Welcome to episode 4 of The Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast. This is your host, Scott Tracy.

On January 15th 1947, a body is discovered in a vacant lot; bisected and drained of blood. On the 17th the name of the murder victim is identified, On January 18th the press learns the Long Beach lunch-counter epithet and the legend of the Black Dahlia commands the headlines, In numbers, the victim is named Elizabeth Short for 22 years, 5 months and 30 days. For a day and a half Jane Doe #1 is known as a victim of the werewolf killer. For 73 years, 7 months, 19 days and counting she is the Black Dahlia.

Aggie Underwood used the “Werewolf” to describe the killer on the first day of coverage. The name acknowledges the brutality of the mutilations and highlights the terror the killer inspires in Los Angeles as an inhuman monster is on the loose. Interestingly, other Hearst syndication newspapers such as the San Francisco Examiner do not pick up the use of the Werewolf name; that moniker is unique to movie town.

A Movie horror theme in this movie making town seems most appropriate; as I look at the crime today, I might chose the Vampire as the monster instead of the werewolf?

A Vampire is an organized hunter; ensnaring victims in a web of seduction and manipulation. Drained of blood; sounds like A vampire. A wild Werewolf is an opportunity hunter.

Aggie was there observing the depth of the damage to the body of the victim, and she can not unsee the significant amount of overkill, which she reads as incomprehensible and vicious and she chose the name “werewolf”. As if a man had been so full of hate he acted like an animal, wild with the madness of rabies. The werewolf nickname is typical in that it refers to the Killer not the victim. That’s common.

I don’t remember Lizzie Borden’s mother’s name but I remember she got 40 whacks. Commonly, the Killer gets the moniker, the headline and the fame, not the victim, We are familiar with The Zodiac and with the Hillside Strangler. The idea that a monster is the killer becomes part of the problem.

The killer isn’t a werewolf. The police are looking for a monster and don’t see him. The headline of the Washington Post on this day shows the degree to which the press picks up Dr.DeRiver’s birdseed. POLICE SEEK MAD PERVERT IN GIRL’S DEATH.

The news on this day

A Greyhound rider gets off the bus in Fresno and tells police that another bus rider, mumbled in his sleep about how he should have cut the scar off the leg! Edward Glen Thorpe is pulled off a bus at Modesto and police find blood on his jacket. Thorpe is arrested. It gets worse for Thorpe.

It is revealed that he viewed the “Jane Doe #1” body in the morgue because he thought it could be his wife who had disappeared from Riverside.

Thorpe is from Wyoming so the Des Moines Register calls him a cowboy. The truth is less romantic. The Oakland Tribune tells us he is a member of the Cook and Waiters union in San Francisco. The union helps him get Thorpe released after questioning.

The Los Angeles Times locates a witness who believed he saw Beth Short made phone calls.

Quote …grocery clerk. Jack Fleming …said that, last Tuesday at about 10 a.m. a "pretty, tall" and slender girl" whom he recalls as exactly answering the murder victim's description came into the Daniel J. Regan market at 5833 S. Hoover St., clad in a gray pin-striped suit with short jacket, and made several telephone calls. ' "I changed a quarter for her," Fleming recalled, “…she did not seem at all excited or nervous, was very pleasant." Fleming said she went into one of several (phone) booths facing the street and remained near them for about 20 minutes, occasionally waiting outside the booth as if waiting for a busy line to clear. Later, according to Fleming, she came out of the market, adjacent to a corner service station, and crossed Hoover at 58th Street slowly “with an air as if she were waiting for someone.” Then she walked southward on Hoover, Fleming said. This is significant because Tuesday, the day Fleming says he sees the victim the day before she is tortured and killed. Endquote

It sounds very much like Beth, her hovering by the phone booth is similar to her missed connections at the Biltmore Hotel. He does call her tall. How tall was Beth Short? 5’5”. Likely wearing heels. Note Fleming has Elizabeth wearing a gray pin-striped suit, not a black outfit. One may question if Fleming saw Elizabeth Short or a look alike but it is clear Beth didn’t wear all black all the time,

At the Biltmore Hotel, Beth wore black shoes and suit, but white fluffy blouse, white gloves, camel colored overcoat and no flowers in her hair. Dr. Melvin Schwartz dentist with an office in the Cherokee Building on Hollywood Boulevard dubbed her the lady in red as he and his nurse describes a woman in red dress who tries to gain favor by placing the doctor’s hand under skirt. John Egger, 20 years old usher, described Beth, "The thing is sir, we always notice a girl like that, she was a striking girl, with that raven hair, blue sweater or pink sweater, George Bacos picked up Beth one night and went for a drive, parking on the Sunset Strip and chatting. "She wore a black satin skirt with a sweater - a pink sweater. Not black on black and flowers but always tasteful, this is a girl who dresses fashionably yet did not always have money for rent.

Returning to the news of the day— The press on this day, Jan 19th, introduces it’s readers to the French family in San Diego

Miss Dorothy French works at the Aztec movie house as a cashier notices Elizabeth Short trying to sleep at the open all night theater. Dorothy took her home to meet her mother, Elvira French takes Beth in. Mrs. Elvira French informed the police that Miss Short claimed she was the widow of an air corps major who was killed in a plane crash. And Beth Short told her that bore him a child that later died.

Mrs French says she was shown a newspaper article about the death of Matt Gordon but the article has a line crossed thru another woman’s name. Mrs. French is told that the newspapers made a mistake and Beth was the bride.

A frequent caller was a red-haired ex-marine flyer, Elizabeth called him “Red” and sometimes “Bob”. Recently Mrs. French got tired of boarding Elizabeth for nothing and told her she would have to leave. She said Elizabeth wired “Red” and that he came and got her.

“Be there tomorrow afternoon late. Would like to see you. Red.”

The Los Angeles Police sends out a Bulletin describing the red-haired suspect. His car is described as being possibly a 1940 Studebaker coupe, Cream or light tan in color, California license number… Suspect is described as a white male American, approximately 25 years old 6 feet tall, weighing 175 pounds with red hair blue eyes and light-complexion. Robert Manley is a pipe salesman and an ex-army musician. Robert is not an angry jealous Marine. Manley was never at Camp Cooke. Red Manley is not the Marine that threatens Beth Short in downtown Los Angeles before Beth is saved by Officer Myrl McBride. Look if you have red hair, Red is a your nickname*, however, the press unfortunately attempts to tie everything to the last man to see Beth alive.

Reporters locate Beth Short’s “lost” Chicago trunk at the Los Angeles train station. Photos of Beth’s sisters are printed in the paper as w...