Taman Shud

[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 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.

[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?

[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)

[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.

[harry]

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

[Ausgirl]

Thank you, Harry. I'll try to hunt up a copy.

[harry]

Earlier this year I purchased a copy of the book,'The unknown man',from the ex detective who wrote it.I also,at his suggestion,emailed my views to him after I had read the book.Although the top toxicologists could find no evidence of poison,the view that he was poisoned still prevails.It is not my view.As to the code written on the page of the Tamun Shud book,it is revealed in the book that the pencilled words had faded considerably,and my suggeston is that it was too old to have any relation to the man's presence at Somerton.I still have the conviction that the man was or had been a sailor.I have put out one or two messages on the internet as to missing sailors from ships off the eastern states of Australian ports during late 1948,but so far no luck.To anyone who may be interested,I believe an exhaustive search through Australian Customs and Immigration authorities,and also British shipping companies and shipping unions might produce a list of missing seamen.Health and age prevents my doing any worthwhile research.The book 'The unknown man'can be puschased from the author.It is written by a person who knew his job,gives valuable information not available from any other source,and is well worth the price of purchase

[Ausgirl]

This case is incredibly fascinating.

One thing that gave me a shiver, for some reason, was the copy of The Rubaiyat from which the cut-out words came being found by a man in the back of his unlocked car - and another uncut copy found on the same day, by another man in the back of his unlocked car. Curiouser and curiouser!

A dead man, an unsolvable code, a mystery woman, a bastard child, a book of poems... It's like a Dan Brown novel. Only - not that badly written.

I had to blink at a footnote in the Wikipedia article on the case:

The taxidermist who made the plaster cast testified at the inquest that he assumed the Somerton man had been in the habit of wearing high-heeled pointed shoes as both physical traits were found predominantly in women. Police had earlier investigated if he had been a stockman in Queensland based on the same traits.

I imagined a bunch of drovers mincing about in stiletto heels, a la Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Have any of you who were looking into this found/surmised anything?

[jason_c]

A weird aspect of the case for me was the removal of tags from the deceased's clothing, or the removal of most of them anyway. The tie had the nameof Keane written on it i think.

[sdreid]

I believe that pocket is generally called a watch pocket in America and I have some pants that have this compartment and I have a watch to wear in it on rare occasions.

Curare has also been mentioned as a possible poison.

[Rubyretro]

With all the internal bleeding, I wonder if the man could have been poisoned with the anticoagulant warfarin which was an ingredient in rat poison in 1948.

I think that the poison was suggested as digitalis. Warfarin would have taken a few days to work, and have produced bleeding from the nose and gums.

I was fascinated to read that the man had incredibly unusual ears -and was it teeth (I can't remember !) ? Supposedly the woman's son had the same
particularities, after photographs..

What a shame that we can't judge for ourselves whether the last is true !
I'll take that bit with a pinch of salt.

The man has a look of my Hungarian friend...

[harry]

Stan,Jason,
I had a phone conversation today with the author of"The unknown man".He is a former state police detective who had some association with investigations at a latter date.I hope to soon receive his book.One thing he told me.It was not a secret pocket.It is what some know as a fob pocket,common at that time,and still in use today in certain makes of trousers.Situated near the waist band,and just to the right of the fly.It was overlooked but not hidden.
I'll hold further opinion till I have read the book ,but just this one observation.Why keep those two words?Possibly because he didn't know their meaning,and being curious,just detached and kept that small piece of paper with the idea of learning the meaning when a suitable occassion arose.If I am correct,that might imply that he was not,at the time of detaching the paper,considering suicide.
Regards,
Harry.

[sdreid]

With all the internal bleeding, I wonder if the man could have been poisoned with the anticoagulant warfarin which was an ingredient in rat poison in 1948.

[harry]

Jason,
If you go through the short you tube videos,I hadn't saw those before so thanks for the information,You will see a photo of the original message.It's the last three letters that appear to me to be a signature.They are joined,the others are not,and the B has an extended finish.It could be significant,as the army officers initials were A B.Alf Boxall.
Stan,
The assumption has always been that the dead man wrote the message,but that may not be.One might believe that he would have simply put the pencil back in his pocket through habit,but no writing implement was found.There is no doubt the book was in the possession of the dead man up untill it was thrown into the car,but is there a possibility that there was a third copy of the book which was not disclosed by the nurse and the officer.As you say they figure in it somewhere,and in a way that was not disclosed.
It was thought that the instruments signified a deck officer,possibly a third officer,but I would include a bosun.
As to the cause of death,I have a theory on that.He could have been a diabetic,who suffered a 'Hypo"and with no help,lapsed into a coma and died.My wife has twice been in that condition,but luckily I have been present and noticed the symptoms.
Jason's post has reawakened my interest,so Iwill attempt to put everything down on paper,as I see it.Will take time,there is a lot to say,but I think some of the 'Mystery" can be explained,and a way in which he might be identified.