Provenance, who needs it?
“Paul Lawson was not allowed by the Police to transport the body to his laboratory, and the moulding work had to be carried out at the City Morgue using limited materials and tools. Lawson was not allowed any assistance#, and carried out the work with three detectives watching over him. As the frozen body was thawing, the skin became very damp and Lawson co-opted the detectives to keep padding it dry. Lawson observed that all the internal organs and brain had been totally removed previously (for toxicological testing).”
#Except from the three detectives ..
https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Paul_Francis_Lawson
So here we have a man attempting, for the first time, to make a death mask of an old body in an old morgue with no doubt more than a few other bodies kept in the chiller nearby and all the while in the constant company of THREE detectives and using limited materials and tools sourced from we don’t know where and incorporating said detectives in keeping the corpse (and head) dry, once again using materials (Rags? Towels from the bathroom? Handkerchiefs? Singlets and shirts belonging to other long dead bodies?) also sourced from we don’t know where.
Then, after all the above, Derek Abbott found a rootless hair stuck onto the death mask plaster, and claimed it came from the body. Provenance, according to the Professor, was not a problem.
A hair with no documented chain of ownership, and the three detectives and Lawson working in close proximity to the body for days without using any protective clothing.
Now we know better, and now we know why.
The Somerton Man .. 
And did the ears separately.
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The ear used as the original model belonged to Intelligence Officer Lt. Col. Robert Radcliffe Lewis and he’s listed as “Special Branch”. He frequented 274 Domain Road South Yarra with other members listed as “Intelligence”.
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Thanks AH .. by my unsteady reckoning Abbott has got three things wrong : He cannot be certain the rootless hair belongs to the Somerton Man, ergo his identification of the Somerton Man as Carl Webb is also uncertain, and finally, his identification of the young blonde-haired man in the family photo as being Carl Webb is also wrong, despite what Stuart Webb says.
https://tomsbytwo.com/2026/03/25/spot-the-difference/
https://tomsbytwo.com/2024/02/11/what-are-the-odds/
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And, no doubt, Paul Lawson was under pressure to get the job done asap. Beats me how, with three detectives watching his every move, he managed to do the job in those rudimentary conditions. But, why three detectives? Were they instructed to ask Paul if he found anything in/on the body? And, the mention of the ‘original’ body keeps popping up in my mind.
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Not only that, the detectives swooped on the bust just as Lawson was preparing to remove the skull but let six days go by before burying the body.
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