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Black Dahlia E Short — Part 1
Page 54
54 / 162
{Additional story on Page 3)
A definite suspect has been
established in the brutal mur~
der of 22-year-old Hilizabeth:
Short, whose mutilated body
cant lot in southwestern Los
Angeles Wednesday morning.
Identification of the girl waa -
‘made last night. by polies frour
copies of her fingerprints on file
with the FRI in Washington.
ingr ite? +e ena emanutneeertenthtienratnttretintteetaertnteystentnsreeenstne
Elizabeth was a Massachusetts -
gixl who recently lived at a. hotel
t 1611 N, Orange Dr., in Holly~°
wood, ;
i In 1943 she was a civilian o
ploye at a post exchange at Cam
Coke, near Lompoc, and mar
frecently worked at the naval hog,
pital in San Diego. .
Investigators, who said they —_
were withholding the name of the ©
suspect for the present, declared -
that he might he the man of
whom Elizabeth told friends sha
was “deadly afraid.”
That Hlizabeth lived ii fear of
& suitor was substantiated in San «
Diego by Mrs. Vera French and
her daughter, Dorothy. :
The Frenchs, who live at 275¢
‘Camino Tadare, Pacifie Beach,
said , Hlizabeth lived with them. .
trom Iast Dec. 12 until Jan, 8, -
when she hurriedly left for Holly~
wood, i
Mrs. French told officers that
Elizabeth, whoni she had met in.
San Diego, was very popular with :
men and had many dates. The
girl, she said, often spoke, how- :
ever, about a boy friend from .
whom she was always tiding be«
ause of an tmexplained fear, .
_ Harold Frank Costa, 31, abd”
onald Leyes, 22, who lived $n.
the samé Hollywood hotel Jabt .
ctober as Elizabeth, described «
er ag being a very abtractive girl
ho liked to see and be seen in
Hollywood nightspots, :
“approached her at the Sixth
was found dumped in a va~.. i
"sqid Miss Unkefer, “with beautgul
Seed
Y “Two other persons who reported -
to police they knew Hlizabeth
hen she lived in Hollywood wdte
arvin Margolis, 27, and ‘Willi
(Robinson, 25. °° + °
. The two men said. they had oft«
m been in places Hlizabeth fré«
quented, The last time they saw
‘her, they said, was the latter part |
of November. - .
On the night before the body
wag found, a Los Angeles police-
woman said, a girl answering the
description of the pretty, dark-
haired victim asked for protection «
| against a man who “had threat-"
rened-to kill me.”
' The policewoman, Myrtle Mee -
Bride, told homicide investigatora .~
igte last night that the girl}
ae. (1
“gts, bus terminal, sobb g!
with terrox. i
The policewoman Said the girl,
told her she had just run into a _
former boyfriend, whe once had”
threatened to “kill her if he ever,
found her with another man.” She
had left him that day. 3
Mrs. McBride, who at first be-
Heved the girl who appealed for
aid was Elizabeth, was not as cer-
tain after viewing photos of the
slain gixl. . .
Mrs. Phoebe M. Short of Med-
ford, Mass., mother of the slain
girl, said dast night she had re-.
ceived a letter from her daughter ;
from San Diego about two weeks
ago.
aks far as I know she vas |
working in a naval hospital there,” |
said Mrs, Short. i
“T just can’t believe my daugh- | :
“ter is dead.” i,
Identification was made from i
fingerprints which the FBI had/
on record from Sept. 1943, when |
the girl was arrested In Sante }
, Barbara. - ;
| She had been @ clerk at the
Camp Cooke post exchange near
Santa Barbara and was picked up [
‘for drinking with soldiers in ar
cafe there.
Policewoman "Mary Unkefer of
the Sante, Barbara police depart-
ment took the girl te her own|
home to live with her for nine
days. :
| |*She was very good looki
”
7
dgrk hair and fair skin. §he
essed nicely and was a long way }
_ from being a barfly.” i -
, Miss Unketssessid the gict Rad
‘a rose tattcoed on her left ieg. |
I “She Joved to sit so that it would |
Ishow,” the policewoman recalled.
I The killer gouged the identifying
mark from the body. j
+ “We put her on the train for -
‘her home, and several times Jater
‘she wrote fo me from there,” Miss
Unkefer recalled. One a* her let--
ters said:
“[]L never forget you—thank
God you picked me up when you
aig? t
|
PBI records described the girh.as ,
&
45 foot 6, 121 pounds, brown
_grken eyés, medium build and with
imnoles on the back of her neck. ~
“Phe description tallies almost
exactly with that given by the
coroner’s office here of the body
-]found Wednesday morning on
Noxton Ave. between 39th St. and :
Coliseum St. . v
Vesterday an autopsy showed
the gbhl had been. tortured with
sharp metal weapons before she
died, then trussed up and
putchered. ,
Dr. Frederick DB. Newbarr, chief
autopsy surgeon, listed the cause
of death as hemorrhage from face:
‘and head wounds after examining
’ ithe body of the victim for three
“Hours.
He ruled out the possibility that _
‘the pretty young girl had been
strangied,
Rope burns shout the wrists}
.and ankles indicated, however,
that the girl had probably been [
stpung up for torture and post t
myprtem mutilation, the surgé
jther grotesque findings of tife
‘autopsy gave evidence of tKe |
fiendish mind of the slayer toward
whose identity and capture the
full force of the Los Angeles hom-
icide squdd was turned. :
To spur sapprehension of the
criminal, city officials moved to}.
post a $10,000 reward. Council-!
“man Lloyd G, Davies said he: .
would propose the reward beforé |:
the City Council today, :
Automobiles gave detectives
their only early clues to the killer.
Gne car which detectives be-
lieved might have been used by
‘the slayer was a 1940 green Hua-
‘son convertible which was found
abandoned on a gas station lot at
951 Manchester Ave.
.. The car had bloodstains on one
door, and inside were copies of
three newspapers with detailed
accounts of the slaying.
The registered owner of the v§-
‘hiple told police the car was stolqn
m him, but he had failed jo
Ake a report.
@ was called to headquartezs
for further questioning.
*
.
,
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