Latest / The conspiracy / Who REALLY Killed The Black Dhalia

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Who REALLY Killed The Black Dhalia · The conspiracy

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Speaker 1: Thank you to PDS Debt for supporting this channel. In
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Speaker 1: another world, Elizabeth Short might have quietly slipped through history's fingers.
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Speaker 1: She was just one more hopeful woman drawn west by
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Speaker 1: Hollywood's glittering promises, arriving in a city known for breaking
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Speaker 1: more hearts than it ever made stars. Another waitress, rehearsing
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Speaker 1: lines between shifts, believing deeply in the widespread lies that
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles told dreamers desperate enough to listen. But fate
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Speaker 1: had different, darker plans, because Elizabeth Short became immortal, not
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Speaker 1: remembered for her charm or the dreams she chased, but
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Speaker 1: tragically defined by the brutality of her death. But before
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Speaker 1: the headlines labeled her the Block Dahlia, before her name
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Speaker 1: became synonymous with mystery and unspeakable violence, she was simply Betty. Crime, conspiracy, cults,
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Speaker 1: serial killers, and murder.
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Speaker 2: All things that I love to consume.
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Speaker 1: And I know you do too, you sick, twisted, intellectually,
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Speaker 1: beautiful minded fight And today we are talking about one
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Speaker 1: of the most infamous cold cases in all of history,
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Speaker 1: and that is the case of the Block Dahlia, otherwise
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Speaker 1: known as Elizabeth Short. So, without further ado, that's on
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Speaker 1: buckl oar seatbelts, go mock five down the highway, slam
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Speaker 1: on the brakes, and bust through the windshield into this
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Speaker 1: cold case together. So on July twenty ninth, nineteen twenty four,
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Speaker 1: Phoebe May Sawyer Short delivered her third daughter into the
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Speaker 1: world teetering on the edge of prosperity and collapse, and
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Ann Short entered life as the middle child among
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Speaker 1: five sisters, Virginia May, Dorothea, Elizabeth Elnorra and a little
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Speaker 1: Muriel yet to come. And their father, Cleo Alvin Short, Junior,
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Speaker 1: had invested everything into a miniature golf course business during
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Speaker 1: the recreational boom of the nineteen twenties. What a what
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Speaker 1: a cool business your dad being the recreational miniature golf
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Speaker 1: course business owner. I love mini golf. But in October
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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, everything would change because the stock markets
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Speaker 1: would collapse and obliterate anyone's dream, including Cleo's miniature golf business.
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Speaker 1: So his business would crumble, and then the weight of
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Speaker 1: feeding five daughters and a wife just became unbearable for him.
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Speaker 1: So on a cold morning in December of nineteen thirty,
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Speaker 1: six year old Elizabeth Short woke up to find her
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Speaker 1: mother weeping at the kitchen table, and she would tell
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Speaker 1: her daughter that daddy's car had been discovered abandoned at
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Speaker 1: the Charleston Bridge, doors open and keys inside. There was
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Speaker 1: no note and no body, just a nineteen twenty six
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Speaker 1: Model t Ford sitting empty above the dark waters of
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Speaker 1: the Charles River, and police would assume it was a
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Speaker 1: slewer slide, and Phoebe, wanting to shelter her daughters from
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Speaker 1: the knowledge of their father committing that, told them that
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Speaker 1: their father simply drowned, so the family would have a
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Speaker 1: memorial service for a man whose body was never found
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Speaker 1: and who's death would later prove to be the first
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Speaker 1: of many lies that shaped Elizabeth Short's life. So Phoebe
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Speaker 1: Short would move her and her five daughters to a
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Speaker 1: cramped Medford, Massachusetts apartment, working as a bookkeeper while neighbors
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Speaker 1: whispered about the widow with too many mouths to feed.
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Speaker 1: And that's when Elizabeth's childhood would become a series of
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Speaker 1: doctor's visits and sleepless nights, because she developed severe asthma
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Speaker 1: that would actually seize her lungs without warning, leaving her
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Speaker 1: gasping while her sisters watched in complete terror, and bronchitis
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Speaker 1: would follow each infection, just wakening her respiratory system further.
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Speaker 1: So the medical bills just consumed what little money Phoebe had,
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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth would learn really early on in life that
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Speaker 1: her existence just costs too much, and at fifteen, doctors
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Speaker 1: would recommend surgery to remove part of her lung tissue.
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Speaker 1: So she would have the surgery, but that procedure would
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Speaker 1: leave deep scars across her back and a deeper understanding
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Speaker 1: that her body would always betray her, and the recovery
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Speaker 1: required her to be in bed four months on end.
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Speaker 1: So during this time she would reach movie magazines and
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Speaker 1: just dream of a place where the air itself didn't
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Speaker 1: completely drown her lungs. And that's when doctors would recommend
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Speaker 1: that she actually moved to a warmer climate. And as
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Speaker 1: her mother, Phoebe later told reporters quote unquote, Betty was
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Speaker 1: a sophomore when she left high school in Medford.
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Speaker 2: She had asthma.
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Speaker 1: Every winter she would go south to Florida as a waitress,
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Speaker 1: then she would come back home in the summer. So
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth began spending her winters in Florida with relatives, breathing
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Speaker 1: easier among palm trees and orange groves, So the seasonal
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Speaker 1: relocations kind of taught her to live like a migrant,
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Speaker 1: never fully settling anywhere and never calling any place home.
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Speaker 1: So at this point in her life, high school kind
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Speaker 1: of became impossible because she was moving so much, and
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth's absences multiplied as her health problems persisted, so at sixteen,
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Speaker 1: she would drop out entirely, and her formal education ended
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Speaker 1: before it truly even began, so she would spend most
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Speaker 1: of her teenage years just reading, ferociously educating herself through
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Speaker 1: magazines and library books, while her healthy sisters pursued normal
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Speaker 1: at all lessons experiences, so she was kind of left
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Speaker 1: in the dark for the most part of her childhood.
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Speaker 1: But during this time, she just absorbed Hollywood gossip columns
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Speaker 1: like Scripture, memorizing the names and romantic attainlements of screen
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Speaker 1: goddesses who seemed to breathe rarefied air. And it was
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Speaker 1: during these years where she thought to herself that she
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Speaker 1: could maybe be one of those women. So December of
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty two would come around and it would redefine
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Speaker 1: everything in Elizabeth's life because a letter would arrive from Vallejo, California,
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Speaker 1: and the handwriting looked familiar but impossible, like correspondence from
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Speaker 1: a ghost, because by reading this letter, she would find
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Speaker 1: out that her father, Cleo Short, hadn't actually drowned in
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Speaker 1: the Charles River twelve years earlier. He had just walked
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Speaker 1: away from his debt and his wife and his five
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Speaker 1: daughters without even looking back, soil his family mourned and
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Speaker 1: struggled through the depression. Cleo had been living in the
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Speaker 1: California shipyards, so Elizabeth, being shocked as ever, would write
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Speaker 1: back to her father expressing her desire to visit and
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Speaker 1: care for him, and Cleo would later say that he
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Speaker 1: sent his daughter two hundred dollars, and in December of
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, eighteen year old Elizabeth made her way
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Speaker 1: down to Vallejo, California to reunite with her father that
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Speaker 1: she once believed had been dead for the past twelve years.
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Speaker 1: And perhaps another girl would have refused such a cruel reunion,
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Speaker 1: but Elizabeth, however, saw opportunity wrapped up in betrayal. Because
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Speaker 1: her health still demanded warm weather and her prospects in
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Speaker 1: Massachusetts remained pretty bleak. No offense to Massachusetts and California
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Speaker 1: represented the closest she would ever get to Hollywood without
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Speaker 1: buying a bus ticket to nowhere. So what did she
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Speaker 1: have to lose?
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Speaker 2: Really?
