All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S03E04.720p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.chr00t

[dramatic music]

- As atomic fear
grips the world

and the Cold War ramps up,

a well-dressed man is found
dead on an Australian beach.

♪ ♪

- There’s no clear
cause of death,

nothing to identify him.

Who is this guy?
And what was he up to?

Could he have been a criminal
or a secret agent or worse?

- Neither the FBI nor
Britain’s MI5 know who he is.

Tonight, the top theories
surrounding a mystery

that’s obsessed an army
of sleuths for 70 years.

- Is he a spy?

- Was it self-inflicted
or was he poisoned?

- Was he part
of a criminal organization?

- The whole thing reads
like--like a movie script.

- Can new evidence
solve the case

to finally answer
who is the Somerton man

and how did he die?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Just three years
after the end of World War II,

tensions between
the Soviet Union

and its former allies

lead to a blockade of
all land routes to West Berlin

and an all-out effort
to airlift supplies

to its stricken citizens.

- People in the west

are shocked and frightened
by this.

Communist countries like
the Soviet Union in Eurasia

and Mao Zedong in China
seem scarily impressive.

Will there be another war?

Another nuclear attack?

In response,

stories about spies,
traders, double agents

spring up everywhere.

Fishburne: The small city
of Adelaide, Australia

is no different.

Situated just 500 miles

from the nation’s top secret
atomic testing site,

the city is quietly on alert.

♪ ♪

At first,
nothing seems unusual

when 16-year-old Neil Day
and a friend

spot a man
who appears to be napping

by a cliff
on Somerton Beach.

- Now, in Australia,
it’s the southern hemisphere,

so it’s summertime
in the wintertime months here.

And so, this is nothing new.
It’s hot out.

A lot of people will sleep
on the beach.

So they continue
on their ride.

Fishburne:
But as the pair pass by again,

they notice something
alarming.

The man isn’t moving.

- He’s still
in the same position,

so they dismount,
they go up to check him.

And then, at that point,
they know he’s dead.

Another bystander comes up:
Jack Lyons.

He’s a local jeweler.

Jack takes control
of the situation and he says,

"I’ll take care of this.
I’ll notify the police."

And that’s exactly
what he does.

And that’s about 6:00 a.m.
to 6:30 in the morning.

- So when the police arrive
at the scene,

they do a cursory inspection of
the crime scene and the body.

And they notice that this man
is lying in the beach

but sitting up with his back
lean against the seawall.

They see that
he’s well-dressed.

There’s no evidence
of alcohol or drugs around,

and there’s no obvious signs
of wounds or violence.

- Most often, when
we find a body on the beach,

it’s a victim of drowning.

The body is washed ashore,
and that’s not the case.

He was completely dry.
His shoes were dry.

Looks like he just maybe
lay there to take a rest

and didn’t wake up.

- The next step would be
to identify the man

and then notify
the next of kin,

but in this case,
they can’t do that

because he has absolutely
no ID on him at all.

He has no wallet of any kind.

And moreover--
and this is where this case

initially gets very strange
right from the beginning--

all of the labels
on his clothing

were intentionally removed,
as is they were clipped out.

♪ ♪

At this point,
the investigators are asking,

"Who is this guy?"

They have no answers
on his identity.

Fishburne:
With little to go on,

police catalog
the man’s belongings.

- They find
a unused train ticket.

They find a bus ticket from
Adelaide to Somerton Beach.

They find a pack of chewing
gum, a pack of matches,

a comb,

and they find a box
of Army Club cigarettes.

So all of these things
are ordinary things

that you would find
on any person,

but the pack of cigarettes
are interesting

because Army Club
is a very cheap brand.

And inside
the box of cigarettes

were seven cigarettes

of a much more expensive brand
called Kensitas.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: The body is taken
to the Royal Adelaide Hospital

for further examination.

- So a Dr. Barkley Bennett

performs a post-mortem
on the body.

It’s an initial look-through

without going too deep
into taking samples

and opening the body up
to find the cause of death.

Back then,
not everybody has an autopsy.

