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SOMERTON MAN: MORE PROOF OF MICROWRITING: CROSSED LINES REVISITED UPDATED

July 4, 2018, 11:00 pm
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END OF CROSSED LINES, CODEPAGE CENTRE PLUS
FLOURISH AT BASE



102570 

The above two images are of the 'flourish' at the base of the code page, I have highlighted a 'spur' on the flourish, which as you can see has some darkened numbers written into it. The first numbers are 102570 with some smaller numbers running along to the right. There are a whole series of markings including numbers and letters beneath the spur which has been taken looking from the top of the page downwards.

The 102570 number set seems to me to be about .6 mm in height.

First published in March 2017



This is a close up of the ends of the two crossed lines found near the centre of the code page. The image itself was taken using a UV backlight with an Olympus camera set to macro and a 3X optical magnification. You can make out from this image the tightly packed micro written numbers and some letters. All are done in block caps.

The image below uses an image editor, Techsmith Snagit. This editor gives you the ability to magnify regions within an image as you can see here:



Next, the same method was used to examine the full image of the two crossed lines. First the close up:



Now with magnification, look inside the red circles, the second one in you can see the sequence 'NI608:





And above, here's another for good measure, in this pic, apart from the crossed lines.you can see some of the micro-writing that exists in the letters B and O below the lines.

For the record, these images came from the  'new scans' apparently discovered in somewhat dubious circumstances and which Nick Pelling has thus far failed to disclose. Anyway, the point is that Nick, as erudite as ever, declared that we should all use his newly discovered scans, which are in fact just scans of the original scan, and we should all test them. So, I have and above are some results with much more to come. This, of course, means that by default Nick now agrees that there is micro writing on the code page! Many thanks, Nick. Can we get down to some serious code breaking now? That's your skill area, isn't it?

Last point, Nick, if you are going to attempt, yet again, to disprove what is quite definitely there, may I suggest that you put forward the full results of your tests together with a detailed description of how you conducted them? Disclosing the precise source of the 'new scan' would be a plus of course but I wouldn't expect you to want to do that.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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SOMERTON MAN: NEW, THE RUBAIYAT, A QUESTION OF ORIENTATION & ASPECT RATIO

July 5, 2018, 3:46 pm
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ORIENTATION & ASPECT RATIO


1. ORIGINAL BOOK COVER AS PUBLISHED BY SAPOL
Size: 5.1 X 6.6 inches. Aspect Ratio: 17:22

2. A COLLECTORS VERSION

Size: 4.8 X 6.65 inches  Aspect Ratio 96:133


3. THE BOOK (TORN PAGE) AS PUBLISHED BY SAPOL

Size: 3.75 X 5.5 inches  Aspect Ratio: 15:22
The insert above was done by a member of the Adelaide University FB page organised by Professor Abbott

As you can see there is some variation in size and aspect ratios with items 1 and 2 being closest with item 3 being markedly different, in fact it is a full 1 inch shorter, could that be accounted for by the book cover being larger? It seems quite a difference.

THE COMPLEXITY

It gets more complex when you look at the dimensions of the book as described by the University Wiki, it says the book size was 5.5 inches X 4.5 inches which for them tied into the size of the code page. So far so good although we now have a third set of dimensions and it doesn't match the original size or Aspect ratio which is 11:9.

There's more:

CODE PAGE 

Whilst I don't believe it was his intention to provide any new information, JS on the Cipher Mysteries blog pointed out that I had previously stated that Gerry Feltus had told me that the phone numbers were positioned in the top right-hand quarter of the back of the book. That's true.

This conflicts with the more recent statement regarding Detective Brown's comment that the telephone number was in 'tiny lettering' beneath the code. This is true, that is what I quoted.

The question is, what was the orientation of the code page on the back of the book? We have separate issues here, the book dimensions the code page dimensions and the orientation of the code on the back of the book.


CODE PAGE IMAGE

If we take Adelaide Uni's view that the book was 5.5 inches wide X 4.5 inches tall, then we should be able to verify that information by looking at the size and aspect ratio of the code page image as found on the Adelaide University wiki, right?

Here they are: Image size: 4.5 inches wide X 3.6 inches tall. Aspect Ratio: 5:4.

That's a full half inch narrower than the SAPOL images and 1 inch shorter and the aspect ratio is significantly different.



CODE PAGE ORIENTATION

Let's look at the issue of just where the telephone number might be. In one statement it's in the top right-hand side of the book and in the other it's beneath the code as Detective Brown stated.

Could both statements be correct? I have not been able to find any reference to the orientation of the code on the back of the book: 


 CODEPAGE UNDERLAY COMPARISON 

 The above simply doesn't work, so let's look at it another way, the overlay:



To be correct, these are approximate placed images but the point is that you should be able to see from the above image just how the telephone number can be beneath the code and in the top right hand corner of the book.

Remember that you would be looking at the code page from the back of the book.

It's apparent if we are to believe the various dimensions supplied, that there's a big piece of the code page missing?

We could do the same exercise with the larger supposedly original sized images of the book and be left with an even bigger piece of the code page missing:





Even if we were to take the book and code page to the same aspect ratio as the code page, we would still have the strong possibility that the two statements 'Top right quarter' and 'Beneath the code' are one and the same position.

So thanks JS, I am absolutely certain that this wasn't what you had in mind, amusingly and if I am right here, it's the same style of error that Milongal made recently with Verse 70 :)

Certainly worth further exploration and another first for this blog I believe. Happy to share some of the glory with you JS!

 A Bonus Image
Here's a little bonus for you, it's been posted a number of times here, I suggest that you put on your glasses! it reads 2yrs 42 and beneath that it looks like Z1 Venom X4023? Note the unusual shaped X, curved rather like a mathematical symbol.









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SOMERTON MAN: PIONEER

July 10, 2018, 8:48 am
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 Flxible Clipper


First imported from the USA By Reg Ansett, October 1948

 In Ansett Livery...
The history of this bus may hold a link to Jestyn and a man named Keane, more to come...
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SOMERTON MAN_ CODE PAGE, UV IMAGES TOP RIGHT CORNER

July 18, 2018, 7:19 pm
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UV LIGHT REVEALS MORE NUMBERS
STEP BY STEP


CODE PAGE


Step 1.


Top right-hand corner, usually referred to as a 'stain' but is, in fact, another instance of the Police marking over details. Using UV light in a dark room shows some of those details.


Step 2.


Immediately noted the presence of unusual markings within the highlighted area in particular

Step 3.


Adjusted the colour balance of the image to sharpen the shapes and numbers are visible

Step 4.


Highlighted number set, other markings are visible.


South Australian Police used UV lighting to detect fingerprints amongst other things during the 1940s.
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SOMERTON MAN: THE REAL FACE OF THE SOMERTON MAN, NEW AI TECHNOLOGY PRODUCES STUNNING NEVER BEFORE SEEN VIEW

July 26, 2018, 4:04 pm
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AI TECHNOLOGY RECOVERS 3D IMAGES OF THE SOMERTON MAN

With thanks to the Computer Vision Laboratory at the University of Nottingham, we have been able to create 3D views of the Somerton Man post-mortem and the plaster bust.

1. Post Mortem Photograph: 3D Video Images





The photograph in the video above is one that was reconstructed by SAPOL before its release on December 4th 1948. There has been much discussion about this image and following the extensive analysis done on this blog it is now generally accepted that the photograph was altered.


2. The Plaster Bust: 3D Video




Bear in mind that Jestyn like most of the population in Adelaide at the relevant time would have seen the published images of the man found on the beach at Somerton on December 1st, 1948. But, when she was shown the plaster bust she almost fainted to all accounts. It is believed that she instantly recognised the face of the man but would not acknowledge that fact. My view is that it is the plaster bust that shows a true representation of the Somerton Man and as you can see, it is quite different in a number of ways to the post-mortem image.

Followers of this blog will recall that in Clive's interview with Paul Lawson, he admitted that he used photographs of the man to create the plaster bust facial features. The question is, which photographs?

For those interested in the technology used, essentially it takes a single full-face image and using AI, it is able to generate a realistic 3D image of that face that can be manipulated.

The paper they produced, Large Pose 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image via Direct Volumetric CNN Regression, is available here:

















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SOMERTON MAN: FEDOSIMOV, 3D COMPARISON TO THE PLASTER BUST

July 29, 2018, 1:05 am
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PAVEL FEDOSIMOV 3D VIEW


The above is another 3D view as per the previous post. In this one, we have Pavel Fedosimov and we used the original photograph that I was able to source. What is immediately noticeable is the fact that the nose is not bulbous, it is, in fact, a straight nose according to the 3D software interpretation. There are other examples of this software being used on images of well-known personages, here's a link to one:

You will see that the side profile created is of good quality and very close to the real side profile of the subject.

So, that's Pavel but how about a comparison of his profile with that of the plaster bust?


The shape of the nose and forehead is almost a perfect match, the mouth is not but, in the right-hand image Pavel's mouth is open and the jaw dropped. In the left-hand image of the bust, the mouth is closed, in fact, the bust was crafted using photographs so there has to be a margin of error. It seems reasonable though to assume that Pavel's mouth when closed, would be a fairly close match to that of the bust.

An update for you, Clive has been in touch with CIA records in the US and they have told him that more photographs will be released in September. At that time my best guess for SM will be tested and if I am right then that would be good and if not then I will acknowledge that fact. 


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SOMERTON MAN: MINIATURE WRITING, CODES & PAVEL FEDOSIMOV

August 12, 2018, 3:09 pm
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THE STORY THUS FAR:
MINIATURE WRITING & CODES,
FEDOSIMOV



A Clandestine message from WW2 written in pen on rice paper on both sides. More to follow on this.

(More mages will be added to this post in the coming days)
This blog was originally set up to show how the letters on the Somerton Man code page were in fact carriers of almost hidden miniature code letters and numbers. That was back in 2013, since then I have posted many articles with images and supporting references that clearly show the presence of this miniature writing and have demonstrated exactly how it was done. Extensive research then backed up these assertions with the discovery of the use of miniature writing throughout the ages as both a message tool and an art form. The messaging aspect becoming known as 'clandestine communications'. In 2014 a WW2 SOE manual which described the technique known as INK H was declassified.

What INK H was/is, is a method of concealing secret messages either in clear or in code within the larger letters of a handwritten letter or poem.

During this time, the keen-eyed Clive discovered a small article in The Advertiser newspaper that announced the finding of the body of a man in a Hindley Street, Adelaide Hotel two weeks to the day following the finding of the body of the Somerton Man just 25 minutes drive away from Hindley Street. Further digging uncovered the fact that this second man, Tibor Kaldor, was an ex-internee, a 'Dunera Boy' in fact. He was one of approximately 2500 German, mostly Jewish, men and boys who had been arrested and deported to Australia from the UK in 1940. Other men were sent to Canada and, interestingly a number of spies were eventually found amongst them not the least of whom was Klaus Fuchs, the atom spy. Kalus used miniature writing in his reports to hi handler, Harry Gold.

