Welcome. This is the Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast. Episode 9. I am your host Scott Tracy.

In the Los Angeles Times this morning, QUOTE

"I'm sure the killer is still in town.” Detective Lt. Harry Fremont declared, "and I'm almost certain it was he who mailed us Elizabeth Short's belongings." Fremont said that all persons listed in the brown address book who live in Los Angeles have been contacted by police but that no significant information was obtained from them.  This tended to support the thesis that the surprise package was sent by the egoistic murderer and contained nothing that might incriminate him. END-QUOTE

What a surprisingly quick journey! In just two days, the front page story goes from the police have so many leads they don’t know where to begin, to the police have learned little and have no suspects. 

A lack of suspects means there is less day to day news. This episode will cover the next four days and will focus on five things. 

One. The FBI finds no match for the prints on the envelope. 

Two. The address book leads are not clues.

Three. The Black Dahlia Avenger sends a postcard stating he will surrender. 

Four. Three people confess to the murder. 

Five.  There are now three locations to think about, the Norton Ave dump site, the Crenshaw Blvd cafe purse disposal and a downtown post box.  

The FBI reports the prints have no matches. This exonerates felons, Military personnel and government employees including the Post Office.  

This frustrating news arrives in concert with the discovery that the names in the address book are of little value. The investigation is at a standstill.

It is of importance to note that the FBI negative fingerprints match means the same thing to us in 2020. There are no suspects. 

This is so important enough for to say it again; there are viable suspects in 2020. Wikipedia has a list of the Black Dahlia “suspects”. Articles on the web lists suspects that are taken from the 1949 Grand Jury testimony and the District Atty. investigation. Not the LAPD files. It is unlikely that the DA office has the same information as the LAPD because the FBI has communicated with the LAPD  that Leslie Dillon’s prints do not match those of the Black Dahlia avenger. Famous unsolved murders like the Zodiac and Jack the Ripper remain topical based on presentation of new evidence and potentially new suspects. So it is typical for true crime commentaries to begin with the concept to list suspects in an unsolved murder. In the Black Dahlia case many names in the investigation related to the Grand Jury are called suspects, when in reality “Chicago Policeman” and “Queer Female Doctor” , Sargent Chuck last name unknown are persons of interest who could not be reached. This type of lead is not a true suspect.  The interviewed suspects are cleared based on fingerprints. Dr. Patrick O’Reilly was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, his fingerprints are on file so he is dismissed as a suspect by the LAPD. George Hodel is arrested for rape, his fingerprints are on file, so he is dismissed as a suspect. The LAPD submits Leslie Dillion prints to the FBI and on January 11th 1949 the response is that there is no match. He is not a valid suspect.

This is why I have a podcast. If I have a suspect to prosecute, I could write a book. Instead I have proof that there are no suspects. 

How do I know the prints are real; given the spin in the press that police the prints are smudged or postal employees? The answer is that the police actions serve as proof. The LAPD sends hundreds of fingerprints to the FBI to check against the Black Dahlia file.  The LAPD submits the prints of Leon Burris to the FBI on March 4th and on the 5th the LAPD submits 257 fingerprints to the FBI. I assume this large number of prints comes from DeRiver’s files of sexual deviants. 

The reporting of gasoline is window dressing. As I thought about last weeks podcast, and the statement in the newspapers that clever killer used gasoline is used to defeat the police. If  you want to defeat the police wear gloves; don't put gasoline on the envelope.

A postcard to the Examiner is received on Monday Jan 27. The handwriting on the postcard says, “Here it is. Turning in wed Jan 29th at 10-a.m. Had my fun at Police  (signed) Black Dahlia Avenger.  Handwritten. Then a floodgate of postcards follow: One that says “have changed my mind, you would not give me a square deal. Dahlia Killing was justified.” This is with cut newsprint letters and words. No salutation or signature.

“I will give up in Dalia Killing if I get 10 years, don’t try to find me.” Cut out newsprint letters and words No salutation and no signature. 

“Dahlia killer cracking wants terms.” Cut out letters. No salutation no signature. 

Are these real? Perhaps. No fingerprints are on any of the postcards, the police dismiss them as unhelpful and indicate these are likely hoaxes. Since the postcards lead nowhere, the result is the same; hoax or not.

I going to borrow the word “volunteer” to describe a person who wants to be part of a criminal event. A great example can be found in the investigation of Georgette Bauderdorf’s murder. Amateur detective Henry James Lynch, a plumber, was questioned by authorities after he was found in the basement of El Palacio Apartments on Sept. 23, 1945.  He explained that he could do a better job than police in investigating the killing. Lynch is a “volunteer” in the Georgette Bauderdorf murder.

The Black Dahlia headlines have stirred peoples imagination for ten days, now the mystery begins to stir “volunteers” to act. Daniel Voorheen, 33 year old restaurant porter, telephoned police to pick him up on a downtown street corner, He volunteers a confession. Then is handed over to DeRiver to interview and released. Voorheen had a history of sex crimes. 

Mrs. Minnie Sepulveda, 37, volunteers she is responsible for the murder in a phone call from a South Vermont beer hall. Sepulveda denies confessing on the phone when police arrive. She is arrested and released. Emily Williams, 24, waitress, telephoned her confession from a San Diego bar. Williams when confronted with her many wrong facts, denied ever making the call and is released by the San Diego Police. 

35-year-old waitress Thelma Thompson told police she battled with a man who called himself the Black Dahlia Killer. The waitress said she met the man in a bar last night. He agreed to take her home when he parks the car, he volunteered “I’m going to kill you like I did the Black Dahlia.”

Miss Thompson said she screamed and fought him off. A cab driver heard the screams and ran to the car. Miss Thompson was then shoved out onto the street and the man fled into the night. 

Taken in custody later, Donald Pomeroy, 20, of 1500 Beverly Drive, told deputies he had been drinking in a cafe with Miss Thompson and that she had asked him to drive her home. He denied he had molested her. The Police release Pomeroy without booking him.

A few days later, Isabel Foster, of Culver City reporter that a man in a 1940 sedan drove up to her at the curb as she waits at a bus-stop. After asking if she would like a ride, the man showed her a knife and forced her into a car. She began to cry. The man told her to stop sobbing. “Shut up or I’ll give you what I gave to the Black Dahlia and sliced lightly across Isabel’s knuckles. Foster jumped from the moving car. She describes her assailant as 27 years of age, dressed in workman’s clothes and wearing a “ridiculous stocking cap”. This perpetrator is never caught. 

Phyllis Jean Cyr, 20, west side photographers model and waitress, was stopped by the Long Beach Police on a traffic violation, volunteers that she was surprised that the police haven’t questioned ‘Lee’ about the Short girl’s murder. Lee and Beth used to run around a lot together, she said. Phyllis Cyr described “Lee” as a black marketeer who deals in nylon stockings.  Lee worked the Hollywood scene In the Gower Gutch and Columbia Square area. Cyr said that she and Elizabeth Short posed nude for a photographer named as “Price.”  Cyr said that Price tried to molest both of them.  She also said she had not seen Elizabeth Short in almost a year.

On Feb 6th Corporal Joseph Dumais, 29,  told Army authorities in New Jersey that he killed Elizabeth Short and then mutilated her body. Dumais said he stabbed her in the back and about her mouth then he sliced her in half with “meat cleaver." Then washed the body free of blood and then dumped it in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. There are many discrepancies in his story. Earlier he had admitted having a date with Miss Short in San Francisco January 9 or 10. Dumais can’t explain how he got to Los Angeles and then back to his base in New Jersey. Dumais can’t explain how Elizabeth Short got to San Francisco or how they returned to LA or where he mutilated her. Dumais claimed he had gone into a blackout while on a date with her in San Francisco, five or six days before her body was found in Los Angeles.  Several soldiers report Dumais was at the Army Post when the murder took place on the 14th.

“Volunteers” will continue to present themselves in the coming years. Because the Black Dahlia is a moniker that exudes a noir sense of mystery and drama there are more volunteers in this case than in the Georgette Bauerdorf or the Ora Murray slaying. One has to wonder how much of social impact the murder of Elizabeth Short, without the moniker, would have by comparison to the Black Dahlia headlines. There is a strong tendency to dismiss the volunteers as fruitcakes, nut cases, but not all volunteers are equal and the sheer number of these illustrate the deep emotional impact the gruesome murder has on the public. Of these volunteers: the attention hounds, braggarts, confessors and hoaxers; the Dumais false confession gets the big headline back in the day but I would give more attention and credence to the witness testimony of Phyllis Jean Cyr in 2020. Her claim to have known Elizabeth Short is cemented by her naming of Price. George Price’s name is found in the Black Dahlia purse datebook. Price picked up Lynn Martin on the Boulevard and photographed her. The second time Lynn Martin went to Price’s apartment, he took nude photos of her. George Price is an alias, his real name, Clarendon Kinney. Hairdresser Alex Constance, knew Price, and told police that Beth sometimes posed nude for a Hollywood photographer. When police raid the house of George Price they find nude photos of Lynn Martin but no photos of Elizabeth Short. 

Not surprising. If I was George Price I would have burned any and all photos and negatives of Elizabeth Short on January 16.

The story of how the press handles Corporal Dumais is a bigger story for this podcast than the false confession. The headlines of the confession begin on February 6th and are fully dismissed by the 12th. The front page headline in the Herald Express on Feb 8th;  “Corporal Dumais is (the) Black Dahlia Killer.” 

“Army Corporal Joseph Dumais, 29, is definitely the murderer of “The Black Dahlia”. The Los Angeles Times coverage is a bit quieter; FORT DIX OFFICER POSITIVE SOLDIER KILLED SHORT GIRL.  Interestingly, this is the first Black Dahlia article to appear on page 1 in the LA Times.  Earlier stories were always page 2.  “Capt. William H. Florence, head of the (New Jersey) criminal investigation division, said yesterday in a formal statement he is "definitely convinced" that Cpl. Joseph Dumais, military policeman and combat veteran, is the murderer of Elizabeth Short. Dumais admitted under questioning by Army investigators that he believes he did commit the crime and that he knows the manner in which the Black Dahlia's body was mutilated, but refused to give details.” As discussed Dumais says he blacked out in San Francisco and only recovers consciousness days later at Penn Station in New York with an unexplained blood stained pocket. Dumais has no recollection of being in Los Angeles. It is not possible that he could have mailed the belongings of Elizabeth Short from a downtown Los Angeles post box. Dumais is definitely not the Black Dahlia Avenger. 

There is an interesting possibility that the loud nature of the Herald Express headline is a lure in the manner of an angler’s artificial fly to catch the killer, as proposed by Steve Hodel; as there may have been hope that the Dumais claim would loosen the Black Dahlia Avenger lips because someone else was getting the credit for his “work”. And it would explain the surprising appearance of the only Black Dahlia story on the front page in the LA Times. This theory makes sense, however, since loud headlines were common for the evening paper, it is a speculation that is difficult to prove. 

I mentioned there are three locations for activity for the killer, the Norton Ave body dump, the drop site for the shoes and purse on South Crenshaw and the mailing of the envelope downtown. Including the mailbox downtown as a third location invites the idea that the avenger lives midtown and works downtown. 

Police have more investigative tools and theories today then we're available in 1947. DNA, computers, profiling, cameras and cell phones are everywhere.

As an audience in 2020, today’s books, podcasts, movies and television offerings feature serial killers, an unknown term in 1947. The American fascination with the methods, modus operandi and motivations of violent killers and how they are caught is 20% of our TV entertainment. Scripts in television shows often start with a disposable victim in order to introduce the dangerous cat and mouse game of criminal vs law enforcement. There is a significant impact of the Black Dahlia headlines in the American press as the series of body dumps that happen after January 15th 1947; Jeannie French, Evelyn Winters, Dorthy Montgomery, Laura Trelstad and Rosenda Mondragon;  all get these crimes are introduced in the headlines as another Dahlia killing and  bringing the the idea of a serial killings as front page news as the series of murders in this noir time period creates a Black Dahlia “scale” as in, how similar is this murder and body dump to that of Elizabeth Short. The more in common, the more headlines and sales of newspapers. Returning to the theme of modern media;  Serial criminal villains play a significant role in movies because they represent the most disturbing threat to society. Scripts for TV shows like Mindhunter or Bosch use visuals to drive home the nuances of the investigation, commonly maps are utilized to illustrate the crime patterns spatially, as serial killers will have a buffer zone that separates home from crime. Research shows comfort zones will be different not just based on the criminal but also based on the crime; a rapist might have a two miles radius from his anchor point, a serial killer it might be a ten mile radius. In Los Angeles crime history, a very clear example would be the Hillside Strangler case as the Murder torture site was at the home base and that location is a donut hole on a map   at the center of the dump sites. 8 of the 10 hillside strangler dump sites were within 4.5 miles of Bruno’s house and upholstery business on East Colorado in Glendale. 

I might add, there are similar hunting patterns for sharks, bats and bees; a hunting ground is separate from the nest. 

Serial predators have a tendency to have one comfort zone for hunting and another comfort zone for disposal. Now that the purse and shoes have been dropped in the trash at a restaurant on Crenshaw, we have two locations for disposal that changes our comfort zone circle. The Black Dahlia Avenger expected the body to be found I doubt he expected the shoes and purse to be found.  Not that substantially changes our model because the killer needs to feel safe in both locations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

If we drew a circle around Norton Avenue to have a sense of the comfort zone as of Jan 15th, that circle must adjusted to include the intersection of West Adams and Crenshaw and in doing so, it lessens the singularity of the Norton Ave location. The Leimert Park neighborhood has to share the circle of our profiling model with Hancock Park, Larchmont, West Adams and Jefferson Park, as the geographic profile area moves north and slightly east, closer to Hollywood and closer to Downtown Los Angeles. The area encompasses a zone that would be East of Fairfax and West of USC, north of Vernon and south of Melrose. Admittedly this is speculation, However it is interesting as speculation. For example, if we define the dumping zone as within this area as described, that lessens the likelihood of a suspect like George Hodel who lives a full 25 minutes away from Norton and Coliseum. Hodel’s home in the Los Feliz area on Franklin Ave is adjacent to Griffin Park. George Hodel could have dumped the body of the victim at the base of the Hollywood sign only 2.7 miles away from his home. Imagine the headline press a severed body at the Hollywood sign garner. This reminds me that  Norton Ave. location as a dump site may or may not have meaning for the killer as a location but has no clear message to us. 

ONE MORE THING 

During a week of slow news, Aggie Underwood wrote an article that resonates with modern media because it is an enticing invitation to speculate and create clickbait connections. On January 23rd  1947 Aggie shines a flashlight on the failure of the police to find the murderer of Elizabeth Short.  The headline in the Herald Express reads: “Werewolves Leave Trail of Women Murders in L. A. Aggie writes, “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.”

The article in the Herald Express has photographs of Elizabeth Short, Georgette Bauerdorf, Ora Murray and Gertrude Landon. These unsolved murders of lone women have little in common the with Beth Short, the more one investigates, the more obvious that fact becomes. 

Twenty year old Georgette Bauerdorf was raped and strangled in her West Hollywood apartment. Early Thursday morning, Oct 12th, 1944. A neighbor had heard her scream “Stop, stop, you’re killing me,” at 2:30 a.m. A bandage-type cotton roll is shoved down her throat, gagging her. She chokes to death. The killer unscrewed a lightbulb in the foyer at the front of her apartment door and no one sees the killer enter or exit. The killer makes a half-hearted attempt to clean up the blood, the sits in a chair and smokes cigarettes instead of escaping. Then the killer exits with some the cash in her purse, leaves the frond door open and steals Miss Bauerdorf’s 1936 blue Oldsmobile coupe from the garage, that car is found abandoned, out of gas on East 25th St in a residential neighborhood that is a substantial distance south from the Hollywood apartment. Georgette is a young woman who works at the Los Angeles Times was a volunteer hostess at the Hollywood Canteen once a week on Wednesday night. She danced with servicemen. No officers allowed in the Canteen, just servicemen. The soldiers and sailors she danced with were initially suspects.

From the paper, Sat, Oct 14, 1944. “Miss Bauerdorf’s duplex apartment was a ‘little overnight hospitality center’ for service men who, in town on leave, had no other place to sleep. Of this sheriff’s investigators [were] convinced after piecing together the stories of a score of persons who knew her habits and after leafing through large bundles of ‘thank you’ letters from soldiers, sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, most of whom are now in various combat zones, who had slept in the downstairs living room of the suite.”

However these soldiers are quickly eliminated as suspects. Georgette was schooled in a New York convent and graduated from the Los Angeles Westlake School for Girls; Georgette was not promiscuous but it might have seemed so to a local peeping Tom. A local would have thought about the light and have been worried that he might be recognized as someone from the neighborhood.  Police question Ernest Tate, 30-year-old negro janitor and ex-prizefighter from Indianapolis and Cincinnati, told sheriff's investigators today he had a passkey to the swank apartment of Georgette Bauerdorf, oil heiress found raped and strangled in her overflowing bathtub. Tate...said he worked in the apartment house until midnight Wednesday, the night when Miss Bauerdorf was slain, but knew nothing of her death. "I worked there that night until midnight and then boarded a street car for my home," Tate told deputies who questioned him on the theory that the brunet girl's - assailant was a man acquainted with her habits. "I had a passkey to her apartment door, but it also had an inside lock which barred passage through the door unless unfastened". Police revealed the killer had sprinkled his fingerprints liberally "about” the apartment, fingerprints are found on the door of Miss Bauerdorf’s flashy convertible which was recovered the following day in the negro section of Los Angeles.  A clear set of fingerprints was found on the bulb of the night light over the outer entrance to the building... apparently the killer knew Miss Bauerdorf was living alone and had unscrewed the light (bulb) to darken the hallway leading to the apartment.

The door locking from inside is important. Given there is no evidence of a break-in, Georgette knew her killer. As the calling out of the words “Stop, Stop you are killing me” would suggest as well. The absence of a fingerprint match is of  significance because that excludes soldiers and people who worked for any defense factory. The police theorized a man with strong arm and a weak mind committed the crime.

Sheriff’s deputy Penprase said fingerprints found in the victim's car, in her apartment and on a light globe above the outside door did not check with each other. Wow. The light bulb fingerprint doesn’t match the prints left in the stolen car or the prints in the apartment.  All of the prints have been checked against military and state records and the FBI, hence the sub-headline in the 1944 SF Examiner reads FINGERPRINTS USELESS IN MURDER OF HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN GIRL. So we know in 2020 the Bauerdorf case fingerprints don’t match the black dahlia fingerprints.

Tate although he is eliminated as a suspect, never goes back to that job, not wishing to be shoehorned by the police into the role of suspect because the car was left in a negro neighborhood.

The focus shifts on Oct. 26. (AP) Georgette Bauerdorf, oil heiress and Hollywood canteen hostess, may have induced death by disrobing before an unshaded bedroom window, Lt. Garner Brown reported he was investigating information that the brunette, Miss Bauerdorf, at times failed to draw the curtains. He said her slayer may have watched her preparations to retire before gaining entrance to the Hollywood apartment where she was raped and strangled. 

Evidence shows the murder was unplanned. The killer is disorganized and confused by his options after he has silenced Georgette. Why lift her up and place her in the tub and fill it with hot water? Why wipe up some of the blood then suddenly tire of the task? The ashtrays are filled with cigarettes butts without lipstick. Did the killer sit and smoke trying to think what to do next?  Shouldn’t the killer be worried that someone heard Georgette scream “stop you are killing me.”  The killer has to think the police will be coming. And be wondering, do I plead guilty?  Do I drive to Mexico? He takes some cash but leaves jewelry and a wad of two dollar bills. The killer seems unconcerned about finger prints, leaves to door to the apartment open when he exits. Of the lone women murders, only Georgette is killed at home. Indeed there are numerous “only Georgette” aspects to the case. Her family is rich. There are plentiful opportunities for the rapist killer to be caught. Stealing her car was particularly foolish. This crime did not begin as a murder but as a rape. Georgette is killed because she is a witness to a crime. The killer had no plan to dispose or hide the dead body. In contrast, The Black Dahlia killer selects his victim. Likely a pickup, he takes her a room whose design is for the purpose of torture before death and the killer has plans for a public display of the body after death. This is an organized killing with a focus on the media

The killer of Georgette is not organized, not smart, and shows no concern about the media; this crime is very un-Black Dahlia.

There are many significant differences in motive and evidence.  Only when today’s media authors abbreviate the details do the cases in any way intersect.  These true crime creators of blogs videos and podcasts who engage in this clickbait media formula are modern “volunteers” in the Black Dahlia mystery.

Let’s return to the first examiner headline; tortured, killed, hacked, found nude in lot. Elizabeth Short suffered torture. Not Bauerdorf, not Murray not Landon. Nor were they severed nor drained of blood nor dumped in a suburb where children ride bicycles. No logical direct connection can be made of any of the lone women murders to the torture and death of the Black Dahlia. The concept of a Werewolf is titillating waste of time.  It’s nothing more than a speculative headline on a slow news day.

Until next tine 

When a woman’s bludgeoned body found in a vacant lot.