Tamam Shud – The Somerton Man Mystery

The weather on 30th November 1948 was pleasant, and so a couple decided to take an evening stroll along Somerton Beach near Adelaide, Australia. As they were wandering past at about 7pm, they noticed a man lying on the sand with his head propped against the sea wall. He extended his right arm, possibly as a form of greeting, before dropping it limply by his side. As he showed no reaction to the numerous mosquitoes buzzing him, the logical conclusion was that he was simply drunk and had gone to the beach in order to sleep it off.

When the husband of the couple was walking his dog along the beach the following morning at about 6.30am, he was perturbed to find the man still there, lying in the same position. Having established that the man was in fact dead, he notified the police who were quickly in attendance. An initial search of the man’s clothing revealed a few interesting personal effects. Two tickets, one train and one bus, that did not appear to have been used, were in his pockets, as was a packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, an American type aluminium comb, and a box of Bryant & May matches. But perhaps the most perplexing of these finds was an Army Club cigarette packet that contained seven cigarettes of a different, more expensive, brand. To put cheaper cigarettes into a more expensive packet might seem logical, so as to give the impression of smoking better quality cigarettes, but to do the reverse seems a little odd, unless for some reason he was trying to appear less refined. An unlit cigarette was also found on the lapel of his jacket.

The subsequent autopsy failed to reveal a cause of death, as no traces of foreign substances could be detected in the body, although several internal organs were congested and his spleen was approximately three times normal size. Dr. Dwyer, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy was convinced that the death was not natural and concluded that he believed poisoning to be the most likely cause, with barbiturates or sleeping pills as the most probable candidates. Other than the fact that he was dead however, the unidentified man seemed to be in excellent physical condition. Aged in his early to mid forties, he was 5 feet 11 inches tall and had begun to grey slightly around the temples. He had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, pronounced calf muscles and toes that met in a wedge shape, suggesting the physique of a dancer or gymnast, although the tapering toe shape pointed to ballet as the most likely activity.

His clothing was also of interest since, although dressed reasonably smartly; shirt, tie, pullover and a double breasted jacket, all the labels on his clothes had been removed. He was not carrying a wallet or any means of identification, leading the police to suspect that he had probably committed suicide and did not want to be identified. An examination of his teeth did not match the dental records of any known missing person.

Most enigmatic of all however, was a tiny piece of rolled up paper, found in the fob pocket of the man’s trousers. A fob pocket is basically a small pocket within a pocket, which was popular in the days before wrist watches were commonplace, and was used to hold a pocket watch. However, this fob pocket contained only the small rolled up scrap of paper, which had to be removed with tweezers. When unrolled, the words Tamam Shud could be seen clearly printed on it. No one at the police department had a clue as to what these words meant and so they eventually turned to the public for help. A local academic came to their aid. He advised them to obtain a copy of a book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He went on to explain that the book was a translation of quatrains by the 12th century Persian poet Omar Khayyam, and that the last line of the book, which had been left untranslated, was ‘Tamam Shud’. Although, as the last line of a book, we would probably translate it as ‘The End’, a more accurate translation would be ‘It is Finished’. A clear, if concise, suicide note perhaps?

It appeared that the scrap of paper had indeed come from a copy of the book and so another public appeal was made by police, this time to try and find the very copy from which it had been torn. The appeal eventually bore fruit when a man to whom police gave the pseudonym Ronald Francis, in order to protect his true identity, produced a copy in which the words ‘Tamam Shud’ had been torn away. Careful examination revealed a match to the piece of paper found in the man’s pocket.

According to police, ‘Mr Francis’ had found the copy in the rear footwell of his car, which had been parked, unlocked, close to Somerton Beach, around the same time as the discovery of the man’s body. He thought it strange, but did not link it to the body on the beach, until the police made their appeal. To add further mystification to the case, in the back of the book were five lines of text handwritten in code. Unfortunately, due to the brevity of the message, there were insufficient repetitions of letters to enable the message to be deciphered. However, a telephone number was also found in the back of the book, which turned out to belong to a nurse by the name of Jessica Ellen Thomson, who lived only about 400 metres north of where the man’s body was found.

Thomson was interviewed by police and shown a plaster cast of the dead man’s head. She maintained that she did not know the deceased and had no idea why her phone number was in the book. However, those present noted that when shown the plaster bust, she looked shocked and quickly looked away. Jessica died in 2007 at approximately 85 years of age. If she really did know the identity of the Somerton Man, she took that secret with her to the grave.

However, she left behind a tantalising clue in the form of her eldest son Robin, who was 18 months old at the time of the discovery of the body on the beach. The dead man had two unusual anatomical features; a rare genetic dental disorder called hypodontia, found in only about 1-2% of the general population, and his cymba (upper ear hollow) was larger than his cavum (lower ear hollow), an abnormality present in only about 2% of individuals. Jessica Thomson’s son also had hypodontia as well as the rare ear configuration. The chances of this being a mere coincidence is estimated as being between one in ten million and one in twenty million. Robin Thomson died in 2009.

The unidentified body of The Somerton Man was laid to rest in Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery on 14th June 1949. To date requests for an exhumation to enable DNA testing have been declined. As one might imagine with a case like this, theories and potential identifications abound, ranging from the more fanciful notions that he was a spy or someone wanted for war crimes, to the more mundane, such as a missing sailor or railway worker. By 1953 the police had received over 250 suggestions as to the possible identity of the deceased, but no positive identification was ever made.

Whilst his identity may never be known, the most likely scenario would seem to be that he had been in a relationship with Jessica Thomson that despite having ended, resulted in the birth of Robin. Jessica had in the meantime begun a new relationship with Prosper Thomson, whom she soon married. Given that Jessica lived close to the beach where the body was found, it seems likely that he visited her and discovered to his utmost disappointment, that he would not be a part of the lives of his former lover and their son. Dejected he took his own life. Although we shouldn’t forget that Jessica was a nurse. Might his arrival at her new marital home have been an inconvenience to her, necessitating his swift removal from this mortal coil?

The case remains open.

But for now;

Tamam Shud.

Addendum:

On 26th July 2022, Adelaide University Professor Derek Abbott, in association with genealogist Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, claimed to have identified the man as Carl “Charles” Webb, an electrical engineer and instrument maker, born in 1905. The identification was based on genetic genealogy from DNA of the man, extracted from strands of hair, taken from a plaster death mask made by South Australian Police at the time of the original investigation. Matches were found for descendants of two first cousins of the deceased. South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not verified the result, but South Australia Police said they were “cautiously optimistic”. No death record for Webb exists, with his last known records dating to April 1947, when he left his wife. Webb was also fond of poetry, possibly explaining the link with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Assuming this identification to be correct, Somerton Man was not the father of Robin Thomson.

Sources:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/tamam-shud-somerton-man

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud_case