The Tamam Shud Code

Background

I propose a solution the 'Tamam Shud' Code, which was found written on the

back of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, having apparently been placed there by

the 'Somerton Man'. The main story and a photograph of the code may be found

at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case

It is a story of potential spy activity, a mystery death in Nov/Dec 1948, and a

certain 'Nurse'. (All original pictures used here are in the Public Domain.)

This is a picture of the Code Page, taken at the time:

The Rubaiyat was only discovered several months after the death of the

Somerton Man. The book had been thrown into a car which had been parked in

Jetty Rd, Glenelg, not a very great distance from Somerton Beach, where the

man's body was found on 1 December, 1948. He was seen on the beach, alive, the

previous evening, 30 November, 1948. The match between the book and the Man

was made because a slip of paper torn from the end of the book, and bearing the

words 'Tamam Shud', was found in the fob pocket of the Somerton Man's

trousers.

The coded letters were first written in faint (or what is sometimes said to be

'faded') pencil, and could only be read (by the Police) under UV light. The letters

have been enhanced by the Police, it would seem. One letter, Q, in its original

form, and apparently written in pencil, is still to be seen in the line which has

been crossed out, peeping out from behind the A. The Q provides a good

indication of what the original pencil markings might have looked like.

There are also several faces drawn on this page, around the letters, and so

(apparently) after the code had already served its purpose (or perhaps ceased to

be useful). One such appears at the left of the A in the line which has been

crossed out. It is of a young man, smiling, and the original Q can be seen here as

well:

There are also letters at the very top left-hand side of the page, which appear to

read GPO BOX. They can be seen better in longshot than in closeup. But here is

the close shot:

And the one with those letters marked:

The wider story is of a Nurse who lived in Somerton Park (down from Glenelg).

The Nurse (and her future Husband) had a GPO post box. The Somerton Man

appears to have known that, although if he wrote the box number at the top of

the code page, it cannot really be seen, but only guessed at. There is absolutely

no doubt that the Somerton Man knew the Nurse. It would seem that he was the

father of her first child. Her phone number was said to have been written on the

same page as the code, and presumably it was placed there by the Somerton

Man. The Police found her via this number but, when she was interviewed, she

denied knowing anything about the Man. It has been claimed that the number

was unlisted, but the name of the Nurse was shown in the Telephone Book in

1948.

Proposed Solution to the Code

I believe that this Code may be solved by the use of a Vigenere Table, with the

KeyWord as 'UNHQS', or 'United Nations HeadQuarterS' -- although only by also

changing the normal co-ordinate positions of the Table (using two unusual ones

out of a possible three), and by making shifts either backwards or forwards along

the alphabet according to certain divisions within the different lines, with changes

made at the beginning of new lines, and then changing again after reaching the

end of a sequence of thirteen letters. I believe that the PlainText behind the Code,

from the four usable lines, is:

GENESVNIT HQRSDIVBMKI FXOPSHPRSKY FOXGBOHELOUIS

I also see that three justifiable 'corrections' might be made, thereby giving

FXOPSHQRSKY and FOXGLOVELOUIS for the last two lines.

My General Views on the Code

In my analysis, I ignore the line which has been crossed out, and use only the

subsequent lines, which I number from One to Four. I think that the writer was so

intent on getting to the letter 'O', in order to cross it, that he first skipped a whole

line in a (possible) draft, and then skipped some letters along that line. (If he had

four lines to code, he would have ended up with a twelve-line draft, what with

PlainText, KeyWord and Cipher, or 4 x 3 lines.)

The sequence IA is repeated in the second last line. So, after writing the ML,

copied from Line Three instead of Line Two, his eye apparently skipped ahead

again, and he then wrote IAQ. The Q is still visible, in its original form, in the line

which has been crossed out, but is written partly under the A, which suggests a

lapse of concentration, and a subsequent failure to space his letters properly. The

Q has not been enhanced by the Police, even though the remainder of the letters

have. But it seems clear to me that the line which is crossed out is not to be taken

into account in the process of deciphering, as the Cipher and KeyWord

equivalences for the other four lines -- only -- work to give a meaningful PlainText

(as I will suggest, below).

Why might the Somerton Man have been intent on getting to the O? I believe that

he was the person who composed this code, set it down in draft form, copied it

onto the back cover of the Rubaiyat, and marked the O to show that it was the

key to the code word that he had chosen, viz., that the marked letter O showed

that the KeyWord began with the letter U, or the next vowel in the English

sequence. He might have absolutely needed to show this, and so this might have

caused him to skip a line in his original transcription from his own draft.

I also believe that, if he ever intended to pass on this copy of the code by way of

handing over the Rubaiyat, then he changed his mind at some point, given that he

has drawn what are apparently pictures of himself and the Nurse (and what looks

to be a child), with a whole company of smiling faces looking on. Below is an

enhanced picture of the front cover. An actual representation of the Somerton

Man, and the Nurse, and a child may perhaps be seen at the left side, taking up

about two thirds of the height of the page. There are at least five smiling faces to

be seen in the top right hand corner. There appear to be numerous other faces

drawn onto the front cover as well. So, whether or not there is a spy element to

this story, there is also a romantic one. This is the enhanced picture:

And this is the original version, derived from a contemporary Press Photograph:

The drawings can be seen fairly easily, even in the original form of the

photograph. The Somerton Man has probably indicated by these drawings that he

wished to be in a family relationship with the Nurse.

I also think there are errors in the code, one of which may be deliberate, in the

last part of Line Three (with the result as PRSKY rather than QRSKY). Two other

errors might have arisen from a misreading of certain letters in a draft of the

code: with J misread as T and M as A, in Line Four, in the sequence TZAM.

(Intended sequence JZMM?)

Note: I take the first S in Line Four as a Z, and the second as an S -- the first is

'tagged' at the top, and the second is 'crossed' in its body. This would be the

reverse of the custom of crossing Z in order to distinguish it from 2, but this might

be another trick employed for this method of coding. I note that there is a

probable usage of V to represent both U and V, although this is not done in the

name 'Louis' (perhaps as this would be a giveaway). This is a closeup of the tagged

and crossed letters, S:

I think, indeed, that the man's code name was 'Louis'. The last five letters show

the flourish of his 'Code Signature':

Details of Proposed Solution to the Code and the Method of Analysis Used

According to my evaluations, and with three of my own three 'corrections', the

PlainText would read:

GENESVNIT

HQRSDIVBMKI

FXOPSH[Q]RSKY

FOXG[L]O[V]ELOUIS

I think this might translate into a message with a meaning like: Genetics Unit,

Headquarters, Division B, MK I, Foreign Operators/ions, Headquarters Kentucky.

Foxglove. Louis.

The Method used is as follows. First, I worked out a viable KeyWord, based on a

three-way match for the positions of Cipher, Possible PlainText and Possible

KeyWord. I came up with the potential Key -- 'UNHQS'. However, from the start, I

noticed that, with respect to my analysis, the positions did not conform to the

standard pattern of analysis for a Vigenere Table, which usually has set points,

with Cipher at the intersection of PlainText and KeyWord, thus:

There are, however, two arrangements other than this, which are entirely

arbitrary and interchangeable if one is working a code out manually, and I believe

that each of those two uncommon arrangements has been used in writing the

code. (Changes to the normal position will probably throw out any electronic

analysis done by computer, as the software will likely be based on the standard

pattern. If someone wished to check my proposed solution/s electronically, they

would need to experiment with the Code/Decode/KeyWord buttons in order to

find the appropriate positions -- for example, with PlainText as the coded

message and the Cipher as the PlainText. This may be why auto code-cracking

programmes have so far been unsuccessful.)