Clive and I worked extensively at the leads that had been found which, amongst other things, showed that the internees had, in the first few months, early 1941, of their internment at Hay in New South Wales, designed and had printed a range of bank notes for use within the camp. The designer, George A. Teltscher, had produced three denominations of the notes being Sixpence, One Shilling and Two Shillings. The detail was amazing, each note had been individually signed by members of his team and the decoration included miniature writing and a concealed message read 'We are here because we ar here because we are here' (sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne), in the form of the barbed wire decoration on the front of each note. On the rear of each note were 25 sheep, one for each hut in the Hay camp, each animal had the name of the individual hut leader hidden but in plain sight. These notes were a cause of great concern to the authorities supposedly on the basis that they might be mistaken for real money and used outside the confines of the camp, the reality is that the biggest concern is that the design could easily be used to transmit clandestine messages. We produced images that showed the presence of miniature writing in the design and in the signatures.

Mr. Teltscher along with his fellow internees was released later in 1941 and he opted to return home. In his case, he traveled via the Panama Canal. That travel in itself was unusual because the US had made a rule that no internee should pass anywhere near mainland USA. Nonetheless, travel he did and he safely reached the UK where he dropped out of site for some 4 years; to this time we do not know just where he went or what job he had during that time. Coincidentally, it was in 1942 that the SOE developed the Ink H method.

The Dunera/ Tibor Kaldor story does not stop there, amongst the belongings found with the body of Tibor Kaldor was a last letter supposedly a suicide note. This note was transcribed from the original handwritten piece and entered into an online acrostic decoder, this rules-based tool was designed to uncover any hidden messages that conformed to those rules. In this case, the decoder identified the name DANETTA. The output from this first pass was passed through a second time and it now revealed the message, 'AND SEE DANETTA AND SUITCASE DANETTA DANETTA DANETTA DANETTA.' Tibor had left two suitcases but no record has been found of there contents.

So, we have the Somerton Man body, a code found and associated with him, miniature writing, INK H, signatures on the Hay Banknotes apparently containing code, a second body found with a 'suicide' note that contains a coded name and message and to top it off, we have a poem said to have been written by Jestyn, the nurse, that also contains miniature writing within its handwritten letters.

Running in parallel to the above research, a follower of this blog sent me a link to a Hansard entry that covered the statement made by a Senator Cavanagh, the statement was devoted to the Somerton Man and the code page. He railed against the use of Australia as a dumping ground for dead spies and pointed to a specific book, 'The Atom Spies' which had been written in the 50s. Amongst other things it described a meeting between a Harry Gold, a spy/cut out, and a Russian diplomat, Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov. The description of Fedosimov was close to the description of the Somerton Man. Fedosimov left the USA in August 1948. I was fortunate to obtain the only known photograph of Pavel and there are similarities between him and SM. Harry Gold had described Pavel as being a big man who walked on his toes and in his view he was around 6' 3" tall. We know that SM, when measured on the slab, was 5' 11". The difference in height was at first an issue but the factors that need to be taken into account are that Gold was not a tall man, Pavel was described as wearing a hat and that SMs body was in a complete relaxed state and was measured without shoes. It is reasonable to assume that SM if alive and standing would have appeared to be 6' 1" and possibly more, then consider how tall he would have looked when walking on his toes and wearing a hat.

As stated there is only the one known photograph of Pavel and whilst there have been mentions of a Pavel Fedosimov in the years following 1948, there are no known photographs. This may change in September, this came about by virtue of Clive having contacted the CIA and requesting any photographs and files on Pavel. The response was that the CIA will be releasing images in September 2018. It is only then that we will be able to find out one way or the other whether my assertion that Pavel could be SM is right or wrong. I remain confident that what I have said is correct, if I am wrong then it was a good learning experience and if I am right then all to the good.



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SOMERTON MAN: MR. TOM KEANE OF HAMILTON

August 16, 2018, 11:11 pm
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TOM KEANE


With many thanks to the good people at the Ansett Museum in Hamilton, Victoria. They very kindly carried out some valuable research and found this newspaper article on Mr. Keane including his photo. I can seriously recommend the Museum and its staff to anyone needing to fill out their knowledge on the Ansett Bus and Airline business.

Clive has also been busy and he was able to uncover some more facts on Mr. Keane. It seems he worked extraordinarily hard through the war years and kept his fleet of 30 buses up to scratch and always running. A good man and a valued member of his community. Following the war, Tom took up a teaching position at the local technical college and again acquitted himself with distinction.

We have almost run our course with this lead and I wanted to especially thank Clive for his ongoing input and also special thanks to Misca, it was her efforts that gave us Mr. Keanes original information on his place and date of birth, St Peters, Marrickville, and where he lived, Union Street Marrickville.
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SOMERTON MAN: THE NOVIKOV QUESTION

August 18, 2018, 10:59 am
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AT THE AIRPORT?



It is a valid question, were they at the airport? One of the commenters on the original post,  someone very knowledgeable in the art of photography, suggests otherwise, the thoughts raised were that this was a studio shot or shots that were later superimposed onto the airfield image. Shot or shots simply means that there were two individual images of the men which were then superimposed together onto the main shot. There is maybe a clue to that in what appears to be a second reference date of 6 03 47 shown in one reference on the back of this photograph. (RSE 47603)

The question raised other thoughts about the basis of the story of Fedosimov, the question is best posed by asking, how do we know that the man to the right of this image is Novikov? Think about that for a moment. and here's another question. How do we know that the man to the left of the image is Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov?

Answer 1, NOVIKOV
We know that the man on the right is Novikov not because we have dozens of hundreds of newspaper articles or mentions in FBI files on the man but because what we have is dozens if not hundreds of photographs that link the name directly to them. It's the photographs that provide the proof.

