So many questions, like how does the pasty fit in?
What if he was a spy.
What if he was murdered.
Who killed him?
Why did they kill him?
What if he didn’t die where he was found.
———
The postmortem estimated our man ate a pasty only hours before dying.
So, does a man faced with the threat of imminent death have an appetite healthy enough to consume a pasty? Or would he be sick with dread?
Would it be likely that the individuals holding him, if that was indeed the case, would have had his welfare to mind?
Was he being held close by to where he was found?
Did he commit suicide?
Does a man planning suicide have a heathy appetite?
Where did he get the pasty from?
Do we know where Jessica Harkness was on the night of 30 November 1948?
No.
Do we know if her home in Moseley Street empty on that night?
No.
This what we’ve got.
So who’s got all the answers?
The Somerton Man .. 
A full and detailed postmortem report has yet to be located, whereabouts unknown in official records. As for PM evidence tendered at the Inquest and given on Oath by deponent Dr. J.M. Dwyer, it says nothing about any PASTY perse, although in an addendum by Prof. J B. Cleland (examined SM months after the PM) he states “I think by the food that it was probably a PIE (note) or PASTY which he had eaten as his last meal”. So here endeth the oft repeated lesson in the need for facts as opposed to fancy!
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Cleland’s fancy, not mine. And he probably had a good look at the missing PM report prior to the inquest. How else would he have known about it?
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One must assume, in that there was no mention of any pasty in Dr. Dwyer’s PM evidence at the ’49 Inquest, then he plainly didn’t make any such discovery in his initial examination So much for Cleland likely having made any note of such in his own study of the original document. Case closed Bozo.
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Right. So there was no pasty, is that what you mean?
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Ain’t necessarily so Bozo, but all the same, far too much banter about Pastys over the years, and taking it for granted is not good research. I grew up working on a spud farm so let me assure you Clive, that the potato, a stem tuber, is most certainly a fully paid up member of the ‘Plant’ fraternity.
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Right, so there was a pasty, is that what you mean?
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And, for what it is worth, Paul Lawson’s view was that potatoes, supposedly digested, were a ‘plant’.
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Too right there was Bozo, only problem being that it was less likely to be in Somerton Man’s belly than another’s. Let’s not forget that Americans aren’t known for their love of Adelaide pasties. Tell him No. 1.
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So there was a pasty but it was in someone else’s stomach, is that what you’re saying?
And by the way, I can keep this going for as long as it takes for you to give a straight answer, remember I was the one who gave you that nickname and for good reason, right Dusty?
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No shortage of Pasties and potato filled maggot bags when we was there in the sixties; plenty of hungry mouths in and about Adelaide, ready to munch all through the night too. So if there had been a D of Y stand open down around the Kiosk on the Broadway around ten, if’n our SM was in the vicinity and had the strength to struggle to it, his fondness for one or the other could well have been catered to. Can’t get a more direct answer than that Boze.
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Took a while though, didn’t it?
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It had crossed my mind that the spare body lying around West Terrace on 1/12/48 might well have been a potato pie or pasty man for all we know, unless of course either morsel contained pork (know what I mean). You’ll recall that poor Wolff who lived next door to Freeman’s chemist had his turn under Doc Dwyers scalpel same day as SM. So who’s to say if some mix up hadn’t occurred with stomach contents of both being sent over to Bob Cowan. On another tack, we do know that Wolff ‘Bill’ Cohen was the same height & build as SM, also that he had died suddenly. Could it have been he that was put up to playing the role of SM the previous evening and ended up at the same mortuary the following morn for his treachery. Maybe we should have a ‘go fund me’ in order to have him exhumed from West Terrace over by Jessica, can’t hurt having them both checked out can it?
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Wollf did work at Castalloy up to his demise on Dec 1. The bus that went via Moseley St had its first stop directly outside Castalloy (max of ten paces door to bus) after departing from North Terrace.
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Not my Wolff I hope; Whilst an engineer by trade, Bill owned his own Butchery and served the local Jewish community near the main Synagogue off Fullerton Rd. I spoke to his son Robert, an RAN Veteran and whilst wanting to be helpful, had no recall or knowledge of his father. T’was me what had archives correct their death date from 1943 to ’48, this in order to satisfy rellies overseas. I’m not overly confidant that Wolff Wilhelm Cohen was part of any spy ring although I’m sure his Aust. sponsor was himself up to no good.
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Thanks John, Wolffy died in Hospital as described but he had spent some time there. He’s listed as a Small Goods Manufacturer, but was also a toolmaker/die setter with Castalloy handling zinc etc in the processing of equipment for Woomera research also at the time.
His wife is RAAF, Marge Cohen (nee Lawson).
The bus trip can be found here:-
https://onsomertonbeach.blog/2025/11/08/as-plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face-31/
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Strange as it may seem, a George Marshall was admitted the same day and nearly the same time (on 13 November) as Wolff to RAH and he would stay there till death on 31 May 1949. He was a metal worker also.
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Did the processing at Castalloy include Lead?
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Can’t get any showing for Marge Cohen nee Lawson on RAAF rolls, her given names being Marjorie Phyllis and she married Bill Cohen in 1943. Dad had been an active union organizer and a CPA voice in Unley. After Bill’s death she had tied the knot with a divorced ex digger with an impossible German surname which her two sons adopted and presumably they stayed happy. Both boys served in Vietnam and Bob was big in yachting and also Vietnam veterans affairs…who cares?
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Whoops; twas the other Austro/Jewish gent, Gordon’s man Tibor Kaldor also ex West Terrace that was an engineer, my fellow Bill Cohen just a humble Butcher by trade & calling. Sorry.
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Before I get accused of lieing like Cramer: Bill Cohen’s widow Marjorie married a divorced criminal type from the suburbs Colin Schahinger bn.1919 (never served, due to likely to his record), that was in 1949, less than a year after her “loving husband Wolff”s departure. She raised two sons, Robert (1945) & Ian (1946) and in discussion with the former we learnt that there were twin daughters in 1943 one of which died at birth. Her own father Stan Lawson was active in Unley politics and the local band, was comrades with two local SA Labour stalwarts, one of whom is credited with cracking the TS code, the other (unamed) with laying flowers on SM’s grave (see Feltus novel).
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Can’t recall if it came up in an early related post, Bill Cohen who managed to flee the German nazi wrath in 1938 saw his family arrested, most being shot as communist (jew) enemies of the state. I think his Mother escaped to America and a brother to Argentina, that’s according to pretty well expansive Cohen geni site. When he came to Australia as a displaced person, he was sponsored by a farmer in Loxton SA and later came to Adelaide where he lived with his family at 144 Fullarton Rd. Rosefield and opened his shop (see above). CM will have a deal more riveting info. from my early histerical ‘research’.
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Tibor Kaldor was ex-insurance clerk/lawyer/language teacher/process worker. Died two weeks after SM-supposedly by suicide but…..
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Right you are Clive, musta bin one of the other German usual suspects what had ‘engineer’ as an alternate after his monicker.. Just remembered, Albert John(s) the Adelaide based nazi fifth colunist and car thief syndicate chief plus alleged assassin of Harry Bell Lasseter in 1931.
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