The 2022 Headline Of The Year – Somerton Man Case Solved!!!
There’s dancing in the streets, singing from the rooftops, everyone is rejoicing – Australia’s greatest, most profound and oldest mystery is no more because now we know ……
HIS NAME IS CHARLES.
At last we can turn to the last page and sure enough there are the two words we have long been waiting to read ….
TAMAM SHUD.
It’s over. Done. Finished. Ended. The crowd disperses, slapping each other on their backs, laughing with relief, Derek has done it. The Professor has his man and at last his good wife Rachel will be able to dispose of that execrable painting of ‘Mr Somerton’ that has been overlooking the family’s dinner table for so long.
But wait.
Coroner Cleland ruled – “Although he died during the night of the 30th November – 1st December, I cannot say where he died.”
Well, somebody could, but they didn’t and not only didn’t they, they emptied his pockets of anything that could have identified him, even down to his loose change though he was left with his cigarettes which meant no questions were asked as to where he got the half-smoked one found under his chin. Matches? What matches?
And what was with the bloke wearing different duds seen in the same place on the previous afternoon, the one Lyons reckoned was trying to light a smoke? What was that, part of a devious plan?
We could be dealing with some real clever-dicks here, though they forgot to empty Charles’ ticket pocket, not that it mattered as the police were not interested in the two tickets found tucked in there despite they could have led them to the suitcase a month before they managed to find it by ringing around.
Professor John Cleland – “The lividity around the ears and neck was perhaps surprising in view of his position, but it was explainable. It would depend on how much the head was supported, it may have been slight, perhaps no more than one’s head supported on a pillow.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got the feeling Prof. C was onto something here .. a pillow? Pillows are found on beds in bedrooms. Bedrooms are found in houses. Houses are where people live and entertain guests. Guests of either the husband or wife or perhaps both. Guests who may have been invited over by one when the other was not home.
A guest who may have been offered a snack to tide him over, a pasty say. A guest who suddenly fell ill. A guest who died.
What to do, call an ambulance?
Or just dump the body and pretend it never happened. Reasons for doing so not disclosed.
The Three Witnesses – In 2003 Detective Sergeant Don O’Doherty produced a copy of a report he had submitted to the Officer-in-Charge of the (Adelaide) CIB more than four decades earlier.
The report stated that a witness, accompanied by another man and two sisters had seen man carrying another man on his shoulders along the foreshore at about 10pm on the evening prior to the body being found on Somerton Beach.
So, there’s Charles, suicidal Charles, moody and sullen Charles, violent Charles dressed like a real estate salesman down to his buffed shoes jacket and tie now all laid out for the world to see.
X3239 – Ms Harkness aka Sister Thomson’s listed number. A young mum at home in 90A Moseley Street, child underfoot, phone ringing all day with enquiries due to the many, many ads Mr. Thomson placed using that number for his cars, houses, rifles, taxis, employment, hire cars, workshops and watches. A busy man who used to work out of Henley Beach before moving to Glenelg.
Two Tickets – The ones not found and removed by whoever stripped the body of its ID.
One for Henley Beach.
One for Glenelg.
The Other Phone Number – “The other one (phone number) – er was for er – business premises and we were not able to trace or find any person that had – er spoken to the deceased.” Detective Brown.
Professor Sir Stanton Hicks – ” …. If it (the poison) had not been self-administered, and the body brought there (Somerton Beach), that would remove any doubts as to the time at which death took place, as well as any other difficulties.”
That’s the thing about these doubts and difficulties, they still haven’t been removed.
Happy New Year.
The Somerton Man 
Two tickets possibly deliberately placed on the body to confuse the police? Not that it took much for the police to be confused or, act confused?