Why hasn’t somebody else raised these questions about SA forensic’s method of identifying the Somerton Man?
We all know Fitzpatrick and Abbott used a hair taken from the Somerton Man’s bust to determine, in their opinion, that the body was that of Carl Webb. This was trumpeted worldwide as an unmitigated success.
But.
If you take a close look at the header pic of the bust < you will see that there a few more hairs embedded there.
My questions are why didn’t SA forensics use one of these hairs as an aide to identifying the body and what the suspected answer to that question may mean to the Fitzpatrick Abbott finding?
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The chain of custody of the hair sample is, more or less, totally unknown.
If she’s such an authority on the subject, you’d have thought Fitzpatrick would have taken a lot more care into consideration of the provenance yet she seems to have simply taken Abbott at his word . (Not exactly a scientific process, ehh!!!)
Most of us here, commenting on Pete’s blog, have been jumping up and down, for years now, asking why there has been such a long delay in the findings of the coroners testing of the exhumed body…. YET, Abbott and Fitzpatrick have been ‘conspicuous by their absence’ when it comes to questioning the delay. In fact, their silence is deafening.
I expect they are hoping the delay will continue for the duration of their lifetimes because they know the results will leave their reputations in tatters.
Oh well…the wait continues!
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Abbott & Fitzpatrick would have us believe that when plucked, all of the potruding hairs, (see pic BS/TS/GC) apart from a rootless oversized 5.3 cm wopper, were all of them found to be well and truly rooted. Think I borrowd that from GC’s published acedemia paper truth being known he semi plagiarised it from me some years before.
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Yes neither of the matching pair be spring chicken, but then same goes for us. So it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping we, the chosen few amongst the Carl Webb naysayers can outlast the affirmatives (or infirmaties) on the longevity stakes. Don’t like my chances but you never know your luck in a big city like Can Tho.
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Judging by the way the bust was carried about in a cardboard(?) box, is it little wonder the questions about the hair sample rages on? Perhaps the authorities are in a dither as to which road to take, take DA’s word as gospel, still investigating or, simply state they have no idea who he was, where he came from etc. Perhaps, his real identity, the events that unfolded in November 1948 are secured in a file and, known to a few only.
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Clive
Yes, the coroner could say that, after testing the body, they still don’t know who he is.
But they could definitely say whether, or not, the DNA of the body matches the hair sample that Fitzgerald linked to Webb.
Just eliminating Webb from the enquiry, right now, would be a help.
Think about all the time we have spent/wasted these last few years trying to link this rather mundane bloke to Jestyn, Prosper, Alf…or even Adelaide for that matter…and come up with bugger all.
He’s was so mundane, even his own friggen family couldn’t be arsed to keep tabs on him…yet Fitgerald and Abbott want us to believe that he was THE ‘mystery man’ of the 20th Century. It’s laughable.
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Another thing that somehow got in my craw from the word go, not literally speaking of course, was Dr. Dwyers note on the obvious presence of a foreskin in his SM post mortem evidence in chief. Whilst not an authority on the subject generally, I was Keane to learn nonetheless, and in doing so was surprised to deduce that circumcision of babirs was all the rage between the years 1900 & 1970, especially in big cities with modern surgery facilities like Melbourne. It been mentioned that Carl Webb was born 16 Nov. 1905 at Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne town, as was his brother a year earlier. I have it on some good authority that Roy had the unkindest cut of all although when and where be a mystery. All things being equal we could invisage something similar in that department with Charlie boy…He must therefore disclaim any right to the Summerton Man title now and forever an imposter he be.
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Perhaps Abbott and Fitzgerald, both being academics, in their own fields, felt that a bit of ‘brow beating’, to the masses, would be enough to stifle any opposition? I’m sure the current SA Coroner can’t wait for the 31 August when his tenure expires, no more stiffs for him!
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How many bodies were in the SA morgue at the same time our man slept in the ice? Perhaps one was a wasted barbiturate addict and heavy ether user. Records?
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He was on ice from 1 December 1948 til 17 Junre 1949; so SM must have had more than a few bunk buddies sans Carl Webb during that time, all deceased presumably and all identified but one.
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Why do you reckon the SA forensics didn’t go the same route as Fitzpatrick?
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Didn’t want to waste their time on a rootless hair. I was Sapol, would have told the pair to get rooted.
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Tibor Kaldor was on ice mid-December to Feb 1949.
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Back in the day when we were all newcomers to this matter, I challenged Abbott’s researchers when they claimed SM was a seaman named Tom Read, thinking that the white necktie read Tom Read, not Tom Keane .. Two Toms. Like Tomsbytwo. (boom boom)
Those noodle heads got it wrong from the start and one of them got in touch, trying to wriggle out of it, I think I suggested he quit UoA and get a job in a slaughterhouse .. didn’t do me any harm.
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Yeah had forgotten about Foreskin Fred
Poms kept them
Little Aussie boys might engage in unhealthy masturbation so their foreskins were removed. Some were sent off for use as FJ Holden fan belts.
SM wasn’t an Aussie or his would have been gone
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Nothing heard from Sapol forensics and so seems SA coroner Whittle gets out of gaol on that score. Now we must wait for Ms. Kereru to get settled into her new position before we can expect her very own style “kangaroo” court to get cracking on forgotten cases that her predecessor had deliberately filed away in the too hard basket for seven years of SM bad luck.
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