The Somerton Man: the search for John Joseph Keane continues…
For some time, I have been looking at the Somerton Man case from the point of view of tangible evidence. For a start, the much-repeated belief that he was unidentified simply doesn’t hold true: the...
View ArticleFinally, John Joseph Keane…
As Derek Abbott liked to point out (particularly when he was trying to raise Somerton Man crowdfunding from Americans), we can easily imagine the Somerton Man having some US connection. This was not...
View ArticleThe “Previously Fined Nitkeeper” Hypothesis…
OK, stripping the Somerton Man’s story back, I’m still minded to believe that the Somerton Man was some kind of crim: and that the most credible piece of external evidence we have as to his identity is...
View ArticleA helpful response from PRO Victoria…
I just received this very helpful email from the Public Record Office Victoria, in response to a request I put in a few days ago to have a look at the Victoria Police Gazette 1945, 1946, and the two...
View ArticleMore about Triantafillos Balutis…
I thought I had gone through pretty much all the sources available online to find out about Triantafillos Balutis, the Melbourne waiter who the PRO Victoria flagged as possibly being the mysterious...
View ArticleChloe Delancy (Thomas Beale Jr’s Mother)…
Given that I’ve paid my findmypast subscription (and that money’s not coming back any time soon), I thought it might be interesting to look at the records it holds for Thomas Beale Jr‘s mother Chloe...
View ArticleHer Royal Highness the Grand Duchess, Princess Ivanovich…
On board the S.S. Ormonde (at the same time as both Triantafillos Balutis and Stelios Balutis) in February 1923, there was a very special passenger: Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess, Princess...
View ArticleDorabella Cipher: timeline, texts, and Keith Massey…
There are plenty of things about Edward Elgar’s Dorabella Cipher that rarely appear in the countless gosh-wow sites that feature it on the web. And arguably one of the biggest of these is its timeline....
View ArticleVoynich Manuscript: Letter Contact Tables
A recent post on voynich.ninja brought up the subject of differences / similarities between Voynichese words starting with EVA ch and those starting with EVA sh. But this got me thinking more generally...
View ArticlePavia MS Aldini 488: “Collectio de Balneis”…
When a comment landed here today from Diane O’Donovan about the (sometimes asserted, sometimes denied) connection between the Voynich Manuscript’s Q13 (the ‘balneo’ folios) and the late 12th century De...
View ArticleA Father Christmas attack on the Voynich Manuscript…?
It’s that time of year when a Voynich researcher’s mind turns to life’s most important questions. Such as whether it is possible to use Father Christmas to decrypt the Voynich Manuscript. For a start,...
View ArticleBBC Dyatlov Pass post…
Here’s a nice post from the BBC covering the Dyatlov Pass mystery, a topic I know a good number of Cipher Mysteries readers have an interest in. Lots of people – including the Mansi, which was...
View ArticleNick’s Challenge Cipher #1 cracked by Louie Helm…
From 1991 onwards, John Walsh – the well-known host of “America’s Most Wanted” – received a series of ominous and threatening letters signed “SCORPION”. Some of these contained a series of Zodiac-style...
View ArticleThe difficulties of Australian archives…
Towards the end of last year, I went through a period where I tried to finesse different ways of raking through the Australian archives to pursue the Melbourne nitkeeper research thread in the Somerton...
View ArticleThe missing Lonsdale Street nitkeeper…
Let’s start with the original 26th Jan 1949 news story in the Adelaide News, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the Geraldton Guardian, and the Age: Melbourne.- Two prominent Melbourne baccarat players who...
View ArticleAlice Kober vs Linear B, The World vs Voynichese…
I’ve just finished reading @MargalitFox’s excellent book “The Riddle of the Labyrinth“, which untangles the skein of history around the decryption of Linear B to reveal the quiet (but huge)...
View ArticleCameron La Follette, beeswax, the Neahkahnie Treasure, and the “Santo Cristo...
“The Ghost Hunter” is a fascinating article, well-presented in long form by Leah Sottile in the Atavist Magazine. It tells the story of how a secret poet by the name of Cameron La Follette fell under...
View ArticleNicole Oresme’s “Treatise of the Sphere”, revisited…
In a 2017 post, I listed the copies of Nicole Oresme’s (1368) “Treatise of the Sphere” (“Traité de l’espere“) that are still extant: * BNF MS Franc. 1350 (ff. 1r-38v) [formerly owned by Jean-Baptiste...
View Article“Pax Nax Vax” revisited…
Back in 2010, I speculated that one of the oddly-unreadable lines of text on the Voynich Manuscript’s last page (f116v) might have originally read “pax + nax + vax”. Here’s a little bit more background...
View ArticleThe “St George’s Convent Library” Voynich theory…
My recent “Pax Nax Vax revisited” post led me to a new Voynich hypothesis that I don’t recall reading anywhere. Given that (as Jan Hurych helpfully pointed out) our Voynich-owning chum Jakub Hořčický...
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