What do you call a man who only owns one pair of socks?
This bloke packed enough spare clobber to choke a horse – for instance ..
He packed 4 spare singlets, 4 spare underpants, 6 spare handkerchiefs, 2 spare ties, 1 spare comb (he had 2), 1 spare set of trousers, 1 spare business shirt, 1 spare set of scissors (the other was broken), 1 spare coat hanger (he had 2), 2 spare safety pins (he had 3), 7 spare large envelopes (he had 8), 5 spare pencils (he had 6), 1 spare airmail sticker (he had 2).
And the only pair of socks he owned were on his cold dead feet. How does that make sense given all the above I hear you ask ..
Simple, I reply, the spare socks found in his suitcase were removed. But why? Because they were needed to hide something. Like what? Maps possibly, or technical drawings, correspondence, things of a confidential nature. Why be so secretive about it? Witnesses were to be avoided. What witnesses? Railway staff, travellers lodging their luggage. Who removed these so-called confidential things? DS Leane. Who said he did? Feltus. Like what specifically? Feltus didn’t say. Why would Leane have done that? Because he was instructed to do so. By who?
Indeed.
The Somerton Man .. 
Or they had other identifiers on them, such as a brand which would show they were all purchased in the US and perhaps even a specific store brand or some were military issue.
And on clothes, I’d say his necktie is by Mr John and came from Cain-Sloan Department Store in Nashville TN about 1948. I have one the exact same which is quite distinctive. There would not be a market for that tie in Australia. Nashville is not far from Oak Ridge.
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From memory, fact check pending, reputable crime writer Kerry Greenwood, in her Tamam Shud, SM book lists in her contents of suitcase table, four (4) pairs of socks and four (4?) ties. Don’t know where she got the info, but photo (CG shopped) of three suitcase ties be proof.
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Oh wow. I missed that clue. That black and white thin striped necktie is another by Mr John, USA
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and a blue and white striped one still in the suitcase. Why would you leave that one in the case when everything else is out on display unless you are hiding a label or distinctive marking on it.
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Second GC shopped pic, taken same time & location as the suitcace contents colour photo, is of SM’s shoes and neatly rolled woolen socks. Question being would a cop treat a dead man’s smelly darned socks with so much care and why wasn’t he buried in them, nor for that matter his fancy togs & one of his fancy Tootal ties.
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His fingerprints were taken and sent to police stations nationwide, plus a set was sent to the FBI, who didn’t know him. But hey hey, nothing in the suitcase was treated with the same thoroughness and fingerprinting anything found inside it was not required.
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So, Mr Hoover advised that his department had no record of his fingerprints, if he was a Canadian, could that have been the reason?
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Governments ie the people who work in them at the top are notoriously dishonest. It’s a protect the firm at all costs culture. Providing misinformation, disinformation and straight out lies. It’s a situation where the person at the top doesn’t know the facts of a matter because they are told lies. “Nope, nothing here boss, we’ve checked everything” and where those below not privy to things going on in the inner circle are kept in the dark ie Feltus. If a person has never been arrested or charged with a criminal offence their fingerprints won’t be on record anyway. The cops don’t go door to door throughout a city gathering fingerprints from the citizens just because they might do something.
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The items left with the Keane name on them wasn’t a slip up. They are too good for that. Neither were they left there to create a false trace. There is no need for a false trace, all you need to do is make sure the items are hidden and then there is no trace. The name Keane was left there as a clue. They are saying, if you really want to know what went on, here’s your clue. Here’s the name Keane on military items for you and in particular a US army necktie, so you go figure it out. They also intended it as a marker so that there is a future reference.
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No. 1: Possibilities are US Army, USAF, USN & USMC, quite a large number of individuals, Would or did any of these forces have fingerprint records of their servicemen? My thoughts are, that the SM, after WW2 did not return to ‘Uncle Sam’, instead he drifted around the Far East, a kind of ‘soldier of fortune’. He eventually arrived in Australia, down on his luck, fell into criminal ways and paid the price.