Answer 2, FEDOSIMOV
We know that the man on the left of this picture is Pavel Fedosimov because the good people at Pravda told us so. Full stop. There are no known images of Fedosimov from either before or after the main date shown on the image of April 25th, 1947.
In other words, we don't really know if the man shown is Pavel Fedosimov, we have no collaborative evidence to support that being the case apart from the mention by Pravda.

What we do have is evidence that suggests that Pavel left the USA bound for Russia in August 1948.

No Lightweight
Far from being a lightweight player in the spy game in those times, Pavel was a one-time handler for Klaus Fuchs and regularly mixed with his host country's senior Government officials including Harry Dexter White, code-named JURIST in the Venona files. Harry Dexter White also departed the USA in August 1948 but not for Russia, he died on August 16th. 1948. Apparently, he died of an overdose of Digitalis, the medication he was taking for an ongoing heart condition. His death occurred two days after the HUAC hearings whilst he was preparing to give further evidence to that inquiry.

Followers of the Somerton Man case will know that Digitalis poisoning was long considered to have been the likely cause of death for SM.

So, the bottom line is that it's essential that we find photographs of the man in this image known as Pavel Fedosimov and dated after November 1948 in order to show whether or not he was, in fact, the Somerton Man. Words alone cannot suffice.


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SOMERTON MAN: CIA & FEDOSIMOV PHOTOGRAPHS

August 28, 2018, 10:12 am
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CIA, PAVEL IVANOVICH FEDOSIMOV
RECORDS SEARCH

As you can see, the CIA have responded to a request from Clive for any and all images of Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov.

They make it quite clear that they searched for all relevant documents amongst their files with a negative result, no images were found.

We are therefore in a position where the UN, IAEA, FBI and CIA files have been searched with none of these organisations finding any photographs of Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov.

This does not mean that we will stop searching and in fact, we contacted other agencies and sources and are awaiting their responses.

But what does this mean? What we know for certain is that the man in our Pravda photograph was named as Pavel Fedosimov and, from Harry Gold's description, he matches the appearance of the man he met in the Earle Cinema in New York on December 26th 1946, he had introduced himself as 'Paul' according to the book ATOM SPIES referred to by Senator Cavanagh.

We also know that Pavel Fedosimov was an NKVD officer at the New York Rezidentura with the code name STEPAN.

Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov left the US on July 31st, 1948 on the SS Pobeda bound for Russia. Whilst a man of the same name turns up on numerous occasions through until 1959 at both UN and IAEA meetings, no photographs of him have appeared at any time.


The image I managed to find and now possess being the original hard copy photograph of Pavel and Novikov. It is noted that the FBI showed Harry Gold images of various people and he picked out a photo of Fedosimov in October 1950 this means that the FBI had photos at that time. We do not know how old those photographs were at the time and we do not know if they are of the same man as the man in our photograph.



Recently Clive found confirmation of the fact that it was common practice for Russian Intelligence operators to use false names and documentation as it was indeed for Russian diplomats. This is both a concern and possibly our opportunity to discover more.

The situation, therefore, is that we have no photographs, no confirmation and no way to prove that the man Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov who turns up in post-1948 documentation was the same man as in our photo.

Will update this as more information comes to hand.
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SOMERTON MAN: A TALE OF TWO WATCHES

September 2, 2018, 9:14 pm
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A COINCIDENCE?

Two male bodies, both poisoned and two lost watches...


On December 18th, 1948, Prosper placed an ad in the Adelaide Advertiser apparently searching for a lost Tudor Gold Watch. He wasn't specific about just where the watch had been lost, his wording was "CITY and suburbs...", no idea why he chose to use caps for the word CITY.

Clive has put together a list of reported lost gold watches from the Adelaide Advertiser between October 1948 and January 1949:

14-10-48  Page 8

14-10-48  Page 8

15-10-48  Page 11

08-12-48  Page 12

10-12-48  Page 2

10-12-48 Page 6

14-12-48 Page 9

27-12-48 Page 4

01-01-49 Page 7

Five Lost Gold watches in December alone not counting the ones from Prosper and Mr. Jeffery


TWO LOST WATCHES

This first Gold watch had been apparently lost prior to the 7th December 1948, the ad starts in caps, the word being GENT's, just why that is we don't know although it seems to have been a fairly common practice for advertisers to capitalise important words:


Interesting, thus far we know that the person who placed the ad was from Glenelg and in fact, he, name of 'Jeffery', had placed other ads mostly for Real Estate/properties for sale in the area. There was another ad from earlier years where a ladies marcasite wrist watch had also been lost. But it was the Gold watch that first caught Clive's eye.

So, we have a man found dead, poisoned in fact, at Somerton on December 1st, the first ad for a lost gold watch appears in the Advertiser on December 7th, one week after the discovery of the Somerton Man.

1940s Map of Glenelg



Osmond Street Glenelg


As you should be able to see, Osmond Street was the extension of Tapley's Hill Road that runs into Anzac Highway and then Jetty Road in the centre of Glenelg.

For those interested, you can get the complete set of 1940s 
maps of Adelaide from this location



This event is followed by another discovery of yet another man, Tibor Kaldor, who had also been poisoned this time on the 14th December; and on the 18th December, Prosper places an ad for another Gold watch, a Tudor Gold watch, an expensive item by any measure:


The current task is to find out exactly who placed the first ad for the 'Glenelg' gold watch, we will be sure to let you know when we find out just who 'Jeffery' was. (See Clive's comment below)

Final thought for this post, telephone numbers can be strange things, we can find a telephone number quite readily but finding a name to go with it can be challenging. Sometimes people rent rooms in a house and share the telephone or perhaps they have moved since the last published directory and someone else now has that number. We have another post on telephone numbers very shortly.