In my own analysis, I used the following sequence for all of the code (with the

exception of the first eight letters of Line Four, Letters 32-39), and with the

PlainText positioned at the point of Intersection of KeyWord and Cipher:

With MRGOABABD for Line One, and the KeyWord UNHQS, the PlainText result is

GENESVNIT, which almost certainly means GENES UNIT, with V used for U,

perhaps with the intention of making the code more difficult to decipher. There is

no shift along the alphabet for this line.

The PlainText-at-Intersect Pattern also gives TUHBC for the final five letters of

Line Four and then, with a shift of one space backwards along the alphabet,

STGAB. This would seem to be a signature, with PlainText result as LOUIS. This

supposition would fit nicely with the way in which these final five letters are

written, with a flourish, just as is a normal signature. It might also suggest that the

Somerton Man was in the habit of providing signatures-with-flair even at the end

of coded messages, or even that this code was not the only one that he had

worked out or passed on. (Note: it was a colleague who first pointed out to me

that these letters represented the word LOUIS. She also noted that the pattern

did not work on the other letters in the line in question. I thank her most heartily

for her invaluable input.) In any case, the demonstrated ability of the Somerton

Man to draw might have been reflected in some kind of artistic flair in presenting

his coded-signature. And the failure of the system of decoding to work on Letters

40-45 might suggest that there was a change at Letter 39. This is a hint that there

may be multiples of 13 letters involved in the coding/decoding process.

Line Two works out as PWEL as far as Letter 13 but, on a shift of Minus Three

reflects the actual Cipher MTBI, then continues as NQBOFUQ and, with a shift of

Minus One to the end of the line, it reflects the Cipher MPANETP. The PlainText

result is HQRSDIVBMKI.

Line Three works out as LKHZAN and then, on a shift of Plus One as far as Letter

26, as MLIABO, then as DKCSE but, with a shift of Minus 2 to the end of the line,

this gives BIAQC. However, if we take Letter 27 as a deliberate/unintended error

of Minus 3 instead of Minus 2, we have AIAQC. Letter 27 is the first letter in a new

sequence, and a deliberate error here might help to throw out the decoding

process. The overall result is FXOPSH[Q]RSKY, emended from FXOPSHPRSKY.

The final five letters of Line Four work out, as said above, to TUHBC and then,

with a shift of Minus 1 (from Letter 40 to the end of the line), as STGAB, giving the

PlainText word LOUIS.

This leaves the first eight letters of the Line Four (or Letters 32-39). These work

out by using an arrangement where the KeyWord is at the point of intersection of

PlainText and Cipher:

With the Coded Letters as is, the result is FOXGBOHE. This is much like the word

FOXGLOVE. And there has been much mention of Digitalis in relation to the

Tamam Shud case. Indeed, the Inquest of 1949 suggested that the Somerton Man

might have died of an overdose of Digitalis, which is derived from the Foxglove

Plant. If the word was once intended to represent PlainText FOXGLOVE, then this

may indicate some familiarity with the plant on the part of the Somerton Man.

Perhaps its use here indicates a password, or the name of a (then-)current

operation known to the Somerton Man. Perhaps he chose his own password

because of his awareness of Foxgloves.

So, how might such a change have come about in Line Four, from a possible

intended PlainText word, FOXGLOVE, to give FOXGBOHE?

The Cipher is currently ITTMTZAM. If we look at the third T as an error for J

(coming through from a draft, perhaps), and the A as a misreading of M (also

perhaps a misreading or an earlier version), then the Cipher ITTMJZMM can be

worked out, using the KeyWord sequence (without any shifts either back or forth)

as FOXGLOVE. (As I said, I take the tagged S as Z.)

Indications of Other KeyWords which might have been chosen for use

If the Somerton Man had to indicate that his chosen KeyWord was UNHQS, by

placing a cross over the O, then there must have been other possible KeyWords to

choose from, based on the letters A, E, I or O. But, since A is not a good choice for

a KeyWord in the Vigenere Cipher System, there might have been only three

other choices: E, I or O. A few possible keywords suggest that there were other

messages being sent, using this technique, either by several other people, or by

the Somerton Man on several different occasions. Indeed, had LOUIS been

working alone in sending his message(s), he would probably not have needed to

identify himself by using his code name.

The Code is Not Unbreakable and Relies on the Structure of the English

Language to Function

This is an elaborate code, and it has been worked out with a good deal of care.

But there are certain weaknesses in it because, in solving only certain parts of it,

one is able to work out the larger pattern around them. For example, there is only

an equivalence between the letters in first line, and shift of only one (backwards)

in the last five letters (which make up the 'signature'). This sequence of five

letters starts at Letter 40, and the method does not work from letters 32 to 39.

So, once a working sequence has been found, using a serviceable KeyWord, one

only has to seek other methods of decoding for the parts of the code which don't

conform to the first-known pattern/s. And, since 39 = 3 x 13, this shows a possible

pattern.

Also, there are signs that the Somerton Man uses English as his first language, and

that others were almost certainly using an English-based skeleton in producing

such coded messages. The fact that the code relies on sequences of 13 letters

indicates that the language is English (half of a possible 26). And, since the code

word UNHQS does not use the letter R for Headquarters, as appears in the

abbreviation for that word in the code itself, then we must assume that the

Somerton Man was schooled in the English language, and accustomed to

following a different pattern from the person who invented the KeyWord, since

he probably has two examples of HQRS (one with a correction) to signify

HeadQuarteRS. (The rule of abbreviation is to use the first letter of each syllable,

then the last letter of the normal word, then add an S to show the plural.) Thus

the Somerton Man is almost certainly a speaker of English, telling someone

(probably the Communists or the Russians) about certain activities at the Central

Intelligence Agency ('CIA'). And if he knew about the CIA, then he was either in

close contact with someone who worked there, or he worked there himself. If he

himself worked for the CIA, then he would have to have been American-born --

whether he was betraying his country or not.

The Message in the Code relates to the Activities of the CIA.

Line Two reads HQRSDIVBMKI. This might mean Headquarters, Division B, MK I.

This is an indication that the Somerton Man is talking about the Headquarters of

some organisation which did not need to be specified to his intended recipient/s.

But it would fit the requirements of the CIA, in which there are four Divisions: A,

B, C and D. The terminology has changed quite a bit over the years, but these four

are currently said to be -- Intelligence, Plans, Research and Support (in no

particular order). (I think 'B' was once said to be 'Special Activities'.)

Arguably, then, the Somerton Man is giving information about a Genetics Unit in

Division B of the Headquarters of the CIA, which would logically indicate the first

and main Headquarters Building, which was located in the Westout Building, 2430

E Street, Washington DC. (The HQ moved to Langley in Virginia many years later.)

Next, the letters MK appear in many CIA operations (as in MKBLUEBIRD,

MKARTICHOKE, AND MKULTRA) and they are frequently said to indicate that the

project is under the sponsorship of the 'Technical Services Division' of the CIA.

This specific Division, so named, was not set up until September, 1951, but the

terminology might well have been in use before that. (This would need to be

checked.) The CIA was set up in September, 1947, following the passing of the

National Security Act in the USA. Previous organisations were The Office of

Strategic Services (which handled espionage activities behind enemy lines but was

disbanded after the War), and the Central Intelligence Group (set up in January,

1946 to organise covert activities). The Office of Strategic Services was dedicated

to special operations, to the gathering of intelligence, weaponry, and to the

creation and use of special devices and spy gear -- as were its two successors, the

Central Intelligence Group and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Line three FXOPSH[Q]RSKY is probably a reference to Foreign Operations or

Operatives (at the CIA) in Louisville, Kentucky (Ky). The Somerton Man may be

saying that the Foreign Operatives have set up their (informal?) Headquarters in

Kentucky. (It is known that, at some point, the CIA conducted experiments on

prisoners at Kentucky, using drugs such as LSD.)

Indications that the Somerton Man was working as a Double Agent.

The Somerton Man is passing on information for the benefit of someone else,

undoubtedly the Russians/Communists. He might actually have been one of a

party of spies or traitors. Yet if he had been identified as a traitor by the CIA, then

he would presumably have been dealt with by the CIA well before he arrived

(back) in Australia, or might never even have been permitted to come to Australia

in 1948. Indeed, the information is fairly low key, and there are indications that

he was working with the CIA, rather than against it.

The CIA trained their agents to use various techniques of deception. The

operatives had hollowed pencils, in which they placed drugs or messages. They

learned how to roll paper very tightly and place it so as to avoid concealment.

They learned to tie their shoelaces in a certain way, so as to perhaps send a

message to a contact or a fellow agent, telling them whether they had

information to pass on or not. (One method was to start with a horizontal lacing

and then go to crossed lacing.) The CIA had receivers built into the heels of their

agents' shoes, so that they could transmit messages a short distance to a listening

operative (one, for example, who might have been located in the next room).

These shoes were handmade. And the Kryptos Code, which was recently set up by

someone from the CIA, was set down in four different parts. It was built on the

Vigenere system, and it had a deliberate error.

So the Somerton Man appears in Australia on 30 November, 1948 (having

necessarily arrived here some days earlier). He is wearing shoes which are almost

new, as there is very little sign of wear on the soles. They are handmade. The

laces are tied differently, which would suggest (if he was, indeed, a spy) that he

had sent a message to someone in the short time that he had been wearing them,

or that he was planning to do so at some time in the near future. This is a normal

view of his shoes, alongside a negative, enhanced version, intended to make It

easier to see how his laces were tied. Each shoe has a lace going straight across

on the bottom eyelet. But the left shoe then has two crossed laces, whilst the

right shoe only has one cross. So, if this was a method taught by the CIA, the

Somerton Man would have been giving himself away to the CIA if he had really

been a Traitor to the Cause. The original and enhanced photos appear thus:

The Man also has six lead pencils in his possession. There was a piece of paper,

tightly rolled, found in his pocket some months after his death, bearing the words

'Tamam Shud'. This phrase roughly translate as 'it is finished'. The paper was

hidden so well it was almost missed prior to the Inquest of 1949. The Man had an

undercollar of felt on his US-made jacket, and there was a mend which showed

that there was once a gap there. (Perhaps he had been smuggling messages, or

had wanted the Russians/Communists to think that he had been.) And he was

using a code which was built up in sections, using different techniques, based on

Vigenere, and containing what may be a deliberate error. So, he would have to

have been fairly dumb to use the techniques of the CIA to try to betray the CIA, or

to use a code probably set up by the CIA to betray the trust placed in him by the

CIA.

The conclusion? He was very likely a double agent. Indeed, the content of the

coded message on the cover of the Rubaiyat does seem rather banal, although

there is no telling what could have been said in other messages that might have

been passed on.

There were signs that the Somerton Man had recently been travelling, as he had a

new suitcase, with the travel label torn off. There are indications that he had

come from the USA. He was wearing a jacket in which the stitching could only

have been done in America. It was said that he had an American comb in his

possession. And he had torn nearly all of the labels off his clothes - except that

three of the items in his suitcase variously bore the names Kean/Keane/T Keane,

all apparently written with an indelible pen (or laundry marker). This might have

been a red herring, and he might have been using the name Kean/e as his cover

name while working for the CIA, but have devised the name Louis as his code

name. In a situation where his life might have depended on anonymity, was he

really stupid enough to leave these markings on his clothes if Kean/e was his real

name? He was almost certainly employing a cover.

What was the Somerton Man doing in Australia in November, 1948?

The Somerton Man was here at the general time of the United Nations Economic

Commission on Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), a conference which was held at

Lapstone in the Blue Mountains of NSW, and which was scheduled to start on

Monday, 29 November, 1948. There were attendees from many nations, including

Russia, although most of the Russians did not arrive at Lapstone until a few days

into the conference, given that their chartered flight had been held up by fog in

London for four days. Yet, if the Somerton Man had been a delegated or

documented member of the UN team, then he would have had to be in Lapstone

on 29 November, rather than on his way to Glenelg/Somerton.

It is thought that he came into Adelaide by train, as he left his suitcase in the

Luggage Room at Adelaide Railway Station. Any trip either from Melbourne or

(more likely) from Sydney would have taken a day or two. And any trip back

would not have gotten him back to Lapstone for the start of the ECAFE

conference. But he was using the KeyWord UNHQS. So perhaps there was some

kind of political link, after all. Yet, there is no indication that he was a documented

delegate to that conference, or that he was expected to attend the conference in

any capacity at all. Perhaps he was in the country to examine the behaviour of the

delegates before the event took place, or to run some kind of security check on

the venue. Perhaps he was an expert in the installation of bugging devices.

Did the Somerton Man wish to settle down with the Nurse?

Had the Somerton Man decided that he wanted to escape his job and settle down

with the Nurse? Was he just carrying the Rubaiyat, at this point of time, because

of an infatuation with the Nurse? (The Nurse was in the habit of quoting from the

Rubaiyat.) Had the message on the back of the book become obsolete, and so

given him the opportunity to draw pictures all over it?

If the Somerton Man had come into Australia from America in late 1948, he might

have been here for at least a week or so before he died. There was a brand new

Australian-made (Pelaco) shirt in his suitcase (with the buttonholes still in factory

condition), so maybe he bought it for going out with the Nurse. He had 6d in his

suitcase, which was the only money found on him, but he had travelled on a bus,

bought a pasty, and purchased a train ticket to Henley Beach on 30 November, so

he must have been in the country long enough to change some money and to buy

a new shirt. He had also been here long enough to buy an Australian Lettergram,

some air mail stickers and a packet of envelopes, and then to post things off in the

mail. He might not have been on the run at that point of purchasing and posting,

if he was ultimately on the run at all. The Air Mail stickers show he was planning

to post something overseas. The Australian Lettergram could only have been used

in Australia, and such lettergrams were sold separately, rather than in a packet. It

may even be the case that he had sent a letter to the last-known address of the

Nurse after he arrived in Australia.

Why did nobody in Australia identify the Somerton Man?

It is likely that he came to Australia as a secret agent, and that he intended to

meet or to interact with someone, or to investigate them. America was very

concerned about the Communist element in Australia, as also about the leaks of

classified information from Australia, and had refused after May, 1946, to pass on

classified information to Australia. There were several known Communist

sympathisers in the Australian Dept of External Affairs. Maybe the Somerton Man

was trying to pass on generalised information, with a view to finding out where

certain material was going, and by what route. But at some stage he appears to

have changed his plans and gone to visit the Nurse. The main part of the Russian

Delegation to ECAFE did not arrive in Sydney until 2 December, 1948. Perhaps he

thought he'd visit the Nurse in the meantime, or maybe he had performed his

duties as an observer for the US government, and then had some time off.

The Somerton Man was in Glenelg/Somerton on Tuesday 30 November, and was

found dead on the beach on 1 December. He is said to have died of an unknown

poison, probably Digitalis. But might he have fallen foul of the Communists in

Australia, or of the Russians? Might his cover have been blown? Or, given that

there was a small tear in the back of his shirt, and a bloodstain (albeit not a recent

one) on the under side of that tear, then was he slowly dying, having been

poisoned at some earlier stage by a Russian agent? (As indicated above, had he

been outed by the CIA, he would have been removed from the scene much

earlier.)

Might he have been looking for somewhere to hide out, and decided to commit

suicide when he realised that the Nurse was (still) with someone else? The couple

surrounded by smiling people (or faces) on the front of the Rubaiyat paints a

picture of what was in his mind -- but might he have decided that he had been

'betrayed in love', and killed himself, without even going back for his suitcase,

given that he had nowhere else to run to? (Had he seen the Nurse with a child on

30 November, he might have thought she had thrown him over at short notice a

couple of years earlier.) Or perhaps he threw the book into the back of a car

instead of the nearest bin because it contained pictures of her and him together,

happy and surrounded by smiling friends. Perhaps he had formulated an

elaborate picture of happiness for himself, with wife and child, away from political

intrigue, but then discovered that it was never going to happen. The Mystery will

probably remain unsolved until we can identify this man.

However, the Somerton Man arguably worked for the CIA and, historically, the

CIA gives out no information on its agents, and does not even tell their families

how or where they died. This may be why the Somerton Man chose to throw the

Rubaiyat into the back of a car, rather than to place it in the nearest bin. When

the finding of the book was made known in the media, his whereabouts might

ultimately have been conveyed to the CIA, and his death notified to anybody who

was close to him. If someone worked for the CIA, and something happened to

them, they would not expect to be identified. He has not been identified so far.

Nonetheless, had he betrayed the CIA, then he would surely not have wished to

draw attention to his whereabouts, even in death. The Traitor-to-the-CIA Theory

thus, arguably, fails.

How to Check the Proposed Solution

Some have said that my proposed solution does not work using the Vigenere

Method. However, if you find an electronic coder/decoder and play with the axes,

you will see that it works fine, for all letters except Letters 32-39, although you

will then have to apply the proposed shifts along the alphabet for all but those

letters.

With all letters apart from 32-39 as Input, and the KeyWord UNHQS, a Decode

should give:

GENESVNIT | HQRSDIVBMKI | FXOPSHPRSKY | FOXGBOHELOUIS

UNHQS

MRGOABABD | PWELNQBOFUQ | LKHZANCKCSE | SHHOHBAOTUHBC

(The 'decode' will be necessary as the PlainText or Input has been placed at the

Point of Intersection of KeyWord and Cipher.)

Then, without Letters 32-39 in the first instance, but then with a change of axes,

with Input as NHQSUNHQ, and with KeyWord as FOXGBOHE, the method should

provide Cipher or Output on a Decode as:

ITTMTZAM

Then, with the same method for Letters 32-39, with Input as NHQSUNHQ, and

KeyWord as FOXGLOVE, the technique should provide Cipher or Output on a

Decode as:

ITTMJZMM. (This is my emended version, changing T to J and A to M.)

Remaining Questions -- if explanations are needed, please see the Wiki site

How many times might this code have been used otherwise, either by the

Somerton Man or by any other persons?

What happened to the Somerton Man's other pair of shoes, given that the ones

he was wearing had only minimal wear on the soles?

Was the Somerton Man working as an Agent in September/October, 1946, when

he met the Nurse in Sydney? (Because, if he wasn't, she might have known him by

his real name. And that name might be found in the available travel records.)

Might there be a letter from the Somerton Man, written to the Nurse, still sitting

in the relevant Dead Letter Office? Or might the Nurse's Husband-to-be have

picked it up from the General Post Office box which he had rented in early 1947?

Might the levels of lead in the hair of the Somerton Man provide a reasonably

good indication of the time that he had been travelling?

Might the Somerton Man, with his shortened scissors, cut-down knife,

electrician's screwdriver, and remnant of tinned zinc sheeting, have been sent to

Australia to bug the quarters of the Russian Delegation to the ECAFE conference

at Lapstone? Perhaps he was an expert in these things, even though he had

previously had a different occupation: that of Dancer or, more specifically, Ballet

Dancer. The CIA was known to have sent experts to bug people's rooms.