PAUL LAWSON WAS TOLD TO MAKE THE BUST FROM THE IMAGES OF THE AUTOPSY, THE CARL WEBB MYSTERY Part 1... UPDATED 14th November 2022 & 14th December 2022

....THIS POST IS UPDATED FROM THE ORIGINAL SET OF POSTS 
FROM OCTOBER THIS YEAR....

The main body of the post is beneath the first, pre-bust image of Carl Webb. What is very new and important relates to the work being done by Pete Bowes on Tomsbytwo.com. 

Pete had been focusing on the image of the family group which included Roy and Carl Webb. Pete first noticed that the two brothers, though standing slightly apart, were of very similar heights. He was right about that although we disagreed by an inch :)

We have been cooperating but I want to make it very clear that Pete's insistence on the heights being the same for each of the brothers is what caused me to revisit this post and others dealing with the Merchant Seaman Carl Webb. Pete by doing his work has confirmed that the man Carl Webb shown on the crew lists was 5' 8" in height and could very well be Charlie Webb. We had the right name and the right age for the man but were missing any kind of confirmation of his height.  Full credit to Pete for finding that missing piece of information.

This needs to be verified with US records and ships log books and that process is underway.

....The image is of the man just prior to the bust being made by Paul Lawson....

This is the man from whom Paul Lawson retrieved hair samples some of which he gave to Professor Abbott who in turn had the samples subjected to DNA analysis. That analysis provided a name, Carl Webb.

This next image shows the comparison between the Somerton Man Autopsy image, Carl Webb, and the plaster bust:

THE COMPARISONS

The image above shows the comparisons between 

Carl Webb, Roy Webb (Carl's Brother), and the Somerton Man.

The angular jawline of both Roy Webb and Carl Webb in the upper part of the image appears to show more of a likeness than the comparison with the Somerton Man image. 

But, in the end, it will be the SA Police Forensic examination that should tell us whether the exhumed remains are those of Carl Webb or, if the dental charts and height don't match, the whole case has to be rethought.

For the record, Roy Webb's height was closer to 5'8" as you can see above,  that's the height of the Carl Webb crewman aboard the SS Golden Sun shown below. You can also see in the image to the right above, that Roy Webb had tightly curled hair.

In interviews with Paul, he told me that he had been given photographs of the autopsy of the Somerton Man and was told to use them to model the features of the face that we now know as the 'Plaster Bust.' That is a concern.

You can see that there is little similarity between the Somerton Man image and that of  Carl Webb. A variety of reasons have been put forward in efforts to explain it. The man had been embalmed on 10th December 1948 and the body should have been in reasonable condition at that time. The son of the embalmer mentioned in a presentation that his father had paid regular trips to the mortuary between December and June to top up embalming fluids and check on the condition of the body.

THE SAILOR

In a discussion with a David Morgan on Professor Abbotts Facebook Page about the possibility that the man Carl Webb may have been a sailor aboard a US steamer, I put forward the case for drilling down into the available information on this crewman.

I had previously posted on the subject, you can find the first of those two posts, here:

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/10/somerton-man-mystery-carl-webb-sailor.html

In the post dated October 6th above, you will see that this sailor's nationality is described as English. In those days, up until the 1960s, it was common practice for Australians to describe themselves as English and they in fact carried British passports. That same post described the crewman Carl Webb as being 28 years old, which is a match for the man we believe to be Carl Webb.

Image of Search result. Carl Webb is recorded as being of English Nationality.

However, I noted the fact that in the record of crewmen, his height was just 5 feet 8 inches which is, apparently, less than the Carl Webb identified by DNA. I drilled down on this and reviewed the information which included the Paul Lawson Interviews. 

1. Paul did not record the height of the man of whom he was to make the bust

2. He told me that he had been given the photographs from the Autopsy as shown above, and was told to make the bust based on those images.

We do not, therefore, know the height of the bust subject and this was the man from whom the hair samples were taken which led to the identification of Carl Webb. 

We can therefore say that there is a serious question about Carl Webb being the Somerton Man and at the very least the issue should be pursued.

To my knowledge, and I stand to be corrected on this, there is no record of Carl being in Australia until his marriage to Dof and neither is there any record of his height? (A correction here, it is possible that Carl was in Australia through the period 1924 and the late 1930s. Merchant seamen certainly spent time at their homes in between the various sea journeys that they undertook.)

THE SS GOLDEN SUN

Here's an article from The Advertiser, 12th. October 1937, announcing a forthcoming visit by the US owned Golden Sun steamer to Port Adelaide:

Here's the link to the full story:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36377892?searchTerm=%22Golden%20Sun%22%20San%20Francisco

I suggested that we should research UK Births, Deaths, and Marriages records to see just how many boys name Carl Webb were born in the UK in 1905/06. If such a boy were found then that would be a resolution but if not, then the question remains, was Carl Webb a seaman, and did he serve on the Golden Sun steamer? 

Here's the second post regarding, this time, the Golden Sun arriving in San Francisco in 1934

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/10/carl-webb-was-not-somerton-man.html?sc=1668270644968#c6893173088918999668

In this post, I included a full crew list for the specific trip:

 Again, Carl Webb is recorded and listed as being English as shown in the earlier search result image.

THE POSITION

To be clear, the position I have is that a crew list has been found that includes an Englishman known as Carl Webb, he is the same age as the man Carl Webb we have been told is the Somerton Man. On the Alien  Crew Members form, Carl Webb is just 5 feet 8 inches tall, 3 inches shorter than the Somerton Man. I drilled down and in my notes, I found that the height of the man of whom Paul Lawson was asked to create a plaster bust, was never recorded. And in an interview, neither did Paul recall measuring the man. Further, there is nothing mentioned in any of the current discussions about Carl Webb regarding his height.

Common sense and logic say that we need to first research and see whether there was a boy called Carl Webb born in the UK in 1905/06. (This has now been done with a negative result)

If we find that is the case and there was a Carl Webb born in the UK in those years, then we should next see the date of death against that person. If that all checks out, then we can safely conclude that this was not the Carl Webb we are looking for. 

If, however, we do not find matches in the UK, then we still have a question mark over our Carl Webb.

David Morgan, let me repeat I think you have a good mind and you should really exercise it by drilling down that little bit further. You may find the boy in the UK and if you do I will be amongst the first to congratulate you. There's no offense intended here and I hope you accept that.

It's not about winning, it is about getting to the truth..

"TRUTH IS LIKE THE SUN,

YOU CAN SHUT IT OUT FOR A TIME

BUT IT AIN'T GONNA GO AWAY"

Elvis Presley... (True)

UPDATE RE CARL WEBB, NORTH CAROLINA

1930 Census record here:

The record shows that in 1930  neither Carl Webb, his brother nor his mother had an occupation. His father was a laborer. The 1930s were very tough times in the US, especially for those on the land which I believe this family was, they lived in Burnsville just North West of Charlotte. 

To date, I have found no other US record of a Carl Webb with the same age as Charlie/Carl Webb