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CASE #WXG1XA · 2 entities · 1 connections

The Somerton Man

A man was found dead on an Australian beach in 1948 with a torn scrap of poetry sewn into his pocket reading "it is finished" — his identity stayed a mystery for 74 years.

On December 1, 1948, an unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia, with no wallet, no identifying labels on his clothes, and a scrap of paper reading "Tamam Shud" — Persian for "it is finished" — hidden in a secret pocket. DNA research may have finally identified him in 2022.

disputed
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Quick facts
  • Every label had been carefully removed from the dead man's clothing.
  • Police traced the paper scrap to a specific rare book found discarded nearby, containing a faint, never-broken coded message.
  • A phone number in the book led to a nurse who reportedly reacted with visible distress when shown a cast of the man's face.
  • In 2022, genetic genealogy research proposed identifying him as Carl Webb, an engineer born in Melbourne.
Entities on file
Tamam Shud note (document)
Torn scrap of poetry found hidden in the Somerton Man's clothing, its source book never fully explained.
No outgoing connections on file.
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Somerton Man (person)
Unidentified man found dead on Somerton Beach in 1948; possibly identified via DNA in 2022 as Carl Webb.
carried hidden in a secret pocketTamam Shud notedocumented
🎲 Take me somewhere else