Unsolved Taman Shud Case - The Somerton Man

[Redacted]

Jessica apparently spoke Russian, and might've had a Jewish ancestry. Did the Harkness family adopt her as a refugee child?

Has anyone read Brother Fish, by Bryce Courtney?

If so, you might have some idea of the large number of white Russians that migrated to Australia in the 30's. These were people that once fled to Harbin in China during the Russian civil war. In the 1930s many fled China for Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Australia. Indeed, some of my school classmates were grandchildren of Tsarist Army officers, other White Russian refugees and Russian Jews, originating from Harbin.

Many of the White Russian refugees had contracted malaria in China

Remembering the White Russians - Australian National Maritime Museum

The October Revolution in Russia, which occurred 100 years ago today on 7 November 1917 (or 25 October in the old Julian calendar), would lead to the exodus of the refugees known as White Russians or white émigrés.

www.sea.museum

How White Russian refugee crisis unfolded in China a century ago

Spring 1917 saw the start of the tsarist elite’s flight from the Bolsheviks, a journey which for some ended in Hong Kong as late as the 1980s; descendants recall parents’ suffering and the flowering of city’s White Russian community

www.scmp.com

Chinese City of Harbin Still Home for Russians, Poles : Few Emigres Left in Paris of the Far East

It was a Polish holiday, and Edward Stokalski, 68, had invited a few of his Russian friends over for dinner.

www.latimes.com

Ghost town: searching for remnants of Russia in the Chinese city of Harbin

The city of Harbin in north-eastern China was once a thriving, cosmopolitan centre for Russian culture. Jacob Dreyer went there in search of this…

www.calvertjournal.com

As for the deceased found upon Somerton Beach in Adelaide, he had American clothes and a link to America in a hair DNA sample. Yet a witness said he spoke with an eastern European accent? Maybe part or all of this evidence is unreliable, but for the shake of it, I'll go down this rabbit hole.

So was he of mixed descent?

Russian communities in Alaska, California, and Hawaii in the 1800's》

Tracing Alaska's Russian Heritage

From onion domes to tsarist-era Russian dialects, evidence of the Russian colonialism remains

www.smithsonianmag.com

Russian colonization of North America - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

American communities in Soviet Union 1930's

Inequality in the U.S. was so bad, thousands of American women moved to Soviet Russia

They went looking for the ‘the freedom their souls craved’

timeline.com

The Forsaken: Americans in Stalin's gulags

www.telegraph.co.uk

An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia

LootedArt.com

www.lootedart.com

Americans baseball team in Gorky Park, Moscow, 1934

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

I wonder if Violetta Bovt ever trained for the ballet under a US emigree to the USSR?

Violetta Bovt - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

On the issue of 40s fashion for men. This image is of a Russian spy, Mark Zborowski 'Etienne' he was believed to be behind the assassination of more than one Russian defector or Trotskyist. Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zborowski
Note the attire:
View attachment 778032

I can't find a picture of Viktor Vasilievich Bogomolets. Can you find one?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

I can't find a picture of Viktor Vasilievich Bogomolets. Can you find one?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Nope, here's a link with Venona cover names, some errors, no sign of your friend in there but this was strictly Venona US: http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html

 

[Redacted]

Nope, here's a link with Venona cover names, some errors, no sign of your friend in there but this was strictly Venona US: http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html

He might be a fake. Putin asserted something, and then a Russian book came out by SVR Major-General Lev Sotskov furthering those assertions. MI6 haven't confirmed any of it as true.
Bogomolets, the assertion goes defected to the USSR in 1945, but that's where the story disappears and no confirmation of his existence beyond that event is asserted.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

He might be a fake. Putin asserted something, and then a Russian book came out by SVR Major-General Lev Sotskov furthering those assertions. MI6 haven't confirmed any of it as true.
Bogomolets, the assertion goes defected to the USSR in 1945, but that's where the story disappears and no confirmation of his existence beyond that event is asserted.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Did you try Vassiliev's notebooks: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/86/vassiliev-notebooks Fair bit of information and relatively up to date

 

[Redacted]

Did you try Vassiliev's notebooks: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/86/vassiliev-notebooks Fair bit of information and relatively up to date

Apparently he was mentioned by Walter Germanovich Krivitsky. But whether it fits the timeline, of his apparent realisation that he was being duped by the Soviets and quit MI6 is debatable. So is the claim of his apparent defection. I doubt that the Soviets would've hired him. They'd suspect him as an MI6 plant, and send him to the gulags IMO. There's something fishy about this tale.
I'd like to know his age, and see a picture before I rule him out though.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

I can't find a picture of Viktor Vasilievich Bogomolets. Can you find one?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

This is the only mention of Bogomolets previous to his recruitment into MI6, and it ain't a pretty one..

Yanks In Siberia

SENT ON A HOPELESSLY VAGUE ASSIGNMENT BY WOODROW WILSON, AMERICAN SOLDIERS FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE MIDDLE OF A FEROCIOUS SQUABBLE AMONG BOLSHEVIKS, COSSACKS, CZECHS, JAPANESE, AND OTHERS

www.americanheritage.com

But at least it should make him too old to be Somerton Man.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

This is the only mention of Bogomolets previous to his recruitment into MI6, and it ain't a pretty one..

Yanks In Siberia

SENT ON A HOPELESSLY VAGUE ASSIGNMENT BY WOODROW WILSON, AMERICAN SOLDIERS FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE MIDDLE OF A FEROCIOUS SQUABBLE AMONG BOLSHEVIKS, COSSACKS, CZECHS, JAPANESE, AND OTHERS

www.americanheritage.com

But at least it should make him too old to be Somerton Man.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Viktor Bogomolets was born in 1895. Date of death unknown. Rumoured to of disappeared in Paris after WW2

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[BlueE]

On the issue of 40s fashion for men. This image is of a Russian spy, Mark Zborowski 'Etienne' he was believed to be behind the assassination of more than one Russian defector or Trotskyist. Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zborowski
Note the attire:
View attachment 778032

If we are just talking men's fashion in the 40s and not spies who couldn't have been involved as the SM (which have their own thread ), then I have never seen one photo a a man fro that era wearing a white tie! Not even dress naval uniforms which were white, had white ties.

Makes me think that the white tie in suitcase was a plant and the name was Kean jr. It's what could have been worn with a holy communion suit for boys.

 

[Redacted]

If we are just talking men's fashion in the 40s and not spies who couldn't have been involved as the SM (which have their own thread ), then I have never seen one photo a a man fro that era wearing a white tie! Not even dress naval uniforms which were white, had white ties.

Makes me think that the white tie in suitcase was a plant and the name was Kean jr. It's what could have been worn with a holy communion suit for boys.

Hollywood loved them
16 Sep 1945 - WHITE TIE & TAILS AT VICTORY BALL - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248026026

Communists hated them
11 Nov 1945 - White Tie Blacklisted - Truth (Sydney, NSW) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169361425

And tailors couldn't make them
09 Sep 1945 - WHITE TIE AND TAILS— BUT NOT HERE JUST YET - Sunday Times (Perth, WA) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59338820

The white tie.
Symbol of the leisured classes, who attended Opera, Ballet, and Gala Balls.
And everyone wanted to be rich enough to be that.
Snobs were born with it.
The Noveu Riches bought theirs.
And some didn't care whether they got there via legitimate means or criminal enterprise.

White Tie Dress Code | Debrett's

Find out what white tie dress code means. White tie is also referred to as: 'full dress', 'full evening dress' or, more informally, 'tails'.

www.debretts.com

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

One thing that bugs me.
Phone numbers didn't move with people. At least not outside of an exchange area. Certainly not interstate. It i s impossible that Jessica's phone number could've been written on the book before she moved to Adelaide, unless she lived in the house before and knew that she'd be moving back there.
Who did the house in Moseley St Glenelg belong to over the preceeding years before she moved in?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Has anyone done a historic title search on https://www.sailis.sa.gov.au for the property owners in 1948 already?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

Has anyone done a historic title search on https://www.sailis.sa.gov.au for the property owners in 1948 already?

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

I have a mapped list of properties but only in and around Mosely street at the time. I have a few telephone books that I can link you to, large files.

 

[Redacted]

I have a mapped list of properties but only in and around Mosely street at the time. I have a few telephone books that I can link you to, large files.

Thanks, I'd be interested in the telephone books.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

Thanks, I'd be interested in the telephone books.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Clive has some information on previous owners of 90 A, any good for you?

 

[Gordon1552]

Thanks, I'd be interested in the telephone books.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Correction, its the full street directory with names not telephone numbers in this one, huge file. 1.3 gig so I am going to compress it. In fact there is a 1947 and 1948 directory. May take a little while!

Here's the 1947 street directory, compressed down I hope:

 

[Redacted]

Clive has some information on previous owners of 90 A, any good for you?

Yes, perfect .. exactly what I'll need to follow up a peculiar coincidence to see if there's any substance to link it to this case.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

Yes, perfect .. exactly what I'll need to follow up a peculiar coincidence to see if there's any substance to link it to this case.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

From Clive:
"The Advertiser" 17 July 1946 Page 15 was advertising Lot 2
Moseley Street=90, 90A & 90B for auction on 30 July 1946.

1946: Not sure where Thomson was, but early part of 1947 he was living
at 7 Main St, Henley Beach.

From about March to July 1947 he was living at "Robinvale", Alta Mira
Cres, Belair

By October 1947 he/she were living at 90A Moseley St (Advert "The
Advertiser" 18 Oct 1947 Page 20).

 

[Redacted]

From Clive:
"The Advertiser" 17 July 1946 Page 15 was advertising Lot 2
Moseley Street=90, 90A & 90B for auction on 30 July 1946.

1946: Not sure where Thomson was, but early part of 1947 he was living
at 7 Main St, Henley Beach.

From about March to July 1947 he was living at "Robinvale", Alta Mira
Cres, Belair

By October 1947 he/she were living at 90A Moseley St (Advert "The
Advertiser" 18 Oct 1947 Page 20).

The Estate of R E Allen sold it to whom?

View attachment nla.news-page2627038.pdf

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[BlueE]

Hollywood loved them
16 Sep 1945 - WHITE TIE & TAILS AT VICTORY BALL - The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248026026

Communists hated them
11 Nov 1945 - White Tie Blacklisted - Truth (Sydney, NSW) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169361425

And tailors couldn't make them
09 Sep 1945 - WHITE TIE AND TAILS— BUT NOT HERE JUST YET - Sunday Times (Perth, WA) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59338820

The white tie.

White Tie Dress Code | Debrett's

Find out what white tie dress code means. White tie is also referred to as: 'full dress', 'full evening dress' or, more informally, 'tails'.

www.debretts.com

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Interesting but white tie referred to a thin white hand tied marcello bow tie. Looked ot be made of silk. The KEANE or KEANjr tie was a standard tie and looked to be made of coarse woven fabric. Still looks like a boys white tie corn for confirmation to me.

 

[BlueE]

The Estate of R E Allen sold it to whom?

View attachment 783734

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

I give up. Who?

Serious question. Does SA have a Landgate equivalent that can give property ownership details that go back until 1948? What is the equivalent to find car registration details?

 

[BlueE]

I've mostly left eh code alone to the code breakers but have a couple of suggestions.
1. Others have mentioned acronyms. Were these mentioned?


2. EGO game described by mycroft with initials of people involved - family like father, mother etc setting up the game to be playeed.

3. If Robin is the son of the unknown man and he is important for who he is it could be a type of DNA profile. Possible example below.

 

[Redacted]

Interesting but white tie referred to a thin white hand tied marcello bow tie. Looked ot be made of silk. The KEANE or KEANjr tie was a standard tie and looked to be made of coarse woven fabric. Still looks like a boys white tie corn for confirmation to me.

It could be possible that these items were second hand, picked up from a church sale. Maybe for the purpose of gifting to a mother of a child for a confirmation or such like yet to come up. Interestingly, a Thomas Ambrose Keane of Williamstown Victoria was, as a youth living with his uncle and aunt, who were heavily involved in the local Catholic church and school, even running fetes, carnivals, and selling brick a bat at stalls. The younger Thomas Ambrose Keane was involved in the Catholic boy scouts, and his uncle, also named Thomas Keane was personally known to Brian Mannix. All previously mentioned upon this thread. I think that looking for SM amongst the acquaintances of this family may be worthwhile. It appears also that this Thomas Ambrose Keane of Williamstown became a communist whilst working at Newport Workshops in the 30's. Possibly he is also the Thomas Ambrose Keane who has an ASIO file from Queensland, but if he is, Then he made his way back to Williamstown after the war.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

I give up. Who?

Serious question. Does SA have a Landgate equivalent that can give property ownership details that go back until 1948? What is the equivalent to find car registration details?

They do have a historical search, but based upon name, not property. It looks really complicated, and expensive.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Redacted]

It could be possible that these items were second hand, picked up from a church sale. Maybe for the purpose of gifting to a mother of a child for a confirmation or such like yet to come up. Interestingly, a Thomas Ambrose Keane of Williamstown Victoria was, as a youth living with his uncle and aunt, who were heavily involved in the local Catholic church and school, even running fetes, carnivals, and selling brick a bat at stalls. The younger Thomas Ambrose Keane was involved in the Catholic boy scouts, and his uncle, also named Thomas Keane was personally known to Brian Mannix. All previously mentioned upon this thread. I think that looking for SM amongst the acquaintances of this family may be worthwhile. It appears also that this Thomas Ambrose Keane of Williamstown became a communist whilst working at Newport Workshops in the 30's. Possibly he is also the Thomas Ambrose Keane who has an ASIO file from Queensland, but if he is, Then he made his way back to Williamstown after the war.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

In other words, whilst Thomas Ambrose Keane of Williamstown Victoria is not the SM, it might be that the SM had some of his stuff.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

 

[Gordon1552]

I give up. Who?

Serious question. Does SA have a Landgate equivalent that can give property ownership details that go back until 1948? What is the equivalent to find car registration details?

I believe there is a land registry in SA, will pass that on to Clive. I wouldn't hold out too much hope on the car records though. Still we can give it a shot.