Friday 30 December 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE CODE PAGE DECRYPT, PERMISSION GRANTED THANKS TO GERRY FELTUS. UPDATED 13.55 30/12/16



PERMISSION GRANTED


I was able to contact Gerry Feltus in the last day or so and he has very kindly given his permission to use the copy of the code page decrypt that he has in his book, The Unknown Man.

The decrypt is found on pages 121 to 130 inclusive in the book and below is a set of images comprising of each page in sequence.

As Gerry points out, this is complex and, from my perspective, it does appear to have been done by someone wth some very specific experience.

I would point out that there are a few names that crop up in these images, bear in mind that at the time of original letter to the SA Police, Tibor Kaldor's name/ initials were not known and Jessica Harkness's name/initials were not released to the public. A reference to Mr. Lyons is interesting but I have no more to add to that.

I hope to get the name of the man who prepared this work, it is apparent that his first language is not English and is in fact, very structured which makes me think that he could be European and that leads to the possibility that he either was an ex-internee or knew of them. You can download a PDF of the following images for convenience. 


UPDATE, 13.55, 30/12/16:

The relevant words/initials found thus far are:


T,K. as potentially in Tibor Kaldor
JT as potentially in Jessica Thompson
Lyons as in the Jeweller
And thanks to a very observant commenter, we have POWs as in Prisoners of War
Lowe as in a German surname
Lowy as in a German surname (There is more than one person named Lowy amongst the internees, there is also a John Lowy whose file is restricted on NAA)

It does seem that our cryptologist has been very 'lucky' in getting so many hits, I feel sure there will be more.

An honourable mention! I would like to restate that without Clive finding the newspaper article regarding the apparent suicide of Tibor Kaldor in a Hindley Street, Adelaide hotel just two weeks to the day following the death of SM, none of what you read here would have been seen of particular value to the case. His ongoing enthusiasm and support in moving the case along is well worthy of recognition. Thanks Clive.

Last point, if you are skilled in this area, would you please look at the supposed 'crossed out' line, line 2, of the code page and include that in any further work you may do on this decrypt. This should keep you busy Misca :)

Page 121:




Page 122:


Page 123:  



Page 124:



Page 125:




Page 126:




Page 127:




Page 128:




Page 129:




Page 130:




You are able to purchase copy of The Unknown Man by Gerry Feltus here. It is an excellent resource book and gives a very detailed account of the events surrounding the finding of the body of the Somerton Man and subsequent investigations, highly recommended.

I trust that you will find this information of value. In the meantime, we are working hard at relating some of this information to our work on the Internees.

Just in time to wish all of our followers and readers a Very Happy and Successful 2017!










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Sunday 25 December 2016

SOMERTON MAN: TIBOR KALDOR, JESSICA THOMPSON STRONGLY LINKED TO THE CODE PAGE, GOVERNMENT SOURCE, UPDATED 27th DECEMBER 2016



TIBOR KALDOR LINKED TO CODE PAGE


Senator Cavanagh
Some months back, a friend of mine, JR,, sent me a link to an item in the Australian Government's 1970 Hansard. It detailed the findings of a senator, James L. Cavanagh, who had been contacted by an unnamed man who claimed to have partially solved the SM code. Here's the  first Hansard link  and here's the second, more detailed link

Just last week Clive messaged me and was excited about this same code which appears in Gerry Feltus's book, The Unknown Man. Clive pointed out the use of a set of initials T.K. in a partially decoded version of the SM code.





Here's a Transcript of some of the information in the document that was submitted to the SA Police in 1970:

1. VOWS JT/JM TAKEN T.K.LAST WAS MB I MISS MOST                                   SIGNED AMM


2. VOWS JT/JM TAKEN T.K. LAST WAS MB I MISS AMM MOST


IN ABOVE MESSAGES T.K MIGHT MEAN T.KEANN(E)
IN ABOVE MESSAGES  HB MIGHT MEAN HENLEY BEACH
IN ABOVE MESSAGES AMM MAY BE DECEASED SIGNATURE


INFERENCES TO BE DRAWN FROM ABOVE MESSAGES:-


1. T.K. MAY HAVE BEEN A BIGAMIST


2. HB MAY AVE BEEN AN EARLIER WIFE
OR
AMM


3. T.K. MAY HAVE BEEN AN ALIAS. THEREFORE AMM MAY HAVE BEEN THE CORRECT NAME


4. ORGINAL MARRIAGE MAY HAVE BEEN H.B. TO AMM

TO THE ABOVE LIST I WILL ADD JESSICA THOMSON, THE INITIALS JT IGHT JUST BE HERS.

The above is only a small part of the decryption offered by the, as yet unknown contributor who sent the information to SAPOL. It is available in Gerry Feltus's book, THE UNKOWN MAN. I will ask Gerry for permission to publish a full copy of the pages involved.

As we now know, T.K. were the initials not only of T. Keane but also of TIBOR KALDOR, a person whom we have shown has a connection to the case and have recently released even more information on the man. To add to that information we can say that, having contacted Vienna University, there was no record of TIBOR KALDOR having attended there. Further research is taking place but that is how it stands at the moment.

UPDATE:

Just heard from Clive, Vienna University confirms that they have no record of a Tibor Kaldor in the Philosophical faculty between 1922 and 1937, the years when Tibor should have been there. It seems highly likely that, whoever this man was, his name was not Tibor Kaldor. We seem to have a false identity which fits with the code decrypt information above. We will check further against his mother's first husband's name, Schoen. (Thanks Misca!)


