100 Murder Cases

The Body on Somerton Beach

In December 1948, a body was found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. The body was a man who was dressed impeccably in a suit with polished shoes and his head was slumped against a wall. Authorities thought the case of death was heart failure or more likely, poisoning. However, during the autopsy, no trace of poison was found.

There wasn't a wallet or any type of identification on the man and all the tags in his clothing were cut out. The fingerprints that the authorities took of him were also unidentifiable. They even put a photo of the body in the newspapers and still, no one could identify who the man was. Four months later after the body was found, detectives found a hidden pocket that was sewn on the inside of his trousers. Inside the pocket was a rolled-up piece of paper from a rare book called the Rubáiyát. The piece of paper had the words "Tamám Shud" on it which means "it has ended." After months of looking for the exact book, authorities decide to bury the Somerton Man without identification. Although a cast was taken of the bust and he was embalmed to preserve him.

Eight months later, a man walked into the police station. He claimed that just after the body was found, he found a copy of the Rubáiyát in the back of his car that he kept parked near Somerton Beach. He thought nothing of it until he read about the search in a newspaper article. Sure enough, the book had a part of the final page that was torn and it matched the piece of paper that was found in the Somerton Man's trousers. Inside the book were a phone number and some sort of strange code.

The phone number led the authorities to a woman named Jessica Thompson who lived nearby. During her interview, she was very evasive and even claimed she was going to faint when she saw the bust of the Somerton Man but denied knowing him. However, she said she did sell the book to a man named Alfred Boxall. Unfortunately, Alfred Boxall was still very much alive at the time and still had the copy of the Rubáiyát that Jessica had sold him. The code that was found ended up being even more unhelpful and as of today, it has still yet to be cracked.

To this day, the man on Somerton Beach has yet to be identified.