Post by Sediba on Dec 16, 2016 21:25:13 GMT 10
The Facts:
On 30-Nov-1948, with the cold war in full swing, a man walked down onto Somerton beach, 11 kilometres south-west of Adelaide, South Australia. He laid down.
Around 19:00, a couple observed the man, and after a while he raised his right arm to it's fullest extent and then dropped it limply. Another couple observed the man from 19:30 until 20:00, during which the street lights came on. They never saw him move, tho they had the impression that his position had changed.
At 06:30 the next morning the body of a man was found on the beach in the same position as witnesses had observed the night before. According to the pathologist, Sir John Burton Cleland, emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide, the man was of "Britisher" appearance and thought to be aged about 40–45; he was in "top physical condition". He was "180 centimetres (5 ft 11 in) tall, with hazel eyes, fair to ginger-coloured hair, slightly grey around the temples, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, hands and nails that showed no signs of manual labour, big and little toes that met in a wedge shape, like those of a dancer or someone who wore boots with pointed toes; and pronounced high calf muscles like those of a ballet dancer.
These can be dominant genetic traits, and they are also a characteristic of many middle and long-distance runners. It was not positively known if it was the same man as the night before, as no witness had observed his face.
He was dressed in "quality clothing" consisting of a white shirt, red and blue tie, brown trousers, socks and shoes and, although it had been a hot day and very warm night, a brown knitted pullover and fashionable grey and brown double-breasted jacket. All labels on his clothes had been removed, and he had no hat (unusual for 1948) or wallet. Clean-shaven and with no distinguishing marks, the man carried no identification, which led police to believe he had committed suicide. His teeth did not match the dental records of any known person in Australia.
An autopsy was conducted, and the pathologist estimated the time of death at around 2 a.m. on 1 December.
"The heart was of normal size, and normal in every way ...small vessels not commonly observed in the brain were easily discernible with congestion. There was congestion of the pharynx, and the gullet was covered with whitening of superficial layers of the mucosa with a patch of ulceration in the middle of it. The stomach was deeply congested...There was congestion in the 2nd half of the duodenum. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. Both kidneys were congested, and the liver contained a great excess of blood in its vessels. ...The spleen was strikingly large ... about 3 times normal size ... there was destruction of the centre of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. ... acute gastritis hemorrhage, extensive congestion of the liver and spleen, and the congestion to the brain."
The autopsy showed that the man's last meal was a pasty (a horrible english pie ... the only way to eat it is to plaster it with vegemite) eaten three to four hours before death, but tests failed to reveal any foreign substance in the body. The pathologist Dr. Dwyer concluded: "I am quite convinced the death could not have been natural ... the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic". Although poisoning remained a prime suspicion, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison. Other than that, the coroner was unable to reach a conclusion as to the man's identity, cause of death,
Scotland Yard was called in to assist with the case but with little result. Wide circulation in the world of a photograph of the man and details of his fingerprints yielded no positive identification.
The body was embalmed on 10 December 1948 after the police were unable to get a positive identification. The police said this was the first time they knew that such action was needed. The embalming most probably destroyed all DNA.
The man was found lying in the sand across from the Crippled Children's Home, which was on the corner of The Esplanade and Bickford Terrace. He was lying back with his head resting against the seawall, his legs were extended and his feet crossed. It was believed he had died while sleeping. An unlit cigarette was behind his ear and a half-smoked cigarette was on the right collar of his coat, held in position by his cheek. A search of his pockets revealed an unused second-class rail ticket from the city to Henley Beach, a used bus ticket from the city, a narrow aluminium American comb, a half-empty packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, an Army Club cigarette packet containing Kensitas cigarettes, and a quarter-full box of Bryant & May matches. His teeth did not match the dental records of any known person in Australia.
It is not known if the Kensitas cigarettes were the original cigarettes in the Army Club packet.
The day after, 2-Dec-1948, The main newspaper reported that the man's body was that of E.C. Johnson, about 45, of Arthur St, Payneham.
The day after that, On 3-Dec-1948, E.C. Johnson walked into a police station to identify himself as living and was eliminated as a possibility for the dead man's identity. On that same day another Adelaide newspaper ran a picture of the dead man that led to many more possible identifications from the public.
On 4-Dec-1948 the police announced that the man's fingerprints were not on record in South Australia.
On 5-Dec-1948, The newspaper reported that police were searching through military records after a man claimed to have had a drink with a man resembling the dead man at a hotel in Glenelg (Somerton Beach) on 13 November. During their drinking session, the mystery man supposedly produced a military pension card bearing the name "Solomonson".
