The Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

by Steve Hodel

  Sunday, January 19, 1947

  Manley, still in police custody, took an initial polygraph, which according to LAPD was "inconclusive." He continued to deny any involvement with the murder, but the police remained unconvinced and had a second polygraph test administered by criminalist Ray Pinker, during which Manley fell asleep. He was awakened and pressured further, but eventually Pinker had to admit that Manley had passed the test, removing him, at least temporarily, as a suspect.

  At the request of the police, Herald Express crime reporter Agness Underwood subsequently interviewed Manley at the police station to see if she could find out anything the police had overlooked. In the course of her interview she learned of a phone call Elizabeth had made to an unknown man from the San Diego restaurant where she and Manley had stopped. During this call Elizabeth had made arrangements to meet someone on the evening of January 9, in downtown Los Angeles.*

  Monday, January 20, 1947

  In what might have been the first real solid eyewitness lead, East Washington Boulevard Hotel owners and managers Mr. and Mrs. William Johnson told the police and reporters that Elizabeth Short and a man claiming to be her husband had registered for a room as "Mr. and Mrs. Barnes" on Sunday, January 12, 1947, only two days before the murder. The Johnsons described what they termed the man's "bizarre behavior," particularly his nervousness and agitation after his return to the hotel on January 15. When "Mr. Barnes" showed up in the hotel lobby on January 15, Mr. Johnson joked that because he and his wife had disappeared for three days, he thought the couple was "dead," at which Mr. Barnes, visibly shaken, turned and walked out of the hotel.

  After detectives showed the Johnsons separate photographs retrieved from Elizabeth Short's luggage, the Johnsons positively identified both the victim and the man who had checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Barnes. This photo identification was a vital clue for detectives, because it was the first time someone had actually put the person calling himself Elizabeth Short's husband together with the victim at the same place only two days before the murder. Then, when "Mr. Barnes" had returned alone, his behavior had been so bizarre that Mr. Johnson remembered it clearly. As of January 20, 1947, LAPD detectives therefore had in their files a photograph of someone who should have been their prime suspect in the Black Dahlia case, a man identified by two eyewitnesses as being with the victim alone in a hotel room just forty-eight hours before her murder. Who was this man? Where is that photograph today?

  In addition to the Johnsons' interviews, a new search of the crime scene by fifty LAPD officers combing the area in a human grid turned up a man's military-type wristwatch lying in the vacant lot close to where the victim's body was originally discovered. The watch was taken into custody and, according to the newspaper reports, "Police chemists were checking ownership of the military watch," which was described as a "17-jewel 'Croton' with a leather-bound, steel snap band. Engraved on it are the words 'Swiss made, water proof, brevet, stainless steel back.'"

  Wednesday, January 22, 1947

  At division roll calls that morning, homicide detectives circulated the following Los Angeles special police bulletin (exhibit 16) containing a photograph of Elizabeth Short and a detailed description of her clothing, and provided copies to uniformed officers working the various foot beats throughout the divisions. The bulletin requested officers to try to locate anyone with knowledge of the victim in the week preceding her murder. This special bulletin was posted in bus and cab terminals to enlist the public's help.

  Exhibit 16

  SPECIAL

  WANTED INFORMATION ON ELIZABETH SHORT

  Between Dates January 9 and 15, 1947

  Description: Female, American, 22 years. 5 ft. 6 in.. Ill lbs. black hair, green eyes, very attractive, bad lower teeth, linger nails chewed to quick. This subject found brutally murdered, body severed and mutilated January 15, 1947, at 39th and Norton.

  Subject on whom information wanted last seen January 9. 1947 when she got out of car at Biltmore Hotel. At that time she was wearing black suit. no collar on coal, probably Cardigan style, white fluffy blouse, black suede high-heeled shoes, nylon stockings, white gloves full-length beige coat, carried black plastic handbag (2 handles) 12 x It. in which she had black address book. Subject readily makes friends with both sexes and frequented cocktail bars and night spots. On leaving car the went into lobby of the Biltmore. and was last seen there.

  Inquiry should he made at all hotels, motels, apartment houses, cocktail bars and lounges, night clubs to ascertain whereabouts of victim between dates mentioned. In conversations subject readily identified herself as Elizabeth or "Beth" Short.

  Attention Officers H. H. Hansen and F. A. Brown. Homicide Detail.

  KINDLY ,NOTIFY C B. AORRALL. CHIEF OF POLICE, LCS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA

  LAPD Special Bulletin, January 1947

  There was also a brief statement released to local newspapers concerning fingerprints that were lifted from a wine bottle found in the room at the East Washington Boulevard Hotel where Elizabeth and her "husband" had stayed. The paper quoted two unnamed detectives, believed to have been from the Gangster Squad, assisting in the investigation, as having said they "were satisfied that it was perhaps a case of mistaken identity" since "the fingerprints did not belong to the victim, Elizabeth Short."*

  An LAPD organizational explanation is here called for. The "Gangster Squad" no longer exists as an entity within the LAPD. In 1947, however, it was a separate squad of a dozen or so detectives, within the Homicide Division. The detectives assigned to this squad were supervised by their own lieutenant. Under his leadership, they were responsible for gathering intelligence and surveillance of "known gangsters," as well as for conducting city-wide investigations to identify and prosecute abortionists. The Gangster Squad detectives were the first officers to be loaned to assist regular homicide squad detectives in their manpower needs for any high-profile investigations. Historically, an uneasy relationship always existed between these interdepartment units and squads, each acting almost as its own fiefdom, with a lieutenant as lord. This was especially true in the 1940s when LAPD was rife with corruption, with many officers on the take. Anyone outside the separate squads, including "brother officers," were not to be trusted. After Chief Parker's selection as chief of police in 1950, the Gangster Squad was eventually split to become OCID (Organized Crime Intelligence Division) and PDID (Public Disorder Intelligence Division).

  Thursday, January 23, 1947

  Others conducting the investigation obviously took the Johnsons seriously, as newspapers reported that all LAPD officers had been instructed to "be on the lookout for a man who might have registered with Miss Short as 'man and wife' at a hotel located at 300 E.Washington Blvd., on January 12." A detailed description of "Mr. Barnes," positively identified by the Johnsons as checking in with the victim, was given to officers, but his description was not released to the general public.

  Police also re-canvassed the Leimert Park neighborhood near 39th and Norton for a third time, conducting a door-to-door search for possible witnesses to the crime in yet another effort to identify somebody who might have seen anything on the morning of January 15. As part of this follow-up investigation, officers asked citizens in the immediate neighborhood the following two questions:

  1) "Do you know anyone in the neighborhood who is mentally unbalanced?"

  2) "Do you know of any medical students?"

  But the re-canvass turned up no new eyewitnesses whose names police could release to the newspapers, whose coverage had already begun to turn against the police and their apparent lack of progress. On January 23, Agness Underwood wrote, in the Herald Express, a story under the headline "Will 'Dahlia' Slaying Join Album of Unsolved Murders?" in which she included the names and photographs of Ora Murray, Georgette Bauerdorf, and Gertrude Evelyn Landon, three earlier Los Angeles-area unsolved murder victims. The story suggested there might well be a connection between these previous unsolved homicides and that of Elizabeth Short.

  HO
USE-TO-HOUSE SEARCH

  FOR DAHLIA MURDER CLUE

  Underwood's article began:

  WEREWOLVES LEAVE TRAIL OF WOMEN MURDERS IN L.A.

  In the gory album of unsolved murders, kidnappings and crimes against women in general, Los Angeles police may have to insert a new page — "The Mystery of the Sadistic Slaying of Elizabeth Short — the Black Dahlia." So far all clues have failed. This latest murder mystery which has provoked the greatest mobilization of crime detection experts in the city's history, is the latest in a long series. The finding of her dismembered body was preceded by other gruesome discoveries of women victims slain for lust, for revenge, for reasons unknown.

  Underwood's article provided the names and details of seven recent L.A. lone female victims of unsolved sex-related murders.

  On the afternoon of January 23, Los Angeles Examiner city editor James Richardson received a phone call from a man identifying himself as the Black Dahlia killer. In Richardson's autobiography, For the Life of Me: Memoirs of a City Editor, he describes the eerie call and the killer's follow-up. Richardson explained that he never published the story in the paper at the time because he wanted to keep the evidence confidential, even though there was a feeding frenzy among crime reporters for any stray piece of information on the case. His revelation of the phone call became an important piece of evidence for me, primarily because of his verbatim description of his brief conversation with the killer and his impressions of the suspect. That this call came from the real killer is not in doubt. During their conversation he promised Richardson to send him "a few of her [Elizabeth's] belongings." As Richardson described the conversation:

  The story dwindled to a few paragraphs and was about to fade out altogether when one day I answered the phone and heard the voice I'll never forget.

  "Is this the city editor?" it asked.

  "Yes."

  "What is your name, please?"

  "Richardson."

  "Well, Mr. Richardson, I must congratulate you on what the Examiner has done in the Black Dahlia case."

  "Thank you," I said, and there was a slight pause before the voice spoke again.

  "You seem to have run out of material," it said.

  "That's right."

  A soft laugh sounded in the earpiece.

  "Maybe I can be of some assistance," the voice said.

  There was something in the way he said it that sent a shiver up my spine.

  "We need it," I said and there was that soft laugh again.

  "I'll tell you what I'll do," the voice said. "I'll send you some of the things she had with her when she, shall we say, disappeared?"

  It was difficult for me to control my voice. I began scribbling on a sheet of paper the words: "Trace this call."

  "What kind of things?" I asked as I tossed the paper to my assistant on the desk. I could see him read and start jiggling the receiver arm on his phone to get the attention of the switchboard girl.

  "Oh say, her address book and her birth certificate and a few other things she had in her handbag."

  "When will I get them?" I asked, and I could hear my assistant telling Mae Northern the switchboard girl to trace my call.

  "Oh, within the next day or so. See how far you can get with them. And now I must say goodbye. You may be trying to trace this call."

  "Wait a minute," I said but I heard the click and the phone was dead.

  Richardson concluded his book with some observations and reflections about the caller/killer he had spoken with seven years earlier. He was, Richardson was convinced, an egomaniac who planned the murder to show the world he was a superman, someone who could "outwit and outthink the whole world." He also stated — and again he was right — that the killer had placed the body where it would be quickly found, and mutilated it so horribly to attract the greatest attention on the part of the police and public. "He would be one against the world," he wrote, "the perpetrator of the perfect crime."

  Richardson was also certain the killer would strike again, and in the same manner, but that ultimately he would make a mistake that would result in his capture. Richardson hoped that the Dahlia killer would again pick up the phone, dial the city desk, and ask for him. He revealed that his switchboard operators had developed a sixth sense and screened the "nuts and crackpots," but every now and then did put through a call to him, which invariably was important. He said he still believed that one day he would pick up the receiver and "again hear that soft, sly voice."

  Friday, January 24, 1947

  Police claimed a major break in the case when they learned that the suspect originally had left Elizabeth Short's purse and shoes atop an open trashcan in front of a restaurant and motel located at 1136 South Crenshaw Boulevard, approximately twenty blocks north of 39th and Norton. Robert Hyman, the manager of a cafe at 1136 South Crenshaw, the witness who found the purse and shoes, said he observed a pair of women's shoes inside a black handbag just as the garbage truck was picking up the trash in front of his cafe. Hyman described the purse as "large and oblong, and the shoes as black with very high heels."

  Hyman spoke to the trash collector and suggested that "perhaps the purse and shoes should be turned over to the police."

  "Oh, we find lots of things like this, and they never amount to anything," the city employee responded. The man then dumped the purse and shoes in his truck along with the other trash and drove away.

  Hyman called LAPD, and officers were dispatched to the city dump, where, after an extensive search, the purse and shoes were found. An LAPD unit brought them to University Division police station, where, as noted, Red Manley identified them.

  * investigator's note: An alternative theory, which LAPD hadn't seemed to consider, is that the killer, who we know had washed the body clean, could have placed it at the location while it was still wet, which could explain their observations yet still account for a later — 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. — placement of the body, which would be consistent with a sighting of a possible suspect vehicle parked near the body at that time.

  * LAPD in the following weeks would send detectives to San Diego to pursue this lead and search the paper trail of phone records.

  *Investigator's note: This official public statement was of immediate and grave concern to me when I first read it. A seasoned homicide detective would never make such a statement. The absence of the victim's prints on the bottle indicated absolutely nothing. Neither did these detectives address or comment on the possibility that the unidentified prints could have belonged to the suspect, "Mr. Barnes." By making this statement it seemed as if they were attempting to publicly discredit Mr. and Mrs. Johnson's identification and statements. Why?

  13

  The LAPD and the Press: The Avenger Mailings

  Saturday, January 25, 1947

  THE LOS ANGELES EXAMINER REPORTED that someone, presumably the killer, had sent a package containing some of the contents of the victim's purse to the paper by mail, postmarked January 24, 1947, at 6:30 p.m. from downtown Los Angeles. The killer included Elizabeth Short's identification, an address book, her birth certificate, and her social security card. Along with the victim's personal effects, the sender had assembled a note pasted out of various-size letters taken from the Los Angeles Examiner and other L.A. papers. It read:

  Exhibit 17

  Here is Dahlia's belongings. Letter to follow

  The package was opened in the presence of LAPD detectives and postal inspectors who had intercepted it before it was delivered to the newspaper office. The detectives found fingerprints on the package, which were sent to the FBI office for examination and possible identification.

  The address book was of particular interest to detectives, because it contained over seventy-five names. Also of note, the name "Mark Hansen" was embossed in gold lettering on the cover. One page of the book had been torn out. Police theorized that the murderer himself may well have torn it out before mailing the address book to the newspaper.

  That same day, in response to questions from r
eporters, Captain Donahoe said of the widening investigation, "This is the big push. Our men are fanning out now to bring in the killer. We will bring in all sorts of people for questioning, and eliminate them so long as they can eliminate themselves."

  Mark Hansen

  Mark Hansen was a part owner of the Florentine Gardens, a well-known Hollywood landmark and popular nightspot that featured a popular burlesque show for patrons, who included some of the city's powerful politicians, underworld figures, and many of the rich and famous in the entertainment industry. Hansen was also Anne Toth's boyfriend at the time of the murder. Toth was one of a number of attractive young women Hansen employed at the club, Hollywood's answer to New York's nightlife and chorus lines. Hansen's manager and master of ceremonies was Nils Thor Granlund, known as "N.T.G.," a familiar personality in the world of Hollywood clubs. Many of Hansen's Hollywood chorus girls were trying to break into the movies and, like Toth, were struggling to pay their rent. Some of them, like Yvonne De Carlo, Marie "the Body" McDonald, Jean Wallace, Gwen Verdon, and Lili St. Cyr, would graduate from the Florentine Gardens stage to become familiar names on the screen and the New York musical stage. Mark Hansen would have been exactly the kind of person Elizabeth was looking for when she said she had aspirations of meeting "the right Hollywood people," who could possibly help her "break into the business."