“A Skilled Surgeon Did It” (Murders and Bisections of Suzanne Degnan Lipstick Murder 1946 and Elizabeth Short Black Dahlia Murder 1947 )

From Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius For Murder (Arcade 2003):

We know from LAPD reports, joint tissue studies by Dr. Lemoyne Snyder and LAPD criminalist Ray Pinker, and from the FBI dossier, that all experts were united in the belief that the murder of Elizabeth Short was committed by a skilled surgeon. However, in the past, these statements have been presented as broad generalizations, lacking medical specifics.

In July 2003, professor and surgeon Dr. Michael Keller, after reading my book, and examining crime-scene photographs, contacted me and provided his own far more specific and detailed insights. Here is his professional opinion, to be added to the weight of evidence that a surgeon committed the crime.

24 July, 2003

Steve — From the information in your book, I feel in fact that Ms. Short’s murderer did in fact have medical training and not just knowledge.

Several reasons:
1—To remain calm enough to completely transect a human torso with its inevitable spillages of blood, stool, gastrointestinal content and urine would have required (I think) someone who had seen it all before. This person knew where he was going.

2—The photos of the scene and the morgue which I looked up on the Net appear to show a very clean procedure. Surgeons make bold clean incisions thru each layer of tissue with the correct amount of pressure to divide only the tissues they are attending to. The uninitiated—laypersons— usually underestimate the amount of pressure it takes just to divide skin, let alone an intervertebral disc. Their procedures often result in cuts that are serrated at the ends from going over the tissue repeatedly. We derogatorily call these “Staging Laparotomies—going thru the skin in stages.” Additionally, amateurs often skive the incisions. Their cuts go thru skin at an angle to the horizontal plane so that one edge is “feathered” and the other appears peeled.

3—The killer here was educated enough not to attempt going thru the bones of the lumbar spine. He was savvy enough to locate and divide at the disc space. Even at that, it takes tremendous will and a very sharp instrument to divide the spinous ligaments and the thick paravertebral muscles. An amateur would probably have left hack marks on the vertebral bodies as he “casted about” for the interspace.

4—There appeared to be a willful attempt to perform or simulate the performance of a hysterectomy which at that time would have been done through a lower vertical midline as the photos appear to show. That was a medical decision.

5—We have no reason to doubt the police medical examiner as his report precedes the cover-up and actually indicts a medical person.

6—I believe medical knowledge would have been necessary to prolong the torture phase without killing the victim prematurely, but then again Dahmer apparently was able to trephine some of his victims and keep them alive. Still, in all, the Dahlia case seemed as though it may have been a prolonged “dance”—more skill needed.

7—Finally I think a surgeon’s hand would have been required to recontour the body in just such a way that it reproduced Man Ray’s The Minotaur—knowing where and how much to cut. This is less of a point but I feel that there is still credence here. Overall I feel no reason to doubt your case and in fact, taken together, if the killer was not Dr. Hodel then it must certainly have been another such professional.

Besides, as a teacher of students and both surgery and family practice residents, I am aware that their initial attempts at incisions end up as stated in #2 above. It requires about one to two years of steady practice to develop the feel of the scalpel against various tissue. Persons with innate surgical ability are rare. Most of us must repeatedly experience the tactile sensations to develop the right “feel”.

What I have stated is based on 20 years of surgical practice and education of young doctors. In my personal opinion, however, I am comfortable with your assertions and do believe the Dahlia was a professional work.

Sincerely, Michael Keller, M.D

Documentation that George Hodel was a skilled Surgeon:

GHH transcripts showing he received 766 hours of surgical training, 53 operations, and 12 autopsies while at medical school.

Photo of GHH taken at UCSF circa 1935

Photo was taken By GHH at UCSF circa 1935