Who was the Somerton Man? | Forensic Files

[Music] on the first of December 1948 the body of a man was located along the seawall
of Somerton Beach just near Adelaide in South Australia at first the case received very little media attention and
the police thought it was a pretty straightforward matter a natural death on the beach no big deal just had to ID
the body and it would all be over but as the weeks and months went on it soon became apparent that this case was
anything but straightforward and the further you dug into it the deeper it went to this day we don't know who he is
we don't know where he came from and we don't know how he died welcome to the mysterious case of miss summer two men
[Music] on Wednesday the first of December 1948 the body of an unknown man was found on
Somerton Beach in Adelaide South Australia the unknown man would come to be known as the summer to me he remains
one of Australia's most baffling mysteries he was found lying on the sand with his head propped up resting against
the seawall it's a pretty uncomfortable awkward position to this day his identity and cause of death to remain a
mystery like all mysterious and unsolved cases there are many theories and a lot
of wild speculation and in this case there's a lot of information to fuel all these theories and wild speculation the
Summoner man was found with no identification in fact even the labels from the clothes he was wearing had been
removed to this day he remains unidentified it was family that crumbled up piece of
paper in his pocket containing two words taman should which is persian meaning finished or ended these words were later
linked to a poetry book which contained what many believed to be a secret code along with the code there was two phone
numbers that of a local bank and one of a local adelaide woman who lived only about 400 meters away from where the
summer to me and was found the adelaide woman said she had no idea the summer Tamim was but many believed she was
lying like most unsold cases there are plenty more questions than answers but let's start with what we do know and to
do that we need to go back to Adelaide 1948 [Music] the summit a man arrived at a delayed
train station on the day before his body was found Tuesday the 30th of November 1948 once arriving at the station he
checked his suitcase into the plug room the suitcase was tagged and her seat was
given to the summit of men from a time stamp and on the suitcase target's determined that he checked it in
somewhere around 11 a.m. the only train arriving to Adelaide around that time that was from a big city was a train
from Melbourne all the other trains arriving into Adelaide were from smaller country locations so it's family thought
he most likely came from the Auburn as an unidentified mystery man walking around with a suitcase probably would
have stood out in a smaller country location the locals air their name is too much after checking in the suitcase
there's some to me and bought a train ticket to go from Adelaide station to Henley Beach it was the second-class
one-way ticket although nothing could really be taken away from that as all tickets on that line were second-class
there was no first class within the timeframe of him checking his suitcase in there were two departures to Henley
Beach one at 10:50 a.m. and the other at 11:51 a.m. but the summit of men didn't
get on either train as the ticket was feeling unused in his pocket instead of boarding a train he walked across the
road and bought a bus ticket to Glenelg the bus departed at 11:15 a.m. and dropped him off about a 20-minute walk
away from where he was found dead on Somerton Beach now Henley Beach for where he had the
unused train ticket was 7 kilometers away from where he was found so that's a pretty long walk the thought is he
probably bought that train ticket as Henley Beach was the closest train station to where he had to go not
realizing that there was a bus that got him a lot closer so after talking to someone or even seeing a sign he bought
the bus ticket and didn't worry about the train ticket he jumped on board the bus would have been a Nile double-decker
back then and made the journey to Glenelg getting there around lunchtime what he did after getting off the bus is
anyone's guess because there's no side of the summer two men again until about 7:15 p.m. that
at 7:15 p.m. a local businessman John Lyons and his wife we're going for a walk along Somerton Beach the Sun was
starting to set about this time here they saw the summer two men lying on the beach and propped up against the seawall
body laying out on the sand just like when he was found dead although he wasn't dead because he raised his right
arm up and then flopped it down I didn't think too much of it they just put it down to another drunk who had one too
many and was now sleeping it off and they continued on their walk it should be noted this is not a quiet isolated
spot there were plenty of people who used the beach and walked along the Esplanade it was a popular location he
was laying right next to a set of stairs which led up to the Esplanade and these
stairs were use regularly about 8:00 p.m. that night a young couple were going for a walk along the Esplanade it
was just on dusk they sat down on a bench right next to the staircase where the summit a man was laying being below
on the scene here they saw an unknown man in a hat standing at the top of the steps he appeared to be looking down at
the summit men this man was never identified and was never seen or heard from again no one knows if he's related
to the case or not the young couple looked down and they could see the legs of the summit again but their view of
the top half of his body was blocked by the staircase they didn't say move but they did report that by the time they'd
left the bench they thought his position had changed they commented that they thought it was strange that he wasn't
moving because the mosquitoes were bad but they didn't go in for a closer look and as I thought his position had
changed I thought everything was okay they got up and left and they didn't see anyone else before leaving about 6 a.m.
