THE MAN'S SKULL HAD BEEN COMPLETELY REMOVED
Earlier today I spoke with Paul Lawson, it was the third discussion we had had in this latest series. He wanted to make clear some facts about the man of whom he had made the bust and his own involvement with the case.
He made some statements that will upset a few I am sure.
THE SKULL
He went back to our earlier conversation regarding the state of the man's skull, he wanted to make it very clear that the skull had been completely removed from the man's body.
He went further, when the skull had been replaced it was put into a different position, it seemed to have been tilted back a little. That could have resulted in the significantly different appearance of the man as we see in the centre of the 3 images above. '
It does raise another question though. How can we be sure that the skull was that of the Somerton Man? The current examination of the remains should help clarify that issue. All the more reason for the dental chart taken by Doctor Dwyer to be examined.
CLELAND
When Paul told Cleland that the skull had been completely removed and as per the earlier discussion, e was very annoyed, that 'they' had got to it first. Cleland believed that something about the skull would have proven something about just where the man had been.
But that's only a part of what Cleland had to say, he told Paul that he believed that the man had recently been in Russia and he had gone there from Australia.
A WOOMERA CONNECTION
I asked Paul if he had thought that anything was unusual about how the police handled the case. He went immediately to the subject of the suitcase and said that 'they' had messed around with the contents to deliberately mislead us, the slippers were an example, they were brand new and were a good size too small for the man, he also commented on the man's feet, in his view the wedge shape was down to the man being a 'toe walker', someone who walked on the balls of his feet. A ballet man or horse rider was also possible, but the 'toe walker' was the most likely.
Still talking on the subject of the Police, at the time he was concerned that the officer responsible for Woomera and for that part of it used as a rocket range from 47, that part was Maralinga before its A-Bomb testing use. He had the feeling that the officer was somehow deliberately impeding progress in the case. According to Paul, that officer was Detective Sergeant Leane.
Conclusion
There are some obvious implications in what Paul has revealed. In some ways, he is confirming some of the suspicions held by various people over the years. But much of what he had to say was new to me.
My feelings about DS Leane exactly.
ReplyDeleteGordon: why would two parties have an interest in the skull? Cleland we know about but the brain would be a decomposed mush by the time he got to it, so who might have been the one who got in first, and why?
ReplyDeleteDo you think there may have been some radioactive traces in the fresher tissue?
Apologies for the delay.
ReplyDeleteThe approach i have found useful is to write down all of the events associated with the body and the bust.
Here's a rough draft and it stands to be corrected:
1. December 1st 48. Body discovered on beach removed by police 'ambulance'
2. December 1st. Body examined and time of death put at 2 am
3. December 1st. Body transported to the morgue.
4. December 2nd. Body subjected to post mortem examination
5. December 3rd. ?
6. December 4th 'Reconstructed' Police photographs taken of body and released that afternoon.
There then follows a series of visits to the morgue where the body was inspected by people who thought they may have known him.
In one news article an interesting comment was made. 'He didn't look anything like the photograph'
An announcement was made by Police that the body was to be preserved.
An announcement was made, much later, that a plaster bust was to be made.
Paul Lawson from the Adelaide museum was given the tas. It was a 'hurry up' job.
The day after completion of the bust Paul received an unexpected call from Cleland requesting him to remove the skull from the body and to hand it over to Cleland
Paul went to the morgue and made a start on the removal of the skull. He was surprised to see the extremely fine stitching work on the head and carefully unpicked it. He was about to start skinnibg the head and was surprised again, the head had already been skinned. Not only that, but it had been thoroughly cleaned out, pristine. There was no trace of any organic matter around or within the skull the top of which had been expertly removed by a very fine saw, a power saw.
At this point, a police officer entered the morgue and told Paul to stop what he was doing as the man was going to be buried within hours. As it transpired, the burial did not take place for a further 7 days
Police release photographs of the body prior to burial. The appearance of the man at that stage was quite different to his 'reconstructed' earlier photographs. It was the earlier photographs that Paul had used to create the detailed facial features of the man including his ears.
Was there a mention of the man's brain being removed in any of the documents? My recollection of PM'S is that the various organs were placed back inside the cadaver prior to burial. That is unless they ere to be kept for some reason in which case they would have been bottled in formaldehyde?
A possible reason for Cleland wanting the skull would be to examine any organic material that may have been there.
There are a number of drugs that attack brain tissue including Sodium Amatyl and other hypnotics. I am not sure of the likelihood of any radioactive materials that would leave a trace.
I do wonder why nothing happened on December 3rd and why the man's facial appearance changed so much. And then of course the question of the cleaned out skull.