{"id":13460,"date":"2024-02-02T19:39:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T03:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=13460"},"modified":"2024-02-02T19:40:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T03:40:01","slug":"black-dahlia-january-26-1947-to-february-15-1947","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=13460","title":{"rendered":"Black Dahlia: January 26, 1947 to February 15, 1947"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Beth Short\u2019s family buried her at Mountain View Cemetery <\/a>in Oakland, California. The cemetery is located 375 miles north of the vacant lot in Leimert Park, where Betty Bersinger found her, and 3,000 miles away from Medford, Massachusetts, where her journey began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Law enforcement worked around the clock to find the killer. On January 25th<\/sup>, as Beth\u2019s family laid her to rest, a police search of a trash dump at 1819 East 25th<\/sup> <\/a>Street in Vernon turned up one of her shoes and her handbag. Police carefully handled the items to preserve possible fingerprints. Because he saw her last, detectives called on Red Manley to identify the items.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Robert Manley identifies Beth’s purse and shoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Without hesitation, Red told them the handbag smelled of the perfume Beth wore when he drove her from San Diego to the Biltmore on January 9th. He recognized the shoe from a pile of shoes presented to him by police. Feeling the heel of each shoe, Red stopped at a black right pump. He held it up and said, \u201cThis is it! I\u2019m sure of it.\u201d The shoe was the only one with double taps\u2014heel and toe. Red paid to have an additional pair of new taps put on the heels of Beth\u2019s shoes when they left San Diego. Beth loved hearing the tap, tap, of her toe and heel hitting the pavement as she walked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detectives thought the shoe and purse might be the same as those reported by Robert Hyman. He said he saw them in a trash can in front of his caf\u00e9 at 1136 Crenshaw Blvd<\/a>, about two miles from 39th<\/sup> and Norton. Trash collectors took the can before police arrived; but they traced the load to the Vernon dump. Hyman could not identify the bag and shoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, LAPD Capt. Jack Donahoe ordered extra officers to sift through the contents of a cryptic envelope mailed to the Examiner<\/em>. On January 22, James Richardson, the paper\u2019s editor, received an anonymous call. The man told Richardson he had items belonging to Beth. He thought they would \u201cspice up\u201d the case. Two days later, the Examiner<\/em> received a call from the post office regarding a peculiar package. Someone, likely the killer, soaked the package in gasoline and addressed it \u201cTo The Los Angeles Examiner and other newspapers.\u201d The package contained personal documents, pictures, Beth\u2019s birth certificate, and a 75-page address book in brown leather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Publicity-seekers, and sad mental cases, contacted police. Police received many communications through the mail. The first, the gasoline-soaked package, was almost certainly authentic. The others included a letter intercepted in Pasadena. Enclosed in the improvised envelope, a note cut and pasted from newspaper headlines, read, \u201cDahlia killer cracking. Wants terms.\u201d Another letter, not considered authentic, read, \u201cWe\u2019re going to Mexico City\u2014catch us if you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One note had a message scrawled in ink. In bold, capital letters, it read, \u201cHere it is. Turning in Wednesday, Jan. 29, 10 a.m. Had my fun at police.\u201d The note was signed \u201cBlack Dahlia Avenger.\u201d The Avenger was a no-show. He sent a follow-up note to the Los Angeles Times.<\/em> The note read, \u201cHave changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Daniel Vorhees, a transient in his thirties, surrendered to the police at Fourth and Hill Streets. He said he \u201ccouldn\u2019t stand it anymore.\u201d Detective Charles King and Dr. Paul De River, a police psychiatrist, agreed to wait until Voorhees recovered from his \u201cbewildered and befuddled state\u201d before giving him a lie detector test. Police cleared Voorhees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By February 1st<\/sup>, police said they were giving up trying to contact Beth\u2019s killer through letters and appeals. Sick pranksters sent anonymous notes, some from as far away as the Bronx, and signed them \u201cBlack Dahlia Avenger.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A local newspaper received half a dozen Black Dahlia messages in one mail delivery\u2014one with postage due. An exhausting number of fortune tellers, spiritualists, mediums, and even clergymen wrote to police with their own solutions of the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the two weeks since the murder, hundreds of police door-knocked thousands of doors in a futile search for the crime scene. Several false confessors were detained and released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women of Los Angeles lived in fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEXT TIME:<\/strong> A suspect and another murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beth Short\u2019s family buried her at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. The cemetery is located 375 miles north of the vacant lot in Leimert Park, where Betty Bersinger found her, and 3,000 miles away from Medford, Massachusetts, where her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,259,994],"tags":[1476,81,3135,104,3138,3137,1483,80,1943,3136,3134],"class_list":["post-13460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1940s","category-homicide-2","category-unsolved-crimes-of-los-angeles","tag-betty-bersinger","tag-black-dahlia","tag-black-dahlia-avenger","tag-capt-jack-donahoe","tag-daniel-vorhees","tag-det-charles-king","tag-dr-paul-de-river","tag-elizabeth-short","tag-james-richardson","tag-robert-hyman","tag-robert-red-manley-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack Dahlia: January 26, 1947 to February 15, 1947 - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=13460\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Dahlia: January 26, 1947 to February 15, 1947 - Deranged LA Crimes \u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beth Short\u2019s family buried her at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. 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