SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY: THE NOVIKOV CONUNDRUM UPDATED

THE NOVIKOV CONUNDRUM

WHAT'S  IN A NAME?

This newspaper report from December 1st 1948 is quite clear, here we have a photograph of Kirill Novikov, Soviet Ambassador to India, arriving in Sydney for the Lapstone conference.  I think that the actual date was 30th November 1948. 

(For the record for many years it was thought that Miss Bogotyreva had gone AWOL but we managed to track her down in Canberra in 1949 along with her equally mysterious traveling companion.)

So far so good but, and it's a big BUT, if this was Kiril Novikov the Soviet Ambassador to India, then who was this man in the image below with the same name and title?

Standing to the right of the Indian Prime Minister is Mr. Kiril Novikov in November 1951?

Time for some comparisons first up and below here's a comparison between the man at Sydney for the Lapstone conference and Mr. Nikolai Novikov, a one-time Soviet ambassador to the US. This image was taken from the pic of Nikolai alongside friend Pavel Fedosimov at La Guardia in 1947 (Compiled photograph courtesy of TASS):

Now let's compare Kiril 1948 arriving for the Lapstone conference in the Blue Mountains above to Kiril Novikov 1951 in India:

'Novikov' at Lapstone on the left &  a different looking Novikov in India on the right.

My view is that the Novikov heading for Lapstone is the same Novikov as the one time Soviet Ambassador to the US, known spy, and associate of friend Pavel Fedosimov. Below the comparison is between Novikov arriving in Sydney and Novikov arriving at La Guardia airport in 1947

Now go back to the image at the top of the page, notice what Tatiana is wearing, a nice lightweight frock, and notice what the man just to the right of Novikov is wearing, an open-neck shirt. Now, look at what Novikov os wearing. An overcoat by the looks of it and a scarf. Doesn't ring true and I would suggest that it was a Tass compilation photograph.

Here are more photographs from the Lapstone Conference:

 This image on the left purporting to be Kirill Novikov has a noticeable receding hairline and sporting spectacles.

Whereas in the image below he seems to have had hair replacement therapy, no spectacles and a bit of a facelift:

There are more images of Novikiov at Lapstone, they differ from the photo of him on his arrival in Australia.

The one good close up of his face seems to have had an unfortunate accident in the printing process:

CONCLUSION

There are a few options as usual. It is clear to me from the photograph, that the Novikov arriving for the Lapstone conference is not the same Novikov who was the Soviet ambassador to India. It is also clear that the  Novikov who arrived in Sydney looks very much like La Guardia Novikov. So much so I would put a bob on it.

This is yet another Fedosimov link only this time it's a link to Australia albeit one person removed, so to speak.

The Soviets were very capable of setting up a deception of this nature complete with altered photos and name changes. By the same token, I would be fairly certain that they would not be the only intelligence agency capable of carrying out this kind of operation.

(NOTE: Nikolai Novikov, ex-Soviet Ambassador to the US, was made Personna Non-Grata in the America following his involvement in the Gubitchev/Coplon espionage case. The case though it had plenty of evidence, was kicked out and never went to trial because of a slip up by the FBI in bugging an apartment. The case came to the notice of the FBI courtesy of a 'confidential' informant.)

None of this appeared in the Hemblys Scales report.

SOMERTON MAN LATEST ANIMATED 3D IMAGE

ANIMATED 3D IMAGE 

The images below have been colorised and presented

as a 3D render.

Below are some videos and a still image of the man found on Somerton Beach on December 1st 1948, it is a great Australian mystery which has yet to be properly solved.

The video above is interactive, you are able to zoom in and out using the wheel on your mouse or by pressing the control button and right-click to drag the image.

The first step in this process was to use an online colorized tool to enhance the image of the Somerton Man and then to enhance that coloured image even further finally adding eyes to get the most realistic image possible.

Finally, I used a product called '3D this' to create the 3D render that you see above. I added the smile to his face as a human touch, I am sure there would have been times when he did just that.

The YouTube video

The video shows a greater range of movement by way of seeing more of his profile:

The Voice

Ideally, we would have him talk bit at this time I don't have access to a suitable tool to do that, there are some available so I will try to get that happening. One issue is of course, that we don't know whether he had an accent. 

This may seem a little spooky but there is something I can do in the interim and that is to have him sing, it may sound an odd thing to do but it is not meant to be disrespectful in any way. It is more about showing a range of facial features and movements as you will see below:

The video above with audio is interactive, that means you can rotate the view of the man's face and tilt it as you wish.

We need to get this post shared far and wide, whilst we are talking 72 years ago there are people who would have been in their teens at the time and just maybe someone will recognise the man from these video clips.

Finally, this is my first effort with these tools and there are others around that could give us a better result and that we may be able to use to good effect. For now, though, this is what we have and whilst it's not perfect, it closer to having a lifelike image than we've ever had in the Somerton Man case.

Here's a still coloured image to finish this post off:

THE SOMERTON MAN CODE PAGE CRACKED WIDE OPEN

THE BREAKTHROUGH

The Somerton Man Code Page Cracked Wide Open...

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE ENLARGED VERSION

Please note, the images on this page are subject to copyright. 
You may download them for your own/educational use only.
They are not to be published on a blog or website without permission.

Above is the Somerton Man Code page as no one has seen it since 1949. The image of of good resolution and you will be able to enlarge it to focus on each letter and marking. Be sure to just bring the objects into focus, it is easy to go past that point. 

Even at this view, you can see that each letter and each dark area has smaller letters and numbers within them.

I have included an image of the top left quadrant below and highlighted some of the letters, I will be adding close up images in the next few hours.

   Letter B, Line 3, upright

There will be close up images of each letter and marking available but there is quite a bit of work to be done in extracting all the microcode so that we can make a start on the deciphering task if that's possible. The fact that this has been done after all these years is quite incredible, not only have we now got the Boxall book codes in a readable format, we also now have the main prize, the Somerton Man code page and it's cracked wide open for all to see.

Letter T, Line 3. Top bar                                                        

It's an interesting exercise to examine each and every letter and shaded area. There are what appear to be a number of telephone numbers amongst it all and in some instances, as I think I may have pointed out before, you have to rotate the page to see the code. It depends on which side of the page it was written from. An example is the top left shaded area, you will need to turn the page 90 degrees anti-clockwise to see what is written in there and it may just be 2 telephone numbers, but see what you think.

ALF BOXALL RUBAIYAT HIDDEN CODE IMAGES, THE SET IN CLOSE UP & IN PLAIN SIGHT UPDATED 19th JULY 2020

 THE RUBAIYAT HIDDEN CODE IMAGES

In this post we are going to get "up close and personal" with a book. The book in question is this one,  An Australasian Publishing Company, hardback edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, dated 1944, in fact it's a dual language version being Malayasian and English:

SEE MORE UPDATED IMAGES BELOW 

The page above shows what appears to be a fine line between the inscription page and the title page.

The image below is a close-up of that same line and you can see that it contains a series of micro written letters and numbers:

This is the book that's sometimes referred to as the Verse 70 version, the one, that according to Alf Boxall, an Australian Army Lieutenant, was given to him as a gift by a trainee nurse, Jessica Harkness.

They had met one August evening in 1945 at the Clifton Gardens Hotel overlooking Chowder Bay, in a harbour side suburb of Sydney. The hotel overlooked Alf's place of work when in Sydney, the 4th Water Transport company. He had transferred there from the 24th Northern Australia Observer Unit in June 1943 as a Lance Corporal but didn't take his post up until September 1943. Promotion came uncommonly quickly and Alf was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1943



The above image was taken in April 1945 and in the foreground, you can see some of the buildings used by The Water Transport Company. In fact the one you see is the building for the 7th Water Transport Company.  But, you can say that this was very close to Alf's place of work.

The large building just behind and to the left is the Clifton Gardens Hotel as was at that time. Sadly the fine building was demolished in the late 1960s.

Jess had apparently handwritten one of the verses from the book, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, into a flyleaf as you can see here. It was verse 70.


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This ubiquitous book was well-read in Australia during the 40s, everyone, well almost everyone had a copy, not always this particular version as you will see in another post.

Let's take a closer look at the inscription page.

I have highlighted some areas of the inscription for you.

Firstly, you can see that very fine writing has been inserted into the letter 'e' following the 't' in 'Repentance' and then inside the other letters as highlighted:

In fact every word in this handwritten verse 70 contains micro writing just like this example.

It has been finely and expertly done.

Now take a look at the book cover edge at the top of the above image. Do you notice anything different about it? It looks a little fuzzy, almost out of focus doesn't it?

In fact, it's not fuzzy at all, when we get close to it, you can see that skillfully written into the darker areas of the pattern on the edge of the book is yet more micro written letters and numbers.

Now let's look at another example. This time we are looking at the number 70 and surrounding words. Again, specific areas have been highlighted for you:

UPDATED

Title Page:

An apparent line is drawn at the join of the open pages.











Close up of line showing concealed micro code:

It is very impressive work, you can see where a different colour occurs in some micro written letters and numbers, some look more like pencil marks.

As a matter of interest, the number 70 was not put in place until after Alf Boxall was interviewed by Stuart Littlemore for a TV programme in the 70s. Alf had produced the book and at that stage there was no number 70 showing.


It seems that Mr Littlemore was handed a book containing concealed code, and he didn't see it,  which, no doubt, caused Alf to smile on more than one occasion during that particular interview.

The fact that the number 70 contains micro writing as you can see above, tells us that Alf put it there after the interview and that he or another person was very capable and skilled at the task of concealing coded messages.

And there's something more. Look at the dark line that runs alongside and between the page and the book cover edge.

Yet again the skilled work of a professional is evident, microcode written and concealed into the dark line. I am of the view that Alf added that dark line after the Littlemore interview.

The Title Page

Just one last image. This time we have the image of the bunch of grapes from the title page which is adjacent to the verse 70 inscription.

Grapes Illustration

At first glance, it looks quite normal but on closer examination, there are markings around each grape. The markings are, of course' micro written letters and numbers (in this case I applied a little liquid I use for light removal of ultra-thin layers of ink) It's important to let your eyes focus on the image and you'll see the letters and numbers are in every grape and the outlines of the leaves.


The work is very fine, each grape and the shape of each leaf is made up of micro written letters and numbers, a code?

Congratulations! 

You have just been given your first lesson in the concealment of secret messages and all hidden in plain sight. The correct term I am assured is clandestine communications.

The two pages that you have viewed contain far more code and concealment than we have shown here, there will be an opportunity to access that additional work later.

The questions:

So now what?

We have proof that the Boxall book has microcode, we also know that microcode is to be found in the code page and the torn piece and one other item but that's for later. It would be naive in the extreme if we were to dismiss this information as just a 'technique', it is far more and it may just lead us to identify some more names. The next post will be worth waiting for.


1. Was this version of the book a 'custom' job? Having learned a good deal about this particular subject, I know that writing this finely requires a particular kind of paper, not the sort normally used by printers, and that's just the start.

2. Is this book filled with real code or is it, in fact, a training manual? There are so many concealment methods used on the two pages, I could not see it being used in the field. In fact, to my knowledge, this book and its code is the only example of micro written codes that exists in the public arena at least. It's a reality that if a real message were passed using this concealment method, it would of necessity, be destroyed in the recovery/development process at that time, hence other examples may or may not exist.

My belief is that Alf was training Jess and perhaps other 'nurses' in the use of codes and their concealment. But there is another question, just who was he training them for?

Australian Intelligence involvement?

It is known that Leo Marks, a leading British SOE code man in WW2, hired girls from the British Nursing Yeomanry specifically for code-breaking purposes wi the more talented ones became field agents. It's also known that SOE was represented in Australia by Commander Rupert Long who was always near the top of the Intelligence world in those days, codes were shared with Australian Intelligence by SOE. Interestingly, those girls from the Nursing Yeomanry never passed their nursing exams and neither did Jess until some years later. Was that because of her pregnancy or was she recruited for other duties?



