Black Dahlia Book Club for July 2026

Posted on July 21, 2026 by lmharnisch

Welcome to the seventh 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 portrayals of the murder and the investigation. 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.

Next month: Black Dahlia Ask Me Anything, August 4 on YouTube.

Black Dahlia Book Club: The Los Angeles city archives, August 18 on YouTube.

Reminder: July 29 is Elizabeth Short’s birthday. If you observe it, please be respectful, especially at her grave. She didn’t drink, so don’t leave liquor at her grave, and she didn’t smoke, so don’t leave cigarettes. Be Respectful. Above all, don’t be like paranormal “influencer” Dalen Spratt and try to communicate with Elizabeth Short using a ridiculous “spirit box.” Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + +)

Posted on July 20, 2026 by lmharnisch

2026_0720_mystery_photo
For Monday, we have a mysterious cat and an enigmatic suit of armor. Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, July 2026

Posted on July 7, 2026 by lmharnisch

This is the Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case for July 2026. The Black Dahlia Book Club will meet July 21, 2026. The next Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case will be August 4, 2026.

In this session, I discussed (again) Mamie Van Doren’s impossible claim of being friends with Elizabeth Short. The latest exploits of Michael Connelly & Co. in Killer in the Code. And Talestorm Productions  (formerly Aspen Entertainment) and its claims of finding the location where Elizabeth Short was murdered.

Also:

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July 24, 1947: Honor Student Vesta Belle Sapenter, 17, Strangled

Posted on July 24, 2026 by lmharnisch


L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Her name was Vesta Belle and she was 17, an honor student at Jefferson High, a mile and a half from her home at 5320 Holmes Ave. You might think she got her name in the paper for earning a scholarship or receiving an academic award.

Instead, her 14-year-old brother, Carlisle, came home from a playground and found Vesta Belle Sapenter’s body in her bedroom. She was partially undressed and had been strangled with a thin hemp cord. With so many murders of women in Los Angeles, you might expect The Times to give it decent play, but Vesta Belle got two paragraphs on Page 8. Just enough to give a few details and that fact that she was black.

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July 24, 1907: Columbia University Professor Becomes an Explorer of the Occult

Posted on July 24, 2026 by lmharnisch



Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

July 24, 1907
Los Angeles

On a speaking tour of America, former Columbia professor James H. Hyslop is trying to raise interest in a scientific approach to psychic research while deflating the fabulous claims of mediums and other fakers.

“There is so much fraud in connection with the physical demonstrations, said Dr. Hyslop, that much time would be wasted in making the investigation,” The Times said. “To see a table get up and prance across the floor doesn’t prove anything in connection with a future life.”
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July 23, 2009: Darryl Thomas Kemp, Paroled Sex Killer Strikes Again, Gets Death Penalty for the Third Time

Posted on July 23, 2026 by lmharnisch

July 17, 1959: L.A. Carpenter Linked to Los Feliz Nurse MurderJuly 17, 1959: Darryl Thomas Kemp is linked to the killing of Marjorie Hipperson. He killed again a few months after being paroled in 1978.

July 18, 1959: Darryl Kemp in handcuffs.
The nylon stocking murder of nurse Marjorie Hipperson, one of the most sensational Los Angeles crimes of the 1950s, was taken out of its musty files and brought back to life last year for the prosecution of her slayer, an odd little man named Darryl Thomas Kemp who was paroled by the state of California in 1978 only to rape and kill again.

The man sentenced to death last month in the 1978 killing of Armida Wiltsey bears little resemblance to the “pint-sized Canoga Park carpenter” of 23 who was arrested in 1959 on charges of kidnapping and raping a woman in Griffith Park while posing as a ranger. At 73, according to news reports, Kemp often dozes behind dark glasses and uses a wheelchair although some doctors say he is faking his mental and physical illnesses and is perfectly capable of walking.

Kemp’s story is a triumph of criminal forensics in which investigators working nearly 50 years apart used crime scene evidence to link him to two notorious unsolved killings. And for supporters of capital punishment, his life highlights the tragedy of failing to enforce the death penalty.
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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, July 23, 1944

Posted on July 23, 2026 by lmharnisch

July 23, 1944, Carole Landis

Note: This is an encore post from 2014.

July 23, 1944

The conversation I had with Bing Crosby several days ago was not about the world-famous crooner, the man who is already mentioned for this year’s Oscar because of his performance in “Going My Way.” It was with Bing Crosby, the star-maker – the man who was courageous enough to select Greg McClure, an unknown, to play John L. Sullivan in “The Great John L.”

CANCER: Aspects similar to Gemini today, heed same cautions. Especially protect family interests. Don’t worry about what is coming, prepare as well as can, then take things in stride.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com.

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July 23, 1907: A Belated Tribute to Heroic Officer

Posted on July 23, 2026 by lmharnisch

Jul 23, 1907, Burglar Captured

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

July 23, 1907
Los Angeles

John Conroy, a career criminal, planned his work carefully: He would wait until 10 p.m., pry open the skylight of J.C. Fleming’s jewelry store at 531 S. Broadway, climb down a rope and help himself to whatever he wanted.

But Conroy didn’t know that along with putting alarms on the front and back doors, A.D.T. security service, 118 W. 3rd St., had put a sensor on the skylight as well. As soon as the circuit was broken, supervisor J.P. Quinn called police while he sent Herbert Johnson to watch the store.

 

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July 22, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on July 22, 2026 by lmharnisch

Enforcing the Law

Matt WeinstockLet us re-examine the premise, frequently developed here, that many mounted policemen seem to have been trained to the principle that the most important phase of traffic enforcement is writing the citation rather than guiding erring motorists in the path of righteousness.

A man was nudged to the side in the southwest section by an officer who said he’d gone through a red light. The driver said he was certain he’d made it on the yellow. Everyone knows who wins that one.

Continue reading →

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July 22, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on July 22, 2026 by lmharnisch

July 22, 1959: Fearless Fosdick must find the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been stolen!

Confidential File

Cops Troubled With Delusions

Paul Coates, in coat and tieA policeman’s lot, I’ve heard it sung, is not a happy one.

And I’m inclined to agree.

He’s an underpaid, overinsulted public servant who even has to make good on the bullets he uses protecting the proverbial life and limb.

He’s the guy who finds himself pounding a lonely beat in Staten Island for giving a friend of a friend of the mayor a bad time about a traffic ticket.

While the top brass works in air-conditioned offices, he patrols the streets in 90-deg. weather wearing a heavy wool uniform shirt. And they tell him he is to conduct himself in “a manner becoming an officer” even under conditions when human nature makes it just about impossible. Continue reading →

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July 22, 1947: TV, Jet Engine, Tucker Car on Display at World Inventors Expo

Posted on July 22, 2026 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

First-prize winner at the inventors exposition was Stanley Hiller Jr., who developed a helicopter in which two blades on a single shaft rotated in opposite directions, eliminating the need for a tail rotor.

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July 22, 1907: L.A. Housing Is Expensive

Posted on July 22, 2026 by lmharnisch


This is an encore post from 2006.

Note: $90 a month is $1,847.12 USD 2005 and $3,197.41 in 2026 dollars. 

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July 21, 1947: Julie London Marries Jack Webb

Posted on July 21, 2026 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

In the courthouse corridor, just after she received one of the biggest divorce settlements in Los Angeles history, someone asked her: “If you had your choice between half a million dollars and a happy home, which would you take?”

“A happy home.”

“With this husband?”

“I guess so.”
She walked to the elevator, looking unhappy.

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July 21, 1907: What the President Is Reading

Posted on July 21, 2026 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 21, 1907
Los Angeles

President Theodore Roosevelt suggests “reading of certain books of pure fiction that have the prime quality of being interesting.”
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July 20, 1947: Wealthy Woman Gives Estate – Including Homeless Camp -– to Santa Barbara

Posted on July 20, 2026 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1959

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. This was a follow-up to a post by Kim Cooper.

Lillian Child died in 1951 at the age of 75, four years after setting up provisions for a hobo jungle nicknamed Childville at her 17-acre estate on East Cabrillo Boulevard. Two years later, the property was deeded to the city of Santa Barbara by the Santa Barbara Foundation, the original recipient.

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July 19, 1908: Perkins Estate Overlooks Los Robles Canyon

Posted on July 19, 2026 by lmharnisch

July 19, 1908: Pasadena estate on Los Robles CanyonAbove, details of the Gilbert B. Perkins home on Hillcrest in Pasadena.

Dropcap This was a fun little mystery, complicated by The Times using the wrong middle initial for Gilbert Perkins in the caption.

Perkins sold the home in 1914 to oil executive Frank W. Emery for a reported $125,000 ($2,591,561.05 USD 2007). After Emery died in 1920, the property at 1400 Hillcrest Ave. was sold to Mary Virginia McCormick, daughter of Cyrus H. McCormick, the head of International Harvester. (The Times originally identified her as his sister — ahem).

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July 19, 1907: Covina Celebrates Launch of Streetcar Service

Posted on July 19, 2026 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 19, 1907
Covina

Lavish preparations are underway for an enormous, free picnic to celebrate the opening of a Pacific Electric streetcar line to Los Angeles. “Covina had long awaited the approach of those shining iron bands that connect the pretty little valley town with the metropolis of the West, and is very happy,” The Times said.

E.H. Fabrick has created a gigantic coffeepot for the occasion, holding 250 gallons. “A large man looks like a pigmy beside this immense urn, fashioned for a race of giants,” The Times said. It’s accompanied by an equally enormous, 300-gallon bean pot patterned after an original (presumably normal size) pot in a Boston museum.
 Continue reading →

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July 18, 1947: The Timeless, Subtle Wit of Ernie Bushmiller’s ‘Nancy’

Posted on July 18, 2026 by lmharnisch


July 18, 1947, Nancy

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

NANCY
BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER

Panel 1:
Exterior, Day. A city sidewalk. Nancy and Sluggo are carrying heavy packages on their shoulders.
NANCY: Wow… These packages are heavy
SLUGGO: Yep—but the man gives us a nickel for each one we deliver

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July 18, 1907: Santa Monica, Ocean Park Must Abate Sewage Discharge Into Ocean

Posted on July 18, 2026 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 18, 1907
Santa Monica

Officials of Santa Monica and Ocean Park are fighting a lawsuit that seeks to block the discharge of raw sewage into the ocean. According to testimony, the outfall pipe sags so badly that it isn’t always cleared and as a result, sewage molders in the pipeline, a problem aggravated by warm summer temperatures.

Judge Bordwell, however, ruled that he was unable to render a specific decision because the case was improperly presented. Bordwell ordered Santa Monica and Ocean Park to find a way to ease the situation within 15 days.
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July 17, 1947: Arnold Schoenberg Gets Commission for ‘Survivor From Warsaw’

Posted on July 17, 2026 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

By mid-July, Arnold Schoenberg was hard at work on a composition he had conceived several months earlier, when choreographer Corinne Chochem sent him details on a song for a potential commission.

Although the price was too high for Chochem, Schoenberg remained focused on the idea of a work of up to nine minutes for a speaker, orchestra and chorus, saying: “I plan to make it this scene—which you described—in the Warsaw ghetto, how the doomed Jews started singing before going to die.”

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July 17, 1907: Hollywood Organizes to Catch Serial Arsonist

Posted on July 17, 2026 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 17, 1907
Los Angeles

A serial arsonist has been at work in Hollywood, setting six fires in the last three weeks. The community’s small volunteer fire department has been overwhelmed by the crimes.

“The entire neighborhood rushed to the scene,” The Times said of one blaze in June. “The volunteer fire department hurried out their hose cart and laid a long line of hose, but the water pressure was not sufficient to send a stream that would reach the burning dwellings.”

Continue reading →

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