- The initial examination
of his body

reveals some things about him.

He’s about 5’11".

He weighs about 165 to 175.

And he’s between
40 and 50 years old

in incredibly good shape.

Also, his hands
are not calloused in any way,

suggesting that he wasn’t
a manual laborer of any sort.

- One of the other things
they notice right away

is that he’s got
these extremely large calves,

and the muscles are high.

Like a ballet dancer,
he’s got tuned legs.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Nothing seems strange

and there’s no obvious sign
of foul play.

- So their theory is,
is that he went to lay down,

maybe didn’t feel well,

laid up against the rocks
and passed away in his sleep.

- Preliminarily,
the cause of death

is thought to be heart failure.

♪ ♪

[flatlines]

Fishburne:
But after six weeks,

authorities still
can’t ID the corpse,

and that raises questions.

- Detective suspect that there
may be a lot more to learn

about this man
and the way he died.

Fishburne:
They start to wonder,

is he from someplace
outside Australia?

And, if so,
why is he here?

- All English-speaking
countries

are given a post-mortem photo
and a set of fingerprints,

but nobody can find a match.

There’s no police records
for this man.

There are no military records
for this man.

Nothing matches.

- In fact,
J. Edgar Hoover,

who was the director
of the FBI at the time,

sends a memo back
to Australian police,

telling them that they have no
match for those fingerprints.

Fishburne:
Police appeal to the public

for help identifying the body.

- At this point
in the investigation,

the locals have given
this man a nickname,

the Somerton Man,

referencing the beach
where he was discovered.

An eye witness comes forward.

He and his wife claim that
they were walking on the beach

the night before,
on November 30th,

and they observed him about
7:00 p.m. lying on the beach.

The Somerton Man supposedly
raised his right arm,

as if to light his cigarette
or wave,

and then it fell back
to the beach.

♪ ♪

- And then, there’s another
couple that saw the man,

although they didn’t
really see his face.

One thing they did notice,
though,

is that he seemed
to have polished, nice shoes,

and they didn’t seem like shoes

that belonged to somebody who’d
be walking along the beach.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: A timeline
of the man’s final hours

slowly starts to form.

- Because of the tickets
in his pocket,

we know that he arrived
around 11:00 a.m. in Adelaide.

Then, he took a bus
to the Somerton area,

where he’s seen again
by our witnesses at 7:00 p.m.

So there’s a large part
of his afternoon

and his whereabouts
that are not accounted for.

As an investigator,

it’s very frustrating to have
this collection of clues

and evidence
and eyewitness accounts

and really be no closer
to any substantive answers.

At this point, they don’t
even know who this man is.

But then, the investigators
catch a huge break.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
On January 14th 1949,

authorities
at Adelaide Railway Station

realize a suitcase
has been there for weeks.

- The suitcase was checked in
on November 30th

and remained unclaimed.

They give it over
to the police,

who start looking through it,

and that’s when they find
some additional clues,

which now makes them think

that maybe
there’s some connection

to the Somerton Man.

Fishburne: What’s inside the
suitcase is odd and alarming.

- The labels on all the
clothing inside the suitcase

have also been removed,
just like the Somerton Man,

with the exception
of one yellow shirt

that still had the tags on it,

as if it had
just been purchased.

There’s a quantity
of orange linen thread,

the same type
of orange thread

that was used
to sew on his buttons

and mend a pocket
inside his trousers.

- And the thread
that was in the case,

they believe is the same one
used to repair the jacket.

This makes a direct connection
to the Somerton Man

and the suitcase
that was found.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: The suitcase also
raises additional questions.

- This orange linen thread

was not available in Australia
at the time.

It was available
in the United States.

So this poses the question:
was the man American,

or did he at least travel
through America at one point?

Also discovered
inside the suitcase

was an electrician
screwdriver,

a table knife,
a pair of scissors,

and also charting
and stenciling tools,

that which you would find
aboard a ship

to stencil cargo
or to help with navigation.

Fishburne: But the most
important clue of all

may be a name.

- There are a couple of items
inside the suitcase

that are inscribed T. Keane.

- So this gives the police
something to go on,

a name at least,

and that name is Keane,
K-E-A-N-E.

Fishburne: Finding T. Keane
won’t be easy,

and perhaps that’s deliberate.

- Police are starting to build
a profile of this guy

and perhaps a story
why he was there.

Who is this Keane?

- Inquiries find no missing
persons by the name of Keane.

And so, now they think that
maybe this might be alias.

- But, at this point, there’s
a name that doesn’t match up.

No one’s missing.
It could be a ruse.

The police had a suitcase
full of clues

and they have some evidence,

but there is nothing there
that really ties to the reason

why the Somerton Man
was visiting Adelaide.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Increasingly suspicious,

police call
for a detailed autopsy.

- Once they started
the autopsy,

they do
come across some things

that are unusual
and shocking for them.

This enlarged spleen
that’s three times larger

than what it should be.

They find his liver
is congested.

And he’s got blood
in his stomach.

- Because of the conditions
of the organs,

pathologist John Dwyer
suspects

that this man could be
the victim of poisoning.

♪ ♪

- They think it’s poison
because

this man has
no outside injuries.

He’s got all
this internal trauma going on.

What caused that?

If he had been hit
by something,

he’d have an external bruise.

- Also, in his stomach,

aside from the presence
of blood is also a pasty,

which is sort of like
an Australian meat pie.

- They can tell what it was.

And the meat is not digested,

which implies that he ate that
and died shortly after.

- If it turns out
this is a poisoning,

that’s a huge red flag.

This is not
your everyday manner of death.

And what it suggests
is this guy

could have been up
to something nefarious.

♪ ♪

- When the lab results
come back,

they show no evidence
of poisoning

and no evidence of poisoning
in the Australian meat pasty.

His organs are in terrible
condition post-autopsy,

and the police know that
they’re gonna have

to do a lot more digging
to find out

what happened to this person,
who is he, and how did he die.

Fishburne: Investigators next
take a closer look

at the man’s clothing.

- Deep down inside
the man’s watch pocket,

they found a tiny,
rolled-up piece of paper.

It had to be extracted
with tweezers

because it was so far down,

which is why they didn’t
find it the first time.

But when they unroll it,
there are some words on it.

And the words are "tamám shud."

♪ ♪

- That stopped the press
this time.

We got to find out
what this is.

What does this mean?

- They contact local librarians
and researchers

to just ask around

if anybody knows
what this means.

One of the librarians
mentions that,

"Yes, it is the last word
in a book called

the "Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám."

♪ ♪

- The "Rubáiyát" is
a book of love poems.

The phrase "tamám shud"
translates into

"it is finished."

♪ ♪

- It’s not normal
for someone

to walk around
with a line of poetry

that says "it is finished"
in their pocket.

This is something
that was placed there.

Now, whether it was
by the Somerton Man

or by someone
who wanted him dead,

that’s what’s worth exploring.

Fishburne: But who might
want him dead, and why?

- Looking at his belongings--

stenciling tools, maps,

his clothing is clearly
from America

which they see based
on the stitching,

and an alias, potentially--

taking all of these clues
together,

it’s not unreasonable to think
that he may have been involved

in the black market
as a smuggler.

- And, if so,
did he become problematic

for some other criminals
that want to see him gone?

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Armed with new evidence,

authorities begin
an official homicide inquest

on June 17th, 1949.

- An inquest is
sort of like a trial.

There are witnesses,
experts, and doctors

that will come and testify,

and a judge or jury will
determine a cause of death.

- So they’re revisiting

the possibility
of him being poisoned.

- One of the experts
that testifies in this inquest

is Sir Cedric Hicks.

He’s a professor
of pharmacology

and human physiology.

And, to his knowledge,

whatever toxin was there
evaporated quickly.

It left no trace.

But he has an idea
of two untraceable toxins

that may be the cause here.

- He’s so afraid to say
these poisons out loud

during the inquest
because they’re so dangerous

that he writes them down
on a piece of paper

and delivers it
to the judge.

Later on, these two toxins
become known,

and they are digitalis
and strophanthin.

- Hicks believes
it’s strophanthin.

It’s derived
from an African plant.

Somali tribes would use it
to poison their arrows.

Fishburne:
Despite Hick’s testimony,

on June 21st,

the inquest concludes without
determining a cause of death.

- They just don’t have
enough evidence to say

if he was poisoned by himself
or someone else.

They don’t know
who this man is.

They can’t determine
if he was a smuggler or not,

or if he’s tied
to some other greater mystery.

And so, they’re stuck
in a quandary.

Fishburne:
Back at square one,

police revisit
the cryptic piece of paper

found in the man’s pocket.

- The most mysterious clue
is the phrase "tamám shud."

It’s torn from a book that
was very popular at the time.

If investigators can find
the man’s original book,

they may find more clues.

- We know it’s not
in his possession.

We know it wasn’t
at the crime scene.

We know that it’s not
in his suitcase

that was discovered at
the Adelaide Railway Station.

Fishburne: Investigators
search every library

and bookstore
in the area.

♪ ♪

- They begin looking
at publishing companies,

they begin searching
internationally--

anywhere that they can think
to find this copy

and this edition
of the "Rubáiyát."

In a last-ditch effort,
they call upon the public

to see if anybody has seen
this copy of the book.

There are hundreds of thousands
of copies of the book

floating around the world.

Trying to find the copy
that was used in this case

is like trying to find
a needle in a haystack.

Fishburne:
That is until July 22nd, 1949.

♪ ♪

- An unidentified man walks
into the police station.

This man lives very nearby
to Somerton Beach.

♪ ♪

He remembers that somebody
had thrown a copy of a book

in the backseat of his car
on November 30th.

♪ ♪

He puts two and two together.

He retrieves the copy
of the book

and he brings it
into the police station.

Fishburne: Police attempt to
match the torn scrap of paper

to the book’s
damaged back page.

♪ ♪

- When the police
examine the book,

they can tell that the tear
from the book

matches exactly with
the rolled up piece of paper

in the Somerton Man’s pocket.

They can tell microscopically,
by the fibers,

it’s the copy
that the Somerton Man had.

It’s a very easy mesh.
That, they know for sure now.

Fishburne: And just
as investigators had hoped,

the book is about to provide
an incredible new clue

to the Somerton Man’s
identity.

♪ ♪

- Finding the actual book that
belonged to the Somerton Man

is a miraculous twist
of fate in this case

because they are able
to begin

piecing some new clues
together

that they had no idea
even existed before.

There are notes written
in the book.

And then,
most interestingly perhaps,

there is a series of letters
in the back of the book,

capital letters that seem
to be some sort of code.

- When you look at
the coded message in the book

and all other factors

surrounding
the Somerton Man’s case,

it then leads
to the big question:

is he a spy?

♪ ♪

- At the time,

Australia is ramping up
their own nuclear testing,

so the idea
is entirely plausible.

- Using books
to deliver hidden codes

seems like
it’s next-level spying,

but the truth is,
this was quite common,

especially in 1948.

The CIA did it, the KGB,
Israeli intelligence.

- So what happens is that
the sender,

they’ll take the words out
of the book on certain pages

and they use that to compose
the message they want to send.

The receiver will have a card
that will have holes cut out,

basically acting as a template

that they can put
over the desired page,

and that will reveal
the message underneath

and the words

and the order that they’re
supposed to be received.

Fishburne:
Authorities send the code

to various intelligence
agencies around the world,

hoping someone
will recognize it.

- They send it to
the U.S. Naval intelligence.

They send it
to British intelligence.

They publish it in newspapers,

hoping that an amateur sleuth
might be able to solve this.

The code is only four lines,

but the best codebreakers
in the world

can’t figure this out.

You don’t even need
to really figure out the code

to indicate that there is
some sort of larger espionage

going on.

If we are to believe
that he’s a spy,

that very well could be
what caused his death.

♪ ♪

- He was clearly a careful guy,
which is evidenced by the fact

of the removal
of his clothing labels,

the fact that
he uses an alias.

Fishburne:
But according to experts,

the most important proof is
where and how the man died.

- So there’s two
really important locations

in Australia, which make this
even more interesting.

One is Woomera,

which is home of
an advanced rocketry program

involving the United States,

as well as Australian
military authorities.

The other is Radium Hill,

which is home to a uranium
processing facility.

The location
of the Somerton Man’s body

close to these facilities
in Australia

isn’t coincidental
in my view.

- The UK is also preparing

to start atomic testing
in Australia,

800 kilometers
from Adelaide.

And there’s some evidence

that secrets are already
being leaked from Australia

to the USSR.

- There’s a top secret
intelligence program

called Venona.

It’s a joint
American-British operation,

and it’s designed
to do counterintelligence.

In 1947, the Venona project
was able to pick up evidence

that Russian
intelligence operations

were taking place in Australia

through its embassy
in Canberra.

So we have a code

that suggests
the man may have been a spy.

We have the location,
which certainly suggests

that the man
may have been a spy.

And most interesting to me
is the fact

that he appears to have died
from an exotic poison,

which is absolutely spycraft

and certainly suggests
the possibility

of this being what’s
referred to as a "wet op,"

"mokroye delo" in Russian,

which is a kind of
time-honored tradition

by Russian intelligence

to get rid of people
by means of assassination

without leaving any kind
of obvious hallmarks.

Fishburne: Could a seemingly
insignificant piece

of evidence be the key
to cracking this case?

- The cigarette clue
is a fascinating one

where they discover in
his possession, his cigarettes,

there’s a different kind
of cigarette brand

in the box
of his cigarettes,

which seemed to indicate that
someone had replaced them.

- This is a cheap box
of cigarettes,

and inside the box
are an expensive brand.

So why would anyone
wanna do that?

Is it possible
that the man was poisoned

and that the delivery system
for the poison

was the cigarettes?

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Unfortunately,
the Australian police

discard the cigarettes
before they can be analyzed.

- And that’s a real shame
because the cigarettes

could have provided
a quintessential detail

that may have solved this case.

If the cigarettes were tested
and we could prove

that there was poison
in the cigarettes,

explaining why there were
different cigarettes

in the box,

it would certainly
support a theory

that he was involved
in spycraft

and he was murdered for that.

Fishburne: But
if the Somerton Man is a spy,

who was he working for?

- There is some speculation
out there

that he was not just anybody

but that he was a particular
agent named Pavel Fedosimov.

Fedosimov was known as Stefan.
That’s his code name.

He was known to British
and American intelligence.

Fishburne: Fedosimov
was identified as a KGB spy

during Operation Venona.

- Fedosimov was stationed

at the Russian embassy
in the United States.

And we know for sure
that the Somerton Man

had at least traveled
in the United States.

The U.S. was
tracking Fedosimov,

and they follow him,
and they know that he,

at least theoretically,
leaves the country on a ship

bound for Odessa in Ukraine
in 1948.

And some people have placed
Fedosimov in Australia,

although the evidence
is very scant.

Fishburne: After the
Somerton Man’s body is found

on December 1st, 1948,

Fedosimov is never seen again.

♪ ♪

- Can you say that Fedosimov
and the Somerton Man

are one and the same?

You can’t rule it out,
that’s absolutely true,

but I don’t think
there’s enough evidence

to say that conclusively.

Fishburne:
But there may be another way

to identify the Somerton Man.

- There’s one more clue
in that book

that might be
even more important.

Fishburne: And it could lead
police straight to his killer.

♪ ♪

- A dead body,
a book of poetry,

and an unsolvable code.

After eight months
of investigation

into the Somerton Man,

police have little else
to go on.

But in his copy
of the Rubáiyát,"

there is one more clue:

a pair
of handwritten phone numbers.

Can this finally lead
investigators to answers?

[dramatic music]

- The other clue is
what appears to be

two phone numbers
written inside the book.

- The police decided to call
these two phone numbers.