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SOMERTON MAN: THE BURNING QUESTION

September 6, 2018, 3:26 pm
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THE RARELY ASKED BUT BURNING QUESTION

A refurbished British Ericcson wall phone, MW 235. From 1930 to 1945 the PMG rebuilt these from old stocks of candlestick phones.

The whole case, and I do mean the entire case regarding the connection between Jestyn and the Somerton Man rests on one thing and one thing only as far as we are aware. The telephone number written in 'really tiny lettering' (according to Detective Brown) on the back of the Rubaiyat, X 3239. How did the Police know that this was Jestyn's number?

You could say that we have proof of that number being used by Prosper in a number of newspaper ads:


But, the consensus at the time was that SM arrived in Adelaide on a train from Melbourne, so what about this ad in a Melbourne newspaper, The Argus 23rd February 1946:

You could argue that the number is either 3239 or 2239, a bit blurred.

In this case, the person who placed this ad was looking to exchange their current, beachside, home for another in Kew.

For the record, the X prefix indicates that this was a location in or near St. Kilda/Brighton. Here's a link to an old Telephony text PDF, it provides information on exchange setups and prefix planning, for those interested look at page 30 in the pdf. It is a very useful reference for any researcher.

Is the number 2239 or 3239? Whichever it is for this ad, I think it reasonable to assume that there was more than likely a phone number X3239 in St Kilda/Brighton at that time.

It is a critical question as I feel sure most would agree but it's not that simple to resolve. The Melbourne telephone directory does exist, I think the year is 1947, but it is on microfiche in alphabetical order and the only way you are able to search it is if you have the name of the subscriber.

For the record, Clive has already made inquiries re the K J Widmer St Kilda ( Tibor Kaldor Referee) connection without success. That doesn't mean it wasn't a number KJW had access to though.

We are left with only one option in the absence of that name and that is to go to the Victorian Library and physically search the microfiche for that number.

Clive recalls a comment made on the Smithsonian blog some years ago where someone suggested that they had done that but they didn't leave the name but suggested that the number was to be found in the second half of the directory.

There are paid researchers available in Melbourne and I guess the staff at the library would be happy to provide a list. I would go if I could but that's not possible at this time and the cost of flights and accommodation would likely be more than hiring a good researcher for the task.

I would be happy to chip in if someone wants to get it organised, it should be understood that there is no guarantee that the St.Kilda/Brighton number will yield a positive lead but it certainly needs to be followed through and for the life of me I can't understand why it hasn't happened. Unless of course it has been done already?

What do you say Pete Bowes?

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SOMERTON MAN: THE BURNING QUESTION PART 2.

September 13, 2018, 2:06 pm
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THE INTERVIEW:
Detective Superintendent Brown


This document is one of 177 pages of notes made by interviewer Stuart Littlemore in preparation for the 1978 TV Documentary about the Somerton Man.

The particular page that you can see above deals with part of his interview with Detective Superintendent Brown who, at that time was a 'sprightly' 60-year-old man and  sharp minded.

The discussion in point was about the phone numbers, plural, there were two numbers with Jestyn's apparent number being X3239.

The other number according to Det Sup Brown was that of a local business and they had been contacted with a negative response, no one recalled the man had called them at that number.

What can we deduce from that statement?

We are left with two main options, firstly the statement could be read as is and the lead becomes a dead end. Secondly and equal in likelihood is that the number may not have been a South Australian number but instead it may have been a Victorian or another State number as pointed out in our previous post on this matter. If you recall, we were able to readily find that the number X3239 existed in Victoria, Canberra and Brisbane at the time.

If we focus on Victoria being the most likely State home for the X3239 number then the same could also be said of the second yet unpublished number, it was not a South Australian business number but could well have been a Victorian number.

THE ASSUMPTIONS

Stay with me on this for just a little while longer. An assumption was made in 1948 that the Somerton Man had probably arrived by train from either Broken Hill or Melbourne, there is no published basis for that assumption apart from the suitcase that was recovered at the railway station in January 1949.

Doubts have understandably been raised about the origin of the suitcase and its content as indeed they have similarly been raised about the discovery of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam book.


THE LINK TO JESTYN

It is the book and more precisely the X3239 telephone number that provides us with one of the only known facts that positively links Jestyn to the book and its owner. I say 'owner' because we do not know just who owned that book and I say 'one' as there is arguably other information that could provide that link. But, for now let's keep the focus on these telephone numbers.

WHO WROTE DOWN THE NUMBERS?

Again we are operating in the field of assumptions. It has long been assumed that it was the Somerton Man who owned the book and it was he who had written down the numbers, although the only evidence we have to support that is that the book was found in Glenelg by a Chemist from the area on an undetermined date and it was months later that it was rediscovered. 

True to say that the torn piece bearing the words 'TAMAM SHUD' had earlier been found n a hard to find waistband fob pocket of the trousers that the Somerton Man was wearing at the time his body was discovered.

The torn piece was matched, though not by its shape, to the last page in the newly found book, the match was based on it being of a similar type of paper stock to that of that book. What we can say with a degree of certainty is that the torn piece found on the man came from the book. We cannot say that the man had removed it from the last page because there is simply no evidence to support it. 

The book and the torn piece are separate pieces of evidence and we should address them that way until fresh evidence is forthcoming.

It is quite possible that the person who ditched the book into the Chemists car at 'around the time of the Parafield Air Show' was not the Somerton Man. In fact, we do not know for sure that the book was ditched at the time of his death, it could have been sometime after that occurrence.

