TAMAM SHUD: THE FINAL PROOF THAT 'CHARLES' WEBB IS NOT THE SOMERTON MAN? #900

 

 

Over the past few months, additional time has been spent on whether or not Charles Webb was the Somerton Man. In one instance we extracted some known measurements from a photograph of the late Professor Cleland taken at Adelaide Railway station. From that, we showed a height differential between Charles and SM. It was a good and valid exercise but it needed something extra to push it over the line. The images below may just do that.

A ratio between the datum line drawn through the center point of Charles's eyes and the eyes of the Somerton Man is shown.

I drew the datum line and then dropped a second line from the datum to the upper lips of both men.

Please note that in SM's case, his eyes and mouth are both closed, and therefore no allowance was needed as is the case for the photograph of Charles. In the case of Charles, both eyes were open but you should see that the central point is very close to being equal in each image in that the lines connect to the outer points of each eye. See the image below for more.

The second issue is that an allowance was made of 3mm due to Carl's mouth being opened in a smile. That opening of his mouth effectively raised his upper lip and reduced the distance between the datum line and his upper lip. You will notice that the datum line on the SM's photograph appears to be lower due to the angle at which the photograph was taken, the important factor is the line drawn across between his eyes and some allowance has been made.

Based on the measurements and the allowance for his open mouth, you can see that the distance from the ear to the eye/upper lip measurement for Charles has a ratio of 1: 1, the ear height equals the distance between the mid-eye point and the upper lip.

In the case of the Somerton Man, apart from the effect of the angle at which his photograph was taken, no other allowances were needed as the eye line positioning was the same as for Charles and his mouth was closed. In his case the ratio between the mid-eye point and the upper lip was I: 1.4.

This supports the view that the Somerton Man's ear was/is significantly smaller than Charles Webb's ear. This information now adds to the ear structure/shape discussions first posted here in 2022 with images at the head of the main page above.

A note of caution. Once again we are dealing with a photograph and photographs can be deceiving. The measurements are to the best of my knowledge accurate as they can be to the best of my ability. In the end the decision of whether Charles is the Somerton Man is in the hands of the SA Coroner and he will have this information and photographs made available to him for his information.