Portland Spy Ring
..Link to Wiki Page..
Two very ordinary-looking people in a very ordinary setting...
For decades, we've all been steered away from the "spy" angle with the Somerton Man case. And this is in spite of there being significant and substantiated evidence of espionage involvement. It's been called too fantastic, too "James Bond." The larger multi-focused blogs prefer a more comfortable, mundane story, a jilted lover, a local tragedy.
It's a narrative that suited their followers; however, it doesn't fit the facts or the evidence.
The facts are stubborn. We have a complex two-layer cipher used by a Soviet backed spy ring, a concealed code in an MI6 described method, a body systematically stripped of identity, a second man (Tibor Kaldor) dead from poison in the same city just two weeks later, who also left a code. Add to that, two other, suspicious deaths making 4 in all and a possible fifth. The facts are that four of them appear to be directly linked.
Is it all a coincidence or is it a pattern?
So, what has really been going on? You have to understand that through the lens of the year 1948. The war hadn't quite ended; it had gone quiet. A new "Shadow War" had started. The players? MI6, the new CIA (following the closure of OSS in 1947), and of course, Soviet intelligence. And the prize they were all fighting over was the human wreckage of the Third Reich's intelligence machine. The men, and some women, who had been agents directly or by default of the Third Reich.
Specifically, there were two main groups: the Russian Liberation Army (RLA) and the 14th Galician Waffen SS Division, with the overarching presence of the Abwehr, German Intelligence, pulling the strings. If that wasn't complex enough, there is evidence to suggest that MI6 may have been involved, and I will organise some citations in the coming week that support that view.
These weren't just foot soldiers. They were specialists. They'd been trained by the Abwehr, German military intelligence, in many facets of tradecraft and intelligence work. The RLA guys were HUMINT—human intelligence—experts. They knew how to run field agents, interrogate defectors, and analyze Soviet command. The Galician units had precursors who were masters of counter-intelligence and 'deep cover' operations. They were, in short, the perfect, experienced, anti-Soviet assets.
To say that these men were desperate would be an understatement. They all faced 'repatriation' to the USSR under Operation Keelhaul, which meant standing in front of a firing squad or the Gulag. So they were a pliable, vulnerable, and also invaluable recruitment pool.
The West moved first. MI6 and the CIA began to "cherry-pick" these men, to harvest them. And they needed to hide them. So they used the "assimilation" playbook.
How do you hide a former RLA intelligence officer whom you've just 'turned'? You smuggle him into Australia as a "White Russian," where he'll be instantly welcomed by the established, anti-communist community, no questions asked. How do you hide a Galician Division intelligence specialist? You get him placed on the "Rimini List," give him a fake "exhaustive screening," and resettle him in the Ukrainian community. They became 'grey men' and hard to detect, even though they were in plain sight.
But the Soviets weren't stupid. They knew who these men were and where they were probably going. And for them, these men were traitors. After that, it was all footwork
This is where it gets dark. Soviet intelligence—and I'm talking about very real, ruthless organisations like SMERSH (death to spies) and its successor, the MGB and Soviet Security Agencies, had a two-track policy. First, retribution. Hunt the traitors down and kill them as a public warning. Second, recruitment. Find them, threaten to expose them, and "double" them, turning them into Soviet agents inside these new Western networks.And that is the shadow war that arrived in Adelaide in 1948.
A Body is Found
On December 1st, the Somerton Man is found. But look how he was found. He wasn't hidden. He was placed. He was a 'message', left on a public beach.
It's a terror tactic, a public execution. It was SMERSH or the MGB sending a signal to every other RLA and Galician veteran in Australia: "We know where you are. We will find you."
But the clean-up wasn't complete; it needed to be properly finished. Two weeks later, on December 14th 1948, Tibor Kaldor was found dead. Poisoned. In room 3 of the Victoria Hotel in Hindley Street. Adelaide, just a 30-minute drive away from Somerton Beach. Importantly, he also leaves a code, an acrostic-style book code that spells out one word, DANETTA. For the record, I visited Adelaide and went to the Victoria Hotel, as it was, at the time it was being renovated. As it turns out, room 3 could be accessed from a side street via a set of back stairs; it was the first room on the left on the first floor. I am not sure what the street lighting was like in December 1948.
So, what we had was a two-part clean-up. of the deaths of two men who were apparently unconnected, except for the presence of concealed codes found with both bodies. Who would have done this and why? A specialist, acting on intelligence, was eliminating a compromised cell? Or was it an act of retribution, the elimination of one man who had betrayed his country and another who could bear witness to the events?
Modus Operandi
In a post some years ago, we discussed the MO, the Modus Operandi that shows up in many crime scenes, for example, a criminal may break a small window at the rear of a house to see if anyone reacts to the sound. It's nearly always a particular window; it's a habit thing. If no one reacts, then they go ahead and either A, break open the back door, or B, break another window and gain acces to the house that way. Look on it as a kind of 'trademark. In the case of the Somerton Man, there was no MO as such. Nothing that would be compared to another similar death, in reality, the lack of an MO was, in fact, an MO in itself. It was the trademark of a Soviet style assassination. To err on the side of caution, it is best described as an MO similar to a Soviet assassination
So why is it taking so long to clear up this mystery? Has it all been a massive, decades-long cover-up? Why the "unknown man"? Surely they would have an identity by now?
As you would know, tere have been numerous attempts at and claims made that the man has been identified. However, when push comes to shove, none of these claims stand up to scrutiny, and yes, this does include the 2023 claim by Professor Abbott that Carl Webb was the Somerton Man. When the methodology and claim were taken apart, the claim could not be substantiated. LINK HERE
Without leaping to conclusions, here are some thoughts. This was December 1948. The UK was desperately pressuring Australia to create ASIO (which was born just three months later) because, as we know from the Lidell diaries, courtesy of the Venona project by which name it was later known, Australia was seen by the Americans as leaking like a sieve. The country was not to be trusted, and the sharing of sensitive information was blocked.
Imagine the political explosion if it got out that the West's entire, "clean" recruitment of new but old intelligence men as the main defence against Russian aggression was a lie. That they were secretly harboring SS-linked and RLA "traitors." And, worst of all, their new networks were already compromised and being rolled up by Soviet hit squads on Australian soil.
It would have been more than a catastrophe. It would have destroyed the UK's credibility and torpedoed the new Western intelligence alliance.
The "secret" that "goes higher than the police," according to Jessica, wasn't a man. It was the entire, toxic system. And by the way, Australia at the same time was up to its armpits in countering the growing Soviet influence across critical defence-related industries, not to mention the general populace.
This isn't just a theory. These are facts. Years later, Senator Cavanagh stood up in the Australian Parliament and spoke about this very thing. He referenced The Atom Spies book and the NKVD courier Harry Gold, and made the shocking implication that Australia was being used as a "dumping ground" for spies.
The men, the victims, knew it. They knew they were dead men walking. Those codes, the Somerton Man's Nihilist cipher (used by Soviet backed 'Rote Drei' in Switzerland, cracked by the Abwehr) and Kaldor's acrostic, were failsafes. They were final and desperate messages that pointed the finger from the grave.
And who were they pointing at? The Somerton Man's 'TAMAM SHUD' slip contained a name: MENTIES. Or MENZIES.
In 1948, that's a name that points to two of the most powerful men in the Western world: Robert Menzies, our next Prime Minister, and Sir Stewart Menzies, the legendary chief of MI6/SIS in the UK, which, for the record, had an established presence in Australia at the time
That's the secret. That's the truth. And what's a few lives traded to keep a secret that big?
The Somerton Man's identity is not the issue. The issue is the size and nature of the pain and the problem he could have unleashed.
For decades, we've all been steered away from the "spy" angle with the Somerton Man case. And this is in spite of there being significant and substantiated evidence of espionage involvement. It's been called too fantastic, too "James Bond." The larger multi-focused blogs prefer a more comfortable, mundane story, a jilted lover, a local tragedy.
It's a narrative that suited their followers; however, it doesn't fit the facts or the evidence.
The facts are stubborn. We have a complex two-layer cipher used by a Soviet backed spy ring, a concealed code in an MI6 described method, a body systematically stripped of identity, a second man (Tibor Kaldor) dead from poison in the same city just two weeks later, who also left a code. Add to that, two other, suspicious deaths making 4 in all and a possible fifth. The facts are that four of them appear to be directly linked.
Is it all a coincidence or is it a pattern?
So, what has really been going on? You have to understand that through the lens of the year 1948. The war hadn't quite ended; it had gone quiet. A new "Shadow War" had started. The players? MI6, the new CIA (following the closure of OSS in 1947), and of course, Soviet intelligence. And the prize they were all fighting over was the human wreckage of the Third Reich's intelligence machine. The men, and some women, who had been agents directly or by default of the Third Reich.
Specifically, there were two main groups: the Russian Liberation Army (RLA) and the 14th Galician Waffen SS Division, with the overarching presence of the Abwehr, German Intelligence, pulling the strings. If that wasn't complex enough, there is evidence to suggest that MI6 may have been involved, and I will organise some citations in the coming week that support that view.
These weren't just foot soldiers. They were specialists. They'd been trained by the Abwehr, German military intelligence, in many facets of tradecraft and intelligence work. The RLA guys were HUMINT—human intelligence—experts. They knew how to run field agents, interrogate defectors, and analyze Soviet command. The Galician units had precursors who were masters of counter-intelligence and 'deep cover' operations. They were, in short, the perfect, experienced, anti-Soviet assets.
To say that these men were desperate would be an understatement. They all faced 'repatriation' to the USSR under Operation Keelhaul, which meant standing in front of a firing squad or the Gulag. So they were a pliable, vulnerable, and also invaluable recruitment pool.
The West moved first. MI6 and the CIA began to "cherry-pick" these men, to harvest them. And they needed to hide them. So they used the "assimilation" playbook.
How do you hide a former RLA intelligence officer whom you've just 'turned'? You smuggle him into Australia as a "White Russian," where he'll be instantly welcomed by the established, anti-communist community, no questions asked. How do you hide a Galician Division intelligence specialist? You get him placed on the "Rimini List," give him a fake "exhaustive screening," and resettle him in the Ukrainian community. They became 'grey men' and hard to detect, even though they were in plain sight.
But the Soviets weren't stupid. They knew who these men were and where they were probably going. And for them, these men were traitors. After that, it was all footwork
And that is the shadow war that arrived in Adelaide in 1948.
A Body is Found
On December 1st, the Somerton Man is found. But look how he was found. He wasn't hidden. He was placed. He was a 'message', left on a public beach.
It's a terror tactic, a public execution. It was SMERSH or the MGB sending a signal to every other RLA and Galician veteran in Australia: "We know where you are. We will find you."
But the clean-up wasn't complete; it needed to be properly finished. Two weeks later, on December 14th 1948, Tibor Kaldor was found dead. Poisoned. In room 3 of the Victoria Hotel in Hindley Street. Adelaide, just a 30-minute drive away from Somerton Beach. Importantly, he also leaves a code, an acrostic-style book code that spells out one word, DANETTA. For the record, I visited Adelaide and went to the Victoria Hotel, as it was, at the time it was being renovated. As it turns out, room 3 could be accessed from a side street via a set of back stairs; it was the first room on the left on the first floor. I am not sure what the street lighting was like in December 1948.
So, what we had was a two-part clean-up. of the deaths of two men who were apparently unconnected, except for the presence of concealed codes found with both bodies. Who would have done this and why? A specialist, acting on intelligence, was eliminating a compromised cell? Or was it an act of retribution, the elimination of one man who had betrayed his country and another who could bear witness to the events?
Modus Operandi
In a post some years ago, we discussed the MO, the Modus Operandi that shows up in many crime scenes, for example, a criminal may break a small window at the rear of a house to see if anyone reacts to the sound. It's nearly always a particular window; it's a habit thing. If no one reacts, then they go ahead and either A, break open the back door, or B, break another window and gain acces to the house that way. Look on it as a kind of 'trademark. In the case of the Somerton Man, there was no MO as such. Nothing that would be compared to another similar death, in reality, the lack of an MO was, in fact, an MO in itself. It was the trademark of a Soviet style assassination. To err on the side of caution, it is best described as an MO similar to a Soviet assassination
So why is it taking so long to clear up this mystery? Has it all been a massive, decades-long cover-up? Why the "unknown man"? Surely they would have an identity by now?
As you would know, tere have been numerous attempts at and claims made that the man has been identified. However, when push comes to shove, none of these claims stand up to scrutiny, and yes, this does include the 2023 claim by Professor Abbott that Carl Webb was the Somerton Man. When the methodology and claim were taken apart, the claim could not be substantiated. LINK HERE
Without leaping to conclusions, here are some thoughts. This was December 1948. The UK was desperately pressuring Australia to create ASIO (which was born just three months later) because, as we know from the Lidell diaries, courtesy of the Venona project by which name it was later known, Australia was seen by the Americans as leaking like a sieve. The country was not to be trusted, and the sharing of sensitive information was blocked.
Imagine the political explosion if it got out that the West's entire, "clean" recruitment of new but old intelligence men as the main defence against Russian aggression was a lie. That they were secretly harboring SS-linked and RLA "traitors." And, worst of all, their new networks were already compromised and being rolled up by Soviet hit squads on Australian soil.
It would have been more than a catastrophe. It would have destroyed the UK's credibility and torpedoed the new Western intelligence alliance.
The "secret" that "goes higher than the police," according to Jessica, wasn't a man. It was the entire, toxic system. And by the way, Australia at the same time was up to its armpits in countering the growing Soviet influence across critical defence-related industries, not to mention the general populace.
This isn't just a theory. These are facts. Years later, Senator Cavanagh stood up in the Australian Parliament and spoke about this very thing. He referenced The Atom Spies book and the NKVD courier Harry Gold, and made the shocking implication that Australia was being used as a "dumping ground" for spies.
The men, the victims, knew it. They knew they were dead men walking. Those codes, the Somerton Man's Nihilist cipher (used by Soviet backed 'Rote Drei' in Switzerland, cracked by the Abwehr) and Kaldor's acrostic, were failsafes. They were final and desperate messages that pointed the finger from the grave.
And who were they pointing at? The Somerton Man's 'TAMAM SHUD' slip contained a name: MENTIES. Or MENZIES.
In 1948, that's a name that points to two of the most powerful men in the Western world: Robert Menzies, our next Prime Minister, and Sir Stewart Menzies, the legendary chief of MI6/SIS in the UK, which, for the record, had an established presence in Australia at the time
So, will you be publishing who you think the Somerton Man is?
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is no. There have been numerous claims made but when it comes to examining the evidence, those claims fall over and that includes the Carl Webb claim which has been refuted. Here's a post link and you'll find the information there: https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2025/07/victim-or-champion.html.
ReplyDeleteIts an interesting article but what's the logic behind searching in Europe for the man/
ReplyDeleteThat's a good and fair question to ask. Basically for more than 70 years people have been trawling over the Somerton Man case and, in a lot of, but not all, instances they have been looking for someone from Australia based on the narrative at the time. Claims about the man's identity have been made and refuted/disproved because they were base on flawed methodologies and incomplete information. The logic behind the approach used here commenced with asking the question, 'If he's not from Australia, then where else would he be from?'. Then to qualify it more I researched the era itself, what was happening in the world and which locations would be worth researching. That was on the basis that from my perspective, this was an assassination. Not only that, there are codes associated with the body which introduced the element of likely espionage. Not just any codes but two in particular. One was a Morbit cipher and importantly it was layered on another cipher which turned out to be a Nihilist cipher. That cipher was in the main, used by the Soviets. And there you have it, that's the logic and it is proving to be a most interesting exercise, time will tell whether it leads us to the man or perhaps to other valuable information. Thanks for the question, it was nicely put and I hope this helps.
ReplyDelete