No “Black Dahlia Missing Week” Further Confirmed By A Fifteenth Reliable Witness, Dancer Betty Blake
September 24, 2020
Los Angeles, California
Big thank you to reader Scott Tracy for the heads up on a broken link and also for his discovery of a new witness (now my fifteenth) to substantiate that there was NO BLACK DAHLIA MISSING WEEK. Scott writes:
“I have another witness on the missing days for you-Betty Blake of the Gay Way bar on Main Street Jan 12th. Written up in the Valley Times and SF Chronicle but not in LA Times.”
I found Scott’s reference published in The Valley Times on January 22, 1947 and reproduced below.
…”A red-haired man entered the murder picture in yet another way today on reports of Betty Blake, dancer, that such a person came to the Gay Way bar, 514 S. Main St., on the night of Jan 12. Miss Blake said he asked for Miss Short who had been there earlier in the evening. According to Mr. and Mrs. William Johnson, operators of a hotel at 300 E. Washington Blvd., a girl answering Miss Short’s description registered there with a man on Jan 12.” (Witnesses 12 on below chronology.)
Gay Way Bar 514 S. Main St DTLA (1948)
Dancer Betty Blake would is now the fifteenth witness that saw victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short between Jan 9-14, 1947 further establishing there was in fact no missing week.
Black Dahlia Avenger Chap 12 PDF Witnesses to “No Missing Week” chap 12 bda pdf
Detective Hodel,
I agree there’s overwhelming evidence the missing week never happened.I can only speculate the story was good for selling papers in the midsts of dahlia fever then took on a life of its own. To me the Truth is more interesting, her showing up battered n knees bleeding then out on the town. So many contradictions but definitely not missing.
I’ve read your books on your fathers crimes and studied the cases in my on amateur way. Im curious about a couple of things.
First being the maid at the Franklin house.she was obviously under George’s spell and having an affair. Why is she not mentioned more?Was she ever questioned about George’s comings and goings?Wouldn’t she had seen some evidence of the Short crime had it been committed in the home.would she have seen bloody or torn clothing from other murder/rapes. If I remember she’s only mentioned in respect to the DA’s investigators transcripts.I just can’t see her not noticing something.
I also wonder what if any part drug use had to do with George’s crimes. The comment mentioned about hashish and locking him in the bathroom cause he does bad things. Excuse my paraphrasing. That line really got me studying on the relationship of the two.
Thank you for your continuing search for the truth and for all your years of service in law enforcement.
Your truly,
Frank Adkins
Hi Frank. Thanks for the kind words.
Glad you agree. As to your questions.
I have very little information on Ellen Taylor, the maid.
Not sure when she started working for dad? How long she was there?
All info came from witness Joe Barrett and the DA transcripts.
She was an “illegal” (I think Hispanic/Indian) so why the name “Taylor” not known? Did she marry at some point? Barrett alluded to her “servicing” a number of visitors at the house and said she went on to become “homeless on the streets of LA.” My sense is she likely had or later some mental disabilities, but ?? Her name was on subpoena papers for the Tamar trial in 1949, (the prosecution) but don’t know if she was called to testify? The “locking in the bathroom” mentions were not Ellen Taylor but were made by his Japanese girlfriend when she spoke to Tamar in San Francisco in the Sixties. (Not June, as she had yet to enter the picture in 1969 forward in Tokyo.) So, I think those comments came from a prior Japanese girlfriend from Asia traveling with him to the U.S. Best Regards, Steve
What a scary looking place. It’s little wonder her life went ‘south’ so quickly in that time period. That’s NOT to say that E.S. deserved the fate that she got – she most certainly didn’t. It’s just so sad. We think of these things happening in today’s angst ridden America, but not so much in post-war, Norman Rockwell America. Hollywood, of course, was a land on to its own.
Hello Steve,
First of all, I would like to thank you for your tireless effort that you have put into investigating this case, it’s really an amazing accomplishment, and I thoroughly enjoy reading it all. I could not find the post but there was one where you mentioned that your father lived in a penthouse on the 39th floor in the financial district of SF during the ’90s, well my grandfather had a suit store called Executive Clothes from 1976 to 1990 or 1992, at 520 Washington St; which is a three-minute drive/ nine-minute walk from each other. I don’t like the thought of George looking over from above, which would have done since he lived on the 39th floor. As I have found out from your website is that Beth Short’s funeral was on January 25th, 1947, which grimly, is to the date 58 yrs before my birthday. Anyway, as I was reading the pdf I saw that Elizabeth had told the “five unidentified youths” about her plans “to marry George, an army pilot from Texas.” I read the Wikipedia page Georgette Bauerdorf (which albeit is not the most reliable source) was seen rejecting a soldier who was “thought to have been infatuated with Bauerdorf”, and considering the fact, that Elizabeth told the “five unidentified youths” that she was going to marry an army piolet named George, is it possible that George obtained an army uniform and went around in this outfit to attract women? I realize that the soldier was identified as Cpl. Cosmo Volpe who had turned himself in, but what if he was also there and had been rejected by Georgette so he assumed the police were looking for him. It also says that according to June Ziegler, Bauerdorf dated a serviceman who was 6’4″, less than a month before her murder and that this soldier was a friend of another serviceman whose name was frequently mentioned in her “date book diary”, you have mentioned that your father was over six foot. According to Ziegler, Georgette said “that the tall soldier was very much taken with her. However, she did not return his interest and quit going out with him. The soldier was sought for questioning by officers.” Is it possible that this man could have also been George parading around in an army uniform? I also watched the Black Dahlia episode of Ghost Adventures last night, looking at George’s pictures shown on the show and the seance portion elicited such deep feelings of disgust and fear that I actually screamed when they first showed his picture after you during the intro. My reaction was much funnier after the fact 😂
Best,
Isla Brown
Isla B:
Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.
The George Hodel and Georgette Bauerdorf connections I believe came from the Hollywood Canteen where she worked as a “Junior Hostess” during the war years. George Hodel would have had no problem impersonating himself as a military officer as we know from other witnesses later that he claimed to be “an FBI agent working the Black Dahlia case; and also used a Chicago Police Badge with Elizabeth Short identifying himself as a “Chicago Police Officer.” I think he danced with her, followed her home and killed her that same night, then stole her car, and abandoned it near DTLA. And yes, “George” kept coming up in various situations over the years. All Best, Steve.