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[Music] on the first of December 1948 the body of a man was located along the seawall
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of Somerton Beach just near Adelaide in South Australia at first the case received very little media attention and
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the police thought it was a pretty straightforward matter a natural death on the beach no big deal just had to ID
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the body and it would all be over but as the weeks and months went on it soon became apparent that this case was
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anything but straightforward and the further you dug into it the deeper it went to this day we don't know who he is
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we don't know where he came from and we don't know how he died welcome to the mysterious case of miss summer two men
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[Music] on Wednesday the first of December 1948 the body of an unknown man was found on
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Somerton Beach in Adelaide South Australia the unknown man would come to be known as the summer to me he remains
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one of Australia's most baffling mysteries he was found lying on the sand with his head propped up resting against
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the seawall it's a pretty uncomfortable awkward position to this day his identity and cause of death to remain a
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mystery like all mysterious and unsolved cases there are many theories and a lot
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of wild speculation and in this case there's a lot of information to fuel all these theories and wild speculation the
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Summoner man was found with no identification in fact even the labels from the clothes he was wearing had been
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removed to this day he remains unidentified it was family that crumbled up piece of
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paper in his pocket containing two words taman should which is persian meaning finished or ended these words were later
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linked to a poetry book which contained what many believed to be a secret code along with the code there was two phone
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numbers that of a local bank and one of a local adelaide woman who lived only about 400 meters away from where the
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summer to me and was found the adelaide woman said she had no idea the summer Tamim was but many believed she was
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lying like most unsold cases there are plenty more questions than answers but let's start with what we do know and to
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do that we need to go back to Adelaide 1948 [Music] the summit a man arrived at a delayed
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train station on the day before his body was found Tuesday the 30th of November 1948 once arriving at the station he
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checked his suitcase into the plug room the suitcase was tagged and her seat was
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given to the summit of men from a time stamp and on the suitcase target's determined that he checked it in
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somewhere around 11 a.m. the only train arriving to Adelaide around that time that was from a big city was a train
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from Melbourne all the other trains arriving into Adelaide were from smaller country locations so it's family thought
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he most likely came from the Auburn as an unidentified mystery man walking around with a suitcase probably would
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have stood out in a smaller country location the locals air their name is too much after checking in the suitcase
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there's some to me and bought a train ticket to go from Adelaide station to Henley Beach it was the second-class
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one-way ticket although nothing could really be taken away from that as all tickets on that line were second-class
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there was no first class within the timeframe of him checking his suitcase in there were two departures to Henley
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Beach one at 10:50 a.m. and the other at 11:51 a.m. but the summit of men didn't
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get on either train as the ticket was feeling unused in his pocket instead of boarding a train he walked across the
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road and bought a bus ticket to Glenelg the bus departed at 11:15 a.m. and dropped him off about a 20-minute walk
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away from where he was found dead on Somerton Beach now Henley Beach for where he had the
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unused train ticket was 7 kilometers away from where he was found so that's a pretty long walk the thought is he
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probably bought that train ticket as Henley Beach was the closest train station to where he had to go not
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realizing that there was a bus that got him a lot closer so after talking to someone or even seeing a sign he bought
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the bus ticket and didn't worry about the train ticket he jumped on board the bus would have been a Nile double-decker
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back then and made the journey to Glenelg getting there around lunchtime what he did after getting off the bus is
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anyone's guess because there's no side of the summer two men again until about 7:15 p.m. that
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at 7:15 p.m. a local businessman John Lyons and his wife we're going for a walk along Somerton Beach the Sun was
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starting to set about this time here they saw the summer two men lying on the beach and propped up against the seawall
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body laying out on the sand just like when he was found dead although he wasn't dead because he raised his right
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arm up and then flopped it down I didn't think too much of it they just put it down to another drunk who had one too
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many and was now sleeping it off and they continued on their walk it should be noted this is not a quiet isolated
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spot there were plenty of people who used the beach and walked along the Esplanade it was a popular location he
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was laying right next to a set of stairs which led up to the Esplanade and these
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stairs were use regularly about 8:00 p.m. that night a young couple were going for a walk along the Esplanade it
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was just on dusk they sat down on a bench right next to the staircase where the summit a man was laying being below
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on the scene here they saw an unknown man in a hat standing at the top of the steps he appeared to be looking down at
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the summit men this man was never identified and was never seen or heard from again no one knows if he's related
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to the case or not the young couple looked down and they could see the legs of the summit again but their view of
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the top half of his body was blocked by the staircase they didn't say move but they did report that by the time they'd
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left the bench they thought his position had changed they commented that they thought it was strange that he wasn't
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moving because the mosquitoes were bad but they didn't go in for a closer look and as I thought his position had
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changed I thought everything was okay they got up and left and they didn't see anyone else before leaving about 6 a.m.
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the next morning Wednesday the 1st of December two jockeys were riding the horse down on the beach they rode past
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the summer to man but like John Lyons and his wife their initial thoughts were that it was just a drunk sleeping off a
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bender however when they rode back up the beach they realized that he hadn't moved he was in the exact same spot his
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head propped up against the seawall it's a pretty awkward natural-looking position they went in to see if he was
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all right but he wasn't that summer to me and was dead now at this time John Lyons was
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actually back at the beach it was going for a morning swim with a friend the jockeys and the bit of commotion caught
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his eye and he immediately recognized the stump to me and is the same person he and his wife had seen the night
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before he rushed over and called the police police officer John Moss was the first to arrive at the scene he got
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there at about 6:45 he examined the scene and he found a half-smoked cigarette that had fallen between the
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summer demeans cheek and his collar but they were no burn or blister marks on his face or clothing the scene
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surrounding him wasn't disturbed his clothing wasn't ruffled or disheveled there was no debris or personal items
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scattered around the beach basically he determined there were no signs of violence at all
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a check of the Somerton Ian's pockets found the unused train ticket the bus ticket to combs one aluminum and one
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plastic the aluminium can was thought to be from America as they were they were pretty rare in Australia at the time
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well they weren't actually available at all or anything a packet of juicy fruit chewing gum and
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a packet of arming Club cigarettes but the cigarettes he saw the packet of Army clubs were an Army club they were a
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different brain can cite us there was also a box of Bryant and Mays matches it was common at the time for people to buy
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an expensive brand of cigarettes keep that box and then fill it up with cheaper cigarettes it was just an image
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thing but the funny thing about the summit of man is that the cansada cigarettes were the more expensive brand
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far more expensive than the Army Club box that he had so this could have been a sign of someone who was trying to keep
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a low profile an ambulance was called and they took the body to Royal Adelaide Hospital where a doctor came out and
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pronounced the summer to me indeed the time of death was estimated to be no earlier than 2 a.m. but that is now
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considered to be a very rough estimate as the methods used to estimate the time of death back then not quite as good as
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what they do today the post-mortem was performed the next day now what immediately stuck out about
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the summer to man was that he was a physical specimen in incredible shape will build classic v-shaped body of an
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athlete someone physically strong yet he had very smooth hands with no calluses indicating that he didn't work in any
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job involving manual labor or heavy use of their hands his hands were also described as being enormous his
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fingernails and toenails were well cared for and along with his impressive upper
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body physique he also had unusually well developed calf muscles with a bulge near
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the knee well the coroner thought this was a sign that he may have been a professional dancer or a ballet
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performer or something similar he was described or estimated to be about 45 years old about 80 kilos it was a
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Caucasian male he missing about 16 teeth overall but that wasn't at all uncommon
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at the time in fact there's probably more common than not another unusual thing about the summer to man is that a
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spleen was three times the size of a normal spleen now this indicates a pre-existing illness it would not have
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happened quickly overnight at the time of his death so it's thought that he'd been carrying it for a while it's
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evidence that he might have already been in a weakened state when he died in large spleens can be a result of many
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illnesses including viral and bacterial infections inflammatory diseases even some cancers can cause that he also had
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yellow stained hands indicating that he was a heavy smoker his actual cause of death that was not
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immediately obvious but there were no signs of foul play so it was thought to be a natural death he's heart-stopping
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although his heart was healthy so they couldn't put their finger on it straight away the police certainly weren't
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treating it as a suspicious death in the early stages they were convinced it wouldn't be too long before a relative
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or friend came forward and identified the body and the case but we finalized a lot of people did come forward to try
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and identify the body as a missing relative or friend but no positive ID was made after a few days had started to
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become a bit of a concern and on the 10th of December a decision was made between barn the body to preserve it in
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the hopes that you know in the coming days or weeks somebody would eventually show up and ID the body and the case
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could be finalized but no one ever did it didn't take long before the investigators the medical people
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actually started to deviate off the natural best path and on to an unnatural death path as already said he had a
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healthy heart there was no sign of heart disease or anything like that so there's
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nothing to suggest that his heart would just stop do your heart attack or something something had to have caused
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his heart to stop beating and while the medical staff worked there is that they thought this something was poisoned
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samples were sent away for testing the doctor in charge became convinced he was almost certain that they would return
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positive for poison and he was on this belief because the Summoner man's stomach kidneys and liver were congested
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with a large amount of congealed blood which is what happens when you're poisoned those organs don't just fill up
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with congealed blood for no reason it certainly doesn't happen when you die a natural death but certain as they had
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become near that poison was the cause of death they could not find any sign of it
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all the tests came back negative for poison they couldn't detect the trace there was one other problem - with the
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poison theory and that is there was no sign of vomiting as is usually the case for poisoning deaths
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dr. Robert Cowen is the chemist who tested for the presence of poisons and he stated I found no common poison
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present and I do not think any common poison caused death if he did die from poison I think it would be a very rare
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poison I mean something rarely used for suicidal or homicidal purposes there are
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poisons they excrete from the body quickly which would leave no trace and it's possible that some of the men could
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have vomited elsewhere even new boy before eventually making his way down onto the beach where he died to this day
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it's never been able to be proven that poison was the cause of death although it can't be disproved data but
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regardless the coroner the medical examiner's and the police had now become certain that death was not caused by
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natural causes Danny I just had to work out if it was suicide or murder once they started to work out the death was
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no longer natural they assigned detectives to the case and while there are no signs of foul play when the
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summons a man was found there was something pretty unusual discovered all of the identifying tags on his clothing
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had been removed all gone couldn't see where the clothes were made at all no identifying marks nothing they had been
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deliberately removed but had they been removed by the Somerton men or by somebody else
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the detectives immediately checked out a delayed train station to see if there was any unclaimed luggage and they were
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in luck this is where they found this summer than me in suitcase inside the suitcase there's nothing extraordinary
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just the usual run-of-the-mill stuff when dressing down a laundry bag pair of scissors and North a stencil brush a few
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singlets some Underpants two tires a pair of slippers a pair of trousers a sports
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coat or shirt some handkerchiefs envelopes coat hangers cigarette lighter razor shaving brush towel pencils a
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scarf a toothbrush you know nothing significant or unusual [Music] but what did stand out is that even
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though the train ticket and bus ticket and other items were found on something in his luggage receipt was missing that
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wasn't located on his body at all the detectives were just working on a hunch that maybe there was some unclaimed
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luggage at the train station that's how it was found so where was the receipt that he would have been issued when he
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checked the luggage in to the cloakroom did he lose it or did somebody take it just like on the summit of men there was
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no ID in the suitcase but how they were able to match it to him was that there was a piece of thread in the suitcase
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that they meant to the clothing that something man was wearing where his clothing had been repaired with this
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thread the clothing sizes were also a match and also they worked out that the suitcase was checked into the cloakroom
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on the 30th the day they arrived into LA which matches up with the tickets that he had so that was enough to convince
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detectives that this was definitely the summer to me a suitcase but it gets weirder because just like on
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the summit a man we're all he's identifying laid was from the clothing had been removed all the other no flying
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labels from the items of clothing within the suitcase had also been removed well
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most of them anyway there were three things that they found their name the tag was still attached on
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the laundry bow they found a name printed on the label Keane ke a and E on one of the singlets
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was also the name Kane this time spelt ke a n and on one of the tires there was the name T Keane ke a and again the fact
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that as yet no identification had been made was really starting to concern detectives now that some of the man's
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photo and fingerprints for us went all across Australia and overseas to try and help idean but they didn't bring in any
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results his identity remained a mystery they went to work on the name team extensive checks were conducted but they
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couldn't find any matches there's no missing person reports no other unaccounted for people no one matching
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that name Kane who they could link to the summer two men it was also very common at the time for people to buy a
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secondhand clothing and clothing hadn't even been rationed out during the war which had only just ended so it's more
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than possible that the name Keane isn't the name of the some of the men at all the in fact most believe it's not
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especially when you consider all the other tags have been removed from his clothing and from the suitcase itself
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but those three items with the 19 remained if it was trying to conceal his identity or somebody else was trying to
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conceal his identity after his death the obvious thing to do would be to leave those tags on with the name Keane if
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that wasn't his name this would provide a false lead and provide police with a bit of work to try and chase up down a
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dead-end path and when they found the suitcase it was found unlocked so the Summoner men missing his luggage receipt
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it's quite possible that after his death someone took that receipt when Ian got the suitcase and tampered with it Ramy
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Stewart removed the tags or removed other items that could ID him if the tags were removed by the something in
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we don't know but it's definitely possible this is the days before CCTV or anything like that so you could quite
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easily sleep in go through the suitcase put it back in for police to find police
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started doing checks on the clothing itself and I found that the coat the summons man was wearing was made in the
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United States also the toy he was wearing had the stripes printed in a certain direction indicating that it was
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also made in the United States it doesn't mean the summer to me and was from the United States but certainly
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some of his clothing was let's try and put yourself in the shoes of the detectives here they've pretty much got
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no idea what's going on they don't know who this guy is where he came from how he died if it was suicide or murder if
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it wasn't hard enough already it was made harder because they started on the back foot from the get-go
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remember they initially thought it was a natural death then it was treated accordingly crucial evidence could have
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been lost not only was it 1948 and crime-scene investigation techniques are knowing unilevel today forget about the
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same ballpark it's not even the same game in DNA evidence is still unheard of for another 40 years but I mean I never
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gave themselves a chance that were chasing their tail from the very start as the investigation continued the body
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of the summer two men was starting to deteriorate the embalming was starting to wear off so a decision was made to
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have a plaster cast mold made of his head and upper torso area and that still actually exists today after this cast
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was made the summer the man was buried he was buried on the 14th of June and a headstone was placed on his gravesite
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reading he realized the unknown man who was found as Somerton Beach 1st December
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1948 by now another pretty important clearly being discovered just before the colonial inquest a piece of paper was
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found crumbled up in the pants of the summoned two men and had originally been missed by investigators and on that
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crumbled up piece of paper read two words to man sugar that's Persian meaning finished or ended they
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immediately got to work trying to find out where these words could have came from it looked like they'd been ripped
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out of a book and they did find the book turns out these two words were printed on the last page of a poetry book the
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book was titled the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam owner clam was a persian poet astronomer philosopher and mathematician
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who lived from 1048 to 11:31 the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is an English translation of a selection of his poems
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done by Edward Fitzgerald in the eighteen hundreds the translations are pretty subjective and others have
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different interpretations of what the poems actually mean but Fitzgerald is the most well known it was a very
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popular book the general thing throughout the book is one of seizing the day living life to the fullest and
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dying without regret they would eventually track down the actual book the Summoner men rip these roads from
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but unfortunately this book wasn't found until after the inquest the cranial inquest was held over two days on the
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17th of June and then again on the 21st of June 1949 the coroner concluded the identity of the deceased was quite
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unknown his death was not natural and that it was almost certainly not accidental
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it was noticed that inquests how remarkably clean some of its Manchus were that along with the rest of his
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appearance well-kept fingernails general clean and tidy appearance led the coroner to believe he wasn't a vagrant
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or a drifter the inquest was adjourned to no fixed date meaning the case would remain open and continue to be
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investigated and it could sit again if further information turned up it was still thought that poison was the cause
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of death and two poisons in particular were mentioned that could have caused the death and remain undetectable the
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names of those poisons weren't released to the public for many many years after as they were easy to obtain at the time
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and the last thing they wanted to do was give the public an easy undetectable way
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to kill someone by now the media had well and truly started to take a massive interest in the case at first the media
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had barely a passing interest I mean doing of what was initially thought to be natural causes on the beach
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not exactly headline grabbing stuff but as time went on the mystery surrounding the identity and the exact cause of the
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Summoner man's death was starting to capture the public and media interest [Music]
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once detectives had linked the words to manhood to the poetry book they made a public appeal if anyone had a copy of
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the book with a page or piece of page missing incredibly on the 22nd of July 1949 a man came forward with a copy of
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the book with a piece missing from the exact spot where those words would have been printed he said he found it on the
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backseat of his car and he has no idea how I got there never seen it before thought it was
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unusual at the time but didn't think too much more of it till he saw a media release calling for a copy of the book
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and of course his car was parked at some urban beach fraud at the time the Somerton near died he recalls his window
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was left unopened pretty common at the time police had that copy of the book that was handed in analyzed and compared
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to the page that was found on the summer two men they had a paper expert analyzed
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it and it was Dean it was a 100% match piece of paper with the words to manhood found on the summit two men came from
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this book that had been handed him that had been tossed into the backseat of a car so the summit of men had thrown the
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book into a random car that had its windows down and some were to be what I throw out into a car and Naughty
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Dog been did he want someone to find it will he being followed and had to get rid of the book quickly and was that his
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best option at the time no one really knows the identity of the man who came forward with the book is unknown he
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requested to remain anonymous and police respected those wishes the book itself is very popular and many copies exist
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but this particular copy that was handed in is extremely rare to this day another
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exact copy hasn't been found and it gets better in the back of this particular copy of
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the Ruby on of Omar Khayyam that this unknown person found in the backseat of his car there were four lines of letters
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handwritten at the back some sort of code to this day and hasn't been broken there's a link in the podcasts
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description to the code as seeing it for yourself will be better than me trying to describe it as four lines of letters
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the code was published in a paper and amateur code breakers from all over the country got to work on the mystery many
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thought it may have any code referencing back to the book of Omar Khayyam itself
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top military code breakers have been consulted but no one has been able to crack it to this day many have gone
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there trying there what is significant about the code is that the second line is crossed out and that crossed out line
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is very similar to the start of the fourth line indicating whatever was being written was very deliberate and
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obviously a mistake had been made but what if it's not a code as so so maybe it's just an aide memoire maybe
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reminding the writer of a certain poem or poems in the book or maybe doesn't even reference the book at all maybe
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what I wrote up is just using a letter to represent a word a sort of shorthand if you will
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whatever it is it certainly adds a great deal of mystery to the case and this card certainly bamboozled police if they
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weren't already been boozled enough it's also what leads many people to believe that the summer to me encase is related
00:26:23
to spies secret agents espionage they believe the summoning man may have been a communist spy Jason Bourne James Bond
00:26:32
type stuff when you put the code together with the missing labels the lack of our day and a few other things
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in the case that have come up shortly it actually doesn't seem too crazy but we'll get into all that in a bit so this
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we need to talk about the phone numbers that were also written down at the back of the book there were two phone numbers
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written in the book along with the code the first belong to a local bank the second was tracked to a local woman by
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the name of Jessica Thompson now for many many years in his case her real identity was unknown
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she was only ever known by a nickname of sorts which was Justin so if your do any
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reading on the case he'll often a mention of a mystery woman or Justin well her real name is Jessica Thompson
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and a phone number was in the book along with the code that the summer two men had torn the words talent from not only
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was Jessica Thompson a local she lived at Somerton Beach when they've got 400 meters away from where the some of them
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it was found so we're starting to look like the summer to me and didn't choose something beige randomly he had a
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purpose to be there on the 26th of July 1949 nearly over seven months after the summer to me and
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was found police knocked on Jessica's door I started asking her questions about the some of the men and she denied
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any knowledge I also started asking questions about the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam poetry book and she surprises
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him she says yes that's my favorite book of poetry so the police were like okay do you own a copy
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Jessica says yes I did but I gave it away turns out she gave it away to a member
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of the military that she met in Sydney about four years earlier in 1945 his name was the Alf box all the police
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thought new beauty case solved the some of the men he's obviously our foxhole and Jessica had given away a copy of the
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book with a phone number in it and for whatever reason he's made his way to some damn Beach and he's died that was
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the thought anyway police took Jessica down to see the plaster cast that had they made of the
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Somerton man and her behavior was described as being quite odd she couldn't really look at the plaster cast
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after her first look at that cheap stared at the floor she only gave very simple answers to police questions she
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looked like sure to be able to faint basically showing all the signs that she knew exactly the summer to me in words
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Jessica was married by now and she had two children a son Robin and a daughter Kate
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Robin was born first and Jessica's husband was not the father it's unknown who the father of Robin actually is
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Jessica requested her name not be released so she didn't want any embarrassment to come to her family with
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her being linked to the summer two men police agreed that's why for many years she was only known as the mystery woman
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or Justin police got to work on the actual theory and it wasn't long before that bubble was burst
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they found him alive and well living in Sydney and he still had the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar : that Jessica had
00:29:44
given him she had inscribed a short passage in the book when she gave it a house and signed it Justin that's how
00:29:50
she came to be known by that particular nickname so not only was our pop still alive he
00:29:56
still had his copy of the Reuben meaning that some two men had a different copy of the Rubaiyat which Jessica's phone
00:30:02
number in it as if this case wasn't strange enough knew how this happens the poor are police at the time mustn't have
00:30:09
known what are you so how did Jessica Anil Fox all come to me in 1945 Jessica was living in Sydney she
00:30:17
was training to be a nurse at the Royal North Shore Hospital she spent a few evenings at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in
00:30:24
Sydney which was frequented by many military servicemen at the time it was here Jessica met out a girlfriend of one
00:30:30
of our friends introduced them I got together only for a few nights shared a few drinks and Alpha's being put back on
00:30:37
active duty for the war so as a parting gift Jessica gave him a copy of her favorite book their poetry book the
00:30:43
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jessica left Sydney soon after she didn't complete her nursing exams she moved to Melbourne
00:30:51
for a brief period before settling in Adelaide Jessica would have fallen pregnant with Robin around this time and
00:30:56
who the father is we don't know some suspect it could have been our Foxhall but there's others that suspect it could
00:31:04
have been the Somerton man do you remember when there's some of the men arrived in Adelaide the only trained
00:31:11
from a major city but that day was from Melbourne so it was always assumed that some of the men came from Melbourne did
00:31:18
the summer two men meet Jessica in Sydney where she gave him a copy of the Reuben as well as she had given us did
00:31:24
he then try and track her down in Melbourne only to find out she's Naomi Natale and that's what he arrived there
00:31:29
to track down a former lover whatever the case it was clear that Jessica was lying to police she knew
00:31:39
that someone whom Ian was the daughter Kate would go on later many years later was only recently in the sixty minutes
00:31:46
interview she described Jessica and her mother as a woman with a very strong dark side she ever went on the safe she
00:31:54
thought she was probably a Russian spy she found out one day that Jessica spoke Russian but she wouldn't say where or
00:32:01
why she learnt it this gives further weight to those that have always believed the spy angle you had the code
00:32:10
to remove tags the mystery identity the mystery cause of death which many believe to be undetectable poison the
00:32:17
behavior of Jessica being deceptive to police and to top it all off Jessica said to a daughter one day that the
00:32:25
summer the man is known to people at a much higher level than the State Police that's all they told in a 60 minute
00:32:32
story which was done a few years ago and there's a link to that in the podcast there is another pretty significant
00:32:39
piece of information that adds further weight to the spawn angle in 1946 the few hundred kilometers out of Adelaide
00:32:47
Britain and Australia entered into a joint project of missile and nuclear rocket testing it's become to be known
00:32:54
as the rumour testing facility so if this case does in fact involve the spy angle there would be every reason for a
00:33:02
Russian spy to be you know like the top secret rocket and missile testing facility that was nearby
00:33:07
remember this was the start of the Cold War democracy versus communism the evil Reds all that stuff certainly it is
00:33:15
accepted that they were definitely spies in operation in Australia around this time so now we have this top-secret
00:33:23
military testing facility so yeah this place the informations are the code the missing labels the lack of identity the
00:33:31
unexplained cause of death believed to be some sort of undetectable poison you can say why this case has the attention
00:33:39
of conspiracy theorists one person that could have answered a lot of questions was Jessica but she
00:33:46
kept the cards very close to her chest she definitely knew more about the case than why she let on Amy towards the
00:33:52
later years of her life when it was still being investigated she remained deceptive to police jury felt us who was
00:33:59
a cold case detective who took on the case in the 90s and still investigates it to this day in his retirement he
00:34:05
interviewed Jessica he described there as being very evasive with her answers even you know 15 years after the event
00:34:15
not only that whenever the case was brought back into the spotlight or was receiving publicity for whatever reason
00:34:21
Jessica would either disappear on holidays what leave town but apart from spies and the possible love story angle
00:34:30
which we mentioned there is another possibility World War two had just finished Europe was in absolute chaos
00:34:36
you had the Soviet Union controlling Eastern Europe with the USA involved in Western Europe communism burst amok
00:34:43
recei the beginnings of the Cold War the rule of the Soviet Union in the East was
00:34:48
considered oppressive and this led to a mass exodus of people looking to move and find a better life elsewhere
00:34:53
Australia was a very popular destination for these people was considered a safe place to live especially nuclear war
00:35:00
broke out between the Soviets in the USA Australia was a little more isolated from other parts of the world millions
00:35:07
of people emigrated to Australia in the years after World War two in 1948 the immigration policy was in full swing and
00:35:13
that was actually the peak time for the Australian Government displaced persons immigration program which was
00:35:18
specifically designed to help bring people to Australia who had been displaced from their homeland when world
00:35:22
war ii broke out of course checks were conducted on everyone coming in but how strategic were these checks i wasn't
00:35:30
uncommon for people to use false names create new identities a fresh start in a new homeland it's quite possible that
00:35:37
some of the men was one of these millions of immigrants that was flocking to Australia at the time it would
00:35:42
explain one known as a variable to identify him not only were there lots of immigrants
00:35:47
flocking to Australia just stop and think about how many return soldiers they were displaced and suffering a high
00:35:54
percentage were struggling with what we now know is PTSD and what was referred to as shell-shocked and this day many
00:36:01
soldiers to be displaced become Drifters become estranged from their families and
00:36:06
that's another possibility in the case of the summer to me but of course with so many questions and so few answers
00:36:15
each Theory has its own pros and cons the big glaring confir every theory is the unexplained cause of death if some
00:36:23
of the men was a displaced immigrant or a returning soldier the how could he just drop dead with a healthy heart and
00:36:29
no other sign of health issues apart from the spleen but you know no obvious cause of death other than a lot of
00:36:37
congealed blood pointing to poisoning the same goes for the love angle if Jessica was a former lover of the song
00:36:43
attorney and that explains why he was there but it doesn't explain how he died that's what leads many to go down the
00:36:51
Jason Bourne James Bond path it's easy to explain his death he was a communist for that's what spies did killed each
00:37:00
other with undetectable poisons obviously it was picked off by another spy who caught him in and that would
00:37:07
certainly explain the code that was found in he's probably at the ruben arndt poetry book and why all the
00:37:13
identifying labels have been removed from his clothing but if some of the men was a spy where does that leave Jessica
00:37:20
Thompson in all this and what was their phone number in the copy of their Rubina
00:37:24
the more you think about this case the more your head starts to hurt and while our heads are burning what about this
00:37:32
and Jessica's favorite book was called Howards End by Anne Foster the book is the story of a girl who has a son out of
00:37:41
wedlock her family tried to scare the girls a lover off but in doing so they accidentally killed him because he had a
00:37:46
pre-existing weak heart condition and the altercation caused him to die accidentally
00:37:52
could that have been Jessica's why I was telling us what happened to the summer demand without telling us what really
00:37:57
happened could be or it could just be a favorite book who knows it's just another part of the mystery in 1945
00:38:09
three years before the summer demand case a man by the name of Joseph George Saul armed Marshal was found dead in
00:38:18
Ashland Park in Sydney his death was ruled as a suicide by poison on his chest he had a copy of the Rubaiyat of
00:38:26
Omar Khayyam and that copy was also very rare and just thought some in case another copy just like it was never able
00:38:36
to be Finland a lady who went on to give evidence at the inquest was found dead thirteen days later in a bath facedown
00:38:43
if there's risk both slit that could just be a bit of random information not related to the case but it's still
00:38:51
pretty odd moving forward to today the case is still as mysterious and weird as it was back then and it still remains
00:39:00
unsolved and is still open there are two people thought to be experts in the case
00:39:05
and links to their work have been provided in the podcast description first is Jerry filters a retired
00:39:12
decorated detective who investigated the case for many years he's cracked some tough ones in his time but even here he
00:39:19
hasn't been able to crack the summer to me he's written an excellent book titled
00:39:23
the unknown man detailing the case which I recommend checking out the second person is Professor Derek Abbott from
00:39:30
Adelaide University he stumbled across the case several years ago and became fascinated probably obsessed with the
00:39:36
case he's trying to get the body of the summit of men dug up for DNA testing he's submitted two proposals so far and
00:39:43
they've both been rejected fun fact the two experts Jerry filters and professor Derrick Abbott
00:39:50
aren't feelings of each other but it can't be denied both have done excellent work I recommend checking both ear
00:39:59
professor had actually appeared on a Rhetta asked me anything for him a little while ago and there's a ton of
00:40:04
useful in felon there so there's a link to that on the podcast description as well as his website where you can see
00:40:09
the original police statements and cranial documents as far as using today's technology to crack the case
00:40:17
well the only chance of that happening is if professor Abbott is ever successful in getting the body dug up
00:40:23
for DNA testing because some of the man's suitcase and all that spawning sand even a copy at the ruben arndt were
00:40:30
all destroyed many years ago when Adelaide South Australian police for doing your cleaning up so unfortunately
00:40:38
there's nothing really to test another fun fact about professor Dury gabart who's obsessed with the case is during
00:40:46
his time investigating the case he met the daughter of Robyn Thompson who is Jessica Thompson's granddaughter in
00:40:55
meeting the daughter of Robyn Thompson he also met her daughter Jessica Thompson's great-granddaughter and he
00:41:04
married her they have three children together here's a pretty interesting theory he's convinced that the son of
00:41:13
man was a former lover of Jessica Thompson and they had a child together that child being Robyn Thompson these
00:41:20
theories the Summoner men is a case of a former lover possibly a jilted lover who
00:41:24
knows tracking down Jessica to Somerton Beach for reasons unknown whether he was
00:41:30
trying to rekindle the relationship or professor Abbott even thinks that Judah the enlarged spleen that the Summoner
00:41:36
men may have already been doing and he knew it was doing and maybe that's why he finally tracked us to get down maybe
00:41:43
to try and you know one last good boy or whatever and that went however it went and he made his way though the beach and
00:41:52
died of natural causes and just hasn't been able to explain he's not convinced that he was poisoned
00:41:58
you know he's reached his conclusion just dude of all the circumstances of the case and also because of a
00:42:04
particular feature on the year of the summit a Mian which is also shared by Robyn Thompson and only
00:42:10
he is in 1 to 2% of the population so what are the chances of both these people you know it's sort of linked in
00:42:16
this way in the case of sharing this unusual feature of their eating you you know you certainly look at it and you
00:42:25
think it's quite possible especially when you learn that he is surprisingly enough are actually considered to be
00:42:31
quite good identifies of people not as good as fingerprints but pretty close so if that is the case that still doesn't
00:42:40
really explain his death natural causes was pretty much ruled out by the medical examiners at the time so
00:42:47
many possibilities aspire a former lover a displaced immigrant a displaced soldier roar there's so many more
00:42:54
theories on top of that the only thing we do know is we have no idea that some of the men was where he came from or how
00:43:05
we do it [Music]