Taman Shud Case

On December 1 1948, a man was washed upon the shore of Somerton beach in South Australia. There was nothing to identify him with, so he became known as “the Somerton Man.” He was found dead early in the morning and was brought to the Royal Adelaide Hospital 3 hours after his discovery. Dr. John Barkley Bennett concluded he passed away no earlier than 2 am, and the most likely cause of death was heart failure, and possible poisoning. In his pockets were various items such as tickets from Adelaide to the beach, matches, and a pack of chewing gum, but nothing such as an ID or money to determine who he was or where he came from. An autopsy was carried out, and in the man’s stomach was a pasty, and a quantity of blood, but it wasn’t certain for sure if the food had poison in it, but there was still no cause of death found.

Fingerprints were taken all throughout Australia, but no one could identify them. Not one person had recognized the body. On January 11, the police had begun to search every hotel the man may have been, every dry cleaner, and railroad station nearby. Then on the 12th, they found a brown suitcase at a railway station. They searched the case, but there was still nothing to identify the man, but the only thing to identify who the case belonged to was a thread which was found on the man’s body. Anything in the case to determine who the man was was removed, such as names on tags, stickers and markings. The police had John Cleland re-examine the body and the belongings, and when he did, he had found a secret pocket sewn into the man’s trousers and a piece of paper inside the pocket, and the phrase written on it was “Tamam Shud.” The phrase itself was misprinted as “Taman Shud,” and it was translated to “It is ended” in English. Still, 72 years later no one has been able to figure out this case, who the man was, what he was doing on the shore, or how he died.