Friday 15 November 2013

Somerton Man. Some astonishing facts..

The Code Page Re-Visited


In this article I have brought together 17 facts about the 'code' page, some of which are quote well known and others for want of a better term are really quite astonishing. You will read how neither the book nor the code page were fingerprinted, amazing! Then read how the Police sent just a photograph of the Code page to Naval Intelligence in Melbourne. Amazing!

But there is something else that is even more astonishing, read through and at the end of this piece all will be revealed..


  1. The copy of the Rubaiyat was published by Whitcomb & Tombs, New Zealand and was from the ‘Courage & Friendship’ series printed first in 1942. 
  2. The book was white in colour, to all accounts the series was printed in a range of ‘pastel’ colours but not in white.The size of the book was approximately 110mm by 140 mm, a pocket version.
  3. When found, the book had two noticeable issues, firstly the final phrase ‘Tamam Shud’ had apparently been torn out of the book. Secondly the back page of the book had been torn off.
  4. The ‘Code’ was found on the back of the last page in the book by SA Police or others when they used first a UV light to examine it and found what appeared to be indentations or marks on the surface and then used a second process, believed to be Iodine Vapour to reveal the markings in detail.
  5. The Police or some other organisation created photographs of the treated page. The ‘letters’ of the code that we see today are the results of someone tracing over the markings that they saw on the page.
  6. In all there were 5 lines of ‘letters’ and 50 ‘letters’ shown in the image of the page, the second line often referred to as the ‘Crossed out’ line may not have been crossed out. There are numerous lines across the book and it is impossible to tell whether the line, in fact 4 separate short lines when viewed under magnification, was in place before the ‘letters’
  7. The two crossed lines near the centre of the page have been stopped short. Under magnification the lines appear to continue and then meet together at a point closer to the edge of the image. Where they meet it is possible to see a second ‘X’ across the point where they join. 
  8. Using various techniques, it is possible to see some 17 different symbols, number sets and words at various locations within the ‘code’ page outside of the marked ‘letters’ with each ‘letter’ containing numerous and unexplained markings when viewed under magnification.
  9. Three examples that can be seen faintly with the naked eye are:The word 2YRS and 42 appear just below and to the right of the first letter ‘S’ in the last line followed by what looks like the word 'Venom' then the letter X and 4 digits visible under magnification. Alongside the top of the first letter ‘A’ in line 1, there are 4 digits. A third example that lies within the bounds of a letter but still visible is to be found at the top of the first letter ‘B’ in the fourth line, here you will see 4 digits with more visible within that letter under magnification. Apologies for the size of this image, it is the best that can be done with the tools I have:



  1. Detective Brown in recent years still believed that the torn piece ‘Tamam Shud’ was in fact the same shape and size of the area torn from the book as in the images shown on numerous websites. This conflicts with the image that appeared in the Advertiser when the book was found and the images published showing a larger torn out area
  2. Experiments have shown that a piece of paper similar in shape and size to the torn piece that was found can be torn from a page in one piece.
  3. Detective Brown also believes that the ‘Code’ itself appeared in the top left quadrant of the back page of the book with the telephone numbers appearing in the adjacent quadrant. That would make the size of the 'code' page just 55mm X 70mm
  4. None of the pages of this book were fingerprinted
  5. The torn piece was not fingerprinted or treated in any way
  6. A scientist at the time suggested that the paper types of the torn piece and the paper found in the book were similar The torn piece still exists today.
  7. Under magnification, there are numerous unexplained markings on a high resolution image of the torn piece.
  8. According to the SA Police they only sent the photograph of the code page to Naval Intelligence in Melbourne and not the original book.

After all of these facts and in the light of the technology that was available, and indeed used by SA Police on previous occasions, no fingerprints were taken from the book in fact no fingerprints from anywhere except from one place, from the hands of the Somerton Man. That's astonishing in itself but what is even more astonishing is that the Coroner never asked the question as to whether fingerprints had been taken.

Bring it all right up to date it would seem that this amazing lapse has been continued on, there are some very intelligent people who have been engaged in attempting to solve the case for many years and not one of them asked that question either. Food for thought?


Share:

Saturday 26 October 2013

Somerton Man. Was it a Cover Up From Day One?

A big question. Was the whole Tamam Shud Case a cover up right from day one?

The question is prompted by a recently released Trove News article dated December 1st. 1948, that date should ring a bell, it was of course the day that his body was found on Somerton Beach. To be precise he was found around 6 in the morning and this News item was posted in the Adelaide News, an evening newspaper which I think came out at around 4 p.m.

In a busy Police Station, the sequence of events would have been something like this:

1. 6 a.m. body found and inspected for any obvious signs of violence or unusual marks
2. Transport arranged and body taken to the morgue
3. Body again inspected for any wounds or marks cleaned up and prepared for an autopsy, a Police Officer sometimes known as a 'Coroners Officer' would have had control of that process and may even have organised or carried out the washing.
4. A detailed description of the body would have been taken by the Coroners Officer and that would have formed part of an initial 'sudden death' report.
5. A duty, uniformed, inspector would have authorised the release of the mans description to the press
6. The News Police reporter at the time would have made what was probably a regular daily phone call when he came on duty sometime around midday on the 1st December.
7. The press article, based on the Coroners Officer's information would have been prepared for publication.

