Taman Shud

[harry]

Ausgirl,
You can only buy direct from the author.Both his home address and email address is available on the net.
Regards.

[harry]

A recent article in an Adelaide,Australia newspaper,suggests that the identity of the man found dead on the beach at Somerton, South Australia,in 1948,may have been solved.A woman searching through photos and documents belonging to her father,discovered an American seaman's identity card, number 58757,issued to a H.C.Reynolds,of British nationality,aged 18.The date 28 February 1918 is stamped in the aged section.A photo of Reynolds is printed on the card.A professor of Anthropological and Comparitive Anotomy,respected as an expert in the field,has reportedly declared the photo on the seaman's identity card matches that of the dead man,and that it is of the same person.

[louisa]

The original post mentions Omar Khayyam’s ‘The Rubaiyat’

This has a connection with the Titanic because it was said that a rare copy was on the ship when it went down.

(Just thought I'd mention it)

[sdreid]

Jason,
Some time ago I did make mention of the Somerton man on these boards.I live in Adelaide,and quite recently the case was aired in the local paper,'The Advertiser'.I have studied the case,and there are some avenues,if followed ,might yet produce results.One particular mistake when reproducing the code,is to suggest that all of it was written in block capitals.My impression is that the last three letters are in script,signifying that he added his signature at the end of a message.G.A.B.
I'll email it if you are interested.I go along with the first impressions of the police that the man was a sailor.
Regards.

I saw that over on Websleuths Harry and was going to mention it here but my cookies got disenabled. Where's the beef though?

[The Bounder]

This is a classic case, there are also some peculiar unsolved murders which surround the Rubyiat and this case as well.

Joseph George Saul Haim Marshall, younger brother of Chief Minister of Singapore David Saul Marshall, was discovered dead poisoned with barbiturates. Next to his body lay a first edition copy of the Rubaiyat, which those words Taman Shud had been cut from. Thirteen days after the inquest into his death the only witnesses to Mr Marshall’s suspicious death, Gwenneth Dorothy Graham, turned up dead herself, drowned, face down in a bath with her wrists slashed open.

There's the peculiar business of Keith Mangnoson and his son.

[Chris]

John Ruffels kindly suggested I should make people aware of this petition calling for an exhumation, so that an attempt can be made to identify the "Somerton Man":

https://www.change.org/petitions/solve-the-taman-shud-mystery-by-identifying-somerton-man

Background information on the case is available here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerton_Beach_mystery

[The Good Michael]

The copy of the Rubiyat was in Persian? Is that correct? Tamam Shud means: It is Ended, in Farsi, so that isn't really a mystery I think. Who ended the man's life and why? I imagine the killer spoke Farsi if he knew which page and which words to cut out. It is interesting that this death would have occurred about the time the Shah of Iran's leadership was becoming sorely tested and the same time he divorced his Egyptian wife, or she him.

Mike

[Chris]

The copy of the Rubiyat was in Persian? Is that correct?

No, it was Edward Fitzgerald's version, which includes the phrase "Tamam Shud" at the end.

[Magpie]

Don't know if this has appeared before, but it looks interesting:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/is-british-seamans-identity-card-clue-to-solving-63-year-old-beach-body-mystery/story-e6frea6u-1226200076344

[sdreid]

Thanks Magpie - that's intriguing and I noticed the ears before I even read the article. That said, I don't see any mole in either picture so what's that about? Also, the deceased man looks older than 48 to me but maybe I'm confusing what 48 looks like now compared to 64 year ago. I suppose the next thing to check is if H.C. Reynolds is missing. If it is Mr. Reynolds, it still doesn't solve what or who killed him among other things.

[Chris]

Some interesting new developments, with the woman in the case being publicly identified and comments from her daughter, daughter-in-law and granddaughter (the last of whom believes she may also be the granddaughter of the Somerton Man and is requesting that his remains be exhumed for DNA testing):

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8759245

[sdreid]

Does she give the man a name Chris?

[Chris]

Does she give the man a name Chris?

No. The suggestion is that the woman (now dead) was spying for the Soviet Union, but the best prospect for identifying the man seemed to be that DNA analysis could give an indication of where in the world he came from.

[RivkahChaya]

It's terribly morbid of me, but one of the most interesting things about living in the 21st century is seeing all these historical mysteries solved-- Anastasia, maybe this one now, Richard III, and lots of lesser known, but decades old cold cases.

[Chris]

Strangely enough it seems to be becoming a political issue now (at state level), with the opposition Liberals suggesting they would support an exhumation:

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/liberals-we-will-exhume-somerton-mans-body-in-bid-to-identify-him/story-fnii5yv4-1226772120068