In the beginning .. The Beach

A well-dressed man was seen lying with his head and shoulders up against a rock wall by the beach access steps to Somerton Beach one early evening on November 30th 1948. He  appeared drunk according to one witness. This witness (Lyons), who was walking with his wife along the beach at the time said he saw the man raise his arm, another witness (Strapps), who was seated on a bench by the same access steps was sure the man moved his feet though he didn’t see it, he just recounted that they, the feet, seemed to have changed their position.

So the man was alive, obviously. Anyone of any other opinion should now close the page.

Later, and in conflict with the sworn deposition of a senior policeman (Leane), the same witness (Strapps) insisted that the trousers the man was wearing the evening before were of different design (striped) to the trousers he was found wearing the next morning (plain faun) though, as they say, witness descriptions can vary widely, nevertheless he was not challenged by the coroner. This witnesses’ companion (Neill), a young lady, remembered too seeing a man wearing a grey hat and navy suit standing above on the roadway looking down at the reclining man intently for about five minutes, (cop? ASIO? MI5? Villain? Russian spy? Murderer?) She too was not challenged at the inquest. Neither of the above witnesses saw the man by the rock wall’s  face, hidden as it was by the seawall’s bulk. Planning pays, right? Pity about the matches though, bit sloppy there. There is mention of this lapse further on.

Some years later a ‘credible’ (quote Feltus) witness came forward tell the police he and three others saw a well dressed man carrying another man along the foreshore late in the evening of November 30, none of whom were noted as being under the influence despite there being a couple of hotels nearby. I could suggest here that you try to carry a fully grown man on your shoulders for any distance, knowing the result could be crippling, because like you, like me, are not a shadow of the muscled youth you used to be.

The man found expired the next morning was adjudged by experts (see below#) to have died no earlier than 2 am. A semi-digested pasty found in his stomach was thought to have been consumed by him at about 10 pm the night before. This might cause some confusion as nobody came forward to say they saw him when he firstly arrived at the beach, which was thought to be in the afternoon of what was a warm and busy summer day (Moss), or when he left to purchase the pasty, then when he returned to the same spot to eat it. Then again he may eaten it perched on a municipal bench in town or have had it in his pocket all along and eaten it cold on the beach prior to dying, though there was no sign of a pie wrappings near to the body or crumbs on his clothing, given that he would have eaten it in the dark and men near to death are renowned to be sloppy eaters. Refer the writings of to Sherlock Holmes in this investigative instance.

There is also no record of any local pie shop employees being interviewed by the police. There is also no record of the police interviewing anybody working at the nearby Crippled Children’s Home, a large establishment situated across the road from the beach access steps, it being the home of many medicos known to be wearing mufti thought not to be dissimilar to the sober attire worn by our man recently expired on the beach only yards away  .. If that was indeed the case then we have an instance where the physician was unable to heal himself.

At the initial inquest, and given the expert evidence submitted with regard to the body’s lividity  and other matters pertaining #(Prof Cleland, Dr Dwyer, Stanton Hicks and analyst Cowan) the coroner (also a Cleland) ruled quite definitely that the man did not die on the beach where he was found. However at the final inquest he reversed this position to rule quite definitely that the man did in fact die on the beach where he was found. This suspicious reversal may well have been the result of a top table meeting of the local Masonic society, either that or a get-together of senior members of the Adelaide club. Who are we to guess?

You feel me reader?

The first policeman to attend the scene (Moss) reported that there was a partly smoked cigarette wedged under the body’s chin. He also reported that he searched the body’s pockets and did not find the Tamam Shud slip which was strangely found much later in a fob pocket of trousers worn by the deceased, this will be discussed more fully at a later date – and as a note to others who have been convinced to believe otherwise, cue Gordon Cramer, fob pockets were common to trousers worn at the time, as they are now.

He (Moss) also didn’t mention in his deposition the finding a box of matches on the body, this was disputed by a superior officer (Leane), a family member of the untouchable Leane family and who gave  sworn evidence to the contrary in that a box of matches was  later found ‘to be with the body’ (Feltus). Though he (Feltus) unhelpfully didn’t say who it was who found them, and his choice of words may indicate some ambivalence in the matter.

As a note; given that Moss successfully found a couple of train and bust tickets in the body’s unobtrusive ticket pocket it can be assumed his search was thorough.

In other words, if you are a low level copper with no stripes and in a difference of opinion situation with your superiors you  are .. ?

Insert the word of your choice and good luck for Moss in hoping for any career advancement.

More to come, in fact, much more.