Welcome to the third session of the Black Dahlia Book Club!
I finally got tired of talking about George Hodel and Steve Hodel (at this point, I know Steve’s monologues from memory) so I decided to spend some time looking at the portrayals of the Black Dahlia case. I consider myself first and foremost a historian of the Black Dahlia case, and think it’s important to examine the source material in detail to emphasize the challenges of researching the murder of Elizabeth Short.
Gloria Swanson in Queen Kelly.
Milestone Entertainment’s newly restored “Queen Kelly” is touring the United States as a loving tribute to its incredible backstory and the work of the ambitious and incredibly talented actress Gloria Swanson and “Man You Love to Hate” director Erich von Stroheim. A rich, operatic story, “Queen Kelly” demonstrates what a telling masterpiece the film might have been if completed as intended.
The story alone of the film’s making is wild enough. Star Swanson and her producer boyfriend Joseph Kennedy hire the profligate von Stroheim to shoot his barely finished script. The director goes overboard with sexual scenes and rough manners before getting fired from a half-finished film bankrupting the company. A few years later, editor Viola Lawrence would attempt to stitch together what little survived of part two of the film with first half shenanigans in order to play it in theatres, only to see it disappear from sight until appearing in short glimpses during the 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard.” Continue reading
For Monday, we have a mysterious person! Continue reading
Here’s a quick reminder that the Black Dahlia Book Club will convene next Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. The Book Club replaces my George Hodel and Steve Hodel Ask Me Anything as I got tired of talking about them.
Note: The next Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case will be April 14 at 10 a.m. Pacific time, a week later than usual.
In the March 2026 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I give an update on my work in progress, Heaven Is Here!
Note: The Black Dahlia Book Club (formerly Ask Me Anything about George Hodel), which looks at the resource material on the Black Dahlia case, is March 17 at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. The next Black Dahlia session is April 14, 2026, also at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube.
In this session, I talked about being invited to appear on Michael Connelly’s podcast, which is still under discussion.
I noted Steve Hodel’s claims that he gave Alex Baber a large amount of his research material and that Baber then “ghosted” him. And that the website of Alex Baber’s Cold Case Consultants of America has been scrubbed of all people except for him.
I also covered: Continue reading
Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood, by William J. Mann, Simon & Schuster, 464 pages, January 27, 2026, $31.
Like a game of Clue with an actual cold case to solve, a well-worn list of suspects in the 1947 Black Dahlia killing released 22 years ago continues to provide the “true” crime community and the multimillion-dollar industry that feeds it with endless possibilities for speculation and, occasionally, another book.
Was it the murderous Dr. George Hodel at the Sowden House in a gruesome attempt at surrealist art? Mob nightclub owner Mark Hansen at the Florentine Gardens hiring morgue-trained assassin Leslie Dillon to take care of a troublesome dame? Army butcher Carl Balsiger in a fit of violence?
All of them are fakery and fraud by writers Steve Hodel (the ongoing Black Dahlia Avenger franchise launched in 2003), Piu Eatwell (Black Dahlia, Red Rose, 2017) and Eli Frankel (Sisters in Death, forthcoming in October 2025) who, if they read all of their source material, knew their suspect wasn’t the killer and proceeded anyway. Truth is the first victim for a “true” crime author with hopes of making The New York Times bestseller list and everything that goes with it. Continue reading
March 17, 1944
It’s Friday in 1944 and today we have:
— Andy finally located Madam Queen in “The Amos ‘N’ Andy Show.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Constance Bennett is the guest on “Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org via Archive.org.
— Donald Dame of the Metropolitan Opera is the guest on “To Your Good Health,” a musical program from the House of Squibb. Courtesy of Otrrlibary.org via Archive.org.
— “Vic and Sade.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
As Austrian Jews flee for their lives, only to be turned back at the border, Los Angeles congregations prepare to celebrate Purim. Note the name of Jacob Sonderling, identified in The Times as former chief rabbi of the German army.
Above, The Times examines life among the homeless in the railroad yards and encampments of Mojave. Note the particularly unfortunate use of an ethnic slur in the artwork by The Times’ cartoonist Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale …
March 15, 1944
It’s Wednesday in 1944, and today we have:
— Charles Laughton is the guest on “Orson Welles’ Radio Almanac.” More jokes about the income tax. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Baritone William Hargrave is the guest on “To Your Good Health,” a musical program from the House of Squibb. Hargrave died at the VA hospital in Los Angeles in 1986. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary via Archive.org.
Note: This is the beginning of the 1907 blog, which I began March 15, 2006. This followed the original cycle of the 1947project, begun by Nathan Marsak and Kim Cooper on March 13, 2005.
As I began to write my grand opening about Los Angeles in 1907, I felt a ghostly hand pluck ever so gently at my sleeve.
“Promise me, dear boy, you’ll remember to say that women couldn’t vote in 1907.”
“Yes, of course.”
Now where was I? Ah yes. The street names are deceptively familiar: Broadway, Spring Street and Main. But stand up on Bunker Hill and look at the city below and you might pick out the Bradbury Building and the Alexandria Hotel. Maybe the Pan American building at Broadway and 3rd Street, kitty-corner from the Bradbury and currently undergoing loft conversion, and the Rosslyn Hotel on Main.
March 11, 1944
It’s Saturday in 1944 and today we have:
— “The Adventures of Jungle Jim.” In episode, Jim and the crew are fighting the Japanese. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org.
— Dinah Shore, Ginny Simms and Frank Sinatra on “Command Performance.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org.
Below, 100 masked night riders shoot and whip African Americans in Birmingham, Ky. … A man is arrested after a fight over a woman turns deadly … And there’s pandemonium in prices at Bukowski Square, courtesy of Overell’s. Continue reading
March 10, 1914:
Here’s another item I found at the city archives. Non-Asian women working at “Oriental cafes” except entertainers “does not comport with public welfare and morals.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 10, 1907
Los Angeles
Someone who opened the Los Angeles Times on this Sunday might be forgiven for wondering what had become of the world, for Page 1 was full of news about the demise of two religious leaders.
The first was the death of John Alexander Dowie, the founder of Zion, Ill., who considered himself the reincarnation of the biblical prophet Elijah. The second was the decline of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1947 Universal film Singapore, with Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Roland Culver, Richard Haydn, Spring Byington, Thomas Gomez, Porter Hall, George Lloyd and Maylia. Continue reading
Pier Angeli and her adorable little friend remind Daily Mirror readers that Daylight Saving Time begins today and to set your clocks forward one hour. Hi Eve!!
Through the 1950s, Police Officer Ector A. Garcia became a minor celebrity for producing sketches of crime suspects that were astonishingly accurate. But he wanted the excitement of being on the streets and that’s what he got.
Garcia and his partner, Detective Jose L. Castellanos, were working homicide
March 5, 1959, when they got a call that a gunman had gone on a deadly rampage at an East Los Angeles restaurant and was probably heading for the home of his estranged wife.
The gunman ambushed the detectives as they escorted the woman and her uncle to safety, killing Castellanos instantly. Although Garcia was struck by a shot that “seared across his eyes,” the police artist was able to return fire, killing George J. Arevalo, 2844 Whittier Blvd.
“We always knew he would do something like this,” Arevalo’s wife said. “He would go crazy every time he drank. Last March 27 we separated because of his drinking. He
told me when he left he would come back some day and kill the children and me.” Continue reading
Comedian Lou Costello dies at Doctor’s Hospital in Beverly Hills after
collapsing the week before while watching television. He was 52. His partner, Bud Abbott, died in 1974. Continue reading
March 4, 1907: Los Angeles’ sainted streetcar system has a bad day.
Beacon and 6th streets, minus the streetcars, via Google Street View.
One of the most deeply held and ardently expressed beliefs about Los Angeles’ past is the shadowy conspiracy that did away with its magnificent streetcar system.
The truth is that the streetcar system was problematic — like this 1907 accident in which Inter-Urban car No. 603 sped out of control down a hill on Beacon Street in San Pedro, jumped the tracks at the 6th Street curve and crashed into a line of utility poles that prevented it from overturning.
Ten passengers were hurt — none seriously, The Times says — but motorman R.C. Gill had to have his right foot amputated after he jumped from the speeding car and fell, with the car running over his foot.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1926 Arrow Pictures Corp. film My Lady of Whims, with Clara Bow, Carmelita Geraghty, Betty Baker, Donald Keith, Lee Moran, Francis McDonald, John Cossar, Lux MacBride and Robert Rose. Continue reading
ladailymirror.com 