Worth bearing in  mind that at this stage there was no hint of poisoning or Codes or the Tamam Shud torn piece.

As you will read via the link below, is that the Coroners Officers description of the man was as follows:

Height 5ft 11 inches, quite precise
Build, Well built, again a reasonable description
Hair colour, Fair, quite definite
Eyes, Hazel and again quite definite.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/129897161

The problem is that subsequent descriptions of the Somerton Man were quite different, in those he has been described as having auburn hair and blue eyes.

Does the picture below look like his hair is fair?



Remember that in a recent post the Police announced that a 'Reconstructed photograph was available for inspection' that very weekend following the finding of his body.

This image is the one posted earlier that appears to show that his photograph was manipulated:


When you examine this image carefully it could well be that the face of the man in this image is not that of the Somerton Man, if it's true in this case then it could also be true of the full face image shown here:




Two of our followers, photographers, agreed that it was likely that one or both had been altered, I checked that with other photographers and they agreed. The question is why would you go to these lengths, and it was a tricky process in those days, to alter a photograph? Any other photographers out there, your input would be appreciated.

So here we have it, the first description that was released, one which would have been written by the Coroners Officer who would have been an experienced man to hold that position, described the man as having fair hair an Hazel eyes. The man in this altered image does not have have anything like fair hair as far as I can see.

Did the December 1st Press release about the discover of the mans body on Somerton Beach slip through the 'net' and is that why the Police hurriedly announced the availability of 'reconstructed' images? Why did his description change so quickly after the first press release?

Add to this, the 14 instances of fingerprints not being taken from the mans possessions, the laundry marks that were supposedly traced to Victoria but never followed up, the evidence, in terms of his clothing, possessions and the book, being destroyed despite it still being an open case and I would say there is genuine cause to think that something was sadly amiss at the least and that it was a deliberate cover up at its worst.













Share:

Thursday 10 October 2013

Somerton Man: He May Have Died on 30th November But When Was He Poisoned?

It's an intriguing question. From the outset it does seem that everyone, myself included, simply assumed that the Somerton Man had been poisoned during his short stay in Adelaide.

But what if that wasn't the case? What if he had in fact been poisoned before he arrived in Adelaide on that train? There is reason to think that this may well have been the case.

Let me relate to you how this option came about. It was a discussion regarding an aspect of the Autopsy, in the report mention is made of the enlarged spleen, almost 3 times its proper size and it also spoke of how other organs were engorged. It was these issues that caused Cleland to reach the conclusion that SM had been poisoned and that he thought it was Digitalis.

One of the particpants in the discussion on this matter made mention of the fact that it can take 3 days and more for a spleen to reach the size that SMSs had. Consider that very carefully, the enlarged spleen was associated with digitalis poisoning and the Somerton Man was found to have died around Midnight on the 30th November, if this is true then he had been poisoned between 1 and 3 days before he arrived in Adelaide.

The question is this, would a man carefully pack his bags and hop on a train to Adelaide and then on the way decide to take his own life? It doesn't seem likely, especially when you add to this the information on the likelihood of a male of SMs age ending his life with Poison which calculated out as more than 150000 to 1.

For me this information now makes it all but 100% positive that the Somerton Man did not take his own life and that he was probably poisoned sometime before he arrived in Adelaide.

When you take all of the circumstances into account including the most recent posts made here about the number of incidents were evidence was 'overlooked' and the nature of the code page, the book and the torn piece in his pocket, the balance of probability is clear, the man was murdered and he was involved in Espionage.

Share:

Sunday 29 September 2013

Somerton Man. Proof that miniature writing and use of Iodine were established techniques.

In a recent post it was suggested that iodine may have been used by the SA Police to reveal the indentations found on the back of the Omar book.

The image below is an example of Iodine, being used to reveal secret writing on a handkerchief handed over by a German Submarine Commander, the U234 I beilieve when he and his crew surrendered to the Americans in 1945. There is another case from 1942 when a German spy, George Dasch, surrendered to the FBI and amongst his possessions was a handkerchief with invisible ink writing on it that gave a list of contacts. Iodine vapour was used to reveal the information.


This next image shows US agents examining postal items using iodine and other chemicals in their search for secret writings:

This image shows the use of UV light by US censors:



First some history on this and just why this post is important. Almost 2 years ago on a site dedicated to finding out who the Somerton Man was, what he did and how he died, I put forward some findings I had made related to the existence of miniature writing as in very small, microscopic letters and numbers found both on the free spaces on the so called 'Code' page and interestingly also found beneath the 'letters' of the code. I didn't get the response I expected, the idea and even the images were met with derision and outrage.

I later found that this is quite a common occurrence when people who have dedicated much time and effort in the pursuit of a theory which would be destroyed should this new idea be accepted. It is a classic example of resistance to change and is to be expected. If you are ever faced with this, you simply need to have faith in yourself and pursue your ideas until eventually the idea becomes the truth and is accepted. If you know you are right, that is what will happen. Be understanding of those whose ideas have been sidelined, in my case I believe that their contribution has been massive and is not be derided.

Worthy of note is the fact that I had no idea that there was such a thing as miniature writing at the time, it was a surprise for me as well as anyone else. Neither did I have any real idea of the techniques used to reveal 'secret' writings whether done in ink or as miniature writings or, as it turns out, as both.

About two weeks ago, whilst doing some research I came across an article from a US newspaper dated 1936. You can read the full text via the link but for the purpose of this post, I can tell you that miniature writing and Iodine as a detection method are both mentioned in the article. Here's the link:


What this does is to prove that the use of miniature writing was a known technique around the time, it was in the public domain as our legal eagles might say. In fact, so was the use of Iodine to detect secret writing and used to to an extent that totally surprised me. The image earlier in this post describes the US Censors work in examining letters and postal items for secret messages. In the example they were using chemicals to highlight their findings not just UV light.

The point and how it relates to the Somerton Man case is this. The use of both miniature writing and iodine were widely known techniques. It would not be hard to accept that the US and Australian agencies cooperated in this field even before the 2nd World War, it was peacetime in 1936. How much more would they have cooperated in 1948 at the outset of the Cold War?

The SA Police would have been well aware of these techniques especially having just been through WW2.

This newspaper article and the earlier posts covering the way the case was investigated really do support the view that there was very probably some kind of cover up happening in the Somerton Man case. The Police must have known of the techniques, they would have examined the Omar book thoroughly, they knew how it was done, and would have found what has been found since, miniature writing. The larger 'letters' of the code were not real, they were a feint to make others think that they weren't on the track.

What appears on the 'code' page is a series of indentations and markings picked up by the use of Iodine, some of those markings were 'joined' by the Police for whatever reason. An actual copy of the code page is below, you are very welcome to download it and examine it for yourself. Remember that the 'letters' were put there by the Police.

Examine it carefully, you are looking for miniature letters and numbers that vary in size between .2mm and .4mm in height, some are in the open spaces between and around the 'letters' of the code and some are actually found beneath the markings made by the Police.



Share:

Somerton Man:Confirmation that his picture had been reconstructed?

A very interesting newspaper article from the time, December 1948, has surfaced that seems to substantiate the view that perhaps the Somerton Man's profile image had been altered.

In a post dated 24th February, the question was asked whether the profile image of the Somerton Man was real or had been 'doctored' in some way.

The first image shows the markings highlighted on the profile that appear to be the result of a superimposition of the face:


In this second image you can see what appears to be the 'superimposed' face:


In this last comparison image below, you'll see highlighted areas of the front view of SM that show signs of having been modified. It is difficult to match the profile image on the left to the full face view on the right, from my perspective they do not appear to be one and the same person.





The question came about as a result of close examination of this particular image which showed markings that appeared to prove that the image was in fact a compilation of 2 images, the face did not 'fit' with the rest of the profile of his head, it had different colouration and a different 'texture', it looked as though the face had been superimposed onto the original image of the man's profile.

This article from the Advertiser dated December 4th 1948, just a few days after the discovery of the Somerton Man's body on the beach makes specific reference to the Police having created a 'reconstructed photograph' for viewing by the public.


It is obviously an interesting choice of words. If the Police had been talking about SM having been dressed up, would they have said reconstructed? It doesn't seem likely that they would have chosen the words 'Reconstructed Photograph', it would have been more accurate to have said a 'Reconstruction of how the man looked when found' and they would have done that to prompt someone's memory perhaps. But no, the words used were quite specific.

Another aspect of the discovery of this news article is the date, just 4 days after the event. The Police were right on the job and following through, they were being efficient. This would appear to be in stark contrast to the way they later acted when on 14 different occasions they didn't take fingerprints from items associated with SM which could have helped solve the case.

Yet another question in need of an answer, why would the Police have reconstructed this image by superimposing a face into the man's profile?
Share:

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Somerton Man: 14 items could have been dusted for fingerprints but weren't. Why?

There are so many inconsistencies related to this case, lots of unanswered questions, many of which could remain that way. However that does not mean we have to stop asking questions in an effort get at the truth.

Fingerprints, or rather the lack of them, being taken apart from the Somerton Man's, is a case in point:

Somerton Man's Fingerprints ( we think)



A small point worth considering is that the same chemicals and techniques that were used to lift fingerprints from paper or soft materials were also used to reveal secret writing, the chemical being iodine. Was this the technique used by Detective Jimmy Durham in an earlier case when he famously found and recovered fingerprints from a book and proved his case?

Read more here:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/30759118...

At least 14 items that could have and should have been fingerprinted but apparently, not one of them was.


Given that experience, why was it that the Omar book and the torn piece were apparently never examined for fingerprints? Would the Somerton Man's prints have been found on them? or would someone else's? Perhaps more than one?

To all accounts that torn piece still exists and when enquiries were made of a person well connected wuth this case, they were dismissed as being too difficult or just impossible after all this time.

In short, the technology existed to lift fingerprints from the book and the torn 'TAMAM SHUD' piece from the book and other items.

Here's a list of those things that could have and should have been subject to fingerprinting:
  • The Omar book
  • The torn piece
  • The Bus and Train tickets
  • The Letter cards
  • The handles of the brush, the knife, the scissors and other tools from the suitcase
  • The glass dish
  • The suitcase
  • His shoes
  • The lining of the pocket that had laundry marks
More than that Jimmy Durham had specific experience in the techniques necessary to lift prints from difficult surfaces but not a word of prints being taken is to be found amongst any of the documents. Why?

In the next post I will publish a summation and an account of what I believe really happened on that night.
Share:

Monday 2 September 2013

Somerton Man: Just what did the SA Police send to Naval Intelligence?



Given the times and what is known about Australian Military intelligence and its close connections with MI5, MI6 and earlier SOE, do we really think that the discovery of a book with a code written into it would be treated so lightly as to send a single photograph of what the local Police had found using UV light?


 Let's put this into perspective, imagine being in what is arguably amongst the most tumultuous times in history with a Cold War getting chillier, Israel in turmoil, open distrust of the Australian Government by a major ally, the British Navy announces the relocation of a Submarine Squadron to Sydney, in South Australia Atom Bombs are being developed ready for testing as well as a whole raft of other weaponry including rockets and radar, the fastest jet fighter in the world publicly put through its paces at Parafield, the Prime Minister of our country visits Adelaide on the day before SM turns up and apparently later a book is found and associated with the the man and it contains what appears to be a mysterious 'code' written onto it. And the SA Police send a photograph of what they have found to Naval Intelligence in Melbourne?

 It strikes me that both Naval Intelligence and the SA Police were not exactly wet behind the ears, both had relatively recently emerged from WW2 and would have been throughly trained and familiar with the tricks, tools and techniques of those involved in espionage.

When you think about it why was it Naval Intelligence in Melbourne that was informed? Who was it that suggested the code; finding should be sent there? You would think that South Australia, because of it's involvement with massive weaponry developments, would have been alive with counter intelligence agencies.



Wouldn't you at least think they would have sent a group of images showing the original book with its markings plus what the book looked like under UV light prior to being marked up by the Police? On that issue, the use of iodine vapours was a common way to uncover secret writing, given the markings on the 'code' page it seems to be entirely possible that was in fact the method used. At that time it is also likely that the technique was still under wraps and not for public knowledge. But no mention is made of anything other than the marked up image being sent. Would our smart and advanced Naval intelligence people really leave it to Mr. Plod in South Australia to decide what was or what wasn't written on the book? I don't think so.

Where does that leave us?
Share:

Thursday 15 August 2013

Somerton Man Secret Writing more than the code page..


To begin at the beginning. Secret writing was in use thousands of years ago, early example s
1. Micro writing was in use in WW2 and well before then. I think it was a Franz Schmitz, a WW2 Abwehr agent who was interviewed in 1948 and he spoke of using it and demonstrated it to the reporter concerned. The CIA and it's forebears released a manual relatively recently which spoke of the use of micro writing and how it could be applied to orange coloured stamps and viewed only through a rose tinted lens. (I can hear you thinking  )

2. Well before this time micro writing was in use for hundreds if not thousands of years by various religions, the Hebrew religion for example made an art of it, Micrography.

3. Whilst we are talking specifically about micro writing, invisible ink was also in use at the relative time and it would be quite possible if not very likely for a combination of the two to be used.

4. Detection methods vary from viewing it with the naked eye though more likely with a magnfying instrument of some sort. When 'invisible ink' was used, it could be detected through the aopplication of heat or low voltage electricity and then of course there were reagents including iodine vapours which had the effect of showing the writings even if they were done using water, quite common I understand. Great lengths were gone to to hide these communications. The Germans in WW2 used a 3 step process such that the hidden writing would only be revealed after 3 separate applications of a reagent each spaced at 1 hourly intervals. Sounds a lot of trouble but there was a lot at stake.

5. Recently I posted some examples of micro writing that I have done by way of example, it was in the range of .3mm to .5 mm in height. This is similar to the range that I believe was used by both the owner of the book and Jestyn.

6. I believe that it is more than likely Jestyn was being trained by ALf Boxall in the use of micro writing. He admitted to being an intelligence officer and the hotel where they met was a 10 minute walk from Army HQ. Nurses were commonly trained for enciphering tasks as per Leo Marks's suggestions. Interestingly nurses in the UK used their nurse training as a front and rarely completed or qualified in that role.

7. To the code page. If you recall it is almost 18 months or even longer since I suggested that there was writing and numbers directly on the code page itself and there were a number of examples that were shown. This progressed to finding more examples of tiny writing within the actual letters of the code. In fact when you examine the code page in detail you can see tracks of letters and numbers some of which are dubious but others quite plain to see.

8. More recently I put forward a summation which showed a relationship between the letters on the code page and the first letters of the 75 quatrains in the Omar book. This naturally moved on to just what that relationship might mean given that there were these letters and numbers inside each of the letters of the code and some within the lines and flourishes on the code page. It occured to me that perhaps the letters and numbers within the code letters bore some relationship to the letters within the quatrains that commenced with the letter of the code. That is as far as I have progressed with this aspect. What they were doing I really don't know but I suggest that the information supports the notion that this was espionage, what it was about remians to be discovered. A fairly large deciphering task I would suggest given that some letters of the code and Omar book alike repeat themselves.

9. Jestyn's meeting with AB is, in my view was an indicator of her potential involvement in the field. The book and it's poem were a training exercise and I am not sure whether there was any particular meaning to the words and letters used by her. If we could establish that as in show the same kind of relationship that I think exists between the code letters and the 75 quatrains then we would have learnt a great deal.

I make no bones about the fact that this is a difficult concept to grasp and for good reasons. A lot of people have spent a great deal of time trying to open up the code page without success but a huge effort nonetheless. It would be hard for them to ditch all of their ideas in favour of this new idea even though it does have some background in fact.