the next morning Wednesday the 1st of December two jockeys were riding the horse down on the beach they rode past
the summer to man but like John Lyons and his wife their initial thoughts were that it was just a drunk sleeping off a
bender however when they rode back up the beach they realized that he hadn't moved he was in the exact same spot his
head propped up against the seawall it's a pretty awkward natural-looking position they went in to see if he was
all right but he wasn't that summer to me and was dead now at this time John Lyons was
actually back at the beach it was going for a morning swim with a friend the jockeys and the bit of commotion caught
his eye and he immediately recognized the stump to me and is the same person he and his wife had seen the night
before he rushed over and called the police police officer John Moss was the first to arrive at the scene he got
there at about 6:45 he examined the scene and he found a half-smoked cigarette that had fallen between the
summer demeans cheek and his collar but they were no burn or blister marks on his face or clothing the scene
surrounding him wasn't disturbed his clothing wasn't ruffled or disheveled there was no debris or personal items
scattered around the beach basically he determined there were no signs of violence at all
a check of the Somerton Ian's pockets found the unused train ticket the bus ticket to combs one aluminum and one
plastic the aluminium can was thought to be from America as they were they were pretty rare in Australia at the time
well they weren't actually available at all or anything a packet of juicy fruit chewing gum and
a packet of arming Club cigarettes but the cigarettes he saw the packet of Army clubs were an Army club they were a
different brain can cite us there was also a box of Bryant and Mays matches it was common at the time for people to buy
an expensive brand of cigarettes keep that box and then fill it up with cheaper cigarettes it was just an image
thing but the funny thing about the summit of man is that the cansada cigarettes were the more expensive brand
far more expensive than the Army Club box that he had so this could have been a sign of someone who was trying to keep
a low profile an ambulance was called and they took the body to Royal Adelaide Hospital where a doctor came out and
pronounced the summer to me indeed the time of death was estimated to be no earlier than 2 a.m. but that is now
considered to be a very rough estimate as the methods used to estimate the time of death back then not quite as good as
what they do today the post-mortem was performed the next day now what immediately stuck out about
the summer to man was that he was a physical specimen in incredible shape will build classic v-shaped body of an
athlete someone physically strong yet he had very smooth hands with no calluses indicating that he didn't work in any
job involving manual labor or heavy use of their hands his hands were also described as being enormous his
fingernails and toenails were well cared for and along with his impressive upper
body physique he also had unusually well developed calf muscles with a bulge near
the knee well the coroner thought this was a sign that he may have been a professional dancer or a ballet
performer or something similar he was described or estimated to be about 45 years old about 80 kilos it was a
Caucasian male he missing about 16 teeth overall but that wasn't at all uncommon
at the time in fact there's probably more common than not another unusual thing about the summer to man is that a
spleen was three times the size of a normal spleen now this indicates a pre-existing illness it would not have
happened quickly overnight at the time of his death so it's thought that he'd been carrying it for a while it's
evidence that he might have already been in a weakened state when he died in large spleens can be a result of many
illnesses including viral and bacterial infections inflammatory diseases even some cancers can cause that he also had
yellow stained hands indicating that he was a heavy smoker his actual cause of death that was not
immediately obvious but there were no signs of foul play so it was thought to be a natural death he's heart-stopping
although his heart was healthy so they couldn't put their finger on it straight away the police certainly weren't
treating it as a suspicious death in the early stages they were convinced it wouldn't be too long before a relative
or friend came forward and identified the body and the case but we finalized a lot of people did come forward to try
and identify the body as a missing relative or friend but no positive ID was made after a few days had started to
become a bit of a concern and on the 10th of December a decision was made between barn the body to preserve it in
the hopes that you know in the coming days or weeks somebody would eventually show up and ID the body and the case
could be finalized but no one ever did it didn't take long before the investigators the medical people
actually started to deviate off the natural best path and on to an unnatural death path as already said he had a
healthy heart there was no sign of heart disease or anything like that so there's
nothing to suggest that his heart would just stop do your heart attack or something something had to have caused
his heart to stop beating and while the medical staff worked there is that they thought this something was poisoned
samples were sent away for testing the doctor in charge became convinced he was almost certain that they would return
positive for poison and he was on this belief because the Summoner man's stomach kidneys and liver were congested
with a large amount of congealed blood which is what happens when you're poisoned those organs don't just fill up
with congealed blood for no reason it certainly doesn't happen when you die a natural death but certain as they had
become near that poison was the cause of death they could not find any sign of it
all the tests came back negative for poison they couldn't detect the trace there was one other problem - with the
poison theory and that is there was no sign of vomiting as is usually the case for poisoning deaths
dr. Robert Cowen is the chemist who tested for the presence of poisons and he stated I found no common poison
present and I do not think any common poison caused death if he did die from poison I think it would be a very rare
poison I mean something rarely used for suicidal or homicidal purposes there are
poisons they excrete from the body quickly which would leave no trace and it's possible that some of the men could
have vomited elsewhere even new boy before eventually making his way down onto the beach where he died to this day
it's never been able to be proven that poison was the cause of death although it can't be disproved data but
regardless the coroner the medical examiner's and the police had now become certain that death was not caused by
natural causes Danny I just had to work out if it was suicide or murder once they started to work out the death was
no longer natural they assigned detectives to the case and while there are no signs of foul play when the
summons a man was found there was something pretty unusual discovered all of the identifying tags on his clothing
had been removed all gone couldn't see where the clothes were made at all no identifying marks nothing they had been
deliberately removed but had they been removed by the Somerton men or by somebody else
the detectives immediately checked out a delayed train station to see if there was any unclaimed luggage and they were
in luck this is where they found this summer than me in suitcase inside the suitcase there's nothing extraordinary
just the usual run-of-the-mill stuff when dressing down a laundry bag pair of scissors and North a stencil brush a few
singlets some Underpants two tires a pair of slippers a pair of trousers a sports
coat or shirt some handkerchiefs envelopes coat hangers cigarette lighter razor shaving brush towel pencils a
scarf a toothbrush you know nothing significant or unusual [Music] but what did stand out is that even
though the train ticket and bus ticket and other items were found on something in his luggage receipt was missing that
wasn't located on his body at all the detectives were just working on a hunch that maybe there was some unclaimed
luggage at the train station that's how it was found so where was the receipt that he would have been issued when he
checked the luggage in to the cloakroom did he lose it or did somebody take it just like on the summit of men there was
no ID in the suitcase but how they were able to match it to him was that there was a piece of thread in the suitcase
that they meant to the clothing that something man was wearing where his clothing had been repaired with this
thread the clothing sizes were also a match and also they worked out that the suitcase was checked into the cloakroom
on the 30th the day they arrived into LA which matches up with the tickets that he had so that was enough to convince
detectives that this was definitely the summer to me a suitcase but it gets weirder because just like on
the summit a man we're all he's identifying laid was from the clothing had been removed all the other no flying
labels from the items of clothing within the suitcase had also been removed well
most of them anyway there were three things that they found their name the tag was still attached on
the laundry bow they found a name printed on the label Keane ke a and E on one of the singlets
was also the name Kane this time spelt ke a n and on one of the tires there was the name T Keane ke a and again the fact
that as yet no identification had been made was really starting to concern detectives now that some of the man's
photo and fingerprints for us went all across Australia and overseas to try and help idean but they didn't bring in any
results his identity remained a mystery they went to work on the name team extensive checks were conducted but they
couldn't find any matches there's no missing person reports no other unaccounted for people no one matching
that name Kane who they could link to the summer two men it was also very common at the time for people to buy a
secondhand clothing and clothing hadn't even been rationed out during the war which had only just ended so it's more
than possible that the name Keane isn't the name of the some of the men at all the in fact most believe it's not
especially when you consider all the other tags have been removed from his clothing and from the suitcase itself
but those three items with the 19 remained if it was trying to conceal his identity or somebody else was trying to
conceal his identity after his death the obvious thing to do would be to leave those tags on with the name Keane if
that wasn't his name this would provide a false lead and provide police with a bit of work to try and chase up down a
dead-end path and when they found the suitcase it was found unlocked so the Summoner men missing his luggage receipt
it's quite possible that after his death someone took that receipt when Ian got the suitcase and tampered with it Ramy
Stewart removed the tags or removed other items that could ID him if the tags were removed by the something in
we don't know but it's definitely possible this is the days before CCTV or anything like that so you could quite
easily sleep in go through the suitcase put it back in for police to find police
started doing checks on the clothing itself and I found that the coat the summons man was wearing was made in the
United States also the toy he was wearing had the stripes printed in a certain direction indicating that it was
also made in the United States it doesn't mean the summer to me and was from the United States but certainly
some of his clothing was let's try and put yourself in the shoes of the detectives here they've pretty much got
no idea what's going on they don't know who this guy is where he came from how he died if it was suicide or murder if
it wasn't hard enough already it was made harder because they started on the back foot from the get-go
remember they initially thought it was a natural death then it was treated accordingly crucial evidence could have
been lost not only was it 1948 and crime-scene investigation techniques are knowing unilevel today forget about the
same ballpark it's not even the same game in DNA evidence is still unheard of for another 40 years but I mean I never
gave themselves a chance that were chasing their tail from the very start as the investigation continued the body
of the summer two men was starting to deteriorate the embalming was starting to wear off so a decision was made to
have a plaster cast mold made of his head and upper torso area and that still actually exists today after this cast
was made the summer the man was buried he was buried on the 14th of June and a headstone was placed on his gravesite
reading he realized the unknown man who was found as Somerton Beach 1st December
1948 by now another pretty important clearly being discovered just before the colonial inquest a piece of paper was
found crumbled up in the pants of the summoned two men and had originally been missed by investigators and on that
crumbled up piece of paper read two words to man sugar that's Persian meaning finished or ended they
immediately got to work trying to find out where these words could have came from it looked like they'd been ripped
out of a book and they did find the book turns out these two words were printed on the last page of a poetry book the
book was titled the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam owner clam was a persian poet astronomer philosopher and mathematician
who lived from 1048 to 11:31 the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is an English translation of a selection of his poems
done by Edward Fitzgerald in the eighteen hundreds the translations are pretty subjective and others have
different interpretations of what the poems actually mean but Fitzgerald is the most well known it was a very
popular book the general thing throughout the book is one of seizing the day living life to the fullest and
dying without regret they would eventually track down the actual book the Summoner men rip these roads from
but unfortunately this book wasn't found until after the inquest the cranial inquest was held over two days on the
17th of June and then again on the 21st of June 1949 the coroner concluded the identity of the deceased was quite
unknown his death was not natural and that it was almost certainly not accidental
it was noticed that inquests how remarkably clean some of its Manchus were that along with the rest of his
appearance well-kept fingernails general clean and tidy appearance led the coroner to believe he wasn't a vagrant
or a drifter the inquest was adjourned to no fixed date meaning the case would remain open and continue to be
investigated and it could sit again if further information turned up it was still thought that poison was the cause
of death and two poisons in particular were mentioned that could have caused the death and remain undetectable the
names of those poisons weren't released to the public for many many years after as they were easy to obtain at the time
and the last thing they wanted to do was give the public an easy undetectable way
to kill someone by now the media had well and truly started to take a massive interest in the case at first the media
had barely a passing interest I mean doing of what was initially thought to be natural causes on the beach
not exactly headline grabbing stuff but as time went on the mystery surrounding the identity and the exact cause of the
Summoner man's death was starting to capture the public and media interest [Music]
once detectives had linked the words to manhood to the poetry book they made a public appeal if anyone had a copy of
the book with a page or piece of page missing incredibly on the 22nd of July 1949 a man came forward with a copy of
the book with a piece missing from the exact spot where those words would have been printed he said he found it on the
backseat of his car and he has no idea how I got there never seen it before thought it was
unusual at the time but didn't think too much more of it till he saw a media release calling for a copy of the book
and of course his car was parked at some urban beach fraud at the time the Somerton near died he recalls his window
was left unopened pretty common at the time police had that copy of the book that was handed in analyzed and compared
to the page that was found on the summer two men they had a paper expert analyzed
it and it was Dean it was a 100% match piece of paper with the words to manhood found on the summit two men came from
this book that had been handed him that had been tossed into the backseat of a car so the summit of men had thrown the
book into a random car that had its windows down and some were to be what I throw out into a car and Naughty
Dog been did he want someone to find it will he being followed and had to get rid of the book quickly and was that his
best option at the time no one really knows the identity of the man who came forward with the book is unknown he
requested to remain anonymous and police respected those wishes the book itself is very popular and many copies exist
but this particular copy that was handed in is extremely rare to this day another
exact copy hasn't been found and it gets better in the back of this particular copy of
the Ruby on of Omar Khayyam that this unknown person found in the backseat of his car there were four lines of letters
handwritten at the back some sort of code to this day and hasn't been broken there's a link in the podcasts
description to the code as seeing it for yourself will be better than me trying to describe it as four lines of letters
the code was published in a paper and amateur code breakers from all over the country got to work on the mystery many
thought it may have any code referencing back to the book of Omar Khayyam itself
top military code breakers have been consulted but no one has been able to crack it to this day many have gone
there trying there what is significant about the code is that the second line is crossed out and that crossed out line
is very similar to the start of the fourth line indicating whatever was being written was very deliberate and
obviously a mistake had been made but what if it's not a code as so so maybe it's just an aide memoire maybe
reminding the writer of a certain poem or poems in the book or maybe doesn't even reference the book at all maybe
what I wrote up is just using a letter to represent a word a sort of shorthand if you will
whatever it is it certainly adds a great deal of mystery to the case and this card certainly bamboozled police if they
weren't already been boozled enough it's also what leads many people to believe that the summer to me encase is related
to spies secret agents espionage they believe the summoning man may have been a communist spy Jason Bourne James Bond
type stuff when you put the code together with the missing labels the lack of our day and a few other things
in the case that have come up shortly it actually doesn't seem too crazy but we'll get into all that in a bit so this
we need to talk about the phone numbers that were also written down at the back of the book there were two phone numbers
written in the book along with the code the first belong to a local bank the second was tracked to a local woman by
the name of Jessica Thompson now for many many years in his case her real identity was unknown
she was only ever known by a nickname of sorts which was Justin so if your do any
reading on the case he'll often a mention of a mystery woman or Justin well her real name is Jessica Thompson
and a phone number was in the book along with the code that the summer two men had torn the words talent from not only
was Jessica Thompson a local she lived at Somerton Beach when they've got 400 meters away from where the some of them
it was found so we're starting to look like the summer to me and didn't choose something beige randomly he had a
purpose to be there on the 26th of July 1949 nearly over seven months after the summer to me and
was found police knocked on Jessica's door I started asking her questions about the some of the men and she denied
any knowledge I also started asking questions about the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam poetry book and she surprises
him she says yes that's my favorite book of poetry so the police were like okay do you own a copy
Jessica says yes I did but I gave it away turns out she gave it away to a member
of the military that she met in Sydney about four years earlier in 1945 his name was the Alf box all the police
