SATURDAY DIGEST: World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries (Day 12)

Good Morning dear DTB readers, its the last Saturday of September and we should give thanks to the Almighty God for blessing and keeping us. Bet you guys enjoyed the Sallah holidays.

Today the Mystery of the Somerton Man also know as the Taman Shud joins our long-list of World's greatest unsolved mysteries on DTB.

On December 1 1948, on Somerton beach, Glenelg, south of Adelaide, South Australia. An unidentified man found dead at 6:30 am, The man was found lying in the sand across the Crippled Childeren's Home. He was lying back with his head resting against the seawall. An unlit cigarette was behind his ear and a half0smoked cigarette was on the right collar of his coat, held in position by his cheek.on the piece of found in the dead man's pocket the phrase 'Tamam shud' was written, meaning "ended" or "finished" in Persian. The piece of paper turned out to have been removed from the final page of a particular copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a collection of poems attributed to 12th century poet Omar Khayyám. Following a police appeal, the actual book was handed in – around the time the body was found, a man in Glenelg had found it on the seat of his car. Written in the book was something looking like a secret code as well as a telephone number.

The case at the time became a subject on intense speculation and over the years regarding the identity of the victim, the events leading up to his death, and the cause of death. Public interest in the case remains significant because of a number of factors: the death occurring at a time of heightened tensions during the Cold War, what appeared to be a secret code, the use of an undetectable poison, his lack of identification, and the possibility of unrequited love.

Autopsy: 

The autopsy result by Dr. Dwyer found almost all of his organs normal and the last meal of the unknown man was a pasty eaten three to four hours before death. In his conclusion the doctor said "I am convinced the death could not have been natural...the poison i the poison I suggested was a barbiturate or a soluble hypnotic". Although poisoning remained a prime suspicion, the pasty was not believed to be the source of the poison.

The Coroner was also unable to identify the man or the cause of death.

The body of the man was embalmed by police on December 10 1948, after the Police were unable to identify the man.

Identification:

A possible identification was published in Adelaide newspaper 'The Advertiser' on December 2 1948, that quoted one E.C Johnson from Payneham as the body found on the Beach, But E.C Johnson walked into a police station to identify himself as living on December 3 1948, By December 4, Police released another statement that the man's fingerprint were not on South Australian police records, forcing them to look further afield.

A number of people came forward with proofs but non came out positive, some even claim to have had a drink with someone who looked like the unknown man.

Many other accounts points in the direction that the unidentified man is a spy.

H.C. Reynolds:

In 2011, an Adelaide woman contacted biological anthropologist Maciej Henneberg about an identification card of an H. C. Reynolds that she had found in her father's possessions. The card, a document issued in the United States to foreign seamen during WWI, was given to Henneberg in October 2011 for comparison of the ID photograph to that of the Somerton man. While Henneberg found anatomical similarities in features such as the nose, lips and eyes, he believed they were not as reliable as the close similarity of the ear. The ear shapes shared by both men were a "very good" match, although Henneberg also found what he called a "unique identifier;" a mole on the cheek that was the same shape and in the same position in both photographs.

    "Together with the similarity of the ear characteristics, this mole, in a forensic case,           would allow me to make a rare statement positively identifying the Somerton man."

The ID card, numbered 58757, was issued in the United States on 28 February 1918 to H.C. Reynolds, giving his nationality as "British" and age as 18. Searches conducted by the US National Archives, the UK National Archives and the Australian War Memorial Research Centre have failed to find any records relating to H.C. Reynolds. The South Australia Police Major Crime Branch, who still have the case listed as open, will investigate the new information.

The case remain opened till date and the question is how did that piece of paper get into his pocket, what is the meaning of the secret code and who/what killed the unknown man? This and many more makes the Tamam Shud case one of the World's greatest unsolved mysteries.

Reference: Wikipedia