Welcome to the Black Dahlia and the Blue Dahlia podcast. Episode 7 I am your host Scott Tracy.

in news today…

An unknown man threatened the life of Sultry Toni Smith, who now lives in the Hollywood apartment once shared by Miss Short. QUOTE The brunette beauty, her lips trembling with fear, said she answered the telephone in Apartment 501 last night to hear a strange man's gruff voice say: 'Well Toni. you are next.” "I honestly have no idea who he might have been. I don’t know why he should have threatened me.” * Miss Smith moved into Apartment 501 two weeks after Miss Short moved out. Fearful that she might be the next victim of the fiend who tortured Miss Short to death, then savagely hacked ...(her) in half. Miss Smith was given police protection. END-QUOTE

Toni Smith is a very photogenic non-Black Dahlia suspect. A person of interest for ten minutes. The press uses the word “sultry” as if it is Toni’s first name. In fact, Georgia is her first name. Toni is her actress name and she is a single mother of a three year old boy. I am not sure there would be much of a story in the paper without the accompanying photo of an ambitious and beautifully dressed actress sitting on the couch smiling with her long legs folded and posed underneath her body. Sultry Toni Smith appears to be auditioning for attention rather than trembling in fear. The Toni Smith story and this ‘actress as damsel in distress’ photo are not printed in the LA TIMES. However, because the Black Dahlia news is drying up. Many papers such as Bakersfield Californian, San Mateo Times believe the public is still thirsty for the sex and violence headlines of the Black Dahlia stories. It is amusing to imagine Sultry Toni Smith was ever a suspect;

Question of the day: raise your hand if believe the police think a Mother a of three year old boy, might be the dangerous Lesbian thespian they were seeking in the murder?

Interestingly, the Toni Smith story is put to use in some newspapers as part of the shift of the focus of the LAPD because a man telephoned Toni Smith. QUOTE Police, previously convinced that a woman was responsible, widened their search after hearing Miss Smith's story and finding other clues which pointed to a man. Police Lieutenant P. W. Freestone said be believed the killer in dumping the body onto a vacant lot early last Wednesday lowered one foot on a very small pool of blood on the ground, staining his shoe. He indicated the print was left by a man.

Other "tips" were telephoned to the homicide detail, ... A bloody towel was found (on) Hobart St. near 29th and was sent to the police crime laboratory for tests. A pair of nylon stockings picked up at 12th and Hoover; likewise were considered significant.

Let’s step back from the news and state the obvious. These stockings, the bloody towel and the threatened actress are all dead ends. We don’t hear about Sultry Toni again in the police blotter or on the big screen.

The thirst for news of the Black Dahlia has created significant pressure for new headlines. As the Black Dahlia Avenger has said to James Richardson yesterday, “you seem to have run out of material.” The Tortured Slain Nude Girl is what the public wants to read about. This is not lost on anyone in the publishing business. The Black Dahlia case plays a significant role in media historically as it changes the floor and the ceiling to what is permissible to show and tell the American public. From this point forward, the illustrated paperback covers for detective stories show more of the female figure. True Crime magazines change their covers and stories. On my web page I have a section of pre-war covers that are much more tame than the post-1947 covers. Pre war: Women in torn negligees, tied to the bedpost, Men with perfect hair and handguns are there to save them. Post war the images are raw. Women now have cigarettes, cleavage and Tommy guns. In five years, Paula Klaw will be selling pictures of Bettie Page based on customer requests for poses. There is no place for Pollyanna in this new detective world that embraces the threats of torture and bondage. As in Film Noir, the post war female is at the center of the spiderweb and a big part of the mystery is to find out if the woman is a victim or the spider. From an essay on True Crime magazines by Eric Godtland, QUOTE “In January 1947 a crime occurred that foreshadowed the direction of detective magazines for the remainder of their lifespan. The Black Dahlia murder case, involving the mutilation of a beautiful Hollywood starlet riveted the detective world. Horrible as it all was, the obvious sex appeal lurking in the backstory was not lost on publishers struggling to hold a shrinking readership.”**

Back to the news, Mrs. John Bersinger arrives at the University Police Station with her husband, wearing a fur coat. The paper states QUOTE…Mrs. John Bersinger, 3705 Norton Ave., volunteered that she was woman who first telephoned University Police Station on Jan. 15. “I was terribly shocked and scared to death," she said. QUOTE "I grabbed Anne and we walked as fast as we could to the first house that had a telephone. "When I called the police, they asked me what number I was talking from, and I gave it to them. They didn't ask me my name.”

We have covered this. I love that Betty Bersinger, gets dressed up to got to the police station. The newspapers were everything in 1947. It was exciting to be in the paper and be photographed. Of course she put on a fur coat, she is a star witness; she wanted to make her husband proud and look pretty. I have a photo essay on the press coverage of Mrs. Bersinger on my web site as the press brackets her pictures.

In the Los Angeles Times this day an article about a new witness…they refer to …a thin man. QUOTE Out of the shadows of the Norton Ave. "lovers lane," where the mutilated, nude body of Elizabeth Short was found in a weed-webbed vacant lot, a thin man walked yesterday into the case. This new character in the grisly murder story, … was pictured to police by Walter A. Johnson, 3815 Welland St.§

Two notes, first is it possible to tell this story without including the word “nude” but there it is for the reasons we just discussed. Second, Welland Avenue is seven blocks east of Norton so Walter Johnson drove over half mile at night to dump his lawn clipping among the weeds of a vacant lot.

Johnson said that at about 9 p.m. on Jan. 14 he went to the area, an undeveloped tract known as a haven for smoochers and trash haulers with a carload of shrub cuttings. As he slowed his car to a stop, he noticed a light colored 1935 model sedan parked on the west side of Norton directly opposite the fire plug near which Miss Short's body subsequently lay. The right rear door of the sedan was open. Standing near the car was the thin man, described by Johnson as 45 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall, thin build, wearing tan top coat and a dark hat pulled low. As Johnson stopped, the man looked up, startled. He then crossed the street and walked slowly past Johnson's car, hands in pockets. He scrutinized Johnson thoroughly and then craned look into Johnson's sedan. … At this point Johnson fearing the thin man was a bandit, drove away, circled the block, and returned to the spot. This time, he said the other car sped away with grinding gears and burning tires.

Let’s digest this — the other guy is parked on the wrong side of the street and neither of them expected to another person. Clearly the two men spooked each other. It’s 9 p.m. Beth Short is alive for at least six more hours. This has nothing to do with the Black Dahlia, this is only Norton Ave news, QUOTE a haven for smoochers and trash haulers. END-QUOTE What are you going to say to the wife? “Honey now that I finished mowing the lawn today, I’m in the mood for a bit of hanky-panky, let’s you and I drive around the corner to a special vacant lot I know..”

Honestly, it is a thick line between a dump and a lovers lane. Mr. Johnson didn’t go the the neighborhood to smooch. Let’s talk about a couple of things. One, criminals and lovers lanes, and two newspapers and lovers lanes.

Let’s begin with killers and lover’s lanes; is there any history of this, is a lover’s lane is a good dumping ground? No. Teenage lovers in cars and killers with a body in the trunk are seeking very different types of privacy and isolation. Historically, an isolated lover’s lane is where serial killers go shopping not dumping. Let’s name some lovers lane incidents. The Texarkana Moonlight Killer attacked four couples in cars over eight weeks from Feb 22nd thru May 3rd 1946 in isolated lovers lanes.

The Red Light Bandit, Carl Chessman robbed Regina Johnson and her date as they parked in isolation on a hill in west Pasadena on Jan 19th 1948.

The Zodiac killer shot teenage lovers Jensen and Faraday in their car on Lake Herman Road north of Benicia on December 20th 1968. The Valentine’s Day killings of Patricia Mann and Jesse McBane of Durham North Carolina, began with an abduction from a lover’s lane near Hillandale golf course. The lovers were found on February 25th 1971, ten days after their date and 4.2 miles from their car. They had been tortured but died fully clothed, tied to separate trees next to each other.

All of these killings seem to be murders of opportunity. There is little indication of a killer stalking these victims ahead of time. These “lover’s lanes” were isolated, not this classic high school movie trope of cars parked next to each other as they might be at a drive-in movie. None of these...