AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL LAWSON
Some time ago Clive Turner organised a set of interviews with Paul Lawson, the man who made the bust of the Somerton Man.Today, Clive returned to visit to Paul and spoke with him for some time on a number of issues, the answers for some are quite intriguing.
Here's Clive's report:
Paul mentioned that a ship called the "Karata(?)" was captained by a Harkness, and he reckoned the SM ate a fish diet due to his teeth, hence the Mercury. A Captain Kenneth Lanyon Harkness, RN, was Chief of Intelligence staff up to the fall of Singapore. We do not know if this was the same Captain or in fact whether the KARATA was a naval vessel at this time.
He did state that Cleland wanted the bust making as he was suspicious of the death.
Paul confirmed that the mold for the bust was destroyed.
He was adamant 100% that Jessie, when viewing the bust, knew who the man was.
There were more photos taken of the face, Paul had passed them to Wayne Groom.
Jessie had a married sister who lived on Kangaroo Island.
Cleland rang Paul about a boarding house on Kangaroo Island.
The ears on the mold were thinner than as per the photo.
Also told me that GF had spoken to Ina Harvey at the 'Strathmore Hotel" about her 'softly spoken guest'.
Paul believes that the Somerton Man was between 46-50 years old.
Paul thinks the SM was poisoned by an injection of Nembutal. He was in good company, the Isdal woman is thought to have died of Phenobarbital as was Marilyn Monroe. It would be interesting to pursue this issue in order to clarify whether he self-administered the poison or someone else had a hand in it. It is commonly used today in veterinary applications but also for Euthanasia.
Wasn't sure where Cleland/ Brown examined the clothes, probably at the morgue.
We talked about Alf Boxall and the name "Jestyn" inscribed in the"Rubaiyat". He told me that he believed that Jessie was into a Persian religion and, it was their practice to sign their name with the first two letters in capitals, 'JEstyn'.
I asked him if the suitcase had been tested for fingerprints, he didn't give me an answer, but what he did tell me is that Cleland asked him to give a talk about the case. When he looked at the suitcase it was new and wasn't the suitcase as found at the railway station and, all the clothes had been washed/pressed.
I asked him about the newspapers describing the photos of the SM as being 'reconstructed'. He told me that's because after the PM, the frontal part of the skull wasn't replaced as it should have been.
THE KARATTA FOUND
Another great find by Clive, in a 1932 article, the Karatta is mentioned as is a name, a Mr. Jensen:
“Jessie had a married sister who lived on Kangaroo Island.” and “Cleland rang Paul about a boarding house on Kangaroo Island.”
ReplyDeleteIMHO that brings Charles Mikkelsen back into the picture.
Paul (?) once said that a family from Kangaroo Island travelled to Adelaide to view SM's body and Charles Mikkelsen was identified as SM and with links to Kangaroo Island in 1953.
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 23rd April 1953 page 12.
“.... A Cheltenham woman has told them she met a Norwegian, shoemaker, whose description checked with that of the dead man, at Kangaroo Island, 21 years ago.
The Norwegian (Charles Mikkelsen) was then employed at Jensen's guest house, American River.
Detectives R. L. Leane, and L. Brown have been told that Mikkelsen often quoted the last verse, which ended with the words "Tamam Shud," from the Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam. A scrap of paper bearing those words, evidently torn from a copy of the "Rubaiyat", was found in the Somerton body's clothing....”
It would be good to research weddings etc for the 'Harkness' surname with a link to Kangaroo Island. Paul was specific about Jess having a married sister there. Just might be that they were the ones that Identified the body on two occasions.
ReplyDeleteGordon,
ReplyDeleteI tried looking for any leads on KI - names that had come up elsewhere, relatives, associates etc. but didn't get anywhere. From memory all of Jessica's siblings are accounted for and don't have KI associtions. But, IMHO Jessica was "adopted" so tracing her real parentage (and siblings) without DNA is next to impossible.
DA once told me that Jessica rarely mentioned her parents, which may or may not be revealing.
Byron, Paul Lawson believes that the method used to kill SM was an injection of Phenobarbitone. As you would more than likely know this available in liquid and tablet form, these days it is in use by veterinary surgeons. In earlier times its use included as an antidepressant.
DeleteThe question I have if you get some time,how long does the piquid form stay in the system? If I recall, there was about 36 hours between the discovery of SMs body and the autopsy, would that length of time impact on the trace ability of the drug?
was it used by veterinary surgeons then and any connexion to horses?
