ForteanTimes Weird Crime Magazine (UK) 2025 Article on the 1947 Black Dahlia Murder
July 5, 2025
Birch Bay, Washington
Here is a posting of the UK’s ForteanTimes 2025 Weird Crime Magazine article by Brian J. Robb, summarizing the 1947 Black Dahlia murder investigation and listing what he considers to be the main suspects investigated through the decades.
Overall, this is one of the better researched and well-written articles, so kudos to Mr. Robb. The article does contain a few of the never-ending-mythstakes that continue to appear through the decades. At the end of Brian Robb’s article I have included my footnoted corrections to those myths included in his excellent article.
Quickbook Books Bio
Quickbook Books BioHere is Brian’s article as published in Weird Crime Magazine this year:
My footnotes responses on the article in bold:
Pg. 40- …”aspiring actress…”- No, not really. Part of the enduring myth. Elizabeth Short, living in WWII and post WWII, simply wanted to meet Lt. Right, and marry and live happily ever after.
Pg.40- …”last seen in LA’s Biltmore Hotel on Jan 9…” No. I present fourteen witnesses who saw Elizabeth Short every day of her so called “Missing Week.” Seven of those fourteen KNEW HER and could not have been mistaken. Confusion and the myth came from the LAPD “Daily Police Bulletin: Wanted Information on Elizabeth Short.” (Reproduced in full on pg. 41) This bulletin was posted and circulated in most bars and public places in downtown LA by LAPD one week after the body was found. It requested information on anyone knowing or seeing her whereabouts. This through the decades was reinterpreted as a “Missing Week.”
Pg 42-…”All that was found nearby was the remnants of a papersack that once contained cement.” No. There were at least four cement sacks and one bloody “Bandini Manure” sack found near the body which I link back to the Hodel Sowden/Franklin House through receipts made out and billed to George Hodel dated Jan. 10, 1949, just four days prior to Elizabeth Short’s murder and transportation using the sacks to the vacant lot.
Pg. 43- …Other suspects included rogue abortionist Dr. Walter Bayley who died two years later and was revealed to be suffering from a degenerative brain disease.” No. Dr. Walter Bayley died on Jan 4, 1948, less than one-year after the murder of Elizabeth Short. (Jan 14, 1947) Dr. Bayley served honorably in WWI, as a lieutenant. It was never “revealed he suffered a degenerative brain disease.” No such diagnosis was ever conducted in life. This “brain disease” was a far fetched theory developed by a copy-editor for the LA Times newspaper, who theorized the good doctor as “her killer” claiming that “Dr. Bayley’s motive for the murder was pent up rage because his son was killed in a unrelated traffic accident” some twenty-plus years prior in the 1920s. Dr. Bayley had no criminal record and was never named in any police investigation as “a possible suspect to the murder.”
WWI Veteran Lt. Walter Bayley
WWI Veteran Lt. Walter BayleyPg.44- “Steve Hodel may have queried his pitch by going on to claim that almost every unsolved murder in California was also down to Dr. George Hodel.” No. As clearly stated in my introduction to “The Early Years” Part I (1920s) and Part II (1930s) I made no claim that the crimes presented “are solved” or that my father definitely committed any of them. I merely present the investigation and leave it to the reader or audiobook listener to decide. Suggest listening to the introduction, read my Malcolm Hillgartner, (5 minutes) confirming I made no such claim. Attached below.
Pg. 45- …Intriguing theory centers on George Hodel see “Daddy was the Black Dahlia Killer” page 52″ ??? I checked reference and my paperback edition of her book page 52 shows nothing related?
Pg. 47- …”soil samples taken…overall proved inconclusive.” No. The soil sample analysis proved CONCLUSIVE and analysis by Dr. Arpad Vass proved, “positive for human remains.”
Pg. 47. (Bottom Insert)- “Post Mortem on the Black Dahlia from Mistress of Crime- Cathi Unsworth:”
“Steve Hodel’s insistence that those who disagree with him are part of a coverup has served to weaken his credibility.”
No. I have never made such a claim or statement. I have never commented on anyone who has “disagreed with me.” They are free to disagree as is their priveledge.
My writings document the evidence supporting the LAPD/DA coverup back in 1950 of law enforcement’s solution to the Black Dahlia Murder.
I didn’t solve the murder, the DA and LAPD did. All I did was discover their solution and coverup of the solution from the long ago.
All three Los Angeles law enforcement agencies claimed “Case Solved.” These statements were made by different individuals at differnt times through the decades following the murder.
Re. the assertion that by my going to investigate the Zodiac crimes and claiming my father was in fact “Zodiac” I would suggest that one read both Most Evil I and II before making any judgment call. I didn’t just “go there” I was forced to follow the evidence that the “Black Dahlia Avenger” (George Hodel) left as “clews” pointing to Zodiac. The first was his “Sign Posts”. Posing victim Elizabeth Short’s on Degnan Blvd. Then posing Jeanne French’s body on “Mountain View” which was the burial cemetery of Elizabeth Short then in his Manila killing posing Lucila Lalu’s body on “Zodiac St.” Then discovering the additional “San Francisco Composite Drawings” that were picture perfect to George Hodel. Those combined facts, started me down the Rabbit Hole that was “Zodiac” and resulted in the two books, Most Evil and Most Evil II.
A good article with overview of the Dahlia case and background information. Your response to the inaccuracies are all spot on. All of which jumped off the page to me at first reading. My only addition is that you followed those murders in California that fit the MO of letters, cyphers and taunting notes to law enforcement as well as other crime signatures that are rare traits in serial killers that George Hill Hodel possessed.
Dennis E:
Thanks Dennis. Yes, quite right. I will add the WHY I started down the “Zodiac” Rabbit Hole to the blog. For one to understand the logic of going from “Black Dahlia Avenger” to “Zodiac” and in truth reinventing himself two decades later, one first has to know that the “Zodiac” composite was revised to a much older man and secondly the killer pointed us to it by way of his Manila 1967 murder of Lucila Lalu and posing her body on “Zodiac Street”. (The Manila corooner stated the suspect was “likely a skilled sugeon” and the body was posed on Zodiac Street just a mile from Dr. George Hodel’s then residence in the Forbes Park District of Manila.) This murder was committed just one year before beginning his serial crimes in San Francisco as “Zodiac.”
Thanks for clearing up the article and correcting it for readers.
I had an interesting thought about the LA Police Bulletin which implied there was a missing week in the timeline leading to Elizabeth’s murder. Unless I am reading it wrong. If so, please correct me.
If the Police Bulletin could lead investigators to insist that there was a missing week from Jan. 6 to the discovery of Elizabeth’s body, is it possible that the wording was intentionally vague enough to enable the police to discredit witnesses who saw her with GHH? Such misinformation would put future investigations off-track.
Just a thought.
Ron:
The so-called “Missing Week” was allegedly from January 9-14, 1947, and her body was found on the morning of Jan 15. I’ve discussed this in follow-up books. First off, the Police Bulletin has been misinterpreted and mythologized through the decades. LAPD is not claiming a missing week; rather, they are simply asking for information. It was circulated in bars, restaurants, and public places in downtown Los Angeles as a Missing Persons bulletin. “Has anyone seen her? Please contact us.” Secondly, as I have documented, fourteen witnesses came forward and established her whereabouts every day of that week. Seven of the witnesses personally knew her and could not have been mistaken. The last person to see her was LAPD beat officer Meryl McBride on January 14, 1947, coming out of a bar with “two men and a woman.” She stopped and talked to her, and the victim told her, “I’m meeting my dad at the Union Bus Station.” Officer McBride resumed her beat. I personally interviewed Officer McBride in 2002, some fifty-five years later, and she informed me that she was positive that the woman was Elizabeth Short. No doubt. LAPD (“The Brass”, not wanting to look bad in the eyes of the public) responded to the press, saying, “Well, Officer McBride was not actually positive it was Short.” But, in my interview, she confirmed she never said that and was positive. The other problem was that LAPD never put the various sightings together back then. They came from separate sources and they likely dismissed them as “a witness probably misidentifying her.”