The decrypt did not take into account what is commonly known as the 'crossed out' line.' My view is that because the SA Police are said to have written over indentations on the book then it would be very difficult to know whether the line was put in place first or the letters, hence we should really try to replicate the work of the contributor and include the real second line in the effort.

What does this mean to the existence of micro-writing, simply put, it changes nothing, the micro-writing is definitely there as has now been proven. How it relates to the actual letters, I am not at all sure. It could well be that what we have is two codes in one. That is, we have the letters as seen on the code page with one meaning and we have the micro code with another meaning.

We suggest that, given the full circumstances and the finding of Tibor Kaldor's body two weeks to the day following SM's death also in Adelaide, that those initials were for Tibor Kaldor. A major piece of the puzzle has emerged.

In the last few months, more progress has been made in this case than in the previous 67 years. All it took was Clive to spot the article in the Adelaide press regarding Tibor Kaldor's death and the SM case has moved on significantly since that time.

There's more work to be done but I believe we are n the right track and the end of this story may well be closer than many would have thought possible.

More will be posted on this breakthrough next week. If this works out well, we may have yet another set of initials and in that case we have a list of some 3000 +  internees against which we can run a comparison.

UPDATE: 26th December 2016

A first cut of the names of the Dunera Boys and other German Internees have given us 5 names that get close to matching the AMM initials. Some of these men have photographs and two in particular look to be very interesting, too early to say more at this time. The pics and information will be published in the next few days.

Enough leads for the sleuths out there to jump in and start searching!


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SOMERTON MAN: A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL WHEREVER YOU MAY BE!


MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS & MAY

2017 BE A YEAR FILLED WITH 

PEACE, JOY AND ACHIEVEMENT IN EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE!


For Clive, Pete Bowes, Misca, Renoarnon, Byron Devison,  Gerry Feltus, JR, Nick, Lori, Barb, Swords 14, John Sanders & to every one of the anonymous and named commenters to this blog. 

Christmas Card by Ulrich Laufer, Dunera Boy

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


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Saturday 17 December 2016

SOMERTON MAN: MR KALDOR & MR. JACOBY, INCLUDING NEW INFORMATION ON TIBOR



Mr Kaldor & Mr. Jacoby

Why Is This Address So Intriguing?



The first we knew of this address came to light during Clive's research into the sudden and questionable case of 'suicide' of Tibor Kaldor in Adelaide just two weeks to the day following the death of the Somerton Man on December 1st 1948.

Between us, Clive and I have carried out further research and via a link to the World Jewish Refugee organisation website, our research was rewarded. Clive had contacted one of the volunteers at this organisation and she responded with a great deal of new and extremely interesting information.

Not only did they have a case record for Tibor Kaldor but they also had a record of a Mr. Erwin Jacoby, a name we had linked to Tibor some weeks ago in relation some kind of financial dealings in the UK. Both Mr Kaldor and Mr Jacoby resided at 65 Parliament Hill in 1939/1940 owned at the time by a Mr John Hannah, Mr Hannah may be a name that rings bells for some but I am sure that this at least is pure coincidence.

The Learned Gentlemen

If that had been the only related fact then this story would have ended at that point. but it wasn't. there's a lot more of interest about these two men.




If that had been the only related fact then this story would have ended at that point. but it wasn't. there's a lot more of interest about these two men.

Tibor arrived in the UK on 13th March 1939 at the port of Folkestone from Milan, Italy where he had been for 8 1/2 months. He was born in June 1904 and spoke Geman, English, French, and Italian, the documents state that he was not an orthodox Jew. His occupation was stated as 'Secretary' and later 'Trainee'
Erwin arrived in Dover on the 27th June 1939, having spent time, 5 1/2 months, in Italy, believed to be Milan. He was born in August 1904 and spoke German, English, Italian and Spanish. His documents state that he was not an orthodox Jew. His occupation was stated as 'Bookseller' although initially as a 'Trainee'.

So, we have similar men, similar ages, similar languages spoken, both had been in Italy for an extended period of time and they both end up residing at 65 Parliament Hill in London.

Erwin Jacoby had a sister and brother resident in the UK, he was able to immediately gain employment a  trainee at M & N Horne, Clothing Importers in London ad later moved to Glasgow to work, presumably, at his sister's Bookshop.

Tibor, on the other hand, had no relatives and the man who had been a guarantor for him according to the case file, removed that guarantee. Tibor enlisted in the AMPC, (The Pioneer Corps) on 29h May 1940. He was arrested and put aboard the Dunera in June 1940, his records at that time showed him to be unemployed.

Thanks to these new documents, we now have a date when Tibor moved to 10 The Avenue, Windsor, it being 17th July 1945. Given that he was released from Tatura on 1th April 1942, there is a gap of approximately 3 years when his whereabouts are currently unknown.

For the record, there was just one person named Jacoby on the HMT Dunera, the same ship on which Tibor set sail for Australia. Full name was Franz Victor Guenther Jacoby, a chemical engineer.

The Burning Question

Why was it that Tibor was judged to be an 'enemy alien' and deported, yet Erwin was not detained and allowed to stay and work in the UK? We ae still reviewing the mechanisms applied by the UK Government and especially the rules and regulations that governed the treatment of 'enemy aliens'

The two case documents are available from the link below, as you will see, the notes are quite difficult to interpret due to the nature of the handwriting. You will also see a number of names are mentioned. Perhaps a researcher with time on their hands would care to delve deeper into these documents? I know we will be doing just that over the Christmas break but the more who become involved, the better.

WJR Case Files for Tibor Kaldor and for Erwin Jacoby can be found here..


The Three Kaldors


'The Three Kaldors are a trio of lugubrious acrobats, of tremendous potentialities in the mirth-provoking line..'


During research, we came across a reference to a touring Acrobat group in the UK, The Three Kaldors. This could, of course, be pure coincidence but, thanks to Byron Devison reminding us, we know that one Australian Newspaper article from around the time  of the original SM case had quoted the notion that the Somerton Man may have been part of a touring acrobat group from the USA and who were in Australia at the relevant times. It is a sim link but one that holds promise.

More on this topic in the next post..

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Wednesday 7 December 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE FULL STORY PART 1. THE LINK TO HAY, JESTYN, ALF BOXALL AND TIBOR KALDOR PROVEN.. TORN PIECE REVEALED


HAY INTERNMENT CAMP BANK  NOTE
WITH MANY THANKS TO MICK VORT-RONALD.

The subject of this series of Posts is essentially the full Somerton Man picture as we currently see it.

In this post we will look mostly at the one aspect that ties together Tibor Kaldor, The Somerton Man, Alf Boxall and Jestyn. It all starts with the Hay Internment Camp Banknotes.

For the record, the above is a highly detailed image of a Hay Two Shilling note, the best we have had so far. Please download it and examine it at your leisure. I suspect that those who carry out a detailed examination of the note will be more than surprised. A clue, look closely at the 'We are here because we are here..' woven in to the barbed wire border with a focus to the right of the note and in particular the letter 'h'.

Mick Vort-Ronald has been extraordinarily helpful and has provided another set of very hi-res images of the 3 notes to which he has been given access.

In this post, we will look at a number of the close up images but with a specific focus on a signature, that of Mr Stahl.

Below is the signature of R Stahl. The numbers are reasonably clear and are within the pen strokes of the signature. Note, in particular, the block of numbers to the left which form the inner border of the notes. The shape of the Emu is most interesting you can see along its back a series of numbers. In fact, every mark on each of the notes has a story to tell. More later.



 To the left a close up of part of the signature, I have highlighted the areas of note. You should be able to make out the shapes of numbers within the signature.













To the left, the most astonishing aspect of these Hay Banknotes is shown. Yes, you can see the rows of tiny numbers and letters in a block and to the left of that block you can see what at first may look like roughly drawn lines. They are in fact micro-written words and numbers.

You see the whole design of the banknotes is based on Hebrew Micrographic artwork.  See examples at the end of this post.

It is quite possible that the block to the right in th image is made up of Hebrew letters and symbols.


To the baseline of this image above and you can just see the tip of Mr Stahl's signature and there within it, tiny numbers and letters.

I have quite a number of these images and more will be added to this post in the coming week.

Why is this signature so important? Because this signature clearly shows the use of micro written content actually within cursive writing and that is precisely what was found within Jestyn & Alf's Verse 70 from the Rubaiyat.

The linkage is now clear and proven, we can now support the belief that Tibor Kaldor was in some way connected, this man as you will recall, was found poisoned in a Hindley Street, Adelaide Hotel 2 weeks to the day that SM was found also poisoned on the beach at Somerton just a tram ride away from the City of Adelaide.

Let me stress that there are 4 known examples of micro writing that have been found in Australia. The Hay Bank notes, Verse 70 by Jestyn and Alf Boxall, The torn piece from the Rubaiyat and the code page itself. Mysteriously, Tibor Kaldor, an ex internee and a Dunera Boy who was interned at Hay when these banknotes were designed and made, turns up at the time and in the manner that he did. The man got to share the same morgue with SM.

THE TORN PIECE REVEALED

This is a close up image of the TAMAM SHUD torn piece with backlighting and taken at an oblique angle. There is no mistake, I make out a string of numbers:

4523325

It appears to me that these may have been printed in place and bear a style resemblance to the blocks of numbers/letters in the Hay Bank note images.


What is needed is an infrared camera, I am hoping to get access to one over the Christmas break.


MICROGRAPHY EXAMPLES







Looking for a good read over Christmas? The Bookmaker From Rabaul by fellow blogger Pete Bowes is highly recommended.

This is a fictionalised account of the Somerton Man case. An enduring Australian mystery that began in December 1948 when a body was discovered on Somerton Beach: a man, overdressed for hot weather and no clue as to his identity. Who was he? How and why did he die? Did the Somerton Man get out of his depth in a world of espionage and dark deeds beyond his control or comprehension? And what about Jessica – the woman he loved and whose life he changed forever.
This vividly imagined and meticulously researched account offers a gripping fictional interpretation of a true-life mystery that remains unsolved to this day. A detailed afterword describes the people and events that inspired this book.
Amazon Books (Kindle / ebook Aus)
             Amazon Books (Kindle / ebook Worldwide)
                                                   Amazon Books (Paperback)
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Friday 2 December 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE RED BOOK DOWNLOAD, THE INTERNMENT CAMP MANUALS DOWNLOAD


DOWNLOADS



For obvious reasons I have called this document above, the Red Book, it contains a list of 76 names of German internees who were known agents for German Secret Service and some, as you will read, had Russian affiliations. These man were arrested in Iran by the British in 1941. They were transported to Australia on the RANGITIKI and were initially interned at Loveday Camp, near Barmera in The Riverland, South Australia. At the end of the war however, they were moved to Tatura camp in Victoria and were gradually released as and when it became clear that they no longer posed a threat to the security of Australia. I would ask you to be aware that these men would still have living relatives in many countries and at the time they were arrested, they were doing what they saw as their duty.


As per a recent post, the downloads for each of the 3 Camp Manuals are now available. In them you will read of the rules and regulations by which Internment and POW camps were run within Australia during the period 1939 to 1950. They make for fascinating reading covering every aspect of Camp management, security, classification of internees and POWs. From within these pages, you will be able to build a picture of what life would have been like for inmates and guards alike, you will also be able to see how you can build a 'profile' of a typical internee down to the sorts of clothes he might wear and some of the items he might carry in a suitcase on his release.

I would suggest you also download and read the book 'Behind Barbed Wire', you will find this book in the same download folder as the manuals and the Red Book. It is a highly detailed and extremely well-researched book on Internees in Australia during WW2,






The next post will be one of three which are intended to bring all the information that we now have , together. I cannot promise that it will be a scintillating read but it will be factual and I will provide as much hard evidence as I have. With thanks to Anton :)

A quick note, I see that John Sanders has found a link between Mr. Keane and the Tatura Internment camp hospital, my congratulations to you John, I am sure that this find has the potential to move the case even further along.

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Thursday 1 December 2016

Tuesday 29 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE CODE PAGE REVEALS THE FINAL SECRETS. CAN IT BE THIS SIMPLE? THE CASE TURNED ON ITS HEAD.?


THE CODE PAGE UNPLUGGED!

Now Take A Closer Look..



Yesterday I wrote the following part of this post and added it to the previous post as a 'random'' thought:


Hmm, what if the first letter R in line 1 was really a K? What if someone added the outer flourish? The last letter on line 5 is the R that I showed some time ago. Raises the stakes on the set of initials perhaps?

George Teltscher, the designer of the Hay Bank Notes, used many different techniques to hide names and other information within his designs. What if the letters of the code page had another layer of information woven into them? The Pro Sign theory would remain as would the microcode. I am sure that other names can be found amongst the letters, the question would be, would those names be relevant as is the case with Tibor? What is the probability of Tibor Kaldor's name being spelt out with  letters from the code page? Not, quite spelt in total but incredibly close., we are apparently one letter short being that 'K'.


THE UNBELIEVABLE?

Below I have listed the names thus far found:

PROSPER

BOXALL


DANETTA

TIBOR _ALDOR


Within the letters of the code page the above names are to be readily found, all 4 of which are very closely associated with the Somerton Man case. The occurrence of Danetta was something of a moment if you recall, this name turned up in the Acrostic code examination of Tibor Kaldor's last note.

Is this really possible? Could it be this simple? Why hasn't anybody found this before? (That includes me by the way). I am sure there are some good logical explanations for some names to be spelt out from the code page letters, but these specific names? I do not understand why no one has stumbled  across this before.

What do we think the probability is that we could find these names, do we think it is pure chance?

There are many thousands of words that can be made up from the 18 letters of the alphabet that comprise the letters of the 'code'. It still begs the question as to how these names, in particular, were readily found. It is accepted that these are familiar names, after finding the Tibor _aldor set of letters I set out to find if other names or part names were there and they were quickly found. If I had another set of names in mind would I have found them as quickly?

I have looked at a word generator but it had a limit of 15 letters, leaving us 3 letters short. The number of possible words found was 8900 of ten characters and less.

I am certain that someone can do the math and ascertain just how many names of say, 12 letters or less could be generated from the total of 18 characters, being:

ABCDEGILMNOPQRSTVX


Quite frankly I was surprised by it, could it be that more names of those associated with the case
are on this code page and could it be that the name of the Somerton Man is amongst them? I don't honestly have the answer to that particular question but I do think it's worth pursuing.

The reality is that I could be wrong.  but I do think that this has the very definite potential to turn the whole case on its head.

In closing this post off, I refer back to the earlier comment regarding the incredible skills of George Teltscher, the designer of the Hay Bank notes and the man who was adept at hiding messages in places where you would least expect to find them, namely, as in this case, in plain sight.

With many thanks to Clive for his ongoing input, advice and support and my apologies to Anton, as you can see there have been quite a few things happening concurrently but I will respond to your comments which I found to be very valuable and they are very much appreciated. Another day or so and I will post a response.
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Monday 28 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE RED BOOK, A LIST OF SPIES. TIBOR's name found on the code page Updated 17.15 hrs Monday 28/11/2016


THE LIST OF SPIES

(View updated information at base of this post)



The image above is the cover page from a document marked SECRET, It was prepared by the Royal Australian Air Force,  it details a list of 76 men who were deemed to be members of the German Secret Service and who operated in Iran up until their arrest and internment by British Military in 1941.  This document is quite brief having some 21 pages in total.

It was found almost by accident, there had been mentions of the existence of this list and of the interrogations but nothing cropped up using the usual keywords for the NAA website. That is until one day a couple of weeks ago, I happened to enter some hitherto unused words and Voila, the list appeared.

It is a fascinating document, providing as it does, the names, some of which were misspelt, and the outcomes of their interviews.


The note above is from the Red Book file and I suggest you read it in its entirety. It mentions the 'luke warms' and the 'activists', stool pigeons', 'Austrian refugee friends' and their visits to the compounds where these men would be interned. It is in this document that we found the mechanism by which TK and others may have met known agents.

