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— STANDARD FORM NO. 64 Office Memo®ndum - uxvren colle TO : Mr. Polson DATE: January 2&1, 1947 FROM ZI. B. Nichols . a 4 SUBJECT: IDENTIFICATION OF ELIZABETH SHORT To recount the happenings on Thursday, January 16, involving the identification of Elizabeth Short and the possible interest of Warren Mancis of the Los Angeles Times, I wish to advise as follows: Shortly after 10 am. on the morning of January 16, Ray Richards of the local Hearst bureau, which represents the Los Angdles Examiner, called and related the murder and stated that in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police the Los Angeles Framiner was sending the fingerprints of the girl to Washington via International News Photos \%- wire service. They were sending them at considerable cost and as a soon as they arrived Richards asked if we could check them. I made : the arrangements with Mr. Quinn Tamm in Ident. } The pictures arrived at approzinately 11 o'cloc Quinn wy Tamm called me on the phone and stated that he doubted theyNmould be SK able to identify the prints since two of the fingerprint impressions \ were missing entirely and three others were badly blurred. He stated they would start making reference searches but that tt would be much better if they had better impressions. Accordingly, I called Ray Richards back and told him that we were having difficulty and it ed would be much better if he could have a full set of phe re) Repo ie s transmitted and if the transmission could be ear. J a Seq tibea hen et SS Nant, ; At approximately 1:30 pom. a toreihl Pranots of he * ros COMA ad Angeles Times called Quinn Tamm and in my absence was referred to Mr. Jones. Mrs. Francis referred to the unidentified girl and stated that she had a wire from her paper furnishing the fingerprint, elas a fication. Mr. Jones told vrs. Francis that it would be extrénely ok difficult to identify a set of fingerprints with only the fingerprint classification and of course with no name. However, Mr. Jones stated he would check on the matter. Mr. Jones checked with Quinn Tamm, who informed him of the search that wag then underway and referred Mr. Jones to me. JI told one Ale nothing and to sit tight Ly - : The identification wi | on jade, 0 the “affternoon and the full details were furnished toltkay tohands of the Los Angeles Examiner. Obviously, from a newspaper Standpdint the Examiner by its enterprise and initiative had a clear scod . xpis matter and of ay), course was entitled to such protection Nhe" e given them. At ef that time we decided that we would not the information to anybody, that if the Francises called e would of course Sen them to the Los Angeles Police but futnish the name of the girl. It was also decided if they did not call by 7 o'clock that we would call them. EO COPY FILEDAY RECORD: