KP journalists have teamed up with Australian scientist Derek Abbott. Together we are trying to find out who the mysterious man was, whose body was found on Somerton Beach 70 years ago …
For 70 years people around the world have been wondering who the mysterious man from Somerton really was Photo: Adelaide police.
RIDDLE OF THE CENTURY
The death of the "Somerton man" is considered one of the main mysteries of the last century. On the evening of November 30, 1948, local residents saw a body on a beach in the Australian town of Adelaide. The walking couples at first decided that the man had just drunk. But when the man remained in the same place the next morning, passers-by called the police. The guards of order immediately pronounced death. The man looked to be 40-45 years old. Hair - red with light gray at the temples. The face is clean-shaven. Was dressed in a good suit. The person had no identity documents with him. At the request of investigators, the photo of the deceased was published by the most popular newspapers in Australia. But nobody identified the stranger.
The oddities in this matter can be enumerated endlessly. Let's dwell on the main ones. All the clothes of the "Somerton Man" had their labels cut off. The cause of death could not be determined.
In April 1949, when the investigation reached a dead end, the police once again very carefully examined all the clothes of the "Somerton man". And they stumbled upon a secret pocket sewn into a trouser pocket. Inside was a strip of paper cut from a book. On the scrap were two strange words "Tamam Shud". It turned out to be a quote from the medieval poet Omar Khayyam. “Tamam Shud” in Persian means “finished” or “completed”.
A piece of paper found in a secret pocket of a deceased man Photo: Adelaide City Police.
Promotional video:
The police asked the journalists to publish an advertisement in the newspapers that they were looking for a book by Omar Khayyam "Rubayat" with a spoiled last page. And such a collection was found! A surgeon from the suburb of Adelaide came to the station and handed the Rubayat to the detectives. According to the doctor, the volume was thrown into the back seat of an unlocked car on the night of November 30, 1948 (a day before the death of a man on the beach, 12 kilometers from the place where the body was found). The doctor claimed that he knew nothing about the book he had found and about the "man from Somerton."
On the back of the book they brought, the detectives found 5 lines of capital letters written in pencil. Unfortunately, it was not possible to guess the meaning of this message. Well, the telephone, written on the back of the collection, became the cherry on top of the riddle cake. The number belonged to 28-year-old Jessica Powell, a nurse from Glenelg, the same suburb of Adelaide where Omar Khayyam's collection had been planted. The detectives immediately went to the woman and showed a photo of "the man from Somerton." But she said that she saw him for the first time.
Who the mysterious man from Somerton was is still unknown …
Experts believe that this gibberish can be either a random set of letters or a clever cipher Photo: Adelaide City Police.
HAIR SOLUTION
Nowadays, University of Adelaide professor Derek Abbott is trying to solve this Australian puzzle. He took up mysterious history 10 years ago when he was invited to a coastal town to teach in the bioengineering department.
- According to my version, the married nurse had an affair on the side, with that mysterious man. Therefore, Jessica Powell hid from the police that she was familiar with the "man from Somerton," the scientist told us a month ago. - In 1947 they had a son, Robin. But Jessica passed off this baby for her husband's child. On December 30, 1948, Robin's real father came to Adelaide to see his son. He descended on his former mistress home. But the woman did not let him on the threshold. Then the unexpected guest went to the beach and died there for some unknown reason.
9 years ago, when a die-hard professor found out that the possible son of the "Somerton man" had died, he managed to find Robin's daughter Rachel Egan. And he even married her (more on kp.ru). After the wedding, Derrek, as a relative, wrote an application to the mayor's office demanding to exhume the body of the mysterious stranger.
At this place, on Somerton Beach, the body of an unknown person was found Photo: Adelaide police.
- I was refused! - the professor is indignant. - The head of the city and the prosecutor believe: I do not have sufficient evidence that my wife is the granddaughter of a man from the beach.
Then the stubborn scientist went the other way.
- At the end of 2017, I carefully examined a death plaster mask, which was made from the face of the "Somerton man" before burial. It contains about 50 hairs of the deceased. Three of them are in excellent condition! - Abbott rejoiced. - I work with a first-class laboratory in America. I sent the hair of the deceased and samples of my wife …
NEW MYSTERY
And the other day, the results of a study came from America. The Somerton Man and Rachel Egan are not related. The probability that they are connected by blood ties is zero percent. This means that Abbott's whole theory of family drama is just a beautiful dummy.
But the examination revealed another sensational detail.
“Arsenic was found in the hair of the" Somerton Man "! Derek says with burning eyes.
The suitcase contained a table knife, converted to be sharpened. Photo: frame from the documentary Somerton Beach Mystery.
Now, with a high degree of probability, we can say that the man was poisoned. But why did not pathologists from Adelaide 70 years ago find traces of poison in the blood of a dead man?
- The autopsy was done only on the fourth day after the discovery of the body of the "man from Somerton." By this time, arsenic has already disappeared from the blood and passes into tissues, that is, into the skin and hair, - explains the chief toxicologist of the Sverdlovsk region, Andrey Chekmarev. - Arsenic has been used as a poison since the Middle Ages. Most often it is added to food. In theory, arsenic could be added to cigarettes as well. Then the victim gets poisoned through the smoke.
Derek Abbott thought he had married the granddaughter of the "Somerton man" Photo: Derek Abbott's personal files.
SMOKING KILLS
And here we come to the fun part! Police found the "Somerton Man" with an Army Club cigarette pack. But there was a Kensitas smoke in it. It is possible that poisoned cigarettes were planted on the mysterious man. The only question is who did it, and who was the victim of such a sophisticated killer.
- The most popular version of who the man who died on the beach was still a spy version, adds Derek Abbott. - Allegedly, the deceased was a Soviet agent, and the American special services eliminated him. And the collection "Rubayat" contains a cipher for data transmission. But arsenic acts rather slowly. Death from poisoning occurs only after a day. It seems to me that the spies would prefer to use a more effective poison. Maybe it was a showdown of bandits? In any case, we need to establish the identity of the "Somerton man" in order to understand what kind of enemies he had.
Hair taken from this death mask of the "Somerton Man" for DNA testing Photo: Australian Police.
By the way, Abbott does not lose hope to find out who the murdered man was.
- The American laboratory, which conducted the examination for me, has a colossal DNA base, - Derek shares his plan of action. “They offer people from all states to voluntarily donate their DNA. Suddenly, somewhere there is their unknown relative. And this database is constantly growing. The American colleagues promised that they would compare their data with the DNA of the "Somerton man." But in the United States there are a lot of migrants from other countries. Therefore, I do not rule out that one day we will find the descendant of the "Somerton" and, finally, we will find out who our mysterious stranger was!
Derek Abbott, a professor at the local university, is most passionate about the "Somerton Man" business in Adelaide. We talked to him via Skype. Photo: Andrey Gorbunov.
ANDREY GORBUNOVROMAN Lyalin