thought new beauty case solved the some of the men he's obviously our foxhole and Jessica had given away a copy of the
book with a phone number in it and for whatever reason he's made his way to some damn Beach and he's died that was
the thought anyway police took Jessica down to see the plaster cast that had they made of the
Somerton man and her behavior was described as being quite odd she couldn't really look at the plaster cast
after her first look at that cheap stared at the floor she only gave very simple answers to police questions she
looked like sure to be able to faint basically showing all the signs that she knew exactly the summer to me in words
Jessica was married by now and she had two children a son Robin and a daughter Kate
Robin was born first and Jessica's husband was not the father it's unknown who the father of Robin actually is
Jessica requested her name not be released so she didn't want any embarrassment to come to her family with
her being linked to the summer two men police agreed that's why for many years she was only known as the mystery woman
or Justin police got to work on the actual theory and it wasn't long before that bubble was burst
they found him alive and well living in Sydney and he still had the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar : that Jessica had
given him she had inscribed a short passage in the book when she gave it a house and signed it Justin that's how
she came to be known by that particular nickname so not only was our pop still alive he
still had his copy of the Reuben meaning that some two men had a different copy of the Rubaiyat which Jessica's phone
number in it as if this case wasn't strange enough knew how this happens the poor are police at the time mustn't have
known what are you so how did Jessica Anil Fox all come to me in 1945 Jessica was living in Sydney she
was training to be a nurse at the Royal North Shore Hospital she spent a few evenings at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in
Sydney which was frequented by many military servicemen at the time it was here Jessica met out a girlfriend of one
of our friends introduced them I got together only for a few nights shared a few drinks and Alpha's being put back on
active duty for the war so as a parting gift Jessica gave him a copy of her favorite book their poetry book the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jessica left Sydney soon after she didn't complete her nursing exams she moved to Melbourne
for a brief period before settling in Adelaide Jessica would have fallen pregnant with Robin around this time and
who the father is we don't know some suspect it could have been our Foxhall but there's others that suspect it could
have been the Somerton man do you remember when there's some of the men arrived in Adelaide the only trained
from a major city but that day was from Melbourne so it was always assumed that some of the men came from Melbourne did
the summer two men meet Jessica in Sydney where she gave him a copy of the Reuben as well as she had given us did
he then try and track her down in Melbourne only to find out she's Naomi Natale and that's what he arrived there
to track down a former lover whatever the case it was clear that Jessica was lying to police she knew
that someone whom Ian was the daughter Kate would go on later many years later was only recently in the sixty minutes
interview she described Jessica and her mother as a woman with a very strong dark side she ever went on the safe she
thought she was probably a Russian spy she found out one day that Jessica spoke Russian but she wouldn't say where or
why she learnt it this gives further weight to those that have always believed the spy angle you had the code
to remove tags the mystery identity the mystery cause of death which many believe to be undetectable poison the
behavior of Jessica being deceptive to police and to top it all off Jessica said to a daughter one day that the
summer the man is known to people at a much higher level than the State Police that's all they told in a 60 minute
story which was done a few years ago and there's a link to that in the podcast there is another pretty significant
piece of information that adds further weight to the spawn angle in 1946 the few hundred kilometers out of Adelaide
Britain and Australia entered into a joint project of missile and nuclear rocket testing it's become to be known
as the rumour testing facility so if this case does in fact involve the spy angle there would be every reason for a
Russian spy to be you know like the top secret rocket and missile testing facility that was nearby
remember this was the start of the Cold War democracy versus communism the evil Reds all that stuff certainly it is
accepted that they were definitely spies in operation in Australia around this time so now we have this top-secret
military testing facility so yeah this place the informations are the code the missing labels the lack of identity the
unexplained cause of death believed to be some sort of undetectable poison you can say why this case has the attention
of conspiracy theorists one person that could have answered a lot of questions was Jessica but she
kept the cards very close to her chest she definitely knew more about the case than why she let on Amy towards the
