Black Dahlia Myth No. 2 "The Missing Week" (Jan 9-14. 1947) Debunked – Victim Elizabeth Short sighted by twelve reliable witnesses six of whom knew and spoke to her during mythical "missing week"
July 16, 2016
Los Angeles
Twelve individual witness sightings each day of “Missing Week” debunk Dahlia Myth.
In my sequel, Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014) I present three major Black Dahlia Myths. They are:
Myth No. 1- “It was a standalone murder.”
Myth No. 2- “There was a Missing or Lost Week.”
Myth No. 3- “The case was never solved by the LAPD.”
In BDA II, Chapter 12, I document the myth of the Black Dahlia’s Missing Week. As can be seen in the above diagram, twelve separate witnesses, six of whom personally knew and spoke with Elizabeth Short during each day of that week either in Hollywood or the downtown area. Below I attach the complete Chapter 12, for your review, which lists the separate reliable witnesses and shows exactly where and when each saw and or spoke to the victim. Incredibly, the last witness to stop and speak with Elizabeth Short was LAPD uniform policewoman, Meryl McBride on January 14, 1947, in the afternoon hours. Elizabeth was exiting a bar with “two males and a female” and when officer McBride, recognizing her from an earlier contact, asked her “are you alright?” she replied, “Yes, I’m going to meet my father at the Greyhound Bus Depot.” This last sighting was just ten hours before her estimated time of death which the coroner believed occurred in the early mornings hours of January 15, 1947.
See full Chapter 12 PDF below.
Photo below shows author at the Biltmore Hotel lobby (Olive Street Entrance) in 2016. Author’s investigation (press and police reports) debunks the legend that this lobby was the “last location where the victim was seen prior to her body being found on January 15, 1947.” DA Files document that a Mr. Studholme a Biltmore employee observed Elizabeth Short in the lobby until 10 p.m. when he believed she was signaled by someone from outside the glass doors on the Olive Street entrance. She exited out the door, turned right (south) possibly with the unknown person? (That individual is believed to have been Dr. George Hill Hodel, and they were likely headed for his private practice, located just four blocks southwest of the Biltmore Hotel at 7th & Flower.) We then have eleven more sightings of Elizabeth on each and every day from January 9-14th.
Hi Steve,
I was wondering if you knew whether Elizabeth Short received her mail at the Biltmore Hotel or elsewhere? It was common practice at the time to use a hotel as a postal address. This would especially be the case if you were constantly changing your address. In fact I knew people in the 70s London who did just that because the only flats available were short term lets.
The Biltmore and the Greyhound Bus Station seemed essential to her way of life. Would the investigators of the day think of this? Plus if she regularly stowed her luggage in the lockers at the Bus Station, would she have kept personal things like letters there?
Linda
Linda M:
No, Elizabeth Short had her mail delivered to Mark Hansen’s residence on Carlos Ave in Hollywood where she stayed part-time.
As far as her luggage at the bus station only aware of that one-time recovery. Unknown if she used prior?
SKH Note- As to your other speculations about John Huston and Orson Welles possible connections etc. I have deleted it here due to space considerations and the fact that, as I have said before, there exist ZERO indications that either man was involved in any of the crimes. Yes, aware after the fact, most certainly, but as actual accomplices, ZERO EVIDENCE.
Any accounts, or stories of a screen test she may have done at RKO or Columbia Studios? Any possibilities she was in any art or porn films at the time?
Richard S.
No truth at all. There is no documentation that Elizabeth Short conducted screen tests for any Hollywood studios. No indication she ever wanted to “be in pictures”. Those myths along with the “involved in making porn films” likely sprang from the film, “True Confessions” (1981) which was based on the copycat theme of the Black Dahlia where a young woman who had made some porn films was found posed on an LA vacant lot and her body cut in half. The film based on the Black Dahlia murder focused on LAPD corruption in the 1940s. In the film, the victim “Lois Fazenda” is called “the Virgin Tramp”
Is there a list of items found at the bus terminal. Have the letters ever been published? Perhaps a clew could be found in the text? A sentence to confirm her last days. Could she have made “Art Films” not porn but nudes for art?