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Speaker 1: You know, her father had already stolen her childhood. At
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Speaker 1: least now she could steal something back. So Elizabeth's train
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Speaker 1: would pull into Vallejo, carrying her possessions in two battered
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Speaker 1: suitcases and a head full of Hollywood fantasies, and eighteen
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Speaker 1: years old, Elizabeth possessed ethereal beauty, pale skin, large eyes,
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Speaker 1: and dark hair that caught sunlight. But the reunion with
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Speaker 1: Cleo short lasted long enough for both parties to realize
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Speaker 1: their big mistake because twelve years of separation had created
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Speaker 1: strangers who shared only genetics and mutual disappointment. Sounds like
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Speaker 1: my father. I don't want to talk about it anyway,
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Speaker 1: but within the month's father and daughter reached an unspoken agreement, really,
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Speaker 1: and that was that they would pretend to be family
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Speaker 1: while actively avoiding each other. Again very simple. Well, my
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Speaker 1: dad didn't pretend to be dead for twelve years, so
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Speaker 1: she does have that on me, that's for sure.
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Speaker 2: I wouldn't put.
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Speaker 1: It past them, so Eventually, Elizabeth would move out of
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Speaker 1: her father, Cleo's house and support herself by waitressing and
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Speaker 1: the occasional kindness of men who found her mysteriously intriguing
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Speaker 1: because she would tell different stories to different men, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes her father was dead and sometimes he was alive.
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Speaker 1: She just kind of like felt it out to see
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Speaker 1: what kind of story she would make up, and sometimes
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Speaker 1: her health problems would even disappear or multiplied depending on
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Speaker 1: the sympathy required in the moment, So her background shifted
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Speaker 1: from tragedy to try as a situation demanded, because at
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Speaker 1: this point in her life, truth became a luxury she
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Speaker 1: just couldn't afford, and the lies came very naturally because
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth had learned from a master, which was her father,
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Speaker 1: the guy who pretended to be dead for twelve years.
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Speaker 1: But it was during this time period that she would
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Speaker 1: meet Major Matthew Gordon, who was an Air Force officer
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Speaker 1: with kind eyes and genuine affection for the mysterious girl
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Speaker 1: who seemed to drift through his life like smoke, and
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Speaker 1: for perhaps the only time in her adult life, Elizabeth
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Speaker 1: allowed herself to believe in permanence and they would become engaged,
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Speaker 1: but then came the telegram and it would say that
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Speaker 1: Major Gordon's plane had crashed during training exercises just days
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Speaker 1: before the war's end.
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Speaker 2: Oh, just.
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Speaker 1: Heart wrenching, horrible, terrible. This girl's dad was dead for
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Speaker 1: twelve years. Popped up is an asshole, and then she
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Speaker 1: gets engaged and then he dies days before he's supposed
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Speaker 1: to return. She just literally could not break. It was
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Speaker 1: just another death, another abandonment, and just another reason to
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Speaker 1: stop trusting in happy endings. So Elizabeth's response to losing
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Speaker 1: Major Gordon revealed the pattern that would define her remaining years,
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Speaker 1: and that was when life became unbearable, she simply left.
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Speaker 1: She would go to California, Florida, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Texas.
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Speaker 1: So Elizabeth Short just became this beautiful ghost, haunting bus
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Speaker 1: stations and diners across America, staying long enough to catch
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Speaker 1: her breath before moving on. But the constant movement served
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Speaker 1: multiple purposes because new environments couldn't suffocate her like familiar
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Speaker 1: places and fresh starts meant fresh stories and clean slates,
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Speaker 1: and most importantly, staying in motion meant she never had
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Speaker 1: to admit that she was kind of going nowhere in life.
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Speaker 1: At this point, and it was during these wandering years
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Speaker 1: that Elizabeth perfected the art of survival through charm. In mystery,
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Speaker 1: she would learn which sad stories produced meals, and which
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Speaker 1: smiles earned bus fairs, and which promises could be made
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Speaker 1: without the intention of keeping them and her beauty just
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Speaker 1: open doors, whereas her damaged health and tragic backstory kept
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Speaker 1: them open long enough to rest. So the pattern of
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Speaker 1: intimacy followed by abandonment just became a signature dance of
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Speaker 1: hers And by July of nineteen forty six, she would
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Speaker 1: be twenty two years old, and she would face a
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Speaker 1: choice between finding stability or accepting permanent defeat. So she
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Speaker 1: would give California a chance once more, and this time
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Speaker 1: it would be different, she would tell herself. This time
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Speaker 1: she would stay long enough to make something happen. But
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Speaker 1: as we know, she would unfortunately be wrong. So on
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Speaker 1: July nineteen forty six, Elizabeth Short would step off the
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Speaker 1: bus at Hollywood and Vine with twenty dollars to her
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Speaker 1: name and infinite belief in her own transformation, and she
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Speaker 1: would find a room behind the Florentine Gardens nightclub on
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Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard, and she would be close enough to hear
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Speaker 1: music and laughter that represented everything she wanted to become,
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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth would make the rounds every aspiring actress knew
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Speaker 1: by heart, which was studio gates, casting calls, and auditions
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Speaker 1: that led to nowhere, because Hollywood at this point and
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Speaker 1: honestly now, operated on connections she didn't possess and talent
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Speaker 1: she had not yet developed, so with that training, experience
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Speaker 1: or influential friends, her chances were essentially zero, especially in
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Speaker 1: this day and age. But Elizabeth Short had never required
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Speaker 1: realistic expectations to fuel her dreams, so she continued pursuing
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Speaker 1: auditions while working as a waitress, and her beauty would
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Speaker 1: attract attention, and that attention came mostly from men with
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Speaker 1: money and influence, so she would date frequently, but briefly,
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Speaker 1: moving from suitor to suitor. So the financial pressure was
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Speaker 1: mounting steadily, and with rent required as a regular payment
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Speaker 1: and food costs that she did not possess, she actually
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Speaker 1: began staying overnight with various men, not necessarily for romance,
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Speaker 1: but just for basic survival because with these men she
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Speaker 1: had a warm bed, a hot meal, and a temporary
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Speaker 1: reprieve from poverty's grinding demands and it was during this
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Speaker 1: period where her clothing and her whole wardrobe basically turned
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Speaker 1: predominantly black, and whether this represented genuine fashion preference or
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Speaker 1: practical necessity remains unclear. Maybe dark colors hid stains better
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Speaker 1: than light ones, that's why I wear them, or black
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Speaker 1: outfits contransition from day to night with minimal alteration. There's
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Speaker 1: many theories, but what we do know is that the
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Speaker 1: nickname the Black Dahlia emerged sometime during these final months,
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Speaker 1: but through its exact origin remains disputed. Some people also
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Speaker 1: say it could have come from her dark wardrobe matched
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Speaker 1: with her dark raven like hair, and others suggested it's
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Speaker 1: because she had a habit of disappearing like shadows. And
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Speaker 1: if you even connected it to the nineteen forty six
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Speaker 1: film The Blue Dahlia starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake,
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Speaker 1: the name captured something essential about Elizabeth's short during her
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Speaker 1: Hollywood period, just beautiful, mysterious, and tinged with darkness that
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Speaker 1: people found simultaneously attractive and unsettling. So January nineteen forty
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Speaker 1: seven arrived with unusual rain and growing desperation because at
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Speaker 1: this point Elizabeth's financial situation deteriorated beyond casual concern into
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Speaker 1: genuine crisis, and her friends back in San Diego reported
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Speaker 1: that she seemed frightened during her final visits, constantly looking
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Speaker 1: over her shoulder as if she was expecting some kind
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Speaker 1: of pursuit from someone. And that's when something changed, because
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Speaker 1: a confident drift that had sustained Elizabeth through years of
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Speaker 1: uncertainty had transformed into panicked flight, and she actually spoke
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Speaker 1: of hiding from someone, but she never revealed details about it.
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Speaker 1: So the mysterious nature that served as her trademark became
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Speaker 1: desperate secrecy, and on July ninth, nineteen forty seven, Robert
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Speaker 1: read manly drove Elizabeth from San Diego to Los Angeles,
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Speaker 1: dropping her at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Lay and
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Speaker 1: she would carry a small suitcase with her, and she
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Speaker 1: would promise him that she would stay in touch, so
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Speaker 1: Red would say goodbye and watch her walk into the
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Speaker 1: hotel's ornate lobby. But after that, no one can say
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Speaker 1: with certainty what happened during the next six days, because
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Short had vanished completely and the hotel had no
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Speaker 1: record of her registration, and friends received no phone calls,
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Speaker 1: and the men who'd previously provided temporary shelter, heard nothing
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Speaker 1: from her, so it was six days of absolute mystery
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Speaker 1: until the morning of January fifteenth, nineteen forty seven.
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Speaker 2: Whoo, what a case so far.
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Speaker 1: Real life stories like this can remind you how quickly
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Speaker 1: Thank you again to PDS Debt for supporting this channel,
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Speaker 1: and let's get back to it. So on the morning
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Speaker 1: of January fifteenth, nineteen forty seven, Betty Berzinger walked south
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Speaker 1: on Norton Avenue in Lamert Park with her three year
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Speaker 1: old daughter and heading to collect her husband's work boots
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Speaker 1: from the repair shop. The vacant lot between thirty ninth
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Speaker 1: and Colosseum Streets had become part of the neighborhood landscape,
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Speaker 1: which was another empty space waiting for post war development,
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Speaker 1: and Betty had passed it countless times without a second glance,
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Speaker 1: but at ten am this morning, something pale in the
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Speaker 1: weeds caught her eye, and her first thought involved practical annoyance,
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Speaker 1: because she thought someone had just dumped another piece of
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Speaker 1: furniture in the lot, and she thought probably a mannequin
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Speaker 1: from a downtown department store, broken and discarded, like so
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Speaker 1: much of postwar America's access. So Betty would approach the object,
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Speaker 1: and the pale object would lay about thirty feet from
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Speaker 1: the sidewalk position two, deliberately for casual dumping, though so
16:38
Speaker 1: as she drew closer, impossible details started to emerge, and
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Speaker 1: that was that the mannequin had real hair, and the
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Speaker 1: hair was black and lustrous and spread across the dirt.
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Speaker 1: And it also had actual human flesh, flesh that was
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Speaker 1: alabaster white against the dark brown earth. And the truth
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Speaker 1: that would haunt Betty for the rest of her life
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Speaker 1: was that this wasn't a mannequin at all. And Betty's
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Speaker 1: daughter Anne would later recall her mother's scream as the
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Speaker 1: loudest sound she's ever heard. But the screaming came second,
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Speaker 1: because Betty's first instinct was protection, and she would grab
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Speaker 1: Anne and lift her away from the site, completely shielding
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Speaker 1: the child's eyes while her own mind struggled to process
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Speaker 1: what actually lay before them. And that thing was a
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Speaker 1: woman's body, bisected at the waist with surgical precision, with
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Speaker 1: the upper half positioned twelve inches north of the lower half,
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Speaker 1: arms raised above the head in a grotesque parody of ballet,
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Speaker 1: and her legs were also spread in a v formation
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Speaker 1: that suggested both vulnerability and display. And this positioning was
17:43
Speaker 1: just too deliberate for accident. It was too theatrical for impulse.
17:48
Speaker 1: Someone had arranged this corpse like a macabre art installation,
17:52
Speaker 1: ensuring maximum visual impact for whoever discovered it first. So
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Speaker 1: Betty would run to the nearest house, pounding on the
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Speaker 1: door until neighbors answered and let her use the phone,
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Speaker 1: and her hysterical call to police would take several attempts
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Speaker 1: to decipher, and she would say, quote unquote, there's a
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Speaker 1: body in the lot, a woman. She's been cut in half.
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Speaker 1: So so it's just horrifying, and like I can't even
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Speaker 1: imagine coming across that, and with the daughter, Oh, oh,
18:21
Speaker 1: it's a nightmare. So the death sergeant initially assumed he
18:24
Speaker 1: was dealing with some sort of domestic disturbance or perhaps
18:27
Speaker 1: even a neighborhood prank, because dismembered corpses didn't just appear
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Speaker 1: in a middle class residential area on Wednesday mornings. And
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Speaker 1: he would say, quote unquote.
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Speaker 2: Ma'am, are you certain it's a human body.
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Speaker 1: And she would say, I'm looking right at it, and
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Speaker 1: that simple confirmation to launch the largest homicide investigation in
18:45
Speaker 1: LAPD history. So Los Angeles in nineteen forty seven operated
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Speaker 1: under unwritten rules that prioritize sensationalism over investigation, and newspaper
18:54
Speaker 1: photographers monitored police radio frequencies and often they would arrive
18:57
Speaker 1: at crime scenes before the detective would actually get there.
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Speaker 1: And the Black Dahlia discovery followed this pattern with catastrophic precision,
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Speaker 1: and by ten thirty am that morning, newspaper photographers had
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Speaker 1: reached Norton Avenue and their speed cameras would be clicking
19:11
Speaker 1: away while police cars remained blocks distant. In the Los
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Speaker 1: Angeles Examiner and the Herald Express, photographers documented the scene
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Speaker 1: from every single angle, unknowingly destroying evidence.
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Speaker 2: With each footstep.
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Speaker 1: Just fucking idiots, and the afternoon's editions would feature these
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Speaker 1: images on the front page. Forever defining how America visualized
19:34
Speaker 1: the Black Dahlia case. And police detective Harry Hansen finally
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Speaker 1: reached the scene at ten forty five am, discovering his
19:40
Speaker 1: crime scene had already been contaminated by journalists who had
19:43
Speaker 1: positioned themselves for optimal photography rather than evidence preservation. So
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Speaker 1: Hanson's first official act in the investigation was to arrest
19:51
Speaker 1: every single reporter present, well threatened to. He didn't actually
19:55
Speaker 1: arrest all of them, though the damage was already irreversible,
19:58
Speaker 1: because at this point the photographers had already trampled any
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Speaker 1: potential footprints, disturbed soil samples, and established site lines that
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Speaker 1: drew attention to specific details while obscuring others and their
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Speaker 1: presence just guaranteed that any subsequent investigation would operate from
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Speaker 1: a compromised foundation completely, and modern crime scene protocols actually
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Speaker 1: exist specifically because of the disasters like January fifteenth, nineteen
20:23
Speaker 1: forty seven. So detective Hanson's initial examination revealed details that
20:27
Speaker 1: transformed a shocking discovery into something approaching the impossible, because
20:31
Speaker 1: the bisection had been performed using a technique called a hemicorporectomy,
20:35
Speaker 1: which was the complete separation of the upper body and
20:38
Speaker 1: lower body at the waste, and in nineteen forty seven,
20:41
Speaker 1: this procedure existed only in medical textbooks and the most
20:45
Speaker 1: advanced surgical suites, and the precision required for this procedure
20:49
Speaker 1: suggested someone with formal anatomical training and access to the
20:53
Speaker 1: appropriate instruments to do the procedure, and the cut would
20:56
Speaker 1: run cleanly through the lumbar spine at the L two
20:59
Speaker 1: L three verse level, requiring both strength and knowledge of
21:03
Speaker 1: human skeletal structure, so whoever performed this operation understood exactly
21:07
Speaker 1: where to position their blade for maximum efficiency. But the
21:10
Speaker 1: surgical precision didn't just end with the bisection itself, because
21:14
Speaker 1: the killer had also carved a Glasgow smile extending from
21:18
Speaker 1: each corner of the victim's mouth to her ears, and
21:21
Speaker 1: there were also additionals that removed flats from both her
21:24
Speaker 1: thighs and her breath, though those ones appeared more frenzied
21:28
Speaker 1: than systematic, and her internal organs had also been moved
21:32
Speaker 1: and positioned beneath her buttocks, suggesting ritualistic rather medical motivation,
21:37
Speaker 1: and fecal matter would also be found inside of her stomachs.
21:44
Speaker 2: Horrifying.
21:44
Speaker 1: So the combination of both surgical expertise and sadistic frenzy
21:48
Speaker 1: painted a portrait of someone operating under two distinct psychological impulses,
21:53
Speaker 1: and those were clinical detachment and explosive rage. And complete
21:58
Speaker 1: exanguination presented the investigator's most puzzling element, and that is
22:03
Speaker 1: that the corpse contained absolutely no blood, not in the
22:07
Speaker 1: major vessels, not pulled in dependent areas, like when a
22:10
Speaker 1: body is sitting somewhere for a long time, it kind
22:12
Speaker 1: of pools where it is sitting, like if it's on
22:15
Speaker 1: the back, it'll kind of pull in the midsection, and
22:18
Speaker 1: not even trapped in smaller capillaries. Every single drop of
22:22
Speaker 1: her blood had been methodically drained using techniques that belonged
22:26
Speaker 1: in embalming parlors, not torture chambers, and the killer had
22:30
Speaker 1: also even washed her body before transport, so no trace
22:34
Speaker 1: of evidence remained under fingernails, in hair, or even on
22:37
Speaker 1: skin surfaces. And the soap resident suggested multiple cleanings with
22:41
Speaker 1: commercial grade detergents that were strong enough to remove DNA
22:44
Speaker 1: evidence that wouldn't be understood for another forty years down
22:48
Speaker 1: the road. So this guy was meticulous, and it's interesting
22:51
Speaker 1: how meticulous he was given that in nineteen forty seven,
22:55
Speaker 1: forensic awareness bordered on the prophetic. They didn't have a
22:58
Speaker 1: lot going on in terms of forensic evidence, so the
23:01
Speaker 1: killer seemed to anticipate investigative techniques that didn't even exist yet,
23:05
Speaker 1: taking precautions against evidence collection methods still decades in the future.
23:10
Speaker 1: And the positioning of her body reinforced the theatrical elements
23:14
Speaker 1: because the body lay precisely parallel to the sidewalk, with
23:17
Speaker 1: arms framing the head and legs spread in a perfect symmetry.
23:20
Speaker 1: So someone had spent considerable time arranging this display in
23:24
Speaker 1: an exposed location where discovery was inevitable, So the risks
23:27
Speaker 1: suggested either extreme confidence or complete psychological detachment, or both.
23:33
Speaker 1: So at eleven thirty am that morning, Detective Hanson would
23:36
Speaker 1: make a decision that would revolutionize criminal identification procedures forever,
23:40
Speaker 1: because the victim's fingerprints remained intact despite the extensive mutilation,
23:44
Speaker 1: suggesting the killer either overlooked this detail or deliberately preserved them,
23:49
Speaker 1: and Hanson would order a complete fingerprint collection, and then
23:52
Speaker 1: he would contact the FBI's newly established Identification Division in Washington,
23:57
Speaker 1: d C. And what would happen next would represent a
23:59
Speaker 1: technological breakthrough that would become standard procedure within a decade,
24:04
Speaker 1: because the FBI had recently installed sound photo equipment and
24:08
Speaker 1: was basically a primitive fact system capable of transmitting photographs
24:12
Speaker 1: over telephone lines, which is pretty cool. And Hanson's fingerprint
24:15
Speaker 1: cards were photographed in Los Angeles and then they were
24:18
Speaker 1: transmitted across the continent to the FBI's headquarters at one
24:22
Speaker 1: fifteen pm Pacific time that same day, which again very
24:26
Speaker 1: impressive for that time, and only fifty six minutes later.
24:29
Speaker 1: The transmission contained a name, and that name was Elizabeth
24:32
Speaker 1: Ann Short with the date of birth July twenty ninth,
24:35
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty four, and this identification would actually originate from
24:39
Speaker 1: a nineteen forty three arrest in Santa Barbara for underage drinking,
24:43
Speaker 1: and because of that rest, Elizabeth Prince had actually been
24:46
Speaker 1: filed with the FBI as part of a standard booking procedure,
24:49
Speaker 1: and by doing that would create a permanent record that
24:51
Speaker 1: survived four years until needed for the most famous murder
24:55
Speaker 1: case in American history. So the sound photosystem would become
24:58
Speaker 1: the foundation for modern digit evidence sharing. But technology at
25:02
Speaker 1: this point could only provide a name and everything else
25:04
Speaker 1: about Elizabeth Short's final days remained locked in a mystery
25:07
Speaker 1: that defied conventional investigation, So crime scene analysis in nineteen
25:12
Speaker 1: forty seven relied primarily on photography, measurements, and detectives. Intuition
25:17
Speaker 1: and forensic science existed in primitive form, lacking the sophisticated
25:21
Speaker 1: tools that would emerge during the following decades as we know. Nevertheless,
25:24
Speaker 1: certain facts emerged that challenge basic assumptions about criminal behavior,
25:28
Speaker 1: and one of those facts was that the killer transported
25:31
Speaker 1: a one hundred and fifteen pound corpse to Norton Avenue
25:35
Speaker 1: and would position it in mathematical precision then depart without
25:39
Speaker 1: leaving any traceable evidence. And this series of events would
25:42
Speaker 1: require planning, physical strength, and intimate knowledge of the neighborhood's
25:47
Speaker 1: traffic patterns because this vacant lot offered no concealment during
25:50
Speaker 1: daylight hours and houses surrounded the space on three sides
25:54
Speaker 1: with clear sight lines from multiple windows. So it's crazy
25:58
Speaker 1: that no one saw this happening, because no neighbors reported
26:02
Speaker 1: hearing anything unusual or seeing anything unusual during the evening
26:06
Speaker 1: or even in the morning. So both possibilities suggested local
26:09
Speaker 1: knowledge that extended beyond a casual familiarity, but the physical
26:13
Speaker 1: evidence still remained very sparse. But they would see a
26:16
Speaker 1: cements sack near the body that showed traces of blood,
26:19
Speaker 1: though not enough to suggest the murder location, of course,
26:22
Speaker 1: and they would also find a heel print in the
26:24
Speaker 1: dirt that measured to about a size eight and a
26:26
Speaker 1: half men's shoes, though thousands of Los Angeles residents matched
26:30
Speaker 1: this specification. There would also be no murder weapon recovered,
26:33
Speaker 1: despite extensive searches through storm drains and dumpsters throughout the area,
26:38
Speaker 1: so the instruments used for dismemberment had vanished as completely
26:41
Speaker 1: as the killer's identity. So by sunset on January fifteenth,
26:45
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, investigators faced a crime that seemed to
26:48
Speaker 1: violate fundamental assumptions about human behavior completely. So they could
26:51
Speaker 1: only ask one question, and that was where had Elizabeth
26:55
Speaker 1: Short spent the last six days of her life?
26:58
Speaker 2: So they'd go to the Builtmore hotel.
27:00
Speaker 1: There would be no record of her registration despite witness
27:03
Speaker 1: accounts of her arrival, and friends would receive no contact
27:06
Speaker 1: despite her frequent communication with them, and the men she
27:08
Speaker 1: saw regularly didn't hear from her at all in those
27:11
Speaker 1: six days so it begs the question how had the
27:13
Speaker 1: killer gained Elizabeth's cooperation? Because there were rope burns on
27:17
Speaker 1: her wrists and her ankles that indicated prolonged restraint, but
27:22
Speaker 1: no defensive wounds that suggested she had submitted without struggle,
27:26
Speaker 1: So the implications ranged from a drug induced compliance to
27:29
Speaker 1: willing participant was someone she trusted. So where exactly did
27:32
Speaker 1: this torture and murder take place? Because this procedure required
27:36
Speaker 1: hours in a controlled environment with access to running water
27:40
Speaker 1: and surgical instruments and disposal methods for massive quantities of
27:44
Speaker 1: blood as we know. And also why choose this theatrical
27:48
Speaker 1: presentation because the killer could have disposed of the body
27:50
Speaker 1: permanently using methods that precluded discovery. Clearly he was smart enough,
27:54
Speaker 1: as we know, But instead they selected a very public
27:57
Speaker 1: location and arranged the corpse to ensure maximum visual impact.
28:01
Speaker 1: So each question just led to dozens more, creating an
28:05
Speaker 1: investigation labyrinth that would consume thousands of man hours over
28:09
Speaker 1: the following decades. So Elizabeth Shortz from unknown victim to
28:12
Speaker 1: national obsession had finally begun, and afternoon papers would hit
28:16
Speaker 1: the street with banner headlines and crime scene photographs and
28:19
Speaker 1: radio stations interrupted programming with hourly updates, and the LAPD,
28:24
Speaker 1: unprepared for a media attention of this magnitude, found themselves
28:27
Speaker 1: conducting both a criminal investigation and just managing a public circus.
28:32
Speaker 1: And back at LAPD headquarters, Detective Harry Hansen studied crime
28:36
Speaker 1: scene photographs that were spread across his desk, and each
28:39
Speaker 1: image would reveal details that defied explanation, positioning too perfect
28:43
Speaker 1: for hasty disposal, mutilations too systemic for passion alone, and
28:47
Speaker 1: forensic awareness too sophisticated for nineteen forty seven. So he
28:51
Speaker 1: knew that someone had planned this murder with military operation
28:55
Speaker 1: and executed with surgical precision and theatrical sensibility. So Hanson
29:00
Speaker 1: would pull out a notebook and write across the first page,
29:03
Speaker 1: quote unquote Elizabeth Short Black Dollia Case, January fifteenth, nineteen
29:08
Speaker 1: forty seven, and he had no way of knowing that
29:11
Speaker 1: he had just titled the most famous unsolved murder in
29:13
Speaker 1: American history. And sixteen detectives were assigned to what photographs
29:17
Speaker 1: had already dubbed the Dalia case, and phone lines would
29:20
Speaker 1: buzz from reporters, amateur sleuths, and attention seekers, claiming knowledge
29:24
Speaker 1: of the victim or the killer, and the questions would
29:26
Speaker 1: haunt investigators for decades. Who possessed the medical knowledge, the
29:29
Speaker 1: psychological detachment, and local familiarity necessary to transform Elizabeth Short
29:35
Speaker 1: into America's most notorious murder victim. And the answer lay
29:38
Speaker 1: somewhere in Los Angeles, protected by six days of silence,
29:42
Speaker 1: and that silence was about to be shattered by the
29:44
Speaker 1: largest criminal investigation in the city's history, and by the
29:48
Speaker 1: killer himself, who would soon contact the newspaper directly with
29:52
Speaker 1: evidence that should have remained forever secret. So on January sixteenth,
29:56
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, the LAPD Chief Clement's Horrel and ounce
30:00
Speaker 1: the largest criminal investigation in LA history to a room
30:03
Speaker 1: packed with detectives, reporters, and politicians. An he said, quote unquote,
30:07
Speaker 1: we will find Elizabeth Schwartz killer. No expense will be spared,
30:11
Speaker 1: and it definitely wasn't, and by month's end, a seven
30:14
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty investigators worked on the case. Detectives would
30:17
Speaker 1: abandon other homicides to chase leads that led to nowhere,
30:21
Speaker 1: Laboratory technicians processed evidence that revealed nothing, and within six
30:26
Speaker 1: months Chief Horror would resign in disgrace, and within a
30:29
Speaker 1: year key evidence would begin disappearing from police storage, so
30:33
Speaker 1: the investigation that began with unprecedented resources would end up
30:37
Speaker 1: in complete failure. And in January of nineteen forty seven,
30:40
Speaker 1: optimism ran high because how difficult could it be to
30:43
Speaker 1: solve one murder in a city of two million people?
30:46
Speaker 1: And the answer would redefine everything LA understood about criminal investigation.
30:50
Speaker 1: And on January sixteenth, nineteen forty seven, the LA Examiner's
30:54
Speaker 1: phone would ring at eleven forty seven am and the
30:57
Speaker 1: person on the other line would say, this is the
31:00
Speaker 1: man who killed the black Dehlia. I want to give
31:02
Speaker 1: myself up, but not to the police. I want to
31:05
Speaker 1: surrender to you. And the person that picked up the
31:07
Speaker 1: phone was City editor James Richardson, whose reporter's instincts overrode
31:12
Speaker 1: any sort of caution, and he would pick up a
31:14
Speaker 1: pencil and he would say back to the person on.
31:16
Speaker 2: The phone, where do you want to meet?
31:18
Speaker 1: And the person on the phone would say, I'll contact
31:20
Speaker 1: you again soon, watch for a package, and then the
31:23
Speaker 1: line would go dead, leaving Richardson with the first direct
31:26
Speaker 1: communication with Elizabeth Schwartz killer and the beginning of the
31:29
Speaker 1: media circus that would destroy any chance of solving in
31:32
Speaker 1: the case, because what happened next violated every principle of
31:36
Speaker 1: criminal investigation that would be codified for another thirty years.
31:40
Speaker 1: So Richardson would call the LAPD headquarters, reporting the conversation
31:44
Speaker 1: to Detective Harry Henson, but he also alerted every single
31:49
Speaker 1: reporter in the building like a moron, and within hours,
31:53
Speaker 1: the Examiner had announced the killer's phone call on the
31:56
Speaker 1: front page, complete with speculation about the voice's accent and
32:00
Speaker 1: psychological profile.
32:01
Speaker 2: Just horrible media.
32:03
Speaker 1: Practice because if the caller was indeed Elizabeth Shortz murderer,
32:07
Speaker 1: he now knew the police were monitoring newspaper communications, so
32:11
Speaker 1: the tactical advantage belonged entirely to someone who performed theatrical
32:15
Speaker 1: games over straightforward confession. But the Examiner's decision to publicize
32:20
Speaker 1: the contact represented just the beginning of the media interference
32:23
Speaker 1: that would ultimately sabotage the entire investigation. So on January
32:27
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, nineteen forty seven, at one thirty pm, a
32:31
Speaker 1: United States Postal Service clerk at the Los Angeles terminal
32:34
Speaker 1: noticed an unusual package that was addressed to Los Angeles
32:38
Speaker 1: Examiner and other Los Angeles papers very specific, but the
32:42
Speaker 1: envelope addressed in letters cut from newspapers and magazines and
32:47
Speaker 1: contained items that should have remained forever secret. And those
32:50
Speaker 1: items were Elizabeth Short's social Security card, a birth certificate, photographs,
32:56
Speaker 1: and an address book belonging to Mark Hanson, the owner
33:00
Speaker 1: of the Florentine Gardens nightclub. And the accompanying message assembled
33:04
Speaker 1: for magazine clippings read quote.
33:06
Speaker 2: Here is Delia's belongings letter to follow fucking scary and creepy.
33:14
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And every item had been soaked in
33:17
Speaker 1: gasoline to remove any sort of fingerprint. And this was
33:20
Speaker 1: a forensic countermeasure that demonstrated sophisticated criminal thinking. This guy
33:25
Speaker 1: was playing chess. He was seeking ten steps ahead in
33:28
Speaker 1: every move he made. But the package's most significant element
33:32
Speaker 1: wasn't what it contained, necessarily because the killer had mailed
33:35
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's personal effects to newspapers. Rather than police ensuring maximum
33:40
Speaker 1: publicity while maintaining complete control over information flow, this guy
33:44
Speaker 1: just wanted to be in the headlines. So the detective
33:46
Speaker 1: Hanson would arrive at the Examiner building to find reporters
33:49
Speaker 1: already photographing the contents. Stop Stop, photographing everything, and they're
33:54
Speaker 1: also handling potential evidence without gloves, of course, and speculating
34:00
Speaker 1: about meanings that would influence public perception for decades. So
34:04
Speaker 1: the killer at this point and just through the entire case,
34:06
Speaker 1: had completely out maneuvered professional investigators by understanding something they
34:11
Speaker 1: hadn't yet learned, and that was that in media saturated crimes,
34:16
Speaker 1: publicity can be weaponized against law enforcement, and we see
34:20
Speaker 1: this in cases in the future, in the sixties and
34:22
Speaker 1: the seventies and the eighties and the nineties to present.
34:24
Speaker 1: So by February nineteen forty seven, LAPD headquarters received twelve
34:28
Speaker 1: confessions daily saying quote.
