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What’s wrong here?

On 8 January 1949 DS Leane was put in charge of the Somerton Body Case.

On 11 January Det. Brown joined the team.

On 23 July the Rubaiyat was handed in to Leane.

On 29 July  Leane sent a photo of the code and a ‘similar’ Rubaiyat to the Director of Naval Intelligence in Melbourne.

 

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  1. Quatrain 51 would have made the Navy pay attention!

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    September 26, 2024
  2. John Sanders #

    According to both Adelaide local rags Advertiser & News on 26 July ’49 a copy of the code was sent to Army HQ in Melbourne for decoding. Can’t find your earlier 29 Jan ’49 reference. Might it have come from AD or CGC both of whom have a history of getting dates (and everything else) wrong.

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    September 26, 2024
    • Bloody auto-correct. My fault, should be July 29. But it isn’t about dates.

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      September 26, 2024
  3. John Sanders #

    Eric Nave was most likely contacted and shown the code by Canney or Sutherland (Leane & Brown taken off case) on 27 July ’49 whilst on leave at his dad’s home in Adelaide. As for Derek, he sides with your Braish dates so apologies in order.

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    September 26, 2024
    • Feltus has got Leane looking at the Navy office in Adelaide for assistance firstly (no date mentioned) then on July 29 the material was sent off to Melbourne.

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      September 26, 2024
    • John Sanders #

      I’m not a big fan of Feltus facts but I can go along with the amended dateline The response came back from Navy HQ late August ’49 after “weeks of tests” on the ROK letters which were unproductive

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      September 26, 2024
  4. Leane and Brown both taken off the case by 27 July?

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    September 26, 2024
  5. John Sanders #

    Page 41 of the Littlemore Brown Interview where Len is asked, “Did you speak to the woman?”…”Yes. I didn’t personally, no, but er, other members have, cause appreciate this was some time after, er – Lional and I had moved on to other enquiries..I didn’t interview her at all”…”You were then what, – a constable – a Det. constable?”… “Yes. I was (clears throat) I was a Det. Constable myself and he was a Detective Senior Const.” (not Det. Sgt.)

    ,

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    September 26, 2024
  6. John Sanders #

    According to ‘Honest Len Brown’ he and Lional were both long gone by Monday 25 July, the day Canney made his move on Jo at Moseley St., that’s but two days after the Ruby hand over. Got me wondering if papers might have been dealing with brothers Frank or Geoff Leane in the lead up as opposed to Lional …Yes er..ah..um .. I can see the problem!

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    September 26, 2024
  7. Clive #

    So, when/why did Canney get the nod to visit the nursing sister or, was it her intended hubby who Canney was interested in? If, as it seems, hubby was at work, why didn’t Canney interview him?

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    September 26, 2024
  8. Clive #

    “News” Adelaide 1 Dec 1949 P 32, Det-Sgt Leane & Det Brown were both supposed to be still in charge of the case.

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    September 26, 2024
    • Clive, we’re looking at the the days after the Rubaiyat was handed in.

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      September 26, 2024
  9. John Sanders #

    Clive: as late as 23 April 1953 the Leane, Brown team were back in the game investigating Charles Mikkelsen as being a new potential SM candidate. Looks like a recall?

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    September 26, 2024
  10. I forget #

    Today (Sep 27) a youtube channel called “Crime Zone” put out a video on the Somerton MAn case (they’ve covered it before, and they don’t unveil anything new, but it might still be a fun watch for some).

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    September 27, 2024
  11. Clive #

    So, as early as 1953 the authorities knew about Mikkelsen, same team, same results?

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    September 27, 2024

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