Leo was also a fan of using poems as part of his code repertoire, the most famous being one used Violet Szabo, 'The Life that I have'

If not that side of the game then maybe this one?



Or perhaps even both?

The next post will have some answers, some more questions, and a few surprises.

SLEEPERS AND MOLES...

BEN

THE MOLE

WW2 was an interesting time in Australia, especially in NSW. They had the Headquarters of the Communist Party of Australia to contend with.

The CPA had its offices at 695-7 Geroge Street Sydney, it had been purchased in 1944 by Clarence Hart Campbell and Ralph Joseph Gottliebsen, but, the purpose of this post is not to explore the history of the CPA in Australia so much as it is to look at the link between the occupants of that building and a member of the NSW Police Special Branch. For those interested, Clarence had an exciting adventure in 1947 related to the setting up of an airline that was to fly between Singapore and Australia, but that, too, is another story.

During and after WW2, BEN, his code name, had control over the counter-espionage efforts of Australia against the Soviets. As you can imagine, he had full access to all of the files on all of the various CPA members including one Wally Clayton, (KLOD), in fact he was a very good friend to Wally, he was to later show him the file that Intelligence had kept on him and the files of others in the party.

BEN, real name Alfred Thompson Hughes was a mole for the CPA and had been from the mid-1940s onward.

THE SLEEPER

Jess was, to all accounts, a member of the CPA and it would seem to be likely that she had joined that organisation whilst she was in Sydney sometime between 1942 and 1946.

The CPA established it's presence in George Street in 1944.

The supposed meeting at the Clifton Gardens Hotel with Alf Boxall had taken place in August 1945.

According to Alf, it was at such a meeting that Jess handed Alf a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which contained a handwritten inscription of Verse 70 from that book.

We have shown how that verse, illustrations, printed words, and even parts of the book cover contained microcode.

Alf, in his interview with Stuart Littlemore in 1978, agreed that he had been a member of an intelligence unit at some time prior to the 1945 Clifton Gardens meeting.

Was Jess recruited by Military Intelligence specifically to spy on the activities of the CPA in Sydney at some time between 1944 and 1945? (We should be mindful that the CPA had other premises prior to the move to George Street but George Street was very convenient for the RNSH)

Did she then obtain and pass information to Australian Intelligence between1944 and 1946, the year she suddenly left Sydney on finding she was pregnant? It is known that the intelligence services had obtained quantities of information on the CPA including copies of documents and plans. Some of those documents had somehow found their way into the hands of The Association. Likewise, documents from the Association came into the possession of the CPA. Add to that BEN's helpful work in support of his friend Wally and what a tangled web of intrigue you would have.

There is very little doubt that a mole or even 2 were at work amongst these organisations and it would not be surprising to find that some of the documents were knowingly leaked to others as part of a strategy to mislead and confuse the opposing side.

But back to Jess, was she instructed to keep her connection to the CPA alive after she moved?  When she landed in Adelaide, did she renew her links with the CPA? DID she become a 'sleeper' to be called upon when her services were needed? More to the point, was she asked by a CPA contact to lend her nursing and other skills in late November 1948? She would not have been in a position where she could have refused that request otherwise that would have aroused suspicion.

In this was the case, it would explain the perfunctory nature of her later interview with SAPOL officers and the convenient corroboration of her story by Alf Boxall.

Some facts and some assumptions were used in this post but there is still a chance that we will be able to gain access to further information that will add weight to the theory.

RUBAIYAT COMPARISONS TELL THE STORY

THE BOXALL RUBAIYAT COMPARISONS,
THE STORY UNFOLDS

In the last post we discussed the Tamam Shud case and demonstrated the way in which microcode was written into the Boxall copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. We also mentioned the use of different inks, papers and even writing instruments.

