The Black Dahlia

Summary

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Crimes of the Times – "The Black Dahlia"

Podcast: Crimes of the Times (L.A. Times Studios)
Host: Christopher Goffard
Date: March 11, 2025

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Overview

In this episode, Christopher Goffard investigates the infamous Black Dahlia case—the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short—dissecting the myths, media frenzy, and the historically shifting narratives that have cemented it as one of America’s most enduring true crime mysteries. With insights from experts like Larry Harnish and Anne Redding, the episode explores Elizabeth Short’s real life amid Depression-era America, the misogyny of post-war L.A., and why the case remains unsolved and endlessly captivating.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Myth of the "Black Dahlia"

• [00:00] Elizabeth Short’s Life & Name:

  • Elizabeth Short, often spotted at a Long Beach drugstore with black hair and clothing, was dubbed “the Black Dahlia”—a nickname riffing on "The Blue Dahlia" film, not something she originated herself.
  • The moniker, fueled by police and reporters, helped mythologize Short as a femme fatale, overshadowing her real life.
  • Quote:

    “The Black Dahlia made her sound like some kind of rare, poisonous bloom, a nightcrawler on intimate terms with death.”
    – Christopher Goffard [00:39]

• [01:53] Debunking the Aspiring Actress Myth:

  • Despite reports, Short did not come to L.A. to pursue movie stardom, but followed a man after a failed relationship.
  • Shared stories as her own, complicating the investigation.
  • Quote:

    “If you met Elizabeth Short and you told her that something happened, she would incorporate that as if it had happened to her.”
    – Larry Harnish [02:58]

2. Elizabeth Short’s Life & Vulnerabilities

• Poverty and Survival:

  • Short was born during the Great Depression, abandoned by her father, plagued by health issues and poverty (self-treated dental issues) [01:53–03:32].
  • She often relied on others—dating men for meals, fabricating stories of tragedy (war widow, lost child)—to gain sympathy and help.
  • Quote:

    “She would get dressed and leave the house in the morning as if she was going to work… But it was totally fictional.”
    – Larry Harnish [03:14]

• Marginalization:

  • She had no permanent address and slept in theaters or wherever she could find shelter.
  • Quote:

    “She doesn't fit in a normal template and people have a hard time with that… I think she kind of wanted to believe some of that stuff.”
    – Larry Harnish [03:52]

3. The Murder and Media Frenzy

• [04:30] Discovery and Investigation:

  • Last seen at the Biltmore Hotel after lying about meeting her sister; body found in Leimert Park, mutilated and posed.
  • Notably, body bisected with surgical skill; early suspicion fell on a doctor or surgeon.
  • Newspapers, especially the L.A. Examiner, competed fiercely, sometimes employing unethical tactics (tricking Short’s mother for a scoop).

• Victim-Shaming & Media Tropes:

  • The press, notably Jack Webb in The Badge, painted Short as immoral or lazy, integrating widespread misogynistic attitudes of the era.
  • Quote:

    “She was a lazy girl and irresponsible. At 21… she was already obsolescent… her tortured, severed body is an eerie blend of Poe and Freud.”
    – Jack Webb, via Christopher Goffard [07:30]

• Reality Versus Myth:

  • Police found no evidence she was promiscuous or a prostitute—most men’s encounters with her were nonsexual.
  • Quote:

    “I like to say that she, rather than having a lot of dates, she had one date over and over again.”
    – Larry Harnish [07:15]

4. Gender, Society and Blame

• [08:59] Postwar Misogyny and the Hollywood Narrative:

  • Prof. Anne Redding explains the backlash against women’s autonomy after WWII—women were pressured to abandon independence and return to domesticity, fueling cultural condemnation of women like Short.

  • Quote:

    “There was definitely an uptick in misogyny, a strong societal push for women to stop working…”
    – Anne Redding [09:38]

  • Redding interprets Short’s rose tattoo as a private act of rebellion and adventure for a woman in the 1940s [10:20].

  • Her teaching frames Short as a high-risk victim made especially vulnerable by social circumstances and personal losses (her father’s abandonment, a fiancé’s death in 1945).

  • Quote:

    “She was absolutely devastated…”
    – Anne Redding [11:33]

5. Theories, Suspects & Enduring Mystery

• [14:13] High-Risk Victim in a High-Risk Place:

  • Short’s final movements: possibly returning to the bus station, likely took a dangerous route through Pershing Square, infamous for vice and crime.
  • Quote:

    “She was alone, it was late at night… literally homeless… yet she's an attractive, well-dressed young woman…”
    – Anne Redding [14:24]

• [15:20] Unique Forsaking of the Victim’s Identity:

  • Redding observes the “Black Dahlia” case is rare in that the moniker emphasizes the victim, not the killer, contributing to the case's allure.

• [16:16] Nature of the Murder:

  • Both Redding and Harnish reject theories tying the case to serial killers or other LA crimes of the era; view it as a one-off “lust murder” by someone undergoing mental collapse.
  • Quote:

    “He never killed before, he never killed again.”
    – Larry Harnish [17:00]

• [17:23] Battle Against Myths:

  • Harnish, now a leading Black Dahlia expert, expresses frustration with sensationalistic, inaccurate theories proliferating in books, movies, and online.
  • Quote:

    “The case is interesting enough. You don't need to embellish it with all this goofy stuff.”
    – Larry Harnish [17:37]

• [18:37] Critique of “Hollywood Dream Gone Wrong” Trope:

  • Harnish debunks the idea that Short was burning for fame and chasing Hollywood success.
  • Quote:

    “People want this grab bag of film noir tropes about the femme fatale… achieving in death the fame that she had wanted all her life.”
    – Larry Harnish [18:37]

  • Emphasizes Short’s marginalization:

    “She is somebody who could disappear for almost a week and nobody noticed.”
    – Larry Harnish [19:14]

• [19:25] Unreliable Literature:

  • Harnish criticizes every major book on the case for perpetuating myths, wild theories, or outright fabrications:

    “No, the best thing you can do is not read any of them because you'll have to unlearn everything.”
    – Larry Harnish [20:17]

6. The Walter Bailey Suspect Theory

• [22:52] The Neighborhood Connection:
  • FBI profiler John Douglas suggested the killer must have local ties since Short’s body was left in a residential area rather than dumped remotely.
  • Harnish’s research uncovered that Dr. Walter Bailey, a now-overlooked surgeon who lived nearby and was acquainted with the Short family, ticks more “boxes” than other suspects.
    • Bailey’s brain lesion, surgical expertise, and proximity stand out.
  • Quote:

    “Of all the people who've been put forward, Walter Bailey actually had the skill to do what was done to her.”
    – Larry Harnish [24:19]

  • Redding and Harnish both see this theory as plausible though remain cautious, noting no single suspect checks every box.
    • Quote:

      “He checks some boxes. He doesn't check all the boxes.”
      – Larry Harnish [25:38]

7. Why the Case is Still Unsolved

• [26:04] Cold Case Perspective:

  • Retired LAPD Detective David Lamkin, cold case unit chief, notes that most evidence is now gone and the case was low priority given the practical impossibility of prosecution after so many years.
  • Quote:

    “Pretty much all the physical evidence was gone from that case.”
    – David Lamkin [26:28]

• [27:11] Hollywood Still a Lure and a Danger:

  • Lamkin reflects on the dangers and disillusionment faced by hopeful transplants, especially women, noting this narrative’s real-life persistence.

• [27:44] Skepticism About Solutions:

  • Lamkin believes the chances of solving the case are nearly nil barring extraordinary new evidence, echoing Harnish’s methodical skepticism.
  • Quote:

    “That case will never get solved, barring some weird thing happening, like someone's cleaning out a basement or attic and they find some journal…”
    – David Lamkin [27:44]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There is no proof she even knew of the name. It derived from noir fantasy and helped transform her into noir.”
  – Christopher Goffard [00:39]

• “If you met Elizabeth Short and you told her that something happened, she would incorporate that as if it had happened to her.”
  – Larry Harnish [02:58]

• “One afternoon, you know, buy dinner, buy lunch, and then she would get rid of them.”
  – Larry Harnish [07:15]

• “She was right in the thick of it when she disappeared. And her perceived lifestyle was used to vilify her…”
  – Anne Redding [10:31]

• “He never killed before, he never killed again.”
  – Larry Harnish [17:00]

• “No, the best thing you can do is not read any of them because you'll have to unlearn everything.”
  – Larry Harnish [20:17]

