THE MAN'S SKULL HAD BEEN COMPLETELY REMOVED
Earlier today I spoke with Paul Lawson, it was the third discussion we had had in this latest series. He wanted to make clear some facts about the man of whom he had made the bust and his own involvement with the case.
He made some statements that will upset a few I am sure.
THE SKULL
He went back to our earlier conversation regarding the state of the man's skull, he wanted to make it very clear that the skull had been completely removed from the man's body.
He went further, when the skull had been replaced it was put into a different position, it seemed to have been tilted back a little. That could have resulted in the significantly different appearance of the man as we see in the centre of the 3 images above. '
It does raise another question though. How can we be sure that the skull was that of the Somerton Man? The current examination of the remains should help clarify that issue. All the more reason for the dental chart taken by Doctor Dwyer to be examined.
CLELAND
When Paul told Cleland that the skull had been completely removed and as per the earlier discussion, e was very annoyed, that 'they' had got to it first. Cleland believed that something about the skull would have proven something about just where the man had been.
But that's only a part of what Cleland had to say, he told Paul that he believed that the man had recently been in Russia and he had gone there from Australia.
A WOOMERA CONNECTION
I asked Paul if he had thought that anything was unusual about how the police handled the case. He went immediately to the subject of the suitcase and said that 'they' had messed around with the contents to deliberately mislead us, the slippers were an example, they were brand new and were a good size too small for the man, he also commented on the man's feet, in his view the wedge shape was down to the man being a 'toe walker', someone who walked on the balls of his feet. A ballet man or horse rider was also possible, but the 'toe walker' was the most likely.
Still talking on the subject of the Police, at the time he was concerned that the officer responsible for Woomera and for that part of it used as a rocket range from 47, that part was Maralinga before its A-Bomb testing use. He had the feeling that the officer was somehow deliberately impeding progress in the case. According to Paul, that officer was Detective Sergeant Leane.
Conclusion
There are some obvious implications in what Paul has revealed. In some ways, he is confirming some of the suspicions held by various people over the years. But much of what he had to say was new to me.