The fact is that the person who had written and concealed the code was an expert, not just at codes but an expert at micro writing. Some of the letters were in the .2 mm range, not quite invisible but easy to miss. That takes a lot of skill, more further down this post, for now, let's take a look at the comparisons between the Boxall copy of the Rubaiyat and a copy of the exact same, but plain, edition from The Australasian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. The plain edition contains does not contain a  handwritten inscription. We used an ELA (Error Level Analysis) tool to view and capture these images and both were in colour.

1. THE FEZ LADY IMAGE COMPARED:

The Verse 70 inscription as you can see is on the left and the Palin page containing just the image of the Fez Lady is on the right.

Immediately you will notice a distinct difference in colour, the Fez lady on the left, the verse 0 inscription page, shows distinct and obvious purple colouration. On the left whilst there is some colouration noticeable it is far less obvious. There are other harder to spot differences, we can leave them for now but please feel free to see what you can find!

What it tells us is that different inks were used in specific parts of the left image. It also indicates that there was very probably a particular kind of paper in use.

2. THE TITLE PAGE COMPARISON:

Again you can see the difference in colouration for the same reasons outlined above being different inks and different paper.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

Apart from the ink, there are two other issues:

1. The paper

If we turn back the clock to the time the inscription was written and the time of publication, around 1944/1945. In order to write at the sizes we have recorded, .2mm in height, you would need to use a paper that wouldn't let the ink 'bleed', it wouldn't spread much further than the size of the marking made by the pen/writing instruments for the obvious reason that you would not be able to see what had been written, it would just be one blur instead of the letters and numbers we have already shown. 

The paper types available in those days were either 'onion skin' finish or a translucent stock including tracing papers. The Verse 70 page is not tracing paper so it was a kind of 'onion skin' paper that was used. This kind of paper is not specially coated but it is tough and can be shiny in appearance. An examination of the paper type shows up a shiny type finish. Onion skin papers were regularly used by agents because of their toughness and the fact that they didn't bleed ink. Examples would be the message pads used for carrier pigeons and other forms of clandestine communications.

Today's equivalent paper is known as 'bleed proof' paper, this paper when printed on at a high-quality setting on an inkjet printer, produces a very fine line and detail as, again, we showed in the last post. If the paper used for inkjet printing of these documents, including the code page, was gloss or matte finish, the ink would spread and the fine detail would be lost.

The effect is known as 'dotgain', when we talk about resolution we sometimes refer to it as DPI or 'Dots Per Inch' and dotgain says that in a bleed proof print then the width of a line might say be 10 dots but if you use the wrong paper that might turn out at 15 or 20 dots. Not much for a normal image but not at all suited for fine detailed micro writing.

That effect will be demonstrated in an upcoming post.

2. The Writing Instrument:

The question of what type of writing instrument was used to write the inscription and other elements on the Boxall version of the book, us really quite an interesting one. You could use a very fine dipping pen and some kind of 'ink'. You could also use a finely sharpened pencil and there is reason to think that a pencil was used for the inscription but not for the Fez Lady or the bunch of grapes on the title page. For the latter two, that was an 'ink' or fluid of some kind and that is what shows up in the ELA images. But, what was used or recommended to be used for that task?

Imagine if you were an agent in the field, having a really sharp,(crow quill) dipping pen would be a giveaway if searched, the pencil not so much but it would require regular sharpening and so there would be the lead and wood shavings to be considered and tidied away promptly. There are other instruments though.

You could use a sharpened matchstick but again you would need to destroy it immediately it had been used dependent on the circumstances.

What was needed was an everyday item that would write in ink or other fluid. A simple pin would fit the bill nicely. There is a range of different 'inks' that could be used but again they would need to either be or resemble an everyday fluid. If the inks were of the invisible kind, and that's what we might be seeing in the illustrations, then lemon juice for simple tasks, special chemicals were hidden in such things as detachable collars from a shirt, a fine example from WW1 was a special chemical washed into a pair of socks which when soaked in water produced a dark brown fluid. A process was then needed to 'develop' the concealed writing. How the latter would show up under Infrared lighting I don't know.  For the record, the American newspaperman with the socks and who was acting for the enemy was arrested in the UK and was about to be shot in the Tower of London but a deal with the US was struck and he was sent home and his case handled there.

