There appears to be some inadequacies in Detective Brown’s responses.
SL .. Stuart Littlemore.
LB .. Detective Len Brown.
1979.
————
SL . Alright. Lets’s go on to the book itself. Have you got it?
LB. No. – er. I looked for this some five or six years ago, and er, er I can’t find it, ah – I believe Lionel – er – may have it, but of course, er, Lionel was well renowned for his loose-leaf system on filing and ah – if he can’t find it, we’ll – er you know I wouldn’t be very surprised about that. (Laughs)
SL. You wouldn’t be too worried about it either, I suppose at this stage.
LB. No, I think er- there are photographs of the of the page er the back of the book where – er Tamam Shud was torn out. Um we’ve got all the photographic evidence of that – er (overtalk)
SL. The code and the phone’ numbers.
LB. That’s right. I don’t think there’s any great significance er- in the um – level that er – having possession of the book at this moment.
The Somerton Man .. 
Interesting words by Len Brown, “er, I can’t find it” (when he was looking for the book 5-6 years previous) So, in 1978-does he mean he was still looking for it? Refers to Lionel’s filing system: “I wouldn’t be very surprised about that” (laughs). It’s as if he knows already that Lionel made sure no one would find the book?
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Remembering that Leane was an Adminstrator of Detectives before being given the job of overseeing the SM case – and you can’t do that job well without being on top of your paperwork.
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Which makes you wonder how Leane ever got to be an Administrator in the first place. Perhaps he was so incompetent dealing with paperwork, he was just the man for the top job?
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Clive#
A good reason may have been that his brother and acting head of Sapol CIB Det Insp. Geoffrey Leane MC was on a mission OS in ’48 with the Vic. Commissioner setting things up for Australia to become inaugural head of a revamped Interpol. Must not forget that L. Leane was only an acting Det. Sgt. at best as can be seen if you go to the next page of the ’78 interview. The man was no great shakes on admin either according to Len Brown.
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Our man arrives Sydney Friday 26 Nov 1948 6:30pm PAA flight 835. He makes contact to advise he has arrived and is told to await instructions when he gets to Melbourne
His connecting flight will see him in Melbourne Sat afternoon.
He picks up a few things in Sydney on Saturday morning, razor, strop, shirts, trousers, checks out and then flies out to Melbourne
After he first made contact, there was urgency for him to leave for Adelaide when it was thought the recognition signal, being the Rubaiyat and the instructions, would take days to get to him from Adelaide to Melbourne so the code reads for when he receives it, ML/ I – Melbourne leave / immediately
But that is then crossed out when it is realised he will get the Rubaiyat and code on Monday 29 Nov c/- the hotel front desk. He may think to travel by air but booking a flight Melbourne to Adelaide is a risk to his identity
So the line is written above that, which instructs him to go by rail and be aboard by December. M R GO – Melbourne rail get Overland and be aboard by December, which gives him Monday and Tuesday to receive the Rubaiyat and the instructions code
He is clueless about Adelaide having just arrived from the US and is informed AIAQC Adelaide is a quiet city
He receives the Rubaiyat on Monday 29 Nov and is onboard the Overland at Spencer St Station that evening and arrives at Adelaide Railway Station the following morning Tuesday 30 November 1948 and proceeds to Moseley St Glenelg, Adelaide beach, as instructed
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What’s interesting here is Brown’s last sentence where he suggests that not having the book is of little significance given the time that had passed, despite that the case was unsolved and even after thirty years was still capturing worldwide attention.
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No One: Could ‘MLIABO’ mean ‘Melbourne Left In Adelaide By Overland/Overnight’?
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There’s two slash punctuation marks
which are longer than the letters I on those lines
ML/AOI and ML/ABO
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No One: I’d always assumed that they were both the letter ‘I”, but, as you state the ‘I’ both look longer so, we have ‘AOI’ and ‘ABO’ I wonder what the difference means?
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The first letter on the last line of the Code-looks like a letter ‘V’? Or, is it two vertical lines coming together to stress that this last line and the letters on it are significant?
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All lines start with the letter M
meaning the person in Melbourne rather than their name
So all lines are directives to the Melbourne person
The last line also starts with M and it is a ditto mark
to avoid being mistaken for MTT Municipal Tramways Trust
All the message says is be aboard the Overland train by December and go see Jess at Moseley St Glenelg
There’s no microcode and will never be shown to exist
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Clive #
Old hangover from the bad old days in Gordon’s tea garden mate.
V for I which may suit some but for me It’s gotta be the former or else the transcript don’t work.. Goes too for GC’s last code letter R as opposed to B for Baker as in me old pal Glen A. ie., GAB.
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No One: Sorry, but I can’t see the letter ‘M’ as the first letter on the last line, when all the other letter ‘M” marked are pretty obvious. If it is supposed to be a ‘ditto’ mark, why not show it as a broken slant with two dots in the middle?
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Depends where you went to school I guess
To me the ditto mark is two vertical lines
I see consistency in the message format
with all lines starting with the letter M
including what I see as a ditto mark
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