By Feb-1949 all 'positive' identifications by the public had been eliminated.
On 14-Jan-1949, staff at the Adelaide railway station discovered a brown suitcase with its label removed, which has been checked into the station cloakroom after 11:00 a.m. on 30 November 1948. It was believed that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach. In the case were a red checked dressing gown; a size seven, red felt pair of slippers; four pairs of underpants; pyjamas; shaving items; a light brown pair of trousers with sand in the cuffs; an electrician's screwdriver; a table knife cut down into a short sharp instrument; a pair of scissors with sharpened points; and a stencilling brush, as used by third officers on merchant ships for stencilling cargo.
Also in the suitcase was a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of "an unusual type" not available in Australia—it was the same as that used to repair the lining in a pocket of the trousers the dead man was wearing. All identification marks on the clothes had been removed but police found the name "T. Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag and "Kean" (without the last e) on a singlet, along with three dry-cleaning marks; 1171/7, 4393/7 and 3053/7. Police believed that whoever removed the clothing tags purposefully left the "Keane" tags on the clothes, knowing Keane was not the dead man's name. It has since been noted that the "Keane" tags were the only ones that could not have been removed without damaging the clothing.
Police checked incoming train records and believed the man had arrived by overnight train from either Melbourne, Sydney or Port Augusta. They believed he then showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50 train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed or did not catch. After returning from the city baths, he checked in his suitcase at the station cloak room before catching a bus to Glenelg.
A coroner's inquest into the death, conducted by coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland, commenced a few days after the body was found but was adjourned until 17 June 1949. The investigating pathologist Sir John Burton Cleland re-examined the body and made a number of discoveries.
Cleland noted that the man's shoes were remarkably clean and appeared to have been recently polished, rather than being in the state expected of the shoes of a man who had apparently been wandering around Glenelg all day. He added that this evidence fitted in with the theory that the body might have been brought to Somerton beach after the man's death, accounting for the lack of evidence of vomiting and convulsions, the two main effects of poison.
No cause for the man's death was found tho it was believed he was poisoned by either digitalis or ouabain, a poison used by hunter gatherer tribes on arrow tips.
Sewn into a fob pocket on the inner side of the man's trousers was a piece of paper with the words 'Taman Shud'.
On 30-Nov-1948, with the cold war in full swing, a man walked down onto Somerton beach, 11 kilometres south-west of Adelaide, South Australia. He laid down.
Around 19:00, a couple observed the man, and after a while he raised his right arm to it's fullest extent and then dropped it limply. Another couple observed the man from 19:30 until 20:00, during which the street lights came on. They never saw him move, tho they had the impression that his position had changed.
At 06:30 the next morning the body of a man was found on the beach in the same position as witnesses had observed the night before. According to the pathologist, Sir John Burton Cleland, emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide, the man was of "Britisher" appearance and thought to be aged about 40–45; he was in "top physical condition". He was "180 centimetres (5 ft 11 in) tall, with hazel eyes, fair to ginger-coloured hair, slightly grey around the temples, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, hands and nails that showed no signs of manual labour, big and little toes that met in a wedge shape, like those of a dancer or someone who wore boots with pointed toes; and pronounced high calf muscles like those of a ballet dancer.
These can be dominant genetic traits, and they are also a characteristic of many middle and long-distance runners. It was not positively known if it was the same man as the night before, as no witness had observed his face.
He was dressed in "quality clothing" consisting of a white shirt, red and blue tie, brown trousers, socks and shoes and, although it had been a hot day and very warm night, a brown knitted pullover and fashionable grey and brown double-breasted jacket. All labels on his clothes had been removed, and he had no hat (unusual for 1948) or wallet. Clean-shaven and with no distinguishing marks, the man carried no identification, which led police to believe he had committed suicide. His teeth did not match the dental records of any known person in Australia.
An autopsy was conducted, and the pathologist estimated the time of death at around 2 a.m. on 1 December.
"The heart was of normal size, and normal in every way ...small vessels not commonly observed in the brain were easily discernible with congestion. There was congestion of the pharynx, and the gullet was covered with whitening of superficial layers of the mucosa with a patch of ulceration in the middle of it. The stomach was deeply congested...There was congestion in the 2nd half of the duodenum. There was blood mixed with the food in the stomach. Both kidneys were congested, and the liver contained a great excess of blood in its vessels. ...The spleen was strikingly large ... about 3 times normal size ... there was destruction of the centre of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. ... acute gastritis hemorrhage, extensive congestion of the liver and spleen, and the congestion to the brain."
The autopsy showed that the man's last meal was a pasty (a horrible english pie ... the only way to eat it is to plaster it with vegemite) eaten three to four hours before death, but tests failed to reveal any foreign substance in the body. The pathologist Dr. Dwyer concluded: "I am quite convinced the death could not have been natural ... the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic". Although poisoning remained a prime suspicion, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison. Other than that, the coroner was unable to reach a conclusion as to the man's identity, cause of death,
Scotland Yard was called in to assist with the case but with little result. Wide circulation in the world of a photograph of the man and details of his fingerprints yielded no positive identification.
The body was embalmed on 10 December 1948 after the police were unable to get a positive identification. The police said this was the first time they knew that such action was needed. The embalming most probably destroyed all DNA.
The man was found lying in the sand across from the Crippled Children's Home, which was on the corner of The Esplanade and Bickford Terrace. He was lying back with his head resting against the seawall, his legs were extended and his feet crossed. It was believed he had died while sleeping. An unlit cigarette was behind his ear and a half-smoked cigarette was on the right collar of his coat, held in position by his cheek. A search of his pockets revealed an unused second-class rail ticket from the city to Henley Beach, a used bus ticket from the city, a narrow aluminium American comb, a half-empty packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, an Army Club cigarette packet containing Kensitas cigarettes, and a quarter-full box of Bryant & May matches. His teeth did not match the dental records of any known person in Australia.
It is not known if the Kensitas cigarettes were the original cigarettes in the Army Club packet.
The day after, 2-Dec-1948, The main newspaper reported that the man's body was that of E.C. Johnson, about 45, of Arthur St, Payneham.
The day after that, On 3-Dec-1948, E.C. Johnson walked into a police station to identify himself as living and was eliminated as a possibility for the dead man's identity. On that same day another Adelaide newspaper ran a picture of the dead man that led to many more possible identifications from the public.
On 4-Dec-1948 the police announced that the man's fingerprints were not on record in South Australia.
On 5-Dec-1948, The newspaper reported that police were searching through military records after a man claimed to have had a drink with a man resembling the dead man at a hotel in Glenelg (Somerton Beach) on 13 November. During their drinking session, the mystery man supposedly produced a military pension card bearing the name "Solomonson".
By Feb-1949 all 'positive' identifications by the public had been eliminated.
On 14-Jan-1949, staff at the Adelaide railway station discovered a brown suitcase with its label removed, which has been checked into the station cloakroom after 11:00 a.m. on 30 November 1948. It was believed that the suitcase was owned by the man found on the beach. In the case were a red checked dressing gown; a size seven, red felt pair of slippers; four pairs of underpants; pyjamas; shaving items; a light brown pair of trousers with sand in the cuffs; an electrician's screwdriver; a table knife cut down into a short sharp instrument; a pair of scissors with sharpened points; and a stencilling brush, as used by third officers on merchant ships for stencilling cargo.
Also in the suitcase was a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of "an unusual type" not available in Australia—it was the same as that used to repair the lining in a pocket of the trousers the dead man was wearing. All identification marks on the clothes had been removed but police found the name "T. Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag and "Kean" (without the last e) on a singlet, along with three dry-cleaning marks; 1171/7, 4393/7 and 3053/7. Police believed that whoever removed the clothing tags purposefully left the "Keane" tags on the clothes, knowing Keane was not the dead man's name. It has since been noted that the "Keane" tags were the only ones that could not have been removed without damaging the clothing.
Police checked incoming train records and believed the man had arrived by overnight train from either Melbourne, Sydney or Port Augusta. They believed he then showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50 train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed or did not catch. After returning from the city baths, he checked in his suitcase at the station cloak room before catching a bus to Glenelg.
A coroner's inquest into the death, conducted by coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland, commenced a few days after the body was found but was adjourned until 17 June 1949. The investigating pathologist Sir John Burton Cleland re-examined the body and made a number of discoveries.
Cleland noted that the man's shoes were remarkably clean and appeared to have been recently polished, rather than being in the state expected of the shoes of a man who had apparently been wandering around Glenelg all day. He added that this evidence fitted in with the theory that the body might have been brought to Somerton beach after the man's death, accounting for the lack of evidence of vomiting and convulsions, the two main effects of poison.
No cause for the man's death was found tho it was believed he was poisoned by either digitalis or ouabain, a poison used by hunter gatherer tribes on arrow tips.
Sewn into a fob pocket on the inner side of the man's trousers was a piece of paper with the words 'Taman Shud'.