Of the six questions — who, what, when, where, how and why — we
only know three when it comes to the mystery of "The Somerton
Man." What and where: a middle-aged man found dead on Somerton
Beach, which borders the Adelaide, Australia, suburb of Glenelg.
When: he was found by passersby at 6:30 a.m. on December 1, 1948.
As for the remaining questions, authorities, academics, authors,
Australians and curious citizens the world over have been seeking
answers ever since. The mundane yet mysterious items found on his
person and in an unclaimed suitcase (thought to be his) at the
Adelaide railway station would yield few clues and many more
questions. He had no wallet or identification, and all the tags
on his clothing were meticulously removed. Investigators had
virtually nothing to go on, except for one intriguing thing: a
scrap of paper torn from the last page of a first edition
translation of eleventh-century poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar
Kayyam, which was found rolled up in the man's watch pocket. On
it were the words, "Tamám Shud," meaning "ended" or "finished" in
Persian, and giving this mystery its other renowned moniker: "The
Tamám Shud Case." When the book from which the page was torn
surfaced some time later, there appeared to be an unbreakable
coded message written on one of the last pages. Further adding to
the mystery, there was the assessment by a senior pathologist
that the victim most likely died from an untraceable poison.
Whether "The Somerton Man" was just a napping tourist with a
degenerative disease, a jilted lover out to end it all, or a Cold
War spy whose mission had been terminated, we may never
know.
This is Part 1 of our our 3 Part in-depth series on The Somerton
Man
Tonight's Quote: 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither
moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet
lays.
A selected quatrain from Edward Fitzgerald’s 1st
edition translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Show Links:
We've found that some sites are not showing these links as
clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve
their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to
the clickable description of each link to make things easier for
our listeners!
For more information on this episode visit our website!
The Dark Myths Collective! http://darkmyths.org
SIGN THIS PETITION FOR EXHUMATION OF THE SOMERTON MAN SO HE CAN
BE PROPERLY LAID TO REST! http://bit.do/somerton
One of the better of MANY websites devoted to the case
http://bit.ly/1UEn83I A HuffPo Article on the case by Professor
Abbott who's interview will be heard in Part 2!
http://huff.to/1ID8nqM Another solid article at Phys.org about
the case that discusses DNA findings http://bit.ly/1KDq8qj Much
of Professor Abbott's collected knowledge on the Case
http://bit.ly/1pOYPVf Audio Book versions of The Rubaiyat of Omar
Khayyam http://bit.ly/1pOZ42P There are many more links to come,
but we are saving some for the other parts of the series
http://bit.ly/1R2hTZi
Credits: Episode 033 - "The Somerton Man" Produced by Scott
Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design;
Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of
Astonishing Researchers. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest
Burgess 2016. All Rights Reserved.
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