Of particular note is that amongst the list of 76 men, there were some who are referred to as 'Russians', men who, whilst German, had ben 'taken over' by the Russians and who operated on their behalf in Iran.

Working with Clive, the list was scanned for any immediate 'suspects', anyone who would jump out from the list either because of their name or because of their activities. The first one was a known Nazi and agent of the German Secret Service and for employment, he headed up the Iranian Telephone company in Teheran. Of particular interest was a short description of his interests as an agent, his focus was on the Zoroastrian Persians. In a recent post covering Clive's interview with Paul Lawson, you may recall that Mr Lawson made mention of Jestyn, her leaving flowers at SM's grave and her telling a Detective that the act was related to an old Persian religion.

In that scrap of information, we could see the connection between Jestyn, the Rubaiyat, (Often quoted in the Zoroastrian sphere) and a possible and hitherto unknown aspect of SM's religious leanings.

On the list, the man's name first appears as 'Fritz Mecheer', we were unable to find anyone by that
name on the NAA site. Thanks to some great work by Clive, we turned up the man's real name, 'Fritz Mechler' and below is a copy of a document from his NAA files:


This clip is from the Red Book SECRET document.

The files for most of the men on the list include photographs and fingerprints. From the main image, you can see that Fritz does not match the description of SM.

Fritz, along with more than 400 other German men and women from Iran were put on the Rangitiki and arrived in outer harbour on the 19th November 1941. They were all interned at Camp Loveday near Barmera in South Australia's Riverland. Fritz remained there along with his fellow travellers until he was transferred to Tatura Internment Camp on 1st February 1945. In January 1947 he was moved from No.1 camp at Tatura to No 3 Camp, Rushworth near Tatura.

Fritz was repatriated to Germany on 24th November 1947 and travelled on the USS General Stuart Heintzleman, a US Army Transport. At this time, we don't know whether he ever returned to Australia.

There will be more items posted from this book and another set of 3 very relevant manuals discovered quite recently.


UPDATED. 17.15 Monday 28 November 2016. But first a composite image made from some of the letters of the Somerton Man code page:


Hmm, what if the first letter R in line 1 was really a K? What if someone added the outer flourish? The last letter on line 5 is the R that I showed some time ago. Raises the stakes on the set of initials perhaps?

George Teltscher, the designer of the Hay Bank Notes, used many different techniques to hide names and other information within his designs. What if the letters of the code page had another layer of information woven into them? The Pro Sign theory would remain as would the microcode. I am sure that other names can be found amongst the letters, the question would be, would those names be relevant as is the case with Tibor? What is the probability of Tibor Kaldor's name being spelt out with  letters from the code page? Not, quite spelt in total but incredibly close., we are appaently one letter short being that 'K'.

Food for thought.

Next Post

On this coming Thursday 1st December marking 68 years to the day when the Somerton Man's body was found on Somerton Beach near Adelaide in South Australia, we will make available a range of manuals and related documents and links for those that are interested in this story and the facts that lay behind it.
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Friday 25 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE BOOKMAKER FROM RABAUL, AN UPDATE


Recommended Reading!



The Bookmaker from Rabaul is a fictionalised account of the Somerton Man case. An enduring Australian mystery that began in December 1948 when a body was discovered on Somerton Beach: a man, overdressed for hot weather and no clue as to his identity.

Who was he? How and why did he die? Did the Somerton Man get out of his depth in a world of espionage and events beyond his control or comprehension? And what about Jessica – the woman he loved and whose life he changed forever.

This vividly imagined and meticulously researched account offers a gripping fictional interpretation of a true-life mystery that remains unsolved to this day. A detailed afterword describes the people and events that inspired this book.


Fellow Blogger Pete Bowes has been working assiduously on the production of his latest book, 'The Bookmaker From Rabaul'.  Those who have been following Pete's Toms By Two blog will be quite familiar with the story of this story! Knowing Pete, I am certain that this book will be a fascinating read and I am really looking forward to getting my copy from Amazon, it's to be released there on December 1st. A propitious date for the Somerton Man.

Congrats to you Pete, I wish you every success!


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Tuesday 22 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: ODD ADS, CLANDESTINE COMMUNICATIONS?



ODD & UNUSUAL ADS

This will be a 'Living' post. in other words, as more similar ads are found I will post them here on this page along with a comment.



The first of these ads of interest is this one dated September 1948, it is likely that this ad was placed by Tibor Kaldor, the reasoning behind that being the use of Ph D and Vienna which is where Tibor Kaldor is thought to have attended University and gained his degree. For the record Clive has been in communication with Vienna University and they are actively researching their archives for any trace of Tibor Kaldor, the first pass of their records revealed no trace.

What's different about the ad is that it looks to have a box number attached to it. Having extensively searched through ads for language teachers through the 1944 to 1948 period, this was the only such ad that had a box number, if that is what the numbers were. I was unable to find a set of 5 digit numbers in amongst the ads in the AGE. That's not to say there weren't any, just unable to find an example. If there weren't any such box numbers, then I wonder what signiicance the numbers 94860 could hav had?

Tibor's ad was placed 1 month after he had applied for British Naturalisation and 3 months prior to his death by suicide. In between those times, Tibor apparently had his application for British Naturalisation accepted, in fact, that was just one month prior to his death.

This next ad was found by Misca, (many thanks!)


