Why Can Nobody Solve the Mystery of the Man in the Suit?

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About Thoughty2
Thoughty2 (Arran) is a British YouTuber and gatekeeper of useless facts. Thoughty2 creates mind-blowing factual videos about science, tech, history, opinion and just about everything else.
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Writing: Bevan Rees
Editing: Giselle Hannah Santos

[disgruntledwookie]

The way he was found, sitting with his legs extended and cross, leaning against the sea wall, facing out to sea, with an unlit cigarette on his shoulder... sounds pretty obviously like he knew he had been poisoned and went to sit on the beach for one last ciggy and a sunset. It smacks of him being a trained spy or something. They exist in real life too, not just James Bond :D

[presidentelectcoleman]

"His pockets were empty, except, a pack of gum, his phone, a Volkswagen beetle, the leaning tower of pizza, and mars"

[hypeboynwjns]

Arran: "His pockets were empty"
Also Arran: "Aside from unused 2nd class rail tickets, a pack of gum, a limousine, the Taj Mahal, the Qutb Minar, the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets and the Sun."

[jonathangardner]

There needs to be a follow-up video as it looks like the Somerton Man has been at least tentatively identified as Carl Webb via DNA testing.

[ilanamillion]

I have never understood how this man was not identified by someone. This is not a criticism of the police but the photos of him are so good that anyone who had ever met him would recognize him. It's amazing how many cases like this there are.

[jeroenjager]

The day the video starts with "This video is kindly sponsored by your mom" I pledge to your patreon.

[StanleyKuo]

What I love about the case of the Somerton Man is the seemingly neverending trail of evidence that ultimately ended up leading to nowhere. Even a mystery novel can't conjure this many twists in one case.

[folgore]

Just saw the Thoughty2 vid on "Isdal Woman" yesterday. It's uncanny how similar these two cases are even though they couldn't possibly be related! Wonderfully weird mysteries!
Edit: A thought that occurs to me is, are the peculiar ears and teeth more common to certain ethnicities?

[philxray]

He wasn't sitting there facing a rising sun, Somerton Beach looks out over St Vincent's Gulf westward, so if he was still alive before dark he managed to watch a setting sun instead for the last time.

[Chrochella]

As soon as you said all the labels had been removed from the clothing, it can be assumed this man was a clandestine operative. Labels are removed from operative’s clothing so it can’t be traced back to the country/region/area where it was purchased which can potentially compromise the operative.
Personally, I think the man either poisoned himself or was poisoned by someone else.
They’ll never find his true identity. Most likely his family (if he had one) was quietly notified of his death and were warned not to talk about it by the government he worked for.

[dionysius]

I love how there was someone who just straight up obviously knew who they were but was lying and they were just like “welp sorry for bothering you fainting lady”

[kimg]

My mother grew up in Somerton when he was found and to this day, it’s one mystery I would love to see solved. There are regular ‘Somerton Man’ tours that are well attended.

[antonmarkov]

He didn’t smoke. He was a fit man and his heart was in perfect condition. The cigarettes and matches were placed there to explain the presence of nicotine in his system. Liquid nicotine can be an effective poison.

[SlickyGOGO]

"His pockets were empty except for the myriad of items in his pockets"

[angelsinger]

Thanks to DNA testing, we now know this man was likely named Carl Webb, who went by Charles or Charlie. We know his name, but not how he died or why he died on that particular beach. We do know that he reportedly had an alcohol problem and had divorced a year before his death, and that he was very fond of poetry (which could explain the note found on his body). As for the code in the book? We may never know.

[r.verbatima]

There is another very strange detail about this case. The book from which the scrap "Tamam Shud" was torn out had a format that did not match the actual edition indicated on the inside cover. In fact, it did not match the format of any other Rubayat edition published between 1930 and 1945. It resembles most closely the 1941 Whitcombe and Tombs edition of the book, but there are still slight differences in the font and the size of the paper. Somerton Man's copy of Rubayat appears to be bespoke. No other copy identical to it has ever been found.

[Dante-fbej]

This guy was most definitely a spy. Either that, or he was a poor, poor tourist at the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Orangelisted]

1:52 "And his pockets were empty... except for several things that he had in his pockets"

[sonnymoone]

I recently saw another very similar YouTube video about a woman that also had the labels removed from her clothing and she was found dead with no idea who she was. Some thought she might be a spy but others did not. She had a lot of wigs and different sunglasses and non prescription eyeglasses in a suitcase, too, among other things. All of her makeup had the labels removed, also. She had died from being caught on fire but she had a bunch of pills in her stomach as if she had been forced to take them before she was caught on fire. Very strange how similar that story is like this one. They dubbed her the Isdal Woman. Really interesting. It's enough to make you think the two cases are somewhat related to some degree.

[vitamin]

Clearly a spy. All these “mysteries” are like “they had all these signs of spycraft, did all the things spies did, but WHO KNOWS who they were?”