Unsolved cases

The chilling mystery of the Black Dahlia

On January 15, 1947, the remains of 22 year old Elizabeth Short or as she is commonly known The Black Dahlia were discovered by Betty Bersinger on a morning stroll, on the back of 33800 Norton Ave, in Los Angeles.

Her body was cut in half and so pale and thoroughly drained of blood that Betty Bersinger actually mistook it for a mannequin at first.

The body was cut with surgical precision, leaving no trauma to internal organs or bones. And her face had been cut from her mouth towards her ears to form a haunting, ever- present smile.

There was no blood on the ground making it clear that the body was moved there after she was murdered.

Nine days after Short's discovery, an envelope was received by The Examiner, addressed in horrific fashion using cut- out letters, clipped from movie ads. It read:
" Los Angeles Examiners and other Los Angeles papers, here is Dahlia's belongings, letter to follow"

As promised, the envelope contained shorts, a social security card, birth certificate, snapshots, and an old address book with some pages missing. Gasoline was rubbed on the contents to remove the fingerprints,

Brent: Life hack right there
Ryan: ( wheeze) what if it caught up in flames in transit? Do you think he was like-
Brent: yeah
Ryan: sitting at his home nervous, thinking " oh I really hope they got my letter"

Many notes were sent to the police and press that followed. One hand- written letter said:
" Turning in wed Jan 29, had my fun with police" black dahlia avenger.

Before arriving in LA, Elizabeth spent time in San Diego with a man named Robert Manley who drove her to LA and helped her check into a Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Many reports state, that this was the last place that Short was seen alive and like our old friend the Cesar Hotel, the Biltmore is reportedly haunted.

Hotel guests claimed to have seen Elizabeth walking on the first floor in a black dress, only to disappear into a wall. She's also been seen on the 10th and 11th floors.

Others state that after Manley left, the guy who dropped her off, Short headed to the nearby crown grill bar, which stands today as club galaxy, and that place is the true last sighting of the Dahlia, people claim.

Although this case has been officially listed as unsolved for nearly 70 years, there's no shortage of interesting suspects. But I'm only going to go over what are in Ryan's opinion the most interesting ones.

The first suspect, was Robert Manley, the guy who dropped her off at the Biltmore Hotel. But not only did he return to San Diego almost a week before her body was discovered, but he also passed a polygraph test. But it is worth noticing that in 1954 he was committed to a mental hospital due to hearing voices.
However, when administered sodium Pentothal which apparently is a " truth serum".

Bret: PFFTT hah ha hah ha hah
Ryan: hahehahuhah
Bret: (inhales) what??
Ryan: I'm not ki-F***ing with u that is literally what it is
Bret: so they got f***ing Snape on the line
Ryan: eheheh
Bret: and said " hey, give us ur truth serum"
Ryan: (wheeze)
Bret: this is why cases are unsolved, because they are working with 1947 technology.

Anyways, he checks out, onto the next one.

The second suspect was Army Corporal, Joseph Dumais, who claimed to be blackout drunk with Elizabeth in San Francisco a couple days before her discovery.
When asked if he thought he killed Elizabeth, he actually said yes. But evidence later showed that he was on his base the day of her death.

The final suspect is George Hodel, but before we begin, let's talk about George's home at the time in LA.
The house had a secret room where the children were not allowed to go and nothing screams "Innocent " like a secret room. This is where it gets interesting.
So George's son, Steve Hodel, who was 5 at the time of Dahlia murder later became a police investigator for 17 years and after retiring from the force, became convinced that his father, George Hodel, had actually killed the Black Dahlia and looking at the facts, Steve Hodel makes a pretty compelling case.

So George Hodel was highly intelligent, he studied surgery in Medical school and also ran LA county's venereal disease clinic, which would also suggest that he's capable of the surgical disembowelment and mutilation of Elizabeth short's body that was found at the scene of the crime.
Also, despite being a busy doctor, George Hodel was also a busy bachelor. Having 11 children from five different women. Additionally, Steve Hodel also found pictures of a woman that appeared to be Elizabeth Short in one of his dad's photo albums.

However, when examined by a forensic artist, the artist was 85 percent certain it wasn't Elizabeth in the pictures.
But in 2014, a different expert used facial recognition technology resulting in a 90 to 95 percent match but much like other tests, the results were ultimately inconclusive.

Steve also believed his father's handwriting was eerily similar to the handwriting of the Dahlia murder. But when reviewed by experts, the results were mixed with the opinions ranging from probable, to inconclusive.
George Hodel was also accused by his own daughter for sexually assaulting her but was found not guilty. Now here's where things get pretty fishy and suspicious, at some point police officers did suspect George for killing the Black Dahlia and planted listening devices in his home.

On tape, George was heard saying quote " supposing i did kill the Black Dahlia, they couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead" End quote.

Bret: he sounds like a 1950's mobster!
Ryan: " they can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's... dead!"
Bret: hahaha
Ryan: " she's dead copper!"
Bret: huhahah

Additionally, he also was caught saying
" This is the best payoff I've seen between law enforcement agencies and I'd like to get a connection made in the DA's office "

George's son also tracked down an LAPD case file that contained a female witness who stated George and Elizabeth knew each other.
This strikes as a really good time to tell you all the LAPD was notoriously corrupt around this time, which perhaps explains why the case was dropped, even though George was emerging as a clear suspect and would also explain why all physical evidence from the case has magically disappeared.

This could mean a lot of things, some believe that George paid off the police. While others believe that this is just a classic case of police incompetence but nobody knows for sure.
This isn't over by the way, in 2012 the ever vigilant Steve Hodel return to his childhood home with a police dog, that indicated the scent of human remains. Solid samples were taken from the ally behind the former Hodel House, they came back positive for human remains as well and while this doesn't link to the Dahlia murder directly because she wasn't buried, it does indicate that George Hodel was perhaps not the biggest stranger to murder.

Even more fascinating, Steve Hodel would like to keep digging on the property but since its privately owned, he doesn't have permission to do so and when trying to get the LAPD to follow up on this new evidence, they refused.

Regardless, it seems that the famous case of the Black Dahlia will remain

Unsolved

Hey everyone
Sorry it took too long but I promise now on 2018, I will try to finish up what I can of unsolved mysteries.

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See ya, detectives