EPISODE 8: Jan 25th & 26th
a most significant and unexpected event; the killer sends evidence to the newspapers and the police.
Welcome. This is the Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast. Episode 8 I am your host Scott Tracy
In the news this day, a most significant and unexpected event; the police have evidence from the killer. As promised a package is sent to the Examiner. This act separates the Black Dahlia Avenger from other criminals the Los Angeles police have handled previously and it dramatically separated the Black Dahlia murder from all other lone women murders of this time period. Everything that we have learned up to this point in terms of how newspapers are different; local vs out of town and the influence of the police in terms of the slant of the story as image and politics play a role in what is written and what is omitted; all of these factors are taken to another level when we compare the two days of reporting after the postal service hands over the makeshift envelope containing personal items from Elizabeth Short’s purse to the police.
The envelope is addressed to Los Angeles Examiner and OTHER Los Angeles PAPERS. These words are cutouts, sourced from the newspapers themselves; clipped and pasted giving the envelope the visual of a ransom note. HERE is Dahlia’s belongings. LETTER TO FOLLOW. Also appear on the outside of the envelope. There is no handwriting outside or inside. The envelope is postmarked Jan 24th and has two 3 cent stamps. The “belongings” smell of gasoline and there are smudges and fingerprints on the envelope.
The reporting in the Los Angeles Times follows: " a (handmade) envelope containing the "Black Dahlia's' birth certificate, address book and other papers, mailed in Los Angeles, was received at the working post office at 5 p.m. and turned over to police. The envelope, 8 by 3 ½ inches, contained "so many leads we don't know which to choose first," Detective Sargents Brown and Cummings declared.
The officers decided that the envelope's contents were mailed by someone who had seen Miss Short after her last known companion, Robert Manley, had left her at the Biltmore Jan. 9. Manley, police said, reported he had seen the address book in her purse...Cummings and Brown said they believed the letter was mailed by someone, possibly a former landlord, who had no connection with the killing.
Well, the landlord is a one time hypothesis. We won’t hear of it again. This initial guess is based on the assumption of the police that a killer would never “help” them. No doubt Richardson explains the killer has followed thru on his declaration to give the papers more “material”. The envelope's contents give off an odor of gasoline and officers theorized the sender may have intended to burn them and changed his mind. - The address book, bound in brown leather, had 1937 and the name, "Mark M. Hansen," printed on the cover. Homicide detectives said it was "loaded with names of men and women," each of which will be checked for possible leads to the slaying.Note the appointment book is ten years old so Beth uses it as a notebook.
PRINTS ON LETTER BELIEVED CLUE TO DAHLIA SLAYING. Bakersfield Californian, Jan. 25
A dozen clear fingerprints on a crude patchwork letter, which was mailed with other personal effects of slain Elizabeth Short, The fingerprints were sent to Washington for checking while police investigated the names listed in the address book, many of them new to the investigation. The importance of the fingerprint evidence can not be understated. “A dozen clear fingerprints” is a reported in Boston, Manhattan and Nashville newspapers but that sentence not seen in the local papers, not the Los Angeles Times or Examiner or Herald. The New York Daily News and other out of town newspapers publish a photo of LAPD fingerprint man, George Wheeler lifting prints from the the Black Dahlia Avenger envelope. There is no picture of Wheeler in the Times or in the Examiner.
Well, Why would the Los Angeles press not tell the world about the clear fingerprints when other papers did? Note what the Los Angeles Times article states: Someone, possibly, the sadistic killer himself, who took elaborate pains to conceal his identity… "Two good sets of fingerprints" were obtained from the outside envelope, … but officers feared they would be those of postal employees. No prints were found on the objects contained in the letter. END-QUOTE
What a different slant on the presentation of the facts. Notice the Times calls the fingerprints “a good set” and the out of town papers say “clear” prints. Note how the newspaper concludes the killer took elaborate plans to conceal his identity. this is the LAPD sanitized version of the facts. As is the suggestion that the prints might be Postal employees. Is it hard for the LAPD to eliminate Postal employees? No. It is an easy thing to do. All postal employees are fingerprinted when they apply for the job. The FBI has the prints of every postal worker. No doubt the few Los Angeles Postal workers and inspectors that touched the envelope were eliminated privately and quickly. There is constant mention of the cleverness of the killer in the Los Angeles papers and clearly the LAPD has an agenda to exploit the killer’s ego. They desire the phone calls and letters continue. And fear the Black Dahlia Avenger would be unlikely to do so if he knew the FBI has his clear prints.
The killer has promised; “letter to follow.” The Press agenda is selling papers to the entire city. The LAPD is trying to reach one person, the killer. Newspapers reported that the LAPD got an anonymous telephone call. "Don't try to find the Short girl's murderer because you won't," then caller hung up.
The black dahlia avenger has called Richardson, mailed purse contents to the LAPD, warned to police to not look for him, and disposed of the purse where it could be seen, as Beth’s black purse and black shoes are spotted atop restaurant garbage. Perhaps the killer did call Toni Smith after all. The police are determined to have the black dahlia avenger continue to communicate with them in hopes that he makes a mistake. They do not want the killer to think that he's already made a mistake by leaving his clear fingerprints on the envelope.
The headline on this day in the Boston Globe focuses on a witness. ADMITS SHE KNOWS WHO KILLED DAHLIA
California police say Caral Marshall, 21, offers to name slayer of Elizabeth Short, "if the reward is big enough." LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25 A Six foot one-inch blonde admitted today that she knew who killed Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. Caral Marshall, 21, was arrested at Barstow, Calif., about 150 miles from Los Angeles. The girl and a male companion were arrested on suspicion of auto theft after they tried to sell a 1942 model car for $700. Subsequent investigation disclosed that four persons in a bar had heard her admit she knew who murdered the Black Dahlia, but was "afraid to tell." Meanwhile, police attempted to identify a dozen clear fingerprints on a crude patchwork letter found in the mails and containing personal effects of the slain gal.
Carol Marshall’s male companion is a World War II vet 25 years old Charles Edward Wells, Jr. When his father hears of the son’s misadventure he tells police Junior is suffering from shell shock and to hold him until he drives to Barstow. Wells and Marshall met in a Los Angeles cafe Thursday and the idea of a road trip took hold at night and the adventure seeking couple got as far as Barstow, north and east of Los Angeles on Highway 15, the road to Vegas. Caral Marshall is from Tulare CA half way between Fresno and Bakersfield. The San Bernardino Sun covers the central valley well and that newspaper tells us more; it was a breakfast cafe with a bar where the cafe bartender and waitress overheard Marshall talk about the Black Dahlia case. Police were contacted and arrive after lunch at 2pm and the couple has gone.
However a service station owner in east of Barstow is suspicious when Caral and Charles try to sell him a five year old car for $700.00. Police are contacted and this time they arrive soon enough to bring them into custody. She will be dismissed the next day as a thrill seeker. Odd, Caral Marshall is described as a blond Amazon in the newspapers but all her pictures show her to be a brunet. A minor mystery, but nothing to do with the larger questions of the unsolved murder of the Black Dahlia.
Let us now turn the page to the news of the next day, the 26th. There is significant change in the hypothesis of the gasoline. Note how the story spins. This from the San Francisco Examiner: Before placing the envelope in the mail he first soaked it in gasoline, a precaution intended to destroy all fingerprints. This move was regarded as classifying the killer as a person versed in scientific crime detection. Gasoline dissolves the minute quantities of oil with which fingerprints are formed, and thus destroys fingerprints. Comparatively few persons are aware of this.
First of all, Gasoline was a much more common solvent and cleaner at this time than many people realize today. My local post office displays an old wooden rubber stamp behind glass in the lobby that instructs postal employees to clean it by soaking gasoline.
The killer has self manufactured this envelope. Glue is used to hold the folded paper together. The gasoline weakens the hold of the glue from the inside and the makeshift envelope self opens in the hands of postal workers. This is why the post office holds the envelope initially. If there is gasoline on the outside of the envelope the pasted letters and words that make up the address would fall off in no time at all. The police are selling a story that gasoline is on the outside of the envelope as it would make it difficult to get the 10 clear fingerprints as reported. Let’s quote the LA Times from the previous day as the envelope is described.
“The envelope's contents gave off an odor, of gasoline and officers theorized the sender may have intended to burn them and changed his mind.” Yesterday’s news was a landlord sent the evidence. Yesterday, the gasoline is on the photos and address book inside the envelope. This makes sense. Clearly the day one hypothesis makes the most sense; the sender thought about burning the belongings then changed his mind.
Today’s news: it’s the killer that sent the evidence. Clever killer puts gasoline on the outside of the envelope because he is clever and hopes to defeat the police. It makes no sense but that is reported.
The police didn’t expect a killer to mail evidence to the them. Jack the Ripper famously wrote to the newspapers about his crimes and his craft. The Ripper mailed a box containing a letter and a partial kidney to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. It is clear that Jack the Ripper was an opportunistic killer. Therefore he felt free to brag about his killings, since he could not be connected to them because his random selection of victims was based on opportunity. Is that how the Black Dahlia Avenger sees himself?
It’s a good question; How likely is it that the Black Dahlia Avenger realizes he could be remembered as “the Jack the Ripper of 1947” by sending proof of his crime? The inclusion of the address book in the belongings indicates the killer believes the names in the book present no more danger to his capture than Elizabeth Short’s Birth Certificate or Social Security Card.
Remember the Black Dahlia Avenger told Richardson that he would mail “Some of the things she had with her when she disappeared.” Some is not all. Did the Avenger keep any souvenirs? The Address Book is seen as a substantial clue. There are pages missing. Did the killer tear away the pages? When I first read about missing pages I assumed the killer removed them, however, nearly one hundred had been torn out of the original 400. The killers name is not likely written 100 times. Beth used the 10 year old appointment book for notes. Among her “belongings” were four torn notebook scraps of paper, one with Jimmy Harrigan’s Army base phone number, another one with Carl Balsiger’s phone number, the name of “Jimmy Bifulco” in pencil and ”Wayne Gregg” written in ink. So Beth tore pages. I believe she would likely start a letter on a page or use the notebook as a diary then remove those pages. The killer could have kept the address book as a souvenir, given it has Mark M. Hansen’s name on it not Elizabeth Short’s name. seeking attention, the killer gave the trophy to the police. Investigators compared the writing in the notebook with letters Beth sent to her mother and determined that most of the writing in the book was Beth’s. There were about three or four pages written in another hand, Detective Finis Brown stated, (the pages… were) torn out in three places, just a few pages, five or six in one place. In another place, one or two, three or four …(adding up) to nearly a hundred pages.
The killer called James Richardson at the Examiner on January 23rd, mailed an envelope of Dahlia’s belongings to the press on the 24th, the killer said a letter would follow. On the 25th, the killer called the police to say “don’t look for me because you won’t find me.” That’s three messages in three days and a promise of more to come. The LAPD wants to do whatever it takes to have the killer continue to stay in touch. The postal employee fingerprint angle is the soup the police wish the killer to consume.
Back to the news the day;
First to be questioned … was Mark Hansen, whose name was stamped on the cover. Hansen was eliminated after asserting that he had not seen the girl since last November, Officers stated. Hansen, a wealthy, middle-aged theater owner, who rented rooms in his home at 6024 Carlos Ave said he supposed that Miss Short took the notebook from his desk. Robert S. Geissinger, whose business card was contained in the envelope, admitted acquaintance with Miss Short but told officers he had no contact with her since last October, and was likewise ruled out. Contracted at San Bernardino Army Air Base where he is a civilian mechanic, Jimmy Harrigan, another name in the book, said he had "picked up" the Short girl about Dec. 1 and took her to a night spot but that a second date the following evening ended his association with her. Harrigan was eliminated as a suspect.
It’s good to get your name in the paper but less fun to be in the news. As the police followup on the names, these men are burdened with publication of their names as if they are suspects. The police soon discover that the have men with similar stories; as they are all members of the I dated Elizabeth Short but haven’t seen her for months and I didn’t kill her club.
Among the belongings sent to the papers is a newspaper clipping announcing the death of Major Matt Gordon. Gordon wrote a letter to his family in which he stated he might bring home a bride from - Medford Mass. In the copy of the newspaper story that Beth has in her purse, the name of the bride or bride-to-be was scratched out and Beth’s friends have reported that Miss Short frequently showed the clipping to them. … Beth scratched out the other woman’s name because it was incorrect. Odd. Raise your hand if you have a newspaper clipping at home of your lover with the other woman’s name crossed out. Anyone? No one?
I wonder how many acquaintances of Elizabeth believed her story. Were Beth and Matt engaged? They went on one and only one date together. Can we trust Beth’s answer? Wikipedia states Beth was engaged because Beth told others she was engaged. Well, Beth tells stories. Is there a ring? The question is best answered by the Gordon family.
Although they were said to have had only one date according to Mrs. Matt Gordon, Sr. of Pueblo,Colorado; the couples romance developed through correspondence. Mrs Gordon learner of the romance through a letter he son wrote her May 5. 1945, from India, “Mom do you think she really loves me?” Major Gordon wrote his mother 'It kind of looks like she does In 11 days she wrote me 27 letters '
Mrs. Val Gordon of Riverside, sister-in-law of a (Major Matt Gordon) had been corresponding with Elizabeth Short based on a comment by Matt Gordon that (Beth) was a "refined and educated girl," Her husband, Capt. Vincent Gordon, said that correspondence between Elizabeth Short and his wife was discontinued about eight months ago when (Elizabeth) said she was coming west to work as a model. The relationship between the Gordons and Elizabeth Short, who had never “met" each other despite their letters, already had "cooled" considerably after Capt. Gordon's brother was killed in combat in (India)… the Gordons said Elizabeth Short had written the dead flyer's parents asking for money immediately after his death. They added that-since no engagement existed they could not understand the motive for her request. Matt’s family says Beth and Matt were NOT engaged. That’s good enough for me. Major MATT GORDON’s death greatly impacted Beth. She never works again. Her emotional wounds were real even if her engagement was wishful.
A pair of black suede shoes and a black plastic purse, described as similar to the articles owned by Miss Short, were picked up about a mile from the vacant lot where her body was left January 15th. Robert Hyman, neighborhood cafe manager, told police he spotted the shoes and purse atop a trash can early today.
The police bring in Mrs. French to identify the shoes and purse. She is unable to do so, Robert Manley recognizes the metal taps on her shoes that he paid for and mentions that inside of the purse still smells of her distinct perfume. It is a strong scent, it has to be for him to find it, 10 days later inside her purse that was tossed in the cafe restaurant garbage for one day then spent a day at the city dump. The killer doesn’t consider the shoes and purse a trophy. Question of the day Do you think the killer expected the purse to be found? There is no opportunity for the press to highlight how clever the killer is for leaving the purse and shoes where they would be found. The killer did not splash gasoline on the purse, The killer sends other messages to the authorities, yet did not splash gasoline on those letters. If many of these so-called Avenger letters are hoaxes, the jokers that send them, do not put gasoline on the outside or inside of the envelopes. The Black Dahlia Avenger has kept the evidence for 7 days. these missing 7 days means the killer is not in a hurry, not worried that his stash of incriminating evidence would be found.
ONE MORE THING
The LAPD relies on Dr. J. Paul DeRiver for advice and in time they will pay a price for that trust. DeRiver is commonly quoted in the Los Angeles papers. Historically his image is boosted in the press and he enjoys the limelight. QUOTE Until recently, Dr. DeRiver was called in only after a crime had been committed. Now, under the recently issued examination order, his work is largely preventive. Dr. DeRiver said that he will catalogue and classify to type every known morals offender in Los Angeles. END-QUOTE Good intentions. However there are issues with many of his cases… Consider the ten most famous DeRiver cases, six of them are burdened with significant psychological and legal misjudgments. Albert Dyer and Robert E. L. Folkes are innocent and sent to the gas chamber. A judge reprimands DeRiver in the Chloe Davis murder investigation, DeWitt Cook's treatment pretrial should have led to a mistrial. Lastly DeRiver is fired for his unprofessional behavior in the Black Dahlia case.
Police officials have ordered that all persons arrested on suspicion of moral code offenses be given a psychiatric examination by Dr. Paul DeRiver, Pretrial Dr. DeRiver will prepare a complete case history, including fingerprints and photographs of each suspect.
One can admire DeRiver’s intentions to make the world safer thru his unique skills —to be of service to the police and to the public. Over time it becomes clear that his skill set is not equal to his self-image, nor to his ambition. DeRiver is not supervised. His methodology is an infusion of the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Cesare Lombroso. Say Hello to phrenology, penis envy and social Darwinism. Lombroso was Italian army surgeon in the late 1800s who became the Administrative doctor of the Pearo Insane Asylum then a university professor of forensic medicine. On a positive note, Cesare Lombroso is likely the first person to use the term criminology. Lombroso’s belief that criminals are born criminals, means they do not have free will; allowed for establishing hospitals for the criminally insane rather than housing them in traditional jails. That is it for the positive column. Professors, police officers & politicians all came to replace Lombroso’s concepts with a more educated, useful and nuanced paradigms in his lifetime. Lombroso‘s beliefs were substantially discredited in his in most of Europe and the Americas, however, the racial stereotyping was appealing to Italian Fascists so his philosophies had greater influence in Italy until the downfall of Mussolini. Clearly, a Lombroso inspired detective would have a impossible task to find a serial killer. Or a White collar criminal, bribery and political corruption, child molestation in the church, internal police issues; the list of limitations can be as long as you would want it to be.
With his experience in postmortem examinations, Lombroso comes to believe specific anatomical abnormalities reveal criminal character. Special attention was given to asymmetrical faces, excessive body hair, ears of unusual size, forward jutting jaws, sloped foreheads and left handed individuals. Criminals looked like criminals because a criminal is a lower caste of human, closer to apes in Lombrosos’s view. A murderer or thief doesn’t care about the suffering he has caused because a criminal is like a beast; why should the elite members of society of be surprised when the animals act like animals. Lombroso’s classist philosophy excludes sociological, psychological, cultural, religious and environmental factors from criminology. Racism is embraced vigorously in his descriptive language; Mongolian eyes, a Negroid jaw bone, Pigmy flared nostrils. Savages tattoo their bodies, so sailors with tattoos must be savages, because they are celebrating the rising up of the inner beast to the surface. Since criminals are born, there is no value to attempt to rehabilitate them. When one reads about DeRiver’s efforts to categorize sexual criminals it is necessary to remember that criminals are born, not made and that the measurements reveal character, DeRiver’s records are be filled with comments concerning penis length, observations on amount of hair on the body and width of the nostrils. DeRiver’s questions of the suspect shows a weighted focus on masturbation and oral sex because these are criminal acts in 1947, not normal pleasurable sexual activity. Dr. DeRiver believes oral sex is an exclusively homosexual behavior.
February 12, 1946. The Evening Herald and Express published an article by de River in which the “noted psychiatrist and Los Angeles Police Department alienist” applied the technique of “depth psychology” to analyze the face of Eggers: What is “depth Psychology”?
The Wikipedia answer concerns the greats of modern psychology as they grapple with the role of the unconscious mind: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Otto Rank. Depth psychology categorizes that the psyche process is partly conscious, partly unconscious and partly semi-conscious.
NO wiki exists to help us with DeRiver's Lombroso-inspired interpretive pseudo-science. To DeRiver depth psychology is more personal. As far as I can tell, DeRiver makes the term up. He Jabberwockys depth and psychology to create a false aura that respectable scientific principles are at work .
De River reads the shape of the human face in the manner of a palm reader. To reveal the inner conflicts of the individual, one cuts a photo in half lengthwise and mirrors it back to have one face made of two left halves and another with two right haves. Thus revealing the inner secrets and struggles of the criminal. Like a Tarot Card reader, DeRiver wraps his pseudoscience in poetic innuendo and presents it with profound confidence. QUOTE “On the right half of the face, one sees an endeavor or attempt on the part of the personality to mask the true individual, hiding the despair and moroseness.” On the left side, one gets the impression that he is a haggard old man, not too friendly and far from a pleasant person, with nerves of steel, a will of iron, while study of the nose shows through the wideness of the nostrils an indication of great passion and sensuality. He is a thinker and a planner. His jaw and chin are well developed, giving him an air of determination so often found in the phlegmatic, who are not easily aroused, but once the fire is touched, know no limit and will go to any length to achieve their purpose.” END-QUOTE It’s necessary to realize the limitations of this “expert” the LAPD relies on to give them advice as to how to reel in the killer of Beth Short by stoking his ego..
Lombroso’s experience observing the insane weights heavily in framing his theory, similarly, DeRiver works with those who confess. DeRiver comes to believe that all murderers carry a burden with them and will confess if given the chance. This simple notion will be DeRiver’s undoing in time. It is easy to dismiss this concept of confession because of the vast number of cold case murders, this one, of course and no one has confessed to the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey or Jack the Ripper or the Zodiac. It is not just the famous cases that are unsolved; 40% of all homicide cases go unsolved according the FBI Uniform Crime Report Since 1980 there have been 250,000 unsolved murders. One quarter of a million people who prove DeRiver’s theory wrong. Psychopaths have no burden to unload, they don’t feel remorse. Serial killers are not likely to confess. or confide in friends or relatives.
DeRiver is significantly more helpful than a Tarot Card Reader but sadly less helpful than psychic, because a psychic knows there are limits to their interpretive skills. DeRiver it turns out is a better salesman than psychiatrist.
Join me for podcast 9. A waitress gets into a car and the man behind the wheel tells her he’s going to kill her like he did the Black Dahlia
Dr. DeRiver’s pseudo “depth psychology” arrangement of the faces of the Torso Murderer Arthur Eggars
Matt Gordon killed; Had one date with Elizabeth Short on New Year’s Eve
Hundreds of fingerprints sent to the FBI in hopes of matching the “belongings” envelope.