, under fake name). He died and nobody from his Family was looking for him, because they were living “locked in” country with no contacts with outside world, there were always language and legal barriers to contact any International Missing Persons agency….and like millions other families in USSR who lost their loved ones in WW2, they just moved on and suffered in silence.
While if very social Somerton Man is American/British background..his Family in 50ies, 60ies would come forward (if they received Christmas cards from Australia, so they knew he is there), contact Red Cross Australia, Police, they could travel to Australia, they could put adverts in USA/UK/Australia newspapers, they could read English speaking world newspapers, listen radio or got the news through the friends of friends of friends that there was interesting case in Australia…
Lelde: all kinds of people “disappear” for all kinds of reasons, and not just because they die – many start new lives, new jobs, have new beginnings, new families in new towns in new countries.
More generally, the breadth and variety of human experience and lives resist all attempts to reduce them to any narrow set of possibilities. For that, we need actual evidence. *sigh*
Lelde: I should have added that 1948 was, for a lot of people in a lot of countries, a good time to be starting anew.
Suppose Christmas Cards and Envelopes are purchased separately. Suppose Envelopes are packaged in packs of 10. SM might have sent 4, or 14, or 24.
Maybe they were sold in packs of 6 and he had no friends….
Maybe the remainder suggests lack of friends rather than plethora of friends.
Of course, with left over envelopes you can’t help but wonder…shouldn’t there be left over cards too?
(perhaps I’m more weird than I normally admit, but I’ve purchased a 24pack of envelopes before to send a single letter…..at the time it seemed to make economic sense compare to buying an individual envelope – except now (several years later) I’ve still got 19 envelopes…..)
Nick and Friends, You may, once more, want to follow up on the cooperation of the British military and the United States Military in the creation of the enhanced Uranium Bomb(s). Einstein and Fermi began developing ‘sophisticated’ nuclear weapons. Chicago was the initial location for the planning. The Los Alamos site (White Sands) New Mexico, was the site of the first test of the bomb.
Their work went on for years after the attacks on Alice Springs. The teams (US and British) obtained uranium from Australian sources.
You may be able to find the British and Australian records of their cooperation.
It would be very interesting if any of the British/Australian scientists went missing, as did the American man.
You may get an identification of the Somerton Man yet !
I’m returning to this comment page in a little while. The name Henley is significant in discussion of the development of the bomb. I’ll follow up later with any new info which may not have been discussed before on these pages.
Later!
bd
ps: Somerton Man may not have been the only member of the team to disappear (and later show up dead on the beach). Apparently, the town of Henley was host to several of the scientists who were developing the first nuclear (uranium) bomb . Yes, the “Brig” may have been involved — from the aspect of National Security and Fermi and Einstein’s work in progress.
Darwin, not Alice Springs.
Thanx, Pete! My first husband’s mother (Australian) rabidly hated the Japanese. She would get quite incoherent when trying to reminisce about her family’s experience. I later learned that her husband disappeared while working at the Alamagordo site. Her third child was born shortly after her husband’s disappearance.
So, Pete, the place names of Henley, Alamogordo, White Sands, University of Chicago, and names of persons Einstein, Fermi, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Harold C. Urey, G. B. Pegram, L. J Briggs, Harold C. Urey, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, the MAUD Committee, Philip Abelson, Glenn Seaberg, Arthur Wahl…..
Search the WWW for “The Manhattan Project (and Before)”
Fascinating!
My fascination for all things “atomic” “nuclear” (and ‘fall out’) began while I was in my teens. I was approximately 10 years old when I was subjected to C0-60 radiation to shrink what was left of post-surgical tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy. Some sixty years later, I have not forgotten the experience of a long slender wire being threaded through my nostril and the beaded end nearly touching the scar tissue at the back of my throat.
bd
I”ve done all that and made some interesting, though perfectly innocent I’m sure, connections between Mark Oliphant and some suspicious characters in the MAUD operation.
What surprised me was the USA’s determination to keep Oliphant out of their country … He was allowed no visa.
Pete: …so do you think he might be the Oliphant in the room?
The odd things about uranium, plutonium, and cobalt: uranium and plutonium can be shielded — cobalt cannot. I found that item of interest (a while ago) when I was searching the records at U-Chicago (who were keeping records of persons who had been subjected to medical trials of CO-60).
So, Pete, Nick: Can you tell us more about MAUD (and the “Oliphant” in the room?
Maud and an elephant …….? enuffalready?
bd
bdid1dr – Her husband may well have “disappeared” just before her third child was born but he seems to have been alive quite a while after. Are you talking about Normalee?
Nick/Pete – I do think that Oliphant may have done some odd things to find himself persona non grata.
All I know is the yanks were keeping him the helliphant out of the country ..
I think most of this is irrelephant….
Yes, I was talking about Normaleen Park (who preferred to call herself Noel). Noel’s sister, Aileen, married a ‘Murray”. There is a short street in a California town across the Golden Gate Bridge which is called Murray Lane. After her husband’s disappearance, she moved (with her three sons) in with the Murray’s for a while.
Her son Preston may still be living. Her youngest son was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
Misca & Pete (Hi Pete!) Oliphant merely spoke his liberal humanitarian mind.
Robert Nowak: no wonder they barred him from coming in. 🙁
Rob .. !
The people you meet when you don’t have a shotgun. Howyagoinmate .. orrite?
These Poms are a little hard to handle when you don’t have a pint to share with them, other than that we get along ok. Kind of.
Pete: I’d certainly agree that sharing a pint or two would be a positive research asset. 🙂
Pete & Nick: indeed, indeed and indeed. Cheers! Keep up the good work.
So many websites and blogs on the Somerton Man.I’m really enjoying your articles Nick as they use or try and use facts or information that is available. There are so many other blogs out there that seem to be based on pure fantasy. Keep up the wonderful work.
Pearl: thanks for the vote of confidence, I don’t tend to get a lot of positive comments. 🙂
Unfortunately, it now seems generally true that the vast majority of websites (and indeed books) to do with historical ciphers falls in a spectrum ranging from narcissistic whimsy and speculative pseudohistory at one end through to angry self-delusion and acute mental dysfunction at the other. “Pure fantasy” doesn’t really sum this sad landscape up. 🙁
Surely Nick, you are not including me and/or my posts as being a ‘fringe lunatic’ ? If so, please let me know, now, so I won’t be distracting you and your long-time friends who seem to be compulsively circling around to the same “Voynich” manuscript discussions.
Ennyway, keep on keeping on — no matter what the subject!
Respectfully, but disappointed.
bd
bdid1dr: trying to control the flow of blog comments is a lot like herding cats… so I tend not to try these days.
Talk about herding cats. We recently adopted a young cat from our animal control shelter. I swear she can leap six feet up. Her latest shenanigan was to climb the EDGE of 2-inch thick piece of foam insulation ( 4 feet wide X 8 1/2 feet tall). Gotta get around to trimming those claws ……
More’s the pity …
Petey: Pity for me or for pitty-pat ? She is now known to me as ‘cat-nip’ ! NOT the herb!
With her, I 1-dr no more — her claws shall have to be trimmed, once again, by Papi .
😉
Petey, as far as pitying me: I know that some people, who have never met me, pity me as being a lunatic. Well .. so be it ! I’ve had some very interesting conversations with the folks at Canyon de Chelley , the Hopi Mesa (Valjean Joshevema — silversmith extraordinaire), Crater Lake, Shasta Lake, Blue Lake, Clear Lake Pomo friends from all around the lake, and Kashaya Pomo (near Fort Ross) to name a few.
Though I am hearing-impaired, and can read with only my right eye, I get along just fine when it comes to researching history — just about anywhere I go.
A couple of years ago, I went to one of our Rancheria’s annual celebrations. I sat down in the front row (so I could read lips of the Master of Ceremonies and his guest speakers). Turns out that I was sitting in the seat which was to be for the guest of honor: Peter Coyote. Sh-i-i–ft –> and still find another seat on my right — for my husband!
Fun !
You misunderstood bdid dr: it was a pity young Nick didn’t control the comments last year, particularly in the case of Xlamb. This is old ground extensively covered, but the fact is he exposed one of his contributors unnecessarily, and one that has had more evil visited upon her than is imaginable.
My apologies for the misunderstanding.
Pete: you have taken it upon yourself to repeat Xlamb’s claim that I somehow (in your words) “exposed [her] unnecessarily”, which seemed (and still seems) perilously close to libelous on your part.
Specifically, I did not expose her real identity on my site (and in fact made efforts not to): as I recall, she did that herself on the Smithsonian message board, which was a much more public (and in fact far more hostile) place than my blog. According to your site, you have reviewed pretty much all the comments she left on Cipher Mysteries as part of your own efforts to reconstruct her account of the Beaumont children: can you therefore direct me to any comment you think I should take down?
When she made that claim herself, I denied it outright and asked her to give me even a single example to review and take down if necessary. She never did.
Also: she made a very specific claim about the Somerton Man which I invested a lot of time and effort into researching, but which turned out to be false with no obvious basis in fact whatsoever. In my books, that makes her not just an unreliable witness, but an outright timewaster.
Personally, I have no idea whether or nor her story about the Beaumont children’s disappearance is true: I’m simply not interested.
So sue me Nick. Put up or shut up.
Pete: let me get this straight – you’re happy to accuse me of ‘exposing’ someone on my blog yet you can’t point to even a single place where this supposedly happened?
I hope you realise you’re coming across as a loudmouth who’ll happily parrot whatever he reads without actually checking it out. Which doesn’t bode well.
You exposed her to Trolls Nick, by the bloody dozen. Loud enough for you?
pete: Xlamb used the same freedom of speech that the trolls did, and many people might reasonably say that the claims about living people she made were many times more serious than typical troll nonsense.
And anyway, since when did you drink some +10 Ethical Eye potion that lets you make moral judgments on other people?
Ah ! Pete and Nick, it dismays me (and probably several other long-time visitors to your various blogs) to see what appears to be a quarrel; rather than the more light-hearted commentary of past years.
I hope I am not contributing to controversy or crossy sleepiness/ boring cross-referencing, and cross commentary.
I am estranged from my children because none of them believe I have had so many life-endangering experiences.
So, if I’m getting more egotistical in my commentary ( or more boring) please lemmeknow !
Fondly following future findings ‘f-enny !
bd
bdid1dr et al-
I have found a missing Australian scientist. I haven’t had a chance yet to try to track him down…If you search on Trove “Mystery Scientist Cannot be Found” you will find an article about an Australian “George David Taylor” who went missing from Mexico in October of 1948. There is a file on him at NAA that is quite interesting too. He got in a spot of trouble because he lied about a few things on his application for enlistment as an airman. He lists Princeton University (USA) on his educational qualifications.
I thought it was interesting enough to share.
That’s ok Bids, Nick and I share the same singular quality, neither of us is ever wrong.
Re-reading other articles (both here and elsewhere) I come across references to 3 rubaiyats (which (some) people infer a linked):
1) the SM one (which we assume is the one from the car in Glenelg)
2) the Boxall one (which we probably think we know the most about)
3) the Joseph (George) Marshall one….
For some reason, people seem to take 1 & 3, occasionally add some of 2 to taste and come up with a military (usually Russian) spy conspiracy. I find it difficult to swallow – that we have 2 Rubyiats linked to deaths (one more suspicious than the other [no shyte sherlock]) occuring roughly in the same part of the world – and as far as I can tell are the ONLY obviously Rubaiyat and death connections anywhere in the world – and we leap to the conclusion that there’s an international spy game afoot….
Digressing as I am wont to do…It also bothers me some that we seem to find potential links all down the Eastern Seaboard and Tasmania to various aspects of the case – but never in the West. If we considered the (reasonably compelling, IMHO) theories about a car racket (even Pruzinski potentially falls into that theory nicely) then wouldn’t the West be a more obvious place to look for links? My understanding is that many car dealers in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were basically founded on the lucrative markets selling cars in Adelaide and Perth (and to a lesser extent Tasmania, I think) where the 2nd-hand car market attracted a higher price (lower incomes mean people can’t afford new cards and are more likely to buy 2nd hand, whereas as Sydney and Melbourne (and Canberra) thrived from a wages perspective, newer cars were more affordable – of course, this is legit business, not the stolen car trade (and a “steal to order” would be lucrative anywhere, I suppose), and I’ll concede that back then Adelaide might have been the 3rd largest city in Australia and so the 2nd hard market more stagnant (And I’ll even take on the point that the NSW laws at the time might have simply made it easier to go East), but it seems to me most (certainly amateur) investigators don’t seem to have considered the idea that SM might have been connected or had origins in the West rather than the East….
Was nothing in the West, or has nobody looked?
Milongal, Prosper Thomson was involved in serious criminal activity while dealing in motor vehicles in WA. At his trial it was said that Prosper was under the influence of “an older man”, presumably a criminal. It seems that this “older man” later established himself in Adelaide, and Prosper worked and was associated with him in Adelaide.
B Deveson: that’s very true, and as far as I am aware no efforts seem to have been made to identify that “older man” – perhaps a police information request could be made? (PMT was born on 26th October 1912, so would have been 36 on 1st December 1948, so that “older man” could very reasonably have been the Somerton Man. There seems to be no indication that the police inquiry at the time ever linked PMT with the Somerton Man, so they may well never have considered this as a possibility.)
At the very least, if we knew the man’s identity and subsequent date of death, we could very quickly eliminate him as a possibility. 🙂
An ‘established’ Adelaide criminal would have been recognised by the police in the first five minutes of the investigation.
Pete: but as you know, the man mentioned in PMT’s 1948 court case with Daphne Page was from Melbourne, not from Adelaide.
All I’m pointing out is that the police inquiry at the time didn’t seem to consider at all that the Somerton Man might have been connected to Prosper Thomson, and the Melbourne black market car dealer ‘heavy’ PMT was working with may not have been looked at with this in mind.
B Deveson: I’ve gone through Trove and added a “black market cars” tag to a few related stories from round that time, feel free to add more as you find them. But what I was immediately surprised by was the scale of the black market in cars in Australia during the years immediately after WWII, so this line of enquiry is definitely a “good runner”. 😉
Nick : it still seems very unlikely as every state was circulated with photographs of SM by the SA police – a process I’m sure would have had follow up procedures.
Pete: the point I think you’re missing is that because of the government-imposed price controls, a lot of entirely new people may well have stepped in to take advantage of the opportunity…
My understanding is if anyone is a ‘heavy,’ in the criminal sense, his mug would be well known to the police in the states he was operating.
He can’t be both a known ‘heavy’ and an entirely ‘new’ person, Nick.
And if, as you say, the (size of the) black market in stolen cars was surprising, then it would be as equally surprising if the local plod didn’t have a few detectives working on the problem.
@B Deveson: That’s sort of what I mean. There’s a WA connection in terms of the criminal element (and one that maeks a lot of sense when we talk car rackets), yet every time someone proposes a potential name to dive into (Keane/Reynolds etc) we find results for people originating in QLD, NSW and Tas (not sure about Vic)….not sure whether this is because for some reason we’re not looking West, or simply that similar names don’t occur in the West (which of course some (including many sand-gropers, I suspect) consider another country)…
Even in terms of shipping manifests I would have thought WA (even then) would be busier than SA (although probably not as busy as the East back then) – Adelaide is an awkward place to get to by boat – you have to go around the country (wasn’t this the original dream (didn’t eventuate until recent history when I think scenic passenger travel was more a focus) of the Darwin->Adelaide rail line – to allow ships to dock in the North and then rail them to Adelaide?)
A good explanation of what was going on:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55896344
Re. George David Taylor (my post above)…Is this of no interest whatsoever? Did I miss discussions about him? There is another file on him. He was court martialled for participating in a mutiny in Sydney. I have not been able to find a death record for him. I have found record of his wife and two children travelling from Australia to the US but no returns???
It would be great to “eliminate” this one if it’s not of relevance.
pete: that is your own interpretation, but you don’t have any evidence to back it up. Perhaps the right thing to do would be to try to track down the person concerned…
Also: most of the work against black market car dealing was done by the Prices Branch, which was a quite different part of the governmental apparatus…
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/95569802
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/83769225
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/63048088
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/56810107 – properly mysterious in all the right ways, sure, but it says here that George Taylor was aged only 33?
Taylor and his three daughters were repatriated from Mexico back to Australia in March 1949:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/191842361
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/191844684
However, Taylor did end up living (somewhat spookily) in Sussex Street, Glenelg, where in 1954 he was charged with defrauding Harry August Mann and was fined £35 with 10/ costs:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47574007
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47585379
Nick – I agree, the birthdate makes it unlikely that it’s SM as do two photographs I have found attached to his name…Nonetheless, his army files are very interesting and it would appear that his claims did not match his records when he applied for war medals. (This reminded me of Alfred Boxall’s record.) Remarkably, one of the times George Taylor enlisted was at Paddington on December 8, 1941. His unit is listed as “1 Aust Water Corp Group (Engineers)”. (Page 20 of 32). I went back to check and Alfred enlisted December 5, 1941. I am sufficiently intrigued to keep digging a bit…
@Misca: My apologies for the delay in following up on your referral. Sometime today, I hope to be able to spend some time on the WWW. All kinds of craziness still ongoing in re the 73,000-acre fire which left some 1,800 families homeless and tree-less. I have adopted a cat whose owner disappeared into the fire.
bd
@ Misca:
I identified ‘Somerton Man’, on one of Nick’s posts (the photograph of the dead “Somerton” man). At that time, I immediately recognized him — because his son was identical in appearance. I lost my photo files during one of my moves from one side of the country to the other.
So, my post, for the most part, was greeted with skepticism and or outright jeers. You may be able to ask Nick for the specifics.
bd (still beady-eyed and still wondering)
Anybody know what just happened to Pete’s blog? Seems it is no more.
lewiansto: no idea what’s going on there, sorry. But it looks deliberate rather than an external hack: so I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.
I guess my top 2 fav blogs (in no particular order!) is now down to one! Hope you’re not planning on disappearing too Nick!
lewiansto: to be honest, I’d rather both blogs were up than just one or neither. 😐
@ Misca: You mention Mexico when discussing the man who went missing. Was that NEW Mexico (Alamagordo White Sands..) or Mexico south of the US border?
I read today that Pete Bowes and Ruth Collins have been having a relationship for some time but it has ended badly. I believe Pete ended it!!!!!
Putting this type of garbage up on your site, Nick, is yet another indication of your absolute abandonment of decency.
No doubt you are sitting back, enjoying the great discomfort your trolls visit upon some of your site visitors.
Cowardly stuff, Nick, especially for someone who boasts of over a million visitors, and one who is invited to lecture schoolchildren, then invite them to participate on your site.
Any goodwill we may have had in the past is now totally erased.
Pete: to be honest, I didn’t think anyone would be so stupid as to take it seriously. My apologies, obviously.
Which two stupid people are you apologising to, Nick? There are two names mentioned.
Gee, Nick! I just choked on my gruel! I’ve always enjoyed the outbursts of trolls, myself, but this is something else. Infra dignatum, we used to call it in the old country. Blog fever is rife. It’s getting like Garrison Keillor’s WLT: A Radio Romance round here. As Johnny Mercer put it in ‘The Strip Polka’ “Take it off! Take it off!/Cried a voice from the rear”.
bdid1dr – Mexico, South of the border. Nick put up quite a few links relating to the scientist and what happened. Apparently, both he and his children returned to Australia.
I suspect that Pete made the above comment about the relationship Nick. Pete has been using dozens of fake names recently. It’s just a scam to get people to go to his amateur writing blog. The final goal of enticing people to buy his long awaited Somerton Man Book. From what I’ve heard I wouldn’t call it a book, it’s more on the lines of the ramblings of a
typed up and converted to a PDF. I have much admiration for you Nick and your site and work is wonderful. It’s a shame that there isn’t a Pete Bowes and Ruth Collins filter. Nobody wants to see it or read it.
Sandra: in this instance, I doubt that comment was from Pete unless he knows how to post from IP addresses in two different countries. 🙂
I know of no evidence at all that even suggests that he might posting under different names. That sounds like trolled allegations from a different site, nothing I know anything about.
To date, I have read not even a word of Pete’s Somerton Man book, and now suspect it might be some time before a review copy lands on my (virtual) doorstep.
I agree with the above to an extent. It seems when there is trouble Ruth Collins is connected to it. Nick I love your work and all you did was research Ruth Collins ID Card for which everyone is grateful. I think that Ruth needs to stop commenting and have a break. She is really upsetting people. If it isn’t Somerton Man related.. don’t publish it! Ruth had her own agenda. I ignore it personally. It’s a shame six sites have been shut down because of her already. Pete should have known better by blogging her stories, attracting online predators and putting people’s lives in danger.
Andy: I have no idea why Pete removed every single post from his site (and would prefer not to speculate), but I suspect he’ll be more than happy to tell the world quite why when he’s good and ready.
Right now he seems to be going through a blaming-everything-bad-that-has-ever-happened-to-him-on-that-bald-Pommie-bastard-Nick-Pelling (I paraphrase slightly) online phase, which would seem from the outside to be a displacement activity to help shift his gaze away from several genuinely important issues he needs to face up to. Such as: why would anyone care to read his book? As a writer and publisher myself, I can attest that writing – though time-consuming and often very hard – is by far not the most difficult part of the book production process.
I’ve already had various people speculate that this is all some kind of PR gameplan on his part in the ramp-up towards selling his book later this year: but if this is true, he would seem to be acting on some very specious PR advice.
Just because somebody comments on Nicks site doesn’t mean Nick agrees.
It has been going around for months that the Collins woman / xlamb has become close to Pete Bowes. She even blogged how emotionally and physically connected she felt to him. Big shout out to Nick, Your site is great!!!
paula: can you please tell me where these comments are? (I’ve had “Beyond Highbrow” suggested separately, is that where you saw this “for months”?)
I have Pete Bowes hopping up and down in high dudgeon on his blog every time someone posts a comment on Cipher Mysteries, and I’d rather he directed his vitriol at the sites where the comments are actually being made.
Pearl: can you please tell me where you read this claim?
Moderating in this comment has led to Pete Bowes calling you a “troll”, me a “moral coward”, and your comment “garbage”: so it would be nice to know if there’s any fire behind the smoke. 🙂
::rolleyes::
Maybe a little brimstone?
Pete, I sincerely hope you are not ‘going off your rocker”!
Pete Bowes and Ruth Collins need to calm down. They are currently using Nick as a scapegoat for the trouble they have attracted. The name xlamb is a troll name. How can a troll complain about a troll. Pete Bowes turned his SM blog into a Beaumont blog attracting all sorts of deranged people. All this has nothing to do with Nick. Pete + Ruth PLEASE go away. It is also widely known that Pete has been commenting on Ruth Collins behalf.
* This is my opinion and not necessarily the opinion of Nick Pelling
@ Pete:
It may be that I shall have to share some of the blame for the latest series of ‘troll’ nonsense/discussion.
Several months ago, I offered a name for the “Somerton Man”. I immediately identified him, and immediately posted his identity to Nick’s blog. I left it up to Nick to follow through however he wanted to handle the information I gave to him.
Somerton Man’s wife had three children. Her youngest son ( Mark) was killed by a hit & run driver. I know little, next to nothing, about her third son Preston.
Nick, I hope Petey can calm down a little (even if I appear to be interfering with Pete’s ongoing discussions).
Sincerely,
“Bids”
Nick, I hope I’m not creating another ‘tempest in a teapot’. I’m hoping that Pete does not totally ‘lose it’ (an American term for going crazy or ‘mad’ as you British say?
Sincerely worried,
bd
No worries Bids, everything is good here …
bdid1dr – The person you are suggesting is “SM”, outlived all three of his sons and died on February 10, 2005. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Thanks, Misca ; I’ll do the math (birthdates/death dates) for father and sons. Does Arlington have a website/post/blog? Does Arlington give birthdate or age at death?
bd
The father was born 17 May 1922 in Norfolk, Virginia. He died 10 February 2005 in Alexandria City, Virginia. The sons…Preston was born 19 April 1948 in Marin, California and he died 8 September 2001 in Yorkshire, England. Lee was born in 1945 in Sydney, Australia and died in 1997. He has a U.S. Veteran’s Gravesite and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in San Rafael, California.
Mark was born 27 September 1952 in New Mexico and died 14 November 1974 in Marin, California.
Misca, earlier this morning, I wrote a very excited thank you note — tried to print out at least this last post. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, our cat somehow managed to tip my custom-built computer over and onto the floor. Everything seemed to be just fine — until this morning, when I tried to print out this latest and greatest news from you. So now, rather than later, I’m giving you a heartfelt thank you !!! I’m fairly certain that Nick will be relieved to hear/see the last of my posts in re ‘Somerton Man’ .
Thanks, Nick, for bearing with me !
beady-eyed wonder-r
bdid1dr – I’m happy I was able to help! : )
Prosper Thomson seems to have been a “garage proprietor” in Adelaide prior to September 1946 (ie. earlier than I think we knew). I note that his middle name is miss-spelled “McTaggert”.
South Australian Police Gazette 9th September 1946 page 352.
“Warrants issued: Prosper McTaggert Thomson, non-payment of fines and costs …… or six days, 2 days and 24 hours, for breaches of the Road Traffic Act. Garage proprietor, no further description . Warrants (three) filed at C.I.B. – (C11796).”
Byron: excellent find, thanks! 🙂
@ Nick: D’ ya think I was going to pass right by you when I was thanking Misca for his discovery of my children’s grandfather?
Am I forgiven for my “nearly troll’ discussion? I made some cheese , but it got moldy while it was still in the mold ! (Misca’s discovery was much more interesting.)
So, I thank you, Pete, and Misca for your very kind discussions and replies to my various queries/suggestions.
Anytime Bids, and when the time comes you’re up for free copy of the book, it’s at the last edit stage right now …. I think it might just hang together as the longest train of speculative fiction anyone has put together about The Very Social Somerton Man.
We’ve got Mr Francis figured out as well.
Byron: by the way, have you got the 1947 SAPOL gazette to go through as well?
I’m now wondering what the address of Prosper Thomson’s garage was, since SAPOL didn’t appear to know as of September 1946.
Pete: …but I’m guessing you haven’t got Ronald Francis’s real name yet, right?
No ….. I had a couple to choose from but I’m not the hunter Byron is.
is there a photo of the bus ticket anywhere? I recently saw a drawing of SM and some of the items, and there was something amiss with the bus ticket (which might be artistic license, but I’m interested to see).
In the picture, the ticket has been punched at “2 down” – which is section 2 heading away from the city. North Tce is DEFINITELY in Section 1, and I suspect there wouldn’t have been a section change until you go off West Tce onto Anzac Highway (ie, cross South Tce) – because I’m pretty sure the whole Adelaide square mile is section 1 (although currently it looks like the Section change is J1 West Tce – which is the last stop before South Tce).
I’m guessing this is just something that the artist has added/created however if the actual ticket is Section 2, then the whole idea of catching a bus near the railways station is questionable (I doubt a conny would make a mistake on the section – especially in the city).
NB: I’ve always been uncomfortable about the unused ticket – it doesn’t seem like something you would thrust into your pocket (if I buy a ticket that I’m not using straight away it goes in my wallet, or bag, or somewhere where I feel it’s safer). Of course, you might argue “but he had no wallet” – this in itself opens a can of worms, because it means that he’s managed to buy a train ticket, a bus ticket (as well as leave his luggage and pay any bathing fees) and have exactly zip left over.
So, we either have someone who had the foresight to carry exactly the amount of money he needed (including knowing that he might miss the train and need a bus, and knowing that he wasn’t returning) or someone who is fairly reckless in storing a ticket for future travel (although I suppose we don’t quite know what time that was purchased – I think the only reason people assume it was for the 10:50 train is because he was supposedly in the city around that time (unless tickets back then were for a specific service?)).
While there are possible scenarios (he had no wallet and any change in his pockets was stolen by someone) to me it’s hard to get past the idea that his wallet was taken but the train ticket was quite deliberately left (either planted, or at least removed from his wallet).
I notice the “wiki” (which we all trust) article says “…bus ticket which could not be proved to have been used…” – I thought the ticket had been linked back to a specific conductor on board a bus (which means it could not possibly have not been used – pretty sure you couldn’t (and still can’t) buy tickets for future travel on board a bus in Adelaide) – but either way a picture of it would soon clarify that too (and there’s a post on busaustralia from 2010 by a user “giacomo” (which I’m drawing a long bow and saying it’s related) that suggests the ticket wasn’t punched – which is quite extraordinary for one purchased on board)
http://www.busaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17866&sid=6479876c5cd79ae576398934f229776a&start=725#p647259
Milongal: If the ticket was punched ‘2 down’ and that is correct it puts SM in a rather strange out of the way setting, so whats he up to? Is it possible that he was visiting West Terrace cemetery and caught the bus from there. I happen to have a young American ballerina who was interred there towards the end of November 1936 and if it transpired that an old touring pal (or admirer) was in town for the opening of Ms. Joanna Priest’s world premier ballet ‘The Listener’s’ on the 30th instant, he might be inclined to pay his respects. We note that he had sand in his Marco cuffs along with unspecified plant matter that he could have acquired on a visit to the site on her 12th anniversary death date a day or so earlier. He may also have had with him on that day for sentimental sake a couple of her cherished possessions, namely her stage ‘make-up brush’ and a little fluted powder/mascara dish. His copy of the rhubaiyet with his personal message to her was subsequently left on the bus for the conductor to find, and sadly he was so overcome with remorse that he offed himself (missing a bloody good show). Of course Jessica had nought to do with anything, she having come forward of her own volition like many other ghouls to view the bust and reeled back in shock when she recognised one of her old asylum patients Hannibal Lector (still with me I trust). Thats my take sort of but now you all shout what about the phone number well you’ll have to ask Messrs. Lawson or Feltus about that but my own feeling is that it was written small by Det. Brown so as not to effect the book’s evidentiary value and had no other nefarious purpose.
Of course good old Prosper ‘the fence’ ends up with the gold watch for a pittance then immediately inserts the lost add to cover himself; and the small change along with SM’s other effects are retained by the finders, who having rifled the deceased’s pockets and propped him up afterwards go on their merry way. Remind me if I have missed something which I’m sure you will because we’re not done yet by a long shot.
His name. You forgot his name.
John – What would be the reason for faking his death?
Bumpkin: If I knew his name I’d go to the cops. Misca: I’m not sure that he did but with team backing and in a remote setting such as it was it would be unlikely to draw the crabs. If we could do some in-depth research on the cause of death which goes beyond ‘suddenly’ that might help. As for possible motives its not really wise to speculate beyond the usual such as getting out of an unwanted relationship and starting afresh (he’s done that once already). However I’d be inclined to go for something more upmarket. The war in Europe is near done and everyone including the loyal (& not so loyal) little helpers are deciding their collective fates. If I was a half decent Spanish speaker I’d like to think that a slow boat from NZ to Santiago Chile might have some merits for a safer future. Of course TS as a candidate for SM is still dubious despite a host of very positive pluses for his nomination as a candidate many of which fit the bill uncannily. I’m absolutely confident about SMs involvement with the ‘Ballet Russes ‘but TS is only one of a number who share similar credentials. Sorry to sound so vague but you must understand I want this business to play out for an absolute outcome to satisfy the three main elements of this perplexing case, hence my ‘devil’s advocacy’ ploys which I make no apologies for. PS. You’ll note that the ballerina’s initials MP are coincidently included in the Tamam Shud code but I wouldn’t get exited about that. You might think me a sentimental old sausage but does anyone know what became of the lovers ‘betrothal’ sixpenny coin from the pocket of our men’s duds?
@John – 2 Down could put you on the current Section Change (but I’m not sure that’s where it’s always been). But I don’t know how much I like that scenario – it adds (another) missing ticket (a walk from the Railway Station to Cemetery would be over a mile….which adds to the walking he supposedly did around Glenelg (from Adelphi St to Somerton, if we believe all accounts of which bus he caught, and where he got off) without scuffing his shoes). What I DO like about that idea, is supposing he bought a Henley Ticket and decided to go to the cemetery before returning to the railway station. As he leaves, he spies a bus coming down West Tce, and realising it’s going to the Beach (and not being entirely familiar with Adelaide) he thinks that will get him close enough (in fact, it’s possible that he simply wanted to go to the beach – Henley, Glenelg – it’s all beach), and so heads on from there….The phone number is easily explained as relatively mundane – he saw an ad for a car at some stage and jotted down the number (of course Prospers connexion to both Henley and Glenelg is potentially interesting – and AFAIK the train ticket was 1-way?? ). The other thing I like about this theory, is (I’ll have to double check) I think that at that time there was 2 trains running to Glenelg (The tram later replaced one of them), at least one of which left from the Adelaide Railway station – so why catch a St Leonards bus (which at it’s closest hits the Northern border of Glenelg), when you could have caught a train from the same place where the Henley one was. Assuming none of the tickets were planted (and I still think we could make a case that they were), the bus appears very opportunistic whereas the train was planned (not sure if you could pre-purchase tickets then – that was before MTT ran the buses – but it’s difficult to explain the bus given the other options).
I think I posted here somewhere in the past that even more curious than the presence of the used (wikipedia says “that couldn’t be proven to be used” – but I don’t know whether that’s accurate – it would suggest it wasn’t punched [but if they’re only available on board every ticket must be used]) bus ticket (worth 7d?) is the absence of an inbound (to Adelaide) train ticket (which suggests he didn’t arrive in Adelaide that morning – or at some stage disposed of the ticket (yet held onto this cheap used bus ticket)). Suppose, he stayed in a hotel along North Tce (even then I think there were many of them) but was sufficiently ordinary not to be remembered by the staff – he’d still go to the railway station to buy a train ticket (especially if it’s the morning he intends to travel from there).
I don’t know that it helps identifying the guy, but there’s a lot of “facts” in this case that are built on a snowball of assumption and speculation – but don’t seem to make any sense. It sort of bothers me more that what little actual facts we have (The bus ticket sequences – which as told imply to me Section 1, not 2), the Train Ticket and Suitcase Stub etc – all rely on accurate Human memory, record keeping and calculation – and my faith in human accuracy is limited. What if the train ticket was sold the day before, but for whatever reason the clerk (having been told it was sold on his shift) worked out that it must have happened on his shift? What if the conductor transposed a digit in his sequence number of bus tickets – or retrospectively estimated the loading (if he was required to keep track of ticket sales and you forget to fill them in at the time, you sort of guesstimate (based on experience) how many were sold in each section**).
When somebody comes to you asking for corroboration of a story, you tend to prove rather than disprove their theories. So if the facts doesn’t match the supposition you mould the facts – why must the suitcase have been checked after 11AM on 30 Nov? Why must the Henley Ticket have been sold between 6AM and 2PM 30 Nov? Why must the bus ticket have been sold in Section 1? People don’t like responding with “I don’t know”, and even less with “no, you couldn’t possibly be correct because…” – Obviously we can’t prove that people got things wrong (accidentally or for any motivation), however I’m reluctant to take people’s memories as gospel when there’s enough murkiness in other apparent facts to question their accuracy….
tl;dr : I think a lot of “facts” aren’t that at all….
**This may seem like I’m clutching for straws, however I spent a couple of years driving buses. For certain types of shifts where non-standard ticketing was used, or free travel was available (eg News Years Eve shifts, Football runs etc) we were asked to keep track of the number of passengers each journey. I know that many drivers (innocently enough) just made up numbers because it was too hard to keep track of it.
Who or what is TS?
milongal: I suspect there are (at least) three decent enough explanations for the single-not-a-return ticket thing:
(1) He didn’t have enough money to buy a return ticket because he was going there to visit someone who was supposed to give him money
(2) He was going to meet someone who he expected would drive him back into town
(3) He wasn’t planning on coming back (for whatever reason).
All of these might well turn out to support other scenarios, but they don’t quite tell a whole story in and of themselves. 😐
John – I have had the opportunity to inspect TS’s feet in the 1920’s and they were not in the least “wedged” at that point. In fact, I would be more inclined to describe them as splayed outwards (his toes). It tells us nothing I suppose as 20 plus years can do much to one’s toes and feet…
I have followed up on many a ballet dancer who was part of this (TS’s) troupe as well as others and there are a couple of interesting possibilities in there if one is willing to be open/flexible to facts that don’t quite fit…
I don’t discount your theory for a minute; in fact, it’s more believable than many that have been proposed for SM’s identity…
I have been unable to determine his manner of death. I suspect he may have killed himself but without documentation of such I am with you, left wondering.
Milongal – I admire your perseverance and research but unfortunately, even if you figure out the whole “ticket business”, it’s unlikely that you’ll figure out an identity. You might figure out why the man did what he did but it’s unlikely to tell you who the man was.
Bumpkin: who = Tadeusz Slavinski a Polish ballet artiste who toured Aust/NZ and is said to have died on tour in Dunedin 22/1/45. This info. was mentioned in earlier posts and you can search them on this site from around late July. T.S. also could equate to Tamam Shud which should at least hold up without the need for substantive proof…Nick Pelling: (4) It is also possible that SM found the unused rail ticket on his railway cafeteria breakfast table left by an errant commuter or likewise on the desk at the ‘left baggage’ counter, or a number of other like stops in the vicinity of Adelaide station but we will sadly speculate on this until the cows come home… Milongal: For such a well laid out city grid plan (thanks to Col. Light), they sure messed up with the city/suburban rail network and right from the start it seems. I’m sure most resident users over the last 150 years since its inception have remained confused. Your thoughts on evidentiary proofs are well put and should give us armchair detectives cause to pause before accepting any witness assertions at face value, especially those of the so called experts…Misca: The sad case of Madeline Parker, the young American ballerina who died on 22/11/36 is easy for you to find and makes for interesting reading whether relevant or not. Teddie was in Melbourne rehearsing when she died and although a large funeral service was held, I’m not sure whether he was in attendance. It took place on or about 30th instant, a date which we are all somewhat familiar with are we not.
Misca: when he was cited for not attending rehersals sometime in June of ’37, his excuse was something to do with foot problems which was accepted by his employer J. C. Williamson & Co. I also note that on the 23rd of that month he signed his nuptual contract with Marie Doran and then promptly took off for Melbourne on the ‘Spirit of Progress’ leaving his sweetheart at the alter ( Syd. Reg. Office) so to speak. It does seem likely that his performance days were nearing an end by about this time and so bad feet is not out of the question, which raises the bigger querie as to what he was doing with Borovansky 40 ballet troupe in NZ when he “died”. From about 1940 onwards he only did charity performances in Australia and also dance tuition. He could have gone as choreographer or dance instructor but it really doesn’t quite fit the prevailing circumstances and he certainly wasn’t best buddies with his Czech boss. When John Beaumont (RAAF) accused him of some treasonable act at outbreak of WW2 he promised to not associate with people of questionable allegences and Ted Borovansky was such a person rightly or wrongly. People in Australia had to be pretty careful about what they did and said in those heady days or you could end up like Alf and his buddy Xavier, bundled off to God knows where for merely being considered “disturbing elements” by the powers that be. Of course the jury is still out on whether or not Teddie toured or was substituted by another who could pass for him before the ignorant antipodean audiences of that era. His reported demise and its likely cause are a matter which I can hopefully leave in your much more capable hands, with much gratitude of course. We are all getting exited about the big coming event and of course Xmas will always have that aura about it ; and by the way luck with the publication Pete.
The Woomera rocket range commenced serious testing in 1949 and it is likely the USSR, and quite possibly the USA, would have been establishing means to monitor the rocket tests (and the later atomic tests) in late 1948. This would have involve both human agents and technical services such as equipment for radio interception of rocket telemetry data. My understanding is that the nature of the radio frequencies used in rocket telemetry at Woomera (465 MHz) meant that successful interception of the telemetry had to be made within about fifty kilometres of the test site.
In 1962 Russian intelligence attempted to deliver a state of the art “squirt” radio transmitter to an agent in Adelaide (the Ivan Skripov affair). The agent was never identified. The need for such equipment implies that the information was urgent. It was suspected that in the 1960s the Russians somehow used submarines in the Great Australian Bight to monitor weapons test telemetry from Woomera but a submarine could not sit on the surface for very long before being detected, even in such a remote place as the Great Australian Bight in the 1940s and 1950s. So, it would have been essential to know when the tests were scheduled. I think (based on physics and a small knowledge of radio) that a submarine in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s would have to surface to be able to receive shortwave radio signals.
A submarine in the Great Australian Bight (Great Southern Ocean) would not be able to receive the telemetry signals while the rocket was not in a line of sight. If the submarine was say 600 Km away then the rocket telemetry signals would only become detectable when the rocket got to a height of about 6 miles. I understand that from an intelligence point of view the telemetry data for the first few seconds of rocket flight is the most interesting and revealing. Bottom line – I think the telemetry would have had to be intercepted no more than 50 Km from the test firing site. Which means that the submarine in the Bight in the 1960s was probably inserting a team to hide in the scrub close to the launch sites (there were about 13 launch pads in the 1960s from memory) where they would have operated a radio receiver with a magnetic tape storage system to capture the telemetry.
I note the SM’s suitcase contained a small screw driver that was described as an “electrician’s screw driver”. A search of the advertisements in the 1940 will show that electrician’s screw drivers (ie. Screw drivers specifically made for electrical work and electrically insulated to protect the user from electric shock and to prevent accidental short circuits when working on live electrical circuits) were uncommon and expensive. The presence of such an unusual tool in SM’s suitcase suggests that he was either an electrician or somebody who worked with electronic equipment. Maybe working on radio equipment?
I note that a jar of magnetic iron oxide powder was found amongst the Kroger’s (Portland spy ring, UK 1960) spying paraphernalia. This “black powder, magnetic iron oxide, (is) a substance used for making Morse symbols recorded on magnetic tape easier to read.” The Illegals. Nigel West. 1993. page 170. It has been pointed out previously by Pete Bowes and others that it is strange that the stencilling brush handle is not stained and does not appear to carry any traces of paint. I wonder if SM used the stencilling brush to dust magnetic iron oxide powder (which is black) on and off magnetic tapes holding coded radio messages? The Russian used automatic high speed radio transmitting and receiving equipment where coded messages were pre-recorded on magnetic tape. These “squirt” transmitters could send and receive encrypted Morse messages in perhaps one hundredth the time required by a human Morse operator. This speed made interception of the messages and radio location very much more difficult, and probably nearly impossible with the equipment available in the 1940s and 1950s. If the stencilling brush still exists it would be an interesting exercise to see if it carries any ingrained particles of magnetic iron oxide.
