Lawson sat in a darkened room creating the bust while his every move was being watched by a detective who was guarding the door.”
Life’s Wild Ride – The Adventures of Paul Lawson
{excerpt from Che Wortley’s article – see link}
“In 1948* Paul remembers being called into the director’s office to meet Senior Sergeant, Lionel Leane along with four other policemen. The Senior Sergeant asked Paul if he could do a bust cast for an unidentified corpse found on Somerton Beach.
Paul’s trade mark humility was revealed in the reply; ‘I don’t know I’ll have to see the job’. This infamous case became widely known as the Somerton Man. Paul recalls how secretive the whole situation was; being led down to the morgue to create the bust, as the South Australian Police would not let him move the body to the museum. He speaks about the eeriness of the situation as he sat in a darkened room creating the bust while his every move was being watched by a detective who was guarding the door.”
Lawson’s mortuary work table …
Secretive. Eerie. His every move watched by a detective who was guarding the door.
There are some who believe Paul Lawson at age 101 may have been a few marbles short of a full bag, this after all was at the time he confided to Clive Turner that Detective Sergeant Leane told to him he knew the identity of The Somerton Man.
Reading Che Wortley’s article might change their minds.
https://living.cityofadelaide.com.au/paul-lawson-profile/
- Should be 1949.
~~
Who was Carl Webb?
Why was Jessica Harkness’ identity kept secret for nearly sixty years then only made public after her death?
Why was the chemist Freeman’s identity kept secret for nearly seventy years then only made public after his death?
Who was Carl Webb?
Why was Professor Cleland so determined to have a sample of Carl Webb’s brain?
Why did the police investigation fail in so many basic ways?
Who was Carl Webb?
Why was Paul Lawson’s every move in the morgue watched by a policeman guarding the door?
Who was Carl Webb?
The Somerton Man 
If DS Leane knew the identity of the body then it follows he may have also known the identity of Webb’s associates … though it seems unlikely they would come knocking at the mortuary door at such a late stage. So the guardian cop must have had another reason to be on duty, especially seeing that in the six months since Webb was found dead the number of people who thought they knew him was exhausted.