Searching for the 1934 Pyjama Girl and Finding the Face of the 1948 Somerton Man
In my quest to find further details on the Pyjama Girl for my analysis of the 1944 Inquest file, I searched with “Pajama Girl”.
Curiously it turned up this link:
The cover image of the CD is a wedding picture
Notice the Kenatone recording was of Leo singing the “Pajama [Girl] Murders Song” written by Wally Portingale. Hidden in the background of the picture is a man and a woman I tend to believe to be Carl and Dorothy Webb (Mr and Mrs Somerton Man).
Knowing the wedding took place in Melbourne in 1943 is a good indication of who could be at Leo’s wedding during WW2. It shows his brother John Russell Keane and Leo at the front after getting married. Notice both of these men are in uniform.
The military records of both John Russell and Leo Vivian Keane can be tracked down on the NAA site. John/Jack Russell was killed in Ireland on a test flight where he was the pilot carrying out a stunt. Leo went into military intelligence and left to take up a radio script-writing career and eventually advertising.
But it is apparent from the photograph that the person who may be Carl Webb wasn’t wearing a military uniform. It has been assumed that as an engineer he had some form of military service exemption.
People who see the image of Carl Webb at Leo’s wedding often instantly reference the clay bust. If the image is improved with AI we get to:
The AI software has had to make up details of the face — for example, the nose. But it does highlight strong crease lines above the nose.
I believe it is fairly convincing evidence that Carl Webb (the Somerton Man) and his wife Dorothy was at Leo Keane’s wedding. Further, there were strong ties between Carl and the Keane family as the tie located in his suitcase in 1948 in the Adelaide station was labelled ‘Keane’.
Postscript: Researchers using familysearch have located 1942 as the year of Leo’s wedding whereas the details above say 1943. Also John Russell’s leave from the RAAF was 10/8/1943 to 16/8/1943 implying this was the period in which the wedding occurred. If we were to hazard a guess to the date of the wedding we would say 14/8/1943 because it was a Saturday.
Pyjama Girl research:
and:
