Crime in the early 40’s-70’s was much different than crime today. With little to no DNA and forensic tools to investigate, as well as being under staffed and under educated, law enforcement fought against the birth of the “serial killer”, increases of gang violence, and saw the birth of criminal profiling. The lack of understanding of genetic evidence led to the failure of countless cases, and the basis for our exploration into some of the most notorious cold cases. For the first case outside of American borders, one of Australia’s “most profound mysteries” was to be found ashore in early December.

The Somerton Man. 1948. “Tamam Shud / Somerton Man,” by Nick Pelling, Jan. 2014. Cipher Mysteries.

1948: On Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia, a man’s body was found. He was lying back with his head resting against the seawall, his legs extended and his feet crossed. Believed to have died while sleeping, an unlit cigarette was on the right collar of his coat, and a search of his pockets revealed an unused second-class train ticket from Adelaide to Henley Beach, a narrow aluminium American comb, a half-empty packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, a cigarette packet, and a small box of matches.

He had no ID, and all the labels on his clothing had been removed. He wore a suit, and polished dress shoes, suggesting that he was well-off; a businessman who found himself far from where he was dressed to be. Tucked into a small pocket in the dead man’s pants was a small scrap of printed paper that had been ripped out of a book: it contained the Persian phrase Tamam Shud (i.e. “It Is Ended”, or “The End”). Authorities were able to trace the torn page back to the book from which it originated: a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (a Persian book of poetry). In the back of the torn copy of The Rubaiyat lied a series of letters scribbled on the back cover, appearing to be code or a cipher. Military experts were unable to crack the code, and it remains undeciphered to this day.

Tamam Uhud. 1948. “Tamam Shud / Somerton Man,” by Nick Pelling, Jan. 2014. Cipher Mysteries.

The autopsy revealed very little; doctors believe he died of a heart attack, but poison was never ruled out due to the significant amount of internal bleeding and strange circumstances surrounding his death. However, zero traces of a poisonous substance were found, and no other findings were released.

Along with the cipher on the back of The Rubaiyat investigators found a hidden phone number which led them to a young nurse named Jessica ‘Jo’ Thomson. While being questioned, she claimed to have no knowledge of the man or The Rubaiyat, but investigators noted her strange reaction as she was shown photos of the man’s corpse. She was “…completely taken aback, to the point of giving the appearance that she was about to faint”. After further questioning, she admitted to being given a copy of the Rubaiyat by a man called Alfred Boxall, who she had met at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in Sydney in 1944 while she was training to be a nurse at the nearby Royal North Shore Hospital. Yet, the lead swiftly disappeared as Boxall quickly proved to be very much alive and living in Maroubra (thus not the dead man found on the beach). From then, the case went cold.

2007: Derek Abbott, a professor at the University of Adelaide decided to conduct his own investigation on the case, and came up with stunning findings. According to Abbott, Thomson had an illegitimate child with the Somerton Man before he died. When Abbott found an old photograph of Thomson’s son Robin, he noticed that the boy shared some distinguishing features with the Somerton Man: Both had canines positioned right next to their front teeth, and the upper hollows in their ears were larger than the lower hollows. Both of these features are related to heredity and only appear in 1 percent or less of the population, leading him to believe that is much more than a coincidence and that she knew much more than she disclosed. Just to make matters more complicated, Abbott married Rachel Egan, Jo Thomson’s biological granddaughter, after getting to know her during his investigation. If his theories are correct, the three children he now has with Egan are the great-grandchildren of the Somerton Man.

2013: Adding to Abbott’s theory, Thomson’s daughter Kate revealed on Australia’s 60 Minutes that her mother had told her long ago that she indeed did know more about the Somerton Man, but had not revealed anything to police in order to keep her children safe. She also revealed that her mother was able to speak Russian, and suggested that her mother may have been involved in some spy-related activity.

Both Thomson and Abbott’s claims are accompanied by plenty of scrutiny from fellow investigators and researchers. The only thing that remains certain is that the well-dressed man found on Somerton Beach will continue to be a John Doe, one who is surrounded with ciphers and complicated coding, and a story much deeper than the one we know of now.

As always, the BuzzFeed video delving more in depth with details and theories is listed here for further reading. Best of luck, until next time.