Australia Australia - Tamam Shud Case - Male, Dec 1948
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There was already a thread for this case, and I merged your new thread with the existing one.
This case is probably solved. Internationally renowned anatomist and biological anthropologist Professor Maciej Henneberg, of Adelaide University believes that Somerton Man was a British seaman named H.C. Reynolds.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/is-br...ach-body-mystery/story-e6frea6u-1226200076344
Here is his ID card from 1918 (30 years before Somerton Man's death).
Adelaide 30 November 1948. Time of the Bobby Soxers. The hit tune of the day was "Slow Boat to China". For one man it was a day of deep significance.
We first learn of this man during the morning of that day, when he lodged a suitcase in the Cloakroom of the Adelaide Railway Station. He then bought a 2nd Class ticket to Henley Beach, but for some reason did not use it; perhaps he missed the train. He put the ticket in his pocket and crossed North Terrace to a bus stop outside the Strathmore Hotel at about quarter past eleven, and instead caught a bus to Glenelg.
That evening at about 7 pm a man named Lyons and his wife were strolling along the beach at Somerton, enjoying the pleasant evening air. They were about opposite the old Crippled Children's Home, when Mr. Lyons looked up and noticed a man lying on the sand with his head against the seawall and with his feet pointing towards the sea. He was within about a yard of the steps up the sea wall. As Lyons looked at him, the man made a movement with his right hand, as though he was trying to smoke a cigarette. Mr. Lyons said to his wife, "Look at the way that man is slumped". They both formed the opinion that the man was drunk and passed on.
Half an hour later a young girl named O'Neill and her boyfriend named Strapps were walking along the promenade, on the top of the seawall at Somerton. They stopped for a while on a seat near the steps going down to the beach. Miss O'Neill could see a man's left hand lying beside his body. From the position of the hand she had a thought that perhaps there was something wrong with him. She said to her companion, "I'll have a look at him."
Strapps replied, "Oh, don't be a sticky beak." She said, jokingly, "Perhaps he's dead." They remained there for about half and hour and during that time the man did not move. They thought perhaps he was sleeping as he did not appear to be worried by the mosquitoes.
The following morning Mr. Lyons went to the beach again at about 6.30 am to have a swim with some friends. After his swim he again saw the same man in the same position beside the seawall.. He became suspicious and went to have a closer look. He decided that the man was dead and hurried to his home nearby to ring the Brighton Police Station. Lyons returned to the body and Constable Moss, Officer in Charge of Brighton arrived shortly after and examined the body. He looked for signs of disturbance around the body, but there were none. He found the body fully clothed with no marks of violence. The left arm was lying beside the body and the right arm was bent double. A half-smoked cigarette was lying on the right collar of his coat.
The body was conveyed by Police Ambulance to the R.A.H., where life was pronounced extinct. An opinion was given that death had occurred at about 2 am. The body was taken to the morgue and Police enquiries commenced. There was nothing unusual about a man dying in a public place. It was assumed that someone would soon come forward to claim him.
Two days later a post mortem was conducted. Up to now it had been thought that the man had died from natural causes, but now a mystery began to develop, because, despite all the tests which were conducted, no cause of death could be discovered. The body was found to be that of a man of about 45 years of age, tall and in excellent physical condition, that of a man who had taken care of himself. He was thought to be of European appearance.
His clothing was of good quality. Certain organs were sent to be examined. The stomach had been highly congested with blood, as though by poisoning and the heart had failed.
Tests were conducted to try to find possible poisons which could have caused death, but still no answer could be found. It seemed that death had been brought about by someone with a sophisticated knowledge of poisons. There was not one single identifying mark upon the body. No scars or vaccination mark.
It was now time for the Police to commence wide enquiries to establish the identity of this man. Photographs and finger-prints were taken and circulated within Australia and New Zealand and also overseas in all English speaking countries, but no record of the man could be found.
When the clothing worn by the deceased was first searched by Police they found an unused rail ticket to Henley Beach, a used bus ticket to Glenelg, cigarettes and matches, but no money. The clothing had had all the identification marks removed. The mystery began to deepen and the Press began to take a great interest.
In January 1949, Police enquiries found an unclaimed suitcase in the Cloakroom at the Adelaide Railway Station It was a suitcase which had been lodged there on the 30th November. The suitcase was in fairly new condition and a luggage label had been removed from it. Clothing in the case matched that worn by the deceased and most of it had all identification marks removed. In the case was found a brush which was of the type used for stenciling, a knife with a sharpened point and a pair of scissors also with a sharpened point. They were of the type used by the Third Officer on Merchant ships responsible for the stenciling of cargo.
A dry-cleaning mark was circulated Australia wide but without success.
One name of T. Keane was found on three items, but even this did not lead to any success. An examination of the coat found on the deceased showed that it was of American origin. It seemed that painstaking efforts had been made to conceal the identity of this man.
And so the mystery deepened. Numerous people went to view the embalmed body, claiming that he was someone known to them, but still the identity was not established.
In April, a Professor Cleland made a further examination of the clothing found on the body and discovered another cryptic clue. Deep down in a rather obscure fob pocket of the trousers he found, rolled up, a tiny piece of paper. When unrolled the paper showed two printed words Taman Shud".
