SOMERTON MAN: DETECTIVE SUPT. BROWN & THE PAPER MATCHING PRINTER. UPDATED

THE TORN PIECE MATCHED TO THE BOOK...

 Much has been made elsewhere about the matching of the torn slip containing the words TAMAM SHUD and the book handed in by a 'Mr. Francis' AKA Mr Freeman a Jetty Road, Glenelg, Chemist.

The error made by the blog in question was to look for the name and not the nature of the business. Let me explain. According to the transcript of the Littlemore interview with Detective Superintendent Brown, in 1977 (28 years after the events) Detective Brown certainly mentioned a name and a street, Julius Combes and the street was Leigh Street Adelaide. BUT Detective Brown went on to say that the business was that of a printer and there was a paper expert there.

As you can see in the screengrab at the head of this post, at number 26 Leigh Street, just a few doors away from the premises of Julius Cohn ( a Leather Merchant)  there was a specialist printer, a lithographer in fact. 

That business was that of  J.H Sherring & Company, Lithographers, 

26 Leigh Street, Adelaide.

Sherrings are noted as an advertiser in the Directory so somewhere in that publication, there will be an advert for them.

For those interested, there are online copies of all of the Sands & Mcdougall Adelaide Street Directories, 

go to: guides.slsa.sa.gov.au

 This advert from the 1949 Sands & Mcdougall directory is from another Leigh Street business. This one, as you can read, is for a paper merchants and wholesale stationers, their address was 25 Leigh Street, right next door to the Julius Cohn leather Merchant. Notice that they supply printers but are apparently aren't pri ters themselves. 

This  next ad is for Julius Cohn, Leather Merchants :

No sign of any printing related activity in this ad.

The point I am making here is that all too often there are those in the Somerton Man blog space who are in such a hurry to prove something that makes them look clever or smart, that they overlook that which is staring them in the face. Sadly, when they get picked up on it, they immediately respond with a troll post designed to divert attention from themselves. 

This blog has one aim and that is to find the truth. In that process I investigate, verify and substantiate as much of the information as I possibly can. In this instance, it is clear that there is only one printer in Leigh Street, J.H. Sherring.

It's not a competition and it's not about winning. It's about getting to the truth.

The information on the other blog is totally incorrect. There is no reason to think that this was a deliberate attempt to mislead.