DeleteThanks Byron, I appreciate your comments. We have another lead that I am working on at the moment and will share those details with you in a day or so. In the meantime, I think we may have a resolution to the JEstyn issue. My understanding is that the J is large capitals and the E is in small but still caps. This is sometimes used in a biblical context and as Paul Lawson suggests it may be that it belongs to a Persian religion. Apart from Zoroastrian beliefs there is also Ba'Hai faith which in essence is multi- denominational. I spoke with a lady from that religion and who is Persian by direct descent. She confirmed that on some occasions large and small caps were used in writing. She mentioned that in Farsi script the same issues is present but rarely used now. It could be an answer but a little more research is needed to confirm it.
ReplyDeleteAnother question for you Byron, Given that he Somerton Man lit his last cigarette and only managed to keep it alight for less than 2 minutes, does that tell you that just maybe the cigarette contained the poison that killed him? Also given Paul Lawson's comment that he believed it was an injection of Phenobarbital that killed him, what do you know about the length of time this drug remains in the system for both injection delivered and inhalation? Would this drug still be traceable?
ReplyDeleteRe: "Chronicle" (Adelaide) 23 June 1932 Page 15-Mr J. Jensen lived at "The Haven", I wonder if this was also known as "Jensen's Guest House"? Also, the "Karatta" is mentioned. Clive
ReplyDeleteGreat find Clive! I have a copy of the article and will put that inside this post above. Is much known about J Jensen? It appears that the Karatta was a regular ferry type service, I wonder if it was running in 1948?
ReplyDeleteA Mr Jensen helped Charles Mikkelsen with his application to the authorities to be allowed to stay in Australia after Charles jumped ship in Adelaide. When I looked at this it appeared likely that this Mr Jensen was the chap who owned the “Haven” guest house at American River, Kangaroo Island. I dug up details about the Jensen family and tried to find a connection to Cheltenham, Adelaide without success. A woman living in Cheltenham said in 1953 (newspaper article) that she had known Charles at American River in about 1932 and that he had also lived at a boarding house at Somerton.
ReplyDeleteRegarding J. Jensen on KI, there was a Jorgen/Jergen Jensen living on KI
Deletein the 1920/30's. Now if the Jensen family originated from Norway , and
Charles Mikkelsen was on KI, it wouldn't seem so odd, if CM was hired? Clive
holy smokes Byron - I think that's a doozy of a connection
DeletePossible identity of the “Cheltenham woman” who identified SM as being Charles Mikkelsen in 1953.
ReplyDelete1930-32 Kangaroo Island the following “misses” were mentioned in the social pages of the South Australian newspapers
H. Shakeshaft, R Bates (m 1931 Ellison), Ruth Linnett, K Scott (m 1931), E Relf (m 1938 at Adelaide to Sidney Claud Wakeford. Later lived at Cheltenham), M Watson, S Boag, M Carter, Lyric, W J Hughes and V Buick.
Miss E Relf seems to fit the bill. Could be Edith Hilda Relf or her sister Elsie Marion nee Relf.
Edith Hilda Relf b 1904 at Broken Hill. F Alfred Relf 1885-? M Marion Muller 1878-1963
3 brothers one died in infancy. Walter Bernard Relf b 1900 Broken Hill lived Bega, NSW d 10th November 1970 SA. Elsie Marion Relf b 1902 at Broken Hill.
Mother Marion Relf nee Muller died 2nd September 1964.
Elsie Marion Relf married Rupert Rainbow (1899-?)
Chronicle (Adelaide) 30th April 1936 page 25.
APPROACHING MARRIAGES
RELF - WAKEFORD. — The marriage of Edith, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Relf, of Kilkenny, to Sidney, younger son of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Wakeford, of Portsmouth, England, will be solemnised at St. Agnes's Church, Grange, on Friday, 1st May, at 7-30 p.m.
Extensive. Do you have her resident in Kangaroo Island?
DeleteLooking in to the Karatta, the ship was still in use in 1953. Clive
ReplyDeleteAny sign of the skipper's name? It would be great to get details of the port she used and maybe a timetable of sailings? Library maybe?
DeleteIn Paul's latest interview, Clive asked about the high calf muscles on the man. To which Paul replied, 'HE WOULD HAVE WALKED ON THE BALLS OF HIS FEET'. That should sound familiar, the number one suspect for being SM also 'walked on his toes' according to Harry Gold speaking about his meeting with Pavel Fedosimov in the Earl Theater in the Bronx.
ReplyDeleteWhilst there is a great deal of published research on toe walking in children that's not the case for adults. In one major study the prevalence of toe walking was 2.1 % in children under 5 years of age. The statement was made that toe walking was far less prevalent in adults.
I did glean something from this research, in one case a 38 year old male who had been toe walking most of his life, had developed 'plantar fasciitis,tendonitis and weak ankles' not the sort of thing you would expect in a ballet dancer for example.
I also learnt that Toe walking can be found in family groups, 40% of cases presented this way.
In the end, the real question is, did SM walk on his toes? Paul Lawson, who saw and worked on the body of the man thought so. Of itself this is not definitive proof that Pavel is our man, however, his facial appearance, his build, his large hands, his teeth and now an opinion that he was a toe walker reinforces that thought.
The SA Attorney-General has approved SM's exhumation.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.adelaidenow.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=AAWEB_MRE170_a_FBK&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adelaidenow.com.au%2Ftruecrimeaustralia%2Fattorneygeneral-vickie-chapman-wants-to-solve-somerton-man-cold-case-conditional-funding-approved%2Fnews-story%2F6531247eee73fa0e227fe5fd518dc751&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&offerset=aa_truecrime_premium&v21suffix=56-b
Good news!
DeleteRe: 'Karatta', A Capt Sells was, apparently, her first captain in Dec 1907. By Feb 1926 the captain was a Capt Barry. Then it appears that, from May 1929 to Oct 1935 at least, Capt Spells was, again, at the helm. By Feb 1950 the captain was called Pearson. Clive
ReplyDeleteGordon, yes, just maybe but an ordinary cigarette might have pushed him over edge anyway. He's feeling crook (maybe suffering from the effects of poisoning from digitalis, barium, lead, paralytic shellfish poisoning, ciguatera, botulism, diptheria toxin or other stuff) and he pulls out a cigarette, and the rush of nicotine pushes him over the edge.
ReplyDeleteFrom memory injected Phenobarbital would kill in short order (a few minutes) if it were going to kill at all. But, maybe a cigarette or two hours after an injection of phenobarbital might kill. Each drug has it's own pharmacodynamic characteristics that influence who quickly a drug is taken up and distributed, and then eliminated from the body. As I have previously noted digitalis tables were notorious for very variable bioavailability and this was not picked up until the 1970s. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine in the later 1970s (from memory) stated that variable bioavailabilty of digitalis tables had probably killed 100,000 Americans over the years. The problem with digitalis is that the lethal dose can be as small as four time the therapeutic dose. And pharmacists were still making some of their own tablets in the 1940s. It was realised that variable bioavailability was a major problem with some drugs and bioavailability testing for problem drugs was instituted in the late 1970s.
As a former Official Analyst of pharmaceuticals I can categorically say that under the circumstances (the autopsy samples were only cursorily examined and then probably disposed of before the possibility of a suspicious death was raised) and the primitive state of trace drug detection in the 1940s, other clues (a syringe, and empty bottle, the remains of a tablet in the stomach contents etc) would have been required to give the analysts any chance of detecting the poison.
Thanks Byron, I appreciate your input, it's very valuable. If I understand correctly, the cigarette and its nicotine load may have been the final issue that sent him unconscious and then slipped away to his death.
DeleteWe only have a little information to work with but do you think it unreasonable to suggest that the cigarette was probably lit at sometime between Midnight and say 1.30 am?
Regarding the Saxitoxin group neurotoxins I note that Paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) toxin also occurs in the Murray-Darling river system so fresh water fish or shellfish (yabbies) could be toxic.
ReplyDeleteThe nature of sporadic deaths due to PSP would mean that the cause of such deaths could go undetected and it is quite likely that deaths from PST, ciguatera and botulism have occurred undetected in the past in South Australia.
Large reef fish (I think Red Emperor is the fish most often implicated) along the East Coast, mainly in Queensland (Tin Can Bay is a hot spot from memory) but apparently as far South as Eden, NSW can contain ciguatera toxin. This toxin produces similar symptoms to that of PSP and death is due to respiratory or heart failure. Ciguatera was what the Hawaiians used to disable (and kill) some of Captain Cook's crew in 1774. Death from ciguatera and PSP is reported to occur in 1 to 24 hours after exposure and I note that aerosol inhalation is thought to be the most potent way that the PSP toxin is delivered. I would expect that most deaths would occur less that two hours after ingesting these toxins, and probably less than an hour.