Of note here is that 10 The Avenue, Windsor was the address given for Tibor Kaldor in the news article telling of his death by suicide in Adelaide on December 14th 1948. In the ad he describes himself as 'Dr' T. K. Note again, the addess was given and not a box number.

Misca believes there are more ads by Tibor but they're proving to b elusive at the moment, sometimes Trove shows links and sometimes they escape.

For those interested, there were a number of Language schools in and around Melbourne, mostly in Collins Street and Little Collins Street. One of these schools, The Berlitz Language School, made a point of mentioning that their tutors were, in fact, native German and other language speakers. It raises questions as to whether Tibor may have been employed there at some time and whether Jestyn ever attended a school like this at an early stage prior to her leaving for Sydney.


This last ad shown below, is the well-known ad placed by Prosper regarding a Lost Tudor Gold watch dated 18th. December 1948.


A few things to think about here, firstly it doesn't say whether it was a man's or ladies gold watch and it doesn't give the model (there were several) The Tudor watch was equal to a Rolex and in fact, Rolex bought the company. This was a very expensive watch.

Next, the location where it was lost was not described, you would think that with such an expensive item, you would recall where it could have been lost and for that matter when.

It has always intrigued me as to how many ads looking for valuable watches and other such items were ever answered.


CLANDESTINE MESSAGES?

A known covert or clandestine method of communication was to use 'dead end' classified ads, Ads that you knew were not going to get a reply, the real purpose of these ads was to deliver a message. The question would always be just who was the message being sent to? Normally messages such as these were used to trigger further action rather than inform of an event.

It is a classic example of a clandestine message being effectively hidden in plain sight. The message is sent in the clear but because you don't know who it is for and the code, if any used, may have been just a one-time thing, you are left with some non-actionable information.

The method is discussed in a 1943 SOE manual from the UK.

Incidentally, this ad for a watch posted by Prosper, appeared 4 days after Tibor Kaldor was found poisoned in a Hindley Street hotel and just 18 days after the Somerton Man was found, also poisoned.

Looking at Tibor's September ad, could that be a dead end? Would he have placed that ad knowing that people would be highly unlikely to answer a Language ad that had only a box number if, indeed that is what the number was? Tibor was evidently a very intelligent man who was extremely detailed in his communications. A prime example of his abilities may lie in the acrostic code found in his last letter/suicide note. I would ask the question, was it Tibor who placed this, out of character style, ad or was it someone else? And, what message was being sent? What action was being triggered?

It would be an interesting exercise to research the 'unusual' events that took place in the month leading up to Tibor's last ad and the month or so after. Any takers?

Posted with thanks to Clive for his input, support and feedback.
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Monday 21 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: THE EAR COMPARISON, DETAILED IMAGE. YOU DECIDE...



SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISONS WITH SM's EAR



Above is an image that compares 5 ears from different people with that of the Somerton Man. The list is as follows:

1. Helmut Hendon
2. Jestyn's Grandson, this mans mother was born after SMs time.
3. Somerton Man
4. Jestyn's son, Robin.
5. Jestyn's husband known as Prosper
6 Jestyn's elder brother.

I first published this image in 2009 whilst a member of the University of Adelaide Facebook page.

SIGNIFICANCE

This image is significant and very relevant for the following reasons, the claim has been made for some time that Robin is SM's son and as proof of that claim, it was stated that Robin shared the same kind of ear as SM. It was also stated that this was a rare type of ear as shown below:
When you compare the 6 comparison images to this last image, you will see that Robins ear appears to show more in common in terms of structure and shape with Prospers and Jestyn's brothers ear and even that of Helmut Hendon. Jestyn's grandson also appears to have an ear that has a larger Cymba than Cavum

The 'rare' condition is in fact shared by 1% of the population, bearing that number in mind, if you consider the population of Australia in 1946 was approximately 7.5 million. That means that that in 1946 there were 35000 males in Australia with that condition, if we say 25% of them would fit the bill in terms of age in 1946 then that would mean there would have been 7500 possible fathers for Robin in Australia based on this theory. If we then consider that Jestyn was in Sydney in 1946 the population there was approximately 1.5 million, using our example above, then in Sydney there would have been close to 1000 men that could have been a candidate.

It would be valuable to have a photograph close up of Jestyn's ear and teeth and those of her family as well as those of Robin, perhaps that is something that could be done?

DNA

Much has been made of the issue of the Somerton Man DNA and the links to America. I noted that no one has suggested that there was a match between Robin and SM in that regard. However, the Thompson/Thomson family have long established heritage in the USA:

I could be mistaken here, but I recall some time ago being told that Prosper Thomson had a number of relatives in the US and may even have visited them. Perhaps Misca or Byron could take a look at that.

I have written this post in response to a number of email requests received over the past few months, it would have to say that it has long been a source of interest for me that such scant basic information has been presented and never really questioned.

Was SM Robin's Father?

In the end, will it matter much if SM had American roots? We have already found strong US connections to the internees; our ballet dancer, for example, had strong connections to Peggy Guggenheim , and George Telstcher, the internee designer of the Hay Bank Notes, had a brother in Massachusetts.  The bigger question is, was he Robins father? As you can see from the images there is room for doubt but again he could have been. If he was, what we would have to address is just where and when SM and Jestyn met up in October 1946. It could have been Sydney but that is necessarily so, they could have met up anywhere. Jestyn may have been on leave for example.

