The recent rerun of the fine ABC television documentary about the man found dead on an Adelaide beach-Somerton-in 1948 not only brought back memories of the case , but Northern Territory politics and the strong appeal of Omar Khayyam to so many thinking/drinking Australians .
Following the viewing , one of this blog's runners found the above well written , thumbed book about the case in a North Queensland op shop.With no identification papers on the body , no wallet, no money, all labels cut from his clothing as if to hamper identification , he was a real mystery man , just called the Somerton Man by police .
The rerun ABC documentary was introduced by Stuart Littlemore ,Q.C., who had appeared in the film , a much younger ABC reporter at Somerton, covering the bizarre case.
This writer had contact with Littlemore who was an advisor to the ALP at the time , in Darwin , about 40 years ago. There was a situation where a candidate in an election said a woman was his wife , yet another woman, down south , firmly stated she was his legal wife , and produced evidence to back up the claim . It could be said there were two bodies, not one, in holy wedlock .
Because of my position in the ALP, Littlemore phoned and proffered legal advice , which I did not follow. He said I should inform election authorities of the situation, that a candidate was misleading the community . The local media and some reporters down south knew about the situation but did not feel it needed following up .
Back to the Somerton Man . It was suggested he had been poisoned or may have committed suicide .The speculation included that he could have been a seaman , an American , even a ballet dancer . There was an exotic and strange development, at first overlooked , when it was discovered that in the fob pocket was the folded up and very small last page of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , bearing the words Tamam Shud , meaning "the end ."
It was found to match a page torn out of a copy of the book , which had been in the glove box of a car parked a short distance from Somerton Beach, on what looked like a code and a telephone number .
During this blogger's time in Adelaide back in the l980s, copies of The Rubaiyat were seen at garage sales , in second hand shops, one of them a small , calf bound volume , a presentation copy about l916, still tucked away in the den . A Northern Territory News award winning journalist and author , Keith Willey , was known to recite snatches of Omar Khayyam in between cups of ale in Darwin's Vic Hotel , through which many mysterious and colourful bodies shuffled over the decades. Australian art historian , the late Margaret Vine, of Magnetic Island , also had a copy of The Rubaiyat .