I suspect that non fatal poisoning, with nasty symptoms that might linger for months, might be far more common than is presently recognised. I base this opinion on the fact that both my father and a friend suffered severe poisoning (symptoms lasting for months) from PSP and from ciguatera respectively. My father and other men were poisoned by seafood while serving on Goodenough Island (Papua New Guinea) during WW2. My father never ate seafood again. Incidentally Pete Bowes' father Leigh also served at the same RAAF airfield at about the same time. One of my friends was sailing (80 foot crewed motor vessel The Baleena from Sydney I think) around coral islands in the SW Pacific ocean in 1968 prospecting for rock phosphate and at an uninhabited island (Maldon Island?) all the crew and passengers were poisoned by eating a large reef fish. The effects were so serious that nobody could effectively operate the radio to call for help and one person was barely breathing. He was kept alive by artificial respiration. After about twelve hours one of the crew managed to put out a distress call that was picked up by the coast guard in Honolulu who immediately realised what the problem was and dispatched a Hercules aircraft with medics. There was a disused WW2 airstrip on the island and the medics parachuted in and cleaned up the airstrip so the crew and passengers could be airlifted to Honolulu. My friend avoids all seafood now and he said that the chap with breathing difficulties never regained full health.
ReplyDeleteBotulism (maybe from a crook pasty?) could also have killed SM. I note that diptheria toxin was mentioned by Cleveland in passing and diptheria toxin (which was manufactured and marketed by Bickfords in the 1940s) also produces respiratory depression which was suspected as being the proximate cause of SM's death. Respiratory depression is the common feature of poisoning by digitalis, paralytic shellfish poisoning, ciguatera, botulism, barium and lead poisoning. Take your pick. I think SM's remains (remaining remains as some of his organs were probably separately disposed off by the Government Analyst and not buried with SM's body) should be tested for barium and lead. Testing for digitalis and the PSP, ciguatera and botulism toxins would be a very , very big ask, but it is just conceivable that traces of these toxins might have survived the 70 years. SM was deliberately buried in a dry sandy grave to help preserve his body for future exhumation. The aforementioned toxins are stable under cooking conditions, which is why they bio-accumulate in fish and are so dangerous, and this (physico-chemical stability under high temperature and moist conditions) is why they might just be still detectable in some of SM's remaining tissues.
I note that the authorities say that “Paralytic shellfish toxins (PST) have been recorded in shellfish from Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania (data from state shellfish regulatory programs).”
Gordon, regarding the Saxitoxin group neurotoxins I note that Paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) toxin also occurs in the Murray-Darling river system so fresh water fish or shellfish (yabbies) could be toxic.
ReplyDeleteThe nature of sporadic deaths due to PSP would mean that the cause of such deaths could go undetected and it is quite likely that deaths from PST, ciguatera and botulism have occurred undetected in the past in South Australia.
Large reef fish (I think Red Emperor is the fish most often implicated) along the East Coast, mainly in Queensland (Tin Can Bay is a hot spot from memory) but apparently as far South as Eden, NSW can contain ciguatera toxin. This toxin produces similar symptoms to that of PSP and death is due to respiratory or heart failure. Ciguatera was what the Hawaiians used to disable (and kill) some of Captain Cook's crew in 1774. Death from ciguatera and PSP is reported to occur in 1 to 24 hours after exposure and I note that aerosol inhalation is thought to be the most potent way that the PSP toxin is delivered. I would expect that most deaths would occur less that two hours after ingesting these toxins, and probably less than an hour.
I suspect that non fatal poisoning (PSP, ciguatera, botulism etc) with nasty symptoms that might linger for months, might be far more common than is presently recognised. I base this opinion on the fact that both my father and a friend suffered severe poisoning (symptoms lasting for months) from PSP and from ciguatera respectively. My father and other men were poisoned by seafood while serving on Goodenough Island (Papua New Guinea) during WW2. My father never ate seafood again. Incidentally Pete Bowes' father Leigh also served at the same RAAF airfield at about the same time. One of my friends was sailing (80 foot professionally crewed motor vessel “The Baleena” from Sydney I think) around coral islands in the SW Pacific ocean in 1968 prospecting for rock phosphate and at an uninhabited island (Maldon Island?) all the crew and passengers were poisoned by eating a large reef fish. The effects were so serious that nobody could effectively operate the radio to call for help and one person was barely breathing. He was kept alive by artificial respiration. After about twelve hours one of the crew managed to put out a distress call that was picked up by the coast guard in Honolulu who immediately realised what the problem was and dispatched a Hercules aircraft with medics. There was a disused WW2 airstrip on the island and the medics parachuted in and cleaned up the airstrip so the crew and passengers could be airlifted to Honolulu. My friend avoids all seafood now and he said that the chap with breathing difficulties never regained full health.
Many thanks Byron,once again most informative and valuable. I am aware that saxitoxins were used by various countries either as 'L' pills for suicide in the case of capture where a painful death could be expected and used for assassinations where appropriate. The delivery method varied from special coatings in the case of Gary Powers small pin (concealed in a hollow coin) to liquid forms and the hint that it was also delivered in cigarettes. I would guess that its use was never advertised and will remain not for public consumption.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in all you had to say but particularly in the comment: 'I note that aerosol inhalation is thought to be the most potent way..'. I understand there would be a big difference between the substance being delivered with a propellant of some form and being delivered by soaking tobacco or inserting powder into a cigarette. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Thanks again Byron.
Gordon, Botulism (maybe from a crook pasty?) could also have killed SM. I note that diptheria toxin was mentioned by Cleveland in passing and diptheria toxin (which was manufactured and marketed by Bickfords in the 1940s) also produces respiratory depression which was suspected as being the proximate cause of SM's death. Respiratory depression is the common feature of poisoning by digitalis, paralytic shellfish poisoning, ciguatera, botulism, barium and lead poisoning. Take your pick. I think SM's remains (remaining remains as some of his organs were probably separately disposed off by the Government Analyst and not buried with SM's body) should be tested for barium and lead. Testing for digitalis and the PSP, ciguatera and botulism toxins would be a very , very big ask, but it is just conceivable that traces of these toxins might have survived the 70 years. SM was deliberately buried in a dry sandy grave to help preserve his body for future exhumation. The aforementioned toxins are stable under cooking conditions, which is why they bio-accumulate in fish and are so dangerous, and this (physico-chemical stability under high temperature and moist conditions) is why they might just be still detectable in some of SM's remaining tissues.
ReplyDeleteI note that the authorities say that “Paralytic shellfish toxins (PST) have been recorded in shellfish from Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania (data from state shellfish regulatory programs).”
Thanks Byron, I last night commented on the issue of the cigarettes. Constable Moss hadn't compared the partially smoked cigarette with the cigarettes in the packet and neither, it seems did anyone else including the Police or Cleland. I found that to be very odd especially in the days that followed when there was growing interest in the case.
DeleteWith the information you have provided, we can work on something of a timeline and see how that might compare with various possible poisons. Would you be able to assist?
nowhere near Byron's knowledge, and loving the speculations, but...
ReplyDeletea) Would Botulism hit so quick that the pasty could kill him before it was digested?
b) If the cigarette was smoked, how was it lit, and how did it go out. Wouldn't a lit cigarette continue burning unless it were facing upward - and even then I think it might.....don't housefire's often start because people fall asleep with a lit cigarette?
c) would blue ring octopus be plausible? They certainly exist in that region, and might not have been looked for given the man was well dressed, slumped on a rock, and in 1948.
Anonymous, Yes, I understand that rapid deaths from botulism have occurred and that until recently the mechanism was unknown. It was previously believed that botulism toxin was completely denatured by digestion, but it is now known that botulism toxin will complex with the bacterial product nonhemagglutinin (NTNHA). Most of the cases of botulism poisoning are due to infection with the botulism bacteria, Clostridium botulinium, rather than ingesting the botulism toxin. That is why cases of “botulism” due to infection with the Clostridium bacteria take 12 to 36 hours to develop – it takes that long for the initial small number of Clostridium bacteria to multiply to a number that produce biologically significant amounts of the toxin. But the protected botulism toxin (protected from the digestive processes by NTNHA) could be absorbed and produce it's toxic effects within minutes. Maximum absorption of most drugs for example occurs in half to two hours (Tmax which is the time to maximum concentration in the blood). In any case I expect that botulism toxin would slow down or even stop the digestive process, so, yes, death due to the absorption of botulism toxin could occur and the pastie could still be not totally digested.
