August 28, 2025
Birch Bay, Washington

Je Défends — Dr. Walter A. Bayley

A Good Man Who Served His Country and His County

“Bayley, a 67-year-old man with severe Alzheimer’s could not have committed this murder.”
— Joseph Wambaugh, Case Reopened: The Black Dahlia (1999)

Ex-LAPD Sgt. Joseph Wambaugh

The Man Behind the Name

Walter Alonzo Bayley was born in Pilot Hill, California, in 1880. He graduated from USC Medical School in 1905, married Ruth Chase two years later, and went on to become one of Los Angeles’s most respected surgeons.

Dr. Bayley graduated from USC Medical School, Los Angeles in 1905

– Family Life –Marries Ruth Chase.  Father of three children: son Walter P. (tragically killed while riding his bicycle, in 1920, in an auto accident age 10) and daughters Betty (1917) and Barbara (1921).

– Military Service – Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, served honorably in France during WWI.

Capt. Walter Bayley

– Career – Rose to Chief of Staff at Los Angeles County General Hospital and surgical consultant at Mt. Sinai.
– Residences – Owned a mansion at 4546 Circle View Blvd. before later moving with his wife to a modest home at 3959 S. Norton Ave.

*Dr. Walter Bayley’s Los Angeles home, 4546 Circle View, in the 1930s.

Bayley daughter Betty wed at above family home in 1939 with 100 guests in attendance. Her sister Barbara was maid of honor.

In what appears to be a financial downturn in Dr. Bayley’s life he and his wife, Ruth move from their beautiful home on Circle View (4600sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 5 bath valued today at 2.4 million) to a much more modest residence located in a newly developed Leimert Park District of Los Angeles, and purchased a home at 3959 South Norton Ave. (1900sq ft with original purchase price believed to be about $11,000.)

3959 So. Norton Ave, Leimert Park, Walter and Ruth Bayley residence in 1940s

Ironically, the 1947 reporting witness, Mrs. Betty Bersinger after seeing the posed bisected body of the victim Elizabeth Short, in the 3800 Block of South Norton, ran to a home a block south of the vacant lot, informing the newspaper “that the home was owned by a doctor” and used the phone to call police and report the crime.

The Later Years

In the 1940s, Bayley opened a downtown office at 1052 W. 6th Street, taking on a younger partner, Alexandra von Partyka (a.k.a. Alice Field). Evidence suggests Bayley supplemented his income by performing abortions, a felony at the time. Protected by LAPD’s “Abortion Ring,” many doctors quietly paid police for immunity from arrest.

Partyka knew this secret—and, according to Bayley’s widow Ruth, she used it to extort him. On his deathbed in early 1948, Bayley signed over property to Partyka under threat of exposure.

Dr. Alexandra Partyka, a.k.a. Alice Field 1940s partner to Dr. Walter Bayley

Dr. Walter Bayley medical office 1052 W. 6^th Street, Los Angeles

*The office linked to LAPD’s abortion protection racket.*

The False Accusation

For nearly three decades, journalist Larry Harnisch has insisted Bayley was the “real” Black Dahlia killer. His theory rests on thin coincidences:

– Elizabeth Short’s body was found near Bayley’s former home.
– Bayley’s daughter Barbara signed as a witness on Short’s sister’s 1945 marriage certificate.
– Partyka “knew a secret” that supposedly tied to murder.
– Bayley allegedly suffered dementia and rage from his son’s 1920 death.

These claims collapse under scrutiny. Barbara’s signature was incidental, not evidence of acquaintance. The true secret was Bayley’s abortion work, not homicide. And as forensic expert Dr. Douglas Lyle has confirmed, Bayley’s death certificate shows only normal aging conditions—nothing that indicates madness or homicidal tendencies

1945 Marriage Certificate of Adrian West and Virginia Short.
Barbara Lingrin (Bayley) signature as “witness” lower left..

*A pro forma signature, not proof of acquaintance with the Short family.

The Facts of His Death

Dr. Bayley, after being hospitalized at the VA in West Los Angeles for nearly two months,  died January 4, 1948,  from pneumonia. His cause of death: bronchopneumonia, old heart attacks, and arteriosclerosis. Nothing tied to violence, rage, or insanity.

Medical evidence shows aging and illness—not homicidal madness.

Douglas P. Lyle M.D. author/forensic expert

Heart specialist and forensic expert Dr. Douglas P. Lyle reviews Bayley Death Certificate. His conclusion:

“This shows that anatomically he has atherosclerosis with old heart attacks and has disease in the vessels to his brain Cerebral arteries. lt shows what he terms Encephalomacia–this is an old term that simply means that he has lost some brain size and tissue, which is common with aging and since he is 67 this would not be a surprising finding. This is all anatomical and says nothing about function. He could have been a senile old man or a brilliant scientist with all his faculties intact and have the same autopsy report. So, this says nothing about his mental state or function. He died of pneumonia.”

A Reputation Unjustly Tarnished

Within two weeks of his death, Bayley’s widow and Dr. Partyka clashed publicly in court over the property she had coerced him into signing away on his deathbed.

That was his real tragedy—not a connection to Elizabeth Short’s murder.

Citizen News January 19, 1948/Los Angeles Times Jan 21, 1948

Meanwhile, Harnisch’s own statements have shifted from certainty (“irrefutable, concrete evidence”) in 1999 to hesitation in recent years stating in 2024, “I always hedge.”

“On the 52nd anniversary of the murder of Betty Short… I am announcing that I have identified an individual who is quite probably the killer. This is not conjecture nor coincidence, but irrefutable, concrete evidence.”  —Larry Harnisch 1999 Web Posting

“We may never know exactly how Betty Short was murdered. The probability is extremely high that Walter [Dr. Walter Bayley] was the killer, but there is no signed confession.”
—Larry Harnisch, “A Scenario for Murder”, 1999

“Many scenarios have been put forward over the years. Maybe it was an ex-GI traumatized by the horrors of war, or a lesbian love triangle; take your pick, for nothing seems too improbable. I think the killer might well be a prominent surgeon named Walter Bayley who until a few months before had lived a block from the crime scene on South Norton Avenue, a man in the grips of madness and adversity whose daughter knew Betty Short’s oldest sister. Of course, this is the Black Dahlia case, where so many other solutions have crumbled. I have to be willing to be proved wrong.”
Larry Harnisch, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1999

 “This is my best guess. My assumption. My supposition. This is a theory, a scenario. That would be my guess. I wasn’t born then and I wasn’t there.” (Regarding why Dr. Bayley may have killed her?) Harnisch: “The murder was rage driven and I suspect he (Dr. Bayley) had a sustained rage over the death of his son.”
Eric Leonard: “When did his son die?”
Harnisch: In the 1920s.

November 27, 2004 KFI radio The Crime Hunter Show: Black Dahlia Redux host Eric Leonard.

Conclusion

Walter A. Bayley was a distinguished surgeon, a veteran, and a family man. He served his community and his country. His name never appeared in any LE investigative reports.  He was never linked or ever suspected as a “suspect.”

He was not the Black Dahlia killer.

History deserves accuracy, and Bayley deserves the restoration of his honor.

_Je Défends_ — because the evidence demands