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Overview of the Unknown Man
On the morning of December 1, 1948, a body was found on the shore of Somerton Beach. The man was resting against the seawall, slumped forward, with a half-smoked cigarette lying on his lapel. He was well dressed, in a suit with shined and heeled shoes- odd attire for a beach on a summer day. There was no sign of violence or a struggle. The man carried no identification of any kind.
The police immediately assumed the man had simply died of natural causes while taking a stroll on the beach. When no missing persons reports matched up with the body they found, they were forced to investigate the matter further. Each clue they found only led to more questions. In the 65 years since the mysterious body was found on the beach, no one has come any closer to discovering the identify of the man, what he was doing on the beach that day, or how he died. Popular theories include a man ending his life in despair after losing his lover and son, or a spy linked to secret codes and mysterious poisons. With so much evidence lost or destroyed over the decades, and everyone close to the case now deceased, it seems unlikely that we will ever know the truth.
Why has this mystery endured so long? After all, many John and Jane Does turn up daily in city morgues around the world. What is so special about another unidentified body, from an era before computers could instantly search databases of fingerprints and DNA, and many bodies were never claimed? Perhaps it's the now famous picture of the Somerton Man, with his haunting eyes that seem to follow you from the page, that captures so many people's imaginations. The cipher found in a book linked to the Somerton Man certainly attracts the interest of many codebreakers, from the amateur to the esteemed. The rumors of Cold War spy agencies and secret poisons excite the imagination of many. Whatever the reason, the mystery of the Unknown Man will likely endure for many decades to come.
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Discovery of the Body
At 7pm on November 30, 1948, John Bain Lyons and his wife were taking an evening stroll on Somerton Beach, a small seaside resort just outside of Adelaide, Australia. They noticed a man lying against a seawall about 60 feet away from them, legs crossed in front of him. He lifted his right arm weakly, before dropping it back to the ground. The couple assumed it was a drunken attempt to smoke a cigarette, and continued on their way.
