I recently visited the city archives and thanks to archivist Michael Holland, I learned that the LAPD kept scrapbooks in the 1940s. Not all years are represented, unfortunately, but the department apparently subscribed to a clipping service at one point.

This front page is from the June 16, 1949, Los Angeles Examiner with a headline about the Brenda Allen scandal.  Notice that this is the 9 a.m. final. Like all newspapers of that era, the Examiner had multiple editions through the day. I mention this because newspapers today have one edition, so the idea of tearing up a page several times over the course of a day is unfamiliar.  My impression is that this edition wasn’t delivered to homes (that would be an earlier edition) but was sold on newsstands.

And to save you the trouble of looking, there’s nothing about the Black Dahlia case in the scrapbook for 1947. Not a single clipping was saved. The most you may find is a few stories about the Leslie Dillon fiasco in the 1949 scrapbook.