The Crown Grill & Jewel Room were separate businesses with same ownership in 1947. Hotel Olive occupied the 2nd & 3rd floor of building and had significant symbiotic relationships with the Jewel Room & the Crown Grill. In center image I embellish the matchbook map to show the Hotel Olive.

Welcome to the The Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast episode 6. I am your host Scott Tracy.

The police have located Lynn Martin, an ex-roommate who had lived with Beth Short in Hollywood and who disappeared at the same time as Beth.

The discovery of Miss Martin climaxed a backtracking by 1,000 officers of the gay path cut through Hollywood and Los Angeles night life by "the Dahlia.” Det. Lt. William Cummings, who traced Miss Martin to the valley auto court, said she has a record of eight arrests on juvenile charges in Long Beach. The girl, who appears to be in her early 20's, will be 16 next Saturday. She broke her stoic resistance to investigators' continuous questioning when Cummings began asking her about the scars... Through acquaintances of the girl the detective had learned that her upper body was scarred by the removal of tattooing, he said. When confronted by the detective's apparent intimate knowledge of her past, Miss Martin was quoted as blurting, "Oh, what's the use of trying to hide anything from you!" She then admitted her juvenile record and other more recent associations. Investigation had traced Miss Martin to a motel on Ventura Blvd., where she was seen as late as midnight Jan. 14, the night before Miss Short's severed body was found in a vacant lot near busy Crenshaw Blvd.*

The police hoped for a useful lead from Lynn Martin. Of course she wasn't hiding because she was involved in the crime, Lynn is only guilty of being underage. Lynn has not been in contact with Beth for many weeks. Certain witness are sure they saw Beth Short in the days prior to her death. Many of the observations from strangers turn out to be false leads; the baggage handler that sees Red with a black haired woman who asks about Alaska, turns out to be wrong. A Greyhound bus driver mistakenly believed Beth was on his route from Santa Barbara to downtown Los Angeles on January 14th.

Elizabeth Short’s appearance is striking and uncommon; there is no such thing as a Goth look in 1947. The heavy make-up resonates with an identity one would associate with a silent film star or geisha girl; neither of these is a foundation for a movie career, but it makes a dramatic impression. The newspapers describe her contrasting appearance of black hair and pale skin, however if you think about it, that description would fit Elvira as well as Dita Von Tease.

I believe the witnesses who knew Elizabeth Short when they speak of seeing her during the lost days and tend to be dismissive of strangers who think they saw Elizabeth, with one very important exception. Myrl McBride, a policewoman.

A Police bulletin is issued in the 21st of January seeking witness who would assist the investigation WANTED INFORMATION WHEREABOUTS OF ELIZABETH SHORT Between January 9th and 15th 1947.Description female American 22 years 5‘6“ 118 pounds black hair green eyes very attractive bad lower teeth fingernails chewed to the quick this subject was found brutally murdered body severed and mutilated January 15, 1947 at 39th and Norton Ave. Subject on whom information wanted was last seen January 9, 1947 when she got out of the car at Biltmore Hotel ... Subject makes friends with both sexes and frequented cocktail bars and night spots. Note the police seek information starting with her arrival at the Biltmore. Of course Beth was seen leaving the hotel, they clearly hope for more Biltmore witnesses. Elizabeth Short is not reported missing on the evening of the 9th or 10th or 11th 12th or 13th or 14th. The police have witnesses who have seen her, but have no knowledge where she spends the night. As I have noted previously, where is she missing from? She doesn’t live anywhere so who would report her missing? Anne Toth thinks she’s in Berkeley, Joseph Fickling believes she’s on the way to Chicago, Phoebe Short thinks she working at a naval hospital in San Diego, Mark Hansen declined to allow her to return to his house and Lynn Martin hasn’t seen or spoken to her for over two months. Beth is HOMELESS. There are only two options for these seven days. She been abducted and all the witnesses are wrong. Or she has been depending on the kindness of strangers as she did in San Diego and she is sleeping on couches until her luck runs out? THE local newspapers tell a story as a Hollywood tragedy of abduction and torture. The out of town papers tell a story of a squandered life tossed aside like a cigarette. In another decade, Beth might have been a beatnik or a hippie. She is only 22 years old. but has seen more of America than most 22 year olds. Emotionally she still a teenager, infatuated with different men on different nights. A day dreamer and freeloader, not much of a doer. Age-wise, emotionally, I would say Lynn Martin is the 22 year old and Beth Short is the 15 year old.

The police bulletin states Beth is friendly, in fact, she has few friends. It becomes frustrating for the police to find so many that recognize Beth but do not know her at all. Her drunken father abandoned her twice. Beth seems to carry that betrayal within her, along with the idea that the world owes her; folks do feel sorry for her and try to help. Oddly, she isn’t as thankful as these Good Samaritans might expect. Beth is narcissistic but not malicious, she lies easily and often. I was bothered quite a bit when I first started to research the crime about this pattern of dishonesty, and now I think of it as situational. Sometimes Beth lies when she first meets someone, to add depth to her story she gives herself a past; she was married she had a baby and lost it; sometimes she gives herself a future as a movie extra or model going to Chicago. Beth simply is inventing a more interesting version of herself to present to others. Sometimes she introduces herself as Beth, other times Bettie or Elizabeth; is one name better than another? Beth is trying them out. When police interviewed acquaintances they find a trail of disappointed men and disapproving women.

Since police think criminals lie; in the eyes of a police detectives like Hansen and Brown, her actions are those of a grifter. Beth has no job, how does the rent get paid? Why is she hanging around in bars like a freelance “B” girl, Hansen sees a young woman with the game plan of a carny. Hansen realizes Beth’s dating game is rigged sideshow. No kewpie doll for you, sailor but thanks for picking up the tab. As of this date, the current police thinking was that Beth would date men for free meals and save her passion for women.

January 22nd 1947 Bakersfield Californian QUOTE "It sounds like a cheap detective thriller," said Capt. Donohoe of the homicide squad, "but we finally were forced to turn to the theory that a woman was at the bottom of it." (Donohoe) pointed to other mutilation murders in which women in jealous rages hacked their girl friends to death.**

The sighting of Beth during these 7 days that strikes me as the most solid is the commentary of bartender Buddy La Gore, who told of observing Beth Short with two brunettes. “Always fastidious and proud of her apparel, she appeared disheveled and ‘frantic-eyed’ that night, La Gore said. "She, ...