An EBay vendor has listed what is presented as an autographed letter by Elizabeth Short. The undated document is typed with a brief message and what is claimed to be her signature. But is it authentic?
One has to wonder because ElizAbeth is misspelled as ElizEbeth.
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Reminder: Boxie and I will be doing a live Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case next Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube.
I will discuss my work in progress, and talk about Part 3 of David Oranchak’s video on the claims of Alex Baber. Baber says that he has solved the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases, as promoted by Michael Connelly and his team, Christopher Goffard of the Los Angeles Times, and the Daily Mail. The first two parts the video are out and they are excellent. I’ll also talk about recent news of a project by Talestorm, previously known as Aspen Entertainment and my experiences with them.
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! I’ll also get to the backlog of questions from previous sessions.
Part 1 of David Oranchak’s video | Part 2 of David Oranchak’s video
For Monday, we have a mysterious girl and Back of the Head Woman.
In this episode of the Black Dahlia Book Club, I look at actor/director/producer Jack Webb and his 1958 book “The Badge.” Continue reading
For May’s Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I gave an update on the book, Heaven Is Here!, and discussed the latest news in the Black Dahlia case, and alleged links to the Zodiac case made by self-taught codebreaker Alex Baber.
Reminder: The Black Dahlia Book Club will meet May 19 at 10 a.m. on YouTube, when I will discuss the portrayal of Elizabeth Short in Jack Webb’s The Badge.
I also discussed:
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Memorial Day, 1947, was a spectacle marked with a parade from Westwood to the veterans cemetery, services for Spanish-American veterans in Pershing Square and even a tribute at Hollywood Memorial Park to 21 Times employees killed in the 1910 bombing, as well as those who died in World War II (Tommy Treanor, RIP).
The largest gathering was at the Coliseum, where the multitudes sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” recited the Pledge of Allegiance and listened to Ronald Reagan read the Gettysburg Address.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 that originally appeared on the 1947project.
The May 23-24 papers are full of great, crazy stories. It’s hard to choose just one:
Is it Britain about to partition India, which got buried on an inside page?
The Nebraska picnic, or the goat that had quintuplets? You could be serious and talk about the cost of living being at an all-time high. But then again, you’ve got two Irish setters being served with summonses because their late master, Carleton R. Bainbridge, left most of his $30,000 estate for their support.
Maybe it’s film composer Franz Waxman being reviewed (positively) as a symphony conductor. Or J. Robert Oppenheimer giving a talk at Caltech.
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Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
The California Art Club yesterday lambasted the current Los Angeles County Museum art exhibit—the museum’s eighth annual show—as favoring “radical art” and containing “subversive propaganda.”
…Edward Withers, painter and retiring president of the 500-member club, wrote [museum Director James H.] Breasted Jr. that his group cannot “condone the expenditure of tax funds for the display of subversive propaganda inimical to our form of government.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
For the record
An earlier headline on this post incorrectly reported the length of the jury’s deliberations. It was five hours and 15 minutes, not 15 minutes.
A few weeks after the acquittals in the lynching of Willie Earle, who was suspected of killing a cabdriver, Los Angeles Assemblymen [Gus] Hawkins and [??] Allen introduced a resolution in Sacramento urging Congress to pass a Federal anti-lynching law. [In 1962, Augustus Freeman “Gus” Hawkins became the first African American elected to Congress from a Western state].
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
In a jailhouse interview before he was taken to San Quentin, James G. Fleenor, the barefoot burglar, set the record straight on his escapes, his relationship with a white woman and how he began a life of crime.
It had been rumored that Fleenor returned to Los Angeles after escaping from a San Francisco jail because of his relationship with Mrs. B.J. Byres of 1669 Tennessee St. He insisted that he hopped the first freight train leaving the yard and discovered later that it was going to Los Angeles.
“Political crises, European crises or stock market troubles mean nothing to our busy businessmen. They still heed the call of relaxation….”
I can accept a talking cartoon pelican. I can even accept a talking cartoon pelican that has human hands. But I’m having a hard time with a talking cartoon pelican carrying a machine gun. Maybe it’s just me. Continue reading
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 that originally appeared on the 1947project.
Members of Cub Scout Pack 522-C gathered more than 32 tons in a paper drive to help buy artificial legs for injured pack member Jackie Cooper, 12.
Jackie and his friend, Lee Seely, 11, are being treated at General Hospital after an April 26 blast that occurred when one of the boys dropped an unexploded bazooka shell that someone found at Seal Beach, home of the Naval Weapons Station. Lee was hit in the abdomen with shrapnel and Jackie’s legs were amputated, his right leg below the knee and his left leg at mid-thigh.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1940 Universal film Black Friday, with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel, Anne Gwynne, Virginia Brissac, Edmund MacDonald, Paul Fix, Murray Alper, Jack Mulhall, Joe King and John Kelly.
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May 14, 1909: Above, the drama of daily life in early 20th century Los Angeles. Please point out this story to anyone who thinks the past was a “kinder, simpler time.” Below, the attempted rape of 13-year-old Neruda Nielson after she got off a streetcar at Central Avenue and 52nd Street. Neruda’s only identification of the attackers is that she thought they might be African American.
David Oranchak, who helped crack Zodiac’s so called Z340 cipher, has released the teaser for his upcoming video response to claims that supposedly self-taught codebreaker and “perceptionalist” Alex Baber has solved Zodiac’s Z13, and linked the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases.
The teaser is slick and professionally done, and I hope the full video refutes the ridiculous claims of Michael Connelly and Company, Christopher Goffard of the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Mail and everyone else who fell for this nonsense. To paraphrase Connelly: Alex Baber belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of Black Dahlia scam artists.
May 13, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, May 12 — The warm admiration David Wark Griffith has for Preston Sturges and his delight in “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” will shortly result in a business association. D.W. wrote a motion picture version of Louis Bromfield’s “Up Ferguson Way,” which appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine, and through Lillian Gish’s insistence gave it to Preston to read. While it’s beautiful and poetic, Lillian and Sturges felt Griffith’s first picture should be strongly commercial. So Bromfield has been asked for added story suggestions.
May 13, 1908: Above, two suspects are arrested on charges of trying to rob a man at a streetcar stop in Santa Monica … Below, pay careful attention to the story about renewed efforts to excavate a tunnel on Hill Street. This is important because the hill–like the one on Broadway–no longer exists and because the account is further proof that traffic problems are nothing new: Los Angeles has been struggling with its congested streets for more than a century …
Reminder, Boxie and I will be doing the next session of the Black Dahlia Book Club on Tuesday, May 19, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. In this installment, I’ll be discussing Jack Webb’s influential 1958 book, The Badge.
Helpful links:
ladailymirror.com 