Segueing to the SM “code” I have often wondered if the SM “code” enciphers numeric information rather than alphabetic information. Just using the letters A-J would be a give away so maybe a simple “code” using 21 letters (each number enciphered by one of two letters, plus a full stop to separate numbers? I note that a radio frequency of 12 MHz appears to be the optimum frequency for day and night communication. “During the day, frequencies higher than approximately 12 MHz can travel longer distances than lower ones. At night, this property is reversed.” Wikipedia Shortwave radio. Propagation characteristics. I also note that 1949 was a year in which sun spot activity was at a maximum so short wave communication would been generally favourable. The pair “AB” occurs twice in the SM “code”. “AB” = 12? So, just maybe the “code” enciphers a short wave communication schedule. What sort of information would be required say for a message concerning the launch time of a rocket test? A time – four digits? The radio frequency to be used the next communication – three or four digits? I assume that the radio frequencies used for the rocket telemetry were fixed so that information would not need to be transmitted. I note that the telemetry frequency used a bit later on was 465 Hz. Search the NAA for 465 mc/s (mc/s = Hz in today’s speak). “Weapons Research Establishment 465 mc/s sub miniature telemetry ground receiving equipment.” NAA Item barcode 8952921
My working hypothesis is that the Russians (or possibly the Americans) had an agent who would send details of the proposed rocket tests and this agent lived in Glenelg or Somerton. This agent either passed the information to a radio operator or was a radio operator him/herself. I note that rocket test personnel who didn’t live at Woomera or Salisbury were housed in Glenelg. See “Glenelg North acquisition of homes for long range weapon staff 1948-1951. NAA Item Barcode 924064” National Archives of Australia.
Thanks JS, to quote the great Hillary, I knocked the bastard off.
BD: your synopsis re the collection and collation of info. from the Woomera tests works fine for me and you certainly have done some great work putting all this together so that even duffers like me are able to get the guist of it all in layman’s terms. I’m just wondering however in those early days, would it not have been possible to collect the relevant communications from a disguised fishing trawler or even an ore carrier in port at Whyalla eg. Your close enough to the action and providing your intercepts aren’t compromised a vessel could hang around for quite awhile (maritime strikes organised when necessary) and even be relieved from time to time. Of course if your working for the Soviets then you just get Messrs. Evatt & Dalziel to set up a camp for you in The Olgas or perhaps on top of Ayers Rock and that way you obtain some good visuals as well. Now getting back to the suitcase & contents thereof (everyone’s pet topic) has there ever been any comment made about its possible origins apart from indications that travel labels were removed. Surely the latches would have had an impressed manufacturers name like Cheney (GB), Acme (USA) or Rakketa (Soviet) which would be helpfull indeed but alas no mention that I can recall. Yes that little (never seen) screwdriver described as being of the electrician’s style will forever be a mystery I’m afraid and in fact unlike your take, I always thought of it as being the kind with the little lamp in the handle for testing circuits and thereby used to secrete exposed film. Tell me if I had in my collection, a length of light cord, a paper clip, two hair pins, a safety pin, a coat hanger or two, a pair of scissors, a loupe magnifier some envelopes, a contained soap holder and an army lighter with sealed fuel reservoir, would I have the means whereby to develop 9.2mm Minox film; that is assuming that I can have access to developer solution, an improvised dark room and my wee Minox which I have stored for protection in my rolled up woollen socks. Seems quite feasible in my simplistic view though I will stand corrected without question. Of course the light chord is used to determine the focal length once true focus has been made through the viewfinder and may have been once used to photograph pages in a certain one off ‘Courage & Friendship’ publication no doubt. With regards to the stage makeup brush I can see no reason why it should not suit your described purpose and I note that there seems to be an impressed makers name on its metal casing which might be readable if it could be focused then raised successfully under magnification.
Gordon: Regarding that ubiquitous little Green & Co lighter which the A.W.M and other even less reliable sources refers to as being part of the average 2/AIF soldier’s kit and caboodle, it’s a lot of twaddle. I’ve been through the listed effects of many scores of KIAs and have yet to see a one and that speaks volumes,unless they were all being lifted by tea-leafing mates which happens occasionally we must admit. As far as I’m aware there was only one bright finish model just like it’s Bradford Pa Zippo U.S. alternative and neither were issued free to the average grunt in the field to the best of my knowledge and belief. Could one imagine some digger, on survival rations, up in the Owen Stanley Ranges of New Guinea, months on end, reaching for his ever trusty Green & Co to light up a soggy durry perhaps codged from a long dead jap and being assured that it was fueled up, dry flinted etc, always ready to give good service. Might have worked for the base boys and REMFs but I have’nt had much to do with checking to see what they carried with them in the rear. So I think we could say, that if the Green in the suitcase did belong to SM, we should’nt try to make too much of where he came by it, or that he was likely to be an ex-serviceman because of it…. On a similar subject, I’m wondering after looking at Gordon’s re-designed face with the now more obvious overbite, whether SM might also have been a pipe smoker as a supplement to his cigarette use. tobacco strands were found in one of his pockets and I recall that Ina Harvey nee Elliott of the Strathmore spoke of a needle like object found in her stranger’s lodgings; sure sounds like a pipe cleaning probe to my way of thinking. Some bright spark had suggested that SM could not have been a dedicated pipe smoker because his fingers were nicotine stained from his known use of tailored cigarettes. There goes that assumption down the tube even if it were to be correct; but it aint as any dedicated ‘old Holbourne’ man will attest. Dr. Dwyer noted that SMs fingers were nicotine stained and that probably meant all of them which suggests a likely pipe user.
Who wrote the code?Who was it intended for? From the description of the lettering,I would imagine it was written quite some time before 1948,well before there was any indication atomic tests were to be conducted in Australia.
I have already stated SM was possibly a seaman,was aquainted with the nurse.The difference in the origin of the articles in his possession,is again,to me,a pointer to a person who travelled the world,and visited Australia on occasions.Why only one pair of footwear,those he was wearing? The lack of identification,another pointer he could be a seaman.
The phone number in the book.Well being as the nurse did not begin to live in Glenelg before early 1947,then the phone number in the book could not have been entered before then.So whoever wrote that number,and SM can be included,must have been in communication with the nurse sometime after early 1947,and in possession of the book.Alf Boxall? Unlikely.So that realistically leaves SM.He and the nurse had been in communication with each other in 1947?
If SM came to Australia by ship,it would probably be that the ship arrived sometime in November 1948. A good reference to ships arrivals in Australia is a site called Gove.It has copies of newspapers which carry shipping movements.Ships logs carried information of desertions.I imagine,if SM had been a seaman,he would have been recorded as a deserter.Maybe that log still exists.
Harry: The code could have pre dated the phone number by years; SM could well have been a mariner and the Rubaiyat was possibly taken from the radio shack aboard some ocean going vessel. Unfortunately we are not likely to prove it, or anything else derived from the police notes, newspaper articles or from the interesting narrative of Mr. Feltus. We have absolutely no physical evidence available to re examine for left clues, unless of course the undertaker dutifully left some going away present in the pine box for us to paw over at some stage down the track. We can complain like mad over the Coroner’s laxity when dealing with evidence, curse the SA detectives for shoddy handling of exhibits and the medical experts in their inability to give us much to go on from an analytical diognostic standpoint. So where does all this leave us at the end of the day and what might we do to fill in the blanks that might help us pick up on the long lost trail. To start with it leaves YOU, with your own stated Customs background, to go through all the old threads for possible leads on shipping crew lists, sick or deserting seamen coming ashore and not rejoining their tub which have been suggested, though not so thoroughly. Certainly more might be accomplished with folks of the right age group not having returned from overseas trips when reasonably expected to do so, or even sailors who might have signed on and not presented. Customs files must be full of all sorts of interesting chatter between agencies that you should be well familiar with.. We hereby appoint you to be our counsel on all things maritime related and it goes without saying, best of British luck with your mission old salt.
John: I would be somewhat surprised if the code letters turn out to have been written a substantial time before SM’s death – the Adelaide phone numbers seem to have been written with his trip to Adelaide in mind, and there were no other markings (as far as we can tell).
Nick: Shh, Harry seems to be Keane on the shipping news angle so don’t divert his enthusiasm, and for God sake let’s keep the phone numbers singular; we don’t want to get back to the bank of Adelaide again. What’s more the new deal from those in the know, suggests that the book was only a figment of Leane’s fertile imagination and that Ron Francis was the brainchild of a certain SM fan who could only make Snr. Detective Sgt. after forty years.
It isn’t a case of proof at this stage. What I suggest is a line of enquiry .Although a seaman w as mentioned early on in the investigation,there is little information of how far and how soon a follow up w as made.Sure SM could have plucked the book off a shelf or from a second hand shop,but it stretches the imagination that he would,out of curiousity or some other personnel trait,travel hundreds of miles to satify himself who possessed a certain telephone number printed in that book,or to seek an answer to a series of letter w ritten therein.
I do not wish to be a counsel for anyone,nor tell anyone how to proceed.I am 90 years old,of limited mobility,so the required effort to follow through all the necessary steps is beyond me.I understand an ordinary seaman does not stack up too well with an international spy,but one makes their choice.
With my normal skepticism about whether we can even say that the code page is linked directly to SM or to the pants he was wearing or whatever (etc)….
Depending on which ‘facts’ we choose there was at least 2 phone numbers on the page. Aside from JS’s (I think) previous thought that the Moseley St number may have been for someone who had had that extension BEFORE Thomson moved, does it seem a little odd that there would be 2 numbers but neither of them with a name/description? If I have to jot down 1 number, then it doesn’t need a description, because I know that piece of paper has that number. If I have to jot down 2 numbers then I need a way to remember which one is which. Possibly they were written at slightly different times and in slightly different parts of the page – but there’s a still a risk of mixing them up. Of course, the ‘X’ in the code might be a reminder that Jess’ (or Prosper’s, if you prefer such a narrative) number is the one prefixed with ‘X’ (or something). Secondly, why jot down these numbers? If you’re calling someone from a phone box in those days, surely you would expect a directory in the phone booth. This suggests that they weren’t numbers ‘looked up in the phone book’, but rather numbers that had either been communicated directly or (tying in nicely with Nick’s car loans and car salesman hypothesis) they’ve been jotted down from something like advertising in the local paper.
On a random (and a little bit ‘out there’) side, how sure are we that Harkness was the original Jo Thomson? Feltus interviewed her as though she was, but was that based of police records or of her eventual ‘admission’ that she was ‘the nurse from whose phone number was in the Rubaiyat’. I don’t recall actually seeing the phone number, and there’s little to say it was her (unless Feltus interviewed her because her name was in official records). It seems to me that about the time Feltus was writing his book one of Jess’ daughters announced/admitted/something that Jess had finally admitted she knew SM and was the nurse. If Feltus interviewed her because of official records then clearly she was the nurse in question, but if he interviewed her because she essentially volunteered herself as having been the nurse then….
Did anyone ever trace her heritage? From memory everyone got confused with the incredible coincidence of another Sister Jessica Harkness up North, so the ideas of a (latter day) identity theft is still out there, no?
Re shipping stuff, the Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide is somehow connected to a passengersinhistory database which has fairly extensive Inwards records for SA (certainly Port Adelaide, I think it’s also got other ports at least to some degree ). Although I don’t recall finding any (I may never have looked), I’d imagine equivalent records would be available from other states, and even overseas ports that might be of interest to us )no Customisation required 🙂 ).