Here's an example from WW2, they used Iodine vapour to develop the concealed message found on a German Submarine Captain when he surrendered at the end of WW2:

THE BOXALL BOOK

The Boxall book still exists and is believed to be in the possession of Professor Abbott. An image sent to me by the Professor some time ago appears to have been tampered with. That's a great pity, (even though the 'greying over' of the verse is a nuisance the underlying code can be recovered).

The comparison below clearly shows the 'greying over', the lower image is from the Abbott supplied version.

If the book had been left in its original condition intact and untouched with all of its concealed writing, it would, according to one source, be worth many thousands of dollars to a serious collector. More than enough to pay for an exhumation perhaps? It is a very rare example of clandestine communications.

When you add this information on the Boxall Rubaiyat to that which we already have on the Somerton Man code, the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place.

A MILESTONE REACHED, 500,000 PAGE VISITS!

500.000 PAGE VISITS TO THIS BLOG!

This past week we passed a significant milestone, we passed the 500.000-page visits mark!

I couldn't let it go without a big vote of THANKS! to all those regular followers who have stuck with the blog from the start and the many more who have joined since we first posted 7 years ago.

In real terms, 500,000 is not a lot perhaps but when you consider that we are a single focus blog, with the attention always being on the Somerton Man Mystery. Furthermore, we have stuck firmly to the view that this was always an espionage case and never wavered, we've done really well. In fact, the web stats we have, show that this blog is clearly the leader in the Somerton Man space by a long chalk.

Quite a few people have been of great assistance on this journey but I should single out Clive Turner for his support and contribution over the years, the TIBOR KALDOR, HAY INTERNEES, and PAUL LAWSON INTERVIEWS and FEDOSIMOV projects were outstanding examples of great teamwork with Clive. For the record, all are still very much alive as future posts with new information will show.

Our visitors come from every part of the globe and the cloud below includes many of the languages but not all. including my own languages:

Go raibh maith agat & Diolch yn fawr!

DID THE TORN PIECE COME FROM THIS BOOK? UPDATED: 9th JULY 2020, MORE IMAGES...

WELL, DID IT?

YES, YES AND AGAIN YES!

I have put this image through a series of tests and using different forensic techniques to see what might be found.

The results are very enlightening.

Below you'll see the first of a series of images with more to follow so please call back soon to view what is yet another salutary lesson in concealment techniques.

THE MINARET:

Found on the left of the page, the image below shows markings but not clearly, the good news is that I have been able to recover those markings and will publish them later today.

A FORENSIC VIEW:

This image is one of a number taken using forensic techniques, this was the first that gave the telltale clues that there was far more to found on these two pages, you will probably spot some:

What we are seeing here demonstrates the direct link between the Alf Boxall, Jess version of the Rubaiyat which uses the same concealment techniques and more. This book does not only show micro writing.

Note the central 'join' line between the two pages on the first image of this post.

THE MINARET

The images to the left and right show the presence of micro letters and numbers although, at this stage, they are still blurred. I will post improved versions in the next few days.

THE PAGE JOIN

More images of the line at the join of both pages:

Once again, at this time they are blurred, it's down to camera angles and lighting as well as techniques as in Infrared, etc that may be used. All things being equal, I will post improved versions shortly.

 The two images to the right are from the wording found on the two pages of the SM book. Both show the presence of concealed letters and numbers within the larger printed letters of the poem.

The last two,for now, the same image in  UV light and then converted to black/white. The pages are littered with examples like this and I will post more in the near future.

The important aspect of this image is that the faded letters and numbers you see are not visible to the naked eye.

If you look at the main image at the top of this page showing the two pages opened, and then to the right-hand page, the top highlighted area, there is nothing to be seen in the space.

 Our forensic view has detected the presence of unusual pixels in
 the image and brought them out as darker letters and numbers. In fact each of the highlighted areas how different letters and numbers.

Why is that important? it seems to me that there are several areas on both pages that contain light pencil writing marks. It could be that the 'secret' writing contained the code whilst the pencil writing was a distraction.