Did Prosper’s $50,000 play a part in Webb’s mysterious death?
We’ve been pushing the case for Jessica being guilty of using Alf Boxall as a red herring for years, hoping her contrived story of presenting him with a Rubaiyat years before would pass muster and absolve her of any connection with Webb’s predicament, like being mysteriously dead a stone’s throw away from her house. Trouble was though, at the time detective Canney visited she didn’t have a pic of Alf on her mantelpiece to settle his concerns so was obliged to trot off to the morgue with a carload of Adelaide’s finest the next day to see Webb’s dead likeness rendered in white plaster.
That shut her up as we all know. No more chat from young Jess.
She did the full Schultz.
I know NOTHING!
And you had to give it to her, she was still Schultzing when Feltus put the arm on her for his book sixty plus years later. That alone made her a villain, a stone cold ice-lady, Kate Thomson’s dark-side mother, a woman of many secrets and possibly an accomplice to Webb’s murder. Cue dramatic music.
Trouble is Feltus never thought so, wishing her ‘Shalom’ in his book. And now I’m beginning to like him for that.
Now here’s the thing: what if Jessica gave that highly detailed info about Boxall to Canney in all truthful innocence only to be told to shut it down (by PT?) when it became known she was going to be taken to see Webb’s bust by a car full of detectives the next day and be confronted with the truth and all its potential implications?
Implications being she knew Webb was in some sort of business relationship with Prosper Thomson and the merits of the business were being recorded on the shady side of the ledger which would be a potential complication in the way forward for the happy couple if the police were made aware of it. Like PT having over $50,000 in cash on his person only days before his alleged business partner was found dead in mysterious circumstances.
How’s that for complications?
Works for me.
The Somerton Man 
I for one have always considered the Boxall lead as little more than a red herring
however Ive never been committed one way or the other as to whether this was deliberate or as outlined by PB here it was a perfectly innocent response at the time.
All genuine reports about Jess point to her being a bit flaky and hardly the international spy / Mata Hari shes been characterized as. Look at the interviews with friends in the missing pieces doco.
In fact the reaction later on viewing the bust backs up the possibility in my mind that Jess original response was sincere and the shock came when she recognized the bust as someone that PT had dealings with.
That may well be the case, and the possible reason that Jessie answered with a ‘no, no, no’ to further questions. And, the possibility that Prosper had not told her about the demise of the SM and his involvement. made Jessie even more paranoid, wondering what else Prosper had done?
Dec 1948 .. CITY or suburbs. Tudor gold watch. Nearly new; good reward. Thomson 90A Moseley Sst. Glenelg. X3239
March 1949 … FOR SALE. Dodge Fluid Drive De-Lux sedan, 1948 model, fitted with radio and many extras, finished in all leather upholstery, covered very low mileage. For immediate delivery. Price £1,725 ($52,000) Phone Thomson X3239 evenings, or write 90A Moseley Street, Glenelg.
PT was big in the flash money back then – that gold Tudor was the equivalent of a Rolex.
By the time they made the bust, the man looked NOTHING like he did when alive. Whoever he might have been. She was most probably shocked NOT to see who she expected. If SM is Carl/Charles Webb…It really doesn’t look like him.
The bust doesn’t look like him is what I meant.
Misca .. Those pics of Webb were taken after his autopsy and they were what Lawson had to use to fashion the bust, the autopsy being an invigorating procedure where the eyes are removed in some cases, the skin below the hairline and behind the ears cut to enable the skin and hair covering his scalp to be peeled back before introducing a Hannibal Lector styled fine-toothed saw to cut away the top half of his skull to expose then remove his brain …. then, when done everything is put back – except the brain of course which is bottled – and the scalp sown back on, probably leaving the oval of sawn bone that original covered the brain floating. This gruesome procedure would have had some effect in changing the body’s features, given the gross intrusions, particularly the face and the myriad skin, tendon and muscle tensions that governed his appearance in real life.
Now I think I’ll nip out for a spot of lunch.
I hear you Misca but I think Jess did recognize the bust and Lawson was certain of it.
Whilst there would certainly be a distortion of the features to some degree as PB points out in a little too much detail BUT the size and scale of the head and facial structure would be still be there and I believe that it would be enough for anyone familiar with Chuck to recognize that it was indeed him
Dude .. Sounds like you’re not too keen on having a run through of the procedures involved in removing the semi-digested pasty from his middle intestine, am I right?
Re the un digested pasty Pete , no details necessary old mate. I’d have to switch to sausage rolls.
Also note Prospers “very low mileage” line in his add for the 48 Dodge posted by PB.
” Very low mileage” aye Prosper !! A dodgy car dealer who knew a guy , who knew a guy who had the necessary skills to wind back speedos could add heaps of value and increase his profits given low miles add a ton of value to car.
It would have to be a guy who had some mechanical/engineering skills.
Of coarse such a guy would want to travel under the radar , work for cash and have the necessary tools to do the job.
Such a guy could probably slip in and out of a city over a few days, knock of a dozen jobs and be back home before anyone knew he left with a heap of tax free cash in his sky rocket.
I wonder whether an electrical fitter / instrument maker would fill that particular bill. But he’d probably need a workshop close by, wouldn’t he?
April 47 … Carl Webb deserts wife.
May 47 … WANTED. Building suit workshop – pay ingoing or buy plant. URGENT. Thomson
I’m sure an instrument maker could easily fashion a compact ,travel kit of tools in order to do the job on the road if and when required. Say on a short interstate run with jobs lined up by a local contact.
I still can’t understand how anyone could have ‘lost’ an expensive watch without having a good idea of where he was at that particular time. It wouldn’t suddenly fall of your wrist? Perhaps, the Rubaiyat wasn’t the only item that ended up in a strangers car?
When I was young and ruthless I had a job working the bar in one of Sydney’s more steamy pubs and whenever a blue broke out the regulars would slip off their watches, place them and their drinks on the drink shelf fixed to the wall then wade in. That’s one way of losing a watch as some of the more astute of the regulars would help themselves to both during the melee.
Wonder if CW’s knuckle injuries were the result of a fallout with Prosper, who removed his Tudor watch, before the scrap.
Ive wondered the very same thing Clive and to me there only a few reasons a bloke takes his watch off. Very odd to loose a watch worth as much as a decent car and no idea where you left it.
It most definitely was an Alpha move when I was misspending my youth if you were toe to toe with a bloke to take of your watch as a sure sign that punches were about to fly.
During the day a bloke about town may take his watch of during a visit to a mistress friend and only realise later in the day that he’d forgotten it. It may even aid his alibi to his wife if he places an add cos ” I got no idea where I lost love”
The only thing we know about PT is his poor war record, other than that, nothing. That being so we have no idea what he may have been capable of, apart from shafting an agreement in a business deal.
I would suggest we know a little more Pete .
Yes his war record was less than flattering but theres more.
His small adds tell a story of a pretty inconsistent guy. One minute he’s offering “cash” for houses, cars ,workshops etc the next he’s advertising for “any work’ . It’s like he bounces up and down like a yo yo between the big time and the small time.
We know he dabbled in forgery through his conviction on fraud charges in WA (another car deal) and when busted he threatens suicide, so there’s a dramatic / unstable side to him.
We know he had underworld contacts in Victoria (admitted in Daphne Page case)
We know about his conviction for running a flea cab in Adelaide and he was a prolific wheeler dealer. Always looking to turn a buck like selling the extra seats in his car on his various road trips (small adds)
We know he spread himself out in his dealings to large country centres like Port Lincoln , Broken Hill , Mt Gambier.
Family friends interviewed for the missing pieces doco were less than flattering and their expressions in the interviews suggest they had more to say but are being polite.
One subject describing him as “polite but you knew you weren’t welcome” another suggesting in regards to his career that he started at the top and worked his way down saying “he went from selling new cars, to used cars to bicycles and in the end just going to garage sales trying to do a deal’ he was always trying to do a deal of one type or another says the family friend.
Thanks Dude, missed all that …. And he ended up eventually trunking over $50,000 in deals and spruiking ads for limos worth more ..