"Taman Shud"?

[Frederick J. Parker]

First of all, let me say that I have looked all through all threads on The Colorado Kid.

It surprises me that not one person here brought up the Australian "Taman Shud" case in reference to this novel, especially since the novel is so much on point with the case.

I'm a newbie, and not sure how posting links to other sites would be received, but you can easily find the details by doing a search for ' "Taman Shud" Case '. There is even a fairly good Australian Facebook page on the case that one could check out, but only after learning the facts of the case.

I have to admit that after reading The Colorado Kid, I felt rather disappointed because of the sheer number of similarities that existed with the real case.

I would be interested in anyone else's reaction after they do their research and see how they feel about this.

[GNTLGNT]

The "Kid" is one of many, that I've wished would have gone on longer....

[DeathStalker]

According to Wikipedia Taman Shud Case -

"The Somerton Man in popular culture
Stephen King alludes to the case heavily in his novel The Colorado Kid which in turn inspired the series Haven.
There is a reference to this death in the novel Hill of Grace by Stephen Orr (ISBN 1-86254-648-7)."

Don't know if Mr. King gave them this info or what, but that's what's on Wiki now.

[Frederick J. Parker]

I don't know either, DeathStalker, but thanks for drawing my attention to what Wikipedia currently says. I had never seen it there previously, but it has been a good six years since I got The Colorado Kid for Christmas, back in 2005, and I recall checking the Wikipedia entries after I read the novel to try to see why the episode in the book seemed so much like something I had read before.

It was an uncanny feeling at the time because I felt that I had seen something very similar, but at the time could not put my finger on where I may have seen it, whether it was something I had seen on TV or read somewhere else. My tastes tend toward reading history and true crime (and occasional fiction); as for TV watching, I have always liked documentaries and have watched a lot of them, although I do watch "conventional" TV too.

It was almost like an earworm to me and I had to figure it out, because it bothered me. I tried to research the Maine case that SK mentions in the novel's Afterword, but could find nothing, but I was sure at the time that the case I had heard of had nothing to do with a missing woman, it had to do with a man that was found dead on a beach somewhere. At the time, the Wikipedia entry mentioned nothing about the book being based on a real case, neither the one that SK mentions, nor the one I was sure I had heard about. I searched the books in my personal library to no avail, but it was online at a site that deals with unsolved mysteries from all over the world where I found an entry on the case.

As I said, I was surprised when you mentioned what it says on the Wikipedia entry on the case and had to check it out. The interesting thing about Wikipedia is that it is always evolving; even more interesting is that the evolution of all of the entries are fully documented. Under the "Taman Shud Case" entry, the notation you mention did not appear until April 15, 2011, so it is no wonder I didn't recall seeing it before. The other mention of The Colorado Kid, found under the "See Also" heading dates from October 6, 2010, so again, this was something I had not seen when I first consulted the entry, which was only after finding out what the original case was.

The Wikipedia entry regarding The Colorado Kid was of no help to me at the time, as the notation currently found there dates only from July 20, 2009, agan fair after I first began to research my case of deja-vu.

In any event, contrary to what is now contained in the "Taman Shud Case" entry, it seems to me that the TV show Haven was more than likely inspired more by the Maine case than by "The Mystery of the Somerton Man", since it seems to have more to do with a woman's disappearance than with the finding of a man's body on a beach.

Strangely enough, I had the same deja-vu feeling last night while watching CSI, where the plot borrowed liberally from the real life Bernardo-Homolka case.