LADA Secret Hodel Black Dahlia Files Reveal 13th Witness Busting the Myth of a “Missing Week”
June 1, 2020
Los Angeles, California
“Connie (Starr) stated that she was invited to dinner at Mark Hansen’s by Ann Toth on Saturday, January 11, 1947. That the three of them (Hansen, Toth and Starr) had dinner together and shortly after dinner about 9 PM, Beth Short, and her boyfriend, a young kid with brown hair, arrived. ”
Lt. Frank Jemison Memo
(Excerpt Connie Starr interview Jan 26, 1950)
Included in the LADA Lt. Jemison secret Black Dahlia files is a Memo documenting an interview conducted by Lt. Frank Jemison with Connie Starr, an actress/friend of victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. (Reproduced below in full from secret files.)
Lt. Jemison/Connie Starr Interview
(Connie Starr apartment 4 miles from DA office at Hall of Justice.)
Below is scanned copy of original in DA File
Below map shows location of then 1947 residence of Mark Hansen (at the rear of Florentine Gardens which was partially owned by Hansen) where Elizabeth Short and unknown “young date” stopped to visit and spoke with Hansen, Toth and Starr on January 11, 1947 at approximately 9 PM.
Mark Hansen residence, 6024 Carlos Ave, Hollywood. (Behind his club, Florentine Gardens)
JANUARY 11, 1947 9 PM
Connie Starr Elizabeth Short Mark Hansen Ann Toth “young kid brown hair”?
Miss Connie Starr was a working actress and personal friend of actress Ann Toth who was living at the Mark Hansen residence. Both knew Elizabeth Short who also resided at the same location for several months in late 1946.
This documented 13th sighting is now added to the previous 12 separate sightings of Short during her so-called “Missing Week” and is the thirteenth independent witness confirming Elizabeth Short was alive on 1-11-1947 is further proof that THERE WAS NO MISSING WEEK. (See excerpt from BDA II (2014) for additional witness statements and sightings during the week of January 9-14, 1947.)
The only credited IMDB entry I have found so far for Connie Starr was as a “waitress” in
Anchor’s Away (1945).
SKH Note updated 6/2/2020:
Here is the original reference excerpted from BDA II (2014) where I mention the Connie Starr interview, however, it was inadvertently omitted by me in the “Chronological Witness Sightings of Elizabeth Short’s so-called, “Missing Week” (BDA II page 206). (Note in my original reportage I mention a link of Connie Starr to Ann Toth and Marion Herwood Keyes (George Hodel’s personal secretary) in the filming of, Arch of Triumph (1948).
BDA II (2014) page 41:
Oh my this is so cool….the story is coming more and more ❤ thank you Steve
Mary Flores
Mary F.
You’re welcome.
Amazing…
where was this information all these years.? glad you found it!
Lisa FH:
Well, most of the witnesses’ interviews were made to the press and police back then, just scattered in different sources, until I found them and put them in chronological order, showing “no missing week.” But, this newest one on Connie Starr was hidden in the secret DA files like much of the new information I presented in updated BDA (2015) BDA II (2014) and BDA III (2018). The main point being, her interview continues to confirm the many other interviews showing and accounting for Elizabeth Short’s sightings throughout Hollywood and DTLA each day of that supposed mythical “missing week.”
where are these files? are they available to the public? i am trying to write a book about her and I hope to find as many primary sources as possible.
Sam:
I copied the files back in 2004, but not aware of the current status? Have to check with the LADA’s office.
Steve,
Any chance the young man was Marvin Margolis? Per the BDIH website, ES sometimes introduced him as her cousin, they roomed together in Hollywood in October ’46, he served in Okinawa (possibly interesting in regards the Bauerdorf note), and he was a University of Chicago and USC premed student. He had some psychiatric issues after Okinawa & was briefly on the BD murder suspect list.
-LW
LW:
Kind of doubt it was Margolis. if BDIH website info is correct, he got married in LA some six weeks before this sighting, so doubt he would be out and about with Short? It could have been almost any young man since they had been to a movie earlier than evening. Very unlikely we will ever know who he was, but the main point is that there can be no doubt Elizabeth was out and about in Hollywood on January 11, 1947 which totally jives with what other witnesses sightings confirm.
hi, any idea who were these two men and woman, who left with her, could be the same that were looking for her on Mrs, French house? the one Elizabeth refused to see and was scare of? Thanks a lot Mr Hodel.
Corina M:
Yes, I believe they were George Hodel, Fred Sexton and ?? Same who were with her the following week in DTLA when she was stopped by Officer Meryl McBride. skh