The enquiring Police tried to make sense of this, but it was a reporter from the Advertiser who directed them to the old Persian poet, Omar Kyam and his poem 'The Rubaiyat', written some 900 years ago. The philosophy of his poem was that we should live life to the utmost and have no regrets when it ends. Translated, the words Taman Shud mean The End or The Finish. The words occur at the very end of the book of poems. This strange find opened up new lines of enquiries for the Police. They commenced a search for a copy of 'The Rubaiyat' which may have the last page missing.
In June, Mr. Paul Lawson, the taxidermist at the Adelaide Museum was asked to make a plaster cast of the man's head and shoulders. He found the body to be tall and beautifully formed, with wide shoulders and narrow waist. A strong and robust man, with well cared for hands and nails, with no signs of hard work. The feet he found curious with the big and little toes meeting close together in a wedge shape, as though the man had been a dancer. The calf muscle was formed high up in the leg, like that of a woman who habitually wears high heeled shoes.
This led Police to other lines of enquiry, as to whether the man had been a dancer or a stockman. Still the enquiries proved fruitless.
Shortly afterward in 1949 the body was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery. Police kept the arrangements secret to keep sightseers away. The South Australian Grandstand Bookmakers Association paid for the burial service to save the man from a paupers burial. The Salvation Army conducted the burial service.
An inquest had been opened shortly after the body had been found and was adjourned. Three days after the burial, the inquest was resumed. The Coroner was unable to make any finding on the identification of the man, or the cause of death. The matter was further adjourned without coming to any conclusion. Indeed, the Coroner said that there was no absolute certainty that the man seen alive was the man found on the beach next morning, as nobody had seen his face during life.
The wide publicity given to all this brought some result. Soon after this, a doctor who lived at Glenelg came forward with a copy of the book 'Rubaiyat of Omar Kyam' and the last page of this book a piece had been torn out.
Although the scrap of paper bearing the words 'Tam Shud', which was found on the deceased, had been neatly cut around the edges, scientific tests proved that the scrap of paper did, in fact, come from the same book as that produced by the doctor. The Doctor told Police that he had found the book tossed on the front seat of his car when it was parked in front of his house on the 30th November. He had previously attached no importance to the finding of the book.
On examining the book Detectives found faint pencil markings on the back of the book. These appeared to be four cryptic lines of capital letters. Police thought that this may hold some clues, but although the letters were submitted to cypher and code experts, they could not find any solution. There were also what appeared to be telephone numbers in the back of the book, but enquiries along these lines brought no clues as to the identity of the man.
The last stanza in the book before the words 'Taman Shud' reads,
"And when yourself with silver foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scattered on the grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made One - turn down an empty glass!"
A number of questions remain intriguing and unsolved.
Who was this man and how did he die?
Why did he appear to make such efforts to
remain anonymous?
Did he die by his own hand and how?
Was he murdered and matters arranged as to make it appear that he had died by his own hand?
What manner of death was it that no clue remained?
Was a poison used which cunningly dissipated so that no trace of it remained
Why should a man in top physical condition want to die, if it should have been by his own hand? Was it an affair of the heart, or some other desperate problem that beset him?
It was the time of the Cold War and the Berlin Blockade. The Rocket Range was being established at Woomera. At that time one of world's top physicists was in Adelaide. It had been suggested that the man may have been involved in espionage, and may have been killed because of what he knew.
Was he an agent for a foreign power, a spy or an intelligence officer?
The circumstances surrounding this death were very usual, but is seems likely that he suicided. Did he inject himself with some obscure poison, or did he swallow it?
If that is so, we can only speculate and conjecture as to the state of his mind as he lodged that suitcase in the Adelaide Railway Station, and caught the bus to Glenelg, perhaps reading again that last stanza in the old Persian book of poems before he tossed it away.
"And when Yourself with silver Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scattered on the Grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty Glass!"
Will the mystery ever be unravelled, I wonder? Perhaps you and I as we pass this spot at Somerton may give him a thought, wonder again who he was, this man of mystery, this man with no past and "turn down an empty glass".
Footnote:
This address was given by Dorothy Pyatt at the SA Police Historical Society's meeting on 1 August 1997. Especially present was retired Chief Superintendent Len Brown, who with the late Lionel Leane, were the two detectives assigned to investigate the mystery of the Somerton Beach body.
Len congratulated Dorothy for such an accurate account of the events and went on to add his own thoughts and comments.
It is Len's belief that the man may have been destitute, the reason for not finding any money on the body. At that time he explained there were no Social Security benefits and the labels missing from some of the clothing may have been because they could have been from a charity store.
It was most probable that the deceased had intended to travel to Henley Beach, but on presumably missing the train, he placed the unused ticket in his pocket and then caught a bus to Glenelg, where he walked to Somerton and committed suicide by swallowing an unknown poison which dissipated in the body before the autopsy was conducted. In those days Len explained the procedures were not as they are today and the autopsy was not held until several days after the deceased had been found.
Len also explained that he believed that the man may have come from a country in the Communist Eastern Block. At that time there were no communications between such counties and the western world and therefore a thorough check of the man's identity could not be made.
There is no doubt, however, that the deceased did make every effort to conceal his identity, which along with the cause of his death, still remains a mystery.
The police file is still maintained at Major Crime Task Force in the 'open files', and the bust of the deceased remains in the safe keeping of the Police Historical Society.
His fingerprints were distributed around the world, but recorded no match, and it has since been discovered that formalin used to embalm the body has destroyed all DNA. All police know is that his last meal was a pasty. Will this case ever reach Taman Shud?. or will he remain a mystery forever?
Detective Senior Sergeant Gerry Feltus (retired) has been delving into the mysterious circumstances of the Somerton man for more than a decade, mostly in his spare time.
He first became interested in the case when he was at boarding school at Somerton Park in 1956. During the winter, when it was too cold to swim, he would walk past the location where the body was found & the older people from the area would tell him about the guy who was murdered here
He has suggested that he may even write a book, outlining the facts of a case he first learnt about as a young detective working in Major Crime. His eyes light up when he talks about the case. He speaks of the conspiracy theories, the logic & the unknowns.
http://www.sapolicehistory.org/Oct07.html
We first learn of this man during the morning of that day, when he lodged a suitcase in the Cloakroom of the Adelaide Railway Station. He then bought a 2nd Class ticket to Henley Beach, but for some reason did not use it; perhaps he missed the train. He put the ticket in his pocket and crossed North Terrace to a bus stop outside the Strathmore Hotel at about quarter past eleven, and instead caught a bus to Glenelg.
That evening at about 7 pm a man named Lyons and his wife were strolling along the beach at Somerton, enjoying the pleasant evening air. They were about opposite the old Crippled Children's Home, when Mr. Lyons looked up and noticed a man lying on the sand with his head against the seawall and with his feet pointing towards the sea. He was within about a yard of the steps up the sea wall. As Lyons looked at him, the man made a movement with his right hand, as though he was trying to smoke a cigarette. Mr. Lyons said to his wife, "Look at the way that man is slumped". They both formed the opinion that the man was drunk and passed on.
Half an hour later a young girl named O'Neill and her boyfriend named Strapps were walking along the promenade, on the top of the seawall at Somerton. They stopped for a while on a seat near the steps going down to the beach. Miss O'Neill could see a man's left hand lying beside his body. From the position of the hand she had a thought that perhaps there was something wrong with him. She said to her companion, "I'll have a look at him."
Strapps replied, "Oh, don't be a sticky beak." She said, jokingly, "Perhaps he's dead." They remained there for about half and hour and during that time the man did not move. They thought perhaps he was sleeping as he did not appear to be worried by the mosquitoes.
The following morning Mr. Lyons went to the beach again at about 6.30 am to have a swim with some friends. After his swim he again saw the same man in the same position beside the seawall.. He became suspicious and went to have a closer look. He decided that the man was dead and hurried to his home nearby to ring the Brighton Police Station. Lyons returned to the body and Constable Moss, Officer in Charge of Brighton arrived shortly after and examined the body. He looked for signs of disturbance around the body, but there were none. He found the body fully clothed with no marks of violence. The left arm was lying beside the body and the right arm was bent double. A half-smoked cigarette was lying on the right collar of his coat.
The body was conveyed by Police Ambulance to the R.A.H., where life was pronounced extinct. An opinion was given that death had occurred at about 2 am. The body was taken to the morgue and Police enquiries commenced. There was nothing unusual about a man dying in a public place. It was assumed that someone would soon come forward to claim him.
Two days later a post mortem was conducted. Up to now it had been thought that the man had died from natural causes, but now a mystery began to develop, because, despite all the tests which were conducted, no cause of death could be discovered. The body was found to be that of a man of about 45 years of age, tall and in excellent physical condition, that of a man who had taken care of himself. He was thought to be of European appearance.
His clothing was of good quality. Certain organs were sent to be examined. The stomach had been highly congested with blood, as though by poisoning and the heart had failed.
Tests were conducted to try to find possible poisons which could have caused death, but still no answer could be found. It seemed that death had been brought about by someone with a sophisticated knowledge of poisons. There was not one single identifying mark upon the body. No scars or vaccination mark.
It was now time for the Police to commence wide enquiries to establish the identity of this man. Photographs and finger-prints were taken and circulated within Australia and New Zealand and also overseas in all English speaking countries, but no record of the man could be found.
When the clothing worn by the deceased was first searched by Police they found an unused rail ticket to Henley Beach, a used bus ticket to Glenelg, cigarettes and matches, but no money. The clothing had had all the identification marks removed. The mystery began to deepen and the Press began to take a great interest.
In January 1949, Police enquiries found an unclaimed suitcase in the Cloakroom at the Adelaide Railway Station It was a suitcase which had been lodged there on the 30th November. The suitcase was in fairly new condition and a luggage label had been removed from it. Clothing in the case matched that worn by the deceased and most of it had all identification marks removed. In the case was found a brush which was of the type used for stenciling, a knife with a sharpened point and a pair of scissors also with a sharpened point. They were of the type used by the Third Officer on Merchant ships responsible for the stenciling of cargo.
A dry-cleaning mark was circulated Australia wide but without success.
One name of T. Keane was found on three items, but even this did not lead to any success. An examination of the coat found on the deceased showed that it was of American origin. It seemed that painstaking efforts had been made to conceal the identity of this man.
And so the mystery deepened. Numerous people went to view the embalmed body, claiming that he was someone known to them, but still the identity was not established.
In April, a Professor Cleland made a further examination of the clothing found on the body and discovered another cryptic clue. Deep down in a rather obscure fob pocket of the trousers he found, rolled up, a tiny piece of paper. When unrolled the paper showed two printed words Taman Shud".
The enquiring Police tried to make sense of this, but it was a reporter from the Advertiser who directed them to the old Persian poet, Omar Kyam and his poem 'The Rubaiyat', written some 900 years ago. The philosophy of his poem was that we should live life to the utmost and have no regrets when it ends. Translated, the words Taman Shud mean The End or The Finish. The words occur at the very end of the book of poems. This strange find opened up new lines of enquiries for the Police. They commenced a search for a copy of 'The Rubaiyat' which may have the last page missing.
