Eight large blank envelopes ..
Eight large blank envelopes were found in SM’s suitcase plus six pencils, but no pen. No correspondence. One aerogram. Derek Abbott was of a view that he had bought the envelopes with the view of buying some Christmas cards and mailing them off to friends and family, now I’m not solid about 1948 but am pretty sure that even back then when you bought a Chrissy card the envelope came with the package.
I can’t figure out what SM was about.
Any takers?
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The Somerton Man .. 
Passing cash? I still think the slip of paper in his pocket makes a good name for a race horse. I’ve tried looking at the whole thing through the lens of spies, suicide, broken heart etc and I keep coming back to murder, horse race bet fixing. Thought he was coming into big bucks for a job, packed up from Melbourne, new shoes, new suitcase, fresh haircut, planned to hire Prospers taxi service hence the number penciled in the book but ticked someone off big time.
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How might that work, Shabs? Maybe he used some of Prosper’s cash (he had plenty) hit the track with a bundle of it in each envelope then head for the bookie stands .. yes, no, maybe?
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maybe, while resting his betting slips on the back of the book? Might explain the indents that were traced over by the copper as a code? Lots of pencils, wouldn’t be able to work as a bookmaker without a pencil. Huge amount of horse ringing at the time, can’t remember which one off hand but one of the sister ls husbands lists bookmaker as trade and other family connections to horses. Totally random but the young lad that won the Melbourne Cup that year against huge odds lived and trained in Birchip, same town Carls brothers kids transferred school from after Amy died.
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Plus an unlisted base metal pencil sharpener mit philips screw made in W. Germany, courtesy of C. Gordon Cramer.
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There were three racecourses in Adelaide. Victoria Park, Cheltenham, and Morphettville. I don’t recall ever hearing mention of a racehorse in the past called Tamam Shud or any sired, when I was at any of them. Nevertheless, the form guide was in Saturday’s Advertiser, if you choose to search. Might not be a good name for one though, it might jinx it to always be at “the end” of the field and its racing career “finished”
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there’s a few translations , one is simply ” to finish” alot of the house names around that time had middle eastern sounding names. My thought is he planned on coming into some cash, not wanting the ex to get her share told his sister he was heading over to Perth, the Eastern States at the time were tightening the horse industry , testing horses for dope etc but WA was still very unregulated. Good move for a horse ringer? About a week after SM ‘s body was found a stable hand handed in a broken pill bottle from a stable in Glenelg so doping was happening around the area, horses were trained on the beach he was found on. Good spot to meet a fella about a horse or get paid for a little illegal bookmaking or doping?
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horse names, not house names, sorry, long stressful day home tutoring a 13 year old with Autism lol
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An aerogram is a light weight letter and envelope in one, and sent par avion, air mail to an overseas country.
That’s a main clue, that he was already in contact with someone overseas or had a need to contact them.
That doesn’t fit Carl Webb’s profile. It does fit the profile of a person who arrived here at that time by air, because to him air travel is swift and he knows so is air mail.
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No pen because he used pencils, then he could erase the pencil marks on the envelopes and re-use them? Possibly why no stamps were found in the suitcase? Apart from horse racing, were there also dog racing in Adelaide? If he was ‘involved’ in some way with horse racing, rather ironical a group of horse riders were on the same beach on ‘that’ Wednesday morning.
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Angle Park greyhound racing from 1947. It’s held on Thursday nights. Used to go to “the dogs” and have a drink and a bet from time to time.
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could explain the barley grass seeds in his singlet too if he was around stables? The one spoon and bowl in the suitcase is typical drug related, some of the drugs coming over from America at the time and used in the horse racing industry were not tracable because Australia was behind in testing. Just before the body on the beach Amritsar was doped at Moonee Valley, caused a huge drama and the owner of the horse was the Victorian racing committee member. He was also the breeder of Daffadar, owned by the Governor of South Austraila who was being trained the morning S.M caught the bus right past the Morphettville Race track. Then you have Prosper advertising his car for hire specialising in pick ups and drop offs at race meetings and long distance travel. If there was a horse connection and connected to Morphettville they would have wanted it to all go away as the Queen was planning to visit according to a newspaper from November 10th 1948. She stayed with Underwood in 1954 during her Royal visit.
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Trots (harness racing) used to be good at Wayville Showgrounds on Friday nights. It got moved out to Globe Derby Park in 1973 which was way across town for me and I reckon they changed it to Saturday nights. Went a few times. Wayville was a smaller track and you were right next to it which made it more exciting. I had better things to do on a Saturday night.
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Aerogram you don’t need stamps. There is a fixed postal rate and it’s part of the purchase of the aerogram envelope. As for stamps for the other envelopes, probably in his wallet with a wad of US dollars and other US items that would give away his identity and a trace to where he came from. Poor old bloke only had a zac to his name. As if.
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Pens stuff up. Pencils only need sharpening which you can do with your makeshift weapon knife kept in its makeshift scabbard.
Pens are darker and if you hold a flimsy aerogram up to the light you can read the message inside. Pens create a print on the outside which you can read the mirror image from.
Pens you need to press harder and they leave an impression on what is underneath what you are writing on. For example a Rubaiyat. Pencil you don’t press hard enough to do that because you will break the lead point. So the code was written by someone with a pen and Somerton man didn’t have any pens on him and so he didn’t write the message and he didn’t have the Rubaiyat when the message was written. It was sent to him with the message in it, and that excludes the horse racing fable.
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try a quick experiment at home, write using pencil resting on a table and it doesn’t go through to the paper underneath BUT rest on something like a folded newspaper or the back of a book and it does make indents on the second piece of paper 🙂
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Got me a table shabs but buggered if
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