34:30
Speaker 2: Unquote, I killed the black Dahlia, and this.
34:33
Speaker 1: Became Los angeles most popular false admission and attention seekers
34:37
Speaker 1: and mentally ill individuals claim responsibility with elaborate stories, and
34:41
Speaker 1: detectives spent thousands of hours investigating confessions containing no verifiable details,
34:47
Speaker 1: But the most elaborate one came from Daniel S. Vorhees,
34:50
Speaker 1: who provided a seventeen page handwritten account of torturing and
34:54
Speaker 1: killing Elizabeth Short, and his narrative included specific crime details
34:59
Speaker 1: and surgical takes. Techniques and detectives would spend six weeks
35:02
Speaker 1: verifying his story before discovering Vorhees had copied every detail
35:06
Speaker 1: from newspaper accounts, Thank you media, you've fucking idiots again,
35:10
Speaker 1: and he'd actually been incarcerated in New York during elizabeths murder,
35:14
Speaker 1: so it was just another dead end. And when confronted,
35:17
Speaker 1: Vorhees even admitted that he did everything because he wanted
35:20
Speaker 1: to be famous.
35:22
Speaker 2: Idiot.
35:23
Speaker 1: And by year's end, LAPD had processed sixty seven false confessions,
35:27
Speaker 1: but this number would eventually exceed five hundred, making this
35:31
Speaker 1: the most falsely confessed crime in American history. And each
35:35
Speaker 1: bogus admission required investigation, consuming resources that could have pursued
35:39
Speaker 1: legitimate leads. So just idiot people wasting time, wasting precious time.
35:45
Speaker 1: So the surgical precision of Elizabeth schwortz bisection convinced investigators
35:49
Speaker 1: that her killer possessed formal anatomical training, so detective Hanson
35:53
Speaker 1: ordered comprehensive background checks on every medical professional, student and
35:58
Speaker 1: technician in Los Angeles County. So the University of Southern
36:01
Speaker 1: California Medical School became ground zero for an investigation that
36:04
Speaker 1: would scrutinize scalpels class schedules. And student psychological profiles, and
36:09
Speaker 1: UCS administrators provided complete enrollment records dating back five years,
36:14
Speaker 1: and investigators would eventually interview four hundred and twelve medical students,
36:18
Speaker 1: an eighty nine faculty members, and one hundred and fifty
36:21
Speaker 1: six hospital residents. Meanwhile, they had examined laboratory access logs,
36:26
Speaker 1: equipment inventories, and disposal procedures for anatomical specimens, and the
36:30
Speaker 1: hemicorporareectomy technique used to bisect Elizabeth's body had been developed
36:35
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties for treating specific cancers and traumatic injuries,
36:39
Speaker 1: and in nineteen forty seven, fewer than fifty surgeons in
36:42
Speaker 1: Los Angeles possessed the training necessary to perform this specific procedure,
36:47
Speaker 1: so investigators would create a master list of these qualified
36:50
Speaker 1: surgeons and then they would begin the painstaking process of
36:53
Speaker 1: verifying each individual's whereabouts during January ninth to January fifteenth
36:58
Speaker 1: of nineteen forty seven, and they would look at hospital schedules,
37:01
Speaker 1: surgery logs, and witness statements and slowly eliminate suspects one
37:04
Speaker 1: by one. But this entire investigation would just reveal something
37:08
Speaker 1: very troubling, and that is that the killer's anatomical knowledge
37:11
Speaker 1: exceeded what could be learned through casual medical exposure, and
37:15
Speaker 1: whoever dismembered Elizabeth Schwartz's body understood human circulatory systems and
37:20
Speaker 1: tissue composition at a professional level. But medical training alone
37:25
Speaker 1: couldn't explain the killer's sophistication because the complete exanguation required
37:29
Speaker 1: embalming knowledge typically possessed only by morticians and medical examiners,
37:34
Speaker 1: and the forensic awareness just demonstrated advanced understanding of evidence
37:37
Speaker 1: collection and preservation as well. So the killer represented a
37:40
Speaker 1: convergence of medical expertise, mortuary science, and criminal sophistication that
37:45
Speaker 1: basically shouldn't have existed in nineteen forty seven, So who
37:48
Speaker 1: the fuck could know all of this? So of the
37:52
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty suspects questioned by LAPD over the decades,
37:57
Speaker 1: four names stood out because each possessed urgical knowledge, opportunity,
38:01
Speaker 1: and connections to Elizabeth Short that made season detectives take notice.
38:06
Speaker 1: And the first one was the genius doctor George Hill
38:10
Speaker 1: Hodell Junior, and George possessed an IQ of one hundred
38:14
Speaker 1: and eighty six and worked as a prominent Los Angeles physician.
38:17
Speaker 1: He was born in nineteen oh seven, and he moved
38:19
Speaker 1: in elite social circles and possessed the medical expertise for
38:23
Speaker 1: a heem corpora rectomy. The surgical technique used to cleanly
38:26
Speaker 1: separate Short's upper body from her lower body, and the
38:29
Speaker 1: specialized procedure appeared only in nineteen thirties medical textbooks, and
38:33
Speaker 1: the timeline converged in October nineteen forty nine because Hodel's
38:36
Speaker 1: teenage daughter actually accused him of essay, triggering an investigation
38:41
Speaker 1: that actually revealed connections to Elizabeth Short stretching back to
38:44
Speaker 1: nineteen forty six, and eyewitnesses even claimed knowledge of their relationship,
38:48
Speaker 1: and the Laped District Attorney's office assembled an eighteen man
38:51
Speaker 1: task force and for two months from February through March
38:54
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, investigators with bug Hodell's home with electronic surveillance
38:59
Speaker 1: equipment operation recorded all conversations inside the house, and on
39:03
Speaker 1: March fourteenth, nineteen fifty, the equipment captured Hodel saying, quote unquote,
39:08
Speaker 1: suppose and I.
39:08
Speaker 2: Did kill the black Dahlia. They can't prove it now.
39:12
Speaker 1: Excuse me, and the surveillance would continue after this non
39:16
Speaker 1: confession confession and Hodell's recorded conversations survealed intimate knowledge of
39:20
Speaker 1: the murder's details that were never released to the public.
39:23
Speaker 1: Red Flag because he would discuss the positioning of the body,
39:27
Speaker 1: the surgical techniques employed, and the theatrical staging design to
39:31
Speaker 1: shock and terrorize. But within days of the district attorney
39:34
Speaker 1: preparing arrest warrants, doctor George Hill Hodell Junior bordered a
39:38
Speaker 1: plane to the Philippines and he would never return to
39:42
Speaker 1: Los Angeles soil Red Flag. Just say decades later, his son,
39:48
Speaker 1: Steve Hodell, a retired LAPD detective, discovered photographs hidden in
39:52
Speaker 1: his father's belongings, and some researchers believe that these images
39:57
Speaker 1: show Elizabeth Short alive and pos posed before her transformation
40:02
Speaker 1: into the Black Dahlia, but others dismissed them as complete coincidence,
40:07
Speaker 1: and this genius doctor would die in nineteen ninety nine,
40:10
Speaker 1: taking his secrets to the grave. He's a top one
40:13
Speaker 1: for me, too much suspicion. But that brings us to
40:16
Speaker 1: suspect number two, and that is the mortician's assistant, Leslie
40:20
Speaker 1: Dylan So Leslie Dyllon worked as a bellhop, a aspiring writer,
40:24
Speaker 1: and a mortician's assistant. These were jobs that gave him
40:27
Speaker 1: familiarity with corpses and embombing techniques, and in nineteen forty
40:30
Speaker 1: eight he actually wrote an unsolicited letter to the LAPD psychiatrist,
40:34
Speaker 1: doctor J. Paul De River, and the letter contained details
40:37
Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Swartz murder that had never been released to
40:40
Speaker 1: the public, and Dylan claimed that a friend had committed
40:43
Speaker 1: the killing, and he described the surgical techniques with clinical precision,
40:47
Speaker 1: so he knew about the rope burns on Short's wrists
40:50
Speaker 1: and the forced ingestion that filled her stomach with fecal matter,
40:53
Speaker 1: and the hours of torture that preceded her death. So
40:56
Speaker 1: laped investigators brought Dylan to Los Angeles for questioning natural life,
41:00
Speaker 1: and the mortician's assistant displayed intimate knowledge of the crime scenes,
41:03
Speaker 1: theatrical staging, and he would know the positioning of Short's
41:06
Speaker 1: arm above her head and the wide v formation of
41:09
Speaker 1: her legs and the complete exangination that drained every drop
41:12
Speaker 1: of blood from her body.
41:13
Speaker 2: And even more disturbing.
41:15
Speaker 1: If we can we can get there, is that Dylan
41:18
Speaker 1: possessed connections to Mark Hanson, which was the nightclub owner
41:21
Speaker 1: whose address book was found soaked in gasoline alongside Short's
41:26
Speaker 1: belongings in that package sent to the newspapers. Puzzle pieces
41:29
Speaker 1: are puzzle piecing, and his alibis crumbled under scrutiny, and
41:32
Speaker 1: his behavior during interrogation set off alarm bells among seasoned detectives.
41:36
Speaker 1: Yet after extensive questioning, the LAPD officials cleared Dylan of
41:40
Speaker 1: suspicion somehow, and the mortician's assistant sued the department for
41:45
Speaker 1: false arrest and won you know, what do I know?
41:47
Speaker 1: Maybe it was just all aquinkitink. Maybe it was all
41:49
Speaker 1: a quinkinink I don't know. And in twenty seventeen, author
41:52
Speaker 1: Pugh Ittwall published Block Delia Red Rose, presenting evidence that
41:56
Speaker 1: Leslie Dillon orchestrated Schwartz murder. And the book argues that
42:00
Speaker 1: previous investigators dismissed crucial connections linking Dylan to the crime,
42:04
Speaker 1: but the bellhat mortician just eventually vanished into obscurity, and
42:08
Speaker 1: his intimate knowledge of death and dismemberment just faded into
42:11
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles criminal archives. And that brings us to
42:14
Speaker 1: suspect number three, and that is Jack Anderson Wilson. So
42:18
Speaker 1: between nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty eight, the Cleveland
42:21
Speaker 1: Torso murders claimed twelve victims in Ohio, and each showed
42:25
Speaker 1: surgical dismemberment and theatrical body positioning techniques identical to those
42:29
Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Swartz murder. But the killings stopped abruptly in
42:32
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight, and Jack Anderson Wilson became the prime
42:35
Speaker 1: suspect in both the Cleveland murders and the Black Dhlia
42:38
Speaker 1: case because he possessed medical training surgical knowledge, and he
42:42
Speaker 1: relocated from Cleveland to Los Angeles around the time of
42:45
Speaker 1: the Ohio killings ending. So in nineteen eighty LPD detective
42:49
Speaker 1: John Saint John reopened the Black Dahlia case and focused
42:52
Speaker 1: intensely on Wilson because the detective believe he stood on
42:55
Speaker 1: the verge of solving the Los Angeles most famous cold case,
42:58
Speaker 1: and he would prepare a ron warrants so he would
43:01
Speaker 1: gather evidence linking Wilson to both the Cleveland murders and
43:04
Speaker 1: Short's death. But on February fourth, nineteen eighty two, Jack
43:07
Speaker 1: Anderson Wilson would die in a house fire, and the
43:10
Speaker 1: timing just seemed impossibly convenient, just as authorities had closed
43:15
Speaker 1: in the prime suspect perished in flames that consumed potential
43:19
Speaker 1: evidence along with his body. Before Wilson's death, author John
43:23
Speaker 1: Gilmour claimed that suspect provided a deathbed confession, and that
43:26
Speaker 1: confession he admitted to the Block Dolly murder and described
43:29
Speaker 1: the details that match the crime scene's horrific reality. But
43:32
Speaker 1: Detective Saint John would take his suspicions to the grave,
43:35
Speaker 1: just convinced that Wilson's death robed Los Angeles of justice
43:39
Speaker 1: for Elizabeth Short. So who knows all of these suspects,
43:43
Speaker 1: It's like they could be them. I have no idea
43:46
Speaker 1: and we'll probably never know. But that brings us to
43:49
Speaker 1: suspect number four, and that is Mark Hanson. So Mark Hanson,
43:53
Speaker 1: as we know, owned the Florentine Gardens nightclub, where Elizabeth
43:56
Speaker 1: Short rented a room behind the building her final months
43:58
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. In the nightclub owner's connection to Short
44:01
Speaker 1: extended beyond landlord and tenant because friends actually reported romantic
44:05
Speaker 1: involvement between Hanson and the aspiring actress, and she would
44:09
Speaker 1: also work at his establishment, and she moved in the
44:12
Speaker 1: same social circles as him, and she trusted him enough
44:14
Speaker 1: to list his contacts in her personal address. Book, and
44:17
Speaker 1: that address book surfaced in the package sent to the
44:19
Speaker 1: newspaper in January twenty fourth, nineteen forty seven, So someone
44:22
Speaker 1: had carefully selected Hanson's business contacts and included them alongside
44:27
Speaker 1: Short's birth certificate and Social Security card, and the items were,
44:30
Speaker 1: as we know, soaked in gasoline to remove any sort
44:32
Speaker 1: of fingerprints. So LAPD investigators would subject Hanson to extensive questioning,
44:37
Speaker 1: and they would also surveil his home, and they would
44:39
Speaker 1: examine his alibi on the night of Short's disappearance and
44:42
Speaker 1: the six days between January ninth and January fifteenth, nineteen
44:46
Speaker 1: forty seven, and Hanson would provide inconsistent statements about his
44:49
Speaker 1: relationship with Short, and he would kind of downplay their
44:52
Speaker 1: connection while evidence suggested a deeper involvement, and his business
44:55
Speaker 1: operated in Hollywood's shadow economy, where a young women traded
44:59
Speaker 1: companionship for security, similar to what Elizabeth Short was doing.
45:03
Speaker 1: But despite intensive investigation, authorities never charged Hanson for Shortz
45:07
Speaker 1: murder and no definitive evidence linked him to the crime
45:10
Speaker 1: or the surgical disparment that required medical expertise. So the
45:14
Speaker 1: Night Cup owner just kind of faded into Los Angeles history.
45:17
Speaker 1: Leaving behind questions about his role in Elizabeth Short's final
45:20
Speaker 1: days or if he had any sort of connection to
45:22
Speaker 1: her actual killer, because I really don't think that he
45:25
Speaker 1: was the actual killer, but.
45:27
Speaker 2: Could have been involved, who knows.
