Notice how they pose. Beth presents herself openly, and Marge Dyer is more modest.

Welcome to episode #5 of the Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast. This is your host Scott Tracy.

The search for “Red” is over. Robert Manley is under arrest and co-operating with the Los Angeles Police.

Manley is called “the last person to see Elizabeth Short alive” in the press. It’s not true. Beth is seen exiting the Hotel three hours later. The last person to see her was her killer. The press and police use the tag “last man to see her alive” to shoehorn Red into the role of murderer. The photos taken for the newspapers do him the disservice of making him look like a convict. I recommend you look at the film noir comparison photos on my web site. One can find books and web articles that still offer Red Manley as a suspect based on the initial police enthusiasm for his culpability. You may ignore those articles. Red Manley is a victim in this investigation; he is not a suspect, he’s not a criminal. No one with a solid foundation of the facts of the Black Dahlia case considers Red Manley a valid suspect. The police expected him to come forward earlier, but of course, Manley has hesitated because he hopes to not lose his marriage because of an affair. Manley admitted to a flirtation with Elizabeth Short in San Diego “I had a date with her … and kissed her a few times but that's all.”

Police question Manley for 12 hours without an attorney and without charging him with a crime. Manley is drowsy and the polygraph test is declared inconclusive. Manley’s Studebaker is checked for blood. There is none. There is nothing on his clothes.

The press quotes Robert Manley’s mother, Mrs. Morris Manley declared, “It’s ridiculous. He’s a wonderful son. He’s never been in any trouble in his life. They are just questioning everyone with red hair, that’s all it is.* Naturally they have to find out who did it. Everyone with red hair gets the nickname “Red.”

Manley’s wife, Harriet, and another couple maintain he is playing cards with them the night in question. His story is believable. He passes the second polygraph. Robert Manley is interviewed by Agnes Underwood. The police are playing bad cop, good reporter; with the hope a woman might get a better result. Indeed there is a helpful clue and a new fact that changes things. The clue is that Robert Manley remembers a phone call Beth made from a San Diego restaurant to an unknown person. In time it will be learned this was a phone call to Mark Hansen on January 8th at his home requesting to stay there when she returned. Not until Anne Toth comes back was Hansen’s reply.

The important fact: Manley tells Aggie it was him that mentions the Biltmore. Beth never says take me to the Biltmore Hotel.

Manley admitted to Aggie that he told Beth he was married, during the evening, and said she had told him she had been married to 'a Major Matt somebody," who had been killed. "When I walked her to the door, I told her I might be down that way again and asked if it would be all right to wire her when I was arriving. She said yes.

“… on January 7, about 3 p. m. I sent her a wire that I was arriving next day. …”She asked me if I would drive her to Los Angeles. I said yes, but I told her I couldn't leave until (tomorrow).… (returning north) we drove to Laguna Beach. There we stopped and got gas. En route she asked whether she could write to me. She said she was going to meet her sister from Berkeley, Mrs. Adrian West. “I asked where she was going to meet her, and without waiting for her to answer I said, “The Biltmore?” and she answered “yes.”

“She wrote my name and business address in her notebook, so she could write to me.

“When we got in to Los Angeles, she wanted me to take her to the Greyhound Bus Station so she could check her bags before she met her sister. I drove her to the Greyhound bus station and carried her bags in. I had to go out to move my car, but told her I would drive around and pick her up and take her to the Biltmore. I didn’t want to leave her in that neighborhood.

“When we got to the Biltmore, she said she had to go to the restroom and asked me if I would check at the desk on whether her sister had arrived.…She hadn’t.
That is the last time I ever saw Betty Short. I'll take the truth serum or anything they want to give me. And, I'll swear on a stack of Bibles and tell my minister too, that was the last time I ever saw Betty Short. I did not kill her. "But, brother! I'll never cheat on my wife again!”

A couple of points related to the interview: One, Manley makes the comment about the Greyhound bus station because the location is adjacent to skid row. He is being a gentleman. Two, The Biltmore is an emotional touchpoint for the Black Dahlia legend but the Hotel holds no more significance to the destiny of Elizabeth Short than it does for Winnie Ruth Judd; it is a place both women pass thru. There is no more of a black dahlia ghost at the Biltmore than a black dahlia ghost at the greyhound bus station. For the most part, Robert Manley gets a raw deal from the press. His mistake is his own doing and he pays for it the rest of his life; Elizabeth Short is an attractive girl, Harriet Manley is a beautiful woman.

After the Aggie Underwood’s exclusive article in the Evening Herald Express, Manley is released. Aggie later writes in her autobiography, Newspaperwoman, that she was “removed” from the Black Dahlia case. Partially true. She was promoted to city editor. One Black Dahlia writer suggests her removal is evidence of a police cover-up. Eatwell writes, “Who was trying to take the star reporter off the biggest newspaper story of the decade? Who wanted her of their back? Why?”

Eatwell doesn’t answer any of the three questions she poses in her book. ** Let me do that now. The answer to these questions is no one. Nor does Eatwell make any specific claim stating the LAPD told the Hearst Newspaper to take Underwood off the Dahlia case. How would the LAPD order the Los Angeles newspaper to remove a reporter? Aggie taken off the case—there is not much truth to that, that’s how Aggie felt. So maybe 10% true. The 90% part is that it’s a significant exaggeration to suggest this is of any importance. Firstly, this case was not the story of the decade five days in. The Hearst newspaper just stated the investigation was going to focus on a violent San Diego date who scratched Beth’s arms. There is no one for Aggie to interview in Los Angeles. At this point in the crime investigation, there is little reason to assume the murder of Elizabeth Short will be a bigger newspaper story than the Red Rose Murder, the B girl stabbed repeatedly until the knife broke off in her back or the Red Hibiscus Murder where a mother of three WWII veterans is hit with a five inch bolt, raped and dumped in a public park.

No one, on the 21st of January 1947 could assume this case will be talked about in March or April of 1947, much less 70 years later. Especially with Manley released, there is no clear investigation path forward. However, if Aggie had any valuable information to follow up with, she was now the city editor. She could assign reporters anywhere she wanted. If this is a conspiracy to silence Aggie Underwood, why would she be given more authority and more independence? She loses the byline but gains a surprising position of power in the newspaper industry; this is only the second time in American history that a woman had been in charge. ...