Was Prosper strong enough to carry a man weighing about 78 kgs?
That’s got to be the key question if you believe the witness’ account of a man being seen carrying another man along the foreshore of Somerton Beach on the night of 30 November.
Webb’s weight was estimated at about seventy-eight kilos, which isn’t light and PT’s war record was heavy on visits to the medics for a whole range of illnesses, like coughing up blood (haemoptysis), pneumonia, asthma, sinusitis, bronchitis and finally, post concussion syndrome. But who knows, maybe between 1943 when he was discharged and 1948 PT did some gym work and built himself up a few layers, either that or he was foxing a variety of illnesses to get out of uniform.
Moving on … a member of the committee has suggested that Webb wasn’t just visiting Adelaide, he was relocating, back-up reasoning for that was the comprehensive number and type of articles he had packed, which, on the face of it, indicated he had left little behind. Webb was on the road and heading for a specific place and given Jessica’s reaction when she saw the bust, a specific person. Possibly a prior PT person as Charlie was on the loose, wife Dorothy on the long gone and outer.
So, Webb rolls up at 90a Moseley Street to see Jessica only to find PT at home, who did the right thing and invited him inside where Webb learnt of Jessica’s new life – then, knowing as we do of the fragility of his mental state and previous suicide attempt, Webb may have grasped the last straw and poisoned his own pasty. Buying glycoside being as easy as buying a pasty according to the experts. Perhaps after learning the bad news he took a walk into town to ‘clear his head’ only to return after dumping his Rubaiyat and buying the means of his own end.
All of which left PT with a problem. Two problems. He didn’t want Jessica to find out what Webb had done to himself and he had to get rid of the body. But first he had to strip Webb of any ID otherwise his name would be all over the papers.
In other words, Prosper did what he thought was the right thing in order to protect Jessica.
The header pic is 1 kg of prawns – Webb weighed 78 times that much.
The Somerton Man 
Peter Bowes …”….if you believe the witness’ account of a man being seen carrying another man along the foreshore of Somerton Beach on the night of 30 November.”
No one in their right mind would believe that witness account. As I’ve mentioned before; why would Prosper (a man with motor vehicles at his disposal) be remotely arsed to carry a dead bloke on his shoulders, all the way to the beach, when he could just carry him to the boot of his car and bury him in countless locations a few miles away. I can’t think of any scenario where that might have seemed like a good idea…unless he was hoping to get caught AND get a chronic back injury. (I had to stop carrying my kids on my shoulders when they were 8 or 9…so I can’t imagine having to do that for some 13 stone dead chap.
Guzz … I have the same problem..
SM liking Jessica is a Big posibility and it is possible that SM learned of their marriage at the time he visited them. But I think Jess and Prosper somehow knew SM was going to SEE them.
I think Prosper was thinner than SM but possibly taller. My Guess is that Prosper would have needed help to carry SM. Did Prosper have a friend?
Well, he’d only been in Adelaide since mid- 1947 – but in his game you made a lot of acquaintances.. some good some not so.
Okay gracias
de nada