Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane –
An in depth look at his performance
Posts tagged ‘detective canney’
May 4
6 Comments
The Somerton Man inquest was closed for lack of new evidence despite the police having found more than enough.
Why was the coroner’s court denied the opportunity to subpoena new witnesses?
The Somerton Man’s suitcase and its forgotten fingerprints
The suitcase held a cornucopia of identifiable items fingerprint-wise but DS Leane preferred to adopt a different approach in his efforts to identify who owned it and instead took a few bits and pieces back to the station to be photographed and distributed to the press, hoping their publication would do the job for him.
How does that make sense?
GETTING TO THE TRUTH OF THE SOMERTON MAN CASE
There comes a time when the accumulation of doubts leads to a different conclusion, one that allows us to step around the official facade to glimpse what it's hiding.
Paul Lawson and I had much in common
Paul Lawson never spoke to Jessica Harkness, never met Alf Boxall and was not privy to the investigation in any way other than what he may have overheard while working on a seriously corrupt, long dead and embalmed body in the morgue, though I suspect the stink of the body’s decomposition and the accompanying stench on Lawson’s clothes and hands would have kept him distant from any of the detectives assigned to watch over the work.
Unsurprisingly he became fascinated with the case and eventually settled on a pet theory that had Harkness and Boxall involved in an Intelligence operation while both were working in Sydney.
There is no evidence to support Lawson’s hypothesis just as there is no evidence to suggest Jessica Harkness was ever a member of the Communist Party.
After having had a few conversations with Paul before he died I can only say my pedestrian imaginative powers were easily surpassed by his.
And as far as having something in common with Paul, he was a champion grappler and I was an almost champion surfboard rider.
Whatever happened to the Somerton Man’s brown knitted pullover?
Fifteen investigative and one coronial failure cannot be the result of incompetence, surely.
WHAT ALF BOXALL SAID ABOUT JESSICA IN 1978 .. ” even today, I don’t know what the girl’s surname was.”
.. taken from Stuart Littlemore's notes on the (60 Minutes) interview he had with Boxall
“In 2002 I had a lengthy conversation with Jessica Harkness.”
Why did the police re-interview Harkness in 1982, and why isn't anybody talking about it?
The seventy-year old secret of the Somerton code
The simplest of codes.
The letter A.
The position 7.
….. gives number 8
The Somerton Man’s mtDNA haplogroup ..
From Byron Deveson.
It is interesting that Clive sees a resemblance to SM in the Scots-Irish actor Stephen Boyd (AKA Millar) because SM’s mtDNA haplogroup is present at significant levels in Ireland. See:
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mt-dna-h4/about/background
It appears that Scots-Irish were mercenaries in Finland in the 16th Century and that could explain the high incidence of the H4 haplogroup in Finland (and Iceland where it constitutes 9%?).
I am reminded that there was a large “tartan” scarf (shawl?) in SM’s suitcase. From memory the tartan looked like a military or an Irish tartan. Or even a Norwegian tartan. But the pattern is oblong and all genuine tartans appear to be square as a consequence of the weaving method.
Tweeds are often rectangular and SM’s “tartan” scarf appears to be a tweed, not a tartan. Unfortunately tweed patterns and colour were chosen for camouflage (hunting) and this is consistent with the appearance of the scarf/shawl in the black and white press photo.
Tweeds are often dun coloured to fit in with the Scottish landscape. A dark blue and green tweed such as the one from SM’s suitcase would be an exception from my vague memory of such things and this might be an overlooked clue. Dark green and blue suggests deep forest to me and, relying on dim memory, these are not abundant in Scotland or Ireland. I note that some estates had their own tweed pattern and some estates had private forests. The possible US belongings (comb, lighter and coat and chewing gum(?) from memory) bolster the case for SM being American and Scots-Irish DNA is concordant with US East Coast heritage.
I started building a family tree commencing with Robin Thomson’s likely forbears Tarleton Pleasants (1778-1836) and Tabitha nee Crew (1788-1819) but I found so much contradictory information that I gave up.
I started by assembling all the available material, regardless of the contradictions, with the intention of straightening it all out. But, I soon found that the descendants of this couple could not agree as to whom begat whom and when, so I didn’t stand a chance.
I pushed on in the hope that one of the descendant lines would show some connection to Australia, and some do. The Merryman family comes to mind. But, nothing crystallised and I decided that there was more than a thousand hours of research required and only a relatively small chance of success. So, there the Pleasants family tree rests.
Byron Deveson.
Scots-Irish actor Stephen Boyd (AKA Millar)
The Somerton Man
I just noticed that Stephen Boyd has a SM type ear and this is fairly rare. DA’s anatomist friend at the Uni says 1% prevalence, but I have yet to see one after years of furtively gazing at ears. It is a dangerous game – try it (furtively gazing at ears I mean). Byron D
Nov 26
The South Australian Telephone Directory Nov 47
Thomson J E Sister 90a Moseley Glnlg .... X3239
PC MOSS’ ONLY NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW TELLS A DIFFERENT STORY.
"Although there was half a packet of cigarettes in one of his pockets, he didn’t have a match on him."
DNA, mtDNA, genealogy,mass spectroscopy and nuclear related matters. Byron Deveson.
Comments by Byron Deveson and a word from Derek Abbott.
The Somerton Man and what may have ailed him. Byron Deveson.
One thousand one hundred and sixty words ... all technical.
25 What was he poisoned with? Cowan, Hicks and Cleland.
Remarks by James Cowan, Professor Sir Stanton Hicks and Coroner Cleland
WHERE DID HE DIE? Coroner Cleland, Professor Cleland and Professor Stanton Hicks.
Remarks by Coroner Cleland, Professor Cleland, Professor Sir Stanton Hicks, Detective Sergeant Don O'Doherty.
The question of lividity (and a final twist).
Remarks by Professor Cleland, PC Moss, Gerry Feltus, Dr John Dwyer, Coroner Cleland and Professor Sir Stanton Hicks
The Somerton Man 