MAKING THE BUST
The images above show the face of the Somerton Man, the one on the left is how the face appeared some days after the bust was made, just prior to the burial. The image of the bust looks different and that, according to Pail is due to the fact that he used the Police post autopsy photographs to help him properly finish the facial features of the man. The nose and mouth have quite different appearances.
Paul gave quite a detailed description of the events of that Tuesday when he started on the project. He had been busy over the weekend gathering the various tools and materials he needed including the special plaster from Fosters Pottery and a selection of floor boarding with which he would build a frame around the upper part of the man's body.
Four detectives had turned up to help and together they manhandled the body from its resting place in the freezer at the Morgue. 3 men were at his head and shoulders, the fourth lifted his feet.
Paul prepared the body by washing it with soft soap and applied some to the man's hair to smooth it down and then built the wooden frame.
During the process, some of the plaster slipped off the man's back due to the body defrosting, one of the detectives used towels from the morgue to dab the body dry. Eventually, the plaster took to the body.
The body had to be turned over and the Detectives, 4 of them, did that work.
Special wax was melted down for the ears, it became like a jelly which Paul poured into each ear whilst it was still hot, he had to wait for it to cool down before removing the 'plugs'. The ears were made in fact made with Dental wax and the shape was reinforced with a hessian cloth to hold the shape together.
The work was completed and Paul was very pleased with the result, he had a good likeness of the man in the original police photographs.
THE SHOCK DISCOVERY
It was for days after the completion of the bust that Paul received a telephone call from Professor Cleland. He told Paul that he wanted the head bd instructed him to go to the morgue, skin the head, and remove the skull replacing it with a rough model that he could make up. Paul followed the instructions, he went to the morgue, retrieved the body, and had it on the table.
Paul had commenced skinning the head to a point where he had removed the skull cap when a Detective suddenly entered the morgue and told him to immediately stop what he was doing and that the man was going to be buried that day.
Paul stated that what he found when he skinned and opened the skull surprised him. The inside of the skull was pristine, immaculately clean which could only have been achieved by pouring boiling water into the brain cavity.
There was no sign of any biological material whatsoever, it had all been removed. Paul called Cleland and told him what had happened, Cleland was very annoyed; they spoke for a while, and from what Paul told me, they agreed that the tissue had been removed to prevent any detailed examination. Paul was aware that certain drugs left tell-tale traces in the brain and not elsewhere in the body, sodium pentathol, the 'truth' drug, was mentioned.
In closing off this session Paul made specific mention of the way that the skin had been stitched when he went to prepare the skull. In his view, it was a very professional job, someone was practiced in this art.
There's more to follow on this last aspect, can we find out just when the sewing work had been done and when?
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An advisory note. Paul was taken into Hospital last Friday and returned home last night. He has some difficulty breathing.
ReplyDeleteWe spoke today for just a few minutes and he has told me some things that I am at at liberty to share just yet. He really does want to get the information out there and that will be done as soon as possible. Our next session will be on Monday next week if he is feeling up to it. He does have a helper with him at all times and I make sure that we don't talk for too long.
Thanks for this Gordon. Who else may have had access to the morgue do you think?
ReplyDeletePete,
ReplyDeleteThe stitching, according to Paul, was done about the time of the PM. Whether it was Dwyer or not, he wasn't sure.
Importantly, again according to Paul, both Cowan and Cleland were working together to get hold of the skull and brain tissue to examine it.
Paul is taking a spell for a few days, a good idea, he tires very quickly and I wouldn't want him to feel pressured in any way. I get the impression that there is something very important he wants to say.
This may be a silly question, but it sounds like Paul was a little surprised at the quality of the stitching of the skin. Wouldn’t the person who did the autopsy be experienced at stitching skin?
ReplyDeleteWhen Lawson dodged Littlemore’s question about who might have known SM I thought he was protecting Jessica. Perhaps it wasn’t a matter of recognition that excited Paul enough to back right off … ‘Cut it boys.’ ….
ReplyDeleteTrina,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've ever been to an autopsy, the issue for pathologists is to get the job done quickly but very rarely neatly, there's no need in their mind especially if you have a John Doe. Considering that the stitching would have been at the back of the skull, I am basing that on the Police images, it wouldn't have been visible. The PMs I went to didn't always stitch at the back, sometimes it was across the forehead just below the hairline and then the skull cap removed cutting from there. My experience was in the UK and not in Australia and it wasn't in the 40s. But, the saw used was sometimes handsaw and sometimes a small power saw. Paul, in our discussion believed that the cut was so neat that it would have to have been a power saw which apparently wasn't much in existence in West Terrace. It suggests that whoever carried out the PM, Dr Dwyer was the named pathologist, must have taken their own equipment with him. Worth checking out to see if there was a full kit of tools at the morgue?
Something to ponder then, if the neatness is significant or not.
DeletePraying for Paul.
Trina, I will pass your message on, I know Paul will appreciate it.
DeleteI'll leave this here. A couple of coincidences.
ReplyDeleteFreeman the chemist on Jetty Rd Glenelg.
Friend of
Dr Lica Sprod, widdow of Dr Milo Sprod.
They had a house and surgery on Moseley St Glenelg. She sold it after Milo's early death and moved to Unley Park. Her children maintained yachting interests in Glenelg. She was a member of the board of a few hospitals from time to time she was an Aunty of
Tania Hemblys Scales who visited her only a few weeks before the man's death at Somerton Beach in Adelaide.
Tania married Robert Victor Hemblys Scales who prior to becoming the Mi5 station chief in Australia, was an experienced Mi5 counter espionage interrogator in B2 branch with Arthur Martin.
Hi Pete, Good information. Can you share some links on this?
DeleteYes will do
DeleteWhat about the undertaker? He could have done the stitch work when he was embalmingvthe body.
ReplyDeleteA fair question. When talking with Paul I asked about the stitching and asked how many sets of stitches there were. He replied 'Just the one set'. So unless Dr.Dwyer didn't close of the cut, then the stitching was in all probability, done by him. There is an outside chance that he had an assistant at the autopsy and that person could have closed off using it as a training exercise. Whilst I understand that it was a practice, there's no evidence to support that though.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the person who cleaned the skull may have wanted to keep it, what was there about the body that made the skull so collectable? I can understand Prof Cleland getting up to those sort of shenanigans on his semi-archaeological excursions up north: but Adelaide? And a possible murder victim?
ReplyDeleteThe problem I suggest is that any organic matter in the cranium could have led to the discovery of traces of a drug that would only be found in the brain. Such a drug is sodium pentathol, a well known 'truth serum'.
ReplyDelete