INTRODUCTION

THE DANETTA CODE & THE SOMERTON MAN CASE

There was more than 1 mysterious death…

Early in the morning of December 1st. 1948, the body of a man was found on Somerton Beach near Glenelg in South Australia. He had died of poisoning.

Despite efforts at the time and since the man has never been identified. However, in May of 2021, the remains of the man were exhumed with the intent of extracting DNA samples which could lead to at least identifying from where he came. At the time of writing this book, results have not been published.

It has long been held that the man may have been a spy involved in espionage related to weapons developments and testing that were underway in South Australia at the time. This may or may not be the case.

Apart from the man found on Somerton Beach, at least 3 other mysterious deaths from that same era have been identified with a possible 4th. The existence of a link between three known cases has been substantiated. The link was found in 3 distinct pieces of documentary evidence. It takes the form of an acrostically coded name, 'DANETTA'. The exact same acrostic method and code name were used in each case.

Other documents have been found containing codes that were concealed using a technique developed by British MI6 in 1943 and which is documented in one of their manuals. These coded documents and the technique used to recover the concealed codes are included in the series.

In the course of this research, I have had access to a range of relevant files from MI6, MI5, CIA CREST database, FBI Vault and input from a serving FBI agent as well as Australian Military Intelligence and ASIO. Separately I have spoken with Alexander Vassiliev, the ex-KGB author of Vassiliev's notes. (A copy of those notes is included in this series). The latter provided valuable information about the case of a Soviet Diplomat and ex NKVD man whom I had been researching in connection with the Somerton Man because of their physical resemblance. This man was recalled from New York to Moscow in July 1948. He boarded the Soviet ship, the POBEDA, at the end of July, the destination was ODESA.

There is a lengthy story behind that voyage which included the diversion of the ship to Cairo to collect some 2000 Armenians to be repatriated and who were subsequently landed at BATUMI on the Black Sea. During the last leg of the journey to ODESA, there was a major fire on board the POBEDA, 40 passengers and 2 crew perished. Amongst those who died was a high-ranking Chinese Nationalist officer, second in command to Chiang Kai-shek, who was defecting to the Soviet Union. An Australian Government Minister at the time, had a close friendship with Chiang Kai-shek, Leader of the Chinese Nationalist Government.

Some days after the POBEDA left Cairo, a ship carrying European displaced persons from Marseilles also docked in Egypt, Port Said. The name of the ship was the DERNA. It was heading for Fremantle and Melbourne. It is known that several new crew members joined this ship in Port Said as did a number of stowaways.

Regarding the Soviet Diplomat, the last photograph taken of him was in 1947, (there have been no photographs of this man found since then). I have the original hard copy of that particular photograph. CIA files show that all of this man's files and photographs were destroyed in 1954. A request for information regarding the man and whether he had been recruited by US intelligence sources drew the Glomar response, 'We can neither confirm nor deny…'

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