A mysterious crime
Okay. You guys ready for one of my Info Dump posts about something really inexplicable? Brace yourself.
Have you heard about the Taman Shud case? I hadn't, until I came across it in a Cracked article. Those of you interested in true crime ought to find this interesting.
In 1948 in Adelaide, Australia, a man in his forties was found dead on a beach. He was fully dressed in clothing really too heavy for the very warm weather (it was December) but had no hat, which was unusual. No one could identify him. He was in excellent physical shape. All the labels had been cut out of his clothing. He'd been seen in that spot by a couple of different people, apparently already dead or about to be dead.
The coroner could not determine the cause of death. He had some congestion and some swelling of the organs, but no toxins were found in his body. A worldwide search using his fingerprints and dental records turned up nothing. He has never been identified.
In a secret pocket in his trousers was a piece of paper with "Tamam Shud" printed on it, blank on the reverse. It was discovered that this is the last line of the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam, a very specific edition, and it means basically "The End." Shortly afterwards, a suitcase was found abandoned in a bus station that was connected to him by virtue of the tags in the clothing also being ripped out and certain other commonalities. It also contained a jacket that could only have come from America in the man's possession, so he had been there at some point or bought the coat from someone who had. A few tags on the clothing that had been left in place had a name on them, but it ended not being the name of the dead man (it was the name of someone still living) so it was likely an attempt to throw off the scent.
After searching high and low for a copy of the rare edition of the Rubaiyat that matched the paper, a man came forward and said that he'd found a copy of that book left in his unlocked car not far from where the guy was found. The last page was missing. Also inscribed in the back of the book was a few lines of random letters, some kind of code that has never been broken, as well as the unlisted phone number of a nurse who had once owned a copy of the Rubaiyat but had given it to a soldier she had as a patient during the war. This guy still had his copy and it still had its last page. The nurse did not know the dead guy or why he had come to her neighborhood with a copy of that same book and then dropped dead.
It's really mysterious. Theories abound that the guy was a spy or something, and that the nurse and the guy who she gave the book to were involved.
You can read more on the Wik (the case is also known as the Somerton Man case bcause he was found on Somerton Beach). But that's just...my mind can't help but start forming narratives. Modern attempts to break the code have failed. By the description of his body, digitalis poisoning has been proposed as to the cause of death but it's unknown how the poison was administered.
Weird.
Have you heard about the Taman Shud case? I hadn't, until I came across it in a Cracked article. Those of you interested in true crime ought to find this interesting.
In 1948 in Adelaide, Australia, a man in his forties was found dead on a beach. He was fully dressed in clothing really too heavy for the very warm weather (it was December) but had no hat, which was unusual. No one could identify him. He was in excellent physical shape. All the labels had been cut out of his clothing. He'd been seen in that spot by a couple of different people, apparently already dead or about to be dead.
The coroner could not determine the cause of death. He had some congestion and some swelling of the organs, but no toxins were found in his body. A worldwide search using his fingerprints and dental records turned up nothing. He has never been identified.
In a secret pocket in his trousers was a piece of paper with "Tamam Shud" printed on it, blank on the reverse. It was discovered that this is the last line of the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam, a very specific edition, and it means basically "The End." Shortly afterwards, a suitcase was found abandoned in a bus station that was connected to him by virtue of the tags in the clothing also being ripped out and certain other commonalities. It also contained a jacket that could only have come from America in the man's possession, so he had been there at some point or bought the coat from someone who had. A few tags on the clothing that had been left in place had a name on them, but it ended not being the name of the dead man (it was the name of someone still living) so it was likely an attempt to throw off the scent.
After searching high and low for a copy of the rare edition of the Rubaiyat that matched the paper, a man came forward and said that he'd found a copy of that book left in his unlocked car not far from where the guy was found. The last page was missing. Also inscribed in the back of the book was a few lines of random letters, some kind of code that has never been broken, as well as the unlisted phone number of a nurse who had once owned a copy of the Rubaiyat but had given it to a soldier she had as a patient during the war. This guy still had his copy and it still had its last page. The nurse did not know the dead guy or why he had come to her neighborhood with a copy of that same book and then dropped dead.
It's really mysterious. Theories abound that the guy was a spy or something, and that the nurse and the guy who she gave the book to were involved.
You can read more on the Wik (the case is also known as the Somerton Man case bcause he was found on Somerton Beach). But that's just...my mind can't help but start forming narratives. Modern attempts to break the code have failed. By the description of his body, digitalis poisoning has been proposed as to the cause of death but it's unknown how the poison was administered.
Weird.