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The oddly clean-shaven Somerton Man…
Gordon Cramer, responding to a comment about beards I left back in June on his Tamam Shud site, replied:- “[...] I do wonder about the clean shaven image of him that was published originally, given his...
View ArticleA quick look at the Feynman Ciphers…
For those of you who have had their fill of the last week’s posts on the Somerton Man, here’s a different cipher mystery that doesn’t get aired even 1% as much: the Feynman Ciphers. The first Feynman...
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Tamam Shud loose end roundup…
I’ve posted on so many separate Tamam Shud / Somerton Man topics recently (which have in turn triggered so many comments), I thought it might be a good idea to at least try to tie up a few loose...
View ArticleAnd the Somerton Man’s surname was…
As normal, the answer turns out to be so painfully, staring-us-all-in-the-face obvious that it’s almost embarrassing to type. From what I can see, the most likely scenario is that the Somerton Man’s...
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The Voynich Manuscript at the Folger Shakespeare Library!
Ever since Hans P. Kraus donated the Voynich Manuscript to Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969, it has been on an exceedingly short leash. (Has it even left New Haven? I don’t...
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Mini-update on Feynman Cipher #2 (F2)…
If there’s a reasonable chance Feynman Cipher #2 (“F2″) is an exotic transposition cipher, it struck me that it might be a good idea to apply a whole load of exotic transpositions, and then use a...
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The Somerton Man’s grave…
Gordon Cramer was recently looking at Paul Lawson’s 8th June 1949 work diary entry relating to the plaster cast that he was making of the Somerton Man, and noted this interesting-looking page: Police...
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Voynich pub meet, 28th September 2014…
Every once in a while I set up an open-to-all Voynich pub meet in an historic London pub: and, prompted by the imminent visit of a German print journalist, the time has swung around for another one....
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Somerton Man and WWII Lend-Lease…?
From almost the start of the 1948 investigation into the Somerton Man, South Australian police suspected that he (a) might have worked as a Third Officer on a merchant ship, and (b) might originally...
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This is how we find out who the Somerton Man man was (fingers crossed)…
Right now, I think there is a ~35% chance that the Somerton Man was a Russian merchant seaman who had worked on a WWII Lend-Lease ship bringing goods from America to Vladivostok on the Pacific Route....
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Might Arnold Deutsch be the Somerton Man?
(I’m claiming neither plaudits nor brickbats for this suggestion, it’s Pete Bowes’ bonny baby: but funnily enough, I rather like it.) Born in 1903 in Hungary, Czechoslavakia, Vienna or somewhere else...
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Voynich pub meet reminder…
I thought I’d just give a gentle Cipher Mysteries tap to all your virtual elbows: that there’s a Voynich pub meet this evening (i.e. Sunday 28th September 2014 from 7pm onwards) in a splendidly...
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Danish brewery releases beer inspired by the Somerton Man!
Amager Bryghus (that’s the brewery) has just announced “Somerton Man’s Last Drink” which, as an 8.2% ABV wheat lager, may well be enough to make anyone with an enlarged spleen drop dead on the spot,...
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Communists on the workfloor and the missing Mr Keane…
Gordon Cramer has just posted about Edward John Rice, a machinist at Australia’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, who the management there tried to dismiss in 1942 for allegedly being a Communist....
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Your very own Cryptex (or perhaps not).
I’ve just heard about an upcoming auction for a Da Vinci Code “cryptex”. It’s allegedly one of the ones ‘potentially’ used in the film (whatever ‘potentially’ means, you’d have to ask an IP lawyer to...
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Five more pages of the Blitz Ciphers released…
I’ve just been contacted by the owner of the Blitz Ciphers, with five more scans of Blitz Cipher pages we hadn’t previously seen. These continue the original set’s apparent theme of mystifying...
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The mystery of the Anthon Transcript…
The Anthon Transcript was a document shown to Professor Charles Anthon by Martin Harris in New York in February 1828: Harris claimed that it was a copy of the “reformed Egyptian” letters used to write...
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The dauntless SS Donbass…
Did Soviet spy Arnold Deutsch die on the SS Donbass? To work towards an answer to that question, I decided to compile my own mini-history of the SS Donbass from numerous archival sources. Here’s what I...
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Voynich international art exhibition roaming across Europe in 2014-2015…
Coming soon to a town near you (if you’re in Europe), the Voynich 2014-2015 international art exhibition project. Put together by Ron Weijers and 10dence art collective from Schiedam in the...
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The Beale Ciphers, a Third Way…
Earlier this year, I was interviewed for an episode in a new series of Myth Hunters (in the US, “Raiders of the Lost Past” in the UK). The documentary makers focused on a particular well-known group of...
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