The Taman Shud Case is one of the great enduring crime mysteries, up there with the identity of the Zodiac Killer and the mystery of Jack the Ripper. It all begins with a body found on Somerton Beach in Australia on December 1, 1948. To quote Wikipedia, this is a murder case which involves "the use of an undetectable poison, lack of identification, the possibility of unrequited love, and the involvement of a secret code in a very rare book."
The body in question is that of a middle-aged man in excellent physical condition. He was dressed in clothing which was high-quality and fashionable at the time, although somewhat out of season. Although the weather had been quite hot (since December 1 is the peak of summer in Australia) he was wearing a sweater over a button-down cotton shirt, and a double-breasted wool jacket.
He had no distinguishing marks, his dental records were not on file, his pockets contained no ID, and all of the labels had been cut out of his clothing. An autopsy showed signs consistent with a fatal poisoning, although toxicology reports at the time were unable to detect any unusual chemicals in his system. (Recent analysis is that digitalis was the most likely culprit.)
In the days which followed, he was also linked to a brown suitcase. And eventually coroners found a tiny scrap of paper with the words "taman shud" rolled up and tucked deep into a small pocket in the man's pants. The phrase means "ended," and police eventually tracked it down to the last sentence of an incredibly rare copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which had been left in the back seat of a stranger's unlocked car.
In the back of the book, police found a bunch of scribbled letters which are presumably a code. It also included the phone number of a woman who served as a nurse during WWII. She had a meaningful connection to the Rubaiyat, and to a young soldier named Boxall, but Boxall was later found unharmed and with his copy of the Rubaiyat undamaged.
The nurse (who goes by the name "Jestyn") claimed no knowledge of the dead man. However, she had given birth to a son who was 18 months old at the time the man died.
The dead man had two extremely unusual genetic conditions: a dental condition causing him to lack both lateral incisors, and a quirk in the shape of his ears. In 2010 a researcher analyzed a picture of Jestyn's son (who died in 2009) and found that he has the same genetic abnormalities. An unlikely coincidence, to say the least! But as with so many other elements of the case, it only brings up more questions. This is one mystery which is not likely to be solved any time soon!