He married Eliza Amelia Morris Grace (died in 1946) in 1892 and opened a bakery in Springvale, Victoria. Is climate change killing Australian wine? You may want to read Twitters cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. Professor Abbott said after more than a decade on the case, the discovery felt like summitting a mountain. The 5-foot-11, 40- to 50-year-old man carried no money or identification. [75] Lying next to him was his unconscious father, Keith Waldemar Mangnoson. CNN . [24] He immediately checked his suitcase at the station cloak room before leaving the station and catching a city bus to Glenelg. During their drinking session, the mystery man supposedly produced a military pension card bearing the name "Solomonson". Tucked inside the watch pocket in his pants was a slip of paper with Persian words printed on it which meant "finished.". [34], Early in the inquiry, Cleland stated, "I would be prepared to find that he died from poison, that the poison was probably a glucoside and that it was not accidentally administered; but I cannot say whether it was administered by the deceased himself or by some other person. The Somerton man mystery began in the early hours of December 1, 1948, when beachgoers found a body lying on Somerton beach in Adelaide. However, the police did state that the body was consistent with that of a man who had been a wood cutter, although the state of the man's hands indicated he had not cut wood for at least eighteen months. The Somerton Man had his prints taken a couple of days after he was found and a few weeks later they were forwarded to all the English speaking countries: Scotland Yard, The RCMP (Canada), the FBI, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, then the mammoth task of sending copies to every police station in Australia. [11] They speculated he had showered and shaved at the adjacent City Baths (although there was no Baths ticket on his body) before returning to the railway station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50a.m. train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he did not board. The body of a man found on a South Australian beach more than 70 years ago has been exhumed in the hope of solving one of the country's most intriguing mysteries. Advertising Notice [note 2] Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane, who led the initial investigation, often protected the privacy of witnesses in public statements by using pseudonyms;[14] Leane referred to the man who found the book by the pseudonym "Ronald Francis" and he has never been officially identified. [94] The remains were deeper in the ground than previously thought. [53], Thomson also said that while she was working at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney during World War II,[42] she had owned a copy of Rubaiyat. [81], Years after the burial, flowers began appearing on the grave. [20] Although named "City Baths", the centre was not a public bathing facility, but rather a public swimming pool. Although it was a very common practice to use name tags, it was also common when buying secondhand clothing to remove the tags of the previous owners. He had no money or identification on him, the labels in his clothing were cut off, and his minimal possessions yielded no clues. By then, Dorothy had moved from Melbourne to Bute, a town 89 miles northeast of Adelaide. Some observers cited the code found on his copy of The Rubiyt, as well as the apparent attempts to mask his identity, as evidence that he was a Russian spy. [27], Around the same time as the inquest, a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words "Tamm Shud" printed on it was found in a fob pocket sewn within the dead man's trouser pocket. And. A researcher in the case of the Somerton Man says he has solved the decades-old mystery, identifying the figure as a Melbourne-born electrical engineer. Read about our approach to external linking. Despite repeated requests for an exhumation, the . You really kind of narrow it down so much it could be any one of Carls siblingsbut Carl is the one with no documented death.. Video, 00:02:36Who killed 'Little Red Riding Hood'? The Somerton Man's fingerprints were sent around the world, but no one could identify him. The parties interested in the analysis agreed to cover the costs. The tree included about 4,000 people when that happened.. All rights reserved. 1994: The Chief Justice of Victoria, John Harber Phillips, studies the evidence and concludes that poisoning was due to digitalis. After finding a match to a distant cousin, the researchers constructed a family tree of some 4,000 people. [79], J. M. Gower, secretary of the Largs North Progress Association, received anonymous phone calls threatening that Mrs. Mangnoson would meet with an accident if he interfered while A. H. Curtis, the acting mayor of Port Adelaide, received three anonymous phone calls threatening "an accident" if he "stuck his nose into the Mangnoson affair". Australian guilty in 'Claremont serial killings' case, Why science could free Australian 'serial killer', Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, Explosion derails train in Russian border region. All that could be garnered from the suitcase was that the front gusset and featherstitching on a coat found in the case indicated it had been manufactured in the United States. [64] A third person, James Mack, also viewed the body, initially could not identify it, but an hour later he contacted police to claim it was Walsh. Derek Abbott was able to analyse the Somerton Man's DNA using hairs preserved when authorities made a plaster model of his face. ), Carl 'Charles' Webb's prisoner-of-war brother bears resemblance to Somerton Man https://t.co/c7KcGhtiuI. They included a suitcase, more items of clothing with their labels removed, and incoherent writings believed to be a code. Australia Exhumes the Somerton Man, and His 70-Year Mystery This week the police disinterred a body, found on a beach in 1948, that has puzzled investigators for decades. He had a sister who lived in Melbourne and was married to a man named Thomas Keanelikely the T. Keane whose name appears on the clothing in the Somerton Mans suitcase. The man was well-built, about 40 to 50 years old, 5. Now Australian scientists are close to solving the mystery By Hilary Whiteman, CNN Updated 10:42 PM EDT, Mon May 31, 2021 Link Copied! stationed in Australia. And I would like to find out what happened to Dorothy," she told CNN. That's most likely what brought him to Adelaide, the professor said. Abbott speculates that Carl had may have gone to Adelaide intending to find her. The case has long baffled detectives and amateur sleuths, and is regarded as one of Australia's most enduring mysteries because of strange clues linked to it, including a suspected code and a book of Persian poems. [14], According to the pathologist, John Burton Cleland, the man was of "Britisher" appearance and thought to be aged about 4045; he was in "top physical condition". Taman Shud Case, also called the Mystery of the Somerton Man, is an unsolved criminal case about a man who never had his name and origin discovered, found dead on December 1, 1948, on the beach at Somerton, city of Adelaide, Australia. Late 1946: Harkness moves to Mentone to temporarily live with her parents. 