20 – The end of the game.
How would a man who appeared to be drunk / dead to the world get down to the beach in that condition without being seen?
.. and how would a man in that condition get to his feet and make his way into town to buy a pasty without being seen?
.. and how would a man make his (drunken) way back to the beach and resume his position without being seen?
.. and how and where did he manage to change his trousers?
Taken from witness depositions:
The witness Lyons thought the man he saw by the steps in the early evening was was drunk and I quote: “I assumed he was drunk and was sleeping it off.”
The witness Strapps thought the man he was watching by the steps in the early evening was similarly affected. “That night I did make a remark to my girl friend that as there were mosquitoes there he must have been dead to the world in not noticing them.”
The witness Strapps swore on his deposition the man was wearing striped trousers, though he was found to be wearing plain faun-brown duds the next morning. “I should say he had brown striped trousers on. I thought they belonged to a suite, although I did not see his coat.” It should be noted that the light was good enough for Strapps’ companion Olive Neill to be able to describe the colour of both the hat and suit of the man she saw standing on the road.
It should also be noted that PC Moss remarked that the beach would have been busy that evening given the balmy conditions.
But wait, there’s more ..
Lonerangeraus asks why weren’t any mosquito bites found on the body? From long experience I have found there are two forms of life to be found in the darker places of beach rock walls, particularly at dusk – rats and mosquitoes. SM’s face and hands should have been covered in mosquito bites.
The Somerton Man .. 
Not a whisper of mozzie bites on any paperwork. I guess they healed quickly before the exam. Otherwise they would have served to confirm his overnight layover to the powers that be.
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Brilliant! I don’t remember anyone bringing that up before. Thanks AH.
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Mosquitos can only extract blood that flows through a circulating system. which in essence proves that doctor Bennett was out in his 2am timing or else, there was a body swap following young Stropp’s departure of 7.30pm.
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…… or Strapps’ dead to the world body got up and walked away and the tale of a man seen carrying a man along the beach later that night all of a sudden becomes totally believable.
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…..a bridge to far for this old tattered suit mate. You won’t mind if I leave the tricky stuff for more fertile minds to ponder, hopefully enabling separation of fact from fancy…Think you’ll find that Kenneth Stropps was assessed as being short sighted by the navy and that his squeeze who whilst no slouch on her Olivetti, was a better than fair hand on the Underwood champ.
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Silly question, but how long would mosquito bites remain visible? If Strapps noticed that mosquito’s were active when they saw the body, then this body wasn’t the same body that John Lyons saw the following am. So, why wasn’t Strapps remarks about mosquito’s raised at the inquest?
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I don’t know about the SA variety but up here on the Qld border they itch like fury for a few days.
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Clive #
Jack Lyons was confident that SM of the morning was identical to SM of the evening before, ie., “I would however (say) that it was definately the same person”, which sort of needs explaining away for PB’s last comment to have legs. I guess it’s possible that DA’s “teenagers” arrived on the scene after the switch, their sighting perhaps being of the replacement, though that doesn’t quite explain the mosquitos not wanting slake their thirst on this still living SM imposter…I wonder did they have DNA friendly repellent back in 1948.
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JohnS … Lyons didn’t see his face in the evening, only in the morning. Ok? Check the inquest papers, he was quite specific, as was Strapps when he insisted on the trouser pattern. Similarly with Neill, she was definite. The game is getting away from you old son.
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….and might I be permitted to say that the game you play my man is, and always has been self serving to a fault, always will be unless you clean up your act. Of course I know darn well what big Jack said on not seeing SM’s his face in the evening, I should by now allow me that immodesty and, he wasn’t alone then, nor was he in the morning but, no doubt you’re oblivious to the fact. A WW2 full Colonel, a future knight of the realm, Canberra big wig and National RSL President of nearby Wilkinson Ave. was the man in question Jack’s best mate truth be known though, big Arthur did not care too stick around for the show nor attest to what he saw or didn’t. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you Pete, or any others still on the SM trail that I’m likely to have forgotten more about this case than most punters ever knew of or are ever likely to…”I should say…..”,. Got it?
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JohnS, we’ll I guess that all means you’d rather be somewhere else, fair enough then and thanks for not so much. I hear that Cipher Mysteries is hiring. Meanwhile the few of us left here will get on with it. TTFN.
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Peteb # it was a blast sorry for the interuption. Looks like you might have found a few Keane punters who like your style and are prepared to serve a fair but uncompromising master. Best of luck., sincerely.
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Back at you brother .. it’s been a good ride but there can’t be too much petrol left in it. Now we wait for SAPOL to get their job done.
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@ John Sanders… Further to our chat on a previous thread about the continued fart-arseing around and , seeming, general lack of interest displayed by the South Australian authorities…I reckon these blokes down at the, wonderfully named “NSW Police Forensic Evidence and Technical Services Command” oughta be given the gig of identifying SM.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12351787/Jawbone-washed-Umina-beach-14-year-old-boy-mauled-shark.html
Seems their recent task in identifying the jaw bone of this poor soul is exactly what needs doing with the SM corpse.
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I would imagine that SAPOL want to hold onto their evidence, especially if they have a DNA match to someone whose identity may not be in the public’s interest. Could be the reason why they claim they have a backlog of work, if so, as Guzz notes, NSW seems to have been on the ball, pass the evidence over to NSW and let them investigate.
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Re the mozzie, apparently they are first attracted to what we exhale which is why they are worse when jogging etc so if S.M was shallow breathing they may not have been interested in him. Or like me mozzies don’t bite for some strange reason, I’m also in QLD John, we have shocking mozzies as we are right near the Johnston River, they can be flying around my face when I’m out walking but I don’t get bit unlike my poor husband lol
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1) Always assumed they were flies not mozzies. Firstly I think someone from Adelaide suggested flies would be more likely at the beach, secondly I’m not sure how noticeable mozzies would be given the light at that time of day (and perhaps the vantage point the lovers had), whereas I think small flies would be more obvious.
2) The pasty is a big problem, because it really doesn’t seem to agree with he time of death. Or at the very least (as you point out) it doesn’t agree with the idea of Joe Bloggs on the night of the 30th being SM of the 1st Dec….
But one of the problems is discrepancies aside there’s a lot of coincidence with two similarly dressed people slumped in the same location in the evening and the morning.
It does seem peculiar that Lyons couldn’t be sure it was the same person – although I’ve always thought Lyon’s involvement a bit odd.
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