To the point, whilst the assumption about the journey made by the Somerton Man has him boarding a train in Victoria, no assumption was made that the telephone numbers on the back of the book were also from Victoria. We can find no records of the Victorian lead being followed up. It begs the question, 'Why not?'

If we accept the strong possibility that the numbers were of an origin other than South Australia, does that reinforce the case for SM also coming from Victoria or is there another possibility? Could it be that the book belonged to another man from that time who we know came from Victoria and had connections there? Tibor Kaldor perhaps?

There'll be another post on this subject in the next week.


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SOMERTON MAN: MICRO CODE EVIDENCE SUBSTANTIATED

September 17, 2018, 10:26 pm
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SUPERINTENDENT  LEONARD BROWN
SAPOL



Len Brown was the detective who played a lead part in the Somerton Man case investigation. It was he who discovered the suitcase and it was he who made the statement that confirmed the existence of micro writing on the code page and that it was found beneath the code:

'Len remembers that the code and nurse’s phone number were in the back of the book in pencil. The phone number was in very tiny lettering. Len stated that the phone number was written under the code. '

See Adelaide University Wiki on Len Brown

What is to be deduced from this information?

There are three deductions that we can make:
1. The code page was not written by Jestyn, she would have no need  to write down her own number
2. Given the earlier post mention of similar telephone numbers being found in other States, we can assume that the telephone number was not the only piece of information that pointed to Jestyn.
3. That given the earlier work that has already been done on the code page by this blog, we can assume that there is more similarly coded information to be recovered which may well contain more telephone numbers.

Len Brown's comments substantiate the work done here. We have separately always maintained the view that the code page contained micro written code and Len's words confirm that fact.

Where to from here?

Bear in mind that the micro written code technique was identical to that used by the UK's SOE and is described in one of their manuals and known as INK H. In 1948 it was still a secret method. Whoever wrote the page was aware of just how the code could be implemented. There can be little doubt that a similar method would have been employed by other nations intelligence agencies.

This does not necessarily mean that this person was spying at the time, but it does mean that the person had more than likely been trained in the method. It may be that once the code in its entirety has been recovered that we find evidence of espionage but at this moment there is insufficient evidence to support that claim.

The next step is to carry out an in-depth examination of the code page using whatever technical means we have available. There is at least one university who state that they can recover the necessary details from the existing 400 dpi image of the code page. Sadly, the University of Adelaide has not expressed an interest for reasons best known to themselves.

NOTE:
Len Brown was a hardworking and respected officer who rose through the ranks serving in CIB and Prosecutions. He had worked on a number of high profile cases. He was the recipient of the Queens Police Medal and the National Service Medal.  Make no mistake that his position was a very responsible one, he would have worked extremely hard to get there and even harder when he achieved the rank of Superintendent. He was and still is deserving of great respect. 

Sadly there are those in recent times who have set out to demean, belittle, denigrate and in my view defame this man, to make things worse, they do so under the cloak of anonymity. To do that to a man who is now in his 100th year is beneath contempt. That approach does not sit well with me personally and I know that his relatives are of the same view.

NEXT POST: Another Major Link In The Puzzle
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SOMERTON MAN: X3239 LOCATION

September 19, 2018, 10:23 pm
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INSIDE STORY- STUART LITTLEMORE FILE
Page 196



This image is taken directly from the NAA file, Part 1 of 2 and page 196. Link here to all docs

If you examine this carefully you will be able to see pencil indentation markings covering the entire page. These markings are letters and numbers of varying sizes from average to very small. These are not digital artifacts; they are pencil indentations.

Looking for a particular number is like looking for a needle in a haystack, well not quite!


Below I have highlighted where the number X3239 is to be located and in fact, you should be able to just make it out:



You can also see many examples of letters and numbers and in the next image I have highlighted just some of the areas that you can observe:


All that I have done here is to adjust some colourisation settings to sharpen the images, the next step is to use specific lighting and camera techniques to hopefully enhance our view. It may take me some days to get to this but it will be done.

This last image for this post, of course, shows the bottom right corner of the code page, in it, you can clearly see letters and numbers in a stack:



Working through the document again after some years, it's amazing how much more you can find. Indeed it appears that I was not the first person to think that Fedosimov was the Somerton Man. More on that in a later post.



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SOMERTON MAN: JOHN SANDERS & MILONGAL REVEALED?

September 23, 2018, 7:39 pm
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JOHN SANDERS & MILONGAL REVEALED?

THE TRUTH WAS ALWAYS OUT THERE!


As promised and after a lengthy period of research followers of this and other blogs have sent me photographs of who they believe our two erstwhile opponents really are.

Yes, the clue, apparently was staring all of us who read A A Milnes book Winnie the Pooh, in the face, hidden in plain sight you could say:

AND HE LIVED IN THE FOREST UNDER THE NAME OF SANDERS!

From this day forth Mr. Sanders you shall be known as POOH!

But wait! What of  MILONGAL!, with unerring logic, my trusted friends have uncovered the most likely character would be a close associate of Pooh. One who was given to negativity and despair, you guessed it! It's:

EEYORE!


From this day forth Milongal you shall be dubbed EEYORE!

And just to add credibility to their claim, they managed to clandestinely snap this amazing photo of the two of them together:



Pooh & Eeyore working on their next fascinating comment!

I hope you both take this in the spirit with which it was intended, sometimes a little humour can go a long way!


Your friend:


Must dash, I only have 14 hours to save the Earth :)
Have a Great Day!

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Somerton Man: Why No Fingerprints?

September 25, 2018, 2:04 pm
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WHY NO FINGERPRINTS?

First Published 4th April 2014



If there was one aspect of this case that is of greatest concern it would be the absence of fingerprinting.