Harry,
I checked all(?) of the ship deserters in 1948 (names were from newspaper reports from memory, but I would think this list should be complete?). Newspaper reports for earlier years could be followed up.
There is a file in the NAA that would be well worth examining.
Title: Register of deserters and deportees – contains details about persons who entered the country unlawfully, were unlawful whilst in the country or were deported for other reasons – details include their name, the ship they arrived on, a date, the offence committed and the result or action taken against the individual.
Contents date range: 1902 – 1984
Series number J3144
Control symbol VOLUME 1
Citation NAA: J3144, VOLUME 1
Item barcode 30442116
Location Brisbane
Access status Open
Harry,
Trove lists 2,267 news reports relating to ship desertions in 1948 alone. From memory I probably spent a couple of hundred hours harvesting all the names etc. for 1948 so good luck to anyone who wants to check earlier periods. It appears there was an epidemic of desertions immediately after WW2. See: Advocate (Burnie, Tasmania) 17th April 1948 page 7.
“MOVE AGAINSTSHIP DESERTERS CANBERRA, Friday. – The Australian Government was taking action to prevent large scale desertions of seamen from ships reaching Australia, because desertions were seriously affecting the flow of shipping, the Minister for Migration (Mr. Calwell) said in the House of Representatives to-day.”
New Zealand also had the same problem. See: The West Australian (Perth) 22nd October 1948 page 3.
“SHIP DESERTERS. WELLINGTON, Oct. 21:
Overseas seamen were deserting their ships in New Zealand in great numbers and already this year there had been 550 desertions said the Attorney General (Mr. Rex Mason) in the House of Representatives today. He was speaking to a
measure increasing from one month to six months’ imprisonment the maximum penalty for desertion.
Mr. Mason said that the deserters, mostly British, were men whom New Zealand would be better without.”
Harry,
The Australian Archives has 200 “Deserters” files and the following partial list is of interest.
AP231/1 Register of discharges, engagements and deserters (Sub-Collectors Office, Port Pirie) 1903 – 1942 1903 – 1942 SA: 0.54m
AP815/12 Register of deserters in South Australia 1924 – 1965 1924 – 1965 SA: 0.72m
BP305/4 Registers of Deserters 1924 – 1965 QLD: 0.09m
C14 Register of Deserters, chronological with alphabetical index 1924 – 1957 NSW: 0.54m
CT118/2 Files relating to applications for admissions, deserters, deportees and pearling indents by1949 – by1957 ACT: 0.18m
D11 Rough register of ships crew reported as deserters at Port Adelaide 1873 – 1975 1873 – 1975 SA: 2.52m
J3116 Immigration records relating to incoming passengers and deserters on various ships, imposed single number series 1899 – 1947 1899 – 1947 QLD: 0.54m
K1354 Register of deserters, chronological series 1925 – 1940 1925 – 1940 WA: 0.18m
MP49/18 Register of deserters (Australian trade ship), chronological series 1924 – 1941
MP49/8 Register of deserters (foreign-going ships), chronological series 1924 – 1941 VIC: 0.09m
P2562 Register of [seamen] Deserters, single volume by1924 – 1984 1924 – 1984 TAS: 0.09m
PP174/3 Registers of deserters 1922 – 1980 1922 – 1980 WA: 0.18m
SP1133/49 Registers of Deserters 1924 – 1959 1924 – circa1959 NSW: 0.36m
Harry: Your ordinary seaman is much more likely to write four digit numbers down; whereas any spy worth their salt, would certainly have instant recall to contacts of importance…. [deleted]
The tartan scarf found in SM’s suitcase isn’t tartan. It is a tweed (tweeds can have a rectangular pattern; true tartans can not. The scarf found in the suitcase has a rectangular pattern) and many tweeds are estate tweeds. If it is an estate tweed then SM might have had a connection to the estate or the general estate area.
Byron,
Thanks for that information.I had already accessed some of those sites.
It was because of the number of desertions,that masters,began the practice of collecting and holding seamens books and cards for the duration of the voyage.
The object being,that if one did desert,they would have no official means of identification.SM had no identification.Doesn’t prove he was a seaman,but in the abscense of any other compelling reason he was without identification,it’s a point worth noting.
John,
Why take the book to Glenelg,and then discard it there? If the letters were a code,and the holder knew it was a code of some importace to his mission,why chance it being found and deciphered?Sloppy spy work to my way of thinking.
Why not at least,rip the important portion out?
Harry: I’m not a dedicated advocate of SM having disposed of any book and furthermore that he had ever seen any Rubaiyat copy or its extracted Tamam Shud fragment; quite the contrary in fact. I’m the misguided fool that is more inclined to the view that said publication was transfered by safe hand to a knowingly concerned third party, to be logged as confirming that the termination contract had been completed as per the sanctioned instruction and a higher authority might notified accordingly.
Harry: ‘be’, as it may, The honourable Senator James Cavanah’s spiel to the Senate on conspiracy theories in ’71 would have been just par for the course for the great man from Sth. Australia. You can find his offering on the Rubaiyat translation within GF’s novel publication and you may find it interesting, as indeed I did. Also being of a certain age, something within his tendered submission may also strike a nerve with your mature and historically based perceptions. Of course his outline is gobledigook and that’s just how I think it was intended to be interpreted, however the cleverly concealed name droppings and certain placename locations, along with a number of deliberate mistakes fitted perfectly with my own rather dim witted, pre conceived jottings. Jim’s alleged informant was a foreigner apparently and the complicated layout came with a few hints as to likely meanings which to me meant sweet Fanny Adams; that is all apart from a couple ‘drops’ that seem to say so much. Anyhow, check it all out if you can, then let me know your own take on the translation or if you have any related thoughts.
As far as I am concerned,there are only three persons I find of interest in the SM case,so my translation of anything revolves around those persons.I did at one time assume SM could have composed the cipher,but that is not now my view.
Just for fun? let me set a little problem,a real code sent by a simple ordinary soldier during the second world war.He told his parents that he would not always be able to tell them where he was,but he would in some way attempt to do so.
ICTYWIABTNHC
It could have been written like that,but that would have been too difficult for the parents understanding.
So he wrote, I can’t tell you where I am but the neighbour Harry can.
Nothing to do with me of course. Where was the soldier?
So I look upon the SM cipher in a slightly similar way.The sender had previously told the receipient the nature of the cipher.
Surely there’s little doubt that Adelaide Station cloak room staff had become concerned an uncollected baggage in their care for over a month which is why they summoned assistance of security and the duty S.A. railway doctor. A year or so earlier at Melboune’s main Spencer St. Station that the swaddling wrapped body of a newborn was found in a left suitcase which had stunned the nation. An odor coming from his left suitcase, prompted the mindfull cloak room official not be similarly caught off guard. Turns out the pong was from socks containing rotting organic matter ie., potatoes, turnips, onions and jerky, standard travel fare stored in the manner of an old time drifter, new town and needing a place to camp and a bit of work to tide him over. After discarding the rotten socks etc., the untainted clothes would have been repacked neatly and the all clear given. After due consultation with more senior decision makers, Adelaide police would have been notified and bob’s yer uncle, no spare socks be buggered. PS: Glenelg/Somerton of old with it’s numerous stables, beach shanties and dugouts would take a lot of beating for a loner like SM looking for digs and a place to set up a rough camp.
Punters not impressed with my spuds in the spare socks scenario might be better served with knowledge that the suitcase contents pics reveal quite clearly a pair of nice dark woolen socks, neatly folded just so and ready use. Had they been those darned and smelly pair removed from our deceased or any other corpes, I doubt that such attention to appearances would have been metted out.
NP: I recall a year or so back on another thread (misc?), it was brought to your attention that the suitcase pic along with scatterings and a backdrop including certain items that appeared more mod. than our early eighties last known police custodial mention. I refer in particular to the twin neon light fixture standing in a corner alongside a red Volta? vacuum cleaner and with perhaps a computer consol behind. You responded that you would do some enhancement on your thread photo to see what you could bring up…..Nothing heard to date unless I missed it?
john sanders: I had completely forgotten that thread, I’ll try to have a look this week.
NP: Never too late on this one; you might also note the well worn outer condition of the case itself, bearing in mind in 1978, Littlemore commented to Brown that it looked new, hardly so in the file photo what?..Thanks js
@JS: You don’t think the vac and lights are consistent with 70s (I reckon I can find a facuum that looks like that from around ’76, and I think neon lights )? Fluorescent lights date back earlier, and I’m not sure that fitting necessarily looks particularly modern. The “possible computer console” (if you mean the cream coloured thing) to me looks more like some sort of fabric back of a market cart or some sort of mid-sized wheeled suitcase. As for the suitcase, it looks dusty rather than battered/worn to my eye.
Where is the photo supposed to date from? I’m wondering whether it dates to about the time of Littlemore’s doco – likely as they’re researching it and have pulled it out of storage (hence the dust, that can be brushed off for effect later). Didn’t Brown also pull the clothes out of the suitcase in the doco (or is that a mixed memory) – they don’t appear to be anywhere in those pics. Maybe a lot of things were presented for dramatic effect rather than factual representation….
Strange we were never told a date for the pic, not even sure about the vacuum cleaner but looks like a ‘Turbo 2000’ circa. 90’s. One thing’s for cert, it wasn’t taken in Brown’s office or the CIB exhibit room where it belonged. Looks more like some thief’s garage or workshop, same concrete floor as shown in another shot of similar vintage staring Jerry Somerton’s by now a little down at heel sans bespoke shoes.
PL told me that the suitcase, as shown with detectives holding the clothes etc was not the actual suitcase found at the ARS. PL later denied that information.
PL did the someting similar in virtually denying Jessica’s bust viewing of July ’49, then doing a 180 when describing her near feinting episode in seeing it, same time same station. Just one of many inconsistencies noted in your GC paraphrased interviews with the lately departed.
“Many inconsistencies”? I talked to PL face to face-when did you do that JS? I duly noted what PL told me, if he wanted to change the facts, it was nothing to do with me.
Clive J. Turner: I honestly don’t think anybody is accusing you of inaccurate reporting as far as your one-to-one conversations with PL go. The inconsistencies – and to be fair, there seem to be many – were undoubtedly all his. Which I personally think is a huge shame, because they mar the overall testimony of someone who was actually there.
Clive: Main problem for me is, in that just about all your dialogue with Paul seemed disproportionally cramed with stuff about clandestine ops. which of course was then doubly overblown by Gordon Cramer’s paraphrased reports supporting those theories. It seemed incredulous that GC was forever praising your role in the farce yet not allowing you any direct input on the Lawson interviews. Then again crap like Bill Moulds which was your baby and fooled gullible’s like Peteb Misca and co. was never credited as being your brainchild. I can see that you’re still very much the believer in micro writing (not perse), so I won’t insult you by delving into that, just to remind that it doesn’t wash this side of the lake. Cheers js
Clive: Getting back to the suitcase for what its worth, I’m more than satisfied, from close scrutiny of the 1949 suitcase study with its configuration of side flip latches and centre lock layout etc., appear consistant with both that displayed on the ’78 Inside Story deal and the later colourised version with scattered layout as noted on the floor setting some time later, no doubt.
@JS: Try Volta U157A (1976) – the hose end, with no hose attached. If someone is good at image enhancement, there might be a model number on the sticking up bit (It doesn’t look quite the same, but there are some similarities that would have me believe it’s a model from a similar era
(and if you’re really interested there’s a site called vacuumland dot org that (I shit you not) has forums of people discussing their vacuum cleaner collections….I’m sure someone there would gladly discuss the differences between different variants in different countries)
NP: If and when you are able to get your visual aids to work on the suitcase photo, It might also be a plus if you could get high resolution of the tattered ruins of the accompanying white tie for signs of a herring bone warp and weft patternation. Winding snakelike amongst other paraphernalia on the floor slab, I see the shot as being likely staged so that the tell tale inside seam with its T. Keane ink marking is always facing down.
I’ve been looking hard to find a time frame for the suitcase & contents pic of my concern which is well represented amongst TS/SM threads. The range of dates given for last sighting depends on the source eg., ’52 for Ruth Balint to ’86 if one prefers Abbott which does not help much at all. One must therefore go by tatty state of some items in the frame compared with their mostly sound condition when filmed for the ’78 Inside Story doco. to gauge an opinion. My best considered opinion puts the year from say ’86 to around 2004 for the suitcase disappearance and sometime prior to 2009 for the offending photo. I might mention that it’s debut seems to have been in the Unknown Man book of 2010, along with two more displayed in the same domestic setting, plus a third frame taken in 1949 by police photographer Dudley.C. Aebi (?) at Adelaide. For what it’s worth, Fultus’ claim that the suitcase was turfed in ‘a fit of spring cleaning’ in the eighties or Abbott’s that it was destroyed as being of no use in ’86, might need some thought.
Seems that Gordon has just now fessed up to Dai Bach that he was behind the doctored suitcase and contents scattering photo created when helping out at Adelaide University Facebook page,
PB: great news re your current minor disagreenent with Ancora Imparo (duh) on fluctuating heights for Gerry Somerton over at Web Sleuths, your new place of temporary shelter from the storm. Clinical studies carried out in Rome Italy in 2017 using data taken from one hundred deceased volunteers, suggest that if our own main man had been measured out at 5’11” on the slab at West End mortuary, say around four hours following exiry, then his normal height in life was most likely to have been 5′ 10 and one half inches. Yup you got it a full half inch shorter; I can show the rather in depth evaluation charts compiled by Prof. Fuctifino’s experts though I think it would be more convincing to have a fellow countryman show us contrary evidence for Pavel Fedosimov’s alleged shrinkage.
So who was it that knocked the suitcase off. Feltus was the authority who claimed it disappeared during spring cleaning at Angas St. HQ in 1982 which is not true, as revealed recently (inadvertentlly?) by Gordon Cramer @ Ancora Imparo, that it was used to display his photo shop skills (see thread insert above), on Derrek Abbott’s campus workshop floor. Seems to me that the firmer cold case detective himself would have access to it, more as likely a not from the stated period (obviously incorrect) up until at least his retirement in 2004. If the Cramer phitos are those first encountered in ‘the Unknown Man’ book of 2009/10, it doesn’t take much in way of proof, that he and the author were at least knowingly concerned in the suitcase’s uplifting. Be reminded that this was when Feltus, Cramer and a few mates teamed up to become known as the Inner Sanctum deep cover group.
Gordon: and three years ago for a full coverage on Olga Romano’s fob pockets for the Isaacs Exactofit duds, right here on Ciphermysteries; I’ll forgive and forget your blatant plagiarism on condition that you retract the not so original airoplane jelly spy v spy recognition ploy copy cat claims against stalker? Pete.
Peteb: you’ll have noted that the names Gordon Cramer and Ancora Imparo can be found within the code. As for your new title, Persona non Grata, that means yours also falls into play with the Danetta code program. Net losers from your lifetime ban at Websloths will be those who made the rash decision based on complaints from such a disreputable source.
Looking forward to spending the 2 bucks per copy of the old lad’s opus .. could be good for some objective reviewing if you know what I mean .. he can’t do a Websleuths on me with Amazon. Come to think of it, he was probably the reason I got booted off BIGFOOTY as well … fucker needs a lesson in humility, I got mine courtesy of three Englishmen who mistook my head for a football one dark and drunken night in Chelsea. One of them was probably [cheap generic bald insult]’s grandad.
…a bottle of imported (Vietnam) lager at Aldi costs 2 bucks and not a bad drop for the money either…can’t see the point on spending good value beer money for Fefosimov and Kaldor updates which, as a given won’t likely pass the taste test.
You’ve got my money on that..
lol, I used to drink that Vietnamese lager – from memory was less than $2 a pop about 27 bucks a slab. Only downside was they were only 330mL cans (and I’m not a fan of lager – but the price….)
Apparently it’s actually won some awards….
@PB IMO 500,000+ words is only impressive when they’re coherent.
As for the comments on the other site, there was a time when I used to engage (probably under some other pseudonym). Interestingly comments that disagreed with his view would either not appear (the software issue you allude to 😉 ) or would appear so heavily edited I wasn’t actually sure if it was my comment (maybe it wasn’t, but that would be some coincidence, I think).
Anywho, when you manipulate the discussion to only endorse your view you simply build up your own echo chamber and the ego grows with satisfaction about how everybody agrees with you. It took me a fair while to realise it was all just a giant echo chamber….Fedosimov….simnov…imov…ov……
I’ve increasingly found it hard to take anything written there seriously, and have given up even going there (I remember highlighting the bodgey ‘Danetta’ searching could be found in “Indeed , indeed…” which seemed to be met with much excitement, but when I played the same trick with “The Lord’s My Shepherd” apparently I was doing it all wrong). And then of course the hypocrisy when he called Sanders and I “Pooh and Eyeore”, and then cried foul that others were so childish to call him mean things.
The obvious underlying theme here is that you can do anything you like, provided you play within his rules.
Easy reader version: Any attention that way (including this reply) just encourages him….
PB would like to know what’s missing from the Feltus suitcase contents list… Well, there be two additional ties and also the small piece of folded metal plate missing and of course that bloody great needle stuck through the Barbour thread card which Bozo refused to spot even after having it pointed out. The listing of two separate teaspoons doesn’t seem like the sort of thing Gerry would get wrong but they’re not considered missing are they?…
Feltus, page 155, 2 ties .. nothing you write can be believed, can it Fluff?
OK, shove the extra ties for now Bozo. How’s about my folded metal plate and the bloody great needle. Feltus, your eternal fall back SM authority doesn’t seem to mention them on page 155; Wonder could they be simply Scotch mist or else a wild erratic fancy on my part?
Folded metal plate = scabbard.
I should say that whoever it was came up with the ‘Bozo’ monicker was no clown! I should say further that both the knife scabbard and scissors holster obviously comprised common brown (not striped) masking tape as used in the electrical trade of yesteryear eg. I could add that the tape was likely bound about a piece of thin metal sheet simiar to a folded piece omitted by Feltus in his not so complete list of the suitcase contents according to Bozo.
Love ya, Dusty, a man who never gives up.
Love is a many splended thing Peteb, just so long’s it isn’t heartfelt. Know what I mean?
Noted that in a recent editorial post on his own site TS/BS Gordon Cramer makes his own cute self serving reference to understated and omission errors associated with the Peteb/Feltus list; He points out four ties as opposed to two and the folded ‘zinc plate’ all of which are clearly evidenced in the best known suitcase contents floor spread pic (see thread insert)…..Big problem for Gordon is that in a recent post on the extremely intolerant Webspoofs site, under his self deprecatating pseudenom Ancora Imparo, our flim flam man admits unashamedly to the pic having been one of his very own creation. NB: I have in the past raised numerous questions concerning doubtful provenance of the photo on several web sites but, despite editorial ‘must do’ notes to the contrary, nothing was ever followed up. My respectful comment being, if the cap fits &c &c…
….Further proof of GC’s blatantly dishonest and deceptive conduct over many years, can also be found in to-day’s all revealing suitcase (off thread) comment, where in attempt at self aggrandizment, he reminds his readers that also missing from the Feltus list was a pencil sharpener (for the six pencils) of course. Only problem with that clever initiative is that the West German (inc. 23/5/49) model pictured in his 2014/19 expose be of recent manufacture as evidenced by it’s give-away Phillips blade screw, not the former slot type used long after 1948.
Cramer is a dangerous individual in this discussion in that he misrepresents the truth, creates false narratives and beguiles his followers with nonsensical solutions based on carefully curated, barely related real events.
Surely it hasn’t taken this long to realise? Stopped listening to him a looooong time ago, and I think I’ve ranted elsewhere how suspicious I am of most of what he says (e.g. has anyone ever verified he actually was a cop – and for how long? And in what capacity (ie was he actually a Defective in the Police Farce, or was he a Parking Ticket Inspector (or something else in between)?)….There was a time when I intended to, but then it lost relevance….
@PB re the latest on your site (Who saw what was really there). I’ve asked several times about the science in how the microwriting (originally in light pencil) remainson a picture of texta that likely isn’t even directly on the original and the only response I ever got is “try my method yourself, is simples” or “don’t ask questions unless you’ve actually tried”. Doesn’t seem to understand I don’t really care how his fantastical writing appears, unless he can explain why the process should work.
At some stage in my career I worked alongside a pretty well known TLA (Three Letter Acronym). We had been the lowest level support for a particular system, and for whatever reason, this TLA was brought in to replace us, but we were kept at the next level up to essentially tell them how to fix the issue (ah Government, where more layers = less liability). I remember an incident where their main guy insisted “all we need to do is reset the system” (this is a cross between he doesn’t know what’s going on and they have a “five-nines” agreement (system must be available 99.999% of the time).After lots of arguing we agreed that provided they save certain logs and temporary files, they can reset the system. Some time later, another outage/incident occured. Representatives of the same TLA simply reset the system. When challenged “Why?” (not least because they didn’t ask our advice) they responded “because that’s what we did the last time”. Now while both times the reset did the trick (doesn’t it almost always?), the symptoms of both issues was very different….so I don’t want to know “we got a result”, I want to know “we understand what happened well enough to know WHY we got a result”.
In the microcode case, I think there’s a result because people want it to be there. The science behind it is bubkes, but someone found what they wanted because of gross confirmation bias. So until someone can explain to me not the method used, but the reason I should expect such a method to give me any sort of result (other than fantasy) I don’t see much point getting sucked into that world. It’s not unlike the Fedosimov stuff, first it was Fedosimov (because a picture of Novikov looked very vaguely like SM). Then when it was realised Fed was the OTHER GUY in that pic, he became an “even better candidate”. Then when we could show that Fedosimov existed well after 1948 we were told “That’s because everyone uses that alias” – so literally “this is the most common alias in the Russian-speaking world, but (if we accept that pre SM Fed and Post SM Fed are different people) we could find exactly 2 such identities”. These are but some of the reasons why it bothered me GC’s exact police history – because that doesn’t seem to me to be the thinking of an objective and open minded investigator (which may be a reflection on the state of police detectives 50 years ago, or may suggest that his background has been misrepresented). Perhaps ironically when I suggest Government analysts and Departments might suffer from very similar types of confirmation bias the overwhelming response is “no chance”.