• “Whoever killed her wanted to put the fear of God in that neighborhood.”
  – John Douglas, as paraphrased by Larry Harnish [23:14]

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Key Timestamps

• 00:00–01:53: Goffard introduces the Elizabeth Short case, origins of the “Black Dahlia” name, and early mythmaking
• 01:53–03:32: Short’s background: poverty, abandonment, survival strategies
• 04:30–07:15: Details of the murder, initial investigation, and debunking character myths
• 08:59–11:45: Anne Redding discusses postwar L.A., misogyny, Short’s vulnerabilities
• 14:13–15:20: Short’s final night, risk factors, and societal context
• 16:16–17:23: Uniqueness of the Black Dahlia case, rejection of serial killer angle
• 17:23–18:37: Harnish critiques popular myths and discusses media’s role in shaping the legend
• 19:25–20:17: Inaccuracies in Black Dahlia literature
• 22:52–25:56: FBI profiler’s advice leads to Dr. Walter Bailey suspect theory
• 26:04–27:44: Detective Lamkin summarizes cold case challenges and the fundamental unsolvability
• 27:44–28:28: Closing thoughts, reiteration that the Black Dahlia’s power is in its enduring mystery

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Conclusion

Goffard’s episode on the Black Dahlia underscores how Elizabeth Short’s real life—marked by struggle, independence, and tragedy—was transformed by the press and pop culture into a noir archetype. Experts like Harnish and Redding argue that much about Short has been lost or distorted, and while tantalizing leads like Dr. Walter Bailey exist, the case is most notable for its persistent ambiguity and the cultural anxieties it reveals. The episode calls for skepticism toward easy answers and encourages a more empathetic reading of Elizabeth Short’s life and death.

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Transcript

[Christopher Goffard]

This is an LA Times Studios podcast. At a drugstore in Long Beach, a jobless young woman named Elizabeth Short used to be seen frequently lingering at the counter. Her hair was dyed jet black, matching the funereal hue of the clothes she favored. It was here that she acquired a playful nickname that would fuel her long, macabre afterlife. People called her the Black Dahlia. It was a riff on a Raymond Chandler movie, a film noir called the Blue Dahlia that was popular at the time. Cops and reporters discovered Elizabeth Short's nickname after her mutilated body was found on January 15, 1947, in a weedy lot in South Los Angeles. The Black Dahlia made her sound like some kind of rare, poisonous bloom, a nightcrawler on intimate terms with death. There is no proof she even knew of the name. It derived from noir fantasy and helped transform her into noir. Fantasy Writers would tailor her story to fit a femme fatale archetype. She was often described as an aspiring actress. Her death played as a cautionary tale parents might tell daughters who dreamed of taking a bus to Hollywood to find stardom. The myths continue to swirl around Elizabeth Short. Her death at age 22 has spawned endless Byzantine theories. What fuels the enduring fascination? Like Jack the Ripper, there's an evocative moniker, there's an undercurrent of sex, there is a degree of real savagery, and there is a lack of resolution. From LA Times Studios, this is Crimes of the Times.

[Mary Knopf]

Christopher.

[Christopher Goffard]

I'm Christopher Goffard. People know Elizabeth Short's face now from a few surviving images. Some of them have an air of glamour and aspiration. But poverty hangs over her whole life story. She was born in Boston, a child of the Great Depression. She was a young girl when her father abandoned her, her four sisters and and her mother. She had terrible asthma and missed a lot of school For a while. She worked as a waitress and cashier in her 20s. Her teeth were badly decayed and she used candle wax to fill the cavities. It's what people did when they could not afford a dentist. She did not come to Southern California to pursue a dream of movie stardom. She came out here to be with a man. But the relationship ended and she spent a lot of time drifting between neighborhoods and temporary friendships. She shared a place with an aspiring actress at one point, and she used the woman's anecdotes as her own.

[Larry Harnish]

If you met Elizabeth Short and you told her that something happened, she would incorporate that as if it had happened to her.

[Christopher Goffard]

This is Larry Harnish, a Former LA Times copy editor who has become an expert on the case. We were outside getting coffee.

[Larry Harnish]

She would get dressed and leave the house in the morning as if she was going to work out in the Valley someplace. She would come home, she would have stories about her day at work and all that. But it was totally fictional. None of it was real. And that's one of the things that really made the investigation difficult.

[Christopher Goffard]

Elizabeth Short was often angling for meals and rides and telling stories meant to win sympathy. Sometimes she portrayed herself as a war widow. Sometimes she said she'd lost a child. She dated military men, officers, not enlisted men. Sometimes she slept in an all night movie theater.

[Larry Harnish]

She would put on this act as if she was from a very fine Boston family. And she was shocked at the way they do things out here. She doesn't fit in a normal template and people have a hard time with that. It's much easier to understand the aspiring actress, we know that type, somebody who is off and on, homeless and in and out of touch with reality. That's a little bit harder. So I think there's more depth than just being a scammer. I think she kind of wanted to believe some of that stuff.

[Christopher Goffard]

She had no permanent address when a traveling salesman picked her up in San Diego in January 1947. The man drove her to the bus station in downtown Los Angeles. She dropped off her suitcases there and asked the man to take her to the Biltmore Hotel. She said she was meeting her sister there. This was a lie. Her sister was out of town. Elizabeth Short parted ways with the salesman and she was last seen leaving the hotel. Her body was spotted a few days later by a woman pushing a stroller down Norton Avenue and in Leimert Park. At first police thought it was a mannequin. She was posed flat on her back, naked. The mouth was sliced ear to ear. The body had been drained of blood and it was in two parts, neatly severed between the second and third lumbar vertebrae. The lead detective suspected that a skilled surgeon had to be responsible. In 1947, four Los Angeles newspapers were in fierce competition for scoops because of the mutilation. The headlines were calling it a werewolf killing. The first challenge was to identify the victim. A now defunct newspaper called the Los Angeles examiner got the victim's fingerprints from police and transmitted them to the FBI. It turned out Elizabeth Short's prints were on file because she had been arrested in Santa Barbara for underage drinking a few years earlier. The LA examiner led the coverage and its news gathering practices could be Ugly even by the standards of the day. An examiner reporter called Elizabeth Short's mother to get some background information for an article. The mother did not know her daughter was dead and the reporter pretended Elizabeth had won a beauty contest to get what he needed out of her. Only then did he deliver the terrible news. Soon afterward, the examiner received a postcard believed to be from Elizabeth Short's killer. It was signed Black Dahlia Avenger. But it had been rubbed with petroleum to destroy evidence. It did not yield any fingerprints. One of the myths about Elizabeth Short is that she was promiscuous or even a prostitute. In a fictionalized imagining of her life by the novelist John Gregory Dunn, she. She's nicknamed the Virgin Tramp. But a different profile was emerging as police interviewed people who'd known her. Police discovered that she had had brief encounters with a lot of men, but almost all of them insisted they had been non sexual encounters.

[Larry Harnish]

I like to say that she, rather than having a lot of dates, she had one date over and over again. It was the same date. It was not even a one night stand. It was a one afternoon, you know, buy dinner, buy lunch, and then she would get rid of them.

[Christopher Goffard]

The lead detective called her a tease. He said, quote, she probably went too far this time and just set some guy off into a blind, berserk rage. You can find that same combination of disdain and disapproval in some of the popular accounts of the case. One of the most famous came out 11 years after the slaying in a 1958 book called the Badge by Jack Webb. This is, by the way, what fueled young James Ellroy's obsession with the case. And he'd go on to write the novel the Black Dahlia in which he imagines a lost and exploited Elizabeth Short appearing in a porn film. Here's what Jack Webb said about Elizabeth. She was a lazy girl and irresponsible. At 21, when she should have been starting married life for maybe a modest career, she was already obsolescent. To the sociologist, she is the typical unfortunate depression child who matured too suddenly in her teens into the easy money, easy living, easy loving of wartime America. But to the criminologist, Webb continued, her tortured, severed body is an eerie blend of Poe and Fred. The language here gives us a look at the obsessions of the time. It highlights attitudes about the transformation of American women who had found independence in the World War II economy and expected to keep it.

[Anne Redding]

She was vilified by Webb and many others.

[Christopher Goffard]

I'm talking to Anne Redding, who teaches the Black Dahlia case. In a class called the Study of Murder at Santa Barbara City College, she tells me that one of the biggest characters influencing the mythos of this case is post war Los Angeles, Post World.

[Anne Redding]

War II, Los Angeles, the country as a whole. But perhaps Los Angeles even more so than other places because so many of our soldiers were returning from the Pacific Theater into the LA area and they just didn't. They stayed.

[Christopher Goffard]

After the war, women were supposed to go back to being wives and moms.

[Anne Redding]

There was definitely an uptick in misogyny, a strong societal push for women to stop working, and the whole idea of Rosie the Riveter and so forth. Careers outside the home, that came to a screeching halt. And they were expected to return to being the ideal housewife. There were job discrimination, so they'd be fired or they'd be demoted to lower classes, their pay would be cut. And so for women who maybe for the first time in their lives had found a sense of independence and a sense of autonomy and worth outside being a wife, that all disappeared.

[Christopher Goffard]

Elizabeth Short had a rose tattoo on her leg, which Redding sees as a sign of her independence. It was an uncommonly daring gesture for a woman in the 1940s.

[Anne Redding]

I think that speaks to a kind of adventurous, some people might even term a bit of wild side in her. A little bit of risky, a little bit of edge play perhaps. I find that that element alone is an indication of a side of her personality that she kept pretty well hidden for all intents and purposes. So, yeah, the misogyny, she was right in the thick of it when she disappeared. And her perceived lifestyle was used to vilify her reputation in some of the most disturbing ways.

[Christopher Goffard]

In her classes, Professor Redding tries to show students how Elizabeth Short's past made her vulnerable. How her father abandoned her family when she was 6. How terrible asthma curtailed her education. And how she never recovered from the 1945 death of a man she loved, a military pilot named Matt Gordon, who died in a plane crash. Redding says her ability to cope with the world and take care of herself deteriorated.

[Anne Redding]

Elizabeth was absolutely devastated. She just turned 21 years old.

[Christopher Goffard]

After the pilot's death. Redding says there's no record that Elizabeth Short ever had another job.

[Anne Redding]

And in 16 months, she'd be murdered.

[Jonathan Shifflet]

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[Christopher Goffard]

Where was Elizabeth Short going when she left the Biltmore Hotel the night she disappeared? As Professor Ann Redding puts it, she was a high risk victim in a high risk situation.

[Anne Redding]

Depression, unemployment, low economic status. She was alone, it was late at night. She's literally homeless. No money and yet she's an attractive, well dressed young woman. But she was known to approach strangers for all manner of favors, car rides, meals or what have you.

[Christopher Goffard]

Redding thinks maybe Elizabeth Short was returning to the bus station a Place where she knew she could find a bench and sleep through the night without too much fear of harassment. But to get there, she might have taken a dangerous route. Right across the street from the hotel was Pershing Square. If you look at photos and postcards from the late 40s and you can see it was dense with tropical foliage, a 5 acre maze of trees in the middle of the big city. After dark it was a place notorious to the vice squad at the time.

[Anne Redding]

Pershing Square. It was a heavily wooded green park. And on different corners of the park there were access areas for the trolleys and public transportation. And so if one were to wonder if she did that on her way to the bus station or wherever she was going, I think the possibilities are fairly unlimited as to what might have happened to her. I do feel that one of the things that separates out the so called Black Dahlia murder is any other murder case that I can think of. Jack the Ripper, the BTK Killer. The nicknames, if you will, are always about the actual killer. The Black Dahlia murder case is the only unsolved case I can think about where the nickname is all about the victim.

[Christopher Goffard]

She says Elizabeth Short's death has the characteristics of a lust murder and that she believes the person responsible was not a serial killer.

[Anne Redding]

It speaks to me, somebody who had a significant amount of emotional disintegration. And I would think it's likely that shortly after this murder was committed that the person would have become incapacitated in some time. Whether that was being institutionalized, perhaps even in a mental institution, maybe suicide. But I just haven't seen anything that I find personally persuasive that this individual had killed before or killed after.

[Larry Harnish]

This is another thing that people hate to hear, one of a kind. And that's from the original detectives. He never killed before, he never killed again.

[Christopher Goffard]

One of them.

[Larry Harnish]

And people, oh God, especially the armchair sleuths, they have to attach it to all these other killings in LA in the 40s and it's not one of a kind. That's a hard sell.

[Christopher Goffard]

Larry Harnish began researching the case seriously in the late 1990s for a 50th anniversary story. He is now arguably the world's top authority on the case. He says the battle for accuracy is never ending.

[Larry Harnish]

I don't do interviews anymore. I'm fed up with the true crime industrial complex. The case is so polluted with crackpot theories and, and stupid books. The case is interesting enough. You don't need to embellishment with all this goofy stuff.

[Christopher Goffard]

Harnish energetically debunks theories in random stories. I've heard about the Black Dahlia case before I can even get them out. I remember a story that David lynch would tell about sitting down with, that's all bullshit. Detective number one, John St. John.

[Larry Harnish]

Totally bullshit. And I'll tell you how I know that.

[Christopher Goffard]

Oh, wait, let me finish the story.

[Larry Harnish]

I know what the story is. I've just been fighting with social media over the story.

[Christopher Goffard]

Harnish says that one of the most persistent myths depicts Elizabeth Short as an aspiring starlet, quote, sleeping her way across Tinseltown. In this portrayal, she was the starstruck moth who comes to Hollywood and gets burned by the Hollywood flame and finds in death the fame she didn't find in life. Harnish says this is far from reality.

[Larry Harnish]

People don't want the record set straight. People want this grab bag of film noir tropes about the femme fatale. And it's kind of like if you're familiar with the movie A Star Is Born, where you have this starstruck young girl from back east who comes to big bad L. A and, you know, bad things happen. And it's always. It's always this line, achieving in death the fame that she had wanted all her life.

[Christopher Goffard]

Where was she living when she died?

[Larry Harnish]

We don't know.

[Christopher Goffard]

We don't know where she was living.

[Larry Harnish]

Because she was missing the last week of her life. And I think that's really the sad thing about Elizabeth Short was she is somebody who could disappear for almost a week and nobody noticed.

[Christopher Goffard]

Harnish does not believe there is a single factually reliable book about the case. And he is disdainful of many well publicized theories. In one book, the killer is a bellhop, in another, a skid row alcoholic. In a third, the killer is gangster Bugsy Siegel, acting at the behest of an LA Times publisher who had supposedly impregnated Elizabeth Short. In a fourth book, the killer is Orson Welles, linked to the crime because he once sawed a woman in half in a magic trick. In one of the most popular books, Steve Hodele's Black Avenger, the murderer is the author's father, a dashing doctor who ran a venereal disease clinic. Harnish compares this theory to seeing Jesus on a tortilla. Your feeling is there's never been a good Dahlia book.

[Larry Harnish]

No, the best thing you can do is not read any of them because you'll have to unlearn everything.

[Christopher Goffard]

What does Harnish himself believe? During his research, he came across a suspect that generations of detectives had overlooked.

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[CASA Advocate]

I entered the foster care system at the age of 11 and I aged out at the age of 21 and it was not an easy time to be a foster child. It never is. Being in foster care, it really truly taught me resilience in a way that has set me up for life, but in the way that saddens me because no children should feel the feeling of survival, the need to be resilient. At the end of the day, they should be carefree and enjoy their childhood. So CASA is a non profit organization that stands for Corporate Appointed Special Advocate and they specialize in making sure that the child's needs are met, whether it's medical, health, educational, and ensuring that the child is receiving the most ability they can.

[Christopher Goffard]

A former FBI profiler, John Douglas, told Harnish that there was meaning in the Leimert park neighborhood where Short's body was found. Why did the killer choose a much traveled stretch of Norton Avenue? Why not dump the body in the desert or mountains? The profiler believed the killer must have had a link to the LA neighborhood.

[Larry Harnish]

He said whoever killed her wanted to put the fear of God in that neighborhood.

[Christopher Goffard]

So Harnish did some digging and found something detectives had missed. Elizabeth Short did have a connection to the Area. Her sister knew someone who lived there. A 66 year old man named Walter Bailey. He and his estranged wife lived a block from the crime scene. Something stood out about Bailey. At the time of Elizabeth Short's murder, he had been suffering from a brain lesion that had dramatically changed his personality. Something else jumped out. Bailey was a surgeon. He would have had the skill to bisect the body. His office was just blocks from the Biltmore downtown. Maybe Short had emerged from the Biltmore that night and sought his help. Maybe she told the sob story about losing a trip child, not knowing that Bailey's own son actually had been killed by a truck. Maybe this enraged him.

[Larry Harnish]

He's got the connection to the neighborhood, he's got the sort of the mental disintegration. Then you've got the connection between the two families. His daughter knew her sister. Of all the people who've been put forward, Walter Bailey actually had the skill to do what was done to him. He was a very respectable doctor. He was just chief of staff at County Hospital. But, you know, at the end of his life, it really unraveled.

[Christopher Goffard]

Redding says she thinks there's weight to harness his suspect.

[Anne Redding]

And it's pretty clear through the coroner's report, through the statements of the LAPD detectives that this wasn't just a surgeon, this was a very skilled. And so that's Walter Bailey. There are also characterizations of the meticulousness in which the body was scrubbed of evidence. The kind of taunting of the police if you believe that the killer did do those things. The ability to completely successfully get away with it with no attention ever been brought to them. Walter Bailey being an older man, with an older man's patience, an older man's control, and certainly his knowledge, he could have pulled all of those things off pretty easily.

[Christopher Goffard]

Bailey does check more boxes than other suspects. But Harnish avoids any definitive statements about his guilt.

[Larry Harnish]

Because you can't just go pick some random guy and say, oh, yeah, obviously he did it. That's what everybody does. No, I mean, I'm a journalist. It's like, okay, if this is what we know, we know that he checks some boxes. He doesn't check all the boxes.

[Christopher Goffard]

Dr. Walter Bailey died a year after Elizabeth Short's murder. I was not able to locate any living relatives to interview.

[David Lamkin]

So we went back to 1960, and I found there were about 9,000 unsolved homicides in Los Angeles from 1960 up through 2001.

[Christopher Goffard]

David Lamkin is a retired LAPD detective. He examined the case as head of the LAPD's cold case unit in 2001, it was not considered a high priority because the chances of prosecuting anyone were near zero.

[David Lamkin]

Needless to say, we had our hands full with our pick of cases and, you know, we had a relatively small unit and then we had to start screening all those cases to see which ones were most viable to get us solved. That case did come up just because of the notoriety, and pretty much all the physical evidence was gone from that case.

[Christopher Goffard]

Though Harnish and Redding and others have worked hard to shed light on the complexities of Elizabeth Short's life, the story is often still received as a grim cautionary tale about the dark side of Hollywood ambition. Part of the power of that narrative is that the entertainment industry, in more prosaic ways, is its own horror story.

[David Lamkin]

I worked Hollywood for a long time. You know, you see so many young people and young women coming there with stars in their eyes and have these dreams of making it in Hollywood. And unfortunately, in so many instances, this gets derailed and sidetracked and, you know, they end up having their dreams shattered, which of course puts them in a bad place mentally and just opens them up for all kinds of bad things to happen in their life.

[Christopher Goffard]

David Lamkin does not think most of the Black Dahlia theories have much going for them either.

[David Lamkin]

There's problems with all of them, but of the ones I saw, I like Harnishes. The parnish could actually connect his suspect to that location. In my opinion, that case will never get solved, barring some weird thing happening, like someone's cleaning out a basement or attic and they find some journal that belonged to somebody who lived in the house, you know, decades before, and there's some sort of reference to it. Foreign.

[Christopher Goffard]

Studios, this is Crimes of the Times. To read more about these cases, check out Crimes of the [e-mail] we also have a link to our video episodes in the show Notes. This episode was written and reported by me, your host, Christopher Goffard. Our showrunner and senior producer is Jacqueline Kim. Producers are Mary Knopf and Jonathan Shifflet, with additional sound design by Jonathan Shifflett. Executive editor is Deborah Anderloo. Associate producer is Jordan Patterson. Video editing by Cooper Kenward. Production services provided by JTB Studios. Our camera technician and operators are Jeff Amlott, Julia McCabe and Jason Newbert, with additional production support from Andrew Gombert, Patrick Stewart and Ann Marie Hauser. Denise Callahan is our studio manager. Ben Church is our production manager. Special thanks to LA Times Studios president Anna Magzanian, president and chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Times, Chris Argenteri and executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, Terry Tang. Crimes of the Times is executive produced and co created by Darius, Derek, Sean and me, Christopher Goffard.