26 July 2022: Derek Abbott announces that his DNA analysis has identified the man as Carl "Charles" Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker born in Melbourne in 1905. Mystery of Somerton man's identity solved after 73 years, researchers in Australia say This week Prof Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide claimed to have identified Somerton man as. In 1949, a pathologist had found a bit of paper concealed in one of the dead man's pockets, and on it were printed the words Tamm Shud, the Persian for "finished." We still dont know who he is, or what he was doing. So possibly, he had come to track her down," he told the ABC. 614 June: The piece of paper bearing the inscription "Tamm Shud" is found in a concealed fob pocket. SA Police have been contacted for comment. The case is also known after the Persian phrase tamm shud (Persian: ),[note 1] meaning "is over" or "is finished", which was printed on a scrap of paper found months later in the fob pocket of the man's trousers. Police suspect the calls may be a hoax and the caller may be the same person who also terrorised a woman in a nearby suburb who had recently lost her husband in tragic circumstances. [11] In 2009 to 2011, Derek Abbott's team concluded that it was most likely that each letter was the first letter of a word. Lawson's diary entry for that day names her as "Mrs Thompson" and states that she had a "nice figure" and was "very acceptable" (referring to the level of attractiveness) which allows the possibility of an affair with the Somerton man. A suicide note perhaps? Plenty of questions surrounding the case remain: Why did Webb come to Somerton Beach? The Somerton Man was a mysterious, unknown decedent, found on Somerton Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, on December 1, 1948. In trying to solve the Somerton Man case, Abbott became part of it. A professor who has dedicated decades to solving one of Australia's most enduring mysteries claims he has d. He was slumped against a seawall, dressed in a suit and tie. However, the code's short length meant the investigators would require the exact edition of the book used. Johnson identified himself at a police station. [3][4] South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not verified the result, but South Australia Police said they were "cautiously optimistic" about it. His identity has never been determined, but there are several theories about his origin. [14], After the inquest, a plaster cast was made of the man's head and shoulders. One of the biggest mysteries in modern Australian history may have finally been solved. [note 6] The father was taken to a hospital in a very weak condition, suffering from exposure;[75] following a medical examination, he was transferred to a mental hospital. Mystery of dead man on beach: was he a Victorian? ), Others posited that the Somerton Man was a former professional ballet dancer, drawing on the coroners comment that his calf muscles were high and well developed, such as found in women, and suggestion that he had been in the habit of wearing high-heeled and pointed shoes., Perhaps the most convincing theory centered on Thomsons son Robin, whose distinctive ears and teeth closely resembled the Somerton Mans. But a number of curious items found on the body encouraged ongoing speculation. Meilan Solly 10 p.m.11 p.m.: Estimated time he had eaten a pasty based on time of death. August 1945: Jessica Harkness gives Alf Boxall an inscribed copy of. Though the state coroner has yet to confirm the pairs findings, Abbott tells the Guardians Natasha May that as a scientist, he is confident in the accuracy of the analysis. [80] International circulation of a photograph of the man and details of his fingerprints yielded no positive identification. [42] In his book on the case, Gerry Feltus stated that when he interviewed Thomson in 2002, he found that she was either being "evasive" or she "just did not wish to talk about it". 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. Beachgoers found the body lying against a seawall on Somerton Beach in Adelaide on 1 December, 1948. When the bakery closed down, Carl retrained as an electrical instrument maker. (As for the American origins of the attire, Abbott speculates that Keane bought the clothing second-hand from a G.I. [21], An autopsy was conducted, and the pathologist estimated the time of death at around 2 am on 1 December.[15]. The site at tamamshud.blogspot.com shows exactly how it was uncovered and gives the precise methodology so that anyone can test it for themselves. 16 October 1912: Prosper Thomson is born in central Queensland. Kate Thomson opposed the exhumation as being disrespectful to her brother. The spleen was strikingly large about 3 times normal size there was destruction of the centre of the liver lobules revealed under the microscope. Fitzpatrick said the DNA evidence disproves any genetic relationship with Robin Thomson, and therefore Abbotts own wife Robin Thomsons daughter, Rachel Egan whom Abbott met during investigations. They found that the Somerton Man belonged to haplogroup H4a1a1a, possessed by only 1% of Europeans. [101][102] The family has a painting of the Somerton man hanging in their home, believing him to be family. Although the last character in this line of text looks like an "L", it is fairly clear on closer inspection of the image that this is formed from an "I" and the extension of the line used to delete or underline that line of text. [72] A seaman named Tommy Reade from the SSCycle, in port at the time, was thought to be the dead man, but after some of his shipmates viewed the body at the morgue, they stated categorically that the corpse was not that of Reade. The Somerton man mystery began in the early hours of December 1, 1948, when beachgoers found a body lying on Somerton beach in Adelaide. The railway station bathing facilities were adjacent to the station cloak room, which itself was adjacent to the station's southern exit onto North Terrace. Another couple who saw him from 7:30pm to 8pm, during which time the street lights had come on, recounted that they did not see him move during the half an hour in which he was in view, although they did have the impression that his position had changed. However, in July 1949, Boxall was found in Sydney and the final page of his copy of Rubaiyat (reportedly a 1924 edition published in Sydney) was intact, with the words "Tamam Shud" still in place. He was fond of poetry and wrote several poems of his own, "most of them on the subject of death, which he claims to be his greatest desire", Dorothy stated.