In June, Mr. Paul Lawson, the taxidermist at the Adelaide Museum was asked to make a plaster cast of the man's head and shoulders. He found the body to be tall and beautifully formed, with wide shoulders and narrow waist. A strong and robust man, with well cared for hands and nails, with no signs of hard work. The feet he found curious with the big and little toes meeting close together in a wedge shape, as though the man had been a dancer. The calf muscle was formed high up in the leg, like that of a woman who habitually wears high heeled shoes.
This led Police to other lines of enquiry, as to whether the man had been a dancer or a stockman. Still the enquiries proved fruitless.
Shortly afterward in 1949 the body was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery. Police kept the arrangements secret to keep sightseers away. The South Australian Grandstand Bookmakers Association paid for the burial service to save the man from a paupers burial. The Salvation Army conducted the burial service.
An inquest had been opened shortly after the body had been found and was adjourned. Three days after the burial, the inquest was resumed. The Coroner was unable to make any finding on the identification of the man, or the cause of death. The matter was further adjourned without coming to any conclusion. Indeed, the Coroner said that there was no absolute certainty that the man seen alive was the man found on the beach next morning, as nobody had seen his face during life.
The wide publicity given to all this brought some result. Soon after this, a doctor who lived at Glenelg came forward with a copy of the book 'Rubaiyat of Omar Kyam' and the last page of this book a piece had been torn out.
Although the scrap of paper bearing the words 'Tam Shud', which was found on the deceased, had been neatly cut around the edges, scientific tests proved that the scrap of paper did, in fact, come from the same book as that produced by the doctor. The Doctor told Police that he had found the book tossed on the front seat of his car when it was parked in front of his house on the 30th November. He had previously attached no importance to the finding of the book.
On examining the book Detectives found faint pencil markings on the back of the book. These appeared to be four cryptic lines of capital letters. Police thought that this may hold some clues, but although the letters were submitted to cypher and code experts, they could not find any solution. There were also what appeared to be telephone numbers in the back of the book, but enquiries along these lines brought no clues as to the identity of the man.
The last stanza in the book before the words 'Taman Shud' reads,
"And when yourself with silver foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scattered on the grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made One - turn down an empty glass!"
A number of questions remain intriguing and unsolved.
Who was this man and how did he die?
Why did he appear to make such efforts to
remain anonymous?
Did he die by his own hand and how?
Was he murdered and matters arranged as to make it appear that he had died by his own hand?
What manner of death was it that no clue remained?
Was a poison used which cunningly dissipated so that no trace of it remained
Why should a man in top physical condition want to die, if it should have been by his own hand? Was it an affair of the heart, or some other desperate problem that beset him?
It was the time of the Cold War and the Berlin Blockade. The Rocket Range was being established at Woomera. At that time one of world's top physicists was in Adelaide. It had been suggested that the man may have been involved in espionage, and may have been killed because of what he knew.
Was he an agent for a foreign power, a spy or an intelligence officer?
The circumstances surrounding this death were very usual, but is seems likely that he suicided. Did he inject himself with some obscure poison, or did he swallow it?
If that is so, we can only speculate and conjecture as to the state of his mind as he lodged that suitcase in the Adelaide Railway Station, and caught the bus to Glenelg, perhaps reading again that last stanza in the old Persian book of poems before he tossed it away.
"And when Yourself with silver Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scattered on the Grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty Glass!"
Will the mystery ever be unravelled, I wonder? Perhaps you and I as we pass this spot at Somerton may give him a thought, wonder again who he was, this man of mystery, this man with no past and "turn down an empty glass".
Footnote:
This address was given by Dorothy Pyatt at the SA Police Historical Society's meeting on 1 August 1997. Especially present was retired Chief Superintendent Len Brown, who with the late Lionel Leane, were the two detectives assigned to investigate the mystery of the Somerton Beach body.
Len congratulated Dorothy for such an accurate account of the events and went on to add his own thoughts and comments.
It is Len's belief that the man may have been destitute, the reason for not finding any money on the body. At that time he explained there were no Social Security benefits and the labels missing from some of the clothing may have been because they could have been from a charity store.
It was most probable that the deceased had intended to travel to Henley Beach, but on presumably missing the train, he placed the unused ticket in his pocket and then caught a bus to Glenelg, where he walked to Somerton and committed suicide by swallowing an unknown poison which dissipated in the body before the autopsy was conducted. In those days Len explained the procedures were not as they are today and the autopsy was not held until several days after the deceased had been found.
Len also explained that he believed that the man may have come from a country in the Communist Eastern Block. At that time there were no communications between such counties and the western world and therefore a thorough check of the man's identity could not be made.
There is no doubt, however, that the deceased did make every effort to conceal his identity, which along with the cause of his death, still remains a mystery.
The police file is still maintained at Major Crime Task Force in the 'open files', and the bust of the deceased remains in the safe keeping of the Police Historical Society.
His fingerprints were distributed around the world, but recorded no match, and it has since been discovered that formalin used to embalm the body has destroyed all DNA. All police know is that his last meal was a pasty. Will this case ever reach Taman Shud?. or will he remain a mystery forever?
Detective Senior Sergeant Gerry Feltus (retired) has been delving into the mysterious circumstances of the Somerton man for more than a decade, mostly in his spare time.
