I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe uses the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

As we discovered yesterday, the alleged memo on Page 198 of Wolfe’s book is a fake, pasted together from two unrelated documents.

Today, let’s see how it was done.

First, here’s a scan of the book, just to show Wolfe’s handiwork.

Now, our raw material.

First, a memo from the district attorney’s office dated Oct. 28, 1949.

We snip off the top here:

But it’s tricky to delete the date as Wolfe does, so I’m leaving it. Note the raised “t” in the word “Attorney” on the third line. A sure giveaway that this is our source.

Next we take Pages 13-14 of the Nov. 23, 1949, document “Evidence and Declarations Tending to Connect or Disconnect Leslie Dillon to the Murders of Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French and Gladys Kern.”

And here’s our snippage, except I’ve intentionally done a clumsy job.



And:

Paste it together and it looks very much like this:

Now to be fair, I think Donald H. Wolfe should get a chance to defend himself, so I’m going to write him an e-mail and see what he has to say.

Time for my walk….

Shout out to:

London: (84.9.95.108)

Los Angeles AOL subscriber (207.200.116.65) 19 hours.

My pals at Dark Horse Comics (70.96.128.8)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe uses the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

Yesterday, we looked at a particularly foul and nasty installment, Page 167, at the request of Mary Pacios. Today we’ll do Pages 197-198 at Mary’s request. I hope you are ready for a shocker. Even for Donald H. Wolfe, this is nasty, nasty work. A ruthless, conniving, calculating and cynical attempt to pull off a fraud.

You are so busted, Donald H. Wolfe.

To the haz-mat pile of Dahlia books….

This chapter is titled. Hm. Well Page 196 is labeled “Inside an Enigma” and Page 197 is “Sunshine and Shadow.” OK, Part II is “Inside an Enigma,” echoing Will Fowler’s favorite comment on the case. Of course, Wolfe doesn’t actually credit Will, but you’ll find it on Page 92 of “Reporters.” The chapter is titled “Sunshine and Shadow.”

Page 196 is about organized crime in Los Angeles: Jack Dragna and Bugsy Siegel. And there’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo and Brenda Allen, Mickey Cohen, the mob assassination of Paul “Paulie” Biggons, blah blah blah.

Oh “a hail of bullets.” Now there’s an original phrase. The only thing missing is “shots rang out.”

OK, well here’s an untrue statement:

“The gangland killings and attempted assassinations made headlines for days but remained unsolved. Although neither Homicide nor the press seemed to have a clue about who was responsible, the average cop on the beat and the below-average man on the street knew it was the Mafia Capo of Los Angeles, Jack Dragna.”

Now this is just Wolfe being nasty for the sake of being nasty. I would say that for the vast majority of gangland murders in Los Angeles of the 1940s, there was no mystery as to the killers or their motivation. The problem for the police is locating cooperative witnesses, because oddly enough, most people find it unhealthy to testify in court about mob murders. And although publishing capricious and unverified murder accusations against conveniently dead people (oh, say Bugsy Siegel or Dr. George “Evil Genius” Hodel) may sell lots of books, allegations against living people will get you sued.

Well let’s see, Page 197 is mostly boilerplate about innocent, wide-eyed Elizabeth Short returning to bad old Los Angeles in July 1946 with “little comprehension of the dark side of the movieland maze, where the studios, the nightclubs, the unions and many of the major talent agencies had been infiltrated by the mob.”

The only thing missing is: “Run, innocent little girl, run like the wind back to home and hearth in safe old Boston as fast as your shapely milk-white legs and trademark black suede pumps can carry you!!!”

Now I am skipping around so I may have missed the bogus stuff from “Severed” about Elizabeth Short being at the Hollywood Canteen in 1944 and all that rot (note: she was actually in Florida and Boston). And doesn’t Wolfe have her being a prostitute at some point? And then he turns around and makes her into a lazy tramp. I mean Wolfe really doesn’t have a handle on who she was, does he?

“When her bisected body was found on Norton Avenue in Leimert Park, it wasn’t mentioned by Capt. Jack Donahoe or the press that her remains were found in the weeds approximately 250 yards from the backyard of Jack Dragna’s house at 3927 Hubert Street, near the corner of Thirty-Ninth and Norton.

Nor was it ever mentioned that the letter “D” had been carved by a knife into the pubic area of the victim’s flesh. The D is clearly visible in police photographs held today in the Black Dahlia files of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. Did the D stand for Dahlia—or could the D have stood for Dragna? Whatever the meaning of the psychopath’s message, the silent scream from the sacred setting was certainly heart at the nearby home of the Mafia Capo, Jack Dragna—and La Famiglia.”

And then there’s the this memo. Mary asked if Wolfe cut off something important in reproducing it.

But first. It’s true the police and the press didn’t mention the proximity of Jack Dragna’s house to the crime scene. As I recall, it’s about five blocks. Dragna’s house, by the way, is still there and fairly modest for a mob chieftain.

Luckily, we have Google Earth and Google Maps. So let’s see. Isn’t it weird that Wolfe talks about the distance to Dragna’s backyard? Hm.

More like 6½ blocks. Google Maps says it’s 0.6 of a mile. Now look. This is really important. Out of consideration for the people who own the house, I absolutely never give out the actual address of the crime scene. I always say 54 feet north of the fire hydrant in the middle of the block. I have made up an address for Google purposes that’s fairly close to where Elizabeth Short’s body was found.

How about a little math? Hm. 1,760 yards in a mile, makes it more like 1,056 yards. So Wolfe owe us 806 yards—nearly half a mile off.

This is really funny. Page 375: “Dragna’s address in the 1946 telephone directory place him three short blocks from Thirty-Ninth and Norton [forgetting, of course, that the body wasn’t found there]. Isn’t it interesting that Dragna’s HQ of evil is listed in the phone book? Like maybe people could call him up ask about the latest mob hits or something.

Of course, those of use who have a 1946 L.A. phone book can check. (Thank you, Ebay). Guess who’s not listed.

Go ahead and guess.

Maybe I should check under Evil, H.Q.

Oops.

Whew. Nothing like wrestling with the technology to get the satellite picture I need. Again, note that I have intentionally fed Google the wrong address for the crime scene. IGNORE it.

Now while we’re at it, who else isn’t mentioned by police or the press. Who is it that lives at 3944 S. McClung?

Would you believe it? Detective Lt. Paul W. Freestone, the University Division watch commander who was actually at the crime scene.



A coincidence? I think not.



So the following are lies:

Jack Dragna’s house wasn’t 250 yards or three short blocks from the crime scene.

Jack Dragna’s address is not listed in the 1946 Los Angeles telephone directory.

Not exactly a good showing is it? Not a real confidence-builder.

Now for Part II.

“Nor was it ever mentioned that the letter “D” had been carved by a knife into the pubic area of the victim’s flesh.”

You know what I like about this paragraph?

Did the D stand for Dahlia—or could the D have stood for Dragna?

Gosh, I don’t know. Maybe it stood for Donald Duck or Donald H. Wolfe.

Wolfe is having fun here because the district attorney’s office won’t let anybody copy the body photographs. I’ve seen them all and I don’t recall anything like that, but then I wasn’t looking for the letter “D” either.

So let’s check this memo Mary was asking about. Because I do have that.

Gosh, this is kind of hard to find.

Weird that it’s not dated. It should be.

Uh-oh.

I’m starting to get a really, really bad feeling about this document.

My spider-sense is tingling.

Now the text is found on Page 13 of “Evidence and Declarations Tending to Connect or Disconnect Leslie Dillon to the Murders of Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French and Gladys Kern.”

The full text is:

ITEM NO. XIII:

SOME PEOPLE BELIEVED that the “D” cut in the shaved pubic region of Elizabeth Short is of the same type as found on the body of the French woman. [Aha. That explains the reference. Jeanne French].

Facts reveal that the pubic region of Elizabeth Short’s body was not shaved.

Experts in handwriting have stated that it would be impossible

[page break]

to determine any type of handwriting from the so-called “D” cut into the pubic region of Elizabeth Short’s body.

ITEM NO. XIV….

The really bizarre thing is the header Wolfe shows:

M E M O R A N D U M

To: H.L. Stanley, Chief of the Bureau of Investigation

ATTENTION: Arthur L. Veitch, Deputy District Attorney

IN RE: Elizabeth Short Murder—Los Angeles Police Department Records, Reports, Statements, Correspondence, Evidence and Information

FROM: Frank B. Jemison, Lieutenant—Bureau of Investigation

Because it’s not there.

I’m starting to think Photoshop, folks. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

BUSTED!

Gosh, it looks like someone lifted the header off an unrelated Oct. 29, 1949, memo from Frank Jemison to H.L. Stanley. Snipped off the inconvenient date and pasted on the material about Leslie Dillon.

I’m short on time so I won’t scan in the material today, but you can rest assured, the document produced on Page 198 of “The Black Dahlia Files” is fraudulent and pasted together from two unrelated reports.

Would someone please remind me again what a well-researched book this is? I keep forgetting.

Shout out to:

National Internet Backbone (59.92.54.60)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe uses the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

The two-minute executive summary:

I am taking a few requests before wrapping things up. We have found the usual reliance on John Gilmore’s “Severed,” (recall that the title of this book is “The Black Dahlia Files,” although “Severed: 2006” would be more appropriate) and extensive manipulation of the scant material that Wolfe actually takes from the district attorney’s materials. Wolfe also engages in a hearty and enthusiastic smear of Capt. Jack Donahoe, based mostly on Vincent Carter’s “Rogue Cops” with a healthy dose of embellishment.

Next, we tackle Page 162 at the request of Regular Anonymous Commenter. I was actually going to do this the other day and was so aghast at the nonsense about Donahoe that I had to defer it for a day.

Aha! Regular Anonymous Commenter is asking about the “infantile genitalia” yarn embraced so enthusiastically by “Severed” and all those who have followed. As we’re about to see, this is yet another of the tall tales by Will Fowler, author of “Reporters.” This was one of Will’s favorite stories in the whole world and he relished nothing better than trotting it out and setting it through its paces, like a trick pony.

(Picking up from Page 161).

“Part of Donahoe’s strategy in misleading the press and the public in the Black Dahlia case involved his references to Elizabeth Short as a suspected lesbian. Will Fowler and Herald Express reporter Bevo Means were told by a Donahoe underling and a deputy coroner that Elizabeth Short couldn’t have sex with men. ‘Something in the autopsy indicated lesbian pathology,’ they were told.”

Note a couple things here. The source of this story isn’t identified. It’s just “a Donahoe underling.”

To the end notes, Watson!

Holmes! The source is Will Fowler!

Of course. I mean who else would have the audacity to use a grand-sounding but empty phrase like “lesbian pathology?” What on Earth is that supposed to be?

And then three of the most frightening words in the English language: “Will Fowler recalled.”

“ ‘It was a leak,’ Will Fowler recalled, ‘and Bevo jumped on it, figuring if she couldn’t have sex with guys, she was having sex with women.’ Following Donahoe’s calculated plant of this sensational, misleading information, a number of stories appeared in the newspapers indicating that the autopsy report established that Elizabeth had infantile sex organs, and therefore could not have normal relationships with men. This misinformation initiated by Donahoe has been promulgated by a number of journalists for more than fifth years.”

Actually, no.

This is two questions masquerading as one, so let’s deal with them separately.

First, the theory that Elizabeth Short might have been a lesbian came about this way: Once Robert M. “Red” Manley was cleared of the murder, Donahoe and Detectives Harry Hansen and Finis Brown started the investigation all over again. They were baffled by the “missing week” between the time Elizabeth Short was left at the Biltmore on Jan. 9, 1947, and the day her body was discovered, Jan. 15.

They knew that Red Manley helped her check all her belongings at the bus station, leaving her with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. They couldn’t figure out how she survived for a week without a change of clothing or access to her cosmetics, so they got the idea that she might have been with another woman and used the woman’s clothes and makeup.

One of the detectives extended this theory to the idea that she had been with a lesbian and was killed in a lesbian love triangle. Granted, this is quite a leap and the notion that lesbians were murderous degenerates says much about the 1940s. Eventually, this scenario was discarded, but not before a variety of stories appeared in the newspapers of the day.

Today, this scenario is laughably wrong, but it’s also wrong to claim that police intentionally misled the newspapers. Yes, the detectives actually suspected this.

Now for the real meat of this paragraph:

“a number of stories appeared in the newspapers indicating that the autopsy report established that Elizabeth had infantile sex organs.”

This is a flat-out lie. There is absolutely nothing in the original newspaper accounts about the infantile sex organ yarn.

Nor is it in Aggie Underwood’s “Newspaperwoman” of 1949.

Or Jim Richardson’s “For the Life of Me” of 1954.

It’s not even in Jack Webb’s “The Badge,” 1958.

Or John Austin’s “Hollywood’s Unsolved Mysteries,” 1969-1970.

Or Todd Faulkner’s flawed but influential 1971 Los Angeles Times article “Farewell, My Black Dahlia.” (Recall that this is where Elizabeth Short accumulated the false middle name “Ann” that has even spread to her FBI file).

The first occurrence, in fact, is….

Are you ready?

Will Fowler!

“Reporters,” Page 86 (1991)

“The tone of the letters she never mailed reflected that Elizabeth had been deeply hurt many times as she almost desperately looked for one man after the other, seeking someone who would love her. I believe all these rejections came after she had gone to bed with her lovers and they discovered they were unable to have sexual intercourse with her… because of the infantile entrance to her vagina.”

Quickly followed by “Severed,” (1994)

Page 124:

“ ‘There might have been the possibility of spermatozoa traces from the laceration of the area below the navel down to the pubic area, if the attacker had some sexual usage of that area of the body. It would have been impossible for him to have inserted his penis into her vagina. ‘But,’ he said, ‘the body was then completely washed—removing all traces of semen or blood.’ [and yes, there is a missing quote mark in the original text someplace].

“ ‘Are you saying,’ Hansen asked, ‘that she could not have normal sex?’ ”

There’s more, but I don’t need to quote it. And from there, Will Fowler’s story spread far and wide. Of course what’s really interesting is that Wolfe cites a letter Will wrote to Mary Pacios, dated Feb. 5, 1988, in which Will says he made up the story.

Of course, he eventually recanted the story to me as well, claiming sheepishly that the coroner’s office has misled him.

Oh and by the way, the source for this story in “Severed” is my favorite fictitious detective, Herman Willis.

There’s a reason I keep saying “Severed” is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Howell, N.J. (67.85.16.177)

Laguna Niguel, Calif. (68.5.34.33)

Seattle (67.150.217.69)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. Now I’m taking a few requests before I wrap it up.

On Friday, I raised the issue of Nina Blanchard’s appearance in Wolfe’s book. He doesn’t cite any source, so I couldn’t figure out where he got the material since she’s not listed in the district attorney’s files or any of the original newspaper accounts.

Here’s the quote from Page 130:

“George Bacos, an usher at CBS across the street, stated to police that he had often seen her there, as had Nina Blanchard, who later became a famous modeling agency executive. At that time, Nina Blanchard was a waitress at Brittingham’s, where many of the Columbia Studio executives and employees socialized. According to Blanchard, Elizabeth used to frequent Brittingham’s and was also seen with studio executive Max Arnow, who was in charge of the Talent Department.”

Mary Pacios writes that she spoke with Blanchard and quotes Blanchard as saying:

“People from Columbia and CBS came in all the time. Bigwigs sat in the booths and other movie/radio people would sit at the counter. Beth would come in often. We knew she wasn’t a hooker. Not the type. She was a woman of mystery. People always noticed her and wondered about her. Soft, feminine and fragile. Pale face. Always wore black. About 5’5″ tall. I spoke to her a few times in the powder room…. Rumors were that Beth was going with someone at Columbia Studios. Someone named Max or Mac.”

And according to Mary, Blanchard said nothing about Max Arnow.

And there you have it.

Shout to:

Sympatico of New York (70.51.120.76)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.Now I’m taking a few requests before I wrap it up. Yesterday, we looked at Page 131 at the request of Mary Pacios. Today, we’ll look at Page 162 at the request of Regular Anonymous Commenter.

Page 162

This chapter is titled “A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery…” paraphrasing former Examiner reporter Will Fowler, author of “Reporters.” As stated previously, “Will Fowler remembers” are three of the most frightening words in the English language, as we have caught Will in any number of false statements. I knew Will for years and treated him as a friend, but he lied his head off to me about the Black Dahlia case. I don’t think it was malicious; he just like to tell a good story.

Holy smokes!

I backed up a page to get a running start and have to pick my jaw up off the floor on this one.

Pages 160-161

“According to Vince Carter, many officers in Administrative Vice knew Donahoe was misleading the press and the public regarding the facts in the Black Dahlia case but they were afraid to come forward because of Donahoe’s underworld friends:

Donahoe had a reputation as a killer and he was a close friend of another killer—Jack Dragna, who was Lucky Luciano’s West Coast representative. Somewhere along the way, Jack Dragna and Captain Jack Donahoe became friends. Dragna had control over the narcotics business and Donahoe was an important contact…. It was Dragna who introduced Donahoe to Chickie Stein, Dragna’s narcotics distributor in L.A., and she and Donahoe became quite close. Chickie was a beautiful Sicilian woman with dark brown eyes who was brought up in a New York whorehouse. Her mother had been one of Lucky Luciano’s whorehouse madams….. Chickie was introduced to Dragna by Luciano when she was in her early twenties. Luciano trusted her completely and when Luciano was arrested by Thomas Dewey, and Chickie’s mother’s prostitution business folded, Chickie came to Los Angeles as Luciano’s West Coast heroin connection under Dragna’s guidance. Donahoe and Chickie became close friends and he presented her with a gold medallion with the Christ crucifixion on one side and the Star of David on the other. Chickie wore this around her neck on a fine gold chain. On one occasion she showed it to me and Captain Jack Donahoe’s name was engraved on one side of the medallion. Chickie was as proud of it as if it had been given to her by one of the mob bosses—which in my opinion was not too far off the mark.”

Wow. That’s about a dirty a deal as I have ever read about Jack Donahoe who in reality was squeaky clean and one of the most admired men in the Los Angeles Police Department.

I mean, this is the Jack Donahoe I know:

“Police Captain Jack A. Donahoe, commander of the Robbery Division, was honored by the City Council yesterday for his refusal to retire after 30 years of service to the Police Department.” Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 11, 1954.

“No police officer in the city has done more or worked more conscientiously for the protection of the community and the riddance of criminals than Jack Donahoe,” Len Jacobsen, head of a charity known as the Roorags. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 18, 1955.

And this:

“He has been repeatedly cited for efficiency, cooperation, leadership, courage, alertness and devotion to duty. The recommendations come from the FBI, Treasury Department, Naval Intelligence, California Highway Patrol, District Attorney’s offices and State and local police throughout the nation.

“On the occasion of Donahoe’s 30 anniversary with the department, Chief of Police William H. Parker cited him for ‘devotion to duty and outstanding police work.’ In all his years as an officer, Donahoe has only missed 20 days on sick leave.” Gene Sherman, Club Magazine, September 1955.

And this:

“The capacity crowd [for Donahoe’s retirement in 1962] jammed the Police Academy for what was believed to be the largest police retirement dinner in Los Angeles history.” Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1962.

And this:

More than 1,000 mourners attended funeral services for retired Police Capt. Jack A. Donahoe in the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park. About 600 stood outside the church [note: this is in June] in which seating arrangements could be made for only 400, and heard the services over loudspeakers.

Police Chaplain William Riddle said Donahoe was ‘ not just a policeman but a man who was building for us a future freedom which only law enforcement can make possible.’ ” (Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1966)

OK, let’s see Wolfe’s source on this baloney. This is attributed to Carter’s “LAPD’s Rogue Cops Cover Ups and the Cookie Jar,” a self-published book we covered earlier.

“Rogue Cops,” Page 156.

Now recall, before we even look, that Carter started with the LAPD in 1942 said he was working as a reserve officer at the Hollenbeck station while Donahoe worked downtown. Recall further that Carter says he never worked the Dahlia case but always followed it.

OK, let me check that again: “Mogul” Page 160-161 is attributed to “Rogue Cops,” Page 112, 156, 158.

Ready?

Page 112 is too long to quote in its entirety, so I’ll quote the first line of every paragraph:

1. A gambler like Mickey [Cohen] only bet on sure or fixed bets.

1. Before Mickey left Cleveland in his early twenties he and some of his friends were arrested on robbery charges.

1. The old line vice take in Los Angeles was in disarray and was being reorganized by Captain Jack Donahoe in the Robbery-Homicide Squad.

Note: Robbery and Homicide were separate divisions in the 1940s. Oops.

1. While Luciano, the top mob man in the nation, was in prison, he controlled the New York mob through Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky and other mob leaders.

Here’s Page 156:

1. big cities, are controlled by those who control vice activities. The prison officials who worked with Nate…

1. Ron asked Nate where he got women for the men

1. “We used young men, boys, who came into the prison.”

1. The war was coming to an end and Nate had a chance to get out of prison.

1. Ron Hardman told me bits and pieces of his life.

1. Big Jack Donahoe, Captain in charge of Robbery Division, exercised considerable power in 77th Street Division, an area which was predominately Black. Donahoe controlled narcotics and other vices in the Division. Everyone, crooks and cops alike, was afraid of Donahoe. He was known to have killed several men.

For the record, I can’t find a newspaper story about Donahoe ever killing anybody. In fact he went out of his way to take Edwin Walker alive, even though Walker had killed CHP Officer Loren K. Roosevelt. [The case was the basis for the Richard Basehart film “He Walked by Night.”]

Oops!

Everybody was afraid of Donahoe, cops and crooks alike? I suppose that’s why his retirement party was the biggest in Police Academy history and why there were 1,000 people at his funeral, eh?

Now let’s go to Page 158:

1. They visited the Division Captain before roll call the following night, Ron said.

1. The Captain understood the problem fully. Apparently he didn’t believe that he could buck Captain Donahoe either.

1. Ron said that everything went smoothly at Juvenile.

1. Ron didn’t know it, but 9th and Broadway was the worst place in the department.

1. Nate Rubin said that he knew the structure of vice operations in the city well.

1. Nate trusted Ron Hardman and talked freely to him.

OK to be fair, Carter does drag Chickie Stein into the last paragraph. But I don’t see a word about this gold crucifix/Star of David.

Ha! Got you, Vince Carter:

Page 161

Ron told the two Irish detectives about our visits with Chickie and Bernie at Chickie’s boutique. He described the medallion Donahoe had given her, with his name engraved on the back side, and how she bragged of her relationship with Big Jack. He also told Bain and McGhee that Chickie had bragged about being in bed with Jack Dragna in a Hollywood motel when he died of a heart attack.

In fact, Dragna died in Room 125 of the Saharan Hotel on Feb. 23, 1956, and was found by the maid. He was alone. No “Chickie Stein.”

Maybe you’re thinking of police recordings made with a microphone concealed in the headboard of a bed in 1951. That, Dragna buffs, was 24-year-old Annette Eckhardt. (Los Angeles Examiner, June 6, 1952, cites arrest date of March 11, 1951).

No Chickie, No Washie.

OK, so I didn’t get to Page 162, requested by Regular Anonymous Correspondent. I couldn’t ignore this smear of Jack Donahoe, one of the finest, most admired and most popular officers in LAPD history.

I’ll get it tomorrow.

Shout out to:

Albuquerque Public Schools (209.189.130.15)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

Now I’m taking a few requests before I wrap it up. Yesterday, we looked at Pages 121-122, today, we’ll examine Page 131 at the request of Mary Pacios.

Recall that yesterday we found some particularly nasty, scheming misuse of the district attorney’s material on Ann Toth, one of Elizabeth Short’s roommates. Wolfe actually skipped several pages with the note “Finis quickly changes the subject” and altered a name in the material to make it appear as if Toth were referring to Maurice Clement when she was referring to another man.

Not trivial errors, folks. This is a scheming, calculating, cynical lie intended to prop up a fictitious premise.

Let’s see what Wolfe has in store for us today:

Hm. Wolfe is talking about Maurice Clement. Let’s back up a bit to Page 130.

Witnesses said Elizabeth Short frequented Brittingham’s Restaurant. That’s true. Wolfe says it was around the corner from Columbia Studios. That’s also true. Brittingham’s was next to KNX in Columbia Square but is now closed.

Wolfe quotes George Bacos, and says he was an usher at CBS, also true. But then he quotes Nina Blanchard, a name I don’t recognize.

To the end notes, Watson!

But my dear Holmes, there’s no attribution!

Not a word, Watson. Now where do we get this Blanchard woman?

Well that’s a mystery and a half:

“George Bacos, an usher at CBS across the street, stated to police that he had often seen her there, as had Nina Blanchard, who later became a famous modeling agency executive. At that time, Nina Blanchard was a waitress at Brittingham’s, where many of the Columbia Studio executives and employees socialized. According to Blanchard, Elizabeth used to frequent Brittingham’s and was also seen with studio executive Max Arnow, who was in charge of the Talent Department.”

OK, let’s do what any decent researcher would do and check Blanchard’s clips.

Blanchard indeed ran a modeling agency. In 1967, Brenda Lee Meinsenheimer, one of her models, died in a bizarre accident while filming a Pontiac commercial. Meinsenheimer was driving toward a camera truck, which was coming the other way. The camera boom was supposed to rise, but didn’t and she crashed into it. Raffael John Esposito, the camera operator, also died.

Hm. In 1965 Blanchard lived at 2045 Stanley Hills Place.

Hm. Looks like Blanchard was working as a model in 1965. Let’s do some math. If she was working as a waitress at Brittingham’s in 1946, let’s say she was 18. That would make her born in 1928. If she were modeling in 1965, that would make her 36. A bit old for the modeling game, I’d say. But wait. Hollywood High School’s alumni page says she graduated in 1946.

Hm. 1960. Teenage fashion show, Nina Blanchard provides the commentary.

With Jan and Dean? Oohh.

Hm. Junior League’s annual fashion tea, 1961.

1985, she pronounces Don Johnson sexy with or without “Miami Vice” stubble.

Sold modeling agency to Ford in 1995. Founded in 1961. Apparently still alive. That’s quite interesting. Wolfe usually relies on conveniently dead people. And this is the only reference in the book to Nina Blanchard.

Hm. Arnow was at Warners, then Columbia, died 1984. Nothing but a paid obituary in The Times.

Well, as far as I can tell, there was a Nina Blanchard, although it’s unclear she was a Brittingham’s waitress, let alone whether she saw Elizabeth Short. And there was a Max Arnow. So far, Wolfe is way ahead of John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which relies heavily on nonexistent people. But neither Blanchard nor Arnow appear in the district attorney’s files and since Wolfe gives no attribution for this little nugget I’m at a loss as to where he got it.

Page 131

Hm. In discussing Toth, Wolfe says:

“In her testimony to the district attorney investigators, Toth had estimated that it was at least two weeks before she left the city—sometime in November—that she had dropped off Elizabeth near the Biltmore, where Toth believed she was meeting Maurice. And Toth thought it may have been Maurice who had driven her to a doctor’s office on Hollywood Boulevard shortly before Elizabeth suddenly left for San Diego.”

OK, well there’s a couple things wrong here.

First, Toth didn’t say that Maurice took Elizabeth Short to the doctor, it was a fellow named Otero, as we saw yesterday. Wolfe is faking the evidence to say it was Maurice.

Here’s Wolfe’s excerpt:

Toth: Mark [Hansen] might have driven her down. She was going to one on Hollywood Boulevard. I think maybe the teacher [Maurice] brought her down there once. It seems to me she said she was going to meet him one Sunday afternoon. But of course, he wouldn’t be in his office on a Sunday afternoon.

Not Maurice Clement, but Mr. Otero.

Oops.

Second, Elizabeth Short didn’t suddenly leave for San Diego. Her departure from Los Angeles was well known and she spoke of it frequently. The only wrinkle, and it’s a major one, is that she claimed all along she was going to spend Christmas with her sister Virginia in Berkeley and went to San Diego instead. But the departure wasn’t sudden.

And finally and most important, let’s see what Toth told the district attorney’s investigators about taking Elizabeth Short to the Biltmore.

Here’s the actual quote from Page 12 of the second interview, with Finis Brown. Notice that Toth says “schoolteacher,” meaning Otero, who taught high school Spanish.

Brown: You drove her downtown in Los Angeles there near the Biltmore hotel on one occasion didn’t you? Near there?

Toth: Yes

Brown: About how long was that before she left for San Diego do you have any idea?

Toth: About two weeks.

Brown: Didn’t she give you any reason whatsoever to be to ask to be taken down there to the Biltmore Hotel? Didn’t she tell you who she was going to meet?

Toth: I thought she was supposed to meet the schoolteacher there. She might not have been telling me the truth either, you see. It didn’t mean a thing, later I would up getting her a place over here anyway because she was without means of any kind.

Brown: Did you ever take her down to the Biltmore Hotel more than once?

Toth: No

By the way, there is no attribution for Page 131 whatsoever. Poor work, folks.

Regular Anonymous Commenter asks me to add Page 162. Consider it done.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Boca Raton, Fla. (69.172.135.25)

Linux user (4.252.208.188)

Aol user (207.200.116.65) 14 hours!

Brea, Calif. (68.234.184.255) 6 hours!

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

Now I’m taking a few requests before I wrap it up. Yesterday, we looked at Pages 118-119

Today, Pages 121-122 at the request of Mary Pacios.

Wolfe is discussing Ann Toth, one of Elizabeth Short’s roommates at the home of Mark Hansen, the business manager of the Florentine Gardens.

The contention here, which is mostly accurate, is that Hansen didn’t want Elizabeth Short going out with other men while she was living at his house. That’s true. Not that there was any deep relationship between Hansen and Elizabeth. Of course, after her murder, he denied any interest in her whatsoever, which is probably untrue. On the other hand, judging by the accounts in the district attorney’s files, she had adequate skills for keeping him at bay. Toth said that one of Elizabeth’s ploys for keeping men at a distance was that she was a virgin (Gasp!!! What? Elizabeth Short, the femme fatale who cruised across L.A. clad in black, leaving a path of destroyed men in her wake, used to say she was a virgin???!!! Yep).

Aha. Now here’s the fictionmeister at work:

“Ann Toth told the 1949 Grand Jury [note to ReganBooks, the publishing house without proofreaders or fact-checkers, that shouldn’t be capitalized] that when Mark wasn’t around Elizabeth would make secretive, outgoing calls on the house phone. Toth recalled that she often called somebody in Beverly Hills and she often called Maurice:”

Brown: Clement, was it?

Toth: Maurice Clement. Did you ever talk to him again?

Brown: Talked to him several times.

Toth: What is Clement?

Brown: Clement is a teacher…

I suppose you’ll be checking the end notes, Holmes?

A good place to start, Watson. Shall we?

Oh let’s!

Watson, I’m fairly sure you’re going to enjoy this. See what Wolfe does:

Page 371

“Beth had to be cautious…” Ann Toth’s testimony for the 1949 Grand Jury—District Attorney’s Black Dahlia files.

Now what could be wrong with this, eh? Seems fine? But no! It’s not testimony before the grand jury. Let’s check the actual document, shall we?

What’s this? The document says Ann Toth was interviewed twice, once by Frank Jemison of the district attorney’s office with Police Lt. Ed Barrett (Dec. 13, 1949) and by Jemison and Detective Sgt. Finis Brown (identified as Officer Brown) Feb. 28, 1950. And it certainly wasn’t sworn testimony before the grand jury.

Ann Toth was interviewed at 1959 N. Wilcox in Hollywood. Sort of an odd place for the Los Angeles County Grand Jury to meet, wouldn’t you say?

Now let’s see what she actually said. This is from Page 9 of her second interview. Note that because the interview was transcribed, many names are written phonetically, i.e. Clemens for Clement. This is a typical and maddening phenomenon of the district attorney’s files.

Brown: Do you remember the time she moved away when she called those people. Do you recall her calling any number in the PR ospect or PA rkway or AX minster area? [note: AX minster is the telephone prefix for Leimert Park, where the body of Elizabeth Short was found—lh]

Toth: She called somebody in Beverly Hills—that impressed me at the time.

[Note: Not secretive, outgoing calls. Of course one can only make outgoing calls, can’t one? lh]

Brown: Did she call somebody at a CR estview number?

Toth: Also she called that real estate man.

Brown: Johnson?

Toth: She called the teacher

Brown: Who is Oterro—was it or Clemens was it?

Toth: Maurice Clemens. Did you ever talk to him?

Brown: Talked to him several times. And Otero, that’s the little Spanish teacher.

Toth: What is Clemens?

Brown: Clement is a teacher too but Oterro works for the public schools.

Toth: Then it was Otero then. It was a Spanish teacher, little, on the dark side.

Brown: Little fellow

Toth: Was he driving a Ford

Brown: Little Ford, two-door sedan.

Toth: Yes.


Now Wolfe goes on to say:
“Finis Brown was fully aware that Maurice Clement was an employee in the Talent Department at Columbia Studios, and he knew of Clement’s contacts with Brenda Allen as a Syndicate procurer.”

In fact, as far as I can tell, Clement was “Maurice the Voice Teacher,” often described as Elizabeth Short’s roommates at the Chancellor Apartments as “her favorite boyfriend.”

I invite anyone in L.A. who has the desire to do so to swing past Maurice’s little apartment on Normandie just south of Hollywood Boulevard. It’s a very modest, ordinary two-story building. Not the opulent pad of a mobster and Syndicate procurer.

Page 122

Now this is really choice work. A master fabricator in action:

Actual quote:

Toth: Then it was Otero then. It was a Spanish teacher, little, on the dark side.

Wolfe version:

Toth: Clement… Little… on the dark side?

In other words, Wolfe isn’t even talking about Clement. She’s talking about an entirely different man.

Oops.

Remind me again what a well-researched book this is. I keep forgetting.

But of course Wolfe is only warming up.

This is what follows:

[Finis quickly changes the subject]

Brown: Do you recall of her ever going to a doctor? Did you ever know of a time when she ever rode with you or anybody that you know of, and let her off on Hollywood at any doctor’s place?

Toth: Mark [Hansen] might have driven her down. She was going to one on Hollywood Boulevard. I think maybe the teacher [Maurice] brought her down there once. It seems to me she said she was going to meet him one Sunday afternoon. But of course, he wouldn’t be in his office on a Sunday afternoon.

This is the work of a real card shark, folks. In fact, Finis didn’t “quickly change the subject.” Wolfe is the one who is changing the subject, jumping from Page 9 to Page 11 in the second interview.

I guess we’re not supposed to know that, eh?

Here’s what actually followed:

Brown: You don’t recall any numbers down around the AX minster or Inglewood area?

Toth: Well I said that real estate man. She called him in Inglewood. She called two or three numbers, but she didn’t get any answers, see, so naturally I wouldn’t know.

Brown: See what, Ann, I am trying to figure is if there is some possibility of someone she might have called down in that area there. She ever talk to Brant Orr?

Toth: No, not that I know of. She spoke about this flier out at the—supposed to be flying two weeks out of here, two weeks from somewhere else. I don’t know, she was going to move out to Burbank or something, out to a base.

And note Wolfe’s handiwork in this:

Toth: Mark [Hansen] might have driven her down. She was going to one on Hollywood Boulevard. I think maybe the teacher [Maurice] brought her down there once. It seems to me she said she was going to meet him one Sunday afternoon. But of course, he wouldn’t be in his office on a Sunday afternoon.

OK, that’s not Maurice. That’s a man named Otero who was a Spanish teacher.

This is really devious work, folks. These aren’t unintentional mistakes, rather they are scheming, calculated, malicious lies used to prop up a fictitious premise.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Buenos Aires, Argentina (200.122.97.113)

Springfield, Mo. (68.92.121.183)

Procter and Gamble in Belgium (192.229.17.113)

Norman, Okla. (69.154.25.87) Windows 98? Upgrade!

Hey, you in Kerkira, Greece. 47 visits? What’s with deal?

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

Now, I’m taking a few requests before I wrap it up. Last time, we looked at Pages 108-111. Today we are looking at Page 119, at the request of Mary Pacios.

The title of this chapter is “Persons Unknown” and I couldn’t help but notice an unfortunately familiar name on Page 118: Robert Slatzer. For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Will Fowler of “Reporters” fame used to claim that he was the ghostwriter on Slatzer’s “memoir” of being married to Marilyn Monroe for three days until the studios scotched the deal. In conversations, Will used to trash Slatzer every chance he got and worked Slatzer over on Pages 286-288 of “Reporters.”

Sample:

“After the book was published, I found it to be filled with fantasies. It has turned into a type of unliterary work that gives Hollywood history a hernia.” “Reporters,” Page 287.

Note also that Wolfe claims the late Slatzer as a friend.

Now this is the funny part:

“Robert Slatzer, a young man from Columbus, Ohio, who had traveled to Hollywood to become a screenwriter, often went to the Florentine Gardens and dated Ann Toth several times before becoming the boyfriend of another Hollywood wannabe, Norma Jeane Dougherty.”

Of course, this is absolutely absurd. Have you ever seen a picture of Robert Slatzer? I imagine Wolfe credits it to an interview with his conveniently dead friend.

Oh! This is better than I even imagined. Wolfe credits it as a joint interview with Slatzer and “Severed” author John Gilmore. Now I have trouble imagining those guys in the same room, but here’s the citation:

“Marilyn liked going to the Florentine Gardens and ….” int. Gilmore/Slatzer, 1989. int. Wolfe/Slatzer 2004.

Of course, the unpublished draft of “Severed” in the Gilmore archives at UCLA uses Slatzer as the source for a story about a purported lesbian affair between—oh guess—Elizabeth Short and Marilyn Monroe. Apparently this was too much even for the publishers of “Severed.”

In fact, according to the district attorney’s files (recall that this book is titled “The Black Dahlia Files” rather than the more appropriate “Severed: 2006”) Ann Toth had a regular boyfriend named Leo Hymes and didn’t date at all.

Oops.

“Slatzer remembered….” Boy, that’s a phrase almost as frightening as “Will Fowler recalls.”

Page 119

OK. Wolfe is talking about Ann Toth, one of Elizabeth Short’s roommates.

“According to Ann Toth, Elizabeth had been promised extra work in the movies and a role in NTG’s [Nils T. Granlund’s] next Florentine Gardens revue. It was inferred in the press that Elizabeth had become one of [Florentine Gardens business manager] Mark Hansen’s many girlfriends, but he adamantly denied to the police that he had ever been intimate with her. ‘She dated many different men while she was living here,’ Hansen said, ‘mostly hoodlums whom I wouldn’t even let in my house.’ ”

The quotes are fairly routine and lifted from the newspapers, rather than the district attorney’s files. But this stuff about Elizabeth Short being promised work in the Florentine Gardens revues is a new one on me. Let’s check the end notes. Nope, nothing. Figures.

Wolfe seems to be setting up poor old Maurice Clement as a mob torpedo and made man. Like all those mob guys were driving 10-year-old Fords as Wolfe implies:

“He drove an older model black Ford sedan. Beth called him ‘Maurice’ and he had promised to ‘setup’ [note to ReganBooks, the publishing house without proofreaders or fact-checkers, that is ‘set up’] Elizabeth in an apartment in Beverly Hills.’ Ann Toth had put a name to the mysterious ‘short, dark complexioned man’ who used to park in front of the Hawthorne and pay Beth’s rent—the mystery man who picked up Beth in his ‘old black Ford sedan’ and helped her move to Mark Hansen’s place on Carlos. Was it the same ‘1936 or 1937 black Ford sedan’ seen by Robert Meyer and the newsboy, Bobby Jones, as it remained parked for several minutes at the site where Elizabeth Short’s mutilated and bisected body was disposed of in the predawn hours of January 15, 1947? Apparently Det. Harry Hansen suspected that it was and that ‘Maurice’ may have been the connecting link between Elizabeth’s Hollywood acquaintances and the ‘sacred setting’

“Witnesses at the Chancellor and the Florentine Gardens were uncomfortable talking about Maurice or mentioning the mystery man’s name because he was a dangerous subject. Maurice was connected.”

Page 120

“Maurice proved to be Maurice Clement, a minion of Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen, who was a procurer for the Syndicate call-girl ring run by the notorious Hollywood Madam, Brenda Allen.”

Well this rambles on and on and I won’t quote more of it.

Gad, I wish Wolfe could make up his mind whether he’s going to call her Elizabeth or Beth. Note that he uses both names in the same paragraph.

Beth called him ‘Maurice’ and he had promised to ‘setup’ Elizabeth in an apartment in Beverly Hills.’

Yow.

I don’t want to go back through all the nonsense about the “boy on the bicycle” from the crime scene because it covers 10 posts. That’s what the search feature is for and it’s very nice. From freefind.com

And Maurice never helped Elizabeth Short move. I don’t know where Wolfe got that one. Of course, all she had were a couple of suitcases and a hatbox so it wasn’t all that much.

Rather than get into all of Wolfe’s mumbo-jumbo about dangerous little Maurice, the mob torpedo and wiseguy who was driving a 10-year-old Ford (the vehicle of choice for flamboyant gangsters, don’t you know) here’s what the district attorney’s office says about him:

(Oh, and I wouldn’t attach any significance to the order used in the list of suspects. Note that Mark Hansen is last and he was one of the more prominent candidates—although he, too, was exonerated).

Wolfe even reproduces it way back on Page 276:

“Maurice Clement, Apartment 107, at 1616 North Normandy [Normandie] was working at Columbia Studios at the time of the murder. His name appeared in this victim’s address book. He knew Short socially and is a likely type of character but has been partially eliminated by Los Angeles Police Department. See their reports.”

Nothing about him being connected to the mob. Nothing at all, in fact. Completely bogus.

In case you want to check, yes, the building is still there. It’s a two-story apartment house on the east side of the street just south of Hollywood Boulevard. It’s a very unassuming little building and not exactly what you’d expect for an elegant mobster pad.

I should mention something else just because it’s amusing. There’s a lot of claims about what was known on the Columbia lot about poor old Maurice and how he was such a prominent figure. Except that that the picture Wolfe publishes of him on Page 310…. Uh, that’s not him. That is an unlabeled photo in the district attorney’s files on Elizabeth Short. In the files on another case, however, the photo is labeled as Salvador Torres Vara. That’s No. 9 on the list of 22 suspects. (Except he’s “Vera” there, remember that these reports were dictated so many names are spelled phonetically).

Oops.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Hastings, England (212.58.233.129)

Cyveillance (63.148.99.239)

Melrose, Mass., (66.31.62.23)

Hurry back!

I have ceased blogging in real time as I read “Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles” and am taking requests for particular pages. Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

Yesterday, we looked at Pages 101-103, today it will be Pages 108-111.

As I continue on this project, I have speculated as to whether Wolfe ever considered the title “Severed: 2006” as it draws so heavily on John Gilmore’s book.

To the haz-mat pile of Dahlia books.

Page 108-111

Wolfe is continuing his portrayal of Elizabeth Short’s purported decline into the world of prostitution. This promises to be rather juicy. Entirely fiction, of course, but juicy.

“One of the Hollywood hopefuls who fell through the tinseltown trappings was the curvaceous blonde starlet, Barbara Payton, who became a prostitute on her way down the ladder of success—before literally dying in the gutter from a narcotics addition. Elizabeth Short met Barbara Payton through Lucille Varela at Al Green’s Nightlife Bar and Grill on McCadden. “Al Green” was Albert Louis Greenberg, a former bootlegger for Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, who had a long rap-sheet and did odd-job robberies and rub-outs on the side for Bugsy.”

Just “for fun” (fun being a relative term) let’s see the source on this—if indeed there is any.

Nope. No source whatsoever.

You’re not surprised are you?

Oh and then Wolfe recycles the old nonsense about Elizabeth Short and Franchot Tone from “Severed,” (I really think this book should be titled “Severed: 2006.” I can’t understand why John Gilmore calls this work “crap” when it relies so extensively on his book. Of course he also called it “destined to become a true-crime classic. A must read!”).

Page 109

“During her stay in Hollywood in 1944, Elizabeth frequented the Hollywood Canteen, where she danced with servicemen and met some of the movie star volunteers.”

Page 110

Well this is actually somewhat interesting. Sort of like catching a card sharp palming an ace.

Of course Wolfe knows none of this happened because he has quoted from “Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946,” in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s files, which says that Elizabeth Short was nowhere near Los Angeles in 1944 and 1945. Not being one to let the facts get in the way of some scandal, Wolfe buries that information and picks up the lies from “Severed” (25% mistakes, 50% fiction).

Ah, but for some reason he wants to graft back on to reality, saying that in 1945, Elizabeth Short returned to Medford. I don’t know why he bothers at this point, but he does.

Let’s quote the document again:

“In December, 1943, she was employed at the Rosedale Delicatessen, 1437 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, Fla., by Mr. Meyer Yedlin (22) as a waitress, and was living at the El Mar Hotel 220—21st St., Miami Beach. She was employed there a few months and went to work for Mammy’s Restaurant located at that time at 2038 Collins Ave., and was employed there during 1943 and up into 1944, working there until the latter part of 1944. She left there and visited her mother (1) in 1944. She returned later and lived at the El Mar Hotel with Mrs. Devaul (23) during the last part of 1944 and until the first part of 1945 but did not work. She was employed from Mar. 30, 1945 to Sept.1, 1945 at the St. Clairs, Inc., Boston Mass., Mr. Burk (25), Personnel Mgr.”

Page 111

“Following her seasonal travel pattern, Elizabeth returned to Miami and spent the winter at the Colonial Inn, an upscale hotel owned by Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, which was known by the FBI to be a hoodlum-run gambling establishment. Police investigators found no record of Elizabeth’s employment during her stay at the Colonial Inn.”

The end notes, Holmes?

Absolutely, Watson. Shall we wager? “Severed?” Nobody?

I won’t bet with the likes of you, Holmes.

Hm. Wolfe attributes this material to the district attorney’s files, presumably the “Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946.” I suppose we are to take it on faith that the Colonial Inn was a mob joint since he doesn’t cite anyone for that little goodie.

Let’s check “Movements of Elizabeth Short,” shall we?

Holmes, you’re laughing! What is it?

Stop, tell me what it is!!!!

Holmes!!!!

Watson, I swear, the man cannot read what is in front of him.

See for yourself.

Holmes!

“In the latter part of September 1945, she registered in the Colonial Inn, 2104 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville, Fla., Mrs. L.U. Burkett (24) Mgr. And stayed there until Jan. 9, 1946. During her stay there she received checks from her mother (1) and there is no work record of her in Jacksonville.”

