THE TAMAM SHUD CASE: AND SO DETECTIVE, WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED HERE?.... A COMPARISON PHOTOGRAPH & MULTIPLE NEW CLUES? UPDATE 2, 7th March 2024

...Facts are powerful. They can change minds, inform decisions, and lead to progress. So, let's focus on the truth - first impressions and just the facts...

In December of 1948, a man was found dead on a South Australian beach not far from the sites of Atomic and other weapons development centers and at a time when the world was teetering on the brink of war again. And in Australia, the future of the country itself was under threat of a Communist-inspired insurrection. A civil war was on the cards. 

This man had no means of identification on him and just a few items including two tickets, one train and one bus, a packet of Army Club cigarettes which contained 7 of the Kensitas brand, a part box of matches, two aluminum combs, a part packet of 'Juicy Fruit' chewing gum and sixpence in coins; labels had been removed from his clothing, and an autopsy revealed that he had been poisoned but the type of poison was never clearly identified. The examining doctor who performed the autopsy made a chart of the man's teeth, it recorded the fact that 18 of his teeth were missing.

And now let's add more facts to this picture. A copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is later found not far from that beach. When the book was examined, indentations on its back page were revealed. The indentations formed the shape of handwritten letters arranged in 5 lines, other markings on the page did not appear to have any particular meaning. The letters were believed to be a code of some kind.

Two telephone numbers were also found on the back page of the book which were written in 'really tiny lettering and under the code' according to a Detective who took part in the original investigation. One of those numbers belonged to a nurse who happened to live minutes away from where the man was found. The same nurse when questioned said that she had given a copy of the Rubaiyat to an Australian Army Lieutenant some 3 years earlier whilst she was employed as a trainee nurse in Sydney. This Army lieutenant was later to agree that he had been in Intelligence during his Army service. 

One last clue is that sometime after the autopsy and before the inquest held into the man's death, a mall piece of paper was found tightly rolled up and pushed well down into a secret fob pocket located on the inside of the waistband of the trousers the man was wearing when he was found. The two words typeset onto this slip of paper were TAMAM SHUD. The shape of this slip which had been torn out of its original page of a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. was found to match the shape of a torn section in a copy of a book of that title that was handed to the Police by an unnamed local businessman not long before the inquest was held.

You have just read the core facts of the Somerton Man case. Now imagine that you are a seasoned detective who had the experience of serving through the years of World War 2, (this was a time when State Police through their 'Special Branch operations, worked alongside Australia's intelligence services.) Or perhaps you are a Special Branch officer who was in regular contact with the Intelligence services.

What would be your "First thoughts." about these circumstances and facts? What do you think may have taken place? Your first thoughts are important, they are unpolluted by scenarios and theories, and first impressions really count. Now prepare 5 questions you would ask of those involved...

UPDATE: IMAGE ADDED...
A Result...

In the earlier post, we looked at the core evidence in the case, essentially the core facts. I have received a few responses, and one was quite interesting in that it quoted and attached an image from a 1949 article from the 'TRUTH' newspaper. Sadly it doesn't provide a link or a date and a quick search does not show any results for that headline. I am happy to include that here as the article's date could be significant.

Having said that, all is not lost. I followed the link that led me nowhere but I found an article with an image that might contain two new clues.

1.

Here's the image below, let me know if you can spot them:

The article can be found here:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/168961380?searchTerm=Somerton%20Mystery%20Deepens

2.

In the image marked 2 above, I have 'flipped' the photograph of the man in the Truth article and placed it alongside the Somerton Man post-autopsy image to demonstrate a single fact, the fact is that in the Truth image marked '1' immediately above this image, it seems we are actually looking at the Somerton Man's left ear.

In the image marked '2', I have placed it so that you can see the differences that substantiate the claim that we now may have a photograph of the left ear. For this comparison, I carefully placed each image such that various points on the head of both images were properly aligned, and the nose, the chin, and the eyes were lined up and measured.

We can show differences between the left and right ear as you would expect. Most people would know that our ears are often very similar, they are not perfectly matched, as is the case in these images. The differences are as follows:

1. The right ear shown in the autopsy photo, is slightly lower on the head than in the press photo from Truth newspaper.

2. The width of the right ear on the autopsy photo is approximately 3 mm wider at its widest point compared to the Truth photograph which is of the left ear of the Somerton Man.

3. Interestingly, the facial detail of the post-autopsy photograph is noticeably different. That could be the result of the 'reconstructed' image created by Police photographer Jimmy Durham mentioned in the press on December 4th, 1948

4. The bump on the forehead of the post-autopsy photograph is not seen in the press photograph. That could be the result of either, the reconstruction work done by Jimmy Durham or alternatively, it may have been done by the staff at Truth. I noticed that they had given the subject a decent hairstyle.

Once again, here is the photograph I believe to be of the Somerton man taken from the left, showing his left ear. This is the first time this has been shown. It was always there waiting to be found.

The question is, Why is all of this important?

It's important because we can now better compare the Somerton Man's left ear with Carl Webb's.

I need to qualify the claim made here. We are dealing with an old press photograph and, apart from the fact it was published by the Truth newspaper which has something of a chequered history it is a little hazy, I was careful in doing the alignment of the two images to ensure that the sizing and positioning is correct as I could make it.

It is reasonable to assume that there were other photographs taken of the man before Jimmy Durham's reconstruction work and that the photographs shown in the press at the time were the unaltered ones.

I will organise a video showing various ratios and comparisons and post it here when time permits.

Another interesting aspect of this latest research relates to the height of the Somerton Man. Studies suggest that there is a ratio of 1:8 between the head height of a subject and their full height. In the case of the 'Somerton Man' we know that his height on the slab was 5 feet 11 inches. His head height would therefore be 71 inches divided by 8 which would make his head height approximately 8.875 inches. Here is a link to a site with more information on the subject:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Body-proportions-the-height-of-a-person-is-about-eight-times-his-her-heads-height-the_fig2_224674276

When it comes to Carl Webb and family photographs, there are some heights known, including Roy Webb and Carl's father. Perhaps someone could take on the task of assessing Carl's height based on his imputed face height?