Somerton Man. Some astonishing facts..

The Code Page Re-Visited

In this article I have brought together 17 facts about the 'code' page, some of which are quote well known and others for want of a better term are really quite astonishing. You will read how neither the book nor the code page were fingerprinted, amazing! Then read how the Police sent just a photograph of the Code page to Naval Intelligence in Melbourne. Amazing!

But there is something else that is even more astonishing, read through and at the end of this piece all will be revealed..

1. The copy of the Rubaiyat was published by Whitcomb & Tombs, New Zealand and was from the ‘Courage & Friendship’ series printed first in 1942. 
2. The book was white in colour, to all accounts the series was printed in a range of ‘pastel’ colours but not in white.The size of the book was approximately 110mm by 140 mm, a pocket version.
3. When found, the book had two noticeable issues, firstly the final phrase ‘Tamam Shud’ had apparently been torn out of the book. Secondly the back page of the book had been torn off.
4. The ‘Code’ was found on the back of the last page in the book by SA Police or others when they used first a UV light to examine it and found what appeared to be indentations or marks on the surface and then used a second process, believed to be Iodine Vapour to reveal the markings in detail.
5. The Police or some other organisation created photographs of the treated page. The ‘letters’ of the code that we see today are the results of someone tracing over the markings that they saw on the page.
6. In all there were 5 lines of ‘letters’ and 50 ‘letters’ shown in the image of the page, the second line often referred to as the ‘Crossed out’ line may not have been crossed out. There are numerous lines across the book and it is impossible to tell whether the line, in fact 4 separate short lines when viewed under magnification, was in place before the ‘letters’
7. The two crossed lines near the centre of the page have been stopped short. Under magnification the lines appear to continue and then meet together at a point closer to the edge of the image. Where they meet it is possible to see a second ‘X’ across the point where they join. 
8. Using various techniques, it is possible to see some 17 different symbols, number sets and words at various locations within the ‘code’ page outside of the marked ‘letters’ with each ‘letter’ containing numerous and unexplained markings when viewed under magnification.
9. Three examples that can be seen faintly with the naked eye are:The word 2YRS and 42 appear just below and to the right of the first letter ‘S’ in the last line followed by what looks like the word 'Venom' then the letter X and 4 digits visible under magnification. Alongside the top of the first letter ‘A’ in line 1, there are 4 digits. A third example that lies within the bounds of a letter but still visible is to be found at the top of the first letter ‘B’ in the fourth line, here you will see 4 digits with more visible within that letter under magnification. Apologies for the size of this image, it is the best that can be done with the tools I have:

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3. Detective Brown in recent years still believed that the torn piece ‘Tamam Shud’ was in fact the same shape and size of the area torn from the book as in the images shown on numerous websites. This conflicts with the image that appeared in the Advertiser when the book was found and the images published showing a larger torn out area
4. Experiments have shown that a piece of paper similar in shape and size to the torn piece that was found can be torn from a page in one piece.
5. Detective Brown also believes that the ‘Code’ itself appeared in the top left quadrant of the back page of the book with the telephone numbers appearing in the adjacent quadrant. That would make the size of the 'code' page just 55mm X 70mm
6. None of the pages of this book were fingerprinted
7. The torn piece was not fingerprinted or treated in any way
8. A scientist at the time suggested that the paper types of the torn piece and the paper found in the book were similar The torn piece still exists today.
9. Under magnification, there are numerous unexplained markings on a high resolution image of the torn piece.
10. According to the SA Police they only sent the photograph of the code page to Naval Intelligence in Melbourne and not the original book.

After all of these facts and in the light of the technology that was available, and indeed used by SA Police on previous occasions, no fingerprints were taken from the book in fact no fingerprints from anywhere except from one place, from the hands of the Somerton Man. That's astonishing in itself but what is even more astonishing is that the Coroner never asked the question as to whether fingerprints had been taken.

Bring it all right up to date it would seem that this amazing lapse has been continued on, there are some very intelligent people who have been engaged in attempting to solve the case for many years and not one of them asked that question either. Food for thought?