SOMERTON MAN: HOW THE CODE WAS HIDDEN, UPDATED 6th August 2021

 INVISIBLE INK

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONCEALMENT

Intelligence is all about information and agents of all sides used every technique and tool available to firstly access that information and then to transmit it.

Whilst some secret information was sent via encrypted radio and cable traffic, much of it was originally found and passed on by field agents making use of whatever clandestine technique they could.

In the Somerton Man case, the evidence shows that one particular method, microcode, was made full use of.

In this post, you will see yet more proof of the use of micro-written codes in documents associated with the Somerton Man Cold Case. In particular, you will see the direct comparison between the techniques used in the design of the Hay Banknotes and examples from the Boxall/Jestyn verse 70 copy of the Rubaiyat.

Those who have followed the case on this blog may recall that this subject has also been discussed in relation to the Somerton Man code page and the Hay Internment camp banknotes.

THE HAY BANKNOTE EXAMPLE

The  following images are of the same note, normal photo and negative photos of the first:

1. Hay Two Shilling Note:

2. Same note, close up, cropped, and marked:

Above the shield, you can see a horizontal string of letters and numbers. To the right and very importantly, you can see a handwritten, cursive signature that also contains letters and numbers as highlighted on examination. Why is that so important? because that is exactly how Jestyn encoded her Verse 70 inscription as you will see later in this post

3. Negative image of the same banknote:

As you would expect, the lighter areas are those which were dark in the original photo. But there's more to it than that as you will see in the next image.

4. Negative Image Marked showing invisible ink markings:

In this marked version, you can see what are now white letters above the shield and in the signature. But, looking to the left of the shield and the Roo, you can see a string of dark letters and numbers running along the 'wire' fence' design. This actually occurs in several places on the Hay Bank Notes.

It is these dark letters and numbers that were in fact done originally in invisible ink and were picked up by the high-resolution camera and stored in the relevant file.

IMPORTANT

The Hay Banknotes were designed by George Adam Teltscher from the UK. He was aboard the ship Dunera that arrived in Australia in September 1940 along with approximately 2500 other men and boys who were similarly interned first at Hay and then Tatura in Victoria, some were moved to Loveday in South Australia's Riverland. George returned to the UK in 1942 where he took up a position with the British Army and is believed to have been employed by MI6. It was this organisation that in 1943 released a manual containing instructions on how to send clandestine messages using a method called INK H. The method was to conceal micro letters/numbers within larger letters just as you see in the signature line of the Hay Banknotes. 

Interestingly, Tibor Kaldor the man whose body was found in a Hindley Street Hotel in Adelaide just two weeks after the discovery of the Somerton Man's body on the beach just 30 minutes away at Somerton. Tibor also died of poisoning.

5. Close up Images, SHIELD:

The letters/numbers string shown in the surrounding border of the Shield on this note is similar to the strings found in the 'crossed out' and centre 'crossed lines' on the Somerton Man Code page

6. Close IP Images, STAHL SIGNATURE:

In this image above, you see the highlighted number set found in a cursive handwritten signature, this is identical to the technique found in the verse 70 wording in the Boxall/Jestyn copy of the Rubaiyat.

THE VERSE 70 Example:

The Verse 70 inscription written by Jestyn also contained micro writing as per the Hay Banknotes and Ink H description. It is to be found within the cursive written wording and elsewhere on this page and the title page from the Boxall Rubaiyat.

Close up Image example book cover edge:

Above you will see the presence of micro-written strings horizontally across the book cover edge...

Close up image 'dash' lone 2 of inscription:

Close up image, number 70 Inscription page:

Close up image, Jestyn signature:

The above technique of concealing letters/numbers within a signature is the same as the technique found in the Hay Banknote example:

If you download the image above you will be able to enlarge it and see for yourselves. Take a good look at the highlighted edges of the book, you will notice how micro letters and numbers have been concealed in plain sight, the vertical edge in particular has some great examples that are written in horizontally.

Speaking with Pete Bowes of the tomsbytwo blog recently, he brought up the matter of secret inks which he thought may have been used in the Somerton Man case, this post has been a follow up to that discussion.

Let's complete this post with the following case study of the use of secret writing/invisible ink dating back to the American Civil War:

Secret Writing 

CASE STUDY

While serving in Paris as an agent of the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Silas Deane is known to have used a heat-developing invisible ink, compounded of cobalt chloride, glycerine and water, for some of his intelligence reports back to America. Even more useful to him later was a "sympathetic stain" created for secret communications by James Jay, a physician and the brother of John Jay. Dr. Jay, who had been knighted by George III, used the "stain" for reporting military information from London to America. Later he supplied quantities of the stain to George Washington at home and to Silas Deane in Paris.

The stain required one chemical for writing the message and a second to develop it, affording greater security than the ink used by Deane earlier. Once, in a letter to John Jay, Robert Morris spoke of an innocuous letter from "Timothy Jones" (Deane) and the "concealed beauties therein," noting "the cursory examinations of a sea captain would never discover them, but transferred from his hand to the penetrating eye of a Jay, the diamonds stand confessed at once."

Washington instructed his agents in the use of the "sympathetic stain," noting in connection with "Culper Junior" that the ink "will not only render his communications less exposed to detection, but relieve the fears of such persons as may be entrusted in its conveyance." Washington suggested that reports could be written in the invisible ink "on the blank leaves of a pamphlet. . . a common pocket book, or on the blank leaves at each end of registers, almanacks, or any publication or book of small value."

Washington especially recommended that agents conceal their reports by using the ink in correspondence: "A much better way is to write a letter in the Tory stile with some mixture of family matters and between the lines and on the remaining part of the sheet communicate with the Stain the intended intelligence."

Even though the Patriots took great care to write sensitive messages in invisible ink, or in code or cipher, it is estimated that the British intercepted and decrypted over half of America's secret correspondence during the war.

Other notes discussed the use of toothpicks or sharp pencils rather than steel-tipped pens which tended to leave deep indentations on following pages, a definite giveaway as per the Somerton Man code page letters which themselves was a series of indentations.

That takes care of the concealment 

NEXT

THE DECEPTION