| Larry Harnisch Reflects on L.A. History

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line XV

Posted on April 21, 2006 by lmharnisch

Now as a researcher, I’d love to know how Wolfe cites this material in his end notes. Like the date his barber delivered this particular bombshell about the mob in Los Angeles.

Guess what.

Nothing.

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

Pages 226-227

Oh, we kind of did this.

Let me recap: Wolfe is dealing with the bogus cruise on the Queen Mary he allegedly took in 1962 while he was “on hiatus” from “The Loretta Young Show.”

Except “The Loretta Young Show” went off the air in January 1961.

Oops.

Wolfe claims he ran into Herald City Editor Aggie Underwood on the ship and grilled her about the Black Dahlia case. Except in 1962 Underwood was helping resolve the demise of the morning Los Angeles Examiner and its merger with the Herald-Express to form the afternoon Herald Examiner. And then she was involved with the threat of a Guild strike and contract negotiations that lasted until May (she talks about this in her interview with Will Fowler, which is in the Fowler archives at Cal State Northridge’s Urban Archives. Don’t take my word for it. Check it yourself and see if I’m not right). And then she won a presswomen’s award in June in Denver.

And in the summer of 1962 Loretta Young began work on “The New Loretta Young Show” (clever name, eh?) for the fall season.

OK, so this conversation didn’t even occur.

Now if I were Perry Mason, this is where I would smile and say “no further questions.” Because there is no point in addressing the content of a conversation that didn’t occur.

But just for fun (and fun is a relative term for a total research drudge), let’s look at exactly what Wolfe is claiming here. Remember, the conversation couldn’t have taken place because we have accounted for Underwood’s time from January through June 1962. And if Wolfe was working with Loretta Young, as he says, then her show was in preproduction by the summer of 1962 for the fall season.

Page 226

“Did you ever hear that Elizabeth Short was pregnant” Joe Friday asked.

“That was something I heard from the beginning down in the squad room,” Aggie said.

“Was that the control question?”

“It could have been. I knew Harry Hansen pretty well, but he wouldn’t talk about it. That was a ‘Yes’ as far as I was concerned.”

“Aggie recalled that another officer involved in the case told her there was a crazy underworld abortionist involved and Hansen brought him in for questioning several times and was pressing for an indictment, but Chief Horrall wanted to squash it. According to Aggie, the doctor died suddenly at his home in Pasadena.

“His death was said to be a suicide,” Aggie recalled.

“Do you think the cops killed him?” Joe Friday asked.

“I’m going to stick to my knitting on that one,” Aggie replied.

Now isn’t that putrid little pile of fiction?

Let’s rewind the tape.

“Did you ever hear that Elizabeth Short was pregnant” Joe Friday asked.

Real answer: No.

How do we know that? First of all, it’s not in her autobiography, “Newspaperwoman.” Or her letter about the case in the Medford, Mass., Historical Society.

Then there’s Underwood’s audiotaped interview with Will Fowler. She talks about being at the crime scene and many other details of the investigation. She even repeats the mistaken notion that Red Manley killed himself in an insane asylum.

But there’s not a word about Elizabeth Short being pregnant.

If you’re not wondering why Will taped his interview, you should be. The answer is simple. He did everything in his power to ensure that his phony story about being the first reporter at the crime scene would be preserved in as many places as possible. So on the tape, Will tells Aggie that he was the first one there. Of course, she was actually at the crime scene, so she knows better and argues with him about it.

OK, how about the crazy underworld abortionist? Who committed suicide in Pasadena. Or was maybe killed by the cops. (Yeah, right, like the LOS ANGELES police are going to a neighboring jurisdiction where they have no authority, the CITY of PASADENA, and bump off some guy). Wolfe really hasn’t a clue about local government in Southern California, does he? Nor do his editors, Cal Morgan and Anna Bliss.

And Harry Hansen was pressing for an indictment of this guy? So who handles indictments? The Los Angeles County district attorney. And how do we get an indictment? The police bring their case to the prosecutor, who takes it to the grand jury, which returns the indictment. And guess what, all of that generates paperwork. Which—if it existed—would be in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s files. Recall that this book is titled “The Black Dahlia Files.”

Do you think there’s anything in the district attorney’s files about a “crazy underworld abortionist.”

Uhhhh. Nope.

Total fiction by Wolfe.

Coming up next, Pages 239-258 a long section on poor old Leslie Dillon.

Shout out to:

City of Whittier (4.38.41.75)

The Hague (80.127.0.8)

Sweden (212.73.174.180)

Tucson, Ariz. (68.0.143.203)

Mac User (71.156.33.232) 1 hour and 19 seconds.

Hurry back!

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, Donald Wolfe, History, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD | Tagged black dahlia, Books and Authors, cold cases, crime and courts, donald wolfe, lapd | 2 Comments

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line XIV

Posted on April 20, 2006 by lmharnisch

Wolfe says Hecht socialized with Bugsy Siegel, Alan Smiley and Mickey Cohen and that in 1950, Hecht and Cohen held a charity gala at Slapsy Maxie’s to raise money for Jews in Palestine.

“Hecht gave an impassioned speech to the crowd of bookies and Hollywood dignitaries and more than $200,000 was raised that evening for the cause—but somehow the money never arrived in Palestine. Mickey Cohen explained that the boat carrying the cash was torpedoed and sunk, but Ben Williamson and Hecht always suspected that the money went down in one of the big game pots up at Hecht’s Angelo Drive castle.”

Hm. Well, frankly, I’d be perfectly happy to take a pass on this one since it has absolutely nothing to do with the Black Dahlia. Still, it presents some juicy targets for a total research drudge.

Even without the end notes, I recognize one familiar story and that’s the old chestnut about the fake fund-raiser for Israel. I can’t recall exactly where I read this story, but I believe it’s in Mickey Cohen’s autobiography. The idea is that Cohen would stage a fake benefit, plant an item with Aggie Underwood at the Herald-Express, and pocket the money. It could be in another mob memoir. I’m thinking the one by Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno.

Let’s see where Wolfe got this stuff. Only one source: Ben Hecht’s “Child of the Century,” Pages 610-613. Not one of the books in the haz-mat pile.

Well, let’s put this through the standard fact-checking torture test.

Ready for some ugly research?

Let’s start with Ben Williamson. I expect this material to be true or mostly true. Of course with Wolfe, one never knows. He claimed to be on hiatus from “The Loretta Young Show” during 18 months when it was off the air.

OK, we can confirm Ben Williamson was Time-Life bureau chief in Los Angeles in 1951 (Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1951). Appears to have been in Los Angeles in 1953, based on a search of the Time website. So there was a person named Ben Williamson and he was actually Time-Life bureau chief in Los Angeles. This puts Wolfe way ahead of John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which is loaded with people who don’t exist. I’m not going to chase this any more unless it starts looking fishy.

Ooohh. Howard Hughes on the cover of Time? We can check that on Time’s website. Shall we? Oh lets! Well, Time had Hughes on the cover July 19, 1948. Hm. Seems to be about Hughes at RKO. Now I would love to be able to bring you the entire article, but it costs money to subscribe. Here’s the link if anybody cares to pursue it.

Uh-oh. Hughes gave his last interview in 1958 to Frank McCulloch of Time Life? I guess that’s if you don’t count the 1972 conference call Hughes staged to rebut Clifford Irving’s book. For sale on EBay?

So much for that. Just a little old Hollywood resume padding. Let’s check on Hecht and Angelo Drive. Hm. Beverly Hills. That’s going to be a little hard to confirm with my limited time and it’s really unrelated to the Black Dahlia. I’ll pass.

How about this 1950 bash at Slapsy Maxie’s? Golly. Guess when Van de Kamp’s bakeries took over Slapsy Maxie’s and turned it into a coffee shop? (Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1950). This little fete doesn’t seem to have gotten any ink in The Times. Isn’t that just so peculiar?

AHA! Now this is what makes research so rewarding. I refer to Robert Rockaway’s “American Jews and Crime: An Annotated Bibliography,” found in American Studies International, February 2000, Vol. 38, No. 1.

Oh I like this. Rockaway does my kind of research:

“Mickey Cohen’s book, ‘In My Own Words,’ while something of a
classic, must be used with caution. Although Cohen presents useful
insights and reminiscences about his life in crime and his Jewish
underworld associates — among them, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel —
a number of his assertions must be treated with a healthy dose of
skepticism.

“This is good practice with regard to all criminal memoirs, since mobsters tend to justify their actions, distort their motives, and lie. For example, Cohen writes that he always believed that “Jews should behave differently and more correctly.” Yet he threatened, extorted, and beat Jews when it suited his purposes.

“Another example involves Cohen’s activities on behalf of the Irgun,
the underground Jewish organization in Palestine led by Menachem
Begin. According to Cohen, he “would do anything for a cause that
was right, especially Jewish causes.” Cohen became especially enthusiastic about helping the Irgun when he learned that “these guys actually fight like racket guys would. They didn’t ask for a quarter and they gave no quarter.”

“Accordingly, Cohen helped stage fund-raising affairs that raised thousands of dollars to purchase weapons and had them shipped to Israel. Cohen’s account remained the generally accepted version until the publication, in 1984, of the memoirs of Jimmy “the Weasel” Fratianno, a self-confessed Mafia killer turned government informer.

“Fratianno knew Cohen well. When he was not trying to kill Cohen, Fratianno socialized and worked with him. Cohen invited Fratianno to one of his fund-raisers, which was held at Slapsy Maxie’s restaurant in Los Angeles. Fratianno admitted being awed by the affair. “The place is packed. I’ve never seen so many Jewish bookmakers in one place in my life,” he remembers. “They’re all there. Famous actors, producers, big shots in the community. It’s a full house.” Fratianno claimed that nearly $800,000 was raised that evening.

“Because he distrusted Cohen, Fratianno remained suspicious of his motives. Fratianno asserted that Cohen would never let hundreds of thousands of dollars slip through his fingers. His doubts increased when he read a story in the Los Angeles Herald that reported that an unnamed ship carrying arms for the Jews in Israel sank in the Atlantic Ocean during a storm. These were the weapons supposedly purchased by Mickey Cohen.

“According to Fratianno, Cohen had a girlfriend who worked at the Herald. “This broad would walk on hot coals for Mickey,” he claims. Consequently, she printed anything Cohen gave her. “The way I see it,” says Fratianno, “Mickey called her and made up a story about buying guns and ammunition
for the Jews with the million raised at the benefits and then told her
the boat sank. A few unknown people died, some were saved, and
she prints it on his say-so.”

“Other sources disparage both men’s claims. Yitzhak Ben-Ami
headed the Irgun’s European-based illegal immigration operations.
In 1947, the Irgun sent him to the United States and he helped organize the fund-raising affairs Cohen and Fratianno spoke about.

“Ben-Ami claims that “between $50,000 and $60,000 was raised,” not
the hundreds of thousands that Cohen and Fratianno refer to. “The
Jewish underworld contributed all together about $120,000 for the
Irgun,” says Ben-Ami.”

This is worth repeating:

“His assertions must be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. This is good practice with regard to all criminal memoirs, since mobsters tend to justify their actions, distort their motives, and lie.”

Time for my walk

Shout out to:

Pollo Loco? (64.164.183.65)

Hearst (65.212.0.194)

Department of Defense Information Center, Olongapo, Philippines (214.1.3.248)

Hurry back!

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Donald Wolfe, History, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, donald wolfe, Harry Carr, lapd | 1 Comment

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line XIII

Posted on April 19, 2006 by lmharnisch

1. Otash “had been ensconced at the California Club, where he kept the distinguished residents and power brokers of the city under surveillance for Ray Pinker and the Gangster Squad. According to Otash, it was at his California Club suite that Norman Chandler rendezvoused with women who were often brought there by his playboy friend, actor Arthur Lake, who was on Brenda Allen’s “A” list. Although Dorothy Chandler did not care for Lake because of his licentious lifestyle, Lake was one of the few people Norman was close to. They had been best friends for many years, and Norman had been best man at Arthur Lake’s wedding to Patricia Davies Van Clive [Cleve], who was said to be the niece of actress Marion Davies.

2. Arthur Lake had first met Elizabeth Short in 1944 at the Hollywood Canteen. Both their names had been found in the Bauerdorf diary, and Lake admitted that he knew Elizabeth when he was brought in by the Sheriff’s Department for questioning.

That leaves us with:

Private detective Fred Otash “had been ensconced at the California Club, where he kept the distinguished residents and power brokers of the city under surveillance for Ray Pinker and the Gangster Squad. According to Otash, it was at his California Club suite that Norman Chandler rendezvoused with women who were often brought there by his playboy friend, actor Arthur Lake, who was on Brenda Allen’s “A” list. Although Dorothy Chandler did not care for Lake because of his licentious lifestyle, Lake was one of the few people Norman was close to. They had been best friends for many years, and Norman had been best man at Arthur Lake’s wedding to Patricia Davies Van Clive [Cleve], who was said to be the niece of actress Marion Davies.

Let’s break this down to sentences. This is what I’m talking about when I say this book has to be checked at the molecular level.

1. Private detective Fred Otash “had been ensconced at the California Club, where he kept the distinguished residents and power brokers of the city under surveillance for Ray Pinker and the Gangster Squad.

2. According to Otash, it was at his California Club suite that Norman Chandler rendezvoused with women who were often brought there by his playboy friend, actor Arthur Lake, who was on Brenda Allen’s “A” list.

3. Although Dorothy Chandler did not care for Lake because of his licentious lifestyle, Lake was one of the few people Norman was close to.

4. They had been best friends for many years, and Norman had been best man at Arthur Lake’s wedding to Patricia Davies Van Clive [Cleve], who was said to be the niece of actress Marion Davies.

All right.

Sentence 1, Otash was ensconced at the California Club. I think Wolfe’s favorite adjectives are “illustrious” (which is how he describes Otash) or “prominent,” which is how he describes everybody else). Well, no. Otash was still in uniform. How do we know?

The Times refers to Patrolman F. Otash and his partner H.A. Clark on Nov. 23, 1945, “Penny Fishing in Wishing Well Turns Out All Wet.”

A Feb. 16, 1946, story headlined “Attorney Killed by Bludgeon in Terrific Fight” refers to Otash and partner E.R. Barrett. This is a famous case, by the way, involving the vicious murder of a gay attorney named William H. Bonsall, who was found naked in his driveway, beaten to death with a six-foot pipe and a brass desk calendar.

And on June 17, 1947, The Times reported that Officer Otash recognized a neighbor’s pistol as one that had been stolen after he gave it to a friend. At that time, Otash was not ensconced at the California Club, but near Patricia Cox’s home at 1617 N. Cahuenga. Note, Dahlia fans, that this is after the murder of Elizabeth Short.

Finally, on Sept. 1, 1949, The Times reports that Officer Otash arrested a man after seeing him shoplift a spoon in Hollywood and discovered the man was a heroin addict.

So much for any truthfulness about Officer Otash. And Otash’s claim that he and a partner beat up Johnny Stompanato, took his clothes and dumped him in the Hollywood Hills? Show me the pictures, Freddy. I don’t believe a word of it.

But we’re not done with Sentence 1. This mumbo-jumbo about Ray Pinker and the Gangster Squad is nonsense. Ray Pinker was head of the crime lab and wouldn’t be assigning anybody to perform surveillance and he certainly wouldn’t have been working with the Gangster Squad unless they called him out for some reason on a case.

Well, if Otash wasn’t doing surveillance at the California Club, I don’t suppose he could have seen Arthur Lake bringing Brenda Allen’s finest to rendezvous with Norman Chandler. So much for Sentence 2.

But wait. Where exactly does Wolfe get this purported connection between Norman Chandler and Arthur Lake?

Note Sentence 3: Although Dorothy Chandler did not care for Lake because of his licentious lifestyle, Lake was one of the few people Norman was close to.

To the end notes, Watson, and hurry!

Holmes! An interview with Fred Otash in 1990.

Well, Watson, the California Death Index says he was still alive, so theoretically possible, at least. Although given Otash’s track record and his claim that he beat up Johnny Stompanato, I wouldn’t take anything he said without a fair amount of checking.

Just for fun (fun being a relative term for a total research drudge), let’s pull two of the main secondary sources on The Times and the Chandlers: David Halberstam’s “The Powers That Be” and “Thinking Big,” by Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolf.

How much do you want to bet Halberstam doesn’t say a word about Norman Chandler’s best amigo and skirt-chasing compadre Arthur Lake?

Gosh. Somehow Halberstam, no slouch as an investigative reporter, seems to have missed this goodie. I know, let’s see if Halberstam mentions Elizabeth Short and how she was carrying Norman Chandler’s love child.

You want to guess how much Halberstam says about the Black Dahlia?

Zero.

OK, Let’s go to “Thinking Big.” I would expect this to be a little more fertile territory, since it’s fairly antagonistic toward The Times. This 603-page book is a little hard to find—in fact Wolfe didn’t consult it, oddly enough—but it is exhaustively researched. The bibliography runs 33 pages, and the authors say that it’s abridged!

Want to bet how much they say about Arthur Lake?

Nada.

Elizabeth Short?

Nada.

Black Dahlia?

Nada.

Fred Otash?

Nada.

OK, now I’ll really get into really dicey territory, William G. Bonelli’s “Billion-Dollar Blackjack.” Bonelli was the Vincent A. Carter of the 1950s, with this self-published (note: the Civic Research Press) attack on the Los Angeles Times. Wolfe at least lists this book in his bibliography, unlike “Thinking Big.”

In turning through “Blackjack” at random, we find on Page 206 that Bonelli is complaining that the Chandlers hated Fletcher Bowron, the mayor from 1938 to 1953, because they couldn’t control him. Quite the opposite view of the grand Chandler conspiracy outlined in “Black Dahlia Files,” isn’t it?

Oh my! We find the Bonelli book most unhelpful in Wolfe’s attempt to tar the Chandlers and the LAPD with corruption. Get this:

Page 208:

“Bowron put an end to police-hoodlum deals. The bookies went to jail or out of business. The gambling houses were closed. The slot machines were driven beyond the city limits. The brothels disappeared.

“Bowron reformed the civil service administration which had been turned into a job-selling agency by the previous administration. He put an end to the sale of zoning exceptions and variations.

“In fifteen years in office, Bowron met the day-to-day problems that arose. He kept the city government clean. He increased city services to meet the needs of a constantly growing city.”

I have to say, most authors would find it a challenge to make a portrait of pervasive vice and corruption out of that.

Let’s dig through this some more to see if there’s anything about Brenda Allen. Or Elizabeth Short. Or Arthur Lake.

Any bets on what’s in Bonelli’s index?

On Arthur Lake?

Nothing.

On Elizabeth Short?

Nothing.

On Brenda Allen?

Zilch.

Now I just took a few minutes and scanned every page of Bonelli’s book. There is no shortage of derogatory material about the Chandlers and an abundance of attacks on Norman Chandler. But as far as womanizing? Knowing Arthur Lake? Brenda Allen? Elizabeth Short?

Not a single word.

As far as I know, this is the most vicious, personal and vindictive attack ever made on The Times, And yes, it’s terribly biased, in a league with Carter’s “Rogue Cops” or Charles Stoker’s “Thicker ‘n’ Thieves.” But there’s nothing about the Black Dahlia, Arthur Lake, Brenda Allen, etc. etc. Believe me, Bonelli wouldn’t have held it back, either.

Let me wrap up by contrasting this

Page 218

“If Arthur James was correct—that Elizabeth Short had been pregnant when she was murdered, and the father of the unborn child was Norman Chandler—it would explain the extraordinary efforts by the Chandler faction at City Hall to cover up the secret circumstances of the horrendous crime.”

With this, by the Chandlers’ most ardent enemy in print:

“Blackjack,” Page 208

“In fifteen years in office, Bowron met the day-to-day problems that arose. He kept the city government clean. He increased city services to meet the needs of a constantly growing city.”

“They [the Chandlers] wanted Bowron to act in their interest. He was congenitally unable to do so.”

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Softbank bb Corp. of Japan (219.13.121.103)

Jones Day Reavis & Pogue (168.98.32.42)

Bartlesville, Okla., Public Library (164.58.98.14)

I’ll bet you thought I forgot about Sentence 4, Norman Chandler being best man at Arthur Lake’s wedding.

What’s this? Arthur Lake married Patricia Van Cleve at Hearst Castle? Gee, I’m sure rival publisher Norman Chandler felt so welcome there!

Oops!

Hurry back!

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, Donald Wolfe, History, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, donald wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Hammer

Posted on April 19, 2006 by lmharnisch

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DlAAAAEzihvrKLTy27ANybYD_9dnniXymeZ2dSZsTnO_M6bll78hLakegQuBt-3Zxrk7cBav9a-JqoKyDYI9w3f-mx6TOvYbKUc1SoGbLfwt1N–GOWdM89uGnZFkZpP_OLJid7mYKc_HMysl_u5n1TFQpONLczU9A8TiWJyH_bcayPyLMwOij3ZIbel5l8bqnMA_rvk2gofcGUSrrFk0Rp17JO4%26sigh%3D0z6Bbxgx1lyon77mhKgjdl9APi8%26begin%3D0%26len%3D215681%26docid%3D-8361669945017040217&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer%3Fcontentid%3Db22800381c57d3fa%26second%3D5%26itag%3Dw320%26urlcreated%3D1145454246%26sigh%3DJNuv7wclG8c3r1hmF7PVDCcVQF0&playerId=-8361669945017040217

Posted in Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, LAPD, Streetcars | Comments Off

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line XII

Posted on April 18, 2006 by lmharnisch

Fred Otash, a disgraced former LAPD officer, referred to by James Ellroy as “The Late, Great Freddy Otash.” Ellroy says Otash was a snoop for various scandal magazines of the 1950s and there has always been speculation that he had knowledge of—if not participation in—one of the famous Mickey Cohen attacks. What’s certain is that Otash was accused of brutality in the 1940s for roughing up a street preacher at Pershing Square. I know, because it’s in the minutes of the Police Commission in the city of Los Angeles archives.

Ray Pinker, head of the LAPD crime lab.

Norman Chandler, Wolfe’s target of choice in his scenario that Elizabeth Short was pregnant with Chandler’s love child.

Arthur Lake, a CDP (conveniently dead person) who played Dagwood in a string of 1940s movies and is a key figure in John Gilmore’s “Severed” (25% mistakes and 50% fiction) involving the Hollywood Canteen and murdered socialite Georgette Bauerdorf. “Severed” goes into a long, fictitious tale of Elizabeth Short knowing Bauerdorf, having them work together as junior hostesses at the Hollywood Canteen, etc. Recall that Elizabeth Short wasn’t in Los Angeles when Bauerdorf was killed in October 1944. Oops.

Brenda Allen, a notorious madam of the 1940s who was implicated in a huge scandal involving the Los Angeles Police Department.

Dorothy Chandler, wife of Norman Chandler.

Patricia Davies Van Clive—boy, you got me on that one. Wolfe identifies her as Lake’s wife, but after he mixed up the Murphys, I’m just not sure he can keep track of anybody. Ah, no wonder I can’t find her in Proquest. Her name was Van Cleve. Oops. Well this is odd. Wolfe identifies her as “said to be the niece of actress Marion Davies.” But the Jan. 26, 1928, Times obituary on Marion Davies’ mother, Rose C. Douras, refers to Patricia Van Cleve as a granddaughter. Doesn’t seem to be much question about it, eh? And when Marion Davies’ father died, Patricia Van Cleve is listed in the April 27, 1935, Times obituary as a granddaughter. A July 6, 1937, Times story refers to Lake and Van Cleve, so presumably they were married by then.

Arthur James, a convicted forger who served two years for violating the Mann Act. James came forward after Elizabeth Short was killed, claimed he met her in 1944 (remember, Elizabeth Short wasn’t in Los Angeles in 1944-1945) and took her to Arizona, where he was arrested. James is a prominent figure in “Severed” (25% mistakes and 50% fiction).

G.K. Chesteron. Wow, I hope Wolfe doesn’t accuse him of killing the Black Dahlia! As soon as I see the name of a CDP (conveniently dead person) I start to worry.

Oh, whew. Wolfe just says he was a fan of the Father Brown books and says his stepfather knew Chesterton. Odd, isn’t it, that Wolfe never mentions his father, Sailing Wolfe, or his great-uncle Bernard Baruch?

This is funny, Wolfe (Page 217) describes Otash as an “illustrious private eye.” Well, I suppose if you consider it illustrious to work for Confidential magazine, be convicted of doping a race horse (The Times, May 12, 1960), and being called along with Mickey Cohen to testify on racketeering (The Times, March 14, 1959) then Otash fills the bill. In a Nov. 27, 1981, Times article, Otash claims he and his partner beat up Johnny Stompanto and dumped him in the Hollywood Hills without his clothes.

Right.

Got everybody straight? OK, here we go:

Wolfe says:
1. Otash “had been ensconced at the California Club, where he kept the distinguished residents and power brokers of the city under surveillance for Ray Pinker and the Gangster Squad. According to Otash, it was at his California Club suite that Norman Chandler rendezvoused with women who were often brought there by his playboy friend, actor Arthur Lake, who was on Brenda Allen’s “A” list. Although Dorothy Chandler did not care for Lake because of his licentious lifestyle, Lake was one of the few people Norman was close to. They had been best friends for many years, and Norman had been best man at Arthur Lake’s wedding to Patricia Davies Van Clive [Cleve], who was said to be the niece of actress Marion Davies.

3. If Arthur James was correct—that Elizabeth Short had been pregnant when she was murdered, and the father of the unborn child was Norman Chandler—it would explain the extraordinary efforts by the Chandler faction at City Hall to cover up the secret circumstances of the horrendous crime.
It will be interesting to see how Wolfe attempts to pull this off; like watching slow-motion video of a card cheat.

Let’s dispense with the easy things first.

We can dump Paragraph 3, because we dealt with James’ claims yesterday. I’ll simply add that there is nothing to show The Times didn’t do its best to compete with the Examiner on the Black Dahlia story. I would say, without getting out a pica stick to measure them, that The Times and the Examiner devoted roughly the same number of column inches to the story, although The Times did play the story inside. Again, The Times considered itself the city’s family paper, contrasted with the more sensational Hearst publications.

Paragraph 2 is false because Elizabeth Short wasn’t in Los Angeles in 1944. Therefore, her name wasn’t found in Georgette Bauerdorf’s diary and Arthur Lake couldn’t possibly have admitted knowing Elizabeth Short. He couldn’t have known her. For the record, when Bauerdorf was killed, authorities interviewed every single person who worked at the Hollywood Canteen. If Elizabeth Short had been a junior hostess there, she would have been interviewed.

I imagine Wolfe’s source is “Severed.”

To the end notes, Watson!

Holmes!

My, aren’t we lightly sourced on this page? Especially considering the allegations involved.

OK, Paragraph 2 is hung on “Severed,” Page 154, just as we surmised. Except the material is really on Page 155.

But then, incredibly, Wolfe says he interviewed Aggie Underwood, former city editor of the Herald-Examiner, in 1962. That, folks, is a neat trick. Let’s dig a bit, using amazon.com’s “search inside” feature.

What’s this?

Page 225

“By 1962, Ben Williamson had become the national news editor for Time magazine and he and my mother moved to New York City. I had been working at Samuel Goldwyn Studios on the ‘Loretta Young Television Show’ and during the show’s hiatus, I was on my way to Europe for a holiday. I had a ticket for a bunk in Tourist Class on the Queen Mary, and Ben and my mother were putting me up at their Fifth Avenue apartment until the sailing date.

“My Black Dahlia puzzle box had been stored away for years, until my mother gave one of her parties during my stay—and Aggie Underwood was one of the guests. I didn’t remind Aggie of the appointments she had failed to keep almost a decade earlier, but I discovered that she, too, was sailing on the Queen Mary on her way to a holiday in Europe and the Greek Islands. When the boat sailed, I spotted Aggie on the passenger list, but decided I wasn’t going to bother her-besides, she was in Cabin Class and I was down in the bowels of the ship in Tourist. However, in the mid-Atlantic, I felt Joe Friday coming on, and I snuck into Cabin Class and found Aggie in the Mermaid Bar. While engaging her in holiday chitchat, I slowly steered the conversation into the Dahlia latitudes. Perhaps it was because Hearst had died and she was safely in the mid-Atlantic that Aggie felt free to talk about the Black Dahlia case.

“Aggie said that she had always believed there was a connection between the murder of Georgette Bauerdorf and Elizabeth Short and she had been totally mystified when ‘the Boss’ ordered her off both the Bauerdorf and the Dahlia case. She said she sat at her desk in the city room and did her knitting for several days, neither answering the phone nor speaking to anyone, in a silent protest. She said she had intended to leave the Herald when she was suddenly bumped upstairs to the city editor’s desk.

“Later, she learned that it had to do with the Arthur Lake connection. Aggie recalled that she had heard from contacts in the Sheriff’s Department that both Arthur Lake and Elizabeth Short had been mentioned in the Bauerdorf girl’s diary, and Lake had been brought in for questioning. After the Black Dahlia murder and the mailing of the contents of Elizabeth Short’s purse to the Examiner, she learned that Arthur Lake’s phone number had been found in Elizabeth Short’s address book.”

Now this is a foul bit of work, folks. A long-ago voyage on the Queen Mary, a convenient encounter that’s impossible to check.

Well almost.

You see, Will Fowler, author of “Reporters,” interviewed Aggie Underwood about the Black Dahlia case. Luckily, he recorded it. And it’s in the Urban Archives at Cal State Northridge. I’ve listened to the tape.

Do you know what Aggie says about Elizabeth Short and Georgette Bauerdorf?

Nada.

Aggie Underwood’s archives are also there. I’ve been through them. Guess what, there’s zero about Georgette Bauerdorf and Elizabeth Short. Not a single word.

I’ve also read a letter by Aggie Underwood on the Black Dahlia case at the Medford, Mass., Historical Society. You know what she says about Georgette Bauerdorf?

Zilch.

And you’ll never guess who received an award as most outstanding woman in journalism in June 1962. In Denver. Make that late June 1962 (Times, June 29, 1962).

“Mrs. Underwood was presented the award at the [National Federation of Press Women’s] 26th annual convention at the Cosmopolitan Hotel here.”

Guess who was honored at a presswomen’s party in September 1962, in Toluca Lake.

And Los Angeles history buffs, what happened in 1962? That’s right. In January, the Examiner ceased publication as a morning paper and merged with the afternoon Herald-Express.

What’s this? The Guild recommended a strike at the Herald in April 1962? Contract not settled in May 1962?

So 1962 would be sort of a bad year for the city editor of the newly constituted paper to be taking a cruise, wouldn’t you say?

And this stuff about “Perhaps it was because Hearst had died…”

William Randolph Hearst had died, all right. On Aug. 14, 1951. Eleven years earlier.

Oh, but it gets better. “The Loretta Young Show” wasn’t on hiatus in 1962. It had tanked the year before, with the last show airing in January 1961. In the summer of 1962, Young was in the news for being an absolutely harridan on the set of her new show, firing people left and right, and getting sued by actress Portland Mason. Attention TV buffs: “The New Loretta Young Show” replaced “Hennessey” on CBS and was on the air from September 1962 to February 1963. Then it, too, tanked.

In other words, Wolfe couldn’t have been on hiatus from “The Loretta Young Show” in 1962 because it was canceled a year earlier. And Aggie Underwood was in Denver in the summer of 1962 after going through the merger and then dealing with negotiations on a Guild contract. And she never mentions Georgette Bauerdorf in her tape at Cal State Northridge.

I’d sure like to see Wolfe’s ticket stubs from the Queen Mary right now. How many times do you need to catch someone in a lie before their entire story collapses?

Let’s wrap up a couple of loose ends. It is true that Underwood was taken off the Black Dahlia case for a short while in 1947 and put on the city desk. However, as she mentions in her autobiography, “Newspaperwoman,” she was put back on reporting. The Black Dahlia case was her last big story before moving to the Herald’s city desk, where she became the first woman city editor of a major metropolitan daily.

I’ll give you one hint about Paragraph 1. Otash was a uniformed patrol officer in 1946 when Wolfe claims he was staked out at the California Club.

Oops!

That’s it for today. It’s too nice outside for this.

Shout out to:

Judicial Council of California (208.239.204.208)

CBS (170.20.96.118)

Peabody, Mass. (64.48.71.210)

Firefox 1.0.4 (216.123.180.34)? Upgrade!

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line XI

Posted on April 17, 2006 by lmharnisch

Here we have another attack on a CDP (conveniently dead person). [Full disclosure: I work for The Times but everything you read here is done on my own as a private individual, using my personal resources and archives, and in no way reflects the newspaper].

Let’s check the old end notes, shall we, Watson?

By all means, Holmes!

Hum! This is interesting. Wolfe says he interviewed Carter in 1998 and 2004. Also cites “Rogue Cops,” Page 47-48.

Notice, Watson. “Rogue Cops” only addresses Norman Chandler as a newspaper executive on these pages. See for yourself:

“A lot of what was not printed about Norman Chandler was common knowledge in the upper echelons of the Los Angeles Police Department, a department of the city government in which Norman always had an intense interest and close, if usually covert, working relationships. He was a man who one biographer thought of as ‘shy,’ an assessment which may have been based on Norman’s habitual personal reticence, his privacy, and the barriers he erected which could not be crossed by personal friends or even by members of his family. His wife, Buff, who became something of a power in her own right in politics, society and the arts, thought that ‘everyone loved him and no one knew him.’ Buff is said to have remarked to a friend after Norman Chandler’s death that in all the years they had been married, she had never really reached him. No doubt this is true. It may even have been an understatement.”

Now Wolfe does pick up a bit more of this on Page 216:

“After Norman Chandler died in October 1973, his wife Dorothy ‘Buff’ Chandler remarked to a friend that, in all the years of their marriage, she had never really reached him. She stated, ‘Everyone loved him and no one knew him.’ ”

OK, Wolfe hangs all of this on Carter. But Carter doesn’t say beans about Norman Chandler womanizing on the pages Wolfe cites. And Carter is incredibly unreliable to begin with.

In fact.

I’ve caught Carter is a doozy.

Pay close attention to this, folks, because this is the kind of source we’re dealing with. This is long, but worth addressing.

“Rogue Cops,” Page 56

“Late in the evening, two homicide detectives came upstairs into the Reserve Unit at Hollenbeck, where I was on duty. They had just killed a man and wanted to find a place where they could come down off their high. They had been drinking. Detectives Henry Crammer and Bob Quella spent about an hour with me. (Both of these detectives were assigned to the Black Dahlia case).

“On Thursday morning, February 27, the newspapers carried stories about the shooting, accompanied by photographs.

