35 Who was the ‘real’ Jessica Harkness?
She lied to his face: a detective with thirty homicide years on the clock,
Posts tagged ‘the Somerton Body case’
Dec 15
7 Comments
33 Whatever happened to the Somerton Man’s brown knitted pullover?
Fifteen investigative and one coronial failure cannot be the result of incompetence, surely.
32 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
30 The Somerton Man’s missing teeth: why they matter.
Perhaps Professor Cleland's knowledge of the components used in denture manufacture was restricted to whatever was available in Adelaide.
27 Stencilling tools and Rubaiyat art
Fact is, we know little about how it all ended for Charles Carl Webb.
26 When was the Rubaiyat lost?
Detective Brown is on record as saying Detective Sergeant Leane's filing system was responsible for losing track of the Rubaiyat.
25 The part fingerprinter Patrick James Durham wasn’t asked to play in the Somerton Man case.
It's often been said that proof the suitcase and its contents belonged to the Somerton Man hangs by a thread and that's not an exaggeration by any means. But it didn't have to be that way.
23 Beyond the grave / The Somerton Man … ABC TV, September 6th. The full transcript.
Over 4 months now since the exhumation and beginnings of his DNA search .. Is there a problem?
20 Why Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick chose her words very carefully.
'More recently, links were also found (in Derek Abbott's wife's DNA) to the grandparents of the man that Jo Thomson eventually married.' NYT 22 May 2021 in an article written by Alan Yuhas, influenced by the recent findings of renowned forensic genealogist Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick, pictured.
19 Instances of false reporting in the early stages of the Somerton Body Case.
We’ve already established through re-reading GF’s book that the commonly accepted and widely published images of both the Freeman Rubaiyat and the torn page were not of the original, meaning the press mocked them up after talking to the police.
We were told in another press report published only days after Freeman handed his Rubaiyat to DS Leane that it was torn from a Rubaiyat published in New Zealand by Whitcombe and Tombs spelt Toombs. The report also included the false image of the Freeman Rubaiyat..
One irresistible implication is that this information was also provided by the police. The other that it is also false – for reasons that have yet to become clear.
The press was in close contact with the investigating police prior to and post inquest as you would expect, particularly after DS Leane let them have a look at the Taman Shud slip and acknowledging his senior administrative background in the police force and the importance of the case, it’s hard to imagine him authorising any release of false information.
Yet he did. Twice.
One mistake is acceptable, two is not. Three makes them all deliberate.
Jun 30
18 Proof the code is an acrostic depends on whose edition of Omar Khayyham’s quatrains you are looking at.
Imagine asking Australia’s foremost post-war decoding unit to determine if a code was an acrostic without providing them with the book it was written on.
~~
W R G O A B A B D
Meet Clarke Willis Walton (1885-1938), cotton goods manufacturer, small-time amateur printer and well-respected American publisher.
‘Walton published at least 15 small (17.5cmX12cm) numbered limited editions of the Rubaiyat.. For An Omarian Alphabet (cover pictured end of post) he selected 26 quatrains by 24 translators (2 each from Fitzgerald and Thompson) and associated each quatrain with a different letter of the alphabet. To each quatrain he added a caption of the form, A IS for Allah, the Lord of Omar or M IS for Morning, time for youth to rise.’
That’s generally the picture, and if we use Walton’s Omarian Alphabet on the first line of code – this is the result.
W is for wine, Omar well knows. Quatrain LV1
R is for Rose, like a Ruby rare. Quatrain 1X
G is for Garden, that lovely place. Quatrain 1X
O is for Oblivion, cheat it if you can. Quatrain XV1
A is for Allah, the Lord of Omar. Quatrain CLXX
B is for Bahram, a great old sport. Quatrain XX1
A is for Allah, the Lord of Omar. Quatrain CLXX
B is for Bahram, a great old sport. Quatrain XX1
D is for Dowry, love to the bride. Quatrain CLXLV111
Sounds like a semi-religious love chant .. Omar style.
Perhaps the Somerton Man carried a copy of one of these memorable, traceable, numbered rare editions with him, or perhaps one of Walton’s 15 editions of The Rubaiyat, but seeing the police didn’t release an image of the Freeman Rubaiyat, we’ll probably never know.
https://omarkhayyamrubaiyat.wordpress.com/2020/07/14/an-omarian-alphabet/
*An acrostic (verse) is a poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, message or the alphabet.
-
fig:1
15 “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?
14 The seventy-year old secret of the Somerton code
The simplest of codes.
The letter A.
The position 7.
….. gives number 8
13 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
12 The South Australian Telephone Directory Nov 47 .. Gordon Cramer and Pete Davidson PLEASE NOTE !!
Thomson J E Sister 90a Moseley Glnlg .... X3239
10 DNA, mtDNA, genealogy,mass spectroscopy and nuclear related matters. Byron Deveson.
Comments by Byron Deveson and a word from Derek Abbott.
9 The Somerton Man and what may have ailed him. Byron Deveson.
One thousand one hundred and sixty words ... all technical.
8 What was he poisoned with? Cowan, Hicks and Cleland.
Remarks by James Cowan, Professor Sir Stanton Hicks and Coroner Cleland
7 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.
6 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 