Great Scott, Watson, calm down!

But Holmes, Jacksonville, Fla., is 354 miles from Miami Beach!

Oops.

Oh, and for the record, Barbara Payton didn’t “die in the gutter.” In May 1967, her parents found Payton’s body in the bathroom of their home at 1901 Titus St., in San Diego. She was survived by a son who was then serving in Vietnam. And she was 39.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Barcelona, Spain (83.50.187.89)

Portugal (193.126.199.39)

My homies in Germany (194.11.170.100)

University of Windsor, Canada (137.207.132.38) Windows 98? Upgrade!

UCLA (128.97.48.42)

Regular visitor at Air Force Systems Command (138.13.212.7)

Regular visitor at Dark Horse Comics.

Hurry back!

I have stopped blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles. Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

The two-minute executive summary:

As promised, I went through the Wolfe book page by page until I finished with Elizabeth Short’s funeral. As throughout the book, we have found any number of errors, fabrications and instances in which Wolfe cites a source and then contradicts it. For example, he states that Harriette Manley divorced Robert M. “Red” Manley (the last person known to have been seen with Elizabeth Short) a year after the murder.

In fact, as shown in the district attorney’s files (remember that this is called “The Black Dahlia Files”) they were not only still married in 1950, she was present when he was interviewed by Frank Jemison of the district attorney’s office.

Further, Wolfe ignores what’s in the district attorney’s files about Elizabeth Short’s mother, Phoebe, identifying the body, in favor of a maudlin scene from John Gilmore’s “Severed,” embellishing it so that instead of stoically containing her grief (as portrayed in the Examiner) Phoebe collapses, sobbing “She was a good girl! She was a good girl!,” prompting a pledge from Detective Harry Hansen that he would find the killer—alas, the district attorney’s files show that Harry Hansen wasn’t even there.

Oops.

My daily blog concludes with a quotation from Deuteronomy that was read at Elizabeth Short’s funeral.

Now the request line is open and I’m going to take them in order.

So far I have:

Pages 101-103 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Pages 108-111 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Page 119 Mary Pacios

Pages 121-122 Mary Pacios

Page 131 Mary Pacios

Page 167 Mary Pacios

Page 197-198 Mary Pacios

Pages 213-215 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Page 218 Mary Pacios

Pages 219 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Pages 226-227 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Pages 239-258 (ColScott)

Page 277-281 Mary Pacios

Page 284 Mary Pacios

Pages 293-296 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

Page 296 Mary Pacios

Page 311 Mary Pacios

Pages 345-357 (Regular Anonymous Correspondent)

So let’s start with Page 101

The title of this chapter is “By a Person or…”

Wolfe is dealing with the “lost week” between the time Elizabeth Short was left at the Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles and when her body was found Jan. 15, 1947.

“Detectives [Harry] Hansen and [Finis] Brown concluded there was no viable identification of her whereabouts during that missing week, and they deduced that she had been abducted and held captive at a secluded location until the murder and subsequent transportation of the body.”

That’s probably somewhat true. At least none of the many purported sightings were ever conclusively verified. I’m not sure Hansen and Brown (and recall that Wolfe has grossly reduced the number of detectives working the case to the two lead investigators) ever decided that she had been abducted but that is one possible scenario. Not the only one, but it certainly is an option.

Hm. I don’t recognize this quote:

“No matter how questionable each lead appeared on the surface,” Finis Brown stated, “we had to track it down, and in this case, each lead seemed to open into something else, and it went on and on, and none of them were giving a clue to the missing week, or to the murder itself.”

OK, now this could have come from Brown’s lengthy statement in the district attorney’s files (and recall this is titled “The Black Dahlia Files”) or it could be from “Severed.” Brown was occasionally quoted in the newspapers, but not frequently.

I’ll guess “Severed.”

Holmes! Why are you never wrong?

Because I’m an author’s creation, Watson. As are you.

But let’s check Wolfe’s homework, shall we? “Severed,” Page 150.

(Isn’t it amazing that this book draws so much from “Severed” and so little from the original sources? I wonder if Wolfe ever considered calling this book “Severed 2006” or something).

Uh-oh. Let’s check that again.

Chapter 7, Page 101. “No matter how questionable each lead…” Gilmore, Severed, P. 150

Actually, Page 150 of “Severed” has nothing to do with any of this. But it is one of my favorite, favorite, FAVORITE pages. Why?

Because it’s about one of the invented characters, cleverly named “Martin Lewis.” Gilmore’s claim is that police found Lewis’ business card in the Elizabeth Short items mailed to the Examiner. Of course, nobody knew then exactly what was in the envelope, so it was a safe claim. The district attorney’s files, however, give an exhaustively detailed inventory. And guess what. No business card from Martin Lewis or anybody else running a shoe store in Hollywood.

But this is my favorite part:

“… if it had not been for a good friend with the Hollywood Citizen-News who was very close with the Hollywood chief of police, they may have continued to badger me.”

Let me run that quote again:

“very close with the Hollywood chief of police”

Now think. Where is Hollywood?

Los Angeles.

Is it part of the city of Los Angeles?

Yep.

Then isn’t it under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department?

Yep.

And then Hollywood wouldn’t have its own police chief—would it?

Uh. Nope.

Wouldn’t you expect a crime author whose father was a Los Angeles police officer to know an elementary fact like that?

Objection! That calls for a conclusion on the part of the witness!

OK. That’s a totally blind lead. I don’t know where Wolfe got the quote and I’m not going to dig through “Severed” looking for it.

Ohhh. “Investigators learned….” This is almost as scary as “Will Fowler remembers,” perhaps the three most frightening words in the English language.

“Investigators learned that prior to Elizabeth Short’s return to Los Angeles on January 9, 1947, with Red Manley, she had been a resident of Los Angeles on three separate occasions. Her brief initial visit with Cleo and Mrs. Yanke in January 1943 ended when she traveled to Camp Cooke. She was later arrested in Santa Barbara and sent back to her mother’s home in Medford.”

Now this is sort of true. Except Mrs. Yanke wasn’t there.

Ahhh. Then it’s a straight lift from the “Movements of Elizabeth Short” in the district attorney’s files. I don’t know about Finis Brown’s role in it, but this is more or less her location. Don’t know about the “Victory Canteen” either. That sounds suspicious.

But let’s press on.

“In letters to her family, Elizabeth said she was also ‘modeling’ for a Miami man named ‘Duffy’ Sawyer.”

Oh? This sounds like one of the bogus people in “Severed.” Sawyer isn’t in any of the official sources. This has to be from “Severed” if it’s from anywhere. Let’s see.

Hm. Not attributed anywhere or to anyone.

Really nice work by ReganBooks, the publishing house without proofreaders or fact-checkers.

Here we have something really juicy for a true researcher.

“Elizabeth traveled to Los Angeles for the second time in August of 1944. She stayed briefly at the Clinton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles at Eighth and Broadway, where she shared a room with a slim, dark-haired girl named Lucille Varela.”

Now this is completely false and Wolfe knows it. How does he know? Because he had access to “Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946.”

And what does it say? She stayed at the Clinton Hotel? She knew Lucille Varela?

Try this:

“In December, 1943, she was employed at the Rosedale Delicatessen, 1437 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, Fla., by Mr. Meyer Yedlin (22) as a waitress, and was living at the El Mar Hotel 220—21st St., Miami Beach. She was employed there a few months and went to work for Mammy’s Restaurant located at that time at 2038 Collins Ave., and was employed there during 1943 and up into 1944, working there until the latter part of 1944. She left there and visited her mother (1) in 1944. She returned later and lived at the El Mar Hotel with Mrs. Devaul (23) during the last part of 1944 and until the first part of 1945 but did not work. She was employed from Mar. 30, 1945 to Sept.1, 1945 at the St. Clairs, Inc., Boston Mass., Mr. Burk (25), Personnel Mgr.”

So where does all this mumbo-jumbo about the Clinton Hotel come from?

From “Severed” Pages 34-35!

How wonderfully funny. Gilmore makes up the Clinton Hotel “on Broadway” (“Severed” Page 34) while Wolfe locates it more precisely at Broadway and 8th.

Um. Now not everybody has a 1944 Los Angeles Yellow Pages lying around the house. But I do. (Thank you, ebay).

How much do you want to bet there’s no Clinton Hotel listed?

Uh-oh.

Looks like Elizabeth Short would have had no place to stay even if she were in Los Angeles in 1944, which she wasn’t.

So all this stuff up to Page 103 about Elizabeth Short being a B-girl with Lucille Varela in 1944 (lifted from “Severed”) is made up.

I know this goes down hard for all the fans of “Severed,” but the book is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

That’s it for today.

Shout out to:

France (82.229.63.38)

Livonia, Mich. (65.29.123.149)

Belgium (213.118.127.56)

West Virginia Network For Educational Telecomputing (129.71.136.141)

Regular visitor in Kerkira, Greece (213.80.115.71) Looks like a nice spot, judging by Google.

Hurry back!

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short’s body has been identified by her mother, Phoebe, sister Virginia and brother-in-law Adrian. The inquest is next.

Note: Because this project is incredibly time-consuming, I have decided to end my page-by-page blogging of the book once I reach the funeral, which I presume will be soon. After that, I will take requests for specific pages. Mary Pacios and Regular Anonymous Correspondent have already given me enough to keep me busy for a week and I invite anyone else to submit their favorites. I will take them in numerical order to maintain some semblance of chronology.

Page 92-93

My goodness, chronology is certainly a challenge for some people!

“When Phoebe and Ginnie recovered their composure, they were escorted to the coroner’s hearing room in the Hall of Justice, where the inquest into Case # 7569 was scheduled to take place at 10:30 a.m.”

Well, no.

In reality, the family identified Elizabeth Short on Jan. 20, 1947, as reported in the Los Angeles Times and the Examiner of Jan. 21. The inquest was held Jan. 22, 1947, as evidenced on Page 327 and Page 339 of Wolfe’s own book.

But my dear Holmes! How could this happen?

Shall we check the end notes, Watson?

Statistically, this should be from either Will Fowler’s “Reporters” or John Gilmore’s “Severed.”

Care to make a friendly wager, Watson?

Not with you, Holmes!

Ha. Not attributed to anyone! But let’s not quit so easily.

What does M’sieur Gilmore have to say? Ah, “Severed,” Page 147.

Holmes! Why are you never wrong?

Because I am a fictional creation, Watson, just like so much of “Severed.”

Here:

“The family members were then escorted upstairs to a hearing room on the first floor of the Hall of Justice. Phoebe testified during the inquest, along with [Harry] Hansen, Red Manley and Jess [Jesse] Haskins.”

Let’s see if Will made this error. Nope, he doesn’t talk about it. How about Steve Hodel’s “Black Dahlia Avenger?” Hm.

Page 130

“At the coroner’s inquest, held in Los Angeles on January 22, 1947, seven days after the discovery of her daughter’s body, Mrs. Short identified Elizabeth at the coroner’s office and testified that she ‘was twenty-two years of age, a waitress by occupation, and to her knowledge had never been married.’ ”

What’s really interesting, is that we know Wolfe had access to the correct information, because he cites the Jan. 21, 1947, Examiner on Page 367 of his end notes. He apparently found it easier to lift something fictitious from “Severed.”

Page 93

“The nine inquest jurors were presided over by Coroner Ben H. Brown.”

Well, no. It was actually Deputy Coroner Edwin Lenox. Give Wolfe a chance to make an error and he will.

What’s this?

Oh we’re going to have fun here.

“In what was an inquest into the most bizarre murder case in the history of Los Angeles, the testimony was rather perfunctory and without surprises. Ordinarily in a homicide case, a full copy of the autopsy report is presented to the jury and read and elaborated upon by the medical examiner on the witness stand; but in the Black Dahlia Case, the jury was not presented with a copy of the report, which had been sealed. And the transcript of the inquest reveals that, as Dr. [Frederick] Newbarr read the report, Coroner Brown [Lenox] interrupted when he approached the most significant part of the autopsy—the description of the organs of the victim that had been removed by the killer.”

Now I don’t know how many inquests Wolfe has ever attended. They are extremely rare these days.

First: What he says about the procedure is quite wrong. I’ve read probably half a dozen transcripts of inquests, notably in the Jeanne French case, and most of the time Newbarr didn’t even attend. Instead, someone, usually Lenox, read his report into the record. So in fact, it was unusual to have him there in person.

Second: Wolfe is also entirely wrong in stating that jurors got copies of the medical report. Just as in a jury trial, jurors aren’t given copies of any reports. Material is submitted into evidence.

Third: Because medical reports often contain key material that can be used to identify or eliminate suspects, the presentation was almost always incomplete. Remember, the purpose of an inquest is to determine the cause of death, not to air lots of extraneous gory details.

Fourth: Nothing was missing from the body of Elizabeth Short.

But clearly Wolfe is headed somewhere with the claim that something was gone:

“Had Dr. Newbarr been allowed to continue, the dark forensic secret sealed within the autopsy report would have become public, and the startling motive and MO in the murder of Elizabeth Short would have become evident to the jurors. But the truth was concealed within the sealed report, where it has remained hidden for more than fifty years.”

Uhhhh. OK.

Page 94

Oh isn’t this just so interesting?

“Author Eliot Paul (Life and Death in a Spanish Town, Random House, NY, 1939) was visiting Los Angeles at the time and was one of the few to note that the slashing of the mouth from ear-to-ear was characteristic of an age-old Sicilian mode of murder—connoting the mortal danger for those who violate the code of Omerta (silence). Although the symbolism was apparently lost to the investigators and the press, the morbid message would have been recognized by the Sicilian Capo de Capo of the city—Jack Dragna.”

And who might Eliot Paul be? Writer, eh? In Los Angeles, eh? Well, according to The Times, he was in Los Angeles in August 1946, New York in November 1947. And his name was Elliot (with two Ts) Paul.

Oh look what I found on Google! “The Black Gardenia” by Elliot Paul, 1952. Gangsters, Hollywood and aspiring starlets. Did he really name a character Finke Maguire? What’s this?

Professor Crapola?

You have GOT to be kidding me.

OK, Wolfe is wrapping up some loose ends. He talks about the discovery of Elizabeth Short’s purse and shoes. Except he goofs it up.

“Robert Hyman, the proprietor of a café [note the telltale accent mark that Microsoft Word insists in putting on cafe for no good reason] at 1136 South Crenshaw, reported that someone had put a relatively new pair of high heel shoes and a large handbag in an incinerator behind his café, which was near Pico Boulevard—just twenty blocks north of Thirty-ninth Street and Norton. Suspecting they may be connected to the murder, Hyman removed the items from the incinerator and placed them on top of a trashcan while he called the police. But by the time the police arrived to check out the report, a rubbish truck had made its rounds and removed the shoes and handbag, along with the trash.”

Where on Earth does Wolfe get this incinerator business? It’s certainly not in any of the original reports. He says it’s in the Examiner, Jan. 20, 1947.

Let’s just see, shall we?

Oh this is interesting, the Jan. 20, 1947, Examiner leads with the arrest of Red Manley. So that should tell us something is wrong, since at that time Red Manley was still a suspect and he had been cleared by the time he identified her purse and shoes.

Uhhh. Actually, the purse and shoes were found Jan. 24.

Oops. And the newspapers of that date say nothing about an incinerator.

Page 95

More about the purse, shoes and Red Manley.

Page 96

Oh my, aren’t we just going to moralize a bit over poor Red Manley:

“The adulterous affair with Elizabeth Short ultimately turned his life into a nightmare. Manley’s shadowy face had been published along with his shabby story in newspapers nationwide, and his moment of marital infidelity cost him his marriage, his job, his sanity and ultimately his life. Divorced by Harriet the following year, Manley was plagued by guilt and was in and out of mental institutions before being remanded to the Patton Asylum for the insane, where he committed suicide.”

Now remember, the only person claming that Red slept with Elizabeth Short is Wolfe.

But he’s not playing fair with the reader at this point. Remember Wolfe quoted the district attorney’s interview with Red back on Page 80, the one conducted in 1950?

He didn’t tell you who else was there.

Like Harriette Manley. The Harriette Manley who divorced him “the following year.”

Oh, and his suicide? Notice there’s no date. Of course he could have gotten the correct date out of John Douglas’ “The Cases That Haunt Us.” But instead he went to…. I’ll guess “Severed.” Or no source at all.

Nope, Will Fowler in “Reporters” Page 86.

Well, kinda/sorta:

“Not only had his face been displayed and his story published in newspapers throughout the country, but the wife he had betrayed eventually divorced him.

“Not so long afterward, Robert Manley was remanded to an asylum for the insane, and shortly thereafter, committed suicide.”

Manley actually died in 1986, as reported by me in the Los Angeles Times and cited in “Cases That Haunt Us,” Page 238.

Some people can do research and some people cannot.

Note that Wolfe concludes with one final mistake:

As show in the adjoining photo, Elizabeth Short’s tombstone reads:

July 29, 1924—Jan. 15, 1947

Wolfe cites this as

July 29, 1924—January 15, 1947

The man clearly cannot read what’s in front of him.

We are now at the funeral of Elizabeth Short. The minister drew his text from Deuteronomy 33:24:

“And of Asher, he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.

“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

“There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them.

“Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.

“Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.”

That’s it for page-by-page blogging.

From now on, I’m taking requests.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles. Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks.

In response to my decision to stop page-by-page coverage once I reach Elizabeth Short’s funeral, several people, including Mary Pacios and Regular Anonymous Correspondent, have urged me to continue this blog. Given the demands on my time—this blog takes several hours every day—it’s impossible for me to do the entire book, so I will take requests. Mary has already filed a long list of pages she’d like me to cover, including:

Pages 119, 121-122, 131, 167, 197-198, 218, 277, 278-281, 284, 296, 311

Fair enough.

Anybody else have specific pages? Send ’em in.

Page 90

You know, poor old Wolfe can’t get anything right. He publishes a photo of Phoebe Short on an airplane captioned “Phoebe Short arrives in Los Angeles,” when she has clearly boarded a plane for the trip to Oakland.

Hm. No source for the photo. That’s odd.

Now this is peculiar. Note that the photo is tacked to the wall in the picture of John Gilmore on the back cover of “Severed” and the page facing Page 139 of “Severed.”

I guess it’ll just be Wolfe’s little secret as to where he got that picture. It was published in the Los Angeles Herald-Express, Jan. 18, 1947, Page A-4, and is credited as a Herald-Express photo.

But if you want a copy, it’s in the Gilmore archives at UCLA, Box 15, Folder 1.

Time for another botched quote from Phoebe:

“Betty always wanted to be an actress. She was ambitious and beautiful and full of life, but she had her moments of despondency. She was gay and carefree one minute then blue and in the depth of despair the next…. She was a good girl. She wrote often—at least once a week. It was only two weeks ago that I received a letter from San Diego. I can’t imagine who did this dreadful thing. I’m anxious to do anything to help in tracking down the fiend.”

But wait! Hasn’t Wolfe been claiming all along that Elizabeth Short wrote to her mother that she was coming back to Los Angeles with Red Manley? That couldn’t have happened if the last letter arrived two weeks ago, could it?

Hm. The end notes, Holmes?

To be sure, Watson!

Los Angeles Examiner, Jan. 20, 1947.

Hum. Not there.

Well here’s the exact quote, from the Herald-Express of Jan. 18, 1947.

“Elizabeth always wanted to be an actress. She was ambitious and beautiful and full of life, but she had her moments of despondency. Sometimes she would be gay and carefree one moment—then in the depths of despair another.

“She has suffered from asthma since she was 10 and during the winters back home, she usually went south. She was a good girl. She wrote often; at least once a week. It was only 10 days ago when she wrote me from San Diego telling me she had a job in the naval hospital there. I never dreamed she was having financial difficulties. Her letters were always so cheerful.”

OK, so what about this:

“I can’t imagine who did this dreadful thing. I’m anxious to do anything to help in tracking down the fiend.”

That’s from the Examiner, Jan. 19, 1947:

“ The mother, Mrs. Phoebe May [Mae] Short, said she was anxious to do ‘anything to help in tracing down this fiend.’ ”

And finally, the Herald, Jan. 18, 1947:

“I can’t imagine who did this dreadful thing. If only I could get my hands on him….”

Whew! How’s that for a tortured ancestry for one quote?

Never shy about inserting himself into the Black Dahlia story, Will Fowler always claimed that the Examiner photo of Phoebe Short on Jan. 19, showed the back of his head. I don’t happen to have a reference photo of the back of Will’s head, but I’m skeptical.

Page 91

Now for the coroner’s office. I can already see this is going to be a doozy.

“Upon their [Phoebe, Adrian and Virginia West] arrival, Harry Hansen and Finis Brown escorted them to the morgue-viewing window [why on Earth is this hyphenated? It would more properly be “the morgue’s viewing window.” ReganBooks, the publishing house without proofreaders or fact-checkers], where they would have to identify the body that was lying on a gurney behind the glass.

“Phoebe gasped as the coroner’s aide pulled back the sheet and revealed her daughter’s mutilated face. There was a moment of stunned silence before Ginnie said, ‘I can’t tell, Momma, I don’t know.’

“Phoebe told Hansen that her daughter had a birthmark on her right shoulder that she could recognize. When the sheet was lowered, Phoebe and Ginnie started sobbing. No question—it was ‘Betty.’

“While Phoebe had been brave and resolute from the day she received the call from Richardson’s office, the sight of her daughter’s mutilated remains broke her heart, and she sobbed uncontrollably. Hansen escorted her to a chair and sat down beside her while trying to reassure her that he would do everything in his power to find the person who so brutally murdered Elizabeth. Phoebe wondered aloud why the newspapers and the police had painted such a bad picture of her daughter. ‘She was a good girl,’ Phoebe kept repeating over and over through her tears—‘She was a good girl!’ ”

Now isn’t this just so terribly maudlin?

Think any of it’s true?

Want to bet?

Source, please.

“Severed,” of course, Page 146.

“On the morning of January 22nd, she [Phoebe] returned to L.A. with Ginnie and her son-in-law. They were met at the airport and brought downtown to the Hall of Justice entrance to the morgue. Harry Hansen and [Finis] Brown were waiting.

“ ‘Harry wanted to talk to Mrs. Short personally,’ Brown says. They went to one side of the room, where Mrs. Short sat in a chair, and Harry pulled up another one and sat facing her, his back to the others, blocking their view of Mrs. Short.’

“She had been telling the detectives she objected to the newspaper stories, and was disappointed that the Examiner reporters—who had been so helpful at first—were saying that Betty seemed to be ‘not a very nice person.’

Snippage

“Hansen was notified by a deputy coroner, and he told Phoebe it was time for her to make the identification—it had to be done for the record. He escorted Phoebe to a waist-high window where venetian blinds were pulled up. The sheet-covered body was on a gurney directly behind the glass.

“Ginnie and her husband joined Phoebe at the glass as the attendant behind the window pulled down the sheet revealing the face.

“Phoebe and Ginnie stared at the face, which in death was still puffed and battered. Ginnie said, ‘I can’t tell, Mama. I don’t know….’ She turned to Hansen and asked if they could lower the sheet a little beneath the left shoulder.

“ ‘She had a beauty mark there,’ Phoebe said. Her voice was distant. The shoulder was bared and Ginnie made a sound. It was Betty.

“The family members were then escorted upstairs to a hearing room on the first floor of the Hall of Justice.”

But my dear Holmes! What about:

“While Phoebe had been brave and resolute from the day she received the call from Richardson’s office, the sight of her daughter’s mutilated remains broke her heart, and she sobbed uncontrollably. Hansen escorted her to a chair and sat down beside her while trying to reassure her that he would do everything in his power to find the person who so brutally murdered Elizabeth. Phoebe wondered aloud why the newspapers and the police had painted such a bad picture of her daughter. ‘She was a good girl,’ Phoebe kept repeating over and over through her tears—‘She was a good girl!’ ”

Not there, is it, Watson? Not a word of it.

Just for fun, Watson, old boy, let’s check the Examiner, shall we? Jan. 21, 1947.

Holmes! What’s this!

“Meantime after refusing to look at her daughter, Mrs. Phoebe Mae Short, who flew here from her home in Medford, Mass., finally asked morgue attendants to remove the sheet from the body.

“With Mrs. Short at the time was the slain girl’s sister, Virginia, now Mrs. Adrian West of Berkeley.

“Both mother and sister stoically contained their grief and emotions as they looked at the body. Said the mother, as she closed her eyes, “It looks like my daughter but I can’t be sure.”

“Mrs. West also ‘couldn’t be sure.’ ”

But what about:

‘She was a good girl,’ Phoebe kept repeating over and over through her tears—‘She was a good girl!’ ”

Offhand, Watson, I’d say that’s not how it happened.

And what about this birthmark stuff? Wolfe says the birthmark was on her right shoulder while “Severed” says it was on her left? I never knew birthmarks were migratory.

Now here’s the actual description of Jane Doe from the Herald, Jan. 16, 1947:

“One large wart center of back of neck and about even with shoulder line, two small warts one inch to the right of this, one small wart to right of the above about one-half inch higher. Two warts to left of midline of neck about on shoulder. One wart on back about one inch to the right of medial line. One large mole on left shoulder.”

But we’re not through, Watson. What’s in the district attorney’s files that Wolfe isn’t telling us? Remember that this book is called “The Black Dahlia Files” although it’s mostly a rehash of “Severed” and Will Fowler’s “Reporters.”

Ready? This is from the LAPD summary of the case, Page 8.

“Mrs. Short, in company with Adrian West and Mrs. West (sister and brother-in-law of the deceased) arrived in Los Angeles and they were requested to make the personal identification of the body. They went to the coroner’s office but returned shortly, stating they could not make the identification because the newspapers had insisted upon taking pictures of them while identifying the girl in the identification room of the coroner’s office. Later in the evening they were accompanied by Sgt. [Finis] Brown to the rear of the coroner’s office and they did make the identification without the presence of the newspaper photographers or reporters.”

In other words, Harry Hansen not only didn’t make a personal vow to Phoebe Short to find the killer, he wasn’t even there. Does that mean the scene in “Severed” is fictitious? That’s my call. As I keep saying, “Severed” is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction. It’s full of people who don’t exist and things that never happened.

Now look at the picture on Page 92 of Wolfe’s book of Phoebe, Virginia and Adrian West at the coroner’s office. That is a portrait of grief. Again, Wolfe doesn’t give a source for this picture. And just to prove that ReganBooks has no proofreaders, Adrian West is identified as “Charles.”

Remind me again how well-researched this book is. I keep forgetting.

That’s it for today.

Shout out to:

Microsoft Corp. (65.54.154.114)

Hurry back. And send in those requests.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We are at the point in the story when police and reporters have discovered Elizabeth Short’s trunk and suitcases, events that occurred on separate days.

Note: I am now on Page 86 and will conclude this exercise whenever we get to Elizabeth Short’s funeral. I am roughly 25% through the book and have made whatever points I am going to make—and believe me, this tome is not going to suddenly mend its ways and become scholarly.

Thereafter, if someone wants to query about specific points in the book, I’ll entertain them.

OK, now get this:

Page 85

“To this day, the contents of Elizabeth Short’s luggage, checked at the Greyhound bus station on January 9, have never been disclosed to the press or the public.”

Page 86

“When the luggage was opened in the newspaper’s conference room, detectives and reporters scrutinized the memory books, which were found to contain dozens of photographs of Elizabeth in Miami, posing with a number of servicemen—including a four-star general.”

Now apparently statements like this do not cause intellectual whiplash to Wolfe’s editors, Cal Morgan and Anna Bliss. I have no idea what Morgan and Bliss did on Wolfe’s book, but I can tell you absolutely what they didn’t do.

Now where did Wolfe get this nonsense about the four-star general? That’s a new one on me.

Let’s check the end notes.

Ha. Nowhere. Completely unattributed. Tell me you’re surprised.

Aha. Wolfe puts some interesting material in a footnote.

“Some of the material found in Elizabeth Short’s lost luggage by the Examiner was returned to Phoebe Short, but many of the photos of Elizabeth ended up in the Examiner archive, which was donated to the Special Collections Department of the University of Southern California in 1988. Most of these photos vanished from the USC Library in the early 1990s and were eventually auctioned off on eBay in 2002.”

Some of Elizabeth Short’s photos were indeed auctioned off on eBay, but in 2003. The final price, which Wolfe does not disclose, was $7,611.11 paid by Steve Hodel, who published them in “Black Dahlia Avenger,” Page 515.

The eBay photos’ provenance is murky. The seller is a well-known enthusiast of antique motorcycles and says he found them in going through a massive collection of photos searching for pictures of old motorcycles. The seller claims that whoever had the photos didn’t know what they were. Presumably these photos were in the possession of an Examiner employee at some point, but it is unclear whether they were ever part of the USC archives, which holds much of the Examiner material, but has many holes in its collection.

For example, when the Examiner ceased publication in 1962, some material was transferred to the new Herald Examiner. When that ceased publication, the material was transferred to the Los Angeles Public Library, including some Black Dahlia photos now on library’s online database.

However, a large stack of Herald Examiner photos from the Black Dahlia case are in the John Gilmore collection at UCLA. I will leave it to others to explore their provenance. But look at the photo of Gilmore in the section of photos following Page 210 in Wolfe’s book to get an idea of the vast number in the Gilmore material at UCLA. Gilmore is sitting at a desk with the wall behind him plastered with Dahlia pictures. You can even see the news editors’ crop marks on the photos from where they were prepared for publication.

Did I mention that Gilmore dismisses this book as “crap” even though his book jacket blurb calls it “destined to become a true-crime classic. A must-read!”

I still don’t get that one.

Wolfe has several pages of Elizabeth Short’s love letters lifted from the newspapers. He makes an elementary mistake when he says Matt Gordon died in November 1945. It was in August 1945.

Page 89

Now this is interesting. After wallowing in the image of Elizabeth Short as a lazy tramp in San Diego, Wolfe uses Jim Richardson’s quote, which I cited earlier:

“She had been a pitiful wanderer, ricocheting from one cheap job to another and from one cheap man to another in a sad search for a good husband and a home and happiness. Not bad. Not good. Just lost and trying to find a way out. Every big city has hundreds just like her.”

Page 90

Wolfe claims that Richardson arranged Phoebe’s plane trip from Boston to Los Angeles. This has to be from Will Fowler. In reality, First Baptist Church of Medford paid the tab. Yep, Will Fowler’s “Reporters,” Page 84-85.

Let’s check his homework:

“Reporters,” Page 84-85

“Wrapping the story, the last paragraph said Mrs. Phoebe May [note: Mae] Short was expected to arrive in Los Angeles from Berkeley and that no date had been set for the coroner’s inquest.

“Footnote: The Examiner had already met Phoebe in Los Angeles earlier, before she flew up to Berkeley to be with her sister, Mrs. Adrian West. [Of course that’s Elizabeth Short’s sister, not Phoebe’s sister.]”

Nothing about the Examiner arranging Phoebe’s flight to Los Angeles, although that was one of Will’s many claims—he also said the Examiner hid Phoebe from other reporters when in fact she was in Berkeley with her oldest daughter. As I keep saying three of the most frightening words in the English language are: “Will Fowler remembers.”

Page 91

Oh you must be kidding!

“When Phoebe returned to Los Angeles, accompanied by Virginia and her husband, Adrian, they were met at the airport by Examiner reporters, who drove them to the coroner’s office at the Hall of Justice.”

Where on Earth did Wolfe get that? Will?

To the end notes, Watson! And hurry!

Why my dear Holmes! John Gilmore’s “Severed,” Page 146.

To the haz-mat pile of Dahlia books, Watson.

Hum. As we’re switching books, do you wonder why Wolfe would use “Severed” over someone who actually worked for the Examiner—granted Will Fowler is not exactly the soul of veracity but I don’t think that’s a major issue for this opus.

Now before I tell you, guess what “Severed” says.

Go ahead.

I’ll wait.

Think it’s all about how the Examiner reporters took Phoebe, Virginia and Adrian to the coroner’s office? I mean that is what Wolfe says, right?

“Severed,” Page 146.

“On the morning of January 22nd, she [Phoebe] returned to L.A. with Ginnie and her son-in-law. They were met at the airport and brought downtown to the Hall of Justice entrance to the morgue. Harry Hansen and Brown were waiting.”

But Holmes! There’s not a word about Examiner reporters!

Not a word, Watson.

Time for a walk.

Remember, we’re counting down to Elizabeth Short’s funeral. That’s when I stop.

Shout out to:

Ljubljana, Slovenia (193.77.78.234)

Caltech (131.215.192.127)

Pittsylvania County, Va., Public Schools (216.146.50.3)

Spotsylvania County, Va., School Board (205.174.123.52)

Hurry back!

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when police have questioned Robert M. “ Red” Manley, the last person known to have been with Elizabeth Short.

I took another vacation from the Dahlia to attend a lecture at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens by Terrence Roberts, one of the “Little Rock Nine.”

During his presentation, Roberts noted that there is no concrete dividing line between what is the present and what is history; it’s continuous. A lo-fi version of his lecture is here.

Page 84

This chapter is titled “Inquest,” so presumably Wolfe will be dealing with the public hearing on Elizabeth Short’s murder.

Well this is interesting:

“Although Capt. Donahoe expressed confidence that the LAPD had apprehended the Black Dahlia killer, Harry Hansen became convinced that Robert “Red” Manley had not attended the ‘sacred setting.’ ” [This is a reference to some malarkey in John Gilmore’s “Severed” attributed to Hansen about the murder scene being a “sacred setting” between killer and victim. As I have noted, although Wolfe’s book is called “The Black Dahlia Files,” it relies mostly on Will Fowler’s “Reporters,” “Severed” and the Los Angeles Examiner. A statistical study shows that 50% of the book is drawn from those sources. The district attorney’s files account for a mere 8% of the book.]

Now I don’t recall Donahoe ever saying that he was sure Manley was the killer; Donahoe was a smart, experienced investigator, although he was more at home handling robbers rather than homicides.

Attribution? Are you kidding? Zero.

Page 84-85

Oh boy, this is going to be fun!

One of the more confusing aspects of the Dahlia case involves Elizabeth Short’s luggage and a steamer trunk. Although these are frequently fused into one entity, there were actually two sets of luggage. The first was a large steamer trunk that got misplaced after she sent it from Indianapolis, Ind., to Chicago. The trunk ultimately ended up at the Railway Express office in Los Angeles. There was also a set of suitcases that she had with her and which Red checked at the Greyhound bus station.

Remember that three of the most frightening words in the English language are: “Will Fowler remembers.” So who is Wolfe’s source for this section of the “Black Dahlia Files?” Will Fowler, of course.

“After an exhaustive search, police investigators and Examiner reporters succeeded in finding the luggage that Red Manley insisted Elizabeth Short had checked at the Greyhound bus station on January 9. However, it was quickly confiscated by Capt. Donahoe. Up to that time, newspaper coverage of the Dahlia case had been pictorially weak. There was only the one police mugshot of Elizabeth Short and the press had to resort to artist renderings, along with the usual X marks the spot diagrams to illustrate the crime. Richardson implored Donahoe to allow photographs to be taken of the contents of the murder victim’s luggage, but Donahoe refused, stating that the contents were ‘dynamite’ and were being held in evidence. To this day, the contents of Elizabeth Short’s luggage, checked at the Greyhound bus station on January 9, have never been disclosed to the press or the public.”

If you aren’t up on the Dahlia case, you won’t realize precisely how badly this is done. But to anybody who knows the story, this is hilarious. Without looking, I’m going to guess this is more of Will’s nonsense. Let’s see.

Oh, worse than I thought. Jim Richardson’s “For the Life of Me.” Allegedly Page 305.

To the haz-mat pile, Watson!

Proving once again that Wolfe isn’t the least bit shy about citing a source and then completely contradicting it, we have Richardson’s account (too long to quote here) of finding the trunk and dictating terms to Donahoe.

Here’s a snip:

“We got the trunk but I had to call in the police to get it. The company wouldn’t turn it over to the reporter. I called Jack Donahue [Donahoe’s name is quite a challenge for many writers], chief of the homicide squad.

“ ‘If I tell you where you can find the Dahlia’s trunk, will you agree to bring it to the Examiner and open it here?’ I asked.

“ ‘Look, Jim’ he said. ‘If I do that every other paper in town will be after my scalp. Don’t put me on the spot like that. You’ve caused me enough goddam trouble the way it is with all those stories you’ve been breaking.’

“ ‘You want the trunk, don’t you?’ I said. ‘No deal, no trunk.’

“Jack actually moaned. I could hear it.”
Notice that this is, correctly, her trunk, which was found by Jan. 17, when the first photos from it were published in the Herald-Express. Recall that Elizabeth Short hadn’t been identified until that morning’s Examiner and Los Angeles Times, so rather than being “pictorially weak,” the newspapers got photos immediately.

The luggage from the bus station, meanwhile, wasn’t recovered until Jan. 19, 1947.

This is my favorite part:

To this day, the contents of Elizabeth Short’s luggage, checked at the Greyhound bus station on January 9, have never been disclosed to the press or the public.”

Please note the three-column photo on Part 1, Page 2, of the Los Angeles Examiner in which fingerprint technician George Wheeler, left, and Lt. William Cummings are going through Elizabeth Short’s suitcases.

Did I mention there’s a story with the photo?

The headline?

Examiner Scores Third Break in Case

“Discovery last night of missing luggage belonging to Elizabeth Short, mutilation murder victim, was the third important break in the case resulting from investigation by Examiner reporters.”

Or even better, look at the photo in Wolfe’s own book, in the section of photos following Page 114, of Ray Giese going through one of Elizabeth Short’s scrapbooks. Obviously Wolfe is incapable of seeing what’s in front of him.

Oops.

This is even funnier:

“Fowler remembers searching a number of Railway Express offices, freight depots and train and bus stations before finding Elizabeth Short’s lost luggage in the storeroom of a Railway Express agency in downtown Los Angeles. ‘The luggage turned out to be a suitcase and some bags—not a trunk,’ Fowler recalled, ‘but sure enough the memory books were inside. After that the Black Dahlia case became the best-illustrated crime story in newspaper history. And it all emanated from the Examiner.’ ”

As I said, three of the most frightening words in the English language are: “Will Fowler remembers.”

How does Wolfe handle this?

“Before this new cache of information hit the headlines, Richardson gleefully called Capt. Donahoe and said, ‘You’re welcome to the luggage we found, Donahoe, but I want it understood that the story is ours exclusively.’ And Richardson laid down the conditions that the LAPD detectives would have to come to the Examiner offices, where the luggage was to be opened and examined. ‘Donahoe blew a fuse,’ Fowler recalled. ‘But what could he do? If Donahoe refused to cooperate, Richardson told him he’d just have to damn well read about the contents of Beth Short’s luggage and the progress of the case in the Examiner.’ ”

Now recall that Will claimed he was present when Red was arrested in Eagle Rock. Also recall that the luggage was found at the same. How on earth Will could be looking for luggage, witnessing the arrest of Red Manley in Eagle Rock and be at the Examiner office to observe the opening of the suitcases is beyond me.

Now just for fun, let’s check in with the haz-mat pile. Where’s “Severed?” Aha. Note the picture of Detective Sam Flowers examining Elizabeth Short’s scrapbooks in the section of photos following Page 138.

“Severed,” Page 138

“Beth’s trunk was opened officially, revealing clothes, photo albums and dozens of letters going back over the past few years.” Unfortunately, “Severed” isn’t indexed and it’s torture to leaf through all this nonsense, so I’ll pass on finding the passage on the suitcases.

Time for my walk

Shout out to:

Fema (71.252.64.8)

State of Alaska (146.63.141.61)

General Electric (3.209.129.190)

Hurry back!

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when police are questioning Robert M. “Red” Manley, the last person known to have been seen with Elizabeth Short.

I took a holiday from the Dahlia last night to attend a lecture at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens by Elliott Gorn on John Dillinger. Given the pouring rain, it was a fairly small crowd, but we were rewarded with an interesting portrait of the famous Depression-era bank robber. Gorn’s lecture was quite a change of pace from the Huntington’s usual fare, especially the long discourse on the myths about what precisely is (and is not) in the Dillinger archives at the Smithsonian.

For those who are interested, here’s a lo-fi version of Gorn’s presentation.

Page 81-82

Wolfe is in the middle of lifting Aggie Underwood’s jailhouse interview with Red. Recall that Wolfe offered a snippet from the material in the district attorney’s files, merging a quote from Page 3 with a quote from Page 6 without warning.

Oh, that confusing California geography.

“The Greyhound bus station was on Sixth and Los Angeles Street—just four blocks from the stately Biltmore, a fashionable luxury hotel on Olive between Fifth and Sixth Streets that had been built in 1929 by Harry Chandler and a group of wealthy Los Angeles businessmen.”

Here’s the Google map (note that Google takes account of the one-way streets in planning the route).

Now maybe it’s the aging process, but I don’t recall hearing anything about Harry Chandler when I took the L.A. Conservancy’s tour of the Biltmore. (A fine tour it is, and I highly recommend it. I’m a member of the L.A. Conservancy and a big fan of its “Last Remaining Seats” movie series).

The end notes, Holmes?

Lead on, Watson.

But my dear Holmes!

Yes, yes, Watson, I know. No attribution.

Just for fun let’s see if Harry Chandler had anything to do with the Biltmore.

Of course, Wolfe is entirely wrong in saying that the Biltmore opened in 1929. It actually opened in 1923 (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23, 1923). Even the simplest of facts seem to be very slippery things for Wolfe. Remind me again how well-researched this book is, will you?

Now what about the Harry Chandler connection? I mean I really don’t want to get derailed into the complicated financing behind construction of the Biltmore. Ah. Apparently Harry Chandler was among a raft of people involved in the Biltmore.

Next, another straight lift from the Underwood interview.

Hm. What’s this?

“As Manley walked toward the Olive Street door, he glanced back to wave at Elizabeth, but she had already turned and was talking to the clerk at the tobacco stand and getting telephone change. She was still standing there when Robert ‘Red’ Manley exited the hotel at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9, 1947.”

Now isn’t that just too, too interesting. Red turned to wave but she was getting “telephone change.” That, presumably, would be change for the pay phone. I’ve never read a word about Red turning to wave and I’ve been through the original material fairly closely. It’s certainly not in Underwood’s jailhouse interview with Red, nor in any other original source. So where does Wolfe get it?

My dear Holmes! Why, there’s no attribution whatsoever!

It appears, Watson, that our friend Mr. Wolfe has an extremely active imagination.

Let’s compare:

Page 82


“ ‘That is the last time I ever saw Miss Short,’ Manley told Aggie Underwood. ‘I’ll take truth serum or anything they want to give me. And I’ll swear on a stack of Bibles, and tell my minister, too—that was the last time I saw Beth Short. I did not kill her!’”

Herald-Express, Jan. 20, 1947

“That is the last time I ever saw Betty Short. I’ll take the truth serum or anything they want to give me. And I’ll swear on a stack of Bibles and tell my minister too that was the last time I ever saw Betty Short. I did not kill her.
“But brother I’ll never cheat on my wife again!”

Note that Wolfe drops the important last line of the interview and note the discrepancy between “Miss Short” and “Betty Short”; and “Beth Short” and “Betty Short.” Now whom do we know who refers to Elizabeth Short as Beth?

Hm. Wolfe attributes this to the Herald interview. Let’s check John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which is unique in referring to Elizabeth Short as Beth.

Well isn’t this just too interesting:

“Severed,” Page 117

“She [Elizabeth Short] was just looking at him—smiling at him. Her eyes looked very clear and blue and they seemed to be shining. He [Red Manley] said, ‘Well…all right,’ and told her she could send him a letter at the business address and let him know where she was going to be. She said she would do that and he turned around and headed for the Olive Street door. He glanced back to wave to her, but she was talking to the cashier at the cigar stand. She handed him a dollar and he returned some change. She was still standing there when Red left the hotel.”

It is a continuing mystery how Gilmore can call this book “crap” when so much of it is based on his own work. Of course he also called it a “destined to become true crime classic.” I guess he’s got all the bases covered that way.

Hm. “Severed” isn’t indexed and I can’t find Underwood’s jailhouse interview with Red. I don’t want to spend more time poking through the nonsense in “Severed,” so let’s press on. I want to finish this chapter today. Maybe the “Miss Short” and “Beth” thing is simply Wolfe’s error. Lord knows they wouldn’t be his first.

“Biltmore Hotel employees recalled noticing Elizabeth Short in the lobby and the ladies room attendant remembered seeing her at the ladies’ room mirror, where she had lit a paraffin candle and applied the melted paraffin to her teeth.”

This has to be pure Wolfe. Nobody else is quite so wordy (“a ladies room attendant remembered seeing her at the ladies’ room mirror”? “she had lit a paraffin candle and applied the melted paraffin”? Cal Morgan, Anna Bliss or some other editor at ReganBooks was taking a nap to let that get through).

As I recall, there was speculation that Elizabeth Short might have put wax on her teeth in a Biltmore restroom, but nobody saw her do it.

“Bellboy Captain Harold Studholme told the police that he saw her make several telephone calls and wait in a chair near the Bell Station for some time before crossing the lobby and walking out of the Olive Street door at about 10:00 p.m.—approximately three-and-a-half hours after her arrival. The doorman remembered greeting her as she exited the hotel and walked toward Sixth Street before vanishing into the night.”

Now this is what’s actually in the district attorney’s files, from the LAPD summary of the case:

“She was observed alone by employees of the Biltmore until approximately 10 p.m. Jan. 9. Mr. Studholme of the Biltmore Hotel stated that he observed the girl get up from the lobby as if she had been signaled by someone on the outside and walk out of the Olive Street entrance. He last saw her walking south toward 6th Street on Olive, on the west side of the street. Investigators were unable to determine whether she made a phone call while there or not, but witnesses state they observed her on several occasions go toward the telephone booths.”

And there’s nothing in the district attorney’s files about the fictitious noble doorman tipping his hat as Elizabeth Short went out into the night. In fact, the noble doorman was concocted by Jack Webb in “The Badge” as a way to write the Black Dahlia out of the picture.

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Nebraska State College Board (198.133.245.253)

Tennessee Board of Regents (198.146.213.139)

Rutgers University (204.52.215.12)

University of Windsor (137.207.132.38)

France (193.47.80.87) What’s this? Using Linux and a browser called Konqueror 3.4?? Tiens!

I don’t want to say anything to spoil the surprise. Another snip of film from Edison, c. 1904.