Editing Leonard Douglas Brown (section)

==Len and the Somerton case==
Len was assigned to the Somerton Case two days before the dead man’s suitcase was located in the cloakroom at Adelaide Railway Station, in January 1949, and was moved to another case at the end of the inquest in 1949.  This means that Len unfortunately never saw the body on the beach first hand, was not on the case when the Omar Khayyam was eventually handed in, and neither did he meet the mysterious nurse at the centre of the drama.

[[Errol Canny]] was the detective assigned to interview the nurse, and Len remembers that Errol always thought the nurse was holding back information. Len also remembers that [[John Burton Cleland|Burtie Cleland]] had to use tweezers to extract the tightly rolled-up piece of paper from the dead man’s fob pocket. This implies the paper was very tightly jammed into the crease of the pocket. This is possibly suggestive that the paper was not planted on the body, but was placed in there by the man himself who was anxious not to lose it.

Although Len was not on the case when the missing ''Rubaiyat'' was handed in, he said he did briefly see the book at some later stage. Due to his brief contact with the book, and the passage of time, we cannot overly rely on Len’s memory of the book, but he felt he could remember the following:
*Len remembers that the code and nurse’s phone number were in the back of the book in pencil.  The phone number was in very tiny lettering. Len stated that the phone number was written under the code. (We are now able confirm that the code was indeed on the back dust cover of the book. Len's testimony that the phone number was below that code and not beside it does concur with physical evidence from what we now believe to be the exact size of the book).
*Len remembers that were two phone numbers in the back (there are many conflicting reports about the number of phone numbers, Len’s testimony unfortunately adds to the confusion).
*Len remembers that the Tamam Shud paper matched the tear in the book. (Unfortunately photos we have today contradict this. Also the newspaper reports say forensic tests under a microscope were made to match the paper fragment to the book. This would have been unnecessary if Len was right about the tears matching).
*Len remembers the book was very roughly 6” by 5” in size. (The dust cover dimensions are in fact 5.5” by 4.5” so Len's memory concurs reasonably accurately).
*Len believes the last time he saw the Somerton Man's copy of the ''Rubaiyat'' was about 1950. (It is likely the book went missing not long after).
*Len was not able to remember if the book was illustrated or not. (We can now confirm the book did have a few illustrations, but not many).

A further detail is that Len was adamant that a man who handed in the ''Rubaiyat'' was a chemist by trade.

===Timeline===
* '''1948''' October, Len Brown is promoted to detective.
* '''1949''' January 8th, Det.-Sgt. [[Raymond Lionel Leane|Lionel Leane]] is assigned to the case.
* '''1949''' January 12th, police detective Len Brown is assigned to the case.
* '''1949''' January 14th, Adelaide Railway Station find a brown suitcase apparently belonging to the dead man.
* '''1949''' January 19th, police finally took possession of the suitcase.
* '''1949''' February, there were eight different possible identifications of the body, including a missing stable hand, a worker on a steamship, a Swedish man, and a man from Darwin.
* '''1949''' June, [[John Cleland|Burtie Cleland]] re-examined the body and noticed the dead man's shoes were remarkably clean and polished, implying the man would not have walked on the beach much if at all. About this time Cleland found the piece of paper bearing the inscription "Tamám Shud" tightly concealed in the dead man's fob pocket. 
* '''1949''' June 14th, the Somerton man is buried.
* '''1949''' June 15th, [[Paul Francis Lawson|Paul Lawson]] completes finishing touches to the bust. Len Brown, Lionel Leane, and Burtie Cleland inspect the bust. 
* '''1949''' June 17th, The coronal inquest begins in the [[IOOF]] building at 11-13 Flinder's Street, Adelaide. 
* '''1949''' June 21st, The coronal inquest ended inclusively with an [[Sine die|adjournment ''sine die'']]. Len Brown moves on and is assigned to another case.
* '''1977''' September, Len Brown is filmed  for the ABC ''Inside Story'' documentary on the Somerton case.
* '''1977''' December 31st, Len Brown retires.
* '''1978''' August 24th, Len Brown appearance in the ABC ''Inside Story'' documentary goes to air.