Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder

by Piu Eatwell

  MOORMAN, BURT

  Brother of Clora Hoffman, co-owner of the Aster Motel. Stayed at the Aster with his wife Betty-Jo over the period January 7–18, 1947.

  NEWBARR, DR. FREDERICK

  Well-known Los Angeles County autopsy surgeon. Performed the autopsy on Elizabeth Short.

  O’MARA, JOHN J.; “JJ”

  Officer in the Gangster Squad. Given the job by Willie Burns of chauffeuring Dr. Paul De River around on his covert mission to investigate Leslie Dillon.

  PARKER, WILLIAM; “BILL”

  Rival of Thad Brown for the post of chief of the LAPD after the resignation of Clemence Horrall. Won due to the death of one of the members of the appointments commission. Chief of the LAPD from 1950 to 1966.

  REED, JOE

  Assistant chief of the LAPD under Clemence Horrall. (See his entry.) Widely suspected of running the show while Horrall napped.

  RICHARDSON, JAMES H.; “JIMMY”

  City editor of the Los Angeles Examiner. A rival of Agness Underwood (see her entry), although both worked for papers owned by Randolph Hearst.

  SHORT, ELIZABETH

  Born July 29, 1924, Medford, Massachusetts; died January 15, 1947, Los Angeles, California. Her bisected body was found in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles, leading to her being dubbed the “Black Dahlia” in one of the most notorious murder cases of the century.

  SHORT, PHOEBE MAE

  Mother of Elizabeth Short.

  STANLEY, LEO

  Chief of the Los Angeles DA’s Bureau of Investigation.

  TOTH, ANN

  Danish actress, a friend of Elizabeth Short and Mark Hansen. Lived with Hansen and Short in Hansen’s Carlos Avenue apartment in 1946.

  UNDERWOOD, AGNESS; “AGGIE”

  City editor of the Evening Herald & Express newspaper. One of the first female and most influential city editors of the twentieth century. A close friend of Dr. Paul De River.

  UTLEY, JIMMY; “LITTLE GIANT”

  Los Angeles gangster of Irish descent involved in abortion, gambling, and prostitution rackets. Major rival of Mickey Cohen. Close associate of Mark Hansen and had a secret gambling den in the Florentine Gardens nightclub.

  VEITCH, ARTHUR

  Deputy district attorney. Involved in 1949 grand jury investigation of the Dahlia case.

  WAGGONER, LOREN K.

  Member of the Gangster Squad. Investigated the activities of Leslie Dillon with officer James Ahern and Patrolman Garth Ward.

  WARD, GARTH

  Police patrolman with the LAPD University Division. Jointly investigated events at the Aster Motel with Loren K. Waggoner.

  WHITE, JUDGE THOMAS P.

  Distinguished member of the Los Angeles appellate court. Among his rulings as an appeal court judge was the successful appeal of the Latino defendants in the notorious “Sleepy Lagoon” case. Close friend of Aggie Underwood and Dr. Paul De River.

  WITMAN, FRED

  Private investigator. Close friend of Dr. De River. Presented evidence relating to the Dahlia investigation before the Los Angeles DA at De River’s request.

  WORTON, GENERAL WILLIAM A.

  Interim chief of the LAPD from June 1949 to 1950. Appointed by Mayor Fletcher Bowron to bridge the gap between the resignation of Chief Clemence Horrall, pursuant to the Brenda Allen scandal, and the appointment of William Parker.

  NOTES

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  ABBREVIATIONS:

  • Documents released to the author by the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office in June 2015 (not catalogued) are prefixed by DA and followed by the title of the document, author, and date (if known).

  • Documents relating to the Dahlia case, disclosed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to the author for the first time in unredacted form in September 2015 (not catalogued), are prefixed by FBI and followed by the title of document, author, and date (if known).

  • Documents released to the author by the Los Angeles Police Department in September 2015 (not catalogued) are prefixed by LAPD and followed by the title of the document, author, and date (if known).

  PART 1: FALLEN ANGEL

  Chapter 1: A Woman’s Face

  3 Sunrise was at 6:58 a.m.: Calculated from the Spectral Calculator provided by GATS, Inc., on http://www.spectralcalc.com.

  3 Dense fog had descended: The extreme weather conditions on the coast at Long Beach and Redondo Beach in January 1947 are described in the police interviews with several witnesses questioned on the Black Dahlia case, including Mark Hansen and Bernard H. Van Der Steen.

  3 Black smoke . . . smudge pots: The LAX weather station reported smoke in the sky in the early hours of January 15, 1947; Robert Meyer, a neighbor who lived one block from Norton, recalled the smoke and surmised it was likely from the smudge pots on the orange groves (interview recounted in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murders, AuthorHouse, 2007, p. 101). The Los Angeles Herald-Express reported the coldest temperatures since 1942 and a battle with fires to save the citrus groves (January 16, 1947).

  3 waning moon: The moon on January 14, 1947, was in its last quarter: data from meteorological information collected at the LAX weather station and reported by Weather Underground.

  4 Bob Hope’s words: Simon, Richard, “Hollywood Freeway Spans Magic and Might of L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1994.

  4 Leimert Park: Background history of Leimert Park is extracted from Exum, Cynthia E., and Maty Guiza-Leimert, Images of America: Leimert Park, Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

  5 Betty Bersinger packed: The account of Betty Bersinger’s discovery is taken from: Harnisch, Larry, “A Slaying Cloaked in Mystery and Myths,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 1997; recorded telephone interview with Betty Bersinger in 1996 by documentary producer Kyle J. Wood (Medford Girl: The Black Dahlia Murder).

  6 police complaint board: The details of the scene of the crime in the following pages are taken from: LAPD Dead Body Report by S. J. Lambert; and DA report by Lieutenant Frank B. Jemison, titled “Summary of the Elizabeth (Beth) Short Murder Investigation,” both contained in the DA and LAPD files; the account by the city editor of the Los Angeles Herald-Express, Agness Underwood, in her memoir Newspaperwoman, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949, pp. 6–7.

  6 Frank Perkins and Will Fitzgerald: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, January 15, 1947.

  6 “female drunk passed out sans clothes” . . . bottle of bourbon: Letter from journalist Will Fowler to Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith dated January 23, 1975, Huntington Library Jack Smith papers, folder “Black Dahlia”, box S3.

  6 One of the first to arrive: As with so many other facts in this case, there is dispute as to who arrived first at the crime scene. In his autobiography Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman (Roundtable, 1991), and also in a letter to Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith, Los Angeles Examiner reporter Will Fowler claims to have arrived first on the scene, and photographer Felix Paegel did take a picture of Fowler kneeling alone beside the dead body. But Herald-Express city editor Agness Underwood insisted until the end of her life that she arrived first. (See final chapter of this book on page 263.) Also, Jimmy Richardson, the Los Angeles Examiner editor, makes no mention of Fowler when he describes the events of January 15 in his memoir For the Life of Me. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is certain that both Fowler and Underwood arrived early at the crime scene.

  6 Agness, known to all as “Aggie”: Background information from Underwood, Agness, Newspaperwoman, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949.

  7 short, sturdy woman: See Cairns, Kathleen A., Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920–50, University of Nebraska Press, 2003, p. 108.

  7 “gogettum reporter”: See write-up on Underwood in the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Los Angeles Herald-Express, October 27, 1936.

  7 sob-sister line of reporting: See Ca
irns, Kathleen A., Front-Page Women Journalists, p. 108 et seq.

  8 one of the first women to be appointed: It is often stated (even in her obituary) that Aggie Underwood was the first woman city editor of a national newspaper. This is not correct. Predecessors in her position include Laura Vitray (New York Evening Graphic), and Mary Holland Kincaid (Los Angeles Herald).

  8 satanic smile: Fowler, Will, From a Reporter’s Notebook, Huntington Library, Los Angeles Times Records/Crime, Los Angeles, box 642.

  8 “like two sides of beef”: The description of the crime scene is taken from the eyewitness accounts of Underwood, Agness, Newspaperwoman, p. 6, and Fowler, Will, Reporters, pp. 74–75; also Fowler, From a Reporter’s Notebook.

  9 119 in 1947: See Underwood, Agness, Newspaperwoman, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949, p. 119.

  9 “worst butcher murder”: Ibid., p.6.

  9 aluminum coffin with screw-clamps: Fowler, Will, From a Reporter’s Notebook, Huntington Library, Los Angeles Times Records/Crime, Los Angeles, box 642.

  9 black floor-level scales . . . “right after lunch”: Fowler, Will, From a Reporter’s Notebook, Huntington Library, Los Angeles Times Records/Crime, Los Angeles, box 642.

  10 made chilling reading: The Los Angeles Police Department has refused to permit the release of the official autopsy report. However, authors Janice Knowlton and Michael Newton state that they obtained an “unofficial” copy of the report from a member of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, who copied it by hand, which is reprinted in Knowlton and Newton, Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer, Pocket Books, 1995, pp. 17–21. Extracts from the autopsy report were also read at the coroner’s inquest into Short’s death, annexed to Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder, AuthorHouse, 2007, p. 329. The information cited here is obtained from Knowlton and Newton’s transcription, the extracts read at the coroner’s inquest, and information cited in Aggie Underwood’s early newspaper reports for the Herald-Express. There is an unsubstantiated claim in Knowlton and Newton’s book, apparently from a later witness account, that a clump of grass was inserted into the vagina. One of the biggest pieces of misinformation about the autopsy report was spread by Los Angeles Examiner journalist Will Fowler in his book Reporters, which claimed the victim had an “infantile vagina” and was unable to have sex. In fact, as several men testified to the LAPD and FBI, she was physically capable of normal sexual relations, although she was usually described as “cold” (see, for example, the account of Peter Vetcher on page 71). The victim’s alleged sexual “coldness” could well have been connected to the clinical condition of an inflamed Bartholin gland, which would normally make sexual relations painful.

  11 hennaed . . . bright red: Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, January 16, 1947. The Herald-Express noted several times that the corpse’s hair had been hennaed and that there was red polish on both big toenails. The fact that the original dark strands were beginning to show was noted by the Herald-Express on January 17, 1947. The dead body report released by the LAPD refers to “brown hair, indication of being hennehed [sic].”

  11 butcher’s or carving knife . . . razor: Captain Donahoe of the LAPD, quoted in the Herald-Express on January 24, 1947.

  12 Fibers . . . scrubbed: See LAPD follow-up report dated February 5, 1947, by F. A. Brown and H. L. Hansen.

  12 cheap scrubbing brush: See FBI laboratory correspondence from February 1947. These reports were disclosed for the first time in unredacted form to the author in September 2015.

  12 medical training: While there was speculation about the killer having had some medical training or experience, this was never stated as definitively the case, and has been much overemphasized by some commentators.

  13 a doctor was entertained: For example, the FBI reported that there was “some speculation that the murderer had some training in the dissection of bodies.” See letter from R. B. Hood, FBI Los Angeles, to FBI laboratory dated February 15, 1947, FBI documents.

  13 “Jigsaw John” St. John: Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, p. 143.

  13 Two key items of information: See (undated) report of DA investigator Frank Jemison in the DA grand jury files: “Two secrets have been closely guarded by a few officers in connection with this investigation including the undersigned. They could only be answered by the person who committed this murder.” The nature of these two key facts is discussed in later chapters. The journalist Will Fowler claimed in his memoirs that there were three “secret facts,” but later retracted this contention.

  Chapter 2: A Double Life

  14 Jimmy Richardson: The account of the Examiner’s role in identifying the victim and the quoted conversations are taken from the memoirs of the then city editor of the Examiner, James H. “Jimmy” Richardson. See Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954, in particular pp. 296–99.

  14 Bugsy Siegel: Ibid., pp. 69–76.

  15 eight-by-ten blowup of the bisected body: Fowler, Will, From a Reporter’s Notebook, Huntington Library, Los Angeles Times Records/Crime, Los Angeles, box 642.

  15 more copies than . . . bombing of Pearl Harbor: See interview with Examiner journalist Will Fowler recorded by Mary Pacios in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, p. 116.

  15 V-J Day: Fowler, Will, From a Reporter’s Notebook, Huntington Library Los Angeles Times Records/Crime, Los Angeles, box 642.

  16 Ray Richards . . . Quinn Tann: Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, p. 298; Los Angeles Examiner, January 17, 1947; FBI office memorandum from Mr. Tolson to L. B. Nichols dated January 21, 1947.

  16 Russ Lapp: See interview with Examiner journalist Will Fowler recorded by Mary Pacios in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, p. 117.

  16 doubted . . . identification: FBI office memorandum from Mr. Tolson to L. B. Nichols dated January 21, 1947.

  16 By 2:50 p.m.: FBI memo dated January 16, 1947, from Mr. Tolson to L. B. Nichols.

  16 arrested . . . West Cabrillo Beach: FBI memo dated January 16, 1947, from Mr. Tolson to L. B. Nichols; Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1947.

  17 Camp Cooke: FBI memo dated January 16, 1947, from Mr. Tolson to L. B. Nichols.

  17 so sullenly beautiful: See, for example, the recollections of Examiner journalist Will Fowler in an interview recorded by Mary Pacios in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, p. 119.

  17 Unkefer told the swarm of reporters: Quotations from interview with Officer Unkefer in the Los Angeles Examiner, January 17, 1947.

  17 cut out the rose tattoo: See also Los Angeles Examiner, January 17, 1947.

  18 Sid Hughes racing out: This account and the ensuing conversation with Wain Sutton are taken from Richardson’s memoir, Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, pp. 299–300.

  18 resurfaced with the information: See Los Angeles Examiner, January 19, 1947.

  19 Mocambo heist: See interview with Examiner reporter Will Fowler in Mary Pacios, Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, p. 115.

  19 Mrs. Inez Keeling: Los Angeles Examiner, January 17, 1947; Los Angeles Herald-Express, January 17, 1947.

  20 “teaser of men”: Memorandum dated October 28, 1949, from Frank Jemison of the DA’s Office to the chief of the DA’s Bureau of Investigation.

  20 “man crazy delinquent”: Los Angeles Herald-Express, January 17, 1947.

  21 new type of female immigrant: For a detailed examination of female migration to Hollywood in the early twentieth century, see Hallett, Hilary A., Go West, Young Women!: The Rise of Early Hollywood, University of California Press, 2013.

  21 “big moment of the day”: From A Visit to Movieland, cited in Hallett, ibid.

  22 a pharmacist in Long Beach: Los Angeles Examiner, January 18, 1947.

  22 brainchild of one of his reporters: See Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, pp. 300–301.

  22 claimed it as her own: Aggie claimed in her memoirs that the “Black Dahlia” moniker was discovered one day when she was checking with Ray Giese, homicide detective lieutenant, for any stray fact that
might have been overlooked. Giese, Aggie claimed, had come up to her in the squad room and said, “This is something you might like, Agness. I’ve found out they called her the ‘Black Dahlia’ around that drug store where she hung out down in Long Beach.” (See Underwood, Agness, Newspaperwoman, p. 7.) Richardson’s version of the story, however, was supported by Chuck Cheatham, reporter on the Long Beach Independent. Chuck recalled that a detective told him and Bevo Means, the Examiner man at Long Beach, about the name when they were snooping around for an angle, and that Means had gotten the moniker into the Examiner first. (See interview by Mary Pacios with Gerry Ramlow, Daily News reporter, in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, pp. 112 and 114.).

  23 “class as well as homicide”: Agness Underwood, Newspaperwoman, p. 103.

  23 smacked him with her purse: See Cecilia Rasmussen, “Sleuths, Scribes Give High-Profile Cases Catchy Names,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2002.

  23 It was the name “Black Dahlia”: “Farewell, My Black Dahlia,” in Los Angeles Times West magazine, March 28, 1971.

  23 “hundreds just like her”: Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, p. 301.

  24 offered to take her to her home: See Los Angeles Examiner, January 18, 1947.

  24 lived there for a month: See Los Angeles Examiner, ibid.

  24 “about six o’clock”: Richardson, James, For the Life of Me, p. 301. The Herald-Express put the time of leaving at 7:30 p.m. (Herald-Express, January 18, 1947).

  24 freckled man in his twenties: See Los Angeles Examiner, ibid.

  24 little white pills: Probably benzedrine, commonly used as a stimulant and pick-me-up by journalists of the time.

  25 castle at San Simeon: See interview by Mary Pacios with Gerry Ramlow, Daily News reporter, in Pacios, Mary, Childhood Shadows, pp. 106–7.

  26 “don’t try it again”: Wagner, Rob Leicester, Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920–1962, Dragonflyer Press, 2000, pp. 215–16; confirmed by Roy Ringer in interview with journalist Rip Rense, 2003.

  26 1939 Studebaker coupe: See LAPD Follow-up report by Hansen and Brown dated February 5, 1947.