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A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast

February 24, 2025 / 01:17:52

This episode covers the Black Dahlia case, featuring discussions on Elizabeth Short's life, the investigation, