Not many hours ago the SBS Channel here in Australia aired a documentary on the Somerton Man Mystery. There have been a few such efforts but I suggest none were more significant than this one which is narrated by Laurence Fishburne of History's Greatest Mysteries.
The date of the documentary is the clue, it was first aired on March 14th. 2022. The Carl Webb DNA story was not launched by Professor Abbott until 26 July 2022.
And so what?
Last night's airing is nothing more in my view than an attempt to rewind the whole Somerton Man story to the time before the announcement of the discredited claims by Professor Abbott that Carl Webb was the Somerton Man.
The whole thing has been yet another story from the Professor and this airing of the Somerton Man mystery confirms that.
'How come?' I hear you ask.
Simply put, SBS is a subset of ABC Television here in Australia and both are always 'in sync' when it comes to their position on every story they put out. It was ABC TV that ran and promoted the first story of Carl Webb and the DNA discovery by the Professor in July and again in November of 2022. By airing that documentary last night, SBS/ABC has effectively walked away from the Professor's 'Carl Webb' claims. This being the case, I would find it hard to believe that the Press will be in a hurry to listen to any more unsupported stories from the Professor.
This blog after much thought and research stated its position in December 2022, Carl Webb was not the Somerton Man, there was no valid DNA evidence to support that claim and plenty of evidence against it. I stand by that statement.
To the documentary itself, you will have noted that the Pavel Fedosimov story got some exposure and that story was originally posted here on this blog in fact there were a whole series posts on this man who I put forward as a good candidate for the Somerton Man. HERE'S THE LINK.
Personally, I would be interested to find out where they got their information from, I know it would have been from this blog but who would have supplied it is the question in my mind. I don't see a reputable Documentary team using the work of others without crediting their source. I suppose it's possible that someone,(I wonder who), could have thrown it in as their own. Anyway, I will track that down and let you know the result.
There was also mention of the bank telephone number, again we had a number of posts on that HERE'STHE LINK.
I found it interesting that whilst there was a discussion on the issue of the teeth, it was mostly about the professor's totally discredited story on the 'Love Child' theory. Also very telling was the absence of the Dental Chart taken of the Somerton Man's teeth by Dr Dwyer, the man who performed the autopsy on the body of the known Somerton Man.
The dental chart you see above is included in the official inquest papers as an exhibit. and that's the very best kind of evidence you can get. There were 18 missing teeth with no evidence as to how they got to be missing.
This post is not a reflection on Laurence Fishburne, his work and that of History's Greatest Mysteries stands, and his account is good, fair, and reasonable as you would expect from a professional man of his stature.