Somerton Man

Case background and investigation

On the morning of December 1, 1948, the body of a well-dressed, physically fit man was found propped against a seawall on Somerton Park Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. The man carried no identification, and all labels had been removed from his clothing. An unsmoked cigarette rested on his collar as though it had fallen from his mouth. An autopsy found no clear cause of death, though the pathologist noted signs consistent with poisoning.

Investigation revealed a small piece of paper hidden in a concealed pocket in the man's trousers. The paper bore the printed words 'Tamám Shud,' meaning 'ended' or 'finished' in Persian—the final words of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The book from which the scrap had been torn was later found in the back seat of a car parked near the beach. On the back of the book, investigators found faint penciled letters that appeared to be a code, along with a phone number linked to a local nurse named Jessica Thomson, who denied knowing the man.

The case became one of Australia's most enduring mysteries, generating theories ranging from Cold War espionage to a spurned lover's suicide. The coded letters were never deciphered. Despite fingerprints, dental records, and photographs being circulated internationally, no country claimed the man. He was buried in Adelaide's West Terrace Cemetery in 1949 under the name 'The Unknown Man.'

In July 2022, Professor Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide announced that DNA analysis and genealogical research had identified the man as Carl 'Charles' Webb, a 43-year-old electrical engineer and instrument maker born in Melbourne in 1905. Despite this breakthrough identification, the manner and cause of his death remain undetermined, and the meaning of the code has never been explained.