Unsolved Taman Shud Case - The Somerton Man

Gordon1552

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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.

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Agree with that, there was an older Tom Keane who was the head of a Sales type professional organisation in Adelaide? Anyway, he had died earlier in 48. That could be a source of the clothing. It was common practice for the clothes of servicemen who did not return to be donated to charities in which case I would think any names would have been torn out but the question is why the manufacturer's labels? Part of that answer could be that there were numerous salespeople on the road selling their wares to shops and other retail outlets. These men would sometimes sell their old demo stock but would remove the manufacturer's labels before doing so. regards the servicemen's clothing, that would apply to US servicemen and therefore US-made garments.
 

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Agree with that, there was an older Tom Keane who was the head of a Sales type professional organisation in Adelaide? Anyway, he had died earlier in 48. That could be a source of the clothing. It was common practice for the clothes of servicemen who did not return to be donated to charities in which case I would think any names would have been torn out but the question is why the manufacturer's labels? Part of that answer could be that there were numerous salespeople on the road selling their wares to shops and other retail outlets. These men would sometimes sell their old demo stock but would remove the manufacturer's labels before doing so. regards the servicemen's clothing, that would apply to US servicemen and therefore US-made garments.
Finding the provenance of the items marked T Keane would've been potentially useful to the police, but for all the publicity there was no one as far as I know coming forward to say that they once owned them. This raises a number of possibilities itself.
The Thomas Ambrose Keane from the Newport Workshops might have know the SM and the intent of the trip to Adelaide for instance. If it's the same Thomas Ambrose Keane who has an Intelligence file for being involved in communist activities with the EYL in Queensland during the war, and he knew SM, Then the possibilities become "Interesting".
The most likely places for TAK and SM to become acquainted is through, the Newport Workshops, the Catholic church, boy scouts or school (old chum), or the Newport Tennis Club or Cricket Club where T Keane was a very active member.
SM had stencilling gear. Maybe he put the numbers on the rail wagons after they were built or repainted.
I'd like to find a list of old employees of Newport Workshops. Especially the carriage building shop and the paint shop.

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Employee cards, Newport Workshops 1948 to 1971

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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.
Interestingly that this sort of information based a property address or a name is available to public in WA. Also real estate agents have the information on sales history of a property and ussually this is published when the house is for sale.

90 A was for sale although looked like it didn't sell. It's still on Realestate.com but historical real estate transactions unavailable.


1 bed, 1 bath. It's got 4 pictures looking like a fairly original condition.
 

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Employee cards, Newport Workshops 1948 to 1971

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Minutes 1940-1960; secretary's notebook 1947-1957; correspondence 1946-1962; Newport Workshops Youth Committee 1954; regulations for the management of Trades Hall Council, melbourne 1940; A.R.U. transfer docket book; Australasian Book Society enrolment forms.

112492 Fonds: [1979.0181] "NEWPORT RAILWAY WORKSHOPS COMBINED UNIONS SHOP COMMITTEE"


Available at University of Melbourne Archives

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Gordon1552

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

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OK, Clive is on to the land registry and he believes we can find some records, may take a day or so, in the meantime he has sent me the following to be shared with you:

Per TROVE, "Advertiser" 17 Jul 1946 Page 15, Elder's Trustees were
holding an auction on 30 Jul 1946, on behalf of the estate of the late
Mr R.E. Allen for the properties/land at 90, 90 a & b Moseley Street and
various other properties/land in Somerton Park.

Just been looking at Sands & McDougall registers. Apparently, this
section of Moseley Street was in the suburb of 'New Glenelg'.

In 1947 a H.A. Lyndan is noted at 90a Moseley Street. (We know that
Prosper was living at this address by October 1947). H.A. Lyndan could
have been the previous tenant?

In 1948, an A.Ross is noted at this address, since Thomson was still at
this address, it's possible that A. Ross was the owner/landlord?


Not so good on the car registration front. All records pre-1960 no longer exist at least not formally. You'd have to think that somewhere out there in researcher land even back then, someone would have found a way of getting a copy? Maybe a start would be through the numerous local historical associations? I know Glenelg has an active one but not sure about a broader South Australian society?
 

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OK, Clive is on to the land registry and he believes we can find some records, may take a day or so, in the meantime he has sent me the following to be shared with you:

Per TROVE, "Advertiser" 17 Jul 1946 Page 15, Elder's Trustees were
holding an auction on 30 Jul 1946, on behalf of the estate of the late
Mr R.E. Allen for the properties/land at 90, 90 a & b Moseley Street and
various other properties/land in Somerton Park.

Just been looking at Sands & McDougall registers. Apparently, this
section of Moseley Street was in the suburb of 'New Glenelg'.

In 1947 a H.A. Lyndan is noted at 90a Moseley Street. (We know that
Prosper was living at this address by October 1947). H.A. Lyndan could
have been the previous tenant?

In 1948, an A.Ross is noted at this address, since Thomson was still at
this address, it's possible that A. Ross was the owner/landlord?


Not so good on the car registration front. All records pre-1960 no longer exist at least not formally. You'd have to think that somewhere out there in researcher land even back then, someone would have found a way of getting a copy? Maybe a start would be through the numerous local historical associations? I know Glenelg has an active one but not sure about a broader South Australian society?
I note that a John Lachlan (Jack) Ross died in 1951 at his residence 50 Broadway South Glenelg, his son, Ernest John Ross died in 1974, presumably A Ross is his son.


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I note that a John Lachlan (Jack) Ross died in 1951 at his residence 50 Broadway South Glenelg, his son, Ernest John Ross died in 1974, presumably A Ross is his son.


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A Professor Alexander David Ross worked on Defence Projects. He had a relationship to secret government work. Here's a picture of him in 1954.
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Might be worth going over this again..
Transcripts and working notes:
The Somerton Beach Story Stuart Littlemore 1978
Inside Story
Part 1 http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=7937871
Part 2

Take with a grain of salt as opinions expressed might be wrong and memory of events might be faulty given the length of time and the personal perceptions, prejudices and preconcieved biases of the interviewees

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Might be worth going over this again..
Transcripts and working notes:
The Somerton Beach Story Stuart Littlemore 1978
Inside Story
Part 1 http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=7937871
Part 2

Take with a grain of salt as opinions expressed might be wrong and memory of events might be faulty given the length of time and the personal perceptions, prejudices and preconcieved biases of the interviewees
71 years today an unknown man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide.

I've looked at part 1 and they seem to have done some in depth research in some of the areas of the case.

They have a letter from Len Brown one of the original detectives, who congratulates the production and says "Ät present the office is agog at the very commendable 'journalistic' twist of a spy link - very well done. Sounds like he agrees with this direction the programme goes in.

It's Len Brown who shows Littlemore the suitcase of SM and it's contents in the docu before it is supposedly destroyed. Not sure that happens when the case is still open?

They traced the other army officer Alf Boxall said was at Clifton Gardens in a gathering before he says Jo Harness gave him the copy of the Rubyaiat. His name was TE Musgrave and they research information about him and his army service.

They try to find the other nurse Boxall says was with them at the first meeting, but found no record of her or "Jestyn"registered as nurse trainees at the North Shore hospital. However Jo Harkness wasn't known as Jestyn and wasn't registered there in that name. Littlemore at that stage did not know her real name.

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Comment on he doesn't seem to have been vaccinated, no mark on upper arm.
Check with Dept of Immigration on vaccination. For immigrants arriving by ship vaccination was not compulsory.

FOR ARMY. EVERYONE without exception had Typhoid, Smallpox and Tetanus.

Not in Australian army, but could have been in another countries army that didn't vaccinate? Or an immigrant that didn't go to war?
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Gordon1552

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71 years today an unknown man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide.

I've looked at part 1 and they seem to have done some in depth research in some of the areas of the case.

They have a letter from Len Brown one of the original detectives, who congratulates the production and says "Ät present the office is agog at the very commendable 'journalistic' twist of a spy link - very well done. Sounds like he agrees with this direction the programme goes in.

It's Len Brown who shows Littlemore the suitcase of SM and it's contents in the docu before it is supposedly destroyed. Not sure that happens when the case is still open?

They traced the other army officer Alf Boxall said was at Clifton Gardens in a gathering before he says Jo Harness gave him the copy of the Rubyaiat. His name was TE Musgrave and they research information about him and his army service.

They try to find the other nurse Boxall says was with them at the first meeting, but found no record of her or "Jestyn"registered as nurse trainees at the North Shore hospital. However Jo Harkness wasn't known as Jestyn and wasn't registered there in that name. Littlemore at that stage did not know her real name.

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There were a number of training units that recruited young nurses as code breakers, a technique picked up from Mr. Marks in MI6. I heard from Professor Abbott that Jess didn't complete her training at RNSH when she was there but did some years later in Adelaide. Jess's name appears on the list of nurses on the RNSH course.
 
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There were a number of training units that recruited young nurses as code breakers, a technique picked up from Mr. Marks in MI6. I heard from Professor Abbott that Jess didn't complete her training at RNSH when she was there but did some years later in Adelaide. Jess's name appears on the list of nurses on the RNSH course.
Jo or Jessica Harkness's name?
 
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These notes on the 1978 Stuart Littlemore documentary was a good find by Redacted. Not only did they get vision of the suitcase and its contents they interviewed as many as possible of the people involved at the time and they researched many avenues of information.

There is a written record of what was included in Lionel Leane interview which didn't make the final cut I don't think.

Det Sgt Leane describes finding a hypodermic syringe close to where SM was found. The police took it into evidence and Leane thinks it was used by the unknown man in a few strange theories he has. However he repeats that he found a hypodermic syringe and police have (had?) it a few times.

Interesting that Ira Harvey who said the man stayed at the hotel she worked at, had what looked like a hypodermic syringe in a black case in his room.

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Actually the Inside Story documents on NAA were brought to my attention via a 7 year old post by BDeveson on the Smithsonian site. I've been wading through both volumes. I note that police thought that he was Eastern European, long before Ira Harvey came forward, but the ticket seller didn't say anything about an accent. Also interesting is that he was seen to wait for the train, watch people board it, watch it leave, and then left the station to board the bus. Police opinioned that this action demonstrated classic spy craft behaviour. Today we call it OPSEC.

However, any former boy scout who read Baden Powell's book on spying which was fairly popular would also know about this little trick anyhow. And if so the connection to T A Keane, the former boy scout, former Army cadet, possible EYL member, and definitely a communist ARU member at Newport Workshops can't be ruled out as yet.

One thing I did note from my couple of years working at the Newport work shops in the early 80's was the multicultural workforce. There were many Greeks, Russians, Maltese etc. So SM could've been both Eastern European and Australian. As noted earlier, white Russians had migrated to Australia long before the war. How he became acquainted with T A Keane has a myriad of possibilities.

However, there's another possibility, that I need time to explore, that's related to a multinational organisation that moved people around the world, and they weren't soldiers. Time might tell.

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Is there a database of defrocked Roman Catholic clergy, padres or novice priests from the 1940's? Just going on a hunch.

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