The Body on Somerton Beach

[Evo]

Wow, someone tweeted this the other day, it is the tale of a body which washed up on a beach in Australia just after World War II...and nobody has a clue whatsoever about what the **** happened.

Most murders aren’t that difficult to solve. The husband did it. The wife did it. The boyfriend did it, or the ex-boyfriend did. The crimes fit a pattern, the motives are generally clear.

Of course, there are always a handful of cases that don’t fit the template, where the killer is a stranger or the reason for the killing is bizarre. It’s fair to say, however, that nowadays the authorities usually have something to go on. Thanks in part to advances such as DNA technology, the police are seldom baffled anymore.

They certainly were baffled, though, in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, in December 1948. And the only thing that seems to have changed since then is that a story that began simply—with the discovery of a body on the beach on the first day of that southern summer—has bec0me ever more mysterious. In fact, this case (which remains, theoretically at least, an active investigation) is so opaque that we still do not know the victim’s identity, have no real idea what killed him and cannot even be certain whether his death was murder or suicide.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/08/the-body-on-somerton-beach/

 

[kineaesth]

neat!

 

[Ennui]

That was a pretty fascinating read, the story just kept getting weirder and weirder.

 

[KiplingsCat]

I think that if I had to die young, that's the way I'd choose to go....in a haze of mystery and intrigue.

 

[Stylo]

BRB, cutting all the labels out of my clothes and writing short stings of letters in my books to mindf*ck the Police about the circumstances of my death when it happens.

 

[AtomicSpark]

He died.

Case closed.

 

[Robbo]

Do people in other countries actually use 'Down Under' instead of Australia?

Would be interesting to see if the outcome would change if the body was discovered these days with new technology etc....

 

[Evo]

Yeh I sometimes call it 'Down Under'

 

[Remus]

Do people in other countries actually use 'Down Under' instead of Australia?

We don't.

 

[Shem]

Do people in other countries actually use 'Down Under' instead of Australia?

We don't.

I don't.

 

[Bad^Hat]

We don't.

We don't.

I don't.

MYTH.
BUSTED.