Taman Shud

[sdreid]

Moving along to conjecture:

Could the man have been motioning the couple for help, to which they didn't respond, when they saw him raise his arm on the beach the evening before?

Could the man have been an athlete, like a wrestler, since he had a muscular build but bore no signs of physical labor, such as callouses?

Torn paper is sometimes used by spies to confirm identification.

The improvised sharp instruments remind me of something you'd see in a prison but nothing like a spy would carry.

The man's money, luggage and clothing indicated that he was above the class of a transient, that is unless they were acquired through thievery.

The woman's connection to the two men with the two like books is too much to be reasonably put down as coincidence. She gave one book to the known man and her phone number was in the book connected to the unknown deceased man.

[sdreid]

I suppose we can start off with what we know:

The man was an adult Caucasian male who was not Jewish.

He was alive at or near Somerton Beach on November 30 of 1948 and was dead there December 1, the next day.

We know many other things of course, like he was neatly dressed and in good physical condition, but those first two are the basics.

[jason_c]

Harry, if you could pm me further information I would appreciate it.

[sdreid]

Yes, I remember discussing this interesting case on here, possibly before crash. That occasion was the first I'd heard of it.

[harry]

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.

[jason_c]

A feature from todays Telegraph about 10 uncracked codes. First I have heard of this weird case.


10. Taman Shud. An unidentified male body was found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia in 1948 wearing a sweater and coat despite the hot day, carrying no identification. There were no clues as to his identity and dental records and fingerprints matched no living person. An autopsy discovered bizarre congestion, blood in the stomach and enlarged organs but no foreign substances. A suitcase found at the train station that may have belonged to the man contained a pair of trousers with a secret hidden pocket, which held a piece of paper torn from a book imprinted with the words “Taman Shud”. The paper was matched to a very rare copy of Omar Khayyam’s ‘The Rubaiyat’ that was found in the backseat of an unlocked vehicle and on the back of the book was scrawled five lines of capital letters that seem to be a code. To this day, the entire case remains one of Australia’s most bizarre mysteries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnPqlYPQ9lY&feature=related