He first became interested in the case when he was at boarding school at Somerton Park in 1956. During the winter, when it was too cold to swim, he would walk past the location where the body was found & the older people from the area would tell him about the guy who was murdered here
He has suggested that he may even write a book, outlining the facts of a case he first learnt about as a young detective working in Major Crime. His eyes light up when he talks about the case. He speaks of the conspiracy theories, the logic & the unknowns.
http://www.sapolicehistory.org/Oct07.html
STANDREID
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I can see some similarities between the two photos but I don't see this "mole" on either picture. Also contradicting the "finding" in my view; H.C. Reynolds appears to have a cleft in his chin where the deceased individual has none, in fact, his chin is definitively convex. I'm almost 67 and cleft in my chin looks the same as it did 65 years ago.
Agreed, clefts do not disappear. However, clefts may be more or less visible from different angles. I did some experiments with my chin when we discussed a match for Buckskin girl and it was clear that my cleft looks very different in different lights and from different angles. If the picture is not from the exact same angle I would not rule out a match on cleft alone.
I did a fast comparison of the positions of unknown man in the autopsy photo and in the identity card and if I take these positions. My cleft is almost invisible in the autopsy angle and very visible in the id-card position. That to me says that the cleft issue is not a big one.
DanInOz
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missgulfsouth
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Makara
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Does anyone see the similarity between the photo of H. C. Reynolds above and the image of below of Ernest Frank MICHAELSON? Note the date and place of birth, the description and also the date of naturalisation written in red in the top left hand corner.
Click images to enlarge.
Meet Ernest Frank GRANSKOG.
Note the date and place of birth and general description of GRANSKOG.
Now note the date of naturalisation for Ernest Frank GRANSKOG.
Is this in fact the same man? Why did he change his name? It seems he would have been in possession of two naturalisation certificates dated 24 May 1940. One in the name of MICHAELSON and another in the name of GRANSKOG. Was there an identity theft racket going on?
I've traced GRANSKOG through various records. He married and remained at Staffordshire Reef near Ballarat Vic. where he was a miner and later a shearer. He apparently died in 1993. What became of Ernest Frank MICHAELSON is unclear at this stage.
Makara
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Just a comparison of GRANSKOG and MICHAELSON against the morgue photo of the Somerton Man and the photo of H. C. Reynolds.
Click images to englarge.
Somerton Man
Granskog and Somerton Man.
Granskog and Somerton Man profile.
Michaelson and H. C. Reynolds.
Click images to englarge.
Somerton Man
Granskog and Somerton Man.
Granskog and Somerton Man profile.
Michaelson and H. C. Reynolds.
Makara
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The Barrier Mail (Broken Hill, NSW) Thursday 23 April 1953. Page 12
Police clue on beach death.
Adelaide: Detectives have a new clue to the Somerton Beach body riddle. A Cheltenham woman has told them she met a Norwegian, shoemaker, whose description checked with that of the dead man, at Kangaroo Island, 21 years ago.
The Norwegian (Charles Mikkelsen) was then employed at Jensen’s guest house, American River.
Detectives R. L. Leane, and L. Brown have been told that Mikkelsen often quoted the last verse, which ended with the words “Tamam Shud,” from the Rubaiyat” of Omar Khayyam.
A scrap of paper bearing those words, evidently torn from a copy of the “Rubaiyat”, was found in the Somerton body’s clothing.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/r...omm=&toyyyy=&l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*&sortby=
Could the tools found in the suitcase (assuming it belonged SM) have been used for making or repairing shoes? The waxed thread found in the case could well have been used to stitch leather etc. The only stumbling block I have with that suitcase is there was no claim ticket found on SM for the case. Bus and rail tickets yes, but nothing linking him to the suitcase. Strange!
I located the following record for Charles MIKKELSEN on the NAA site.
Click images to enlarge.
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx
MIKKELSEN Charles born 1902 - Nationality: Norwegian - Arrived Adelaide per Tancred 9 January 1932. Item barcode. 5511023
Whether this is in fact the same man that the Cheltenham woman met is unclear but I wanted to have a look at him anyway.
On 9th January 1932 this Charles Mikkelsen disembarked at Port Adelaide as a crew member aboard the ship Tancred, a Norwegian cargo ship. His port of entry papers state that he had been a resident of Australia between 1925 - 1930 and was now returning to settle in Australia permanently.
Charles Mikkelsen was described as:
Nationality: Norwegian.
Marital Status: Single.
DOB: 17th July 1902, Bausjorden, Norway.
Height 5 feet 10 inches.
Hair: Fair.
Eyes: Blue.
No distinguishing marks.
Occupation: Seaman
No relatives in Australia.
Friends: 1) T. Blee, Edward Street Paynham
2) Hicks, Armagh, Clare (my note - Clare Valley South Australia).
Permanent address abroad: Solberg-Villa, Solberg, Bergen, Norway
Proposed permanent address in Australia: c/- Mrs Jacka Marlborough Street, Brighton S.A.
Maintenance/employment guaranteed by: W. Brussler Merbein, Victoria.
Previously resided in Australia for five years.
Date of leaving Australia July 1930 from Melbourne.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate a photograph of Charles MIKKELSEN. Ironically his proposed permanent address of Marlborough Street Brighton is within walking distance of where SM was found dead 16 years later. I don't have access to the South Australian electoral rolls so it is difficult to track CM prior to and after his arrival back in Australia in 1932.