  1. The suitcase not fingerprinted, 
  2. The book or the torn piece not fingerprinted, 
  3. Bus tickets not fingerprinted, 
  4. Shoes not fingerprinted
  5. Glass dish not fingerprinted
  6. Screwdriver not fingerprinted
  7. Scissors not fingerprinted
  8. Razor not fingerprinted
  9. Razor strop not fingerprinted
  10. Envelopes not fingerprinted
  11. Paper sheets not fingerprinted
  12. Handkerchiefs not examined
  13. Jestyn not fingerprinted. 
  14. Alf Boxall not fingerprinted
  15. Etc. Etc.

I can't find any reference in the evidence or notes that states that anything or anyone was fingerprinted with the lone exception of SM himself. If anyone has found such a reference it would be greatly appreciated if it could be shared. As it stands, this may be the only suspicious death dealt with by Police in Australia where fingerprints weren't taken from evidence.

To add some further weight to the view, the statistical likelihood of a male in their 40s taking their own life using poison and choosing a beach to do it is hundreds of thousands to one. I am sure the mathematicians amongst us could provide the precise numbers. The only similar event that gets close was the Marshall case and he was found poisoned, a copy of the Rubaiyat, on a headland not that far from the sea and the rest we are all very familiar with.

Whilst SM's death may not have appeared to have been suspicious when he was discovered at the beach, it would have fallen into the category of sudden, unexplained and therefore suspicious until such time as proven otherwise. In fact it was at the RAH that the examining Doctor mentioned the likelihood of poisoning. That's almost as good as it gets as far as timing is concerned and the suspicious aspect should have immediately kicked off the correct Police procedures for what could be the most serious offence in the book.

The SA Police in those days was run very much like a military organisation, to the book.

Just months earlier to the discovery of SMs body Jimmy Durham went to a great deal of trouble taking fingerprints from a book that had been stolen from a second-hand shop and getting a conviction from it, why then did he not do so for the SM case? He, or someone, went to huge lengths to examine and photograph the impressions left on the inside of the book but didn't apparently look for fingerprints with the obvious ones being SMs.

It is just possible that finding the answer to the question of why fingerprints were not taken could lead to, at the very least, some very viable options as to who or which organisation had knowledge of or sanctioned this apparent killing.
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SOMERTON MAN: LAPSTONE IMPLICATIONS

September 27, 2018, 1:08 am
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THE LAPSTONE IMPLICATIONS

(ECAFE)


THE LAPSTONE CONFERENCE BLUE MOUNTAINS DECEMBER 1948

In December 1948, the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East ( ECAFE) held this conference at the Lapstone Hotel. Attended by many nations including the Soviet Union. Scheduled to start on Monday 30th November, both the Russian and Australian delegations were late and didn't attend until Tuesday 1st December 1948.

Our post though is not so much concerned with the conference itself, rather our focus is on those Russians who were delegates but who didn't actually turn up.

The Russian Delegation had some 14 members on arrival in Darwin around the 26th November 1948, they were led by Kirril Novikov, the recently appointed Russian Ambassador to India. Readers of this blog will be familiar with the name 'Novikov' as the Russian Consul to the US who was a close associate of Pavel Fedosimov, however as far as we know these two men are not related.



Novikov is seated in the centre of these 3 men. this particular photograph shows him attending a much later conference in Vienna.

The Lapstone Conference was the target of a joint MI5/Australian Intelligence and CIA surveillance operation which included phone taps, in room bugs and tailing of delegates.

THE LEAD-UP

Much was happening in Australia in the time leading up to the conference, apart from the awarding of a major contract for the building of the UK's latest jet fighter, the Vampire, and the relocation of the Royal Navy's 25 Submarine Squadron to Sydney. Work was continuing at a frantic pace in South Australia on the preparation of Woomera and the building of numerous labs and jet engine and fuel testing facilities in and around RAAF Edinburgh, Salisbury and Adelaide's other Northern suburbs. Rumours abounded that A-bombs were actually being built in the suburbs.

But there was another level of activity, earlier in 1948, Australia's Prime Minister, Ben Chifley had paid a hurried visit to the UK for an urgent meeting with UK Prime Minister Clem Atlee, the reason was to discuss the issue of high-level leaks of top secret information from Australia, so bad were these leaks that the Americans had stopped  information sharing with Australia and the UK. 

Chifley returned to Australia and set about building a new security service to be known as ASIO. To help him in this task, Atlee organised for Percy Sillitoe to travel to Australia. 

 Sir Percy Sillitoe





Sillitoe was accompanied by two others from MI5, Roger Hollis, (phototo the right) and Philip 
Hembley Scales.   

Both men were active in Australia right up to the time of the Lapstone conference and no doubt would have taken part at least in the planning of the Lapstone Surveillance exercise. Another man who was active in Australia at that time was an American Mormon missionary by the name of McConke Bruce Redd, Mr. Redd was also a CIA agent whose area of operations was the State of Victoria.

TWO MISSING DELEGATES

14 Russian delegates arrived via Quantas but only 12 made the forward flight to Sydney. The two missing delegates were:

1. A man known only as SHERBAKOV
2. A lady believed to have been Novikov's secretary, a Miss Bogotyreva

There are no known photographs of either of these two people, we will be following up on that aspect. Neither of these two delegates were seen again.

The question is of course, where did they go? Some time ago, regular commenter on things SM, Byron Deveson, suggested that just maybe Sherbakov was the Somerton Man, there being no photographs of Sherbakov, that is a difficult call to make.

Enter Wally Clayton.



 ROYAL COMMISSION ON ESPIONAGE

The Royal Commission was set up to investigate the implications of the Petrov Affair and the by then known espionage activities of the Soviet Government within Australia.

