A balmy early evening at Somerton Beach.
You would have thought, wouldn’t you, that a well-dressed man wearing highly polished shoes, a white shirt and tie, pullover, slacks and jacket would have been noticed descending the stairs to the beach? Here, in the early evening of a balmy November day on a beach well-used by the locals living in the surrounding suburbs who no doubt were used to seeing each other on a regular basis on the sand, friends or neighbours alike because that’s what people do when they live close to the sea or are visiting the coast, they walk the promenade and shoreline alone or in convivial groups. They exercise, jog, swim or just paddle about. They breathe in the healing perfume of salty air, meet friends and acquaintances and linger as the sun sets. So too with their children for what child can resist building sand castles, digging holes or breathlessly wading into the shallow water, inviting a perceived danger.
And when this man reaches the sand he turns to the sea wall, sits and leans back against the jumbled rocks (boulders) #,unmindful of their sharp edges and possible consequences to the threads of his jacket and not caring for the intrusion of sand inside his shoes. He reclined there and smoked.
Most might agree there wouldn’t have been many fully dressed men leaning back against the sea wall that afternoon as he was.
Yet only four individuals came forward to say they saw him that early evening, despite what must have moderate traffic up and down the steps only a few feet away from where he rested.
And no one came forward to say they saw him arrive and position himself so openly that Tuesday despite the frenzy of publicity in the following weeks when the newspapers reported on the finding of him dead the following morning. It’s unusual for people to be so incurious.
It’s a mystery within a mystery ..
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The header pic is of Adelaide’s Brighton Beach and pier in the twenties and as you can see it was well-populated and only a twenty minute walk to Somerton Beach.
#see comment by Dusty – we stand corrected.
The Somerton Man .. 
Forgive my intrusion but if I don’t get in first other’s with nothing better to do with their waning years will. Jagged rocks didn’t show up along Somerton breakwall until 1953, consequence of storm damage sustained during two earlier cyclonic events.
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So what are we looking at, concrete blocks, stacked bricks, masonry, building rubble .. boulders?
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Boulders, as depicted in the 1978 Littlemore clips and much later with DA and other film makers who wouldn’t have taken notice of the X marks the spot photo in ’48 sans boulders. Of course the boulders were part of the civic reclamation project.
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Got that, thanks – but I’ve got to say that although I know Steve H over at CM isn’t a woman, he sure does behave like a big Sheila.
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Well, the bitch came on the Webb scene as Anne O with all guns blazing like Annie Oakley, sounds just like a woman to me mate. I see now, as Seve H she be on the Beaumont trail but the wrong thread and for good reasons too. She doesn’t dare say anything more on the CM Jim Beaumont site, going by her last pathetic effort there.
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Micky Mouse: We’re up to the part where able Semen Carl Webb gets to stake his just clam for ascendency to the Somerton Man throne, and Minnie gets to say Tamam Shud; that being around fall of 2032 if all goes to plan. That right AI me old swab.
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Millions of words, thousands upon thousands of documents, hundreds of hours of research and not like another run of the mill book … surely he’s not taking a cheap shot at the old Bookmaker from Rabaul.
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Well sort of, the title has been sourced through confidential leaks, and so looks is if Gordon may score again with a lot of help from his artifical ghost writer AI. Can’t hardly wait for long overdue release of ‘Coxucker from Caboolture’ [sick] all fifty pages of bull shit no less.
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Well, at least the seawall query now sorted. But, why would anyone rest their back against a hard, unforgiving boulder? I can’t imagine anyone, in that position, hour after hour, enduring the discomfort surely? Perhaps the SM had not been in that position for any length of time, makes you wonder?
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Sorry to disappoint you Clive but, the giant boulders were not anywhere near Somerton beach or seawall in 1948. Apart from that there are those including one of the hoops, Neil someone who states that SM was flat on his back staring wide eyed at the heavens when he first saw him at dawn on 1/12/48. How’s that grab ya?
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The man wearing a suit and a hat Olive Neill saw up on the roadway spent five minutes looking down at SM on the sand, so she said. It reads like he was interested, but interested in what? Thirty seconds would have told him everything he needed to know.
Man lying by the wall.
Fully dressed.
Two people sitting on a bench closer to him, watching him.
One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes. Five minutes.
What else was there for him to see?
Whatever it was nobody else seemed as interested.
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Could have been small boulders? Even lying on his back must have been a mite uncomfortable?
5 mins staring at a man on the sand, wouldn’t that seem a bit risky? Especially as a young couple could see him staring down at the beach, as you state 30 seconds would, surely, have been ample time to confirm everything? If, the SM had been drugged, perhaps the suited man was observing any possible reactions?
