Sensitive Content The Unsolved Death of the Sommerton Man

[TWICEs Fairy Godmother]

The Tamam Shud case, also known as the Mystery of the Somerton Man, is an unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead at 6:30 am, 1 December 1948, on Somerton beach, Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the Persian phrase tamám shud, meaning "ended" or "finished", printed on a scrap of paper found months later in the fob pocket of the man's trousers. The scrap had been torn from the final page of a copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, authored by 12th-century poet Omar Khayyám. Tamam was misspelt as Taman in many early reports and this error has often been repeated, leading to confusion about the name in the media.^{[note 1]}

 

 

Following a public appeal by police, the book from which the page had been torn was located. On the inside back cover, detectives were able to read – in indentations from handwriting – a local telephone number, another unidentified number and a text that resembled an encrypted message. The text has not been deciphered or interpreted in a way that satisfies authorities on the case.

 

 

The case has been considered, since the early stages of the police investigation, "one of Australia's most profound mysteries".^[1] There has been intense speculation ever since regarding the identity of the victim, the cause of his death and the events leading up to it. Public interest in the case remains significant for several reasons: the death occurred at a time of heightened international tensions following the beginning of the Cold War; the apparent involvement of a secret code; the possible use of an undetectable poison; and the inability of authorities to identify the dead man.

 

 

In addition to intense public interest in Australia during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Tamam Shud case also attracted international attention. South Australian Police consulted their counterparts overseas and distributed information about the dead man internationally, in an effort to identify him.^[2] International circulation of a photograph of the man and details of his fingerprints yielded no positive identification.^[3] For example, in the United States, the FBI was unable to match the dead man's fingerprint with prints taken from files of domestic criminals. Scotland Yard was also asked to assist with the case, but could not offer any insights.^[4]

 

 

 

In recent years new evidence has emerged, including an old identification card possibly identifying the Somerton Man as one H. C. Reynolds^[5] and an ongoing DNA analysis of hair roots found on the plaster bust.^[6]

 

^{via wikipedia <3}

[Solfa]

I remember reading about him and it just gets more interesting.

 

The police managed to find the copy of the book where “Tamam Shud†was ripped off from (a freaking impressive feat on its own) and it turned out it belonged to a nurse. They interrogated her, but she claimed she didn’t know him, however they noted down her name because her behavior was somewhat suspicious for someone who claimed to not know him and rather unprofessional for a nurse; she shouldn’t have been so shaken looking at unknown dead people, it was after all, part of her job. She married sometime later and had a child that happened to posses the same peculiar ear shape that occurs in only 1% of the population, and a rare dental deformity (thus an even rarer combination of genetic anomalies) as the Somerton Man had. This being the 40s-50s, nothing came out of this, paternity testing wasn’t even heard of. It is possible she was worried she’d have an out-of-wedlock child, which at the time was a big deal, so she had reasons to hide it from the police, her family, and society in general. Unfortunately, both her and her son are now dead and cremated, but fortunately, he had a daughter who might still continue the genetic line and might be related to the Somerton Man.

 

With technology and genetic knowledge evolving, his case might be close to sloving. Now the authorities are convinced he was American and the reason why he wasn’t known to Australians was because he simply wasn’t a local.

[evanmock]

I remember reading about him and it just gets more interesting.

 

The police managed to find the copy of the book where “Tamam Shud†was ripped off from (a freaking impressive feat on its own) and it turned out it belonged to a nurse. They interrogated her, but she claimed she didn’t know him, however they noted down her name because her behavior was somewhat suspicious for someone who claimed to not know him and rather unprofessional for a nurse; she shouldn’t have been so shaken looking at unknown dead people, it was after all, part of her job. She married sometime later and had a child that happened to posses the same peculiar ear shape that occurs in only 1% of the population, and a rare dental deformity (thus an even rarer combination of genetic anomalies) as the Somerton Man had. This being the 40s-50s, nothing came out of this, paternity testing wasn’t even heard of. It is possible she was worried she’d have an out-of-wedlock child, which at the time was a big deal, so she had reasons to hide it from the police, her family, and society in general. Unfortunately, both her and her son are now dead and cremated, but fortunately, he had a daughter who might still continue the genetic line and might be related to the Somerton Man.

 

With technology and genetic knowledge evolving, his case might be close to sloving. Now the authorities are convinced he was American and the reason why he wasn’t known to Australians was because he simply wasn’t a local.

This reminds me of a movie I've seen before but I can't remember what it's called

[Ayaewyn]

Apparently the woman that was interrogated knew him, but didn't reveal it to the authorities. 

Australia was also a hotbed of espionage activity during that time so I get why one of the most popular theory is that the Somerton man was a spy or was killed by one. 

 

Regarding the recent evidence, I read somewhere that the searches conducted by the US and UK National Archives and Australian War Memorial Research Center have failed to find any records relating to H.C. Reynolds. 

 

If somehow the identity of the Somerton man is confirmed and proven that he was indeed a spy, then he probably isn't the only one in this case because an excerpt from the book Rubaiyat is too fitting to be just a coincidence. 

"Realise this: one day your soul will depart from your body and you will be drawn behind the curtain that floats between us and the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy, because you don't know where you came from and you don't know where you will be going."