“OFFICER SHOT, GUNMAN SLAIN: A policeman was wounded chasing a suspect in an assertedly stolen car.

“Swift and deadly retribution in the shape of three police bullets had struck down a 21-year-old transient as he was being taken from Georgia Street Receiving Hospital in custody for shooting a policeman at Fifth and Main Streets. This happened less than an hour before.

“As his asserted victim lay on the operating table three floors above in the Central Receiving Hospital fighting for his life with a .38-calibre bullet in his spine, John Green fell mortally wounded under the guns of Detective Sergeants Henry Crammer and Bob Quella.

“The youth, who came here from Helena, Montana three days ago, attempted to flee from the two officers as they walked down the hospital’s ramp on the main floor. Quella said the suspect asked for a cigarette as they neared the ramp, then pushed him aside and ran. Green dropped with three heavy-calibre bullets in his body after taking less than ten steps.

“The youthful suspect was under arrest for the shooting of policeman Art Fraide, 26, of 833 W. 82nd Street, who attempted to stop Green in an assertedly stolen car at Fifth and Main Streets.

“In the exchange of shots, witnessed by scores of persons on the busy downtown corner, Fraide was wounded seriously by a bullet that ranged through his chest and lodged in his spine.”

“Detectives Crammer and Quella were working Central Homicide when this shooting took place. Later Quella left the LAPD and Crammer transferred into uniform. A short time after his transfer he was promoted to Lieutenant.”

Did you get through all of that? Because this is where Vincent A. Carter shows his true colors.

This is a notorious incident in LAPD history, and it’s true there was an officer named Arthur Fraide who was wounded and John Green or Greene, the man suspected of shooting him, was killed at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital.

But wait.

First of all, the detectives. Not Henry Crammer and Bob Quella. They were Harry Fremont and Ray Varela. Harry Fremont, who indeed worked the Black Dahlia case, did end up in uniform, but it wasn’t as a reward. He was punished for being involved in “Bloody Christmas” and was busted from detective and sent as a uniform officer to the Highland Park Division. You can read more about his exploits in Daryl Gates’ book “Chief: My Life in the LAPD.”

Let’s dig out the clips.

Oh, this is even funnier. Guess what paper Carter quotes for this story.

Go ahead.

Hint: Not the Los Angeles Examiner.

Hint: Not the Herald-Express.

Hint: Not the Daily News a.k.a. the Illustrated Daily News.

Hint: Not the Hollywood Citizen-News.

Yep. He quotes evil Norman Chandler’s Los Angeles Times, almost verbatim, except Carter only uses the first few paragraphs. Now why is Carter quoting The Times if he hates it so much? I hope that makes sense to you, because it makes no sense to little old me.

Of course, what Carter doesn’t tell you is that Green stole a car from a parking lot at 753 S. Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles. Carter doesn’t tell you that off-duty Officer Charles S. Wyatt saw Green sideswipe a car and chased him. Carter doesn’t tell you that since Wyatt was unarmed, he yelled to Fraide, a traffic officer at 7th Street and Main, to pick up the chase.

Carter doesn’t tell you that Fraide commandeered a car and chased Green, who was trapped in traffic. Carter doesn’t tell you that Green shot Fraide as he approached the stolen car. Carter doesn’t tell you that even though Fraide was shot in the spine, he returned fire and hit Green in the arm, which is why Green was at the hospital. Carter doesn’t tell you that Green was finally caught in heavy traffic and surrendered to two officers who had drawn their guns.

Carter doesn’t tell you that Fraide received last rites because doctors expected him to die, and be paralyzed if he survived.

And Carter doesn’t tell you that Green was a suspect in a string of bank robberies. Or that his partner, Sidney R. Deegan, had just gotten out of San Quentin after serving four years for manslaughter.

Now what does the Herald-Express say?

Oh, I like this:

“Dead was John Green, 21, identified as an auto thief who came here three days ago from Helena, Mont., because he heard Los Angeles was easy picking for holdup men.”

And this in the Examiner:

“After being treated Greene [cq] was taken down to the south portico of the hospital by Detective Sergeants Harry Fremont and R.E. Varela.

“Shoving Fremont, Greene made a dash for the street.

“Fremont and Varela both fired, dropping him before he could take a dozen steps.”

The Hearst papers really knew how to write about crime, didn’t they?

And speaking of Hearst, the Examiner had pictures of Green, first being identified by Fraide, who was on a gurney, and then lying dead in the hospital parking lot with Fremont and Varela a few feet away. And you know what? Fremont and Varela don’t look a bit sorry about it, either.

Man. If there’s anything worse than poking holes in one bad book, it’s poking holes in two bad books.

And I can’t say this too often: Beware of authors who change people’s names without informing the reader. You can’t trust anything they write.

For the record, Office Fraide, that’s Arturo Fraide, by the way, survived being shot. I don’t know whether he was paralyzed, however.

And it’s a beautiful day out. Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Los Nettos of San Marino? (206.117.237.56)

Union Bank of California? (216.52.215.232)

North Dakota State University Computer Center (134.129.70.113) Fargo North, Decoder!

What’s this?

City of Los Angeles uses Windows 98? (161.149.63.110)

Upgrade!!!

Hurry back!

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line X

Posted on April 16, 2006 by lmharnisch

Those were the wrong Murphys.

No, really! I heard from Regular Anonymous Correspondent yesterday, who pointed me in the right direction.

Wolfe isn’t talking about prominent artist Gerald and Sara Murphy. He means prominent film director DUDLEY Murphy and his wife, Virginia. Or as The Times would have referred to him at one point: Film director Dudley “Emperor Jones” Murphy. And the Holiday House was a restaurant and motel at 27400 W. Pacific Coast Highway.

And it must have been some secret hideaway, Murphy wanted to do a TV series based on his guests’ experiences. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 25, 1950). Hm. Times gossip columnist James Copp paid a visit and overheard John Garfield telling the dieting Shelley Winters not to eat that filet mignon.

Looks like Copp was a regular out there. He wrote about it all the time. Although he never seemed to mention Edward G. Robinson Jr., Arthur James or Donald H. Wolfe.

Well this is interesting. Richard Neutra designed the apartments in 1949 but he and Murphy didn’t get along so Murphy designed the restaurant himself. (Lois Dwan, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 8, 1978).

Apartments apparently demolished in 1986. Used as film location for “Rockford Files” and “$6-Million Man.”

Let me put it this way…..

We’ve already seen that Elizabeth Short wasn’t in Los Angeles in 1944.

That’s when Arthur Curtis James Jr. said he met her. In fact James said he took her to Tucson in 1944, when he got arrested for violating the Mann Act. He drew two years in prison for that little number.

Then in 1947 he confessed to writing bad checks in September 1946, claiming they were to buy luggage for Elizabeth Short. Again, not true, although this story appeared in the Herald-Examiner and John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

And Wolfe says James ran some rooming houses for Florentine Gardens business manager Mark Hansen, which is also false. “Severed” doesn’t make this claim, however. This is a new one.

And then Wolfe botches the facts about where the conversation supposedly took place between him and one—if not two—CDPs (conveniently dead people). Just a little matter of the wrong prominent Murphys.

So we’re supposed to believe:

“James said some ‘big shot’ had taken a fancy to Elizabeth and gotten her pregnant, and Hansen had tried to set her up with an abortionist. Instead, she fled to San Diego. The last time James said he saw her was several days before she left the city, and he had heard that the ‘big shot’ was Norman Chandler, heir to the Chandler dynasty. James recalled that he hadn’t heard from Elizabeth again or known what had happened to her until he recognized her picture in the paper and read the gruesome stories.”

Is Wolfe kidding or what?

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Malmo, Sweden (212.73.174.180) 6 hours?

Japan (219.110.229.241)

City of Los Angeles (161.149.63.203)

Note: Nobody using Windows 98. I’m very proud of you. I was starting to worry.

Hurry back.

Blogging the Wolfe Book, The Old Spuriousity Shoppe

Posted on April 15, 2006 by lmharnisch

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.

Now, I am taking a few requests before wrapping up the project. Yesterday, we examined how the document on Page 198 was faked. Today, we’ll examine Pages 213-215 at the request of Regular Anonymous Correspondent (who e-mailed me with some more pages. I hope I haven’t lost track of them).

About yesterday—faking documents is a serious charge and I did e-mail Wolfe to see if he’d care to comment. Well, I haven’t heard from him as yet and that e-mail address is the only way I have to contact him. So I rooted around ReganBooks’ website to see if I might contact someone there for a response.

And you know, I’m starting to feel sorry for them. I mean here’s a big company and they can’t even spell the name of their own senior vice president in his own press release. I mean, it’s sad, don’t you think?

I’m going to give Wolfe a few more days to respond and then I’ll see if someone at ReganBooks cares to comment.

I mean, it’s not like these pages cut themselves apart and pasted themselves together all on their own. They had to get a little help from somebody, don’t you know.

Pages 213-215

The title of this chapter is “The Control Question” and I haven’t a clue what it means. Maybe I’ll find out.

Hm. Margaret Hamilton handed out diplomas at Beverly Hills High. Gosh I hope Wolfe isn’t going to accuse HER of killing the Black Dahlia.

Ah no. Time to dredge up another CDP (conveniently dead person) or two.

Wolfe is talking about his old amigo Manny Robinson, son of actor Edward G. Robinson.

“It was through Manny that I met Arthur James at the Holiday House in Malibu. Owned by prominent artist Gerald Murphy and his wife Sara, the Holiday House stood on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean and became a hideaway for Hollywood celebrities who didn’t want to be seen in public with the wrong woman—or the wrong man. Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato used to stay there, as did Marilyn Monroe, upon occasion, with a young congressman from Boston named Jack Kennedy.

“One evening in the early fifties, at a Murphy Holiday House party, Manny Robinson, Arthur James and I were discussing ephemeral Hollywood lore, when James casually mentioned that he had known Elizabeth Short. What James had to say brought back flash-frames of ‘Werewolf Killer’ headlines, Uncle Vern and Bugsy’s trunk.”

Let’s get rid of some easy stuff. I dispense with Uncle Vern and Bugsy Siegel’s trunk way back near the beginning. I won’t rehash it all now. I’ll just mention that records show Wolfe wasn’t even living near Bugsy Siegel when he says he was. If you really want to get into all the Uncle Vern nonsense, use the freefind search feature on my blog. There’s more than you’ll ever want to know about Uncle Vern, the prosecutor who never was.

Oops!

I wonder if the Murphys’ romantic little getaway ever got written up in The Times. Oh let’s check just for fun. (Fun being a relative term for a total research drudge).

Hm. Poor old Edward G. Robinson Jr. died in 1974 at the age of 40 after a very messy life. His poor dad. But nothing about the Murphys’ celebrity crash pad and tryst joint in The Times.

Let’s try Google.

Hmmmm. Gerald and Sara Murphy seem to be the couple that inspired “Tender Is the Night,” well at least if you can believe anything on the Internet.

Hmmmmmmmm. Well, there is this New York Times review of a joint biography. What’s this? “In 1937 the Murphys returned to New York for good.”

“As an elderly man he lived the life he had fled as a youth, going to an office and lunching every day at Schrafft’s. He never spoke about his painting or about his dead sons. Sara threw herself into volunteer work with children.”

Is this the same Gerald and Sara Murphy whom Wolfe is talking about? The ones with tryst central in Malibu? Except they returned to New York? Because I’m a simple man and I’m starting to get a headache.

Let’s keep digging. Apparently the Murphys lived at 1737 Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills, but it was when their children were still alive (they died quite young, sadly, in the 1930s). Not the 1950s.

OK, Amazon.com’s “search inside” feature for “Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy” turns up nothing for Edward G. Robinson Jr. Just someone’s dog named Robinson. Hm. Don’t find any reference to “Holiday House” either. No Wolfe except “Elsie De Wolfe.” Nothing about Malibu, except the Murphys going to a party given by Marion Davies.

And nothing about Arthur James.

Now my head is really starting to hurt. Apparently the Murphys bought a home in Rockland County, N.Y., that had been built in 1700 by the mayor of New York. Looks like they called it Cheer Hall.

A summer home in the Hamptons?!

Where is the stupid Malibu party pad Wolfe is talking about!? I’m getting annoyed!

You think it gets better?

Nope.

The next two pages have to do with crackpot Arthur James, who came forward after Elizabeth Short was killed and claimed she posed for a couple of his paintings. He was featured in a Page 1 story in Herald-Express on Jan. 27, 1947, and was never heard from again. He never appeared in any other newspapers, just the Herald.

James, who was 56 and awaiting sentencing on a forgery charge, told the Herald he knew Elizabeth Short for three months after meeting her in a Hollywood cocktail lounge in 1944. Recall that in truth, Elizabeth Short wasn’t even in Los Angeles in 1944, so we know none of this is true.

The Herald notes: “Their friendship ended abruptly in November 1944 when he was arrested in Tucson, Ariz., for violation of the Mann act under the name of Charles B. Smith, James said.”

“For this offense, James commented, he drew a two-year sentence to Leavenworth.

“His present difficulty grows out of a bad check cashed in November 1944 to purchase luggage for ‘the Black Dahlia,’ the artist admitted. He was arrested in September 1946 and later convicted.”

What’s this?

Page 215

“In John Gilmore’s book, “Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder (Amok Books, CA, 1998), Gilmore discusses Arthur James’s relationship with Elizabeth Short and his trip to Phoenix, Arizona, with her in November 1944, where he was arrested for transporting a minor across the border and spent time in jail. Elizabeth avoided arrest and briefly returned to Hollywood before heading back to Medford in mid-November.”

As I say with tedious regularity: Proof once again that “Severed” is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

And note that James was in Tucson not Phoenix. I swear Wolfe can’t read what’s in front of him.

Oh it gets much, much worse.

Wolfe says Arthur James, the struggling artist, managed rooming houses for Florentine Gardens business manager Mark Hansen. And where does Wolfe get that nugget of information? Because it certainly isn’t in the district attorney’s files.

To the end notes, Watson!

My dear Holmes! No attribution whatsoever!

What else do you expect? Wolfe also claims Hansen had some downtown dance halls. False—he just owned movie theaters.

Aha. Now here’s what Regular Anonymous Commenter had in mind:

“Recalling that Elizabeth had suddenly left town toward the end of 1944, James said that he totally lost track of her until the summer of 1946, when she returned to Hollywood and stayed at Hansen’s place on Carlos.”

OK, now remember, James’ story is completely false because Elizabeth Short wasn’t in Los Angeles.

But according to his story, he and Elizabeth Short were in Arizona in November 1944, because that’s where he got arrested. Not Los Angeles.

Also according to his story, he didn’t lose track of her—he was in prison for two years.

Gosh, isn’t it hard to keep track of stories when they’re not true?

And then we get:

“James said some ‘big shot’ had taken a fancy to Elizabeth and gotten her pregnant, and Hansen had tried to set her up with an abortionist. Instead, she fled to San Diego. The last time James said he saw her was several days before she left the city, and he had heard that the ‘big shot’ was Norman Chandler, heir to the Chandler dynasty. James recalled that he hadn’t heard from Elizabeth again or known what had happened to her until he recognized her picture in the paper and read the gruesome stories.”

Now here is Arthur James, the soul of veracity: a convicted check forger whom we’ve caught lying that he knows Elizabeth Short and further caught in a lie that he bought her luggage. Now we’re to believe that he knows about Norman Chandler?

Please.

I may take another crack at the second part of this tomorrow, as it’s a rather foul bit of work.

Time for my walk. I need to air out my poor brain cells after this one.

Shout out to:

Hewlett Packard (15.252.74.250)

Paramount Pictures

Jones Day Reavis & Pogue

O’Melveny & Myers

USC

Casper Star-Tribune

Hurry back!

Blogging the Wolfe Book, The Mailbox

Posted on April 14, 2006 by lmharnisch

—– Forwarded Message —-

From: Larry Harnisch
To: DHWolfe1213@aol.com
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 8:51:13 AM

Subject: The “D” Memorandum

Hi Don old pal,

Long time no see….

Say, the “D” memorandum on Page 198 of your book appears to be a fake that was pasted together from two other reports. Would you care to defend yourself?

Have a great day,

Larry Harnisch

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, Donald Wolfe, Homicide, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, donald wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Blogging the Wolfe Book, How to Fake a Document

Posted on April 14, 2006 by lmharnisch

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.”

Page 13

Page 14

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!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line IX

Posted on April 13, 2006 by lmharnisch

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)

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line VIII

Posted on April 12, 2006 by lmharnisch

“Although Hansen discovered that Finis and Donahoe were in league with Gangster Squad in derailing the Black Dahlia case, he continued pursuing his own avenues of investigation, and he had begun deciphering the silent scream.

Harry Hansen knew that a man with advanced medical knowledge had methodically bisected the body.

He knew the approximate location of the murder site.

He knew the dark secret of the autopsy.

He knew there had been more than one person in attendance at the sacred setting.

And he suspected that one of them was the short, dark-complexioned man who drove the old black Ford sedan—Brenda Allen’s procurer, Maurice Clement.”

Let’s get rid of the easy stuff.

Harry Hansen knew that a man with advanced medical knowledge had methodically bisected the body.

True. That was the prevailing belief among investigators, including Hansen, Police Chemist Ray Pinker and autopsy surgeon Dr. Frederick Newbarr. Harry Hansen testified to this belief before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury.

He knew the approximate location of the murder site.

False. Investigators suspected several locations but never found any evidence at any of them. Police still have no idea where Elizabeth Short was killed.

He knew there had been more than one person in attendance at the sacred setting.

False. Way back, Wolfe makes up some mumbo-jumbo about Elizabeth Short’s body displaying two types of knife work, one controlled and the other angry and frenzied. This is ridiculous.

And he suspected that one of them was the short, dark-complexioned man who drove the old black Ford sedan—Brenda Allen’s procurer, Maurice Clement.”

Again, this is ridiculous. Hansen never suspected Maurice Clement of anything. Nobody did. And let me emphasize that Maurice Clement was never “Brenda Allen’s procurer.” Wolfe has tied himself in knots to manipulate material in the district attorney’s files to implicate poor old Maurice, to the point of altering testimony that actually refers to another person named Otero.

OK, that leaves us with:

“Although Hansen discovered that Finis and Donahoe were in league with Gangster Squad in derailing the Black Dahlia case, he continued pursuing his own avenues of investigation, and he had begun deciphering the silent scream.

Let’s strangle this little monster in its cradle. As I noted earlier, there were few more respected men in the Los Angeles Police Department of the 1940s than Jack Donahoe. In fact, one never hears a bad word about him from anyone, certainly not anyone who knew him. The only people with a bad thing to say about Donahoe are the authors of sleazy Black Dahlia books.

Let me elaborate on that. I had a phone conversation with retired Police Capt. Ed Jokisch the other night, a fine man who is in his 90s and still sharp as a tack. Ed worked homicide in the 1940s, and yes, he did play an extremely minor role in the Black Dahlia case although he mainly worked other cases. Ed has nothing but praise for Donahoe as a respected, honored man, an inspiring leader and as straight as they come. It grieves him terribly to read scurrilous nonsense in these Dahlia books about a man whom he describes as “like a father and like a brother to me.”

Now the idea that Finis Brown was “in league” with anybody is equally absurd. Finis was a fairly bland, introspective man, a complete contrast with his more outgoing brother, Thad, who was chief of detectives for many years and served as acting police chief after the death of William H. Parker. Finis was, in the words of Ed Jokisch, “a bulldog,” And Ed has absolutely no question about Finis Brown’s honesty.

Let me be blunt. Finis Brown and Jack Donahoe were two scrupulously honest men and diligent investigators. It is insulting to their memory to tar them with ridiculous accusations of corruption.

Wow.

I just turned back to Page 165 to find more trash.

“One of Hansen’s problems was that he was an honest cop devoted to his calling. He always defended the Force, yet had to deal with the corruption that surrounded him. He had an intense dislike for his boss, ‘Big Jack’ Donahoe, but kept his silence. The secret of the sealed autopsy established a motive in the pathological murder and provided avenues of investigation that Hansen believed Donahoe and the Gangster Squad were blocking. When Hansen discovered that Finis was reporting everything he was investigating to Gangster Squad commander Willie Burns, he began to suspect that Finis was a Gangster Squad operative, and they had a falling out; Hansen stopped confiding in Finis and locked up his private Dahlia files.

“ ‘I was personally concerned that Harry kept saying he was going to yank the papers from the morgue,’ Finis recalled. ‘I said “Harry, you can’t monkey with the coroner.’ [actual quote, as we’ll see, is ‘you can’t monkey with the county’—I swear the man can’t read what’s in front of him] He said I was a fine one to talk about ethics, and I was lucky I wasn’t in jail, or off the Force… Then he laughed, but he was serious.’ ”

Now it will be extremely interesting to see Wolfe’s source on this—I can’t imagine anyone getting Finis Brown to say such things.

Quick, Watson, to the end notes!

Holmes! No attribution!

Well wait, Watson. True, there’s nothing about the Gangster Squad trying to derail the investigation or Hansen disliking Donahoe. A bit of this is from John Gilmore’s “Severed.” But how much?

To the haz-mat pile of Dahlia books!

OK, “Severed,” Page 142.

As we’re finding the page, remind me again why this book is called “The Black Dahlia Files” and not the more appropriate “Severed: 2006.”

Well this is relatively interesting. In “Severed,” Finis Brown allegedly suspects Harry Hansen of shifting the Dahlia files and reports him to Thad Brown.

In other words, Finis suspected Hansen of misconduct. Now in Wolfe’s book this gets turned around so that Hansen suspects Finis of misconduct.

My head is spinning—because it’s all nonsense. Every word of it. As we have seen many times and as I keep saying “Severed” is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

How do I know? Well most people haven’t had a chance to read Finis Brown’s statement to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury, and while the material is far too long to reproduce here, let me emphasize that he was extremely careful with his words and almost indescribably thorough—to the point of being painfully tedious.

Finis was not a stupid man by any means, but he was deliberate, painstakingly precise and not particularly charismatic, which many people mistook for being dim. Having read the real words of Finis Brown, the quotes attributed to him in “Severed” are howlingly funny.

Like this from “Severed”:

“I said, ‘Harry you can’t monkey with the county. The coroner runs this whole thing.’ He looked at me as if to tell me to keep my mouth shut or I’d be off the case, and that would make Harry and me enemies because I knew almost as much as he and Willis [oh yes, don’t forget my favorite fictional detective Herman Willis!] did. He said I was a fine one to talk about ethics, and I was lucky I wasn’t in jail or off the force. I said, ‘Up to you, Harry.’ Then he laughed, but he was serious.”

In fact, I’m so sure that this quote is fictitious I will never believe it is true unless I either hear a tape of John Gilmore’s alleged interview with Finis Brown or see his notes.

Oh…. Did I mention there are absolutely no notes in the Gilmore archives at UCLA aside from the transcript of one interview with Jack Wilson? Did I mention that there are no tapes in the Gilmore archives at UCLA? In fact, there is scant raw material for writing any sort of book in the Gilmore archives aside from quite a few rejection notes, a rough draft or two, and some newspaper clippings.

But don’t take my word for it. Go to UCLA yourself. Go through the Gilmore archives—all of them, not just the pictures. Let me know after going through them whether you could write a book based on the raw material there (not counting the rough drafts).

Let me settle one more thing about the Wolfe book. There’s some material on Pages 166-167 allegedly from the Dec. 1, 1949, grand jury statement of Conwell L. Keller.

Oh good grief, this is worse than I thought. Wolfe has investigator Frank Jemison interrogating Keller before the grand jury! Boy, not only does Wolfe have trouble separating city and county agencies, he has trouble with basic governmental procedures. In fact, the questions were posed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Arthur L. Veitch.

Veitch is interrogating Keller about the Leslie Dillon affair, a long story in itself. Basically, department psychiatrist Dr. Paul De River launched a separate investigation of the Black Dahlia case, bypassing the Homicide Division and using the Gangster Squad. Their conduct and treatment of poor old Leslie Dillon is what triggered the grand jury investigation in the first place.

What Keller is talking about before the grand jury is that in preparation for its investigation, the district attorney’s office assembled all the paperwork on the Elizabeth Short case, drawing reports from the University Division (where the body was discovered), Central Division (location of the crime lab) and possibly the Hollywood Division (I’m trusting my memory here) to a central location at City Hall where they were indexed and cross-referenced. Nothing more, folks.

In fact, the material was gathered in a specially secured room to which only Jemison and Finis had keys—even the custodial staff was barred. Until it could be indexed.

Nothing malicious or unsavory. It was actually a good thing all the material was collected and preserved.

There’s more, but that’s enough. I have to get these books off my desk; they’re starting to leave nasty little grease spots.

Shout out to:

Palin Acquisitions (198.145.218.210)

Hurry back!

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Fades

Posted on April 11, 2006 by lmharnisch

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DkwAAAMlV1Rfc0SsXq8qtTRIHP09qsJ0UNvW19QjcnScPMyV-jF4MReYyjQevnZOeN6GEbP7B0DK2rEHSWtKljqljI_ADyMf9i4gJSEJ-a_NauboYHGNTA5uazH9QIih8L_UeYzz_hLnGVo9-l__-T8qlINWyIGpO-enQP9VAIObkKZGRsojIHybncQJVzxkgZCQd5Jpfsf3x6OfynGOFqUQKNd8%26sigh%3DHwOcB7yMwkSn-RdTTmrGHMW-gHw%26begin%3D0%26len%3D951684%26docid%3D-6722810841364739543&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer%3Fcontentid%3Dbc2a7262e4965858%26second%3D5%26itag%3Dw320%26urlcreated%3D1144822472%26sigh%3DsZuVqoL19nIAILEB17P7XWvOk3k&playerId=-6722810841364739543

Pity the blind

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Courtesy Card

Posted on April 11, 2006 by lmharnisch

OK… they pull up to some place in Hollywood and lock their car. “Lock the car,” Bain said. “We don’t want to wind up walking home because some moron car thief doesn’t recognize this as an unmarked police car.”

