2 – Events of note that occurred on the evening of the 30th and the morning of the 1st.

There is reason to believe that if the man seen by Gordon Strapps on the evening of November 30 was indeed the man found dead the following morning then during the interim then he, or with somebody else’s assistance, changed the trousers he was seen to be wearing by Strapps from a striped pair to the plain faun-brown trousers he was wearing when found.

Either that or the supposed drunkard made his own way off the beach unobserved and was replaced by a dead body later that night. A body wearing plain faun-brown trousers.*

This appears to tie in with the account of a witness** who came forward ten years later to give a statement to the police where he described seeing a man carrying a man along the Somerton Beach foreshore at about 10:30 on the evening of the 30th whilst he was in the company of three others. This statement was given to Detective ‘Don’ O’Doherty who produced a copy in 2003, the original was submitted to the Officer-in-Charge of the CIB. Neither the copy or the original have since been sighted.

*It should be noted that these faun-brown trousers provided the only proof that the suitcase belonged to the dead man in that they had been repaired by the same type of thread as that found in the suitcase. This apparently satisfied the Police as they didn’t fingerprint any items in the case for confirmation of its ownership despite that many were eminently suitable for retaining prints and they had one of Australia’s best finger printers available, James Durham. One of the dead man’s coats had also been repaired with the same thread but it wasn’t made clear if it too was the one he was wearing or the other coat found in the suitcase.

**This witness was interviewed by ex-Detective Gerry Feltus who found him reliable.

In addition there was the box of matches Detective Lean swore was found on his body whereas when PC Moss was interviewed by the Press he said there wasn’t a match to be found when he searched the body (scroll to the bottom of the page to read the article),  remembering that Moss found two tickets in the ticket pocket of the dead man, both of which were much smaller than a box of Bryant and May matches. The reasons for the difference between the two accounts has never been satisfactorily explained however if we were to believe Moss  rather than Leane then the question would have arisen, ‘How did he light the part-smoked cigarette found wedged under his chin when he didn’t have any matches?’ PC Moss’ deposition to the inquest listed everything he had found on the body. He mentioned not finding the Tamam Shud slip and of the box of Bryant and May matches he made no mention at all.
Some speculation has it that the matches were forgotten by the man who was seen carrying a body and were later placed with the evidence, remembering that the half smoked cigarette found wedged (placed?) under the dead man’s chin left no scorch marks on his skin or clothing.

Another witness, Mr Lyons, upon observing the man lying by the steps in the evening and waving a hand said to his wife that he appeared drunk – however nobody came forward to say they had seen a drunken man arrive at the bottom of the steps about 7pm just as nobody saw a drunken man depart from the steps at about 8 pm, this on a warm summer’s evening when the beach and the steps leading from it to the road would have been in constant use. Strapp’s companion, Olive Neill stated that during the time she was seated with Strapps she observed a man of stocky build, not tall, wearing a navy suit and a grey hat standing on the roadside above them and looking down at the man lying by the steps with some interest. She said he remained there for about five minutes.

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