Tamam Shud case
The Tamam Shud case, also known as the Mystery of the Somerton Man, is an unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead at 6:30 am, 1 December 1948, on Somerton beach, Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, South Australia.[1]
The Somerton Man | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| File:SomertonMan2.jpg Police photo of the corpse, 1948 | |||
| Born | c.
| ||
| Status | Probably identified in 2022 | ||
| Died | 30 November–1 December 1948 (aged c. 43) | ||
| Body discovered | 1 December 1948 Glenelg, South Australia, Australia | ||
| Resting place | West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Gravesite: P3, 12, 106 | ||
| Other names | Unknown Man (police terminology), Somerton Man Carl 'Charles' Webb (unknown) | ||
| Known for | Mysterious death | ||
It is named after the Persian phrase tamám shud, meaning "ended" or "finished", printed on a scrap of paper found months later in the fob pocket of the man's trousers.
The scrap had been torn from the final page of a copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, authored by 12th-century poet Omar Khayyám. Tamam was misspelt as Taman in many early reports and this error.[note 1]
Jessica Thomson living in nearby Glenelg was questioned in connection with the case, her phone number was found in the book.[2] Shortly afterwards, she gave birth to a boy with the same rare ear trait as the unidentified man.[3]
On 26 July 2022, a professor Derek Abbott with genealogist Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, claimed to have identified the man as Carl "Charles" Webb, born in 1905, based on DNA of the man's hair.[4][5] South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia have not verified the result, but said they were "cautiously optimistic" about it.[6]
Tamam Shud Case Media
- SomertonManDeathSite.jpg
Location on Somerton Park beach where the corpse was found, marked by an 'X'
- Actual-tamam-shud.jpg
The scrap of paper, with its distinctive font, found hidden in the dead man's trousers, torn from the last page of a rare New Zealand edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
- SomertonManCode.jpg
The handwriting found in the back of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The text is presumed to be some sort of code.
- SomertonManBurial.jpg
Burial of the Somerton Man on 14 June 1949. By his grave site is Salvation Army Captain Em Webb, leading the prayers, attended by reporters and police.
- SomertonManStone.jpg
The simple burial site of the Unknown Man at the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide
Notes
- ↑ While the words that end The Rubaiyat are "Tamám Shud" (تمام شد), it has often been referred to as "Taman Shud" in the media, because of a spelling error in early newspaper coverage or police reports which has persisted.[source?] In Persian, تمام tamám is a noun that means "the end" and شد shud is an auxiliary verb indicating past tense, so tamam shud means "ended" or "finished".[source?]
References
- ↑ The Advertiser, "Tamam Shud", 10 June 1949, p. 2
- ↑ The Advertiser, "Police Test Book For Somerton Body Clue", 26 July 1949, p. 3
- ↑ Stateline South Australia, "Somerton Beach Mystery Man", Transcript, Broadcast 27 March 2009. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ↑ Keane, Daniel; Marchant, Gabriella (2022-07-26). "Somerton Man identified as Melbourne electrical engineer, researcher says". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ↑ Yim, Noah (2022-07-27). "Seven-decade mystery of Somerton Man solved". The Australian. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sevendecade-mystery-ofsomerton-man-solved/news-story/71976d67a215efb89cc50bc8c2425ac8. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- ↑ "Statement regarding Somerton Man". South Australian Police. 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022.