Click image to enlarge.
Police clue on beach death.
Adelaide: Detectives have a new clue to the Somerton Beach body riddle. A Cheltenham woman has told them she met a Norwegian, shoemaker, whose description checked with that of the dead man, at Kangaroo Island, 21 years ago.
The Norwegian (Charles Mikkelsen) was then employed at Jensen’s guest house, American River.
Detectives R. L. Leane, and L. Brown have been told that Mikkelsen often quoted the last verse, which ended with the words “Tamam Shud,” from the Rubaiyat” of Omar Khayyam.
A scrap of paper bearing those words, evidently torn from a copy of the “Rubaiyat”, was found in the Somerton body’s clothing.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/r...omm=&toyyyy=&l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*&sortby=
Could the tools found in the suitcase (assuming it belonged SM) have been used for making or repairing shoes? The waxed thread found in the case could well have been used to stitch leather etc. The only stumbling block I have with that suitcase is there was no claim ticket found on SM for the case. Bus and rail tickets yes, but nothing linking him to the suitcase. Strange!
I located the following record for Charles MIKKELSEN on the NAA site.
Click images to enlarge.
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx
MIKKELSEN Charles born 1902 - Nationality: Norwegian - Arrived Adelaide per Tancred 9 January 1932. Item barcode. 5511023
Whether this is in fact the same man that the Cheltenham woman met is unclear but I wanted to have a look at him anyway.
On 9th January 1932 this Charles Mikkelsen disembarked at Port Adelaide as a crew member aboard the ship Tancred, a Norwegian cargo ship. His port of entry papers state that he had been a resident of Australia between 1925 - 1930 and was now returning to settle in Australia permanently.
Charles Mikkelsen was described as:
Nationality: Norwegian.
Marital Status: Single.
DOB: 17th July 1902, Bausjorden, Norway.
Height 5 feet 10 inches.
Hair: Fair.
Eyes: Blue.
No distinguishing marks.
Occupation: Seaman
No relatives in Australia.
Friends: 1) T. Blee, Edward Street Paynham
2) Hicks, Armagh, Clare (my note - Clare Valley South Australia).
Permanent address abroad: Solberg-Villa, Solberg, Bergen, Norway
Proposed permanent address in Australia: c/- Mrs Jacka Marlborough Street, Brighton S.A.
Maintenance/employment guaranteed by: W. Brussler Merbein, Victoria.
Previously resided in Australia for five years.
Date of leaving Australia July 1930 from Melbourne.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate a photograph of Charles MIKKELSEN. Ironically his proposed permanent address of Marlborough Street Brighton is within walking distance of where SM was found dead 16 years later. I don't have access to the South Australian electoral rolls so it is difficult to track CM prior to and after his arrival back in Australia in 1932.
Click image to enlarge.
SapphireSteel
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It is generally agreed that Bevan Spencer Von Einem took the Beaumonts and Derek Percy was responsible for Wanda Beach.
One evil, evil, evil human being who unfortunately is still breathing the same air as me.
SapphireSteel
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You all know that South Australia was home to a top secret American army base back then?
There are still some here I believe.
There were rumours that Somerton Man was a Russian Spy.
The removed clothing tags and ID and crazy COD tends to support this whacky theory :moo:
There are still some here I believe.
There were rumours that Somerton Man was a Russian Spy.
The removed clothing tags and ID and crazy COD tends to support this whacky theory :moo:
Makara
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No, I didn't know that SapphireSteel. Do you have any links? I do know that there was a POW camp in South Australia. The Loveday camp held the largest number of internees during WW2. It closed in December 1946. One of my ancestors was held there for over two years even though he'd lived in QLD. Australia for over 30 years! Perhaps this is another avenue to explore in regard to Somerton Man. Was he an internee at Loveday, becoming an itinerant worker after the war? Did the so called 'code' originate at Loveday? There really are so many theories and possible angles with this case. It reminds me very much of the Bogle/Chandler case in Sydney in the '60's.
That case attracted instant publicity. It involved a high-society party, alleged wife-swapping, an unidentified third person at the death scene, and an unidentified poison. There was also speculation that Bogle was involved in research important in the Cold War.
The inquest in May 1963 did not help to resolve the mystery. The coroner, Mr. J. J. Loomes, concluded that Bogle and Chandler had died because of "...acute circulatory failure. But as to the circumstances under which such circulatory failure was brought about, the evidence does not permit me to say." In other words, he stated that Bogle and Chandler died either because their hearts stopped beating, or they stopped breathing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogle-Chandler_case
It has now been ascertained that Dr. Bogle and Mrs. Chandler died of hydrogen sulphide poisoning which was rising from a gas eruption from the riverbed further upstream from where they were found. This put to rest all of the spy theories that were circulating at the time and for many years later. It was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'm wondering if there were any drain outlets nearby to where SM was on the beach that may have released toxic gases at ground level. Carbon monoxide from buses and other vehicles may have been inhaled by SM, leaving him feeling like crap and eventually killing him. :twocents:
Makara
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It's a bit lonely in here at the moment, I feel like I'm talking to myself but this case has grabbed me, hook, line and sinker! :blushing:
I've been digging a little further in regard to one of the friends Charles Mikkelsen listed on his arrival declaration papers.
1. T. BLEE - Edward Street Paynham (sic). S.A.
CM also gave his address in Australia as
C/- Mrs. JACKA, Marlborough Street Brighton S.A.
