Unraveling the Mysterious Death of the Somerton Man

The death of the Somerton Man, also known as the “Tamam Shud case”, is one of Australia’s most baffling unsolved mysteries. The story surrounding the unidentified man reads like something out of a thriller novel. With strange pieces of evidence, unreliable witnesses, and yes, even the discovery of a secret code, this case is infamous around the world.

Like most gruesome mysteries, this one begins with the discovery of a body.

Discovery on Somerton Beach

December 1^st, 1948 was a warm summer day in Southern Australia. At 6:30 am, a man walked along Somerton beach. He noticed another man laying in the sand with his feet crossed and his head resting against the sea wall. This seemed strange. The man in the sand was dressed too nicely to be sleeping on the beach. He was clean-shaven and wore a button down white shirt, a red, white, and blue tie, brown slacks, a brown knitted cardigan, socks, shoes, and a high-quality double-breasted jacket. When the man approached, he realized the well-dressed man in the sand was not sleeping at all. He was dead.

What the Police Found

The police arrived on the scene, an area of the beach just across from Esplanade and Bickford Terrance and just steps away from a Children’s Home. When they searched the dead man, they found a number of items including: an unused train ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach, an unused bus ticket, an American aluminum comb, a half pack of Juicy Fruit gum, an Army Club cigarette packet with seven non-Army Club brand cigarettes inside, and a half-used box of matches. An unlit cigarette lay on the right collar of the man’s coat. He had no wallet and carried no identification. This led the police to believe the unknown man committed suicide. One more unusual thing did stand out, though. All of the labels on the man’s clothing had been removed.

The Autopsy

With the hopes that an autopsy would provide more clues toward solving the case, the findings only created more questions than provided answers.

The pathologist noted that the man looked British and estimated that he was between 40-45 in age. He had grey eyes and fair, ginger hair. He also commented that the man was in “top physical condition”. The man’s physique resembled that of a ballet dancer. His features included: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, “pronounced high calf muscles”, big and little toes that were shaped like a wedge (i.e like someone who wore boots or shoes with high heels), and delicate hands and nails that did not show signs of manual labor.

The Somerton Man’s heart appeared to be normal in every way; however, there were multiple signs of “congestion” throughout his body including small vessels in his brain, pharynx, duodenum, kidneys, and spleen. The autopsy also indicated the man’s last meal was a pasty; however there was blood mixed with the food in his stomach. The pathologist determined that the Somerton Man could not have died from natural causes. The likely cause of death was poison, though they could not find any trace of it. The estimated time of death was December 1st, 2:00 am.

Witnesses

Police had no choice but to appeal to the public for information. What the public offered; however, wasn’t especially helpful. Many came forward and confirmed that they had seen someone resembling the dead man lying on his back in the same spot near the Children’s home the evening of November 30^th.

One couple reported to have seen the man at 7:00 pm, and advised that they saw him moved his arm. Another couple reported to have seen him between 7:30 and 8:00 pm, but could not remember if he had changed positions at all. They did remember finding it odd that the man did not seem bothered by the mosquitoes. They assumed the man was drunk and went about their business.

Another witness advised police that she saw different man at the top of the steps. He was watching the sleeping man on the beach for some time and then he left.

On December 10^th, just ten days after the discovery, authorities had the Somerton Man’s body embalmed.

The Train Station

Remember that unused train ticket from Adelaide police found on the body? On January 14^th, a staff member at the train station found a brown suitcase with an interesting detail. The label had been removed. Records indicated that the suitcase had been checked into the station’s cloakroom on November 30th some time after 11 am. The man had arrived in Adelaide by overnight train and bought the second (unused) train ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach that same morning. The train to Henley Beach departed at 10:50 am, but it is not clear why the Somerton Man did not get on that train.

The Suitcase

Inside the suitcase were: a red checkered dressing gown, a red pair of slippers, four pairs of underwear, pyjamas, shaving gear, an electrician’s screwdriver, a modified table knife that had been cut down to be short and sharp (like a prison shank), scissors with sharpened points, a square of zinc, pants with sand in the cuffs, and a stencilling brush (usually used by officers on merchant ships for stencilling cargo).

Another item in the suitcase that provided a definitive link to the Somerton Man was a card of orange waxed thread. The brand was unusual and not available in Australia; however, the same thread was found on the pocket lining of the dead man. He had used it to repair a small hole.

Similar to the clothing found on the Somerton Man, all of the labels on the clothing inside the suitcase had been removed. The police did manage to gain one small clue, though. The style of stitching on a coat that was found inside the case indicated that the coat was made in the U.S. No coats like this had ever been imported into Australia. The Somerton Man had likely been to America.

The Inquest

In June of 1949, the same pathologist was called to re-examine the body. He recorded new evidence during his second examination.

First, he noted that the Somerton man’s shoes were extremely clean and polished. If the man had been walking around town (or a beach) all day, his should should have showed more wear.

Second, there was no vomit or sign of convulsions in the location where he was found, which are the two main reactions to ingesting poison.

Third (through the help of UoA professor Hicks) the pathologist learned of a group of drugs that were very toxic and nearly impossible to detect: digitalis and ouabain. Could the Somerton man have died elsewhere and been brought to the beach later? The pathologist believed this to be the most likely scenario.

Still unable to learn the man’s identity, a plaster cast was made of the man’s head and shoulders. And then things got weird…

Tamám Shud

When the Somerton man’s clothing was re-examined, it revealed a clue that made investigators’s heads spin. There was a hidden pocket sewn within the larger pocket of the man’s trousers. Within the hidden pocket, they found a small rolled up piece of paper with the words: Tamám Shud. When translated, the text means “ended” or “finished”.

Who did police call to assist? Public library officials, of course! They were able to trace these words back down to one book: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Could police find the exact copy of the book with these words torn out? Once again, the authorities appealed to the public. This time, they hit the jackpot.

Shortly after the public appeal, a man called detectives and said he found the book in the rear foot well of a car around the same time the dead man was found. The witness’s identity was protected from the public and details as to how the witness made the discovery were not shared with the media. Microscopic tests confirmed that the piece of paper found in the Somerton Man’s pocket was an identical match to the tears in the paper of the recovered book. Though they did not find the book’s true owner, the book contained more clues. On the inside of the back cover, detectives found pressure marks from a pen, including a phone number, an unidentified number, and lines of text that looked like an encrypted message.

Unfortunately, after many years of analysis, cryptographers were never able to decipher the code’s meaning. Some even concluded that the code were just the scribblings of a mad man and that the letters and scratches meant nothing at all.

Jessica Ellen Harkness Thomson

The phone number written in the back of the book belonged to a nurse named Jessica Ellen Harkness Thomson. This was an interesting discovery, as Jessica lived in Glenelg, approximately 1,300 ft (400 meters) from where the Somerton man’s body was found. She told police that she did not know the dead man or anything about how her phone number ended up in that book. Police showed her the plaster cast, but she said that she did not know who the man was. The detective’s reports; however, indicated that Jessica looked startled to see the face in the cast and she looked like she might faint.

When asked about the Rubaiyat, Jessica admitted that she owned a copy of the book while she was working in the Hospital in Sydney during WWII. She said that she had given it to an army lieutenant named Alf Boxall in 1945. He was staying at the Clifton Gardens Hotel during that time, but after the war, she never saw him again.

When Jessica had answered (or not answered) all of the detective’s questions, she requested that police remove her name from any permanent records. She also made sure that her name would not be shared with any third parties. This was to protect her family’s name from being tied to such an unsavory case. The police (shockingly) agreed.

Though this hampered further investigations, things did not end with Jessica here. We will re-visit her in a bit.

Grasping at Straws

After speaking with Jessica, police believed that the Somerton man could be Alf Boxall, but they were able to locate him in Sydney in July of 1949 and his copy of the Rubaiyat was fully in tact. Completely out of options, they could only do two things: watch and wait.

The Somerton man was laid to rest in Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery in 1949. After the burial, police questioned a woman who had left flowers on his grave. She denied having any knowledge of the man and investigations went nowhere.

A few years later, a receptionist from the Strathmore Hotel, just opposite the Adelaide railway station came to police with a report of an English man who stayed in the hotel for a few days around the time of the Somerton Man’s death. She described him as carrying a small black case that looked like a doctor’s bag and contained something that looked like a needle inside. The man checked out of the Hotel on November 30^th. The authorities investigated, but came up with nothing.

Police investigated many claims throughout the years. By November of 1953, 251 people had come forward with a possible identity of the dead man. None of the leads were viable. Then, in 1959, a witness came forward and told authorities he saw a well-dressed man carrying another man on his shoulders on Somerton Beach on November 30. This supported the pathologist’s theory that the man was poisoned and died elsewhere, but it didn’t help police learn the man’s identity.

Police waited 61 years for a breakthrough.

A Rare Man Indeed

In 2009, an anatomy professor at the University of Adelaide, named Henneberg, examined the images of the Somerton Man and made a startling discovery. When it came to the man’s ears, Henneberg realized that his cymba (upper ear hollow) was larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow). This feature is extremely rare and only appears in 1% of Caucasians. Next, Hennebery invited some dental experts to look at the photos. They concluded that the Somerton Man also had hypodontia. This is also rare and only present in 2% of the population.

This is where we need to re-visit Jessica Thomson. She’s the woman whose phone number was written in the back of the Rubaiyat matching the torn Tamum Shud page.

Experts obtained a picture of her eldest son, Robin for analysis. As it turns out, Robin had both a larger cymba than cavum and hypodontia. The chances of this being a total coincidence are 20 million to 1.

Many believe that Robin Thomson, who was 16 months old at the time the Somerton Man was found, was the Somerton Man’s son. Robin Thomson passed away in 2009.

So, if Jessica had a child with the Somerton Man, what was she really trying to hide? Did she believe that revealing the man’s true identity to authorities would put her family at risk? If so, why might she believe this? We have a couple of clues via two possibly related cases: the Joseph Mashall case and the Mangnoson family case.

A Brief Summary of Potentially Related Cases

Joseph Marshall Case:

In June of 1945, a man named Joseph Marshall was found dead in a park with a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on his chest. The park was located right next to the Clifton Gardens Hotel in Mosman, Sydney. This was the same hotel that Jessica’s friend, Alf was staying at the time. The cause of death? Poison.

Two months later, a woman named Gwenneth Dorothy Graham testified at his inquest. Two weeks after the inquest, Gwenneth was found dead in her bath with her wrists slit.

The Mangnoson Family Case:

In June of 1949, the body of Clive Mangnoson (age 2) was found in a bag in Largs Bay, 20km (12 mi) from Somerton beach. His father, Keith, was laying next to him, unconscious, but alive. The father and son had been missing for four days. Keith Mangnoson was treated for exposure at the hospital, but finally ended up in a mental care facility. Clive’s cause of death could not be determined, though it was clear that it was not natural causes.

Keith’s widow, Roma Mangnoson received multiple threats to stay away from the police, but she wasn’t the only one. The secretary of the Largs North Progress Association received threatening phone calls about how Roma Mangnoson would have an “accident” if he interfered with the investigation. The acting mayor of the town also got similar threats to Roma’s life. Why? Roma Mangnoson believed that it was because her husband attempted to identify the Somerton Man to the authorities.

But what kind of man would need to have their identity hidden to the extent that it would be worth killing over? Could he have been a secret agent?

Was the Somerton Man a Spy?

In the late 1940’s there were two locations in Australia that were of particular interest to spies: the Radium Hill uranium mine and the Woomera Test Range (an Anglo-Australian military facility). Both sites were in very close proximity to Adelaide.

The Somerton Man’s death also aligns with a re-organization of the security agencies in Australia. One year after his death the Australian Security Intelligence Organization formed and initiated a crackdown on Soviet espionage.

And then there is Alf Boxall, Jessica’s WWII friend. He worked in intelligence both before and after the war and rose suspiciously quickly through the ranks, going from Lance Corporal to Lieutenant in three months.

But perhaps the most convincing evidence comes from Jessica’s own daughter.

60 Minutes

In 2014, Jessica’s daughter, Kate, appeared in a T.V. Interview with 60 Minutes. In the interview Kate speculated that her mother did know the dead man. Jessica told Kate that she lied to police because the Somerton Man’s identity was known to an even more powerful organization.

Ultimately, Kate believed that both her mother and the Somerton Man were spies. She told her interviewer that her mother taught English to migrants, was interested in communism, and was fluent in Russian, though she never learned where or why her mother picked up the language.

Robin Thomson’s surviving family, Roma and Rachel, also appeared on 60 Minutes. The mother and daughter believed that the photo evidence suggesting that Robin was the Somerton man’s son was worth pursuing. They expressed great interest in exhuming the bodies to conduct DNA testing. Normally, exhumation for the purposes of DNA testing would have been permitted by federal government policy. This was common in such cases where identifying soldiers of war would bring closure to the families. In this case; however, Kate Thomson outright opposed the action. Her reasoning? She said it would be disrespectful to her brother.

And that was that.

Was Kate’s decision to prevent the testing really to preserve the memory of the dead or was it to preserve the lives of the living? Perhaps some things are just too dangerous to know.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud_case