The first is to a bank,
which is a dead end.

The second number belongs
to a woman who lives nearby,

in fact,
only 400 yards

from where the Somerton Man
was found on the beach.

Fishburne:
Police visit the woman

and try to find out
what she knows.

[dramatic music]

- And she agrees to cooperate,

but she wants
to remain anonymous.

She tells the police

that she does not know
the Somerton Man,

but she does admit that she
owned a copy of the "Rubáiyát"

that she gave
to a male acquaintance

some years earlier.

- She was training as a nurse
in 1945 in Sydney

when she met someone
named Al Boxall.

They became friendly.

She gave him a copy
of the "Rubáiyát"

and she inscribed it
with her nickname "Jestyn,"

but she hasn’t spoken with him
in years.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Could Boxall be
the Somerton Man?

- So, of course,
the authorities think

perhaps
this acquaintance of hers

who received the "Rubáiyát,"
maybe that’s the Somerton Man.

However, a few days later,
they follow up on a lead

and they find that
he’s alive and well.

♪ ♪

- The plot really thickens

when one looks
at Boxall’s background

during World War II and
afterwards, from 1945 to 1948,

Boxall is involved
in Australian intelligence.

♪ ♪

I think the intrigue
is even greater

when the two stories
of "Jestyn" and Boxall

are put side by side.

"Jestyn" says that they met one
another in the army hospital,

and according to Boxall, the
exchange of the book happens

at the Clifton Gardens Hotel
over drinks.

Fishburne: To investigators,
that location sounds familiar.

♪ ♪

- What’s interesting is that

if we’re to believe
Boxall’s version of the story,

where the book is exchanged

at the Clifton Garden Hotel
in August of 1945,

just two months earlier,
in June of 1945,

the body of George Marshall
is found

with a copy
of the "Rubáiyát"

a short walk
from that very hotel.

♪ ♪

- Not only is the copy
of the "Rubáiyát," there,

but he’s also found
near a bottle of lemonade

and some mysterious powder,

which leads some people
to think

that it may have
also been a poisoning.

And that’s too similar
for coincidence

between the Somerton Man
and Marshall’s death.

Fishburne: Two bodies found
dead on Australian beaches,

both tied to the same book
and possibly the same woman.

Police decide to question
the mysterious "Jestyn"

once again.

- This woman really was
a quintessential part

of the investigation.

And what’s particularly
interesting

about all the great work
they did in the case

is that before
the Somerton Man is buried,

they make a plaster cast of him

to preserve the way he looks
before decomposition.

They bring in "Jestyn"
to view the cast.

Initially,
when she looks at it,

she claims that
she doesn’t recognize the cast

when all of her body language
suggests otherwise.

- When Detective
Sergeant Leane

showed the woman
the plaster bust,

his reaction was that

she looked like she was
completely taken aback,

like she appeared to be
about to faint.

In fact, some reports say that
he was standing behind her,

ready to catch her if she did.

So then,
this begs the question:

did she have any involvement
in his death?

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
"Jestyn" convinces police

not to release her name
publicly.

- So why didn’t she want
her name out in the open?

It’s very possible
that she didn’t want

her relationship with Boxall
to be known by her husband.

- But I think there’s
another factor at play here,

which is pretty basic.

In 1949, many people
didn’t imagine

that women could be involved
in espionage.

So they honor her request
for an anonymity,

and in the process, kind of
pass by the whole possibility

that she’s involved
in more ways than one.

Fishburne:
It isn’t until years later

that the woman’s identity
is revealed.

- For decades, people have
referred to her as "Jestyn,"

which is the nickname used
in the police records.

It took decades’ worth
of sleuthing,

both by police
who were involved in the case

and by some amateurs,
to put two and two together

and to figure out
the real identity.

- After her death in 2007,

we learned that
upon her initial interview,

she gave her name
as Jessica Thomson,

but even that wasn’t
her real name.

- She was born Jesse Harkness
in Sydney,

and she goes by the name Jo.

♪ ♪

When she passes away in 2007,
she’s gone her entire life

insisting that she knows
nothing about this case.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
But Thomson’s secrets

don’t end with her death.

