I forgot you need to add -quiet for openssl(1) to actually print back the server's responses outside the SSL handshake, sorry.

echo -e "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: somehost.domain.com\r\n\r" \
| /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl s_client -quiet -connect somehost.domain.
+com:443
[download]

If the server is at all working, this should result in a HTTP response being echoed to you.

One question: are you sure your LWP can do SSL transfers? You need to install extra modules for that purpose, it doesn't come with the ability out of the box. The LWP distribution has a README.SSL you might want to look into. To be honest your account of their "evidence" is not inspiring much respect for your Java crew's knowledge with me.

Makeshifts last the longest.