later years of her life when it was still being investigated she remained deceptive to police jury felt us who was
a cold case detective who took on the case in the 90s and still investigates it to this day in his retirement he
interviewed Jessica he described there as being very evasive with her answers even you know 15 years after the event
not only that whenever the case was brought back into the spotlight or was receiving publicity for whatever reason
Jessica would either disappear on holidays what leave town but apart from spies and the possible love story angle
which we mentioned there is another possibility World War two had just finished Europe was in absolute chaos
you had the Soviet Union controlling Eastern Europe with the USA involved in Western Europe communism burst amok
recei the beginnings of the Cold War the rule of the Soviet Union in the East was
considered oppressive and this led to a mass exodus of people looking to move and find a better life elsewhere
Australia was a very popular destination for these people was considered a safe place to live especially nuclear war
broke out between the Soviets in the USA Australia was a little more isolated from other parts of the world millions
of people emigrated to Australia in the years after World War two in 1948 the immigration policy was in full swing and
that was actually the peak time for the Australian Government displaced persons immigration program which was
specifically designed to help bring people to Australia who had been displaced from their homeland when world
war ii broke out of course checks were conducted on everyone coming in but how strategic were these checks i wasn't
uncommon for people to use false names create new identities a fresh start in a new homeland it's quite possible that
some of the men was one of these millions of immigrants that was flocking to Australia at the time it would
explain one known as a variable to identify him not only were there lots of immigrants
flocking to Australia just stop and think about how many return soldiers they were displaced and suffering a high
percentage were struggling with what we now know is PTSD and what was referred to as shell-shocked and this day many
soldiers to be displaced become Drifters become estranged from their families and
that's another possibility in the case of the summer to me but of course with so many questions and so few answers
each Theory has its own pros and cons the big glaring confir every theory is the unexplained cause of death if some
of the men was a displaced immigrant or a returning soldier the how could he just drop dead with a healthy heart and
no other sign of health issues apart from the spleen but you know no obvious cause of death other than a lot of
congealed blood pointing to poisoning the same goes for the love angle if Jessica was a former lover of the song
attorney and that explains why he was there but it doesn't explain how he died that's what leads many to go down the
Jason Bourne James Bond path it's easy to explain his death he was a communist for that's what spies did killed each
other with undetectable poisons obviously it was picked off by another spy who caught him in and that would
certainly explain the code that was found in he's probably at the ruben arndt poetry book and why all the
identifying labels have been removed from his clothing but if some of the men was a spy where does that leave Jessica
Thompson in all this and what was their phone number in the copy of their Rubina
the more you think about this case the more your head starts to hurt and while our heads are burning what about this
and Jessica's favorite book was called Howards End by Anne Foster the book is the story of a girl who has a son out of
wedlock her family tried to scare the girls a lover off but in doing so they accidentally killed him because he had a
pre-existing weak heart condition and the altercation caused him to die accidentally
could that have been Jessica's why I was telling us what happened to the summer demand without telling us what really
happened could be or it could just be a favorite book who knows it's just another part of the mystery in 1945
three years before the summer demand case a man by the name of Joseph George Saul armed Marshal was found dead in
Ashland Park in Sydney his death was ruled as a suicide by poison on his chest he had a copy of the Rubaiyat of
Omar Khayyam and that copy was also very rare and just thought some in case another copy just like it was never able
to be Finland a lady who went on to give evidence at the inquest was found dead thirteen days later in a bath facedown
if there's risk both slit that could just be a bit of random information not related to the case but it's still
pretty odd moving forward to today the case is still as mysterious and weird as it was back then and it still remains
unsolved and is still open there are two people thought to be experts in the case
and links to their work have been provided in the podcast description first is Jerry filters a retired
decorated detective who investigated the case for many years he's cracked some tough ones in his time but even here he
hasn't been able to crack the summer to me he's written an excellent book titled
the unknown man detailing the case which I recommend checking out the second person is Professor Derek Abbott from
Adelaide University he stumbled across the case several years ago and became fascinated probably obsessed with the
case he's trying to get the body of the summit of men dug up for DNA testing he's submitted two proposals so far and
they've both been rejected fun fact the two experts Jerry filters and professor Derrick Abbott
aren't feelings of each other but it can't be denied both have done excellent work I recommend checking both ear
professor had actually appeared on a Rhetta asked me anything for him a little while ago and there's a ton of
useful in felon there so there's a link to that on the podcast description as well as his website where you can see
the original police statements and cranial documents as far as using today's technology to crack the case
well the only chance of that happening is if professor Abbott is ever successful in getting the body dug up
for DNA testing because some of the man's suitcase and all that spawning sand even a copy at the ruben arndt were
all destroyed many years ago when Adelaide South Australian police for doing your cleaning up so unfortunately
there's nothing really to test another fun fact about professor Dury gabart who's obsessed with the case is during
his time investigating the case he met the daughter of Robyn Thompson who is Jessica Thompson's granddaughter in
meeting the daughter of Robyn Thompson he also met her daughter Jessica Thompson's great-granddaughter and he
married her they have three children together here's a pretty interesting theory he's convinced that the son of
man was a former lover of Jessica Thompson and they had a child together that child being Robyn Thompson these
theories the Summoner men is a case of a former lover possibly a jilted lover who
knows tracking down Jessica to Somerton Beach for reasons unknown whether he was
trying to rekindle the relationship or professor Abbott even thinks that Judah the enlarged spleen that the Summoner
men may have already been doing and he knew it was doing and maybe that's why he finally tracked us to get down maybe
to try and you know one last good boy or whatever and that went however it went and he made his way though the beach and
died of natural causes and just hasn't been able to explain he's not convinced that he was poisoned
you know he's reached his conclusion just dude of all the circumstances of the case and also because of a
particular feature on the year of the summit a Mian which is also shared by Robyn Thompson and only
he is in 1 to 2% of the population so what are the chances of both these people you know it's sort of linked in
this way in the case of sharing this unusual feature of their eating you you know you certainly look at it and you
think it's quite possible especially when you learn that he is surprisingly enough are actually considered to be
quite good identifies of people not as good as fingerprints but pretty close so if that is the case that still doesn't
really explain his death natural causes was pretty much ruled out by the medical examiners at the time so
many possibilities aspire a former lover a displaced immigrant a displaced soldier roar there's so many more
theories on top of that the only thing we do know is we have no idea that some of the men was where he came from or how
we do it [Music]

Case 02: The Somerton Man

On the first of December 1948, a body of a man was located along the seawall of Somerton Beach, just near Adelaide in South Australia.

At first, the police thought it was going to be a straightforward matter, but as the weeks and months went on, it became apparent that this case was anything but straightforward… To this day we don’t know who he is, we don’t know where he came from and we don’t know how he died.

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anonymous Host Production, scoring – Mike Migas

SOCIAL LINKS

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://www.casefilepodcast.com/case-02-the-somerton-man

Brief Summary

The episode examines the unsolved mystery of the Somerton Man, found dead in 1948 with links to a poetry book and a mysterious woman.

Key points

The Mysterious Case of the Somerton Man. An unidentified man's body was found on Somerton Beach, sparking a baffling investigation.
The Discovery of the Body. On December 1, 1948, a man's body was found on the beach, leading to a mystery.
Unusual Circumstances. The man had no identification, and the labels from his clothing were removed.
The Investigation Deepens. As the investigation continued, the body deteriorated, complicating the case further.
The Mysterious Paper. A crumbled piece of paper found in the Somerton man's pants leads to a poetry book.
The Code That Baffles Experts. A mysterious code found in a book adds layers to the enigma of the Somerton man.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There are plenty more questions than answers.

Overview of the investigation's challenges.

2:28WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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