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His name is Keane. Things didn’t go to plan. It was meant to look like he suicided on the beach, with nobody else involved, but he concealed the Tamam Shud recognition signal in his fob pocket and dumped the Rubaiyat in the car which were found, bringing Jess into it and then Boxall, and the coded message to him was found on the book which wasn’t meant to be. So then you’ve others involved and all sorts of problems the police have to cover up.
Appearance Britisher, Irish or Scottish (Keane). Most were not snipped. British cigarettes Army Club (Kensitas Scottish) not American cigarettes. He was Irish-American or Scots-Irish American. He came to Australia from the US at that time likely Pan Am to Sydney with connecting flight to Melbourne, and Overland rail to Adelaide. He had a known past, likely bad criminal offending. His intention here was espionage.
National Archives USA for army records, flight records, government correspondence. https://www.archives.gov/
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Just another thought!, due to his ‘wedge shaped’ ‘toes, if he was in any US service, what type of work would he have been given?
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You could ask PB to upload my post which may steer you in a direction to answer that
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Jess’s cover was blown by Feltus going through the Adelaide telephone book
and Boxall’s cover was blown by Jess defending herself
and now that we know of Boxall and what he looks like, we can see that it was his face that was used superimposed on the photos to hide what Somerton man really looks like
and undies and neckties would not normally help us with the identity of Somerton man except for the fact that we were given his name
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The information that the name Keane is linked to the Webb family is another point to bear in mind. Or, is the Webb/Keane saga just a ‘Red herring’ to thicken the plot?
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A singlet marked Kean, a laundry bag marked Keane, and a necktie marked Keane. The last E on the necktie is quite different to the first E. There is one item marked Kean without an E which makes all the others Kean, and so none are Keane with an E. The last letter E middle stroke is too long and on the end of Kean we have JR as a subscript to it and we have Kean JR. Kean Junior. Text in military use was only uppercase because of teletype machines used for navy and marines. So Jr is written as JR. A person with military training instinctively would write all in uppercase including his name on his necktie. The necktie is military, confirmed by having all uppercase letters in his name KEAN JR. Irish or Scotch-Irish American and a variation of Keane. So we are looking for a military person named Kean Jr more than likely involved in message handling, and espionage activities through that
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/06/14/191690435/u-s-navy-approves-use-of-lower-case-letters
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NickP found a list of possessions belonging to Keane that were sent home after he died overseas .. there was no mention of a white tie.
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Correct. The necktie wouldn’t be there when they’ve got the wrong bloke.
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And the coded message is all in uppercase, like you would find coming off a teleprinter, and intended for such person familiar with that format, and no doubt with skills to read the message with ease.
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So, with the second line of the code, either underlined or crossed through with the horizontal line, would/could that have been done by a teleprinter?
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I had two teleprinters decades ago before computers (glass teletype). Teletype Model 19 was a monster of a machine, noisy as hell and they stink like oil, running on Baudot code. Teletype Model 33 was a more compact later model running on ASCII. I can also remember using a Model 33 hooked up to a DEC PDP-11 when studying. You could probably roll the paper like you can on an old typewriter and print a string of dashes. Never tried it. The coded message is hand written though not off a teleprinter.
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So, it’s possible that the original code was teletype printed and, then hastily copied onto a piece of paper, resting on a copy of the Rubaiyat?
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Possible, except we can’t explain away the sketch of the railway line and level crossing. Although it could be a TTY message come in on the printer as you say, with the need for extra clarification and so it was modified by someone when hand written to include the railway line and level crossing above the letter O to illustrate it as Overland Train. Or just made to look like a TTY message by someone and sent to SM in the Rubaiyat. ML/ABO uses / as a separator and everything is in uppercase like TTY. Make it look like it originated from TTY and it makes it look like an official message sent to you, without the exposure of a teleprinter page. A Hidden TTY message just for you SM.
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