I've found that T. Blee was Tom Blee and he was living at Edward Street Payneham S.A. in 1943. Tom was a gardener and poultry breeder. He was often called upon to judge poultry shows. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/r...ignore*&l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*&q="Tom+Blee"
Tom Blee died in 1951 at the age of 89. His wife Amelia died in 1961. So obviously they were both alive in 1948 when Somerton Man was found dead not far from where they lived. http://www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-databases.html
I discovered that Mrs. Jacka was in fact Tom Blee's daughter Beatrice who married Charles Jacka in 1913. Beatrice died in 1943 (at the age of 54), five years before Somerton Man died. Charles Jacka died in 1957 and I'm supposing that he continued to live at Marlborough Street Brighton. Did Charles Mikkelsen continue to visit the Jacka family? Tom and Amelia's youngest son (born in 1905) was close in age to SM and Beatrice would have been about 12 years older than him. Perhaps he regarded them as the next best thing to siblings as he did'nt have any family in Australia.
The fact that Tom Blee, his wife and also Charles Jacka were all alive when SM was found dead on the beach, I'd expect that if he was in fact Charles Mikkelsen they would have been able to identify him.
Oh well that was an interesting way to fill in a rainy afternoon.
I've been digging a little further in regard to one of the friends Charles Mikkelsen listed on his arrival declaration papers.
1. T. BLEE - Edward Street Paynham (sic). S.A.
CM also gave his address in Australia as
C/- Mrs. JACKA, Marlborough Street Brighton S.A.
I've found that T. Blee was Tom Blee and he was living at Edward Street Payneham S.A. in 1943. Tom was a gardener and poultry breeder. He was often called upon to judge poultry shows. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/r...ignore*&l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*&q="Tom+Blee"
Tom Blee died in 1951 at the age of 89. His wife Amelia died in 1961. So obviously they were both alive in 1948 when Somerton Man was found dead not far from where they lived. http://www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-databases.html
I discovered that Mrs. Jacka was in fact Tom Blee's daughter Beatrice who married Charles Jacka in 1913. Beatrice died in 1943 (at the age of 54), five years before Somerton Man died. Charles Jacka died in 1957 and I'm supposing that he continued to live at Marlborough Street Brighton. Did Charles Mikkelsen continue to visit the Jacka family? Tom and Amelia's youngest son (born in 1905) was close in age to SM and Beatrice would have been about 12 years older than him. Perhaps he regarded them as the next best thing to siblings as he did'nt have any family in Australia.
The fact that Tom Blee, his wife and also Charles Jacka were all alive when SM was found dead on the beach, I'd expect that if he was in fact Charles Mikkelsen they would have been able to identify him.
Oh well that was an interesting way to fill in a rainy afternoon.
SapphireSteel
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Wow @ Bogle/Chandler I had no idea that had been "solved"...how creepy if they did die by the hand of Mother Nature! Who knew that hanky panky by the creek could be fatal?
Here's the links for the US base here in Woomera -
The fact that the man died in Adelaide, the nearest capital city to Woomera, a top-secret missile launching and intelligence gathering site,[60] heightened this speculation. It was also recalled that one possible location from which the man may have travelled to Adelaide was Port Augusta,[10] a town relatively close to Woomera.
Additionally, in April 1947 the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service, as part of Operation Venona, discovered that there had been top secret material leaked from Australia's Department of External Affairs to the Soviet embassy in Canberra.[61] This led to a 1948 U.S. ban on the transfer of all classified information to Australia.[61]
As a response, the Australian government announced that it would establish a national secret security service (which became the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)).[62]
Taman Shud Case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I like this theory somehow...adds to the mystique. Far more glamorous than a returned sailor having tough times.
I personally don't think many men would poison themselves as a method of suicide.
Here's the links for the US base here in Woomera -
The fact that the man died in Adelaide, the nearest capital city to Woomera, a top-secret missile launching and intelligence gathering site,[60] heightened this speculation. It was also recalled that one possible location from which the man may have travelled to Adelaide was Port Augusta,[10] a town relatively close to Woomera.
Additionally, in April 1947 the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service, as part of Operation Venona, discovered that there had been top secret material leaked from Australia's Department of External Affairs to the Soviet embassy in Canberra.[61] This led to a 1948 U.S. ban on the transfer of all classified information to Australia.[61]
As a response, the Australian government announced that it would establish a national secret security service (which became the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)).[62]
Taman Shud Case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I like this theory somehow...adds to the mystique. Far more glamorous than a returned sailor having tough times.
I personally don't think many men would poison themselves as a method of suicide.
marlywings
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October 29, 2013
Professor's 15-year search for answers seeks to crack the secret code to the death of the 'Somerton man' found on an Adelaide beach
A PROFESSOR has spent 15 years trying to solve one of Australia's most baffling mysteries, which hinges on a coded message. Can you crack it?
But the book - with its missing back page - had a secret. Visible only under ultraviolet light, police found what looked like a code. It appeared to read:
WRGOABABD
MLIAOI
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB
The second line was struck out, and some letters were unclear at best.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...n-beach-mystery/story-fnii5yv5-1226674957043#
Professor's 15-year search for answers seeks to crack the secret code to the death of the 'Somerton man' found on an Adelaide beach
A PROFESSOR has spent 15 years trying to solve one of Australia's most baffling mysteries, which hinges on a coded message. Can you crack it?
