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Speaker 1: Approcha Production. Hi. Welcome to Silent Secrets, a bedtime podcast

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Speaker 1: for curious minds. I'm jay, I'm glad you're here. This

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Speaker 1: is your time to let go of today, to settle

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Speaker 1: in and slow down, and let curiosity gently carry you

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Speaker 1: towards sleep. In each episode, I'm going to share a

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Speaker 1: true story of the unexplained, not to alarm you, but

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Speaker 1: to quiet your mind, to remind you that the world

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Speaker 1: is full of wonder and some things we'll never truly understand.

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Speaker 1: So take a deep breath, feel your body sink into comfort,

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Speaker 1: let the weight of the day drift away as we

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Speaker 1: begin tonight's story. This story begins with a man lying

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Speaker 1: on a quiet stretch of sand, his head dropped against

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Speaker 1: the sea wall, legs crossed, shoes polished. To the first

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Speaker 1: person who saw him, he could have been sleeping, maybe

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Speaker 1: a traveler resting after a long night. When they got closer,

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Speaker 1: they realized he wasn't sleeping. He was dead. It's December one,

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight, on Sumriton Beach, just south of Adelaide

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Speaker 1: in Australia. The man carried no wallet, no idea, and

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Speaker 1: no clues to say who he was. His suit was clean,

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Speaker 1: and pressed, yet every label being carefully removed. The mystery

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Speaker 1: of this man, who he was, how he died, and

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Speaker 1: why he carried a single cryptic note that read tamim

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Speaker 1: should as puzzled investigators for over seventy years. It's early morning.

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Speaker 1: A man named John Lyons and his wife are walking

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Speaker 1: along the beach. It's a cool but pleasant start to summer,

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Speaker 1: with the horizons glowing softly as the sun rises. A

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Speaker 1: spot a man slumped against the sea wall, his body

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Speaker 1: half sitting, half lying as though he's resting, but something

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Speaker 1: about his posture captures lion's attention. His head is tilted unnaturally.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't stir when they pass. Later that morning, another

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Speaker 1: man approaches and realizes the truth. The man is dead.

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Speaker 1: When police arrive, they find a puzzling scene. The man

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Speaker 1: is dressed smartly in a gray suit, white shirt, and

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Speaker 1: polish shoes. There is no hat, unusual for nineteen forty eight.

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Speaker 1: His hands are relaxed, there's no sign of a struggle.

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Speaker 1: His pockets contain ordinary items a train ticket, a bus ticket,

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Speaker 1: a pack of chewing gum, a comb, and a packet

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Speaker 1: of cigarettes. But the man had no wallet, no idea,

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Speaker 1: nothing that told them who he was. Even the tags

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Speaker 1: on his clothing have been cut off, as though someone

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Speaker 1: wanted to erase his identity. An autopsy is conducted the

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Speaker 1: next day. The results are strange. The man is in

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Speaker 1: good health, fit and strong. He is around forty to

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Speaker 1: fifty years old, but his organs, his liver, spleen, and

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Speaker 1: stomach are congested as if he was poisoned. Yet there

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Speaker 1: is no poison found. Forensic tests come back inconclusive. There

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Speaker 1: are other strange things. His pupils are unusually small, his

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Speaker 1: blood is thickened. Doctors are baffled. It could have been

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Speaker 1: a rare, undetectable toxin, a secret compound. The case grows

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Speaker 1: stranger with every passing day. A week later, a small

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Speaker 1: suitcase is discovered in the Adelaide railway station's cloak room.

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Speaker 1: It's traced back to the Somerton man inside a close

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Speaker 1: that matches style, but once again all the labels have

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Speaker 1: been cut out. There's nothing to identify him. One item

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Speaker 1: stands out, a coat with a unique type of stitching

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Speaker 1: traced to the United States. Could this man have been American?

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Speaker 1: Then comes the most chilling discovery. During his second in

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Speaker 1: search of his clothing, police find a tiny, rolled up

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Speaker 1: piece of paper hidden in a small secret pocket of

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Speaker 1: his trousers. On it are just two words, tamim should

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Speaker 1: The phrase is Persian. It means it is finished. Investigators

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Speaker 1: quickly realize it comes from the last page of a book,

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Speaker 1: a famous collection of poetry. The search for the book begins.

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Speaker 1: Weeks later, a man comes forward with a copy of

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Speaker 1: the book that he found tossed on the back seat

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Speaker 1: of his car parked near Summit and Beach. Inside the

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Speaker 1: book they find two strange things. First, fate handwritten code

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Speaker 1: random letters in a row, which experts believe may be

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Speaker 1: an encrypted message, And second, a telephone number. The number

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Speaker 1: belongs to a local nurse, Jessica Thompson, who lives just

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Speaker 1: a few hundred meters from where the man was found.

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Speaker 1: When police show Jessica a photo of the Somerton man,

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Speaker 1: she reportedly reacts with shock, even fear. Witnesses claim she

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Speaker 1: turned pale, but she denied knowing him. Did she know him?

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Speaker 1: Was there a romantic connection or something more secret, perhaps espionage?

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Speaker 1: In nineteen forty eight, the Cold War was beginning to

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Speaker 1: heat up. Adelaide wasn't just any city. It was near

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Speaker 1: a military research site, including the testing of top secret weapons.

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Speaker 1: Some believe the Somerton Man was a spy killed with

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Speaker 1: untraceable poison. Others think he was a jilted lover who

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Speaker 1: left a cryptic message of goodbye. The code found in

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Speaker 1: the book has never been solved. Some codebreakers believe it

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Speaker 1: could be shorthand for something deeply personal, while others say

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Speaker 1: it's a spy cipher. Even with modern DNA analysis, the

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Speaker 1: case remains largely unsolved. In twenty twenty two, researchers announced

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Speaker 1: they had traced him to a man named Web from Melbourne,

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Speaker 1: but even this raised more questions than answers. As you

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Speaker 1: drift off the sleep, imagine the sands of Somerton Beach,

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Speaker 1: now quiet under the fading sunset. The waves washed the shore,

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Speaker 1: just as they did on that morning in nineteen forty eight,

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Speaker 1: when a man with no name lay still against the

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Speaker 1: sea wall. Who was he a lover, the spy, the wanderer?

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Speaker 1: Why did he carry those final words tamim should as

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Speaker 1: though he knew the end had come. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: listening to silent secrets. I hope to know this story

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Speaker 1: has given your mind something soft to wander through as

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Speaker 1: you drift towards rest, but the quieter the night. Wrap

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Speaker 1: around you now and know that mysteries will still be

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Speaker 1: here tomorrow. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and let's sleep

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Speaker 1: take over until we share another secret next time. Good

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Speaker 1: Night must