ReplyDeleteThe botulism bacteria can grow on potato based foodstuffs, so a pastie could carry sufficient botulism toxin to kill within a couple of hours. In Australia before cheap canned vegetable were widely available home preserved green beans and beetroot were the major causes of botulism death and disease. Do pasties ever contain green beans? I don't know.
Re: the cigarette. From memory there was a moderate onshore wind and the waves were 1 metre or so and breaking on the beach only about 20 yards (from memory) from where SM was lying. So, the air would have been moist and SM was damp when found (from memory).
I think a blue ringed octopus bite is plausible. The octopus toxin is tetrodotoxin and that would kill in the same way as the other toxins mentioned. I have no idea of what a blue ringed octopus bite looks like but maybe the abrasions on SM's hand could be bite marks?
AFAIK (based on growing up in SA and being told each time we had swimming lessons) - my understanding is blue ring bites leave virtually no mark. They're quite a toothless creature and (again, as I understand) are basically only problematic in the dry (when most of the time they're dead anyway). I think I read somewhere (And happy to be corrected by someone who knows better) that if you stepped on one in the shallows they're unlikely to manage to poison you (the venom washes away, because with their weak beaks they don't properly penetrate the skin to get a direct line, or something). But on the beach if you handle one, they're more likely to be able to poison you. Of course, that requires you to go an touch one in the tidal wash (and that's probably not consistent with SM's shoes and stuff - although it goes back to where the tide got (relative to him) that night)....
DeleteJust a comment about Byron's remarks about Jessie possibly being 'adopted'. The recent ABC Radio programme about the SM stated that she was born in 1921 and grew up in Marrickville. You could compare this with Nicole Kidman born in 1967 and grew up in Sydney, the difference being Nicole was born in Hawaii, listening to the ABC programme you would assume that Jessie was born in Marrickville, but we don't know this as a fact. Clive
ReplyDeleteHello Gordon, Yes I am happy to assist. I am in hospital at present so I will be more or less out of circulation for a few days.
ReplyDeleteHow are you at the moment Byron? Nothing serious I hope.
DeleteAnonymous, the pastie was mostly digested judging from the PM notes so any neurotoxin etc would have been mostly absorbed.
ReplyDeleteThe Canberra Times (Canberra, Australia) 10th September 1978 page 9.
ReplyDeleteTHE MOST POTENT POISON KNOWN. Botulism: how death comes from a can.
By Dr JOHN SUMNER
“Botulism, the killer carried by food, is in the news again. In Birmingham four elderly members of the Farmer family have been struck down; two are already dead, the others still fighting for their
lives. …………
Botulism, caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, inspires terror for the good reason that to contract botulism is to give yourself only a 50-50 chance of survival.
The toxin is the most potent poison known — it leaves arsenic, strychnine and cobra venom for dead! Botulism is stockpiled by many countries for germ warfare, for seeding into an enemy nation's water supplies. To eliminate every Australian only a pinhead of the toxin would be needed. ……
In almost every country in the world the bacterium Clostridium botulinum is a common inhabitant from soils, waters and foods. So why isn't botulism a common occurrence?
The reason is that the bacterium produces the toxin only under certain, very specific, circumstances. It needs, firstly, suitable food; secondly, a suitable growth temperature; and thirdly and most importantly, an atmosphere from which all oxygen is absent. ……
Home canned foods causing outbreaks of botulism: Salads: potato salad; bean salad. Canned foods: beans, corn, beet, cabbage, carrots, peppers, mixed vegetables, apple sauce, figs, mushrooms jalapeno peppers. Fermented foods: beaver tail, salmon eggs, seal meat, seal flipper, walrus meat, beluga. …..
Despite everything, though, there are still regular outbreaks from commercially-prepared foods. Most are due to undercooking the food, allowing some spores to survive and later grow into a toxic culture. Sometimes the consumer is at fault. Outbreaks from pics came when a consumer partially cooked the pie, changed their mind, and left the pie on a low heat for a day — ideal conditions for growth (of Clostridium botulinum bacteria and the generation of botulis toxin) ………
Dr John Sumner has just been appointed principal lecturer in food science at the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology.”
I note that the first two foodstuff mentioned by Dr Sumner are potato and bean salad. And other vegetables are also mentioned. My memory and understanding of the recipes for pasties in Australia is that potato and various vegetables are usually used. As I have previously described botulism toxin could kill in minutes. So, perhaps SM ate a pastie that had been left in a pie warmer all day as is described in the case mentioned by Dr Sumner above.