Short Version: Exactly!
Seems like all us ‘lightweight’ naysayers have finally had a gutful of your madness Gordon. How’s about giving us a short video of your ridiculously simple bleach and lemon juice method for highlighting miniscule letters hidden under multiprocessed written material. That shouldn’t be too hard to put together by a man with your undeniable intelligence and guile; should serve to prove your point or else put an end to your farcical boasting.
News of sorts for the followers of the TS/BS Danetta Code thriller and it’s creator if interested. Author Gordon Cramer’s latest tempation, an unusually undoctored police photo (Sapol?) circa Dec. 1948 could hold clues of relative to the SM beach death says he. Whilst the suitcase shows features similar to one found at Adelaide station in Jan. 1949, even blind Freddy could spot at least two standout points of difference without need for photo enhancement. If’n one chooses to include yet another suitcase found abandoned at Somerton forshore on 29/11/48 forget it. In this case the contrary evidence rests mainly to the photo’s atypical plant growth included in the frame, plus a discarded unseasonal wet weather outer garment.
I used the bleach method, as described by GC, long before the Lemon juice was added to the mixture. The bleach method didn’t work either.
Clive: I think both methods are lemons.
“.. whoever worked on the code page, would have seen what was really there and it was literally covered up and then released for the public to see.”
Gordon Cramer.
Perhaps Apple juice is the answer? I’ll have to have a word with Granny Smith.
Nothing wrong with a chuckle or two at another’s expence, even though he had it coming. Serious business though now, about GC being forced into admitting to possession of the SM suitcase and it’s contents which he refers to as scatter. It had been obtained from S.A. police illegally sometime between 1986 and 2009 by a person or persons unknown (like hell). It’s no wonder that Feltus claimed in his book that said suitcase had been discarded during a spring cleaning in 1982, or Abbott’s claim that it simply disappeared in ’86. All bullshit of course as revealed by faithless Gordon, their former loyal cohort but, since the days of Derreks face book ROK search, followed by Gerry’s ‘inner Sanctum’ breakaway show, they remained mum, knowing full well consequences of being lumbered with the serious offence of stealing or otherwise being knowingly concerned in theft of evidence in a still active criminal case.
Finally, yes finally our code letter lifter has seen some benefit by posting his very own Ruffles inspired suitcase ‘scatter’ pic creation for our viewing pleasure and objective critique thereupon. Gordon Cramer asks dumb arse questions re the pencil and tie count, which of serves as a subtle diversion from what alternate queries intelligent punters might otherwise be pondering. The thing of utmost relevance is of course continued presence of an identifiable Police property room tag labelled A48605 which confirms ownership ie., custody, care & control thereof by Sapol. Of lesser interest is of the original string tied and dilapidated Adelaide station cloakroom holding tag issued on 30/11/48, presumably by Harold Rolfe North (disputed by GC). The big question for you Mr. Cramer is, why have you decided not to include all important modern background detail with your nice picture sir?…Would it be fair to say that such revelations might present a security risk for you and your partners in grime towards some likely police interest in whence you came by such a photograph. The mind boggles what?
Gordon Cramer has cracked the code and identified the Somerton Man.
He proudly exclaims these successes day after day on his gift-giving blog. We, on the other hand, wallow in the swamps of the lesser gifted, gasping for breath and reaching hopelessly for assistance from the Master … who deigns to ignore our pathetic cries for assistance .. us, the lower order, who have yet to appreciate the gifts he has received through his superior research and experience in matters Tradecraft.
This state of affairs I must learn to live with in the hope that in his munificence he may one day forgive me for doubting his unalterable truths.
One day we will all succumb to his faultless logic and clear thinking … genius knows no bounds.
Pb – this may be a stupid question, but what code?
DNO’D … The code is five lines of capital letters found written on the back of a copy of the Rubaiyat.
The claim that the SM suitcase was an Australian made vulcanised fibre Globite or Antler (UK) suitcase is based on mere supposition following an quick visit to their company sites on Google no doubt. Not that it matters but, it is most unlikely that ours was manufactured in Australia by either company, nor was it of volcanised fibre construction but a lesser grade composite alternative (Antlers were English). I recall discussing various aspects of all this some time back after chancing upon a near copy of SM’s of the same dimensions at Mt. Barker in the Adelaide Hills. Why am I so shit clever and our caniving humbug TS/BS informant so dumb? Simple answer being that all Globite cases used distinctive Cheney locks and latches whilst Antler UK used their own, neither brand being fitted to the one from the Adelaide station cloakroom…and by the by Gordon, you might be surprised by what you missed inside your ‘very clean and recently wiped lid with no wipe marks’ or better still consult your old ‘Inner Sanctimonious Club’ buddy Gerry Feltus.
@Diane: The MLIABO, I assume (although I’m guessing GC’s version would be the secret lettering that he’s convinced exist within the MLIABO).
@PB: GC identified SM as Pav a long time ago….and I wouldn’t trust any new identification any more than I did that one.
D N O’Donovan. What code indeed! A fair question, perhaps Gordon may enlighten the rest of the world as to what he has ‘cracked’?
Dianne O’Donovan: those of us not Sworn to secrecy understand that the code named ‘Danetta’ or ‘she knows’ in Hebrew, was chanced upon when two suicide notes found by Sapol detective Canney in December 1948, were later discovered by Clive Turner. It’s subsequent decryption was achieved by top AfIO man Gordon Cramer whose expert sequencing of an obscure 40s era one time pad key, a series of letters to be in sync with line characters on the ‘Freeman’ ROK….Ask another stupid question luv; helps with my on line credability rating.
Ignore that lout, Diane, as it was I who first drew attention to the strict placing of the letter A in every code line of over seven letters. This, no doubt will finally lead to the breaking of said code as soon as one of the real code-breakers who come by here will rouse him/herself to do so. Now if you will excuse me, I have some laurels to rest on.
Jo: 14 November 2021 @ 9.27am should set you straight on the consistency re date and relevance of said concrete floor scatter photo of your query. Whilst you’re at it, you might find the entire suitcase thread is well worth reading just to put things in a more general sequencing perspective.
Diane O’Donovan,
Just to let yo know D, looks as if you’re hunch be well founded in that someone has been masquerading as you on Rich SantaCaloma’s 1910 blog. I just made a count of 23 substantial posts under your name from August to December 2022 under his ambitious ‘Lens’ thread. Whoever they be, they’ve also managed to mimic your glib style and so I wondered if it might be Peter Bowes?…nah too dumb.
Peteb: if you’re looking for proof to support Minstrel Janet’s assertion re Gerry’s total disregard for truth telling, here goes. All you really need do is go back and check out this thread’s accompaning suitcase ‘laid to measure’ strewn contents photo from ‘The Unknown Man’…upon scrutiny you’ll identify the delapidated condition of some displayed items ie. the T. Keane tie and other clothing, the tarnished Green’s lighter, trashed shoes (pic 2), all of which punters carelessly assumed to have been taken prior to their being discarded lock stock & barrel back to the eighties in Gerry’s claimed ” fit of spring cleaning”. Some interest can be derived from other background objects re dating can be found in the AC wall unit, uninstalled light fixture, styrene packing board and of course the big red Miele vacuum cleaner, all pointers to what comes next. Take the time and go back to Det. Supt. Brown’s TV interview of 1978 still on Utube, where he has the original suitcase on his desk and it’s contents including the ironed white tie and shiny lighter on display, all prestine just like when found in the Adelaide Station (rest…er ah) Cloakroom three decades before…So now the question can be asked; How is it that this same security stored suitcase and it’s imaculate contents had reached such a dilapidated state as evidenced in the original photo, if the author’s account of possession be true. Short answer, the case was not thrown out in any fit of spring cleaning at all; It was undoubtedly perloined from the SAPOL property room by somebody having legal access and stored for a in a damp musty place for a long spell..Now who the dickens might that have been would you reckon Peteb, any familiar name(s) spring to mind? A former partner in grime admits to having being involved after the fact in ‘pushing’ the related shoes & socks negative when boasting to an alter ego of his talents.
Minstrel Janet & Buzzrating
Had SM been on a blood thinner for heart failure, an anticoagulant medication like Warfarin, used extensively in rat bait before its full potential for humans was realised. Pathological detection may not have existed in 1948 but it was known to cause internal bleeding, ulceration and rupture of blood vessels in the brain, all of which were evidenced during the autopsy; who knows & who cares. …..Buzz: Y’man’s biggest mistake, besides his unauthorised removal of evidence whilst a CIB defective with Sapol, then later attempting to cover his tracks with a dumb ass photo ploy, was in adopting choicest parts of John Ruffles 1978 TV espionage theory involving Lt. Alf Boxall and a young RNSH nurse code named Jestyn, with no justification for suspecting any conspiracy between the pair whatsover “EVER”. Great stuff for a true crime yarn with a romantic tryst or two that turned deadly in the end. if only Derek Abbott hadn’t let the ROK verse 70 Jessica Harkness @ Thomson cat out of Gerry’s cute “witness ID protection” bag
Nick Pelling: by the way, you never did get back to me on my query about the Feltus ‘Unknown Man’ suitcase photo (two pics) backdrop e.g. as promised.
Now that we’ve done with the long running ‘under the counter’ and Bribie St.
‘Grand Theft Auto’ interesting totally unrelated side shows, perhaps you’ll have time on your hands to give this more pressing subject the priority it surely deserves.
Interesting to go back to these 2016 thoughts and wonder who was Carl Webb sending letters to in the US in 1948 with Keane dead?
There must be a missing thread of someone in the US he had remained in contact with. It might suggest he was in the US himself at some stage and had made some friends.
Poppins: in re your post on possibilty of the name Webb on SM’s composite suit case handle, I’m struggling to see anything but it’s unadorned surface. Despite not being an authority on the subject never having owned a suitcase or even a port (manteau), I doubt that anyone would put their name on a carrying handle likely to be in regular contact with a human hand and subject to excessive ware.
Leide : lovely accent you have there Babushka, much like Gordon Cramer’s Katerine (Russian Kate) of Sister Jessie Harkness, Owen S.A. substitution
notoriety Tamam Shud Blot Spot.
Here’s an image of the handle comparison ….. look down on the image on the handle, not straight ahead and you’ll see it better, h’mm, to me it spells out Webb, strange coincidence, or perhaps I’m the only one who sees, ah well, there it is, I won’t mention it again though.
https://imgur.com/jZ3hd4F