Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Part 1: Elizabeth A Gruesome Crime Forever Unsolved The notorious murder of a woman brutally cut in half made headlines in January of 1947, when a mother and her young daughter discovered the corpse on an early morning walk in a neighborhood called Leimert Park. Originally thought to be a mannequin due to the position of the body and pale complexion, it was soon realized that her pallor was due to a lack of blood
Yet no blood was found at the scene. Police were called to investigate the strange case, running the mutilated corpse's fingerprints in hopes to identify the body. They came back with the name Elizabeth Short. Elizabeth Short was a 22-year-old from Boston whose prints were in the system due to an arrest for intoxication as well as for having applied to a clerk job since her move to California.
Elizabeth's parents had divorced, her father Cleo moving across the country from Massachusetts to Vallejo, a town in Northern California. Elizabeth had big dreams and a free spirit and a desire to live her life to the absolute fullest. She wanted out of Massachusetts. She wanted to move to a big city where she would have a shot at the life she craved and dreamed of so desperately. Her father invited her to come out and live with him and she did so.
agreeing to do the cooking and keep up with the house chores in exchange for her stay with him. However, their agreement fell through within just a few short weeks, and her father kicked her out. Elizabeth bounced around California, eventually finding her way all the way down to San Diego, and then eventually Los Angeles.
A beautiful woman with short dark hair and vibrant green eyes, a pretty smile and dreams of becoming an actress who had so much life left in her, so much promise had now been dumped aside as if she really was nothing but a store mannequin. Elizabeth Short had been missing for a week before her body had been discovered. What happened in that week is left up to imagination.
She was found stripped naked, drained of all blood, and bisected at the waist. Her intestines had been removed. A smile had been carved into her mouth from ear to ear. Various lacerations and bruises were found along her body. Pieces of flesh were missing, and signs of sexual assault were present. Her body had been washed clean and, given the state of the scene, believed to have been murdered elsewhere.
Both of her big toes had been painted red, and an odd marking had been carved into her hip at first glance. It looked as if it was a tic-tac-toe sign, however it soon became clear it was a crosshatch, like what artists use when shading their work. Her body had been posed, with her legs spread and her arms above her head. When told about Elizabeth, her father said he wanted nothing to do with it.
Part 2: A strange coincidence across the country in Ohio. There had been a string of gruesome dismemberments that detectives immediately thought of upon seeing Elizabeth Short
known as the Cleveland Torso Murders, detectives began to wonder if whoever had been behind those vicious crimes had come out West and if poor Elizabeth Short had been his last victim. The discovery of Elizabeth Short also reminded detectives of a crime in Chicago in 1946 of a little six-year-old girl named Suzanne Degnan. On January 7, Suzanne had gone missing from her home.
Nearby, her right leg was found and her left leg was found in a drain not too far from that. Her torso was found in a storm drain and her head was found in the sewer. Suzanne's murder was a part of a spree called the Lipstick Murders, which started with a woman named Frances Brown, who was found stabbed in the neck and shot dead in her apartment not long before Suzanne's murder.
In Lipstick on the Wall, a note read, Before the discovery of her body, Suzanne's family received ransom letters demanding $20,000. Edward Kelly, the mayor of Chicago at the time, received a note saying,
This is to tell you how sorry I am to not get old Degnan instead of his girl. Roosevelt and the OPA made their own laws. Why shouldn't I? And a lot more. The coroner described a very clean job with absolutely no signs of hacking in his report, suggesting that a medical professional or someone with surgical knowledge would be of particular interest.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Suzanne Degnan had been dismembered by the same particular technique that was used on Elizabeth Short's body. Both had been bisected at the waist in a way known as a hemicorporectomy. Around the same time the year after Suzanne Degnan was taken and murdered, Elizabeth Short goes missing. The neighboring street to where Elizabeth's body was found was called Degnan. Part 3: The Investigation
The murder of Elizabeth Short was everywhere. The public was a frenzy over the crime. The horrific murder making headlines immediately, and rumors began to fly. The media dubbed her the Black Dahlia. The reasoning for the nickname varying from the color of her clothes to the film Blue Dahlia, to her supposedly being seen wearing a dahlia in her hair. Elizabeth Short was a young woman excited to live her life,
She was known to flirt and have fun and was a regular at the bars around the Millennium Biltmore Hotel and the infamous Cecil Hotel near Skid Row. Rumors about her private life began to spin with people calling her easy and a tease. And rumors about her sexuality began to surface as well. And though she was straight,
The thought of her being a lesbian or bisexual in that time period was a source of gossip and cause for ostracization, adding an extra edge of taboo to an already baffling crime and an already misunderstood girl. Mysterious, threatening, anonymous letters started coming into the police station as well, as to the press. Letters from someone claiming to be the killer, calling themselves the Black Dahlia Avenger.
Most of these letters were in the style of classic ransom notes, with letters cut out from magazines and pasted on, and always signed from a friend. What piqued detectives' interests in particular about these letters was how the author was sending items that belonged to Elizabeth along with them. One item in particular was an address book she always kept on her, one that suddenly had several pages missing, having been torn out.
Detectives called in over 150 people, ranging from nightclub owners to bellhops, filmmakers to mobsters, for questioning. Mark Hansen was a prime suspect, though he didn't have a violent history or a criminal record. He was a prolific nightclub owner and someone who Elizabeth had become friends with.
with him even letting her stay at his home rent-free at times. Despite his clean record, his account to investigators kept changing, with him giving contradictory stories which led to suspicions. Notably, he had a background in surgery and medical knowledge, having been a student at a Swedish medical school before coming to the States.
He was one of the last people Elizabeth had talked to, the two of them having had a telephone conversation on January 8, right before she disappeared. He was also the original owner of the address book that had been sent to police, his name being engraved on the cover. However, he had given it to Elizabeth and she had been the only one to use it.
A good friend of Mark Hansen was a doctor by the name of Patrick S. O'Reilly. He was notoriously sadistic with a history of violence against women. At the time, he had been married to the daughter of the LAPD captain. Interestingly, his right pectoral muscle had been surgically removed at some point, which was similar to how Elizabeth's right breast had been cut off. Then there's Leslie Dillon, a 27-year-old mortician's assistant turned bellhop.
Dylan had expressed a strong interest in sadism and a pull to sexual violence. However, claiming such fascinations were due to him wanting to write a book. LAPD psychiatrist, Dr. J. Paul DeRiver was contacted by Dylan in October of 1948 to discuss theories on the Black Dahlia case.
River found it odd, especially considering how Dylan seemed to know intricate details of the case, but played along, and eventually Dylan began pinpointing his friend Jeff Connors as the true killer. After speaking with Dylan for some time, River did not believe Jeff Connors even existed, believing that Leslie Dylan was, in fact, the man they should be looking at.
The two met up in Las Vegas and traveled to San Francisco, where Rivers was introduced to Jeff Connors, a man by the name of Artie Lane, who had nothing to do with the case, but had, coincidentally, worked at one of Elizabeth's favorite hangouts around the time of the murder. Next was Dr. Walter Bailey, a Los Angeles surgeon known for his passive nature and living just one block away from where Elizabeth's body had been dumped. At the time of the murder, he was 67 years old.
He was never known to be violent and he was never known to have ever met Elizabeth. Though his daughter did happen to be quite good friends with her older sister, he was never officially named a suspect by police, but he did specialize in mastectomies and hysterectomies. And his mistress is rumored to have told his wife that she knew some sort of terrible secret.
Upon his death, an autopsy was performed which found he had a degenerative brain disease, one that was notorious for causing typically kind people to have violent outbursts. However, there is nothing to say that he himself had any violent outbursts to speak of. It is rumored that Elizabeth would lie to men, claiming that she had had a son who had passed away.
Walter Bailey, however, did have a son who had passed away. A son whose birthday was January 13, just two days before Elizabeth Short's body was discovered. Author Donald Wolfe published a book in 2005 titled "The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder that Transfixed Los Angeles," pointing towards a man named Norman Chandler as a suspect.
Chandler was a publisher for the LA Times from 1945 to 1960, and police did suspect that someone related to the paper could have been related to the crime. However, Wolf also claims that Elizabeth was pregnant and working as a prostitute for the infamous Madam Brenda Allen, and had somehow, someway, gotten tied up with Bugsy Siegel. The theory falls apart early on because, as the autopsy clearly showed, Elizabeth was not pregnant.
But Bugsy Siegel was far from the only celebrity suspect rumored to be tied to this case. Folk singer Woody Guthrie was a suspect for a while, as well as legendary filmmaker Orson Welles, best known for the classic film "Citizen Kane." Both Guthrie and Welles were quickly brushed aside as suspects. And as for notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel, he was much more focused on his business in Las Vegas, centering all of his attention on his iconic Flamingo Hotel and Casino.
Then there was a man by the name of Joseph A. Dumais. Dumais was a 29-year-old soldier from Fort Dix, New Jersey, who confessed to the murder despite having not even been in Los Angeles at the time. Dumais was far from the only fake confession police received. Over 25 different people claimed they were the murderer. It was soon revealed that detectives within the LAPD were leaking information.
And that's how some of those that came forward with confessions knew unreleased details relating to the crime. This was a matter that was never addressed, never explored, and never handled.
Perhaps one of the more notable prime suspects was a man called Red. Red, or Robert M. Manley, he was the last person to be seen with Elizabeth. Elizabeth's roommate claimed she saw Elizabeth leave with Red in his car, and then Elizabeth vanished. He, however, had a solid alibi and passed two polygraph tests. 150 suspects, over 25 confessions, and not a single arrest was made. However,
Making it to the short list of suspects was a man known as George Hodel. Part 4: Dr. George Hill Hodel. George Hodel was a well-known doctor in the area who was rumored to perform underground abortions for the mistresses of powerful figures.
due to the surgical nature of the crime. An operation known as a hemicorporectomy, a bisection at a specific vertebra, cleanly severing the upper half of the body from the lower half, had become a technique used by doctors in radical instances requiring amputation during the 1930s. Due to the nature of the crime, it would be likely that a medical professional had been involved. And George Hodel was not only a medical professional,
He was also a very strange man with very strange interests. Odell, born in October 1907, was interested in art, specifically surrealism. He was close friends with artist Man Ray as well as film director John Huston, father of actress Angelica Huston, whose ex-wife he would later marry. He was a doctor with a strong interest in art, particularly surrealist works.
He had also worked as a reporter for both the LA Record and the SF Chronicle. He was known for his wild parties and womanizing, as well as for his interest in the occult and passion for sadomasochism. In 1945, he purchased the historic Soden House in Los Feliz, a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles.
The Soden House is one of the most uniquely crafted buildings. Inspired by a Mayan temple, the front of the large estate resembles that of a shark's mouth, open wide with teeth like razors, and is arguably the most recognizable building in Los Angeles. The fence around the imposing structure closes it off to the outside world, adding to its exclusivity.
It is alleged that Hodel would throw wild orgies there and that the basement and yard both had served a very dark purpose.
In a very public trial in 1949, George Hodel's daughter, Tamar, accused him of molesting and impregnating her and of attempting to perform an abortion on her. He was acquitted. However, these accusations brought him to the police's attention. And in 1950, detectives bugged Hodel's house and kept him under surveillance from February 18 to March 27.
In one of the audio recordings, a woman is heard screaming. And in another, he's heard talking about having to hide a woman's body with a pillow over her face and a blanket over her head.
And in one recording from February 18, 1950, he's heard saying on the telephone, "Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary." Ruth Spalding was his secretary, who had died from a supposed overdose in 1945.
George Hodel had been present at her death and had burned a few of her belongings before contacting police. Detectives suspected Hodel but dropped the investigation, not having enough evidence against him. Of all 150 suspects questioned in the case, Hodel made it into the top five and eventually became the prime suspect, though that was not public knowledge at the time. In fact, it didn't become public knowledge until after his death in 1999.
It didn't matter that he had been a suspect in another murder, which took place just a few blocks away from Leimert Park. It didn't matter he had been accused of raping and impregnating his own daughter. It didn't matter that his handwriting matched that of the letters sent to the police. It didn't matter that he had all but confessed to murdering Elizabeth Short in an audio recording. It didn't matter that his own children claimed he was the killer.
It didn't matter because he was wealthy and known, and he served a greater purpose to others that were wealthy and known. He was worth more to them alive, so they kept quiet. Part Five: A Friend In 1950, just three years after the murder of Elizabeth Short, George Hodel moved away from California, living in Hawaii and then the Philippines.
In Manila in 1967, a woman's legs were found posed in the garbage. They had been separated from the rest of the body, in the same way both Elizabeth Short and Suzanne Degnan's legs had been separated via a hemicorporectomy.
and severed in half, with her toes neatly polished, painted, and pedicured. The legs were found on May 26th, and they were wrapped in newspaper dated May 14th. Later, a matching torso and arms were found elsewhere, near a street called Zodiac, wrapped in newspapers dated May 23rd.
The head was never found. However, they were able to identify the victim as Lucila Lalu, and the autopsy showed that she had been pregnant at the time. The case, known as the Jigsaw Murder or the Chop Chop Lady, shares many similarities with the Black Dahlia, from the dismembered and posed body to the painted toes.
Despite living mainly in the Philippines after he fled the country, it's said that George Hodel would oftentimes frequent the state secretly. For what purpose? No one will ever know for sure. Though there are rumors that he has traces that lead him to San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, around the time of another infamous unsolved case caused by a mystery man known as the Zodiac Killer. Although research is not nearly as concrete,
It is highly possible that George Hodel could have possibly been behind the Zodiac killings as well. He plainly matched the composite sketch right down to the glasses, and he is said to have been in that area at the time. There are many, many striking similarities between the Zodiac case and the Black Dahlia. From threatening letters sent to the police, all addressed to the editor and signed a friend
and including obvious misspellings of easy words, strangely similar handwriting, an obscene amount of postage and stamps, the mailing of victims' personal items, the creation of their own pseudonyms.
It's also notable that letters were sent to the police for 10 years. Many times they were sent years after these crimes took place and on important dates related to both crimes. Both cases used knives, guns, and ropes, hearkening back to the Zodiac's infamous "by knife, by gun, by rope, by fire" letter.
The Zodiac Killer had sent a letter to police writing out "Paradise" and "Slaves" and "By fire, by gun, by rope, by knife" in the form of an H. An H for Hodel? Elizabeth, Suzanne, and Lucilla had all been cut apart by knife. All had also been bound by rope. Francis had been shot by gun.
He had burnt his secretary's belongings before phoning police, by fire. And that's not even mentioning the actual Zodiac murders themselves.
The Zodiac Killer was also known for using strange, odd-looking symbols on his letters, one that was deciphered from a medieval alphabet known as Oum and was subsequently translated to Hodel. George Hodel returned to the States near the end of his life, though it is believed he made secret trips back and forth throughout the years and settled in San Francisco, a place he was known to frequent, in May of 1999. Part Six: A Twist of Fate
In 2003, a book titled Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder was published by none other than a man named Steve Hodel, retired LAPD homicide detective and son of Dr. George Hodel. In 2009, he published Most Evil, Avenger, Zodiac, and the Further Murders of Dr. George Hodel.
In his books, Steve Hodel offers extensive research and provides proof, pointing towards his father being one of the most sadistic serial killers of all time, giving detailed evidence that names his father as the Black Dahlia Avenger, the Lipstick Killer, the Jigsaw Killer, and the Zodiac. Steve also claims his father is behind many more crimes as well.
Stephen Kay, head deputy of the DA, read Hodel's books and has said he would consider the case solved. However, that will never be set in stone. James Elroy, author of "The Black Dahlia," a book centered more around the corruption of the LAPD at the time rather than the crime itself, has said he supports Steve Hodel's theories and findings. However, he refuses to say anything else on the matter.
George Hodel never served time for any of his crimes and was never convicted of any wrongdoing. However, his surviving family has made it their mission to set the record straight and tell the world just what kind of monster Dr. George Hill Hodel really was. Particularly, it is Steve Hodel who continues to spread the truth about his father in hopes of gaining justice for a life that ended abruptly and horrifically.
in hopes of gaining justice for a woman better known as a Hollywood ghost story. A woman named Elizabeth Short, who will never get the justice she deserves. For how can you find any justice in such a horrific story?