One possible clue is Jestyn's statement that implied she was involved in teaching English to Russians. The CPA in Sydney used to run such classes and not that far from the Hospital where Jestyn was supposedly training. We have one teacher of Languages and a Phd at that from the University of Vienna. Clive is doing some extra digging on that subject as I write.

Thanks to Misca, we have found more links on Trove with at least one pointing to a teacher of langages from Vienna who had a Phd but this time with just a box number and not an address or telephone number. At least we think it's a box number.


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Saturday 12 November 2016

SOMERTON MAN: UPDATED 19/11/16, TIBOR KALDOR, NEW FACTS AND ANOTHER LINK TO THE SOMERTON MAN CASE




TIBOR KALDOR

NEW FACTS






The above image is a form signed by Tibor as Dr. Tibor Kaldor. This is the only reference we have to him being qualified as a Dr. apart from the ad in the Age newspaper dated 1944 and found by Misca. The question is, what kind of Dr.?


The image below is of the original Metropolitan Police 'Exemption From Internment' Certificate dated 18.12.1939, in the name of Tibor Kaldor. You can see that at the time of its issue, Tibor was unemployed and he has as his occupation, 'Secretary, Insurance Co.'.  His address was 65 Parliament Hill, London NW 3. I have darkened this image as the original was quite faded.




65 Parliament Hill Road, NW3.


The form has been overstamped with 'INTERNED CIRCULAR 21.6.40' That was the date that all 'enemy' aliens were arrested and then placed in Internment camps first in the UK prior to many of them, including Tibor, being put aboard the HMT Dunera for deportation to Australia. For some there was a step prior, they were placed initially on the Andora Star and headed for Canada. 24 hours out on that ill-fated trip, the Andora Star was in fact torpedoed with the loss of many lives most of whom were Internees and some were German POWs.

The internees that survived the sinking were rescued and then later put aboard the HMT Dunera. Once again just 24 hours out, the HMT Dunera was attacked by a U-Boat but the torpedoe, whilst hitting ts target, failed to explode. You can imagine the panic on board especially for those that had escaped the Andora Star. For one reason or another, the British guards threw  the belongings of many internees overboard shortly after the attack. It is recorded that many personal items including false teeth, were amongst the items ditched.

The fact that the vast majority of the internees aboard the Dunera were German meant that the belongings thrown overboard would contain obviously German markings and perhaps documents. So, whilst it is thought by some that the action of dumping the belongings was done in anger, others suggest that it was a deliberate ploy by the British to fool the lurking U-Boat Commander into thinking that the Dunera had German POWs aboard which would hopefully lead him to cease the attack. Whatever the reason, the Dunera completed the rest of its journey to Australia without any further enemy action.

For the record, there is a common misconception that there were German POWs on board the Dunera on that trip which is incorrect according to records and to the interview with Bern, one of the survivors of the original Dunera boys.

As you can see the house, number 65 Parliament Hill, NW 3, and  at which Tibor lived, was quite an attractive property and would have been even more so in those times.

We do not know at this stage just who owned that property and whether Tibor was boarding there or in fact, it was he who owned it. the initial thought is that a refugee from Europe would have been unlikely to carry much money with him but then again more than a few refugees did. In Australia, the practice was to record details of an Internees property if owned or part owned, there is no such entry for Tibor in his Australian documents.

Apart from knowing where Tibor's mother, Rosa, lived, we have been unable to trace any details of Tibor's life in Vienna prior to his escaping Europe at least up to this stage. The district of Josefstad was quite heavily populated and, in the early days, it was a working class area close to the City Centre. In more recent times the area has become a middle-class enclave.

As you will read in the following excerpt from Wikipeia, these were extremely dangerous times for those of Jewish faith in Vienna.


Rosa's Home. Vienna.

Vienna: The Holocaust (1938–1945) WIKIPEDIA

Immediately after the Anschluss, Vienna’s Jews were forced by the local population to clean the city’s pavements.

Just one day after the Anschluss in March 1938, Jews were being harassed in Vienna. They were driven through the streets of Vienna, their homes and shops were plundered and the process of Aryanisation began. These events reached their climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna were destroyed – the Stadttempel was the sole survivor because its location in a residential area prevented it from being burned down. Most Jewish shops were plundered and then closed down; over 6000 Jews were arrested in this one night, the majority were deported to the Dachau concentration camp in the following days. The Nuremberg Laws applied in Austria from May 1938; they were reinforced with innumerable anti-semitic decrees. Jews were gradually robbed of their freedoms, were blocked from almost all professions, were shut out of schools and universities, and were forced to wear the Yellow badge.

The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate. Their plans succeeded – by the end of 1941, 130,000 Jews had left Vienna, 30,000 of whom went to the USA. They left behind all of their property, but were forced to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all émigrés from the Third Reich; some received financial support from international aid organisations so that they could pay this tax. Following the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where the Nazis resolved to completely annihilate the Jewish population, the majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna became victims of the Holocaust. Of the more than 65,000 Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, only a few more than 2000 survived.


AN INTERESTING FIND 

(An NAA Document. Search 'POWS and Internees')

For reference only at this stage but it does contain some very interesting information. You will read of the practice of issuing internees with writing materials but not just ordinary writing materials. The reference is to 'NOTELOPES' these were combined letters and envelopes made of light weight paper akin to what we may have been used to calling an 'aerogramme', 'PAR AVION' air mail stickers were also issued to internees.


I have darkened this document as once again it was quite faded.