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… or perhaps he was acquainting himself with the man’s positioning
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So, the second SM would be in the same position as observed by the 5 minute man?
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Almost, according to one of the jockeys who saw him the next morning he was lying face up (right Dusty?) and wearing different duds.
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And none of the jockeys were ever interviewed or required to describe the scene? Another missed opportunity by the police.
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Ever occur to you that the stranger might have bern waiting for y’man to doze off so he could rifle any goodies from his person. F’rinstance the missing hat, wallet, belt, collar studs and his box of Bryant and May jack scratchers, commodity.that was in short supplyt due to a long striks at the Richmond plant.
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Perhaps the 5 minute man just happened to stop at that spot?That’s a possibility, I suppose, but, a risky possibility surely, it would only take a passerby to notice. Or, another possibility was that the SM had been followed and, still had items on him that required removing as a matter of urgency by interested parties?
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… or he was readying himself for moving a body later that night before dumping a Rubaiyat where it was sure to be found.
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Besides jockies Neil Day and Horrie Patching who came form George Bates Somerton stables and lived nearby, there was, aside from Jack Lyons, another local denizen present at the scene in the morning, that being in the form of Colonel Lee MC (2) of Wilkinson St. None of the aforementioned stuck around to see the show or to give statements to Sapol first offenders.
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Arthur Lee was a well known racing identity in Adelaide and some might recall his ownership of handy locally bred stallion Comic Court that was part of his Somerton stables. He was a pal of Jack Lyons; I’m thinking he was watching his own nags working out on the beach with novice Neil Day and veteran jock Horrie Patching.
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Sir Arthur, better known as Mert Lee to all (Persian for Brave & honest), was head honcho of Glenelg Diggers club from 1946, then SA State and also the Aust. RSL’s National President. He became involved with immigration promotion under Federal Govt. auspices, whilst his biggest claim to fame was his tieing the knot for keeps with Val Scanlon, Dad & Dave come to town star playing alongside Peter Finch. Wonder why he never got an honorable mention at least in ‘On the Beach’ with Somerton Man. He was right there when the whips were cracking afterall.
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Advertiser Sat 18 June 1949 p.4
John Lyons saw a man in the evening
The following morning he saw a man again
He says he could not identify the man or his clothing with the man he had seen the previous night
It’s all the evidence you need that there were two different persons. Lyons said so
One using the sea wall to prop himself up while sitting on the sand on the beach drunk
The other one found dead lying on the sand
Coincidence, or was the drunk man seen by the “suit” which allowed a scenario to be staged, for Somerton man to be dumped overnight in the same spot
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It’s almost as if the “suit” was casing the joint, so to speak, to see if they could get away with dumping the body there down those steps and on the beach overnight, which was not visible from the roadway above, in the wee hours the following morning
As it so happened there was a drunk propped up against the sea wall and the “suit” took some time to evaluate whether the drunk would be gone later, and the spot they needed would not then have someone there as a witness to what was going down.
But why was that exact spot needed when there was 30km of coastal beach in Adelaide and his body could have been dumped anywhere along it. It seems to have been at Jess’s suggestion because of where she worked and knew that beach.
It’s too coincidental that Jess was a nursing sister (as known by the telephone directory), that she would want to work close to and be walking distance to her place of employment, which would be the hospital across the road
Which would serve as drop off point unnoticed with some movements to and from the hospital at night by nurses, possibly even use of the carpark, whereas park in front of one of the houses on the Esplanade and you could be spotted as suspiciously hanging around.
The missing piece is whether Jess worked at that hospital which would tie everything together at that scene
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Interesting, Neil & Olive departed around 8.00pm on that Tuesday night. So, it’s possible that after 8.00pm and before 10.00pm, the same night, the SM either walked away/taken away. Then, after 10.00pm he was positioned, once again, near the steps-same man?
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Not according to John Lyons who said quite clearly that he could not identify the man in the morning with the one he had seen the night before. He said they were different persons and that would be because he saw both their faces.
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If Jess completed her tax returns accurately, there would be an entry for those whose employ she was in and whom she received a salary from.
It’s quite possible that there is a declaration by her of the salary she received from that hospital (or any other for that matter)
If you can find her tax file number, her tax returns are likely to be in the archives.
If the ATO will agree to release them
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Better pay more attention to the facts boyo. For one Jack Lyons was quite certain that, despite not getting a closer look in the evening sighting, the bocy seen close up next day, was the same person. As for “Jess ” Thomson, she never worked at the Kid’s polio recovery centre CCH opposite X marks the spot. If you want to check her employment background, suggest you try Glenside and or Parkside mental hospitals.