45:29
Speaker 1: And several other suspects drew police attention over the decades,
45:32
Speaker 1: including doctor Walter Bailey, he had surgical skills and lived
45:35
Speaker 1: near Short's last known locations. And then there was Bugsy Siegel,
45:39
Speaker 1: and he represented the organized crime angle, though the theatrical
45:42
Speaker 1: nature of shorts murder didn't really match typical mob killings
45:46
Speaker 1: and orson Wells. He was actually accused by a childhood friend,
45:49
Speaker 1: Mary Passios, who claimed the director's artistic temperament and anatomical
45:54
Speaker 1: knowledge enabled such calculated violence, but investigators gave the series
45:58
Speaker 1: very little credence. And then there's George Knowlton, who was
46:00
Speaker 1: accused by his daughter Janice in her book, but DNA
46:03
Speaker 1: testing later discredited her claims completely. But there was also
46:06
Speaker 1: a wider pattern because the Black Dahlia murder didn't happen
46:10
Speaker 1: in isolation, and between nineteen thirty four and nineteen forty nine,
46:13
Speaker 1: other women across America were being surgically dismembered with techniques
46:18
Speaker 1: that required medical training and specialized knowledge on top of
46:21
Speaker 1: these bodies being positioned for maximum visual impact and also
46:26
Speaker 1: drained of their blood completely. So Elizabeth Schwartz killer might
46:29
Speaker 1: have been practicing these techniques for years before January nineteen
46:32
Speaker 1: forty seven, and the surgical precision that shocked investigators in
46:36
Speaker 1: Los Angeles had appeared before in Cleveland, Chicago, and other
46:40
Speaker 1: cities where similar crimes were unsolved, including the Cleveland butcher
46:45
Speaker 1: who operated between nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty eight,
46:48
Speaker 1: and they had twelve victims who were dismembered using advanced
46:51
Speaker 1: surgical techniques, and the investigation focused on doctor Francis Sweeney
46:55
Speaker 1: who disappears into a mental hospital system and has just
46:57
Speaker 1: never heard from again. And then the Los Angeles cluster,
47:00
Speaker 1: and this happened between nineteen forty three and nineteen forty nine,
47:03
Speaker 1: so in the same time zone as the Black Dohlia case,
47:06
Speaker 1: and these murders were also done with surgical expertise and
47:09
Speaker 1: complete exaguation and theatrical body positioning. And then there was
47:13
Speaker 1: the Chicago connection, which was the Lipstick murders which happened
47:17
Speaker 1: in Chicago in nineteen forty six, which victims included Suzanne Degnan,
47:21
Speaker 1: who was dismembered using identical hemicorporareectomy techniques, and the killer
47:25
Speaker 1: also demonstrated the same medical knowledge and theatrical staging. But
47:29
Speaker 1: even with all that, with all these suspects, with all
47:32
Speaker 1: these pretty good leads, we were left with nothing. And
47:36
Speaker 1: in October of nineteen forty nine, Los Angeles County District
47:39
Speaker 1: Attorney William E. Simpson conveyed a grand jury to investigate
47:43
Speaker 1: the Block Delia case, acknowledging what everyone already knew, and
47:46
Speaker 1: that is that the LAPD investigation had failed catastrophically. So
47:49
Speaker 1: the grand jury would spend eighteen months examining evidence and
47:53
Speaker 1: interviewing witnesses and reviewing investigative procedures, and their final report
47:57
Speaker 1: would be released on April nineteen fifty one, and it
48:00
Speaker 1: just documented a comedy of errors that were completely laughable
48:04
Speaker 1: because evidence had been lost, misfiled, or damaged through improper storage.
48:09
Speaker 1: Crime scene photographs showed contamination from the first hours of investigation,
48:13
Speaker 1: and witness statements contained contradictions that were never resolved, and
48:17
Speaker 1: there was detective notes that completely disappeared from files without explanation.
48:22
Speaker 1: And as we know, the media had compromised this investigation
48:24
Speaker 1: from day one, publishing information that allowed the killer to
48:27
Speaker 1: stay ahead of police efforts. And there was also the
48:30
Speaker 1: false confessions that had completely consumed investigative resources and that
48:34
Speaker 1: should have been pursuing legitimate leads. And the most damaging
48:37
Speaker 1: of all was that the grand jury discovered that the
48:40
Speaker 1: certain high profile suspects had received protection from investigation due
48:45
Speaker 1: to political connections and financial influence.
48:48
Speaker 2: So the Black Dahlia case.
48:49
Speaker 1: Hadn't just gone unsolved, it had been sabotaged by incompetence, corruption,
48:55
Speaker 1: and a system that prioritized publicity over justice. So by
48:59
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, curious detectives attempting to review the back Dhalia
49:02
Speaker 1: case discovered that the key pieces of physical evidence had
49:05
Speaker 1: disappeared from the LAPD storage facilities completely, and those included
49:09
Speaker 1: crime scene photographs, Elizabeth Short's personal effects that were returned
49:12
Speaker 1: by the killer, plastercasts of footprints found at the scene,
49:16
Speaker 1: laboratory reports analyzing blood traces in fiber samples, and the
49:19
Speaker 1: evidence hadn't been destroyed through official channels or transferred to
49:23
Speaker 1: other jurisdictions. It had just simply vanished, leaving investigators with
49:28
Speaker 1: incomplete files and fading memories, So what remained told the
49:31
Speaker 1: story of investigative failure rather than criminal success, hundreds of
49:36
Speaker 1: false leads, thousands of witness statements that led to nowhere,
49:39
Speaker 1: and decades of speculation that generated publicity rather than answers,
49:44
Speaker 1: and the Black Dahlia murder just became a case study
49:46
Speaker 1: in how to not conduct a helmside investigation because every mistake,
49:51
Speaker 1: literally every mistake that could have been made, was made
49:54
Speaker 1: in this case, and every procedure that could have been
49:57
Speaker 1: corrupted had been corrupted. Bl Dhia case changed criminal investigation
50:02
Speaker 1: procedures nationwide, and crime scene preservation protocols emerged directly from
50:06
Speaker 1: the Norton Avenue disaster, and media relation guidelines developed to
50:10
Speaker 1: prevent journalistic interference as well, and evidence storage procedures improved
50:14
Speaker 1: to prevent mysterious disappearances that plagued the shortcase. Specifically, and
50:19
Speaker 1: most importantly, the investigation's failure demonstrated that publicity could be
50:23
Speaker 1: more dangerous than helpful in complex cases, and Elizabeth Shortz
50:27
Speaker 1: Murder became required reading at police academies, not as successful
50:31
Speaker 1: detective work, of course, but as a cautionary tale about
50:34
Speaker 1: everything that could go wrong when ego incompetence and corruption
50:37
Speaker 1: converged around a high profile crime, and the case also
50:40
Speaker 1: revealed something darker about post war American society, and that
50:44
Speaker 1: is that public fascination with Elizabeth Short's torture and mutilations
50:48
Speaker 1: suggested that there was appetites that transcended normal interest in
50:52
Speaker 1: criminal justice, and that Block Dahlia became entertainment rather than
50:56
Speaker 1: just a tragedy. And Detective Harry Hanson retired in nineteen
50:59
Speaker 1: sixty eight without solving the case that defined his career,
51:02
Speaker 1: and in his final interview he admitted, quote unquote.
51:05
Speaker 2: We never came close, not really. Whoever killed that girl
51:08
Speaker 2: was smarter than all of us.
51:10
Speaker 1: And the Black Dahlia investigation ended with recognition that some
51:13
Speaker 1: crimes just transcend the capabilities of their time, and Elizabeth
51:16
Speaker 1: Schwartz killer understood the limitation and exploited it with surgical precision.
51:21
Speaker 1: So the Black Dahlia case occupies a unique position in
51:24
Speaker 1: American criminal justice. It's too famous to ignore and too
51:28
Speaker 1: compromised to solve, and most experts acknowledge that the case
51:31
Speaker 1: will never be solved through conventional means. Physical evidence has
51:34
Speaker 1: degraded beyond forensic usefulness. Witnesses have died, suspects had been
51:38
Speaker 1: buried for decades, and legal standards have proved remain impossibly
51:42
Speaker 1: high for circumstantial cases. But justice extends beyond legal conviction,
51:47
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth shortz murder sparked improvements in crime scene preservation,
51:51
Speaker 1: evidence handling, and media relations that have helped solve thousands
51:55
Speaker 1: of subsequent cases. But at the end of the day,
51:57
Speaker 1: the woman who wanted to be remembered as a famous
52:00
Speaker 1: actress became America's most famous murder victim instead. But I'm
52:05
Speaker 1: going to choose to remember her as Betty, the girl
52:08
Speaker 1: who chose to chase her dreams and had her life
52:11
Speaker 1: taken away.
52:12
Speaker 2: That is the end of the video.
52:15
Speaker 1: If you want to give me any other cases to
52:17
Speaker 1: deep dive into, let me know down below. I always
52:19
Speaker 1: read your comments. This was kind of a little Saturday
52:22
Speaker 1: bonus video was supposed to be short. It was not
52:26
Speaker 1: in at all, so there was that, But I appreciate
52:29
Speaker 1: you hanging around.
52:30
Speaker 2: Please be safe out there and I will see you
52:32
Speaker 2: a beautiful face in the next video. Okay, Bye,