- In 2013, Jo’s daughter,
Kate Thomson,

gives an interview
for Australian "60 Minutes"

where she makes
two very important claims

that may relate to this case:

one, that her mother
did admit to her

that she knew
the Somerton Man,

and two,
that she spoke Russian

and she taught it to Russian
immigrants in Australia.

♪ ♪

- And that fueled the fire

that Somerton Man may, in fact,
be a KGB operative

or KGB associate of some sort.

And that’s led to,
since 2013,

a whole bunch of questions
again

about the identity
of the Somerton Man.

- There are a number
of theories

about who the Somerton Man was.

The spy theory, the
black market trader theory.

But I think there are clues

that take us away
from those theories.

[dramatic music]

- Abbott’s theory begins
in his classroom.

- My students are well-versed
in coding theory.

And so, I gave it
as a cool exercise to them

to look at this code,

check out what were the codes
in World War II

that were known at the time,

and eliminate one by one
which codes it couldn’t be.

And statistically, it shows
that it’s really not a code.

It’s just the first letters of
words in the English language.

So what could that be?

It could just be
an aide-mémoire,

somebody just jotting down
the first letters of words

to remember something.

But the interesting thing is,
there’s four lines of them

and it’s in a book
of love poetry

where every verse
was in four lines.

So it makes you wonder

whether he was just trying
to pen his own verse.

Was he being romantic
towards a young lady

who lived five minutes’ walk

from where the man
was found dead.

And he had her phone number.

Joining the dots there,

there perhaps was a connection
between the two.

Perhaps this is a love story.

Fishburne: Or something
entirely different.

♪ ♪

- In the case
of the Somerton Man,

it could very well be
that they had a relationship.

She gave him this book,

which has
very romantic poems in it--

poems about seizing the day,

about being together while
the world is so difficult.

And they’re in love.

- But their relationship ends.

And then,
many years later,

the man shows up,
in 1948,

looking to rekindle

or somehow address
his relationship with her.

She doesn’t want anything
to do with it.

And, you know, heartbroken,
decides to end his life

by poisoning himself
on the beach.

Fishburne:
But if the Somerton Man

committed suicide
by self-poison,

the question is why.

♪ ♪

- Back in 1948,

Jo Thomson was involved
in a relationship

with a man named
Prosper Thomson,

her soon-to-be husband.

And they had
a 16-month-old child

named Robin Thomson.

- But here’s
the interesting part:

Jo Thomson becomes pregnant
in 1946,

and a true timeline
cannot be established

as to when Jo
and Prosper Thomson met.

- It appears that in 1946,

when she became pregnant
in Sydney,

she was in nursing quarters

training as a nurse
in a hospital.

♪ ♪

- Prosper Thomson was living

a few hundred miles away
at the time.

- So this timeline
raises questions

about the lineage
of Robin Thomson.

- Some would suggest

that it was a twisted,
triangular relationship.

The whole thing reads like
a movie script, frankly.

Fishburne: Abbott believes
that Robin could be the key

to proving
the Somerton Man’s identity

and providing a motive
for his death.

- The interesting thing
about Robin Thomson is

he was
a professional ballet dancer.

I recalled that
one of the people

that had examined the Somerton
Man’s body in the mortuary

had noted that
the Somerton Man

had extremely strong
calf muscles

that were high up the leg
like that of a ballet dancer.

Fishburne: And the
similarities don’t end there.

♪ ♪

- So only about 2%
of the population

have what they call
"hyperdontia,"

where they’re missing teeth
because of genetics.

Well, the Somerton Man
is missing two incisor teeth.

And we know that
they’re missing naturally

because the other teeth
filled in.

- Also, I noticed something
strange about his ears.

The upper hollow of your ear
is called the cymba,

and the lower hollow
is called the cavum.

And your cymba is usually
very narrow and small,

and the cavum is big.

But, with the Somerton Man,
it’s the other way around.

His ears are inverted.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Robin Thomson shares

both rare genetic traits.

- So what are the odds of them

having the same
ear shapes and sizes

and the same missing two front
teeth, the lateral incisors?

What are those odds?
They’re 1 in 10,000,000.

♪ ♪

- So the obvious question
this all raises is:

is the Somerton Man
the father of Robin Thomson?

- We just got
to look at the facts.

He had a book
of love poetry

with the phone number
of a lady

who had a child with genetic
features very similar to his.

[dramatic music]

Perhaps it’s not
something sinister,

but it’s a matter of the heart.

♪ ♪

- It does seem possible,
maybe even likely,

that he comes back into town
to reignite an old flame.

And he visits Jo Thomson.

However, he finds out that
she’s now in a relationship,

she’s got a 16-month-old son
that is possibly his child.

And putting
two and two together,

maybe it’s a reason

why she didn’t want him
in her life anymore.

He’s rebuffed.

And, at this point, maybe he
had nothing else to live for.

♪ ♪

Back when the Somerton Man
was found,

they found a tiny,
rolled-up piece of paper

that said "tamám shud."

Well, the English translation
of it means

"it is finished"
or "it is done."

And could this then
be a suicide note?

♪ ♪

Fishburne: But proving
this theory will be difficult.

- There’s a big question mark
over his death,

but where we can find answers
is through the man’s DNA.

[dramatic music]

- So, in an effort
to identify the Somerton Man,

they did a casting
of his head.

Dr. Abbott went
to examine that casting

and sees that
there’s actually some hairs.

- This got me excited
because I realized

that this could be
a source of DNA

that could crack this case.

Fishburne: Next, he tries
to find Robin Thomson.

- But Robin Thomson died
a couple months before.

And he was cremated,
so there’s no remains

to get the DNA

to see if he was related
to the Somerton Man.

♪ ♪

So I thought to myself,

"Well, has Robin Thomson
got any descendants?"

I did some detective work

and I tracked down
one of his daughters.

Fishburne:
Her name is Rachel Egan,

the daughter of Robin Thomson
and Roma Egan.

They toured together
in a ballet company.

- And she kindly
donated her DNA.

I was able to subtract her DNA
and her mother’s DNA

to basically reconstruct
Robin Thomson’s DNA.

I was excited that Rachel
agreed to give me her DNA,

but I got a lot more than that.

Fishburne: Abbott and Rachel
began dating in 2010

and married just
a few months later.

- Sadly, there’s not enough
DNA material on the hair shafts

to figure out if the Somerton
Man is Robin Thomson’s father.

Fishburne:
Without a DNA match,

the case remains unsolved.

♪ ♪

- Unfortunately,
a lot of the evidence

was later thrown out
or destroyed.

♪ ♪

The cigarettes,
the suitcase,

and perhaps the most important
thing that’s missing

is the Somerton man’s copy
of the "Rubáiyát."

- If we had this copy
of this book,

we might be able
to run DNA testing on it.

We might be able to find new
information inside the pages.

But ultimately,
that evidence is gone now.

Fishburne: If Abbott
and his family and the public

have any chance of closure
on the Somerton Man case,

the only way forward
is to exhume the body.

- The people of Australia
want an answer.

Who was the Somerton Man?

So the stakes are high
to get this solved.

- Now that Rachel and I are
together and we have a family,

it kind of illustrates
the importance

of finding the DNA
of the Somerton Man.

If his DNA shows
that he’s a Russian,

maybe that will bring the
spy theory back alive again.

If he’s unrelated to us,

it gives some other family
some closure

and connect him back
to his family.

And if he is
somehow related to us,

it will also give us closure.

♪ ♪

- Investigation into
this mystery is continuing.

The Somerton Man’s body
was exhumed in May 2021

in Australia,
and DNA analysis is ongoing.

Even if Rachel Egan is the
Somerton Man’s granddaughter,

it doesn’t fully answer
what happened

on November 30th, 1948.

But proving the link
between the man and Jo Thomson

could be a crucial step
in finally closing this case.

I’m Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History’s Greatest Mysteries."

♪ ♪