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The facts are in print Advertiser Sat 18 June 1949 p.4
John Lyons said he could not identify the man or his clothing with the man he had seen the previous night
They were different persons
Taxation returns show all employers if they are completed accurately and would reveal the Somerton Home if she worked there, and by her movements that was brief employment
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No 1 .. let me put it to you in plain English, ok? If a man couldn’t identify a man, he wouldn’t know if another man was a different man. So either get your stuff together or give me a break. No offense.
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“I could not identiy the man, nor could I recognise the clothes, as I was not close enough the previous evening. I could however say that it was definately the same person” That’s from the man himself as presented to the inquest of 17 to 21 June 1949. Any questions No one.
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Staying on the ’49 inquest for a sec with CGC still going on about mosquitoes and yardage as mentioned in Gordon Stapps the died in the wool commie plant, member of the Eureka Youth club. Hardly a youth Gordon, he being twenty three in 1948 and seasoned matelot in WW2 with a fine record too. Wonder how he put one over on the RAN recruiters and kept a straight face; perhaps our informant might give us the guts on where he came up with the commie caper. How about it Framer?
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Must be said that Coroner Thomas Cleland did not seem to be overly impressed with big Jack’s testimony. Apart from semi rejecting his comment of being sure that the man of the evening was the man in the morning, Tom prefered Moss’s lit cigarette to Lyons’ unlit smoke. You’d think he’d have given more credo to the veracity of an old digger mate who’d served with him in the Belgian trenches all those years ago.
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We need to accept the independent reporting of the Advertiser
They have no reason for fabrication, whereas officialdom does
Everything that is said to be official is suspect including the transcripts
The Advertiser reporter had made an independent record of what was said in court and that was published in the Advertiser on Sat 18 June 1949
When John Lyons read his Saturday paper he would have seen if that article had incorrect information, contacted the Advertiser and they would have printed a correction on the Monday
The Advertiser correctly reported what Lyons said in court:
He could not identify the man or his clothing with the man he had seen the previous night
Identify in this context means he could not equate them as the same man
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Contributions make for an interesting debate
N’est-ce pas
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….At 6.00 am the following morning, Mr. Lyons went down to Somerton beach for his early morning swim. There on the sand were the usual race horses and handlers but, the horses were not be excercised. Instead the horseman were gathered around the body of a man lying on the beach apparently dead. Mr. Lyons recognised him as the man he had seen the night before, except the body was not leaning on the wall but lying on its back with one leg crossed over the other. A cigarette lay on one shoulder which the dead man must have been smoking.
See NAA C673 Box 39/Insude Story Somerton part 2 Page 14 of 177
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Page 17 offers a similar version of events above, according to witness, Jeweller Lyons as related to spy tbeorist John Ruffles, September 1972.
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“There were cigarettes on the body which were in a packet…” and no mention of matches, that’s according to the Constable Moss testimony given to the inquest on 17 June 1949. Most of us are well aware of the contrary report in Adelaide Tiser on the following day, but sadly for your giggling Anonymouse poster earlier reports in the Truth dispute that claim outright with a picture of Moss to boot.
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The ABC documentary is story telling. The detail can be looked at as being for entertainment. For example “doctor’s car” where it was a chemist’s car. “He threw both hands up” whereas he said earlier “his right arm moved upwards and fell down”
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Some will recall from ‘Cleland’s Notes’ that the ROK was thown into the apparently open tray of a utility. 5th February 1949, the owner of a utility (buckboard). was brought before the court for parking said vehicle arse about in Percival St. Glenelg parallel to Moseley St. between May and 1948. Anyone offer something better, by my guest.
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…between May and December 1948, you fool dusty.
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In 1978 year of the ABC doco, name and occupation of the car owner was not known, although Doctor, Dentist, Chemist and city businesman had been tauted for a mysterious, as yet then undisclosed finder of the ROK, who had been given by Sapol the assumed handle Ronald Francis. As for story telling, one must consider the given facts in the context of their date ranging and authorship.
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Surprise, Surprise, believe it or not but, a Mr J K Keane lived at 15 Percival St, Glenelg in 1948.
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Could be on the wrong trail, not unusual for moi, but initially the Beaumont case was left in the incapable hands of Glenelg CIB (yes they were an autonomous branch in those days), then by the time Angus St. major crime took over, the inititiative was lost. That is until 1973 when the kids were taken from Adelaide oval. Even so same unproductive results.
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So, in 1966 the CIB at Glenelg were autonomous, as they were back in 1948? Nothing like a united police service, serving themselves, sorry, I meant serving the public.
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Almost have to be James Kevin Keane. bn. 1898 husband of Henrietta Winifred bn. 1903. Had a brother names Thomas of course. No relation to Gerald I fancy.
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