SOMERTON MAN; OF SPIES, LIES AND VIDEO CLIPS.... HARRY GOLD IN FOCUS

HARRY GOLD ATOM SPY

& COURIER FOR PAVEL FEDOSIMOV

Way back when, on this blog, we posted about the meeting between Harry Gold and Pavel Fedosimov, our number 1 candidate for the Somerton man. 

Followers will recall that Gold met Fedosimov in the Earl Theatre in the Bronx in December 1946. In his interview with the FBI and mentioned in other publications, Gold thought that Fedosimov was very tall about 6 feet 4 inches. The astute amongst us quickly pointed out that the Somerton Man was 5' 11 " in height.

My response was that Gold was not a tall man, in the image below taken following his arrest for being an atom spy, in fact, he was the cut out for Fedosimov in meetings with Klaus Fuchs, you can see that he was quite short, around 5'6" maybe a little more.

Now place yourself in Harry's shoes, standing in the foyer at the Earl Theatre and watching a big man, wearing a hat and walking 'on his toes' towards him, how tall would Fedosimov have appeared to you? I maintain that Gold saw many people as being taller than they were the question is by how much?

The next point I made was that the body of the Somerton Man would have been measured at 5' 11" on the mortuary slab, he was deceased and as such his muscles would have been relaxed and his measured height, therefore, would have been less than he would have been in life. Now imagine SM in real life, stretched up he would have been a shade over 6' tall but that was without shoes. Add another 1.5  inches for shoe height and you would have him at 6' 2" approximately. Next, give him a hat and have him walk on his toes. Not at all difficult for him to be seen as being quite a bit taller than he was when lying on the mortuary slab.

Here's Harry being escorted to a waiting car:

Here's Harry near the car with his head slightly bowed:

Harry was a short man.

Gold had been an experienced 'spy' before his involvement with the Atom spies, he had been involved in stealing industrial secrets. but it was his involvement with the Rosenbergs and their relative, David Greenglass that led Harry to pursue a more serious and dangerous espionage career.

Not without interest is the use of two matching pieces of a Jello box to establish their credentials, a technique thought to have been used by both Fedosimov with a torn handwritten note that gave the meeting location for Gold and himself and later the Somerton Man with his torn out piece from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

SPY TRIALS

In recent searches, I found a very interesting video on youtube. It dates back to 2002 and it covered aspects of the Atom Spy story. 

There were a number of fascinating aspects to the video including an excellent description of just how the Russians constructed and encoded their Venona cables using a one time pad. Another interesting clandestine communication method was used by the spy Theodore Hall, he used milk as invisible ink to write on the blank edge of pages of books or newspapers.

Perhaps the most enlightening comment in the clip was that we should remember that many of the actions taken and the judgments handed down were taken without any reference to the existence of the Venona cables because of course, their existence at the time was absolutely top secret, indeed the Wife of Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg, went to the electric chair for a crime that she did not commit it would seem. From an investigation perspective, it illustrates, if not so nicely, the lengths that Governments would go to in order to preserve their secrets. Would Australian officials be any different? Commander Long, head of Australian Intelligence in WW2 and NSW head of 'The Association' in the mid to late 40s, burnt piles of records according to a relative, because he did not think the Australian Public would have been impressed by some of the tactics employed by Intelligence services. 

GENERAL UPDATE

Whilst posts have been few in recent weeks, activity hasn't been at a standstill, there has been much to review and assemble as well as some new information that has come to light. The intention is that in the next two weeks we will have further posts to make.