Taman Shud Case - Timeline

Timeline

• 1906 April: Alfred Boxall born in London, England.
• 1912 October: "Prestige Johnson", Jestyn's future husband is born in central Queensland.
• 1921 "Teresa Powell" (Jestyn) is born in Marrickville, New South Wales.
• 1944 June: Alf Boxall's daughter 'Lesley' is born.
• 3 June 1945: "George" Joseph Saul Haim Marshall is found dead from poisoning in Ashton Park, Mosman, Sydney. A copy of the Rubaiyat was found open next to his body. Ashton Park is directly adjacent to Clifton Gardens where Jestyn met Boxall two months later.
• 1945 August: Jestyn gives Alf Boxall an inscribed copy of the Rubaiyat over drinks at the Clifton Gardens Hotel, Sydney prior to his being posted overseas on active service.
• 1946: Jestyn is pregnant and moves to Mentone, Victoria to temporarily live with her parents.
• Early 1947: Jestyn moves to a suburb of Adelaide and changes her surname to that of her future husband.
• 1947 July: Jestyn's son 'Leslie' is born.
• 30 November 1948. 8:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.: The Somerton Man is presumed to have arrived in Adelaide by train. He buys a ticket for the 10:50 a.m. train to Henley Beach but did not use it. This ticket was the first sold of only three issued between 6:15 a.m. and 2 p.m. by this particular ticket clerk for the Henley Beach train.
• Between 11:00 a.m. and 12 noon: Checks a brown suitcase into the train station cloak room.
• after 11:15 a.m.: Buys a 7d bus ticket on a bus that departed at 11:15 a.m. from the south side of North Tce (in front of the Strathmore Hotel) opposite the railway station. He may have boarded at a later time elsewhere in the city as his ticket was the sixth of nine sold between the railway station and South Tce however, he only had a 15-minute window from the earliest time he could have checked his suitcase (the luggage room was around 60 metres from the bus stop). It is not known which stop he alighted at. The bus terminated at Somerton at 11:44am however, enquiries indicated that he "must have" alighted at Glenelg, a short distance from the St. Leonard's hotel. This stop is less than 1 kilometre (3,300 ft) north of the Moseley St address of Jestyn, which was itself 400mtr from where the body was found.
• 7 p.m.–8 p.m.: Various witness sightings.
• 10 p.m.–11 p.m.: Estimated time he had eaten the pasty based on time of death.
• 1 December, 2 a.m.: Estimated time of death. The time was estimated by a "quick opinion" on the state of rigor mortis while the ambulance was in transit. As a suspected suicide no attempt to determine the correct time was made. As poisons affect the progression of rigor, 2 a.m. is probably inaccurate.
• 6:30 a.m.: Found dead by John Lyons and two men with a horse.
• 14 January 1949: Adelaide Railway Station finds the brown suitcase belonging to the man.
• 6 June: The dead body of Clive Mangnoson is found 20 km away from Somerton by Neil McRae.
• 6–14 June: The piece of paper bearing the inscription "Tamám Shud" is found in a concealed fob pocket.
• 17 and 21 June: Coroner's Inquest
• 22 July: A man hands in the copy of the Rubaiyat he had found on 30 November containing the secret code. Police later match the "Tamám Shud" paper to the book.
• 26 July: The unlisted phone number is traced to "Jestyn" in Glenelg. Shown the plaster cast by Paul Lawson, "Jestyn" could not confirm or exclude that the man was Alf Boxall. Lawson's diary entry for that day uses the name "Mrs Thompson" and stated that she had a "nice figure" and is "very acceptable" (referring to the level of beauty) which allows the possibility of an affair with the Somerton man. She was 27 years old in 1948. In a later interview Lawson described her behaviour as being very odd that day. Also she appeared as if she was about to faint. The following day Sydney detectives interview Alf Boxall. "Jestyn" requests that her real name be withheld because she didn't want her husband to know she knew Alf Boxall. Although she was in fact not married at this time and her name was Teresa Powell, the name she gave police was Teresa Johnson with her real name not being discovered until 2002.
• Early 1950: "Prestige Johnson's" divorce is finalised.
• 1950 May: Jestyn marries "Prestige Johnson".
• 1950s: The Rubaiyat is lost.
• 14 March 1958: The Coroner's Inquest is continued. Jestyn and Alf Boxall are not mentioned. No new findings are recorded and the inquest is ended with an adjournment sine die.
• 1986: The Somerton Man's brown suitcase and contents are destroyed as "no longer required".
• 1994: The Chief Justice of Victoria, John Harber Phillips, studies the evidence and concludes that poisoning was due to digitalis.
• 1995: Jestyn's husband Prestige dies.
• 17 August 1995: Alf Boxall dies.
• 2007 May: Jestyn dies.
• 2009 March: Jestyn's son dies.