The Somerton Man Rubaiyat & The Six People Who Saw It...

 

The Collins Rubaiyat

The Collins Rubaiyat shown here
measures 18 cms X 13 cms

This 'pocket' sized copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has been the focus of attention on this blog for some time on this blog. The reasons? 

1. The evidence points to a copy of this book and not the Whitcomb & Tombs version as being the book from which the Tamam Shud torn slip was taken. That's the evidence given by Detective Brown at the 1949 Inquest into the death of the Somerton Man in which he told the court that the slip of paper which had been recovered by Professor John Burton Cleland was first matched by him and found to have the identical font type to that found in this Collins edition of the RUbaiyat. he went further and said that it had writing on the back. Later photographs of this slip of paper showed that it was white in colour.

2. As you will read in the post that follows this one, this Collins version of the book was the one on which pages the Somerton Man code could be demonstrated to have been written. The same could not be said of the Whiitcomb & Tombs version.

The 6 People Who Saw The Book

And here they are:

1. It is well known that Detective Sergeant Leane examined the book and it was he who initially found the telephone numbers, one of which belonged to the nurse who was later to be named as Jestyn, 

2. It is known that Detective Brown also saw the book being examined by Detective Sergeant Leane and he also saw the phone numbers which he later described to Gerry Feltus as being found in the upper right quartile of the code page. It is not known but could be reasonably assumed that Detective Brown may have handled the book

3. Mr. Freeman, the man who it is said handed the book to the Police, quite obviously saw and handled the book. (There is still some doubt being expressed as to the identity of this person) 

4. Mr. Freeman stated that his brother-in-law had first found the book so we can add that person to the list of those who handled and saw the book.

5. After the book had been examined by Detective Sergeant Leane it was professionally photographed presumably by the Police photographer Jimmy Durham but possibly by another. Whoever the photographer was, he would have seen and handled the book.

6. The torn slip bearing the words Tamam Shud was found in the concealed/secret fob pocket of the trousers of the man found on Somerton Beach. Either this man or another person must have seen and handled the book to tear the slip from it.

There is a possibility that a seventh person may have seen and handled the book but cannot be substantiated at this time so that person has not been included.

This post will hopefully stop the misinformation being distributed on this subject.

The point I hope to make is that when you are investigating or deeply researching a subject  as complex as the Somerton Man case, you have to think outside the box. By limiting your thinking you not only limit yourself but also those who read your misinformed comments.

In the end it is the truth that matters and I have pursued that on these blog pages and elsewhere since late 2009. Since then I have been lucky in that I have found numerous pieces of new evidence and insights and the harder I worked at it the luckier I got, There is much more to the Somerton Man case which has yet to be revealed.

Gerry Feltus

Gerry was the man who, as a Detective Sergeant in the SA Police, had charge of the Somerton Man case. He is a well-respected, principled, and highly skilled detective. As such he, by default would be careful in his choice of words and would keep his cards close to his chest. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him. He is the author of  The Unknown Man book and effectively it was he and no one else that set in train the whole and ongoing discussion on the case. No one else has done what he has done.