Share:

Monday 22 July 2013

WW 2 Censored Postcard Analysis

Some weeks ago I undertook to post an example of a censored postcard together with a short analysis by way of demonstrating the sorts of things that would be looked for in any incoming or outgoing mail for Australia

In this post we will look at one particular postcard and some of the aspects that could be of interest. By default we will see just how and where information or codes could be hidden.

Here's the postcard in question, it is from a Gentleman who has been on a tour of South America in 1943. From his writing style and the content it seems that he is well educated and able to afford what would be an expensive holiday especially in those times. There is another very interesting aspect to this card which we will discuss at the end of this post.




 First, let's take a look at the stamp. CIA notes, as published earlier on the blog, talk of the use of stamps, special red ink, miniature writing and a lens that would enable operatives to communicate with their HQ or controllers. The method was to write in miniature across the surface of an orange or red stamp in red of a different shade. The only way the message could be read was by using a particular colour lens. In this shot two areas have been highlighted that look to be of interest. Please take a moment to zoom in close to this image to see why.
 Here's a negative imnage of the shot above, again please take a moment and zoom in to see what if anything is to be found in the highlighted area.

Be aware that miniature writing is just that, very small and you will need to look carefully.
 This is a negative image of the central censor stamp. A number of interesting areas have been highlighted which are worth viewing. Zoom in and look at the darkened areas indicated, once more you are looking for very small details.
 Another shot of the stamp and on this image the chin area has been highlighted. An arrow points the direction of some lines on the chin that look promising.

A second highlighted area within the first shows another interesting set of lines but this time they don't run diagonally, they run left to right

Here we are looking at the address side of the postcard. It was known that agents would sometimes hide smaller letters or numbers within larger ones and thus three areas have been highlighted within specific letters that show promise. Zoom in when you're ready.

The line of dots is also of interest, this could contain a set of letters/numbers. and that's why it has been highlighted.



I did say at the beginning that there was another interesting aspect about this Postcard. I did a check on arrivals into Australia from 1920 onwards to see if the writer of the card had met up with the recipient during an earlier visit. There was no record of this person ever having made a trip to Australia that I could find.

Similarly I checked to see whether the recipient had ever left Australia which could explain how they knew each other. There was no record of the recipient ever having left Australia that I could find.

There is a need to be cautious here, there were other ways that people could get to know each other, in those days Pen Pals were common so that could be one avenue. They could have been related in some way, but again no record turned up in my brief search.

A final word or three, in this exercise we have looked at just a few of the areas on the card that were of interest, there are more and I would be very interested to hear of your findings.

Share:

Monday 10 June 2013

Somerton Man: Micro calligraphy examples


When the task is to prove that the Somerton Man was very likely involved in espionage activities of one kind or another and we have the copy of the code to work from, then one step we can take is to examine that code page in detail. As most readers are well aware, this blog has done a fair share of examintaion of the code and the 'letters' within it and in fact the micro letters that exist both on the page and within the larger letters.

It struck me that it would be a good idea to demonstrate that it is indeed possible to write extremely small letters and that they can be inserted into other letters and markings on a document.

Here are a couple of examples:

This first image is of the alphabet, the letters within it range between .25 mm and .4 mm in height.


This image is of  the Lords Prayer, again the letter size is in the same range as before and here you can see how a fair amount of information can be compressed into a small space. In this case it's the prayer but it could equally be a set of code numbers or letters for example.




Just time for this quick post, there will be more examples to come in the next few days including a classic one of a Postcard that I believe will be very interesting.

Share:

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Somerton Man: The letter C from the 'code' page updated

Some time ago in another forum,  I posted an image of the letter C which is the last letter of the fourth line in the Somerton Man code.

It has an unusual appearance with pronounced 'serifs' at both ends of the letter. It is important to remind ourselves that the shape of the C including the serifs, came about as the result of the SA Police tracing over markings that they saw on this page. There's a whole discussion yet to be had on just why the did this but that's for other posts.

Importantly these markings traced by the Police were supposedly only visible under a UV light. An interesting aspect of this is the perception held by many that what the Police saw were impressions left in the paper and that was the focus of their tracing efforts. I am happy to take advice on this but tests I have carried out using a UV light do not pick up indentations or impressions left by a sharp instrument, they do pick up any colour markings as in pencil or pen etc.

This suggests that the process followed was to firstly examine the page, identify whatever patterns they were able to see, probably use a light form of marking the lines for later recognition, photograph the whole area of the page concerned. This photograph would likely have been taken under UV light conditions. It was a photograph of the code page that was then traced over. It is also fair to say that the Police at the time may not have been able to see all of the detail that we can now see.

Back to the letter C and its earlier examination.The only image I had at the time was a low resolution one that lacked in detail. I had a basic camera without macro lens and had only minimal lighting. That resulted in an image that showed considerably less detail as you will see in this post.

I have in the last few days examined the letter C yet again but this time using a High Resolution picture of the code page, a better camera with macro lens and I also used UV lighting, the latter throwing up a lot more detail of the page itself and the nature of individual letters as you will see.

This first image is the latest version from a high resolution, 400 DPI, picture of the code page. In it I have brought in an unmarked and then marked version so that we can all see the original markings/letters/numbers highlighted. What is important here is to take a note of the groupings and overall patterns that have been formed by the markings/letters/numbers within this letter. They are highly unusual but there is another example from another copy of the Rubaiyatt some of which we have already posted. I will be posting comparison examples of other handwritten and type set letters in the next few days.




This next image was taken about 15 months ago in March 2012. It was a surprise to see the information that appeared to be within the letter C as shown. I was convinced that the 'letters' that appeared in the lower half actually spelt out JESTYN with the N being hidden within the bottom serif highlighted.

The reality is that the clusters and groupings of even smaller markings/letters/numbers as shown in the image above lay within the darker shapes.

This is the result of a low resolution, 96 DPI, image, it simply does not carry the definition or detail as per the image above which was taken from a 400 DPI version of the code page.

A lesson learnt and gladly shared and for those that I had heated discussions with on this topic I hope you can now see what actually occurred.

The analsis task ahead is a challenging one, fortunately I now have some good materails and resources to work with and will be posting regularly as things progress.
Share:

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Somerton Man: Was Jestyn an Australian Military Intelligence Agent?

The short answer is in my view 'Yes'.

There is evidence in the images below that prove she was an Australian Military Intelligence agent and that she was trained by Alf Boxall.

The images below are the first of many that have been taken that show the presence of extremely fine micro writing in her poem that she wrote for Alf Boxall. It is highly likely that when she met with Alf and his friend at the Hotel and handed over the book, it was part of her training. She was specifically trained in the skill of miniature or micro writing, the same kind of writing that we found on the so called Somerton Man or Omar code page.

The writing is very finely done and is disguised in two ways, firstly the book appears to have been printed on a special form of paper that interacted with a particular kind of pen. The pen wrote in such a way that it was relatively easy for a trained operative to deliberately hide or disguise micro letters and numbers. It's extraordinarily clever work.

There is a technique that I used to get the micro writing to show up, simple but very effective. What it does is to illuminate areas of the page that have lain hidden for nearly 70 years. Fitting in a way because the quatrain that Jestyn chose was verse 70 from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayamm.

For the record  it is not only micro writing within the letters she wrote that has been found, there will also be evidence of invisible ink usage on the page. in the next post.

What you will see here is the first time that this has been viewed by anyone since Alf Boxall handed this copy of the book over to the interviewer all those years ago.

This image is of the number 70 which Alf Boxall wrote around the time of a Television interview. The reporter was a well known invetsigative journalist and Barrister. If you look carefully you will see examples of fine micro writing in both numerals. Alongside and to the right I have marked what I believe to be a string of numbers done in invisible ink or fluid of some kind.

As always a reminder that you will need to look carefully at these, the writing is extremely fine and quite faint but once your eyes become accustomed to reading them they become relatively clear.



Here you can see examples of micro letters and numbers in just about every location. If you look carefully there are instances of micro notes, one is circled and there are at least another 6.



This is part of Jestyn's signature, it is almost entirely comprised of micro letters and numbers and some invisible ink/fluid markings where quite a few little notes have been made.



Here's the rest of Jestyn's signature, to the left you can see the top part of the letter J and there are numbers visible there. You can make out more numbers in the straight section that joins the J with the stylised letter E. Quite a few notes scattered around this example as well.



I really wasn't sure where to start with this image, there are numbers, letters and words in many locations, within the letters and in the free space surrounding them there are numerous notes areas and number strings.


Some very fine and clever examples of micro writing in this image, note the delicate way that numbers have been formed and how they blend into the letter and pen markings.


 To my knowledge it is the first time that there have been any images or copies of documents shown that present microwriting in letters and numbers accompanied by other letters and numbers surrounding them.

It presents evidence that Jestyn was very likely an Australian Agent and she may well have been field trained by Alf Boxall.

There are so many more images of this document and others to be released, it puts an entirely new complexion on the whole Somerton Man case.


 I invite you to sign the petition so we can give the Somerton Man a name and hopefully return him to wherever his homeland was.
Share:

Monday 3 June 2013

Somerton Man: The Code finally busted?

After a great deal of time and effort and a fair share of 'abysmal' successes in opening up the Somerton Man code, the time has at last arrived when I can announce that it has been opened up a lot more and there is masses of information to be had.

Here's the thing, as posted previously, the letters of the code do contain micro letters. Letters and numbers in fact and many of them. So many that sometimes the author stacked numbers on top of each other.

The appearance as you will see suggests that this stacking was part of a technique that involved the use of coloured lenses to be able to differentiate between perhaps one message and another.

Another amazing find is the existence of what at first appeared to be straight lines running down and sometimes across the page. It turns out that these in fact also contain writing and this time it looks at least at the moment as though they may be sentences. Along with these two breakthroughs comes another, there are more writings that are seen as being white against the background of the page and a lot of them. Some may be scratch marks of one form or another whilst others are definitely letters and numbers.

Here are some examples and an important note, you need to examine these closely, the writng is sub .5mm and sometimes less than .3mm in height. That plus the grey on lighter grey for the letters makes it essential that you closely examine and perhaps adjust your screen abgle to get a decent view:

This is the first letter A in line 4. You can see how the micro writing has been 'curved' around the tipof the cross stroke.










Below is another view this time showing the upright section, here you can see some 'stacking' of numbers.


This iamge os of the second A in line 4 and here you can see an overview of how many numbers and letters were crammed into the confines of this letter, you can see the individual numbers and stacking.

You can download a pdf of the full 23 images from line 4 from here

Please sign the petition so we can give this man a name and a permanent resting place:
https://www.change.org/petitions/solve-the-taman-shud-mystery-by-identifying-somerton-man


Share:

Friday 31 May 2013

Somerton Man: Did he take his own life or was he murdered?

There has been a lot of discussion on numerous blogs and groups on this subject. Did the Somerton Man die by his own hand or was there someone or some other factor involved? Our main question and focus is did he take his own life.

As you will read here, whatever other factors were involved, it seems highly unlikely that the Somerton Man took his own life.

In this post we will briefly examine the options, we will be using the assumption as per the autopsy docments and evidence given that the cause of death was heart failure and that an unnamed poison directly contributed to that heart failure.

There are 3 main options here, firstly suicide, in South Australia in 1948 140 males took their own lives.

Next there is murder and there were 18 men murdered in South Australia that year none by poisoning as far as can be ascertained to this point and other statistics are hard to find. As soon as appropriate stats are found they will be published here.

The final possibility is accidental poisoning but the figures available on that possibility are also hard to find.

One way we can get some direction is to examine the statistics on suicide by males.

The information that we have and data from the Australian bureau of Statistics state that in South Australia in 1948:
  1. The Someron Man was in the age group of 45 to 54
  2. 140 males took their own lives
  3. Of the 140 males, according to ABS stats, 10% from the defined age group of 45 to 54 took their own lives
  4. Again from ABS stats, 9% of males who took their own lives did so with a poisonous substance as opposed to poisoning by gas/ exhaust fumes
We are now venturing into probability theory. The question posed is of the 140 males who died, what is the probability of them being in the age group of 45 to 54 AND taking their lives using a poisonous substance?

The answer according to standard probability equation is .009 of the total.

The statistics used covered Australia for the period 1921 to 2004. you can download a pdf from the Australian Government website here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/Suicide

If these figures are correct, and I see no reason to doubt them at this stage, that means that the likelihood of the Somerton Man committing suicide in South Australia in 1948 and using poison to do that was highly improbable.

More work needs to be done on this topic, regular updates will be published as that work progresses.

Please feel free to comment, your input is appreciated.

As usual, please consider signing the petition below, in this way the Somerton Man can be given a name and be properly laid to rest.
https://www.change.org/petitions/solve-the-taman-shud-mystery-by-identifying-somerton-man
Share:

Monday 27 May 2013

SOMERTON MAN- Close Up Images of Code Page Micro Writing

In all there are 49 visible 'letters' of the code page that was found on the back of the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam plus a 'crossed' out line, the two central lines and at the base of the code page is what is often referred to as a 'flourish'.

The story is that the SA Police went over what they saw under a UV light in an effort to better view the 'letters' of a code.

After examining this code page possibly hundreds of times and with more than 2000 images taken of different aspect of the page, it is puzzling why most of the Micro writing found on the page is visible to the naked eye, yet apparently not seen by the Police at the time. The reason I say that is, as you will see in the images below, that the traced marks made with a felt tip/.laundry marker exactly cover the micro writing.

Did the Police know what was there and what was the real purpose of the trace marks if they did know?

Here are some more examples of micro writing from the page and this time they are of the flourish at the base of the page.

In this first image of the approximate centre of the flourish you should be able to make out horizontal writing and numbers.

The height of these letters/numbers is in the .25 to .3mm range. Very small.
The image below is of the left end of the flourish as you look at it and there are clearly numbers to be seen.


This is an image of the right hand end of the flourish as you look at it and numbers can be made out in the upper and lower sections, the upper is highlighted.


There are many more examples on this code page and they will be added to the site over the coming weeks.

The next post will be an interesting find related to the probability that the Somerton Man took his own life, there are many followers who subscribe to that theory, in the next post there will be some valuable information on that issue.

https://www.change.org/petitions/solve-the-taman-shud-mystery-by-identifying-somerton-man
Share:

Friday 17 May 2013

The Code. Was it a variant of this MI9 created code for POWs?

Recently a UK Mathematician apparently 'cracked' the code contained in some personal letters sent by a British POW to his family.

What was different about this code was that it used very ordinary letters home to carry hidden codes to British Intelligence.

Above is an image of the real heart of the code, a simple number table.

MI9 was the British Intelligence unit charged with training British officers in the use of top secret codes which they could then use in the event they were captured by the enemy. Amongst the 'kit' supplied by MI9, as described in their catalogue 'Per Ardua Libertas', was the details of the code.

A copy of that has come the way of this blog and you can download it here..

The question is was the so called 'Omar Code' a variant or derivative of the MI9 code? Is this what the numbers found on the code page and within various letters relate to?



Share:

Saturday 4 May 2013

New Image & Video of the Somerton Man

This video is an updated version of a similar one that I worked on a about 18 months ago the major difference being I used the latest profile image that was posted here: http://tamamshud.blogspot.com.au/2013_02_01_archive.html

The 3D image was created from 2 X 2D images being the profile and a reconstruction of the mans full face picture taken just after the autopsy.

The hope is that everyone who sees this clip will promote and distribute it amongst their friends and eventually who knows someone may recognise him.

Here's the clip and after you have watched it would you please consider signing the petition so that the Somerton Man can be identified by his DNA.



https://www.change.org/petitions/solve-the-taman-shud-mystery-by-identifying-somerton-man
Share:

Friday 3 May 2013

More Somerton Man Code Micro Writing Revealed



There has been quite a break in blogging activities due to a number of projects piling up and that really had to be completed. The desk is now almost clear and so here's a post and some images of the Somerton Man Code.

The images were taken over a period of time and show number sets and that had been written directly onto the code page itself. They have been particularly difficult to reveal being extremely small and in what appears to be a light grey colour, possibly a very fine sharpened pencil.

it is important to note that these images have not been modified or altered in any way, they are simply close up images using a macro lens and either directed lighting or daylight.

This first image shows the top of the letter 'B' in the 4th line of the code, if you look carefully you should be able to see a set of numbers written in miniature. Numbers and letters appear in every larger  'letter' of the code.

 

In this image below from the second, so called 'crossed out' line, numbers and letters have been highlighted. If you look carefully at these images you will other instances of micro writings.



The following images are of line 4 and 5 of the code, alongside the letter A there are some numbers and a letter which appear to be in negative. Beneath it and to the leftyou will see the top of the letter T you may make out some micro letters.




There are many more of these images found throughout the code page and within the letters of the code. In the next post we will look at examples of micro writing in the .3 to 5mm height range as per the images above.
Share:

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Somerton Man, A Reconstructed Image of Somerton Man



Following a number of emails and discussions with some friends about the last post, (the Somerton Man image), I have done some work on reconstructing a new profile image which may bear a better resemblance to how he may have looked just prior to his death.

If you are well connected on Facebook or LinkedIn then please feel free to distribute this image as widely as you can. Remember this was how he may have looked in 1948 so people will have to think about relatives or friends of their family who went missing about that time.

Here's some words that may be suitable to put with this image:

'This is a reconstructed image of the Somerton Man, he was found on the Beach in Somerton South Australia in December 1948. He was never identified and  lies in a grave marked 'Unknown Man' in Adelaide, South Australia. If you have a photo of someone from the past who resembles this man or you know someone who does, please contact gordon332@gmail.com. We would like to give him a name and return him to his family.'

Share:

Monday 25 February 2013

Somerton Man, Was his Picture Real or Was it Faked?



 THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH A NEW IMAGE DISCOVERED:

There were a number of images of the Somerton Man distributed after his death, in fact, to be more precise, the pictures were taken after his autopsy.


In this post the focus is on the official image distributed by SA Police at the time. I am putting the following images forward for everyone's consideration and review. I will start by saying that there is something amiss with this Police image:

At this point if you could take a close look at the profile in the headline and then let's move on to this next shot.

This image simply corrects the positioning so that we are now seeing a vertical version plus, I have increased the size of the image so that we can see the individual pixels. Look more carefully now at the side of the cheek between the lower lobe of the ear and a mid point on the chin, you should see an almost straight line that connects the two points, we will see more of that shortly.



In this next image I have marked up the areas of interest and they show a number of points worth considering.

Firstly, and with apologies for the gory aspects, the circled area at the hairline shows where the skull cap has slipped back after the autopsy.

Next there are a series of X's that commence from just beneath the circle and then progress down past the front of the ear and then in an almost straight line along the jaw to a point central to the chin. just join the X's to see what I mean.







Now here's a comparison image showing the marked and unmarked versions alongside each other:

The idea here is to illustrate clearly how the line appears on the forehead and then progresses down to the ear, across the front of the ear and then directly down to the centre of the chin.

Notice also that the neck and forehead show wrinkles and signs of age but both stop abruptly at the line highlighted. This suggests to me that this image has been altered and that it is quite possible that what we see here is a young face superimposed on an older head.

I must stress that I have not interfered with or altered this image in any way apart from increasing it's size.


So, how could this have been done given that in the 1940's the smart tools and software we have today did not exist? A simple answer is that skilled photographers could create a 'Montage' by cropping images and then manipulating the cropped parts to achieve the desired results.

Below is how this 'montage' effect can be achieved today.

In this image I have cropped the area that has been outlined so that only that area is visible.

As you can see it's a much smaller image of the Somerton Man's face and again in my view it seems to show quite a 'young' looking face.

Next, here's a head shot of a man taken in the 1930's, this man has nothing to do with the case as far as I know.






What we will do now is to 'superimpose' the Somerton Man's face shown above onto this man's head structure.

To do this I used Gimp and some simple tools that it has including, 'move', 'rotate' and 'smudge'.





Here's the resultant 'superimposed' image, I have deliberately left the original texture and shading on the Somerton Man face portion as this is purely an example image.

It is quite possible to match the colours and shades and then blend the two images together.

Is it possible that the lines we can see were caused by the application of Morticians wax, a common practice to improve the appearance of a corpse/ If that were the case, why did it stop in a straight line, from what I understand such 'wax' was applied much like make up and was meant to provide a smooth all round finish.


The question is clear, is the image of the Somerton Man as distributed by the SA Police in 1948 a genuine untouched image or was it altered by using the 'Montage' effect and a younger face included that replaced the real facial image of the Somerton Man? If that were to be the case it would certainly help to explain why nobody has been able to identify him in the 64 years since his death.

Another major aspect of the case to be questioned and yet another reason for the exhumation of his remains.

Please take the time and sign up to the petition calling for that to occur right here:

Share:

ABOUT US and OUR RECORD

Learn more about, when the blog started our location plus a long list of 'finds' and new evidence discovered by this blog