Note that the paper from which the 'Notelopes' were made had to be specially glazed, that was done to prevent the use of secret inks, there was a real fear that a good number of the internees may have been involved in espionage and would communicate to overseas locations in what would appear to be ordinary and non-suspicious letters home though the reality could be that secret messages could be concealed using secret ink preparations. Notelopes were used specifically for airmail where weight of each letter was an important factor.

Note also that should the 'Notelopes' not be available, then plain white paper measuring 10 inches by 6 inches was to be issued together white envelopes.

Another Link To The Somerton Man Case

Amongst the contents of the man's suitcase, there were what were referred to as 'Lettercards' and Par Avion airmail stickers. There were also plain white envelopes found in SM's suitcase.

Whilst we have many photographs of the suitcase contents, no photographs exist of the letter cards, the Par Avion stickers nor the large white envelopes. You should also consider the fact that letter cards as such were for local, within Australia, postage, they would not need Par Avion stickers which were for overseas air mail and therefore lightweight letter grammes or 'Notelopes'

I think that it would be a worthwhile exercise to go through SM's belongings and identify those items listed but for which no photographs exist and then test to find out whether such items would tend to identify something about the man. It seems to me that at the very least, the writing materials , from their description alone, could well provide another link between the Somerton Man and the German Internees/ POWs of Hay and Tatura.

An Unreasonable Fear?

The fear of espionage agents being amongst Australias Internees was not without foundation, work by the intelligence services, including the men and women who interviewed internees on their arrival, had uncovered an extensive ring of Russian Fascists within the Internment Camps. Not only were there fascists but communists, nazis and not a few religious fanatics. This will form the basis of a separate post to follow:



Tibor Kaldor & The SA Police Process For Sudden Deaths.

I have recently spoken with a former SA Police officer who had some 25 years service dating back to the 1960s. I asked him specifically what the procedure was in the event of a Sudden Death being reported. But first let's consider briefly what actually happened and we will concern ourselves just with the process.

The Process Used

The Police had a report of a man found dead at a Hindley street hotel on December 14th 1948. Two weeks to the day of the discovery of SM's body at Somerton Beach.

The body was examined by Police, a substance was found in a glass, there were two letters apparently written by the man found in the hotel room. The body was removed to the morgue where it joined the body of the Somerton Man, the only other occupant at that time.

The Receptionist at the Hotel identified the man to the Police as the same man who had signed in as Tibor Kaldor on the 11th. December 1948.

The report from the autopsy was that the man's death appeared to be consistent with an overdose of Barbiturates.

The Normal Police Process

On receiving information of a Sudden Death, a uniformed Police Officer would attend the scene and a Detective would also be present. So far so good.

The event is automatically treated as suspicious until proven otherwise.

Any evidence is removed for testing. The glass and contents were removed but there is no record of any test taking place.

There were 2 suitcases referred to in a letter found in the room. There is no Police record of the suitcases or their contents in the Police files.

Whilst the autopsy found that the death was consistent with Barbiturate overdose, no actual cause of death was recorded.

The standard Police procedure at the time when a body was found and it was ascertained that the deceased was from outside the police area, then a report goes to the local Detective Superintendent who in turn contacts hs opposite number in the originating Police area and sends a photograph and report, in this case, to the Melbourne City Division. The Melbourne Detective Superintendent organises for the address, if known, of the deceased to be visited and a photographic identification occurs and is certified. The certified ID information and statement of the officer together with a statement from the person identifying the man is forwarded to the originating Detective Superintendent. That information is added to the file.

There is no mention of such a procedure having taken place in this case. The identification was provided by the receptionist at the hotel, she was someone who did not know who the deceased man was prior to his checking in on the 11th December 1948.


Only One Example of Photograph Identification Found.

On the question of identification in the case of Tibor Kaldor, Clive and I have both carried out extensive research on the man and we agree that we should be cognisant of the  following facts:

1. There are no known photographs of Tibor whilst he was in London
2. On arrival at Australia's first Port, Fremantle, all POWs and internees were photographed and fingerprinted. There are no records we can find of that nature for Tibor.
3. There are no known photographs of Tibor at Hay or at Tatura internment camps nor any mention of him in any camp activities nor any photographs in any of the books covering the subject that I have thus far read.
4. The only photograph we have of Tibor is the one shown on his application for registration as an Alien dated 21st January 1948. His later notification of Naturalisation as a British subject, dated 9th November 1948, does not have a photograph. Note that his Naturalisation notification is barely 1 month prior to his taking his own life.
5. The British National Archives at Kew have no record of Tibor Kaldor or his application for naturalisation as a British Citizen. This included a search for his Naturalisation Certificate number 'A (1) 24198' and the date of 20th October 1948.
6. The SA Police files have no image of Tibor following his death.

Thanks to Misca, we can say that Tibor, now addressed as Dr., Kaldor was providing language lessons from his home address of 10 The Avenue, Windsor in Melbourne:

GERMAN. — Lessons and coaching, single or in groups, by exp. German teacher (Univ. graduate). Dr. T. K., 10 The Avenue Windsor.

This is the same address that Tibor listed in his intention to apply for naturalization.
August 12, 1944:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206003941?searchTerm=%2210%20The%20Avenue%20Windsor%22&searchLimits=

To this date we have been unsuccessful in finding any further records of Tibor Kaldor but the search will continue.

In the next post we will examine other aspects of Tibor's demise and the records that we have been able to find.






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