SAPOL procedures back in the late forties.

Years ago Gerry Feltus told me that the leather folder where the items were arrayed (header pic) belonged to one of the detectives involved in the case, he also wrote that DS Leane removed some objects from the suitcase the day he arrived at the train station to view it. So, two plus two eh? And tell me you can’t see a Masonic symbol inscribed on the leather underneath the artfully assembled array because I sure can.

We have a timeline here —

On December 3 Fingerprint expert James Durham obtained the fingerprints of a body at the City Mortuary after it was identified by Mounted Constable Knight as being the body of the man found dead on Somerton Beach on December 1st. Knight was there at the time.

But we have a few problems here as the fingerprint card was left miserably incomplete ..

Revisiting the Somerton Man’s Fingerprint Form.

On January 14th, Leane takes some items from the suitcase, as previously mentioned, most likely being the cut down knife, particle brush, a white tie with the name T (?) Keane  written on it and finally a card of Barbour thread that matched the repairs on some of the clothes the dead man was wearing.

Fair enough we think, maybe someone might remember a bloke who used similar objects, or perhaps some lady did the clothing repairs and remembered who she did them for. Sounds reasonable you think? Unless the dead man had a roomie who watched him do the repairs.

But wait, back on the 3rd, after Durham had finished his fingerprint job he and Knight re-dressed the body and Durham obtained full and side facials of the body.

So who needs the scissors, cut down knife etc. to help ID the body now we have a clear photo of his face? Plus now we have his fingerprints. And if there’s any doubt as to whether he owns the suitcase and everything in it, why we can just ask James the fingerprint expert to dust up the scissors, knife etc, not to mention any of the collection of hard objects left in the case. But no, somebody had a better idea, and that was to ask two very senior gentlemen – I’m talking about a distinguished pathologist and a senior government analyst – to try on the clothes worn on the body and the clothes in the suitcase as well as the shoes he was wearing and the pair in the suitcase, all in order to see if they were all of a similar fit. So who needs to bother Durham again?

So it never happened. And how those two top class gents were ever talked into participating in such an amateurish operation is a mystery in itself, I mean that’s what constables are for.

Now I know this is old news to some, but if the SA coroner turns this case on its head, after all, he’s already two years behind schedule, then some of the above assumes more relevance, not to mention what was written in the previous post.

You know it makes sense ..

About the work of Paul Lawson – Updated.