Amongst the many witnesses called was this man, Walter (Wally) Sneddon Clayton, also known as KLOD according to the VENONA cables. He was a known communist and was suspected of heading up a major Russian spy ring in Australia. This picture is an ASIO surveillance photograph.



Another active communist during 1948 and a man well known to Wally Clayton was this man , Laurence (Lance) Louis Sharkey:




Mr. Sharkey was the chair of the Communist Party of Australia Central Committee. In 1949 he was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment but only served 13 months.

In questioning Sharkey at the Royal Commission some years later, it transpired that Mr. Sharkey had been instructed by Wally Clayton to organise the illicit departure from Australia of a man via a ship leaving from Melbourne in December 1948.

Could this man who was spirited away from Australia have been Sherbakov? Was he connected in some way to the death of the Somerton Man? Was he the assassin?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

JOHN RUFFELS

Much of this information came from the amazing original investigative work carried out by John Ruffels, John was the SM researcher who worked alongside Sturart Littlemore in the making of the 1978 'Inside Story' documentary. It was he who painstakingly searched books, documents and news clippings to uncover this information way back in 1978, a time when there was no internet nor mobile phones, John did the hard yards.

You should also know that it was John Ruffels that suggested to me that I should follow up on Sentaor Cavanagh's statement in the senate that spoke of South Australia becoming a dumping ground for dead spies. 

Senator Cavanagh had pointed to a book, The Atom Spies and in those pages, John independently found details of a meeting at the Earle Cinema in New York between Harry Gold and a tall, well built fair haired man with large hands who walked on his toes. John was not able to put a name to this man and it was years later when I followed up on John's suggestion and by then there was access to the FBI files not available to John in the late 1970's. It was in those files that I was able to find the name of the man who met Harry Gold at the Earle cinema, it was Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov. There were no photographs of any kind available at that time, no doubt John would have been excited to see the close up of Fedosimov showing the missing teeth.  John had stated in his notes in 1978 that he believed that the man at the meeting with Harry Gold could well have been the Somerton Man. I concur.





With thanks to Clive Turner and to Pete Bowes for their input and encouragement over the past 4 years.

I recommend a visit to Pete Bowes Blog, Toms By Two



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SOMERTON MAN: Mr. FRANCIS REVEALED

September 27, 2018, 8:45 pm
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DR.DOUGLAS BUXTON HENDRICKSON
PIER STREET GLENELG



With thanks to Clive, Clive attended the showing of the Somerton Man film in Glenelg last night and it was there that Professor Abbott revealed the name of "Mr. Francis". As you can see his name was Dr. Douglas Buxton Hendrickson of Pier Street Glenelg. Professor Abbott stated that the information was given to him by Gerry Feltus who as 99% certain that this was the man given the pseudonym "Mr. Francis"

Clive has started the research and thus far has turned up the following news article from "The News" 4 Dec 1946:

This post is a joint effort from Clive, Pete Bowes at Toms By Two and myself here at the Tamamshud blog.

UPDATE  28 September 2018
Thanks to Byron Deveson

DOUGLAS BUXTON HENDRICKSON

Born 18th February1911 Balaklava, South Australia.
Married Eileen Ivy Schurgott 15th June 1933at Claremont, South Australia
Married Doris Arculas Davis 25th July 1942 at Perth, WA
Died 23rd September 1979 Adelaide

Question: Did Dr. Hendrickson work at or attend the Crippled Children's Home?

two daughters born 1945 and 1948.


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SOMERTON MAN: 13 PIER STREET GLENELG, IMAGES AND MAPS

September 29, 2018, 9:28 pm
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IMAGES AND MAPS

13 PIER STREET GLENELG


This is the view looking straight down Pier Street towards the junction with The Esplanade and the beach in the distance. The house you can see on the right of this image is Number 13 Pier Street. The image is taken from the Moseley Street junction with Pier Street. In the distance, you can just about see the Esplanade

The image below is a Satellite view of the area stretching from Pier Street down to Bickford Terrace and including the location of 90 A Moseley Street.


The distance between 13 Pier Street and Bickford Terrace is approximately 1.5 Kilometres, 3 minutes in a car and 18 minutes at normal walking speed.


THE CAR

Given it was night time and that the Doctors car was parked adjacent to and outside his home which could either be in Pier Street or Moseley Street, and with street lighting being at a minimum in those days, it would not be difficult to either pop the book through an open car window or to open the door and drop it in. My personal take on that is that it would have gone in through an open window. Having said that, there was talk at one time on the University of Adelaide FB page that the car was, in fact, a Hillman Convertible and it was thought to have been blue in colour, the image below is of 48 Hillman convertible: Had it been this kind of car then I would assume the head would be down and so the book could have gone in between the car body and the head without too much difficulty I would have thought.




This scenario would include that the person dropping the book may have been pursued so to drop it into the first car, having turned a corner, and thus momentarily hidden from the view of his pursuer, seems quite possible. That would have the person heading down towards the Esplanade and away from Moseley Street.

Had he come from the direction of 90A Moseley Street then his journey would have been 650 metres in length, one minute in a car and perhaps 8 minutes at walking speed, a fast run would be more like 4 minutes.



And below, here's the big picture from 90A to 13 Pier Street and down to Bickford Terrace via the Esplanade:



THE LANE

Just to add a little more interest, there is a laneway between Kent Steet and Pier Street and it ends immediately behind 13 Pier Street:


there's no name of this laneway shown on Google Maps but I imagine there will be a detailed map from 1948, Sands and Macdougall perhaps.

I wonder what the Doctor's phone number was?
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