The Arm That Rose Before He Died

Name: The Arm That Rose Before He Died
Genre: Documentary

Witness by witness, the final evening of the Somerton Man unfolds around one disturbing movement.

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Transcript

A half-smoked cigarette rested on the dead man's coat collar.
His body was found Dec. 1, 1948, at Somerton Park beach near Adelaide.
Police got word at 6:30 a.m. after someone found him.
He lay with his head against the seawall, legs extended, feet crossed.
The previous evening, witnesses saw someone resembling him lying in that same place.
Another couple watched him from 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. They took him for a sleeper.
They thought he was drunk or asleep and did not investigate.
Another witness reported a man looking down at the sleeping figure from beach steps.
His fingers bore yellow stains linked to heavy smoking, with another cigarette behind his ear.
The pathologist estimated he died around 2 a.m. December 1st.
Autopsy found severe congestion, and his spleen was about three times normal size.
Yet tests failed to reveal any foreign substance in his body.
One couple saw the man extend his right arm fully, then drop it limply.
Coroner couldn't determine identity, cause of death, or if witnesses saw the same man.
Investigators circulated his fingerprints, but no match came back.
By December 10th, police still lacked positive ID and embalmed the body.
The coroner later found the death was probably caused by a glucoside poison. But he refused to decide whether it was self-administered.

Pathologist John Dwyer would become convinced the death was not natural—and suspect a poison the tests could not see.

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