SOMERTON MAN CODE PAGE: DECRYPT UPDATED: GOLOS, YIELDS KEY KGB NAME: MORE NAMES FOUND, FIRST POSTED 18th NOVEMBER 2020: RE-POSTED 21st March 2022

THIS MARCH 20th 2022 update is really quite fascinating, names and a particular word have surfaced from the decrypt. That word is LITMAG and there was one quite well-known 'LITERATURE MAGAZINE' in Australia at the time, MEANJIN,  the magazine was published quarterly and its focus was and is Literature, it reviews books and poetry. Will this lead us into a new area of investigation? Possibly, let's see how it unfolds...

BUT FIRST: 
JACOB GOLOS 

Delving deep into the decryption process, it's quite a task.

This past few days I have been examining the two crossed lines on the Somerton Man code page: Here they are marked up in the image below:

The top line is marked A to B and the bottom line is C to D.

I looked at the C to D line first and extracted the line of letters and numbers shown here:

23VX233437824AX2R7O42AMP878V3E822VA83PCA658VR8B38

After a few attempts to decrypt, I eventually tested this 'C-D' line using a Hill Cipher, you can read more about the cipher here: 

The decoder threw up a very interesting name, GOLOS, the man you see in the photograph at the top of the page, Jacob Golos, was arguably the man who did more than any other to set up the major part of the Soviet Atom Spy network in the USA. He had escaped from imprisonment in Siberia where he had been kept for running an illegal printing press for the Bolshevik cause. Traveling by way of China and Japan he arrived in the US and in 1919 he became a charter member of the American Communist Party.

He busied himself setting up networks of influential connections, all the people he would later need to run his extraordinary network of spies including Silverman, Elizabeth Bentley. He was not to popular with his Russian Masters who forced him to hand over all of his contacts and networks. Jacob Golos supposedly died of a heart attack in New York in 1943. 

Whilst he had sandy hair, Jacob was similar to Harry Gold in height, around 5 foot 2 inches. So, this is not our man, but what is his name doing in code on the Somerton Man code page?

Was there another person named GOLOS operating in Australia?

you can read more here...

Here's the screen capture of the decrypt:

The decrypt reads: HAS DVR (Driver) GOLOS (The X is a null) then OLU WRG DM, I have not, as yet, been able to decrypt the last 8 letters. In 1000 lines from the decoder, this is the only line that contains an identifiable name. What qualifies this output is the fact that there are 2 discernable words, HAS and GOLOS, one of which is a two-syllable name plus, in between we have a known abbreviation DVR for DRIVER. The soviets had employees and there are references to drivers, just need to research their names for the relevant period.

A search of NAA turned up a young man CZESLAW GOLOS, he was arrested in Germany and interned before being released and resettled into Australia in 1948. He had no papers when arrested. 

Whether he became an employee of the Soviets or the CPA is not as yet known.

Mr. Golos departed Genoa on 24th April 1949 on the MOZAFFARI. It would have sailed via the Suez Canal for a likely destination of Melbourne.

One question we should ask is did JACOB GOLOS really die of a heart attack in 1943? These things happen in wars, especially in the cold war. Incidentally, JACOB GOLOS was an expert at creating fake passports and documents. A Fun Fact.

DECRYPT UPDATE MARCH 21st 2022

OTHER NAMES & WORDS FOUND:

HEEN, MAP | KULP,  LITMAG | FAZ, PAR | YELM | JOCZ | ESTU | PEW, HICH |

These are some of the words above are amongst those found in this decrypt from the decoder image above:  

LINE 1: HEEN, a town in Sweden alongside the word MAP. 

LINE 2. The name KULP appears, Kulp is German in origin, it is found in many countries though including Scotland,  England, Russia and more. There is also what could be an abbreviation, LITMAG for 'Literary Magazine' perhaps? There was such a magazine MEANJIN. It was published by Meanjin Press of Carlton Victoria. This book/magazine was published quarterly in the 40s and is still. The book was first published in 1940 in Brisbane and in 1945 it moved to Melbourne,

LINE 3. FAHZ and PAR could both be surnames. FAHZ is found in IRAN and TURKEY as well as other countries. PAR is similarly in found in a number of countries including IRAN and TURKEY.

LINE 4. YELM surname mostly found in IRAN

LINE 5. Already examined above see GOLOS

LINE 6. JOCZ  is a POLISH name and quite common.

LINE 7.  PEW is a WELSH surname, HICH is  ENGLISH, SWISS, SLOVAK

LIONE 8. IQAN, found in the BAHA'I faith meaning BELIEVER.

18TH NOVEMBER 2020 UPDATE

Reviewing the 'spare letters' from the earlier decrypt task, the following two sets were run through the decoder:

XOLUWRDM  and OLUWRDM

The 'X' was removed as generally that letter is used as a null factor or a space indicator between groups of letters.

Here are the results of the two decrypts using the Hill cipher:

XOLUWRDM

When passed through the decoder, this group returned the name TUNKGARA, I believe it is an Indonesian first name. Other partial words occurred but nothing that jumped out as being unusual. 

OLUWRDM

I removed the letter X as a null and tried the remaining letters, this was a somewhat more dramatic result as it tied in with the word found in the letter M decrypt, the decrypt here was  AL KILL KL

NEXT STEP

The next step is to attempt line A-B, I have tried using the same HILL cipher without much success. No discernable names or words, one output line came close  VZ SUDNEY, a misspelling perhaps? VZ was, I understand part of an aircraft reg number, the letters CVZ being a valid registration set for a Romanian aircraft.