At a glance
On the morning of 1 December 1948, two men found a well-dressed stranger dead against the seawall on Somerton Park beach, south of Adelaide. He carried no ordinary identification. South Australia Police photographed him, took fingerprints that matched no Australian or circulated overseas file, and opened a coronial investigation. The press called him the Somerton Man.
Atlas Verification Checklist
0 / 4 verifiedCheck each criteria to confirm findings against the atlas verdict.
Somerton Man · tagline
On 1 December 1948 an unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Park beach; a Rubaiyat scrap reading Tamám Shud defined the case, and a 2022 DNA claim named Carl Webb without settling how he died.
Somerton Man · On the morning of 1 December 1948, two men found a well-dressed
On the morning of 1 December 1948, two men found a well-dressed stranger dead against the seawall on Somerton Park beach, south of Adelaide. He carried no ordinary identification. South Australia Police photographed him, took fingerprints that matched no Australian or circulated overseas file, and opened a coronial investigation. The press called him the Somerton Man.
Somerton Man · In January 1949 a tiny scrap of paper was found in a hidden fob
In January 1949 a tiny scrap of paper was found in a hidden fob pocket. It bore the Persian words Tamám Shud — “it is ended” — torn from a New Zealand edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Police later recovered a matching copy, said to have been left in a Glenelg car, with the torn phrase gone, faint pencil markings that looked like a code, and a telephone number.
Somerton Man · For seventy-four years the man had no accepted name
For seventy-four years the man had no accepted name. In July 2022 University of Adelaide physicist Derek Abbott and American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick announced that DNA from hair embedded in the 1949 plaster bust identified him as Carl “Charles” Webb, born 1905 in Footscray, Melbourne. South Australia Police said they were examining the claim.
This is a reading check for the atlas, not personal advice, a live price, or a booking. It does not replace the full topic page.
What is the next question after this?
In January 1949 a tiny scrap of paper was found in a hidden fob pocket. It bore the Persian words Tamám Shud — “it is ended” — torn from a New Zealand edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Police later recovered a matching copy, said to have been left in a Glenelg car, with the torn phrase gone, faint pencil markings that looked like a code, and a telephone number.
Does this page rank people or nations?
This is a reading check for the atlas, not personal advice, a live price, or a booking. It does not replace the full topic page.
Where is the longer entry?
For seventy-four years the man had no accepted name. In July 2022 University of Adelaide physicist Derek Abbott and American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick announced that DNA from hair embedded in the 1949 plaster bust identified him as Carl “Charles” Webb, born 1905 in Footscray, Melbourne. South Australia Police said they were examining the claim.