But the book - with its missing back page - had a secret. Visible only under ultraviolet light, police found what looked like a code. It appeared to read:
WRGOABABD
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB
The second line was struck out, and some letters were unclear at best.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...n-beach-mystery/story-fnii5yv5-1226674957043#
marlywings
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October 29, 2013
An artist's impression of what the Unknown Man, whose body was discovered on Somerton Beach in 1948, might have looked like when he was alive
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/la...an-beach-mystery/story-fni0ffnk-1226674957043
An artist's impression of what the Unknown Man, whose body was discovered on Somerton Beach in 1948, might have looked like when he was alive
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/la...an-beach-mystery/story-fni0ffnk-1226674957043
Makara, my research confirms yours. Those people who knew Charles (Charlis) Mikkelsen in Australia probably did not bother to report to the police because Charles Mikkelsen was reported to have died when the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis captured the Norwegian ship M/S Tirranna on 22nd September 1940. The Tirranna had sailed from Melbourne bound for Mombassa and then to the UK. Charles Mikkelsen was a passenger and was killed, apparently while helping with the deck gun on the Tirranna. A shell from the Atlantis burst directly on the deck gun and the gun crew were killed.
His relatives in Norway were told of his death. But, in the fog of war, anything is possible. The matter is pregnant with possibilities.
His relatives in Norway were told of his death. But, in the fog of war, anything is possible. The matter is pregnant with possibilities.
Makara
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Hi and welcome to Websleuths. It's great to see you here. The information about the Charles Mikkelsen aboard the Tirranna is fascinating but how do we know it is the same guy who was living on Kangaroo Island S. A. in 1932? I haven't been able to locate any shipping records for him departing Australia aboard the Tirranna.
There is quite a lot of information about the bombing and capture of the Tirranna at the following link. A passenger named Charles MIKKELSEN is listed there as being a casualty.
http://www.warsailors.com/raidervictims/atlantis.html
We know that Charles MIKKELSEN was Norwegian, yet there are no Norwegian casualties mentioned in the article at the link below. Although it does state that one of Tirranna's passengers was also among the dead.
http://www.cumberlandscarrow.co.uk/...ww.cumberlandscarrow.co.uk/robertatlantis.htm
I did find the following article intriguing. It's very tempting to think that Charles MIKKELSEN survived the bombing of the Tirranna, spending some time in a French POW camp, then released in December 1940, kindly given clothing (with tags removed?) and eventually making his way back to Australia. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Were they in fact the same man?
The Daily News Perth - Wednesday 27 November 1940. Page. 1
MELBOURNE, Wednesday.
A further clue to the fate of the Norwegian motor ship Tirranna (7230 tons) which disappeared mysteriously in the Indian Ocean on a voyage from Melbourne to Mombasa (East Africa) was received in Melbourne today. The wives of two of the Norwegian passengers on board the Tirranna when she disappeared have received a message that their husbands are in a French prison camp. This confirms the earlier theories that the Tirranna had fallen a victim to an enemy raider. It is the first published news of the Tiranna since the motor vessel left Melbourne on May 30. It indicates that at least some, if not all, of the passengers and crew were taken off before the Tirranna was sunk by enemy action. The vessel had a crew of 60 Norwegians and 11 Norwegian passengers from N.S.W. and Queensland who were returning to Europe to join the colours after Germany's in vasion of Norway. She had a full general cargo and a large shipment of ambulances for the British forces. The wives of the imprisoned passengers received cryptic news of their husbands' safety through the International Red Cross.
BBM. (Bolded By Me).
Makara
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Thanks Marly. Professor Derek Abbott used to have a Facebook page with all things Somerton Man. It no longer exists unfortunately.
Click to enlarge.
I'm not really sure if this is a code at all and I'm by no means an expert on codes, spies or anything else for that matter. :blushing: Those letters could represent anything really. And there is no indication that Somerton Man actually owned that particular copy of the the Rubaiyat even though the piece of paper with the words Tamam Shud found on him matched that of the torn out piece.
Some things that strike me with the 'code' (for want of a better word) is the difference between some of the letters. It almost looks like it was written by two different hands.
Compare the letter B in the lines above the X to those below the X. The B's at the top are well rounded, where the B's in the bottom lines have a curl at the end of them. The last three letters of the last line seem to have been written with quite a flourish.
Now look at the letter A in the top lines above the X. The horizontal stroke is contained within the vertical strokes of the A, all except for the A in the line that has been crossed out. (Or is it in fact underlined?). Compare them to the letter A in the last two lines. These A's have a horizontal stroke going outside of the vertical lines of the A.
The first line of lettering under the X looks to be a re-write of the second line that is crossed out or underlined. Perhaps the letters MLIABO (with the X above it) could be MAILBOX? Then again, they could mean anything! On that same line of lettering there is the letter Q. The only time it appears in this mess of letters. Justyn's husband's first wife was Queenie, although I don't think she figures in the life or death of SM but it does make me wonder what the Q stands for. The letter after the Q looks more like a symbol of some kind rather than the letter C.
The first letter in the last line looks to be a ditto symbol. Every line of lettering begins with the letter M (some think it is a W) and I'm surmising that the author simply used two strokes to infer ditto.
Also in the last line is what initially looks to be the letter S (the second S) but a closer looks reminds me of the number 7 as written by Europeans. The fact that police went over these faint letters to enhance them could also mean that the real meaning has been lost forever.
Click to enlarge.
Having said all that, I believe the letters of the 'code' are in fact acronyms of a poem. And there was a poet mentioned in this case. More on him later.
7 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia