March 28, 2025 • 45 mins
Elizabeth Short grew up in Medford, Massachusetts. Her story has the most brutal of endings. Elizabeth's death has been twisted and exploited for nearly eight decades, transforming a young woman searching for her place in the world into the infamous "Black Dahlia." Beyond the gruesome headlines lies a more poignant truth – Elizabeth was simply searching for belonging in post-war America when her life was brutally cut short in January 1947.
Elizabeth's story begins with abandonment during the Great Depression when her father faked his suicide, leaving her mother Phoebe to raise five daughters alone. Coming of age during World War II, Elizabeth witnessed profound social transformation as women entered the workforce and Hollywood's Golden Age created dreams of opportunity that drew her westward. Her nomadic existence in Los Angeles – moving between hotels, apartments, and boarding houses – reflected her struggle for stability in a city that promised much but delivered little.
The medical precision of her murder points to a killer with anatomical knowledge, possibly connected to a medical school. Her body was bisected using a surgical technique called hemicorporectomy, completely drained of blood, and meticulously cleaned – all suggesting methodical expertise rather than frenzied violence. This clinical approach connects to a disturbing pattern of unsolved murders of women in Los Angeles between 1943-1949, raising questions about a possible serial killer targeting vulnerable women.
Among the numerous suspects, Dr. George Hodel emerges as particularly compelling – a well-connected physician named as a prime suspect by a 1949 grand jury. His own son, former LAPD detective Steve Hodel, believes his father responsible not only for Elizabeth's murder but potentially for other unsolved cases from that era.
Elizabeth deserves to be remembered as more than just a gruesome case study. She was a young woman with hopes and dreams, searching for her place in a world recovering from war. Her story reminds us of our responsibility when exploring true crime – to honor victims by recognizing their humanity first, separating sensationalism from truth, and treating their stories with the dignity they deserve.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anngelle Wood (00:00):
Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this
is Crime of the Truest Kind.
On this show I talk aboutMassachusetts and New England
(00:29):
crime stories, history andadvocacy.
It is always my focus becauseall too often they are lost in
their own story, exploited bythe same people who claim to
advocate for them.
Not everybody in the true crimespace is a nice guy.
(00:49):
We had a tremendous show at OffCabot in Beverly, mass a couple
weeks ago.
It sold out, all seats weretaken.
It sold out, all seats weretaken.
I am thrilled and grateful andI've said from the very
beginning, from the first showthat I booked, if 20 people
showed up I'd be happy andsurprised, but I'd be happy.
There will be more live shows.
(01:10):
New Hampshire that's in theplan, looking for appropriate
venues on the South Shore.
Thank you, those of you whohave emailed me, I owe you a
reply.
Thank you, the show at OffCabot was recorded.
I need to finish reviewing theaudio and I will share it in an
episode.
This is episode 81, part two.
(01:32):
Please listen to episode 80 ifyou have not.
We talk about the legacy ofElizabeth Short and the decades
after her gruesome murder.
The public's fascination withher case remains strong.
Yet there has been no clearanswer to who did this or who
(01:53):
else they may have done it to.
So yes, this is episode 81,part two.
The Last Days of Elizabeth Shortwas victimized over and over
again, as is often the case withvictims of crime, and their
(02:16):
families are too.
Elizabeth Short was a youngwoman searching for belonging.
Where did she fit in?
Her upbringing in Medford, nextto Boston, started out
relatively normally.
Her salesman, dad Cleo, andhomemaker, mom Phoebe, settled
there in 1927.
Living from Maine where Phoebegrew up, and Virginia, the
(02:39):
oldest of their five daughters,was born and it just occurred to
me, virginia was likely namedafter Cleo Short's home state.
Then came Dorothea, elizabeth,elnora and youngest sister,
muriel.
I say a relatively normalbeginning because in early 1930,
(03:04):
after Cleo Short losteverything in the Wall Street
crash of 1924, he disappeared.
Yep, his car was foundabandoned on the Charlestown
Bridge, that once rickety oldbridge connecting Charlestown to
the North End.
It's been rebuilt and renamed.
Listen to episode 80.
It's been rebuilt and renamed.
(03:26):
Listen to episode 80.
When his car was foundabandoned, his family believed
he was really dead.
Phoebe Short and her fivedaughters were left to face the
unknown.
The US was in the throes of theGreat Depression deep and wide,
the greatest in the history ofthe United States and the modern
(03:48):
industrial economy.
It wore on Thousands of banksclosed, leaving people penniless
.
That's what happened to CleoShort and the Short family.
The end of Prohibition came in1933, in large part because it
failed.
Despite lasting 13 years, itdid a lot of damage.
(04:08):
It never ended alcoholproduction and consumption, it
just pushed it underground.
An entire black market grew.
Bootleggers, distillers, conmen, wise guys and gangsters they
all flourished.
Speakeasies rose in popularity,not unlike these speak-softly
shops in England and Ireland inthe 19th century.
(04:28):
The name said it all Patronswere to speak softly to avoid
detection.
That all came to an end in 1933under the terms of the 18th
Amendment.
The liquor trade was mainstreamagain, yahoo.
Joblessness had been alarminglybad and people had turned to
encampments, growing populationsof shantytowns.
(04:51):
Shelters were built out ofsalvaged materials.
Under President Hoover, theseso-called towns were also known
as Hoovervilles.
Poverty and hunger rampant.
People waited in bread lineshoping for something to eat.
(05:13):
People were selling apples onstreet corners for five cents.
Oh, it was bleak.
And this is what Cleo Short lefthis family to face alone.
He got to disappear.
I could not say whether thatwas ultimately good for the
short women.
I don't have any real evidenceof what kind of man he was.
We do find out a little bitlater on when Elizabeth goes to
(05:37):
see him.
And we do know some parents arebetter apart than together.
But I will say this Phoebe, shewas a goddamn hero.
In the last episode I talkedabout the earlier years, how
Elizabeth grew up in Medford,then spent winters in Miami, how
(05:59):
one day her mother got a callfrom her dead husband who was
actually alive and living inCalifornia Lucky him Alive.
The whole entire time she wasstruggling during the worst
times.
Growing up in days of war anddire economic times, one would
have to be resourceful.
Elizabeth came of age duringWorld War II, when life in
(06:21):
America was dramatically altered.
We were a changed nation.
The war effort touched everyaspect of daily life and
citizens rallied to support oursoldiers.
In May of 1941, the federalgovernment began selling bonds
to help finance World War II.
Celebrities and governmentofficials would endorse them.
(06:44):
I talked a lot about this timein American history when I
discussed the Coconut Grovefires of Boston.
Those episodes are availablefor you to listen to right now.
Well, after this one, go listento those Events like the attack
on Pearl Harbor in December1941, for example.
(07:04):
Events like the attack on PearlHarbor in December 1941, for
example, those helped drivesales.
No-transcript, it's the meetingof patriotism and propaganda.
(07:24):
At the same time, there was nofrivolous spending.
Americans were rationingresources Sugar, meat, fuel,
rubber all in limited supply.
Citizens used ration books andstamps to purchase essentials.
Families turned to victorygardens or war gardens, a
(07:45):
vegetable garden planted duringwartime to help supplement food
supplies.
It helped to support the warefforts and to boost morale.
We saw families growing theirown food and it helped free up
resources, reducing demand oncommercial food production and
packaging and transportation,all of which were being reserved
(08:05):
for the war effort.
And then we saw the change inthe workplace.
With men fighting overseas,women were entering the
workforce in unprecedentednumbers, a period that marked a
significant shift in genderroles.
Rosie the Riveter became anicon, symbolizing women leading
the charge in production, takingcritical roles in the
(08:26):
industry's vital to the wareffort, and widespread
propaganda campaigns weredeveloped to encourage unity and
boost that morale.
Posters, films and radioprograms emphasized patriotism
and the importance of sacrificefor the greater good.
Racism was rampant, despitelarge numbers of black Americans
(08:46):
contributing significantly tothe war effort.
The Double V campaign emerged,advocating for victory against
fascism abroad and againstracism at home.
This was all happening asJapanese Americans were forcibly
relocated to internment camps.
Let this be a lesson we cannotrewrite our history.
(09:08):
We must see it in all its sadtruth.
Despite how sad and depressingthis all was, people found ways
to escape through radiobroadcasts and films, swing and
jazz music more popular thanever.
Hollywood played a role, makingwar movies and entertaining the
soldiers through the USO.
(09:30):
I could see why a young womanwhose life was anything but
normal how they might daydream.
There was no real evidence thatElizabeth set her sights on
stardom, but I'd be willing tosay it wasn't completely
unfounded.
It was Hollywood's golden age,a period of opulence and immense
(09:51):
influence and innovation incinema From the late 20s into
the 60s.
There is a romanticism to itand it is exactly why Elizabeth
reached cult-like status as thisbeautiful young starlet, tragic
murder victim.
The Black Dahlia and tabloidsthey love a good scoop and to
(10:16):
churn out grisly headlines.
Elizabeth's life had been calledtransient Nomadic sounds more
dignified.
Called transient, nomadicsounds more dignified.
A life that began as a teenager, with those trips back and
forth to Florida.
That helped ease herrespiratory trouble.
That made her move toCalifornia attractive, we know
(10:39):
she went to Vallejo once shelearned her father was actually
alive was actually alive.
She got work at the Air ForceBase, slowly making her way
south, first to Santa Barbarawhere she'd be arrested for the
crime of underage drinking.
That sent her back toMassachusetts but to Florida,
and then eventually she made herway back to California.
(11:04):
Elizabeth would spend the lastsix months of her life in the
Los Angeles area hustlingwaitressing gigs.
To cover her rent she had anumber of roommates, one of whom
was Marjorie Graham.
Reportedly, the two stayed atthe Hawthorne Apartments, then
the Figueroa Hotel in downtownLA, which was a hostel back in
the late 40s.
(11:24):
In her last days Elizabethstayed in a room behind the
Florentine Gardens nightclub onHollywood Boulevard.
The sound of that HollywoodBoulevard.
It sounds so glamorous.
But Elizabeth lived lean,moving between hotels and
apartments, boarding houses,even at private homes, staying
for free if she could or payingas little as possible.
(11:48):
I mean, money seemed elusivefor her.
At one time she shared atwo-bedroom apartment in
Hollywood with eight other women.
Even that setup was tough toafford and she kept out of the
landlord's way when rent was due.
Elizabeth was a nomad.
She had nothing keeping heranywhere.
I believe that was driven bysadness.
(12:11):
Let's unpack that.
Her father went missing,assumed dead, when she was young
.
She barely knew him.
She and her mother and sistersare left essentially destitute.
Who knows what adolescence waslike, hard I bet.
She had some boyfriends, I'msure, and courting was a thing
(12:32):
in the 1940s.
She met a military man.
After her stay with her fatherwent badly.
That man was said to be abusive.
She left.
When she returned to Floridashe met the man she was going to
marry, though he diedtragically just as the war was
ending.
Of course she was very sadabout that.
Later she comes to long beachto see another friend.
(12:56):
It is difficult to know what istrue, given the 78 years since
her murder.
So much of her story has beenembellished, so much creative
licensing of the truth, hergruesome end and its place in
the romanticism of old Hollywood.
It is a mystery that stillweighs heavily in our collective
crime curiosities.
(13:16):
Who was the last known personwith Elizabeth?
It is believed to be a mannamed Robert Red Manley.
With Elizabeth is believed to bea man named Robert Red Manley.
He is someone she met while shewas bunking with Dorothy and
Olvera French at their apartmentin San Diego in December of
1946.
They weren't close friends fromwhat I can tell, and they were
(13:40):
kind enough to let her stay.
But a night it turned intoweeks and Red, he was a
traveling salesman, a marriedtraveling salesman something he
did not share with Elizabeth, nodoubt.
And she was a beautiful youngwoman with pale porcelain skin,
bright eyes and the blackestblack hair.
(14:03):
Now, if you must know, that wasmy nice and easy box shade of
black I used back in the day.
I had often referred to it asNikki Sixx black.
For those of you in the know,and me being me, I had to know
when it first was on the market.
Was it something that Elizabethwould have used?
Clairol's Nice and Easy madeat-home hair coloring
(14:27):
revolutionary accessible, moreaffordable than the salon To the
salon.
More importantly, the haircolorist box color is a goddamn
nightmare.
In 1965, the Clairol companyexpanded its home hair color
line with the introduction ofNice and Easy, the first
(14:47):
shampoo-in hair color with thetagline the closer he gets, the
better you look.
Same could be said about athree-martini lunch.
Elizabeth made a plan with Redto return to Los Angeles.
He picked her up at theFrench's apartment in San Diego
on January 8th.
They drove up the coast andstayed overnight at a motel,
(15:09):
something I found strange, giventhe trip is just two hours.
He has said that nothinghappened and that she slept in
her clothes, interesting thatshe would, seeing as she was
very particular about the careof her wardrobe.
January 9, 1947 is a pivotaldate.
(15:32):
They made their way to LosAngeles.
There, elizabeth checked herbags at the bus depot in
downtown LA.
Where was she going?
Was she about to leave LosAngeles on a Greyhound bus the
next day?
Was it for Boston, as one storysuggested?
Was it up north, where hersister Virginia lived?
(15:53):
Whatever the case, it's saidthat Red didn't want to leave
her in such a sketchyneighborhood, so he drove her to
the Biltmore Hotel about 10minutes away.
Here is where there are a fewversions.
I mean, in Elizabeth Short'scase there are a number of
versions.
There have been books writtenwith fictionalized accounts, so
(16:13):
over these years the truth hasbecome lost.
One account Elizabeth told Redshe was meeting her sister.
What sister?
Was it Virginia, who livedhundreds of miles away in the
Bay Area?
Was it one of her other sisterswho might be visiting from the
East Coast.
Another version is that shetold Red she was going to
(16:34):
Berkeley to stay with her sister.
It's Red who said he stayedwith her in the hotel lobby for
a while.
He says he left her at 6.30 pmon January 9, 1947, and then
made his way back home.
There is even a discrepancy asto when she left the Biltmore
Hotel.
Here's where it ends, or thelore begins.
(16:57):
Witnesses at the Biltmore sayshe was last seen making calls
from the phone bank in theBiltmore Lobby, now known as the
Rendezvous Room.
One account is that a car cameand picked her up and she was
never seen alive again.
Another account is Elizabethexited the hotel lobby, turned
on to Olive and vanished.
(17:17):
Businesses claimed her presenceon that last night.
The Crown Grill a few blocksdown the bar at the storied
Cecil Hotel, both of which areheavily disputed.
People want to attach ElizabethShort to the Cecil Hotel, but
there's no evidence she everwent there.
(17:37):
It could be both good and badfor a business.
Tragedy tourism has grownlargely in popularity, don't we
know?
Dark tourism, morbid tourism,visiting places associated with
death and disaster, also relatedto trauma tourism Whatever you
want to term it, it is real.
(17:57):
People flock to historicalsites of genocide and war
Chernobyl, auschwitz, fukushima,pompeii, hiroshima.
In Nola, for example, you coulddo a walking tour of the St
Louis Cemetery no 1, where thetomb of the eternally famous
(18:17):
voodoo queen Marie Laveau can befound.
She died in 1881, but herlegend has endured.
Her graves, of which there aremore than one, are the most
visited in the world.
Oh, nola is rife with lore andI love it there.
The Museum of Death is there,one of two.
The other is in Hollywood,naturally, oh, and it's graphic.
(18:38):
It is not for the faint ofheart.
And the Los Angeles Museum hasa themed event featuring
exclusive photos of Elizabeth asthe Black Dahlia.
Of course, and trauma, tourismis a real moneymaker.
There are, as you'd guess, losAngeles true crime tours with
stops at the Cecil Hotel, whereRichard Ramirez was said to have
(19:00):
stayed at the height of hismurderous crimes.
One story is that he would comeback to the Cecil covered in
blood and stripped down in thehallways.
The house, or the villa of theMenendez family where they lived
and where the parents weremurdered is on a murder map 722
(19:20):
North Elm Drive, beverly Hills.
That mansion is enormous, soldin 2024 for $17 million.
Oh, and it is extraordinary,google it.
As is the condo where NicoleBrown and Ron Goldman were found
murdered.
It was so popular to Lucky Loutourists that the new owners got
(19:42):
the address changed it was 875South Bundy Drive.
They changed it to 879 SouthBundy Drive and it looks very
different from the outside,though after Ron and Nicole were
killed it took many years forthat condo to sell, it
eventually did.
(20:03):
Many such homes are magnets fortrue crime trauma tours.
Think the Amityville House,lizzie Borden's house, which is
now a B&B you can stay there.
The Connecticut House from theConjuring and because of this
attention many of them getdestroyed.
The Lanza home in Newtown,connecticut.
(20:25):
John Wayne Gacy's death trap,the entire apartment building
where Jeffrey Dahmer once lived,the home on Cielo Drive in
Benedict Canyon where SharonTate was murdered.
That destruction didn't happenright away, though.
The final resident of theoriginal house, trent Reznor.
(20:45):
He rented the home in 1992 andset up a recording studio there
where much of the band Nine InchNails' 1994 record the Downward
Spiral, was recorded.
Marilyn Manson also worked onPortrait of the American Family
there.
Marilyn Manson has proven to begarbage now, but I did really
(21:08):
love that early stuff.
Trent Reznor left the home in1993, and it was torn down three
years later.
Many of the sites associatedwith Elizabeth, like the
Biltmore, the location of the LAHerald-Examiner, one of the
newspapers of the time, thelocation of the LA
Herald-Examiner, one of thenewspapers of the time and one
that was credited with breakingthe story about her murder
(21:31):
there's the Florentine Gardens,hollywood Boulevard, the bus
terminal where she left thosebags, hotel Figueroa that was
the YWCA hostel back then.
Elizabeth was known to havestayed there in the first few
months she arrived in LosAngeles.
By the way, you can check ifyour house is stigmatized in any
(21:57):
way.
Enter your address indiedinhousecom.
Though spoiler, you will becharged if you want the answer.
We know how she was found.
That is part of thehollywoodized legacy.
On january 15th 1947, a motherout walking with her child found
initially what she thought wasa mannequin.
(22:18):
Wouldn't that be your firstthought?
No one would expect to find themutilated body of a young woman
in an empty lot in the lemurpark area of los angeles.
The los angeles times wrotethis she was face up, a few
inches from the sidewalk, justnorth of the middle of the block
, her blue eyes open, althoughother information says they were
(22:41):
green.
Her hands were over her headwith her elbows bent at right
angles.
Her knees were straight and herlegs were spread.
Flies were hovering around thebody.
She was missing her intestines.
She was slashed across the facefrom ear to ear in a crude
Glasgow smile, as it has beencalled, named for the roving
(23:04):
razor gangs of 20th centuryScotland who would leave a
lasting impression and permanentreminder of those whose wrath
they had incurred.
It is a feature co-opted as theChelsea Grin.
Why would someone do such athing to a harmless young woman?
(23:25):
Well, they wanted to.
She was brutalized Cuts andbruises, whole sections of skin
had been removed.
She had been hacked at Part ofher breast.
She was drained of all of herblood and her body was
completely cleaned.
It is believed she was alivewhen her face was cut.
(23:48):
She died, in part at least, ofshock.
She had ligature marks on herwrists, ankles and her neck,
indicating she had been gaggedand bound for some time, and she
did have evidence of sexualassault.
Samples were taken from herbody for testing for the
(24:09):
presence of semen, but there wasno positive result.
Her autopsy, which I hadbelieved remained sealed in LA
County, did show a cerebralhemorrhage, a brain bleed, a
brain bleed.
The coroner ruled she had died10 to 12 hours before being
found.
She was clearly tortured andkilled somewhere else.
(24:34):
The most shocking of all is thatshe was severed in two.
The lower half of her body waspositioned a foot away from her
upper half with her intestinestucked neatly under her buttocks
.
She was in two pieces.
It was a medical technique thatwas taught in the 1930s called
(24:54):
a hemicorporectomy, a radicalsurgical procedure that involves
the amputation of the bodybelow the waist, including the
legs, the genitalia, pelvicbones and the rectum all the
important business.
It is a procedure typicallyperformed as a last resort for
patients with severe andlife-threatening conditions
(25:18):
advanced pelvic cancer, severeinfection.
How one would survive that, Ido not know.
Her lower half was removed bytranssectioning the lumbar spine
between the second and thirdlumbar vertebrae, severing the
intestine at the duodenum or thefirst part of your small
(25:38):
intestine where the digestionprocess begins.
I'm not a doctor.
Surprise, there was very littlebruising along the incision
line.
That suggested that it was doneafter death.
She had a gaping lacerationthat measured 4.25 inches in
length that ran from her bellybutton to her pubic bone region.
(26:01):
The cuts in her face extendedfrom the corners of her lips
region.
The cuts in her face extendedfrom the corners of her lips,
one measured three inches on theright and two and a half inches
on the left.
Her cause of death is she bledout and the shock from her face
being cut, the blows to her headand face that caused a cerebral
(26:24):
hemorrhage.
Head and face that caused acerebral hemorrhage.
Because of all this, thenewspapers were going shithouse.
The story of a young womanfound bisected in a field oh, as
sick as it sounds, that goteverybody excited.
Reporter Agnes Aggie Underwoodwas first on the scene.
Oh, and she was a badass.
(26:44):
She racked up so manyachievements and awards.
She was writing for the thenLos Angeles Herald Express, one
of the city's oldest newspapers.
Newspapers would merge nameswith hyphenates, but that's a
longer story than I even want toget into, though I will tell
you.
I read up on all the many LosAngeles newspapers of the time.
(27:06):
Aggie took several of the photosfrom the scene where Elizabeth
was found.
It is ghastly.
Detectives also found a heelprints, along with tire tracks
at the scene.
A bag of cement nearby that hadwhat was called watery blood in
it.
Elizabeth would be ID'd by herfingerprints.
They were wired to the FBI forpositive identification.
(27:28):
It was that Santa Barbaraarrest with a mugshot.
Her prints were in the system,whatever the system looked like
then, and a 1947 might haveentailed a carrier pigeon.
In a special bulletin issued bythe Los Angeles police upon
learning her identity, they wereseeking information about
Elizabeth Short from January 9thwhen she arrived back in Los
(27:52):
Angeles, through January 15thwhen she was found dead in that
field.
The description of what she waswearing a black suit, fluffy
white cardigan stocking, suedeheels, small two-handled purse,
(28:12):
white gloves, full-length beigecoat and last seen at the
Biltmore it included that shehad bad bottom teeth and her
nails were chewed down to thequick.
The attention to the story wentbeyond simply a piqued interest.
Newsies were having a field dayscrawling body headlines.
They took great pains to coinsexy nicknames like the White
(28:42):
Gardenia Murder, the RedHibiscus Murder and somewhere in
there was the Werewolf Murder.
It wasn't until someonediscovered the story of the girl
who visited the drugstore lunchcounter on Long Beach, a riff
on the film the Blue Dahlia,where Elizabeth was
affectionately called BlackDahlia.
It worked for the headlinesbecause it was mysteriously
exotic.
The press had gone bananaswriting of the sexed fiend
(29:06):
slaying girl found slashed intwo.
Mutilated girl found in LAtorture slaying.
Then the suspect of the week.
There were many who werequestioned or straight up
confessed.
Pretty much everyone was asuspect.
But to put a name on it, theBlack Dahlia murder.
Well, that moved a shit ton ofpapers.
(29:27):
All of it is disturbing.
There was someone out therebrutalizing women.
Elizabeth could not have beenthe first, and Los Angeles has
produced a number of serialmurderers.
It is worth considering thatthere are more than a dozen
unsolved murders of young womenin the Los Angeles area between
(29:49):
1943 and 1949.
In 1949, a Los Angeles Countygrand jury was tasked with
investigating the failure on thepart of law enforcement to
solve the cases.
Let's walk through those.
July 27, 1943.
July 27, 1943, 41-year-old OraElizabeth Murray was found
(30:23):
beaten and strangled to death inthe parking lot of the Fox
Hills Golf Course in Culver City.
October 12, 1944, 20-year-oldGeorgette Bauerdorf was found by
the cleaning person in her WestHollywood apartment.
Her body was floating face downin an overflowing bathtub.
February 10th 1947, shortlyafter Elizabeth, 44-year-old
(30:43):
Jean Nettie French wasdiscovered in West Los Angeles
on Grandview Boulevard nude,badly beaten on her stomach
written in lipstick badly beatenon her stomach.
Written in lipstick Fuck you,bd.
And the letters Tex.
Below it.
Now, of course, the initials BDthat led people to think Black
Dahlia and Tex who knows?
This was decades before theManson killings.
(31:06):
March 12, 1947.
The nude body of 43-year-oldEvelyn Winters was found in a
vacant lot of an abandoned railyard in Norwalk, california,
along the Los Angeles River.
She was beaten, strangled, lastseen leaving the Albany Hotel
in Los Angeles.
May 4, 1947.
(31:27):
Dorothy Montgomery, age 36, wasfound at 10.30 in the morning
in a vacant field under a peppertree in Florence, graham,
california.
She was strangled, beaten andnaked.
She had been missing since 9.30the previous evening when she
left to pick her daughter upfrom a dance recital.
(31:48):
Title May 12, 1947.
Laura Trelstad, 39 years old,discovered by the oil company
patrolman in an oil field onLong Beach Boulevard.
She had been sexually assaulted, strangled with a belt and
thrown from a vehicle.
July 8, 1947.
Rusenda Mondragon, age 21.
Her naked body was discoveredby a postal clerk in a gutter
(32:12):
near Los Angeles City Hall.
She was strangled with astocking.
She was 21.
October 2, 1947.
Lillian Dominguez, age 15.
Attacked walking home with hersister and a friend in Santa
Monica.
A man approached them andproceeded to stab her in the
heart with a stiletto blade.
(32:33):
A week later, on October 9th, anote was found written on the
back of a business card stuckunder the door of a furniture
store.
The message, written in pencil,read I killed the Santa Monica
girl.
I will kill others.
February 14th 1948.
Gladys Kern, a 42-year-old realestate agent in Los Angeles,
(32:56):
was found stabbed in the backwith a hunting knife in a vacant
house she was showing in LasFeliz.
June 13th 1949.
Louise Springer, 35-year-oldcosmetologist, was found
murdered in the backseat of herhusband's convertible along a
street in south-central LosAngeles.
Her killer had fashioned agarrotte from a clothesline and
(33:17):
she was also sexually assaultedwith a stick.
August 18, 1949.
Mimi Boomhauer, age 48, waslast heard from when she called
a friend from her home in the700 block of Neem Road in Los
Angeles Neem Road, a very posharea of Bel Air.
Five days after she disappeared, mimi's white handbag was
(33:40):
discovered in a phone booth at agrocery store in Los Angeles.
She was never seen or heardfrom again.
October 7, 1949, 26-year-oldJean Spangler left her Los
Angeles apartment telling hersister-in-law she was going to
meet her ex-husband before goingto work on a film set where she
worked as an extra.
(34:01):
She was last seen alive at agrocery store several blocks
from her home.
Two days later, her tatteredpurse was discovered in a remote
area of Griffith Park, not evensix miles away from her home.
Two days later, her tatteredpurse was discovered in a remote
area of Griffith Park, not evensix miles away from her home.
Inside was a letter addressedto Kirk and mentioned seeing a
doctor Interesting fact with themention of Kirk.
(34:23):
Gene Spangler had worked on afilm with the now late actor
Kirk Douglas.
He too was questioned andcleared, but Gene Spangler has
also never been seen again.
As for Elizabeth's family, well, they suffered again.
As soon as Elizabeth waspositively identified through
(34:45):
her fingerprints, reporters fromthe Los Angeles Examiner
descended.
Owned by William RandolphHearst, he was known for his
aggressive and unethical methodsof yellow journalism.
Language has certainly changed,but the newspaper business Not
so much.
American newspapers frothed atthe mouth with sensationalism,
(35:10):
exaggerating details of crimesor flat-out making them up.
Ethics Phooey Means nothing,phoebe Short heard from them at
home in Medford.
The press had many questionsabout her 22-year-old daughter,
elizabeth, who they deceitfullysaid had won a beauty contest in
Los Angeles.
After drawing as much personalinformation as Phoebe would
(35:33):
offer, she was then told theactual fate of her daughter.
The paper then offered to flyPhoebe to Los Angeles and put
her up so she could assist withthe murder investigation.
More bullshit.
They didn't want her to talk toanyone, they wanted her for
themselves.
The exclusive information.
They wanted the scoop.
(35:54):
Both the Examiner and anotherHearst newspaper, the Herald
Express, further sensationalizedthe case, creating the false
narrative of Elizabeth wearingtight clothes and sheer tops,
spinning the black Dahlia into awild serial dater.
One such story, calling her anadventurous who prowled
Hollywood Boulevard On January17th, the Los Angeles Times
(36:20):
called her case a sex fiendslaying.
Sex fiends showed up a lot inthe 40s, as did sex degenerate
in the 40s, as did sexdegenerate.
Phoebe and her daughters weretaunted by reporters, no doubt,
(36:40):
and this story sure did bringout a lot of creeps and fiends
and degenerates.
Days after the discovery ofElizabeth in that field, on
January 21st, a person claimingto be the killer called James
Richardson, editor of theExaminer, congratulating him on
their coverage of the BlackValley case, saying he would
turn himself in but to expectsome souvenirs of Beth Shore in
the mail.
I call her Elizabeth, but manyof the pieces, particularly
(37:06):
right around the discovery,address her as Betty Orbeck.
Three days later, a suspiciousmanila envelope arrived,
addressed to the Los AngelesExaminer and other Los Angeles
papers.
The words cut and pasted fromnewspaper clippings, with a
message on the front that saidhere is Dahlia's belongings
(37:26):
letter to follow.
Inside were contents that hadbeen skillfully cleaned with
gasoline.
Not unlike how she was found,it contained Elizabeth's birth
certificate photos, businesscards, names written on pieces
of paper and an address bookwith the name Mark Hansen
embossed on the cover.
(37:47):
Mark Hansen, we would learn, isone of the homeowners where
Elizabeth and some of the otheryoung women had been known to
stay.
Authorities were able to pullseveral partial fingerprints
from the package and get them tothe FBI for testing.
Nothing came of it, though.
(38:08):
In the chain of custody theprints were damaged and unable
to be analyzed for any realinformation about its sender
Suspicious or just plain stupid.
At the same time the examinergot that package, a pocketbook
and a black suede shoe werediscovered on top of a garbage
(38:29):
can in an alley two miles fromwhere she was found.
Like the mailed items, thesehad also been wiped clean.
The gasoline destroyed anyfingerprints.
It is clear to authorities thatthis killer had skills in
anatomy and dissection.
Giving the accuracy of thiswork.
Skills in anatomy anddissection, giving the accuracy
(38:52):
of this work.
Realistically, what are thechances someone with no medical
training could wing such things?
None, no chance.
We didn't even have YouTubethen.
How did they fix stuff?
And detectives knew to speak tostudents at the University of
Southern California MedicalSchool not only about the
practice of dissection andbisection and the medical terms
associated, but also about whomay have raised some red flags
(39:16):
back then.
This reminds me very much ofthe case of Karina Homer, who
was found bisected, one part ofher recovered, little evidence,
no crime scene.
She was cleaned and discarded.
Karina Homer's case remainsunsolved.
The age-old question remains whodid this to Elizabeth Short?
(39:40):
There have been countlesssuspects, persons of interest in
her case.
I said it before.
Several people even confessedor tried to.
But one man fits into thisgruesome puzzle George O'Dell.
He was interviewed inconnection with Louise
(40:00):
Springer's murder and probablyothers.
He was a well-connectedphysician and known in Los
Angeles.
He was, in a word, evil.
In October 1949, hodel's namewas mentioned in a formal
written report to the grand juryas one of five prime suspects
(40:20):
in the Black Dahlia murder, butnone of the named suspects were
submitted to the grand jury forconsideration for indictment.
This came around the very sametime that Hodel's teenage
daughter, tamar, accused him ofincest and impregnating her.
He was acquitted after a wildlypublicized trial.
(40:41):
Surprise, surprise, twowitnesses to the alleged abuse
testified at the trial.
A third recanted her earliertestimony and refused to come
forward, one theory being thatHodel threatened her into
silence.
Tamar was accused of seekingattention and her testimony
contradicted her case againsther own father.
(41:03):
This man, george Hodel, had atrail of victims.
It is a very dark story and hisown son, a former LA cop, says
his father is responsible andhas subsequently written a
number of books.
Look him up, steve Hodel.
The podcast called Root of Evilthe true story of the Hodel
(41:26):
family and the Black Dahlia ishosted by Yvette Gentile and
Rasha Paccararo, two of GeorgeHodel's great-granddaughters.
It explores Elizabeth's murder,the Black Dahlia case and the
Hodel family's connection, asdoes the companion TV series I
Am the Night that aired on TNT.
As for Elizabeth, she was laidto rest at the Mountain View
(41:50):
Cemetery in Oakland, california,near where her sister, virginia
and her family live.
Her mother, phoebe had said herdaughter loved California and
decided that would be theappropriate place to put her to
rest.
May Elizabeth Short rest inpeace, because she did not get
that peace in life.
(42:10):
Telling her story is importantbecause it has been hijacked
over almost 80 years since shewas found that day in that field
.
The murder of Elizabeth Shortfrom Medford, massachusetts,
remains unsolved.
From Medford, massachusetts,remains unsolved.
(42:35):
Thank you for listening.
My name is Angelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKinds.
Massachusetts and New Englandcrime stories, history and
advocacy focused always.
I thank you, my listeners andsupporters.
There are a number of ways youcan support the show.
Tell a friend, share it onsocial media, post about it in
(42:58):
the groups and threads that youpost on On Reddit, facebook,
blue Sky.
Give the dogs a bone.
By dropping a tip in the jar,you will be actually giving the
dogs a bone.
Become a patron on Patreon Fourtiers starting at just one
dollar.
Tell your friends come to a liveshow, buy some merch.
(43:18):
Oh, there's new merch.
Oh, I didn't even talk aboutthat New merch with the new logo
design.
I ditched the weapons.
It's been a long time coming.
I feel very good about it.
It's right on time forAdvocacyCon that I will be at in
Indianapolis this weekend.
Lastly, leave a five-starrating and review on Apple
(43:39):
Podcasts.
I would be so very grateful toyou for doing that.
Thank you for listening.
There's so much more aboutElizabeth Short.
So many books have been writtenabout her, so many films have
been made, documentaries,podcasts, many of which exploit
her story.
For many people, she's not ahuman being.
(43:59):
She is a character, and we knowthat that's not true.
She was a living, loving,breathing human being that, I
believe, felt a lot of sadnessfor what she was dealt in life.
I plan to release the off-cabotshow audio as soon as I finish
(44:19):
editing it, hopefully next weekwhen I'm back from this trip.
Alright, I must be going.
Bye, everybody, bye.
Lock your goddamn doors.
Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this
is Crime of the Truest Kind.
On this show I talk aboutMassachusetts and New England
(00:29):
crime stories, history andadvocacy.
It is always my focus becauseall too often they are lost in
their own story, exploited bythe same people who claim to
advocate for them.
Not everybody in the true crimespace is a nice guy.
(00:49):
We had a tremendous show at OffCabot in Beverly, mass a couple
weeks ago.
It sold out, all seats weretaken.
It sold out, all seats weretaken.
I am thrilled and grateful andI've said from the very
beginning, from the first showthat I booked, if 20 people
showed up I'd be happy andsurprised, but I'd be happy.
There will be more live shows.
(01:10):
New Hampshire that's in theplan, looking for appropriate
venues on the South Shore.
Thank you, those of you whohave emailed me, I owe you a
reply.
Thank you, the show at OffCabot was recorded.
I need to finish reviewing theaudio and I will share it in an
episode.
This is episode 81, part two.
(01:32):
Please listen to episode 80 ifyou have not.
We talk about the legacy ofElizabeth Short and the decades
after her gruesome murder.
The public's fascination withher case remains strong.
Yet there has been no clearanswer to who did this or who
(01:53):
else they may have done it to.
So yes, this is episode 81,part two.
The Last Days of Elizabeth Shortwas victimized over and over
again, as is often the case withvictims of crime, and their
(02:16):
families are too.
Elizabeth Short was a youngwoman searching for belonging.
Where did she fit in?
Her upbringing in Medford, nextto Boston, started out
relatively normally.
Her salesman, dad Cleo, andhomemaker, mom Phoebe, settled
there in 1927.
Living from Maine where Phoebegrew up, and Virginia, the
(02:39):
oldest of their five daughters,was born and it just occurred to
me, virginia was likely namedafter Cleo Short's home state.
Then came Dorothea, elizabeth,elnora and youngest sister,
muriel.
I say a relatively normalbeginning because in early 1930,
(03:04):
after Cleo Short losteverything in the Wall Street
crash of 1924, he disappeared.
Yep, his car was foundabandoned on the Charlestown
Bridge, that once rickety oldbridge connecting Charlestown to
the North End.
It's been rebuilt and renamed.
Listen to episode 80.
It's been rebuilt and renamed.
(03:26):
Listen to episode 80.
When his car was foundabandoned, his family believed
he was really dead.
Phoebe Short and her fivedaughters were left to face the
unknown.
The US was in the throes of theGreat Depression deep and wide,
the greatest in the history ofthe United States and the modern
(03:48):
industrial economy.
It wore on Thousands of banksclosed, leaving people penniless
.
That's what happened to CleoShort and the Short family.
The end of Prohibition came in1933, in large part because it
failed.
Despite lasting 13 years, itdid a lot of damage.
(04:08):
It never ended alcoholproduction and consumption, it
just pushed it underground.
An entire black market grew.
Bootleggers, distillers, conmen, wise guys and gangsters they
all flourished.
Speakeasies rose in popularity,not unlike these speak-softly
shops in England and Ireland inthe 19th century.
(04:28):
The name said it all Patronswere to speak softly to avoid
detection.
That all came to an end in 1933under the terms of the 18th
Amendment.
The liquor trade was mainstreamagain, yahoo.
Joblessness had been alarminglybad and people had turned to
encampments, growing populationsof shantytowns.
(04:51):
Shelters were built out ofsalvaged materials.
Under President Hoover, theseso-called towns were also known
as Hoovervilles.
Poverty and hunger rampant.
People waited in bread lineshoping for something to eat.
(05:13):
People were selling apples onstreet corners for five cents.
Oh, it was bleak.
And this is what Cleo Short lefthis family to face alone.
He got to disappear.
I could not say whether thatwas ultimately good for the
short women.
I don't have any real evidenceof what kind of man he was.
We do find out a little bitlater on when Elizabeth goes to
(05:37):
see him.
And we do know some parents arebetter apart than together.
But I will say this Phoebe, shewas a goddamn hero.
In the last episode I talkedabout the earlier years, how
Elizabeth grew up in Medford,then spent winters in Miami, how
(05:59):
one day her mother got a callfrom her dead husband who was
actually alive and living inCalifornia Lucky him Alive.
The whole entire time she wasstruggling during the worst
times.
Growing up in days of war anddire economic times, one would
have to be resourceful.
Elizabeth came of age duringWorld War II, when life in
(06:21):
America was dramatically altered.
We were a changed nation.
The war effort touched everyaspect of daily life and
citizens rallied to support oursoldiers.
In May of 1941, the federalgovernment began selling bonds
to help finance World War II.
Celebrities and governmentofficials would endorse them.
(06:44):
I talked a lot about this timein American history when I
discussed the Coconut Grovefires of Boston.
Those episodes are availablefor you to listen to right now.
Well, after this one, go listento those Events like the attack
on Pearl Harbor in December1941, for example.
(07:04):
Events like the attack on PearlHarbor in December 1941, for
example, those helped drivesales.
No-transcript, it's the meetingof patriotism and propaganda.
(07:24):
At the same time, there was nofrivolous spending.
Americans were rationingresources Sugar, meat, fuel,
rubber all in limited supply.
Citizens used ration books andstamps to purchase essentials.
Families turned to victorygardens or war gardens, a
(07:45):
vegetable garden planted duringwartime to help supplement food
supplies.
It helped to support the warefforts and to boost morale.
We saw families growing theirown food and it helped free up
resources, reducing demand oncommercial food production and
packaging and transportation,all of which were being reserved
(08:05):
for the war effort.
And then we saw the change inthe workplace.
With men fighting overseas,women were entering the
workforce in unprecedentednumbers, a period that marked a
significant shift in genderroles.
Rosie the Riveter became anicon, symbolizing women leading
the charge in production, takingcritical roles in the
(08:26):
industry's vital to the wareffort, and widespread
propaganda campaigns weredeveloped to encourage unity and
boost that morale.
Posters, films and radioprograms emphasized patriotism
and the importance of sacrificefor the greater good.
Racism was rampant, despitelarge numbers of black Americans
(08:46):
contributing significantly tothe war effort.
The Double V campaign emerged,advocating for victory against
fascism abroad and againstracism at home.
This was all happening asJapanese Americans were forcibly
relocated to internment camps.
Let this be a lesson we cannotrewrite our history.
(09:08):
We must see it in all its sadtruth.
Despite how sad and depressingthis all was, people found ways
to escape through radiobroadcasts and films, swing and
jazz music more popular thanever.
Hollywood played a role, makingwar movies and entertaining the
soldiers through the USO.
(09:30):
I could see why a young womanwhose life was anything but
normal how they might daydream.
There was no real evidence thatElizabeth set her sights on
stardom, but I'd be willing tosay it wasn't completely
unfounded.
It was Hollywood's golden age,a period of opulence and immense
(09:51):
influence and innovation incinema From the late 20s into
the 60s.
There is a romanticism to itand it is exactly why Elizabeth
reached cult-like status as thisbeautiful young starlet, tragic
murder victim.
The Black Dahlia and tabloidsthey love a good scoop and to
(10:16):
churn out grisly headlines.
Elizabeth's life had been calledtransient Nomadic sounds more
dignified.
Called transient, nomadicsounds more dignified.
A life that began as a teenager, with those trips back and
forth to Florida.
That helped ease herrespiratory trouble.
That made her move toCalifornia attractive, we know
(10:39):
she went to Vallejo once shelearned her father was actually
alive was actually alive.
She got work at the Air ForceBase, slowly making her way
south, first to Santa Barbarawhere she'd be arrested for the
crime of underage drinking.
That sent her back toMassachusetts but to Florida,
and then eventually she made herway back to California.
(11:04):
Elizabeth would spend the lastsix months of her life in the
Los Angeles area hustlingwaitressing gigs.
To cover her rent she had anumber of roommates, one of whom
was Marjorie Graham.
Reportedly, the two stayed atthe Hawthorne Apartments, then
the Figueroa Hotel in downtownLA, which was a hostel back in
the late 40s.
(11:24):
In her last days Elizabethstayed in a room behind the
Florentine Gardens nightclub onHollywood Boulevard.
The sound of that HollywoodBoulevard.
It sounds so glamorous.
But Elizabeth lived lean,moving between hotels and
apartments, boarding houses,even at private homes, staying
for free if she could or payingas little as possible.
(11:48):
I mean, money seemed elusivefor her.
At one time she shared atwo-bedroom apartment in
Hollywood with eight other women.
Even that setup was tough toafford and she kept out of the
landlord's way when rent was due.
Elizabeth was a nomad.
She had nothing keeping heranywhere.
I believe that was driven bysadness.
(12:11):
Let's unpack that.
Her father went missing,assumed dead, when she was young
.
She barely knew him.
She and her mother and sistersare left essentially destitute.
Who knows what adolescence waslike, hard I bet.
She had some boyfriends, I'msure, and courting was a thing
(12:32):
in the 1940s.
She met a military man.
After her stay with her fatherwent badly.
That man was said to be abusive.
She left.
When she returned to Floridashe met the man she was going to
marry, though he diedtragically just as the war was
ending.
Of course she was very sadabout that.
Later she comes to long beachto see another friend.
(12:56):
It is difficult to know what istrue, given the 78 years since
her murder.
So much of her story has beenembellished, so much creative
licensing of the truth, hergruesome end and its place in
the romanticism of old Hollywood.
It is a mystery that stillweighs heavily in our collective
crime curiosities.
(13:16):
Who was the last known personwith Elizabeth?
It is believed to be a mannamed Robert Red Manley.
With Elizabeth is believed to bea man named Robert Red Manley.
He is someone she met while shewas bunking with Dorothy and
Olvera French at their apartmentin San Diego in December of
1946.
They weren't close friends fromwhat I can tell, and they were
(13:40):
kind enough to let her stay.
But a night it turned intoweeks and Red, he was a
traveling salesman, a marriedtraveling salesman something he
did not share with Elizabeth, nodoubt.
And she was a beautiful youngwoman with pale porcelain skin,
bright eyes and the blackestblack hair.
(14:03):
Now, if you must know, that wasmy nice and easy box shade of
black I used back in the day.
I had often referred to it asNikki Sixx black.
For those of you in the know,and me being me, I had to know
when it first was on the market.
Was it something that Elizabethwould have used?
Clairol's Nice and Easy madeat-home hair coloring
(14:27):
revolutionary accessible, moreaffordable than the salon To the
salon.
More importantly, the haircolorist box color is a goddamn
nightmare.
In 1965, the Clairol companyexpanded its home hair color
line with the introduction ofNice and Easy, the first
(14:47):
shampoo-in hair color with thetagline the closer he gets, the
better you look.
Same could be said about athree-martini lunch.
Elizabeth made a plan with Redto return to Los Angeles.
He picked her up at theFrench's apartment in San Diego
on January 8th.
They drove up the coast andstayed overnight at a motel,
(15:09):
something I found strange, giventhe trip is just two hours.
He has said that nothinghappened and that she slept in
her clothes, interesting thatshe would, seeing as she was
very particular about the careof her wardrobe.
January 9, 1947 is a pivotaldate.
(15:32):
They made their way to LosAngeles.
There, elizabeth checked herbags at the bus depot in
downtown LA.
Where was she going?
Was she about to leave LosAngeles on a Greyhound bus the
next day?
Was it for Boston, as one storysuggested?
Was it up north, where hersister Virginia lived?
(15:53):
Whatever the case, it's saidthat Red didn't want to leave
her in such a sketchyneighborhood, so he drove her to
the Biltmore Hotel about 10minutes away.
Here is where there are a fewversions.
I mean, in Elizabeth Short'scase there are a number of
versions.
There have been books writtenwith fictionalized accounts, so
(16:13):
over these years the truth hasbecome lost.
One account Elizabeth told Redshe was meeting her sister.
What sister?
Was it Virginia, who livedhundreds of miles away in the
Bay Area?
Was it one of her other sisterswho might be visiting from the
East Coast.
Another version is that shetold Red she was going to
(16:34):
Berkeley to stay with her sister.
It's Red who said he stayedwith her in the hotel lobby for
a while.
He says he left her at 6.30 pmon January 9, 1947, and then
made his way back home.
There is even a discrepancy asto when she left the Biltmore
Hotel.
Here's where it ends, or thelore begins.
(16:57):
Witnesses at the Biltmore sayshe was last seen making calls
from the phone bank in theBiltmore Lobby, now known as the
Rendezvous Room.
One account is that a car cameand picked her up and she was
never seen alive again.
Another account is Elizabethexited the hotel lobby, turned
on to Olive and vanished.
(17:17):
Businesses claimed her presenceon that last night.
The Crown Grill a few blocksdown the bar at the storied
Cecil Hotel, both of which areheavily disputed.
People want to attach ElizabethShort to the Cecil Hotel, but
there's no evidence she everwent there.
(17:37):
It could be both good and badfor a business.
Tragedy tourism has grownlargely in popularity, don't we
know?
Dark tourism, morbid tourism,visiting places associated with
death and disaster, also relatedto trauma tourism Whatever you
want to term it, it is real.
(17:57):
People flock to historicalsites of genocide and war
Chernobyl, auschwitz, fukushima,pompeii, hiroshima.
In Nola, for example, you coulddo a walking tour of the St
Louis Cemetery no 1, where thetomb of the eternally famous
(18:17):
voodoo queen Marie Laveau can befound.
She died in 1881, but herlegend has endured.
Her graves, of which there aremore than one, are the most
visited in the world.
Oh, nola is rife with lore andI love it there.
The Museum of Death is there,one of two.
The other is in Hollywood,naturally, oh, and it's graphic.
(18:38):
It is not for the faint ofheart.
And the Los Angeles Museum hasa themed event featuring
exclusive photos of Elizabeth asthe Black Dahlia.
Of course, and trauma, tourismis a real moneymaker.
There are, as you'd guess, losAngeles true crime tours with
stops at the Cecil Hotel, whereRichard Ramirez was said to have
(19:00):
stayed at the height of hismurderous crimes.
One story is that he would comeback to the Cecil covered in
blood and stripped down in thehallways.
The house, or the villa of theMenendez family where they lived
and where the parents weremurdered is on a murder map 722
(19:20):
North Elm Drive, beverly Hills.
That mansion is enormous, soldin 2024 for $17 million.
Oh, and it is extraordinary,google it.
As is the condo where NicoleBrown and Ron Goldman were found
murdered.
It was so popular to Lucky Loutourists that the new owners got
(19:42):
the address changed it was 875South Bundy Drive.
They changed it to 879 SouthBundy Drive and it looks very
different from the outside,though after Ron and Nicole were
killed it took many years forthat condo to sell, it
eventually did.
(20:03):
Many such homes are magnets fortrue crime trauma tours.
Think the Amityville House,lizzie Borden's house, which is
now a B&B you can stay there.
The Connecticut House from theConjuring and because of this
attention many of them getdestroyed.
The Lanza home in Newtown,connecticut.
(20:25):
John Wayne Gacy's death trap,the entire apartment building
where Jeffrey Dahmer once lived,the home on Cielo Drive in
Benedict Canyon where SharonTate was murdered.
That destruction didn't happenright away, though.
The final resident of theoriginal house, trent Reznor.
(20:45):
He rented the home in 1992 andset up a recording studio there
where much of the band Nine InchNails' 1994 record the Downward
Spiral, was recorded.
Marilyn Manson also worked onPortrait of the American Family
there.
Marilyn Manson has proven to begarbage now, but I did really
(21:08):
love that early stuff.
Trent Reznor left the home in1993, and it was torn down three
years later.
Many of the sites associatedwith Elizabeth, like the
Biltmore, the location of the LAHerald-Examiner, one of the
newspapers of the time, thelocation of the LA
Herald-Examiner, one of thenewspapers of the time and one
that was credited with breakingthe story about her murder
(21:31):
there's the Florentine Gardens,hollywood Boulevard, the bus
terminal where she left thosebags, hotel Figueroa that was
the YWCA hostel back then.
Elizabeth was known to havestayed there in the first few
months she arrived in LosAngeles.
By the way, you can check ifyour house is stigmatized in any
(21:57):
way.
Enter your address indiedinhousecom.
Though spoiler, you will becharged if you want the answer.
We know how she was found.
That is part of thehollywoodized legacy.
On january 15th 1947, a motherout walking with her child found
initially what she thought wasa mannequin.
(22:18):
Wouldn't that be your firstthought?
No one would expect to find themutilated body of a young woman
in an empty lot in the lemurpark area of los angeles.
The los angeles times wrotethis she was face up, a few
inches from the sidewalk, justnorth of the middle of the block
, her blue eyes open, althoughother information says they were
(22:41):
green.
Her hands were over her headwith her elbows bent at right
angles.
Her knees were straight and herlegs were spread.
Flies were hovering around thebody.
She was missing her intestines.
She was slashed across the facefrom ear to ear in a crude
Glasgow smile, as it has beencalled, named for the roving
(23:04):
razor gangs of 20th centuryScotland who would leave a
lasting impression and permanentreminder of those whose wrath
they had incurred.
It is a feature co-opted as theChelsea Grin.
Why would someone do such athing to a harmless young woman?
(23:25):
Well, they wanted to.
She was brutalized Cuts andbruises, whole sections of skin
had been removed.
She had been hacked at Part ofher breast.
She was drained of all of herblood and her body was
completely cleaned.
It is believed she was alivewhen her face was cut.
(23:48):
She died, in part at least, ofshock.
She had ligature marks on herwrists, ankles and her neck,
indicating she had been gaggedand bound for some time, and she
did have evidence of sexualassault.
Samples were taken from herbody for testing for the
(24:09):
presence of semen, but there wasno positive result.
Her autopsy, which I hadbelieved remained sealed in LA
County, did show a cerebralhemorrhage, a brain bleed, a
brain bleed.
The coroner ruled she had died10 to 12 hours before being
found.
She was clearly tortured andkilled somewhere else.
(24:34):
The most shocking of all is thatshe was severed in two.
The lower half of her body waspositioned a foot away from her
upper half with her intestinestucked neatly under her buttocks
.
She was in two pieces.
It was a medical technique thatwas taught in the 1930s called
(24:54):
a hemicorporectomy, a radicalsurgical procedure that involves
the amputation of the bodybelow the waist, including the
legs, the genitalia, pelvicbones and the rectum all the
important business.
It is a procedure typicallyperformed as a last resort for
patients with severe andlife-threatening conditions
(25:18):
advanced pelvic cancer, severeinfection.
How one would survive that, Ido not know.
Her lower half was removed bytranssectioning the lumbar spine
between the second and thirdlumbar vertebrae, severing the
intestine at the duodenum or thefirst part of your small
(25:38):
intestine where the digestionprocess begins.
I'm not a doctor.
Surprise, there was very littlebruising along the incision
line.
That suggested that it was doneafter death.
She had a gaping lacerationthat measured 4.25 inches in
length that ran from her bellybutton to her pubic bone region.
(26:01):
The cuts in her face extendedfrom the corners of her lips
region.
The cuts in her face extendedfrom the corners of her lips,
one measured three inches on theright and two and a half inches
on the left.
Her cause of death is she bledout and the shock from her face
being cut, the blows to her headand face that caused a cerebral
(26:24):
hemorrhage.
Head and face that caused acerebral hemorrhage.
Because of all this, thenewspapers were going shithouse.
The story of a young womanfound bisected in a field oh, as
sick as it sounds, that goteverybody excited.
Reporter Agnes Aggie Underwoodwas first on the scene.
Oh, and she was a badass.
(26:44):
She racked up so manyachievements and awards.
She was writing for the thenLos Angeles Herald Express, one
of the city's oldest newspapers.
Newspapers would merge nameswith hyphenates, but that's a
longer story than I even want toget into, though I will tell
you.
I read up on all the many LosAngeles newspapers of the time.
(27:06):
Aggie took several of the photosfrom the scene where Elizabeth
was found.
It is ghastly.
Detectives also found a heelprints, along with tire tracks
at the scene.
A bag of cement nearby that hadwhat was called watery blood in
it.
Elizabeth would be ID'd by herfingerprints.
They were wired to the FBI forpositive identification.
(27:28):
It was that Santa Barbaraarrest with a mugshot.
Her prints were in the system,whatever the system looked like
then, and a 1947 might haveentailed a carrier pigeon.
In a special bulletin issued bythe Los Angeles police upon
learning her identity, they wereseeking information about
Elizabeth Short from January 9thwhen she arrived back in Los
(27:52):
Angeles, through January 15thwhen she was found dead in that
field.
The description of what she waswearing a black suit, fluffy
white cardigan stocking, suedeheels, small two-handled purse,
(28:12):
white gloves, full-length beigecoat and last seen at the
Biltmore it included that shehad bad bottom teeth and her
nails were chewed down to thequick.
The attention to the story wentbeyond simply a piqued interest.
Newsies were having a field dayscrawling body headlines.
They took great pains to coinsexy nicknames like the White
(28:42):
Gardenia Murder, the RedHibiscus Murder and somewhere in
there was the Werewolf Murder.
It wasn't until someonediscovered the story of the girl
who visited the drugstore lunchcounter on Long Beach, a riff
on the film the Blue Dahlia,where Elizabeth was
affectionately called BlackDahlia.
It worked for the headlinesbecause it was mysteriously
exotic.
The press had gone bananaswriting of the sexed fiend
(29:06):
slaying girl found slashed intwo.
Mutilated girl found in LAtorture slaying.
Then the suspect of the week.
There were many who werequestioned or straight up
confessed.
Pretty much everyone was asuspect.
But to put a name on it, theBlack Dahlia murder.
Well, that moved a shit ton ofpapers.
(29:27):
All of it is disturbing.
There was someone out therebrutalizing women.
Elizabeth could not have beenthe first, and Los Angeles has
produced a number of serialmurderers.
It is worth considering thatthere are more than a dozen
unsolved murders of young womenin the Los Angeles area between
(29:49):
1943 and 1949.
In 1949, a Los Angeles Countygrand jury was tasked with
investigating the failure on thepart of law enforcement to
solve the cases.
Let's walk through those.
July 27, 1943.
July 27, 1943, 41-year-old OraElizabeth Murray was found
(30:23):
beaten and strangled to death inthe parking lot of the Fox
Hills Golf Course in Culver City.
October 12, 1944, 20-year-oldGeorgette Bauerdorf was found by
the cleaning person in her WestHollywood apartment.
Her body was floating face downin an overflowing bathtub.
February 10th 1947, shortlyafter Elizabeth, 44-year-old
(30:43):
Jean Nettie French wasdiscovered in West Los Angeles
on Grandview Boulevard nude,badly beaten on her stomach
written in lipstick badly beatenon her stomach.
Written in lipstick Fuck you,bd.
And the letters Tex.
Below it.
Now, of course, the initials BDthat led people to think Black
Dahlia and Tex who knows?
This was decades before theManson killings.
(31:06):
March 12, 1947.
The nude body of 43-year-oldEvelyn Winters was found in a
vacant lot of an abandoned railyard in Norwalk, california,
along the Los Angeles River.
She was beaten, strangled, lastseen leaving the Albany Hotel
in Los Angeles.
May 4, 1947.
(31:27):
Dorothy Montgomery, age 36, wasfound at 10.30 in the morning
in a vacant field under a peppertree in Florence, graham,
california.
She was strangled, beaten andnaked.
She had been missing since 9.30the previous evening when she
left to pick her daughter upfrom a dance recital.
(31:48):
Title May 12, 1947.
Laura Trelstad, 39 years old,discovered by the oil company
patrolman in an oil field onLong Beach Boulevard.
She had been sexually assaulted, strangled with a belt and
thrown from a vehicle.
July 8, 1947.
Rusenda Mondragon, age 21.
Her naked body was discoveredby a postal clerk in a gutter
(32:12):
near Los Angeles City Hall.
She was strangled with astocking.
She was 21.
October 2, 1947.
Lillian Dominguez, age 15.
Attacked walking home with hersister and a friend in Santa
Monica.
A man approached them andproceeded to stab her in the
heart with a stiletto blade.
(32:33):
A week later, on October 9th, anote was found written on the
back of a business card stuckunder the door of a furniture
store.
The message, written in pencil,read I killed the Santa Monica
girl.
I will kill others.
February 14th 1948.
Gladys Kern, a 42-year-old realestate agent in Los Angeles,
(32:56):
was found stabbed in the backwith a hunting knife in a vacant
house she was showing in LasFeliz.
June 13th 1949.
Louise Springer, 35-year-oldcosmetologist, was found
murdered in the backseat of herhusband's convertible along a
street in south-central LosAngeles.
Her killer had fashioned agarrotte from a clothesline and
(33:17):
she was also sexually assaultedwith a stick.
August 18, 1949.
Mimi Boomhauer, age 48, waslast heard from when she called
a friend from her home in the700 block of Neem Road in Los
Angeles Neem Road, a very posharea of Bel Air.
Five days after she disappeared, mimi's white handbag was
(33:40):
discovered in a phone booth at agrocery store in Los Angeles.
She was never seen or heardfrom again.
October 7, 1949, 26-year-oldJean Spangler left her Los
Angeles apartment telling hersister-in-law she was going to
meet her ex-husband before goingto work on a film set where she
worked as an extra.
(34:01):
She was last seen alive at agrocery store several blocks
from her home.
Two days later, her tatteredpurse was discovered in a remote
area of Griffith Park, not evensix miles away from her home.
Two days later, her tatteredpurse was discovered in a remote
area of Griffith Park, not evensix miles away from her home.
Inside was a letter addressedto Kirk and mentioned seeing a
doctor Interesting fact with themention of Kirk.
(34:23):
Gene Spangler had worked on afilm with the now late actor
Kirk Douglas.
He too was questioned andcleared, but Gene Spangler has
also never been seen again.
As for Elizabeth's family, well, they suffered again.
As soon as Elizabeth waspositively identified through
(34:45):
her fingerprints, reporters fromthe Los Angeles Examiner
descended.
Owned by William RandolphHearst, he was known for his
aggressive and unethical methodsof yellow journalism.
Language has certainly changed,but the newspaper business Not
so much.
American newspapers frothed atthe mouth with sensationalism,
(35:10):
exaggerating details of crimesor flat-out making them up.
Ethics Phooey Means nothing,phoebe Short heard from them at
home in Medford.
The press had many questionsabout her 22-year-old daughter,
elizabeth, who they deceitfullysaid had won a beauty contest in
Los Angeles.
After drawing as much personalinformation as Phoebe would
(35:33):
offer, she was then told theactual fate of her daughter.
The paper then offered to flyPhoebe to Los Angeles and put
her up so she could assist withthe murder investigation.
More bullshit.
They didn't want her to talk toanyone, they wanted her for
themselves.
The exclusive information.
They wanted the scoop.
(35:54):
Both the Examiner and anotherHearst newspaper, the Herald
Express, further sensationalizedthe case, creating the false
narrative of Elizabeth wearingtight clothes and sheer tops,
spinning the black Dahlia into awild serial dater.
One such story, calling her anadventurous who prowled
Hollywood Boulevard On January17th, the Los Angeles Times
(36:20):
called her case a sex fiendslaying.
Sex fiends showed up a lot inthe 40s, as did sex degenerate
in the 40s, as did sexdegenerate.
Phoebe and her daughters weretaunted by reporters, no doubt,
(36:40):
and this story sure did bringout a lot of creeps and fiends
and degenerates.
Days after the discovery ofElizabeth in that field, on
January 21st, a person claimingto be the killer called James
Richardson, editor of theExaminer, congratulating him on
their coverage of the BlackValley case, saying he would
turn himself in but to expectsome souvenirs of Beth Shore in
the mail.
I call her Elizabeth, but manyof the pieces, particularly
(37:06):
right around the discovery,address her as Betty Orbeck.
Three days later, a suspiciousmanila envelope arrived,
addressed to the Los AngelesExaminer and other Los Angeles
papers.
The words cut and pasted fromnewspaper clippings, with a
message on the front that saidhere is Dahlia's belongings
(37:26):
letter to follow.
Inside were contents that hadbeen skillfully cleaned with
gasoline.
Not unlike how she was found,it contained Elizabeth's birth
certificate photos, businesscards, names written on pieces
of paper and an address bookwith the name Mark Hansen
embossed on the cover.
(37:47):
Mark Hansen, we would learn, isone of the homeowners where
Elizabeth and some of the otheryoung women had been known to
stay.
Authorities were able to pullseveral partial fingerprints
from the package and get them tothe FBI for testing.
Nothing came of it, though.
(38:08):
In the chain of custody theprints were damaged and unable
to be analyzed for any realinformation about its sender
Suspicious or just plain stupid.
At the same time the examinergot that package, a pocketbook
and a black suede shoe werediscovered on top of a garbage
(38:29):
can in an alley two miles fromwhere she was found.
Like the mailed items, thesehad also been wiped clean.
The gasoline destroyed anyfingerprints.
It is clear to authorities thatthis killer had skills in
anatomy and dissection.
Giving the accuracy of thiswork.
Skills in anatomy anddissection, giving the accuracy
(38:52):
of this work.
Realistically, what are thechances someone with no medical
training could wing such things?
None, no chance.
We didn't even have YouTubethen.
How did they fix stuff?
And detectives knew to speak tostudents at the University of
Southern California MedicalSchool not only about the
practice of dissection andbisection and the medical terms
associated, but also about whomay have raised some red flags
(39:16):
back then.
This reminds me very much ofthe case of Karina Homer, who
was found bisected, one part ofher recovered, little evidence,
no crime scene.
She was cleaned and discarded.
Karina Homer's case remainsunsolved.
The age-old question remains whodid this to Elizabeth Short?
(39:40):
There have been countlesssuspects, persons of interest in
her case.
I said it before.
Several people even confessedor tried to.
But one man fits into thisgruesome puzzle George O'Dell.
He was interviewed inconnection with Louise
(40:00):
Springer's murder and probablyothers.
He was a well-connectedphysician and known in Los
Angeles.
He was, in a word, evil.
In October 1949, hodel's namewas mentioned in a formal
written report to the grand juryas one of five prime suspects
(40:20):
in the Black Dahlia murder, butnone of the named suspects were
submitted to the grand jury forconsideration for indictment.
This came around the very sametime that Hodel's teenage
daughter, tamar, accused him ofincest and impregnating her.
He was acquitted after a wildlypublicized trial.
(40:41):
Surprise, surprise, twowitnesses to the alleged abuse
testified at the trial.
A third recanted her earliertestimony and refused to come
forward, one theory being thatHodel threatened her into
silence.
Tamar was accused of seekingattention and her testimony
contradicted her case againsther own father.
(41:03):
This man, george Hodel, had atrail of victims.
It is a very dark story and hisown son, a former LA cop, says
his father is responsible andhas subsequently written a
number of books.
Look him up, steve Hodel.
The podcast called Root of Evilthe true story of the Hodel
(41:26):
family and the Black Dahlia ishosted by Yvette Gentile and
Rasha Paccararo, two of GeorgeHodel's great-granddaughters.
It explores Elizabeth's murder,the Black Dahlia case and the
Hodel family's connection, asdoes the companion TV series I
Am the Night that aired on TNT.
As for Elizabeth, she was laidto rest at the Mountain View
(41:50):
Cemetery in Oakland, california,near where her sister, virginia
and her family live.
Her mother, phoebe had said herdaughter loved California and
decided that would be theappropriate place to put her to
rest.
May Elizabeth Short rest inpeace, because she did not get
that peace in life.
(42:10):
Telling her story is importantbecause it has been hijacked
over almost 80 years since shewas found that day in that field
.
The murder of Elizabeth Shortfrom Medford, massachusetts,
remains unsolved.
From Medford, massachusetts,remains unsolved.
(42:35):
Thank you for listening.
My name is Angelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKinds.
Massachusetts and New Englandcrime stories, history and
advocacy focused always.
I thank you, my listeners andsupporters.
There are a number of ways youcan support the show.
Tell a friend, share it onsocial media, post about it in
(42:58):
the groups and threads that youpost on On Reddit, facebook,
blue Sky.
Give the dogs a bone.
By dropping a tip in the jar,you will be actually giving the
dogs a bone.
Become a patron on Patreon Fourtiers starting at just one
dollar.
Tell your friends come to a liveshow, buy some merch.
(43:18):
Oh, there's new merch.
Oh, I didn't even talk aboutthat New merch with the new logo
design.
I ditched the weapons.
It's been a long time coming.
I feel very good about it.
It's right on time forAdvocacyCon that I will be at in
Indianapolis this weekend.
Lastly, leave a five-starrating and review on Apple
(43:39):
Podcasts.
I would be so very grateful toyou for doing that.
Thank you for listening.
There's so much more aboutElizabeth Short.
So many books have been writtenabout her, so many films have
been made, documentaries,podcasts, many of which exploit
her story.
For many people, she's not ahuman being.
(43:59):
She is a character, and we knowthat that's not true.
She was a living, loving,breathing human being that, I
believe, felt a lot of sadnessfor what she was dealt in life.
I plan to release the off-cabotshow audio as soon as I finish
(44:19):
editing it, hopefully next weekwhen I'm back from this trip.
Alright, I must be going.
Bye, everybody, bye.
Lock your goddamn doors.
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