This is puzzling. In the 1940s, most LAPD cars were unmarked (at least I assume Carter is talking about the 1940s). If you check the photos of the Black Dahlia crime scene you won’t find a single marked black-and-white. The old-time officers tell me “we drove whatever we could get.”

They head for Room 201 but can’t find the man they are seeking. They cruise Hollywood, passing Lucey’s at 5444 Melrose.

They head back “home.” We’re not told where that is, but the implication is that it’s a heavily minority division.

They take Crenshaw Boulevard south. “The streets were empty as they approached Eighth Street. Ahead, a grey Mercedes sedan blasted the signal, going north at a high rate of speed. There were four men in the car.”

Recall that Crenshaw dead-ends at Wilshire Boulevard, and 8th and Crenshaw is the first intersection south of Wilshire. Hm. Google Earth makes it look like there are traffic lights there now but I don’t know if there were signals there then.

Our friends McGhee and Bain peel rubber in a U-turn as the gray Mercedes turns right on Wilshire, then goes into Hancock Park. OK, that generally fits with the handy Thomas Bros. Guide.

“The Mercedes, lights out, pulled to the curb and parked in front of a luxurious bungalow court. McGhee parked a half block down the street. [Not named, unfortunately, and that would help, especially if one is writing factually]. Bain and McGhee both bailed out on the passenger side, closing the door quietly.”

“Three of the men in the Mercedes got out of the car and walked to the Court where they entered a corner bungalow, leaving the door open behind them. The fourth man, the driver, got out, locked the door and walked around the car to the sidewalk where he followed his three passengers toward the bungalow court, bringing up the rear about twenty feet behind. Bain and McGhee, who had remained undetected, intercepted him at the entrance to the bungalow. They both shoved their badges toward his face and Bain said, ‘Police. You’re under arrest.’ Taken totally by surprise, the Mercedes driver fled through the open door to the middle of the living room, where the other three men were standing. Bain and McGhee were right behind him.”

Bain tells the driver that he ran a traffic light [note: Los Angeles had traffic semaphores in the 1940s, when I assume this occurred].

And here we go:

“The man said ‘oh,’ and almost, Bain thought, with a sense of relief. Bain was right. The man reached into his left breast coat pocket, pulled out his wallet and unhurriedly began to sort through the contents. It was not a driver’s license that he handed over to Bain, but a small business card. The two detectives immediately recognized the card as an ‘LAPD courtesy card.’ Bain and McGhee knew that somehow, ‘innocently’ and unwittingly, they may have bitten off more than they could chew. It was only a matter of a few minutes before they began to suspect just how much they may have bitten off.

“If a person was a holder of one of these ‘courtesy cards’ as both of the detectives were well aware, it had been presented by a high ranking police officer, Captain and/or above, to a Very Important Person who carried a lot of clout. The courtesy card had evolved from a former practice by Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, Inspectors and Captains of handing out duplicates of their badges to business men, politicians and mob bosses from whom they expected favors in return for the insulation the badges provided from annoyance and unwanted attention from rank and file police officers who might be encountered in the routine performance….”

Blah blah blah. Jeez this is boring. What a windbag.

Anyway, our pals Bain and McGhee discover a bloody room at this bungalow.

The detective captain who supposedly wrote the courtesy card shows up and talks to the driver of the Mercedes. After about 10 minutes, the captain tells our two intrepid detectives to go home.

Aha. NOW we find out the date: Jan. 15, 1947.

OK. Anybody see anything wrong with this story?

Beside the fact that McGhee and Bain appear to be fictitious names? And that the police captain isn’t identified? And we don’t find out the exact location of the bungalow?

How about the fact that our author, Vincent A. Carter, doesn’t explain how he knows any of this. Did he get it from McGhee? Did he get it from Bain? What’s the deal?

And what about our pals the two Irish cops, the young, aggressive detective and the salty old veteran?

These two guys are detectives, right? That means they have some smarts, presumably. They’re headed home at the end of their shift and they arrest a guy for running a red light? Without getting his ID? And they’re both right there with the supposed suspect instead of one hanging back to cover the other one in case something goes down?

Granted, I’m not a police officer, but I think they might have, oh, I don’t know, at least run a field sobriety test just to see if they could nail the guy on something more than a traffic violation. At least if the guy is tanked they won’t look quite so stupid hauling him down to jail for a minor traffic violation.

Now about the courtesy cards.

They existed mostly in the 1930s through the early 1950s and were nothing more than a police officer’s business card with a message on the back reading something like: “So and so, a good friend of mine. Any courtesy extended to him/her will be appreciated.” In fact we find just such cards in the possession of a dead, former burlesque dancer in 1949.

According to The Times of Oct. 26, 1949, Rena Lucille Hodge, whose body was found in hotel room on East 3rd Street, had two courtesy cards in her purse. One signed by Officer C.O. Smith and another signed by Officer R.E. Myers. According to The Times, “At the time the cards were issued, Smith was on the Central Division vice squad and Myers was on the administrative vice squad. Smith, now in charge of vice at University Division, said he could not remember the woman and doubted that the card was his. Myers, now a detective attached to the police business office, could not be reached for comment concerning the card that was allegedly his.”

A little more research reveals that the courtesy cards were frowned on even in the 1930s. On Aug. 11, 1935, a Times editorial praised their invalidation. And as the editorial notes, they carried no weight except in traffic offenses. In fact, in 1941, a state law enforcement agency warned of a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of courtesy cards.

And think about it. Since a courtesy card was nothing more than a business card with a signature on the back, they could be easily forged. If they existed at all in the LAPD they were banned by William H. Parker when he became chief in 1950, according to retired police officers.

The bottom line: Courtesy cards were frowned upon in the 1930s to the 1950s, were easily forged and even when they were in use, were intended for nothing more than traffic violations. They were certainly not a “get out of jail” card as portrayed in “Rogue Cops.”

Now I don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch this story is going to show up in Wolfe’s book down the line. I could be wrong, but I somehow don’t think so.

And by the way, did you notice our suspects were driving a Mercedes? In 1947? Uh. Let’s have some fun and see how many Mercedes were for sale in The Times in 1947.

Zero.

OK, let’s check from 1940 to 1949.

A 1937 convertible for sale Jan. 1, 1940 (license 39M29).

A 1937 coupe (6X881) Feb. 24, 1940. Ha. The guy was still trying to unload it in March.

A 540 four-passenger coupe with a custom body (6C2688) or (6S2688) in June 1940. Still trying to unload it in October 1940.

Mercedes service and sales, 1352 Ivar, Jan. 2, 1941. (I wonder how long he’s going to stay in business?)

SS supercharged convertible coupe (14Z477) Feb. 28, 1941. Still trying to sell it in March.

A model 540 convertible club coupe, (37Q602) or (37Q6), Feb. 22, 1942. Still trying to sell it in March.

SS competition for road or track (65A138), March 31, 1942. Still for sale in April 1942.

Type S competition (54Y451), May 21, 1942.

Small, rear-engine Mercedes, (2C9281) Jan. 24, 1943. Still for sale in February 1943.

SSK speedster (5X4491) April 1943 (and the rear-engine model is also still for sale).

For 1944: A whopping zero.

September 1945: The Times classified ads list Floyd Clymer’s book about Mercedes. No cars, just the book.

A rear-engine model for sale (82A484) Jan. 9, 1946.

Not a single Mercedes listed in 1947.

1928 four-passenger sport model (7T5856) July 5, 1948.

1937 convertible (36P393) Aug. 29, 1948. Still for sale in September 1948.

1940 five-passenger sedan motor No. 427-568 Dec. 30, 1948. Still for sale in January 1949.

Something for sale Aug. 5, 1949, but I can’t find it in the listings.

A 1939 540 motor No. 10098243, Sept. 30, 1949. Still for sale in October 1949.

And that, folks, is every Mercedes listed in The Times classified from 1940 to 1949. All 15 of them. Gosh. Do you think people might have been uncomfortable driving a German car during World War II?

Time for my walk.

Shout out to:

Lithuania (82.135.208.170)

Hong Kong (218.103.211.114)

AOL user in Reston, Va. (152.163.101.5) Windows 98? Upgrade!

Hurry back!

Posted in Columnists, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged crime and courts, Harry Carr, lapd | Comments Off

Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line VII

Posted on April 10, 2006 by lmharnisch

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!

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, A Mystery Solved

Posted on April 9, 2006 by lmharnisch

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!

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line VI

Posted on April 8, 2006 by lmharnisch

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:

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

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

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.

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:

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

Ron asked Nate where he got women for the men

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

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

Ron Hardman told me bits and pieces of his life.

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:

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

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

Ron said that everything went smoothly at Juvenile.

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

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

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!

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line V

Posted on April 7, 2006 by lmharnisch

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!

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line IV

Posted on April 6, 2006 by lmharnisch

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!

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Blogging the Wolfe Book, Request Line III

Posted on April 5, 2006 by lmharnisch

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!

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