Breaking into my break so to speak. I thought I would provide an update following a dinner I had recently with Professor Abbott in Brisbane.
As it happens it was Derek's birthday and it marked an auspicious occasion, apparently it was the day that marked his being in Australia for 50% of his life, almost a local :)
We had a very pleasant evening and the food, Italian, was a delight.
We covered a number of topics, some of which I would like to share here as they relate to the SM case.
1. The Keane tie. This tie was found in the suitcase along with 2 other items that bore the name Kean/e being a singlet and a laundry bag. Of note is that the laundry bag had the name printed or stenciled on it but no service number or any further text. The question was what sort of circumstances would there be for a man to have his name marked on a laundry bag but nothing else, just the name?
I posed a question on the tie, when examined it appears to have a woolen texture to it and it does not have a brand name on it and the question was why would you write your name on a tie? The tie appears close in colour to that of a US army tie, a light fawn colour. Did other countries have similar coloured military ties. I do have some pics of US military ties and will post them. Would it be normal for US military ties not to have a brand name? Were they produced in such large quantities that no one manufacturer could cope with the demand and therefore a decision was made to leave the brand off? When you think about it the production of military ties during wartime could be sensitive information especially if the regiment and location was specified so it would have to go through central stores who would not want to be bothered sorting out ties by manufacturer. Any thoughts?
2. Lead. The hair recovered from the bust has apparently yielded better results than expected in terms of DNA and it does seem that SM is of European origin and likely to be from the UK or Ireland. Having said that, the Professor went on to say that, of course, many inhabitants of the US are also of UK origin. On the
issue of lead I raised the possibility of hairdressing lotion, brylcreem was mentioned, and whether it had lead as one of its ingredients. I recall a discussion a few years ago in the Inner Sanctum group when it was thought to be the case.As a matter of interest, Brylcream was the theme for the 1947 Brylcream Summer of Cricket so it was a highly popular product. It seems that SM's hair did not have any dressing as such, this could possibly support the lowering of lead levels shown in his hair in the last weeks of his life. If you recall the lead presence was at a high about 1 month prior to death but then reduced significantly.
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2012/apr/02/brief-history-of-brylcreem
3. The third point of interest and discussion was about what wasn't found. This has been the topic of discussion recently with Pete Bowes. It seems to me to be unusual that smoker with a taste for reasonable quality cigarettes and who had what appeared to be a fairly new lighter, had no lighter fuel, no spare flints and no spare wick. Many years ago when I used to smoke it was very common to have a smokers kit promoted by Ronson and others which would include these items. But SM had none of those, lighter fuel could simply be because he had run out but the flints and wick? If we could establish whether the Green & Co lighter was sold with spare flints and wick that may confirm the situation.
Thinking further along these lines, SM wasn't carrying any keys either, I am assuming that he would have locked his suitcase and a key should have been found.
4. We did discuss the matter of micro writing and it is still something on which we have differing views, but that does not affect the association we have had for more than 20 years. In fact the reason for the dinner was to catch up and an opportunity for Derek to repay a meal I once bought for him at Alphutte Restaurant in Adelaide many years ago when we worked together at Technology Park. A great meal on that occasion too.
We talked about a range of other related matters including what might have been the fate of the copy of the Rubaiyat. We also discussed a matter which I was delighted to hear about and which will be revealed in the next few weeks by Derek. Very newsworthy and I offered my congratulations.
For the information of interested parties, I've included the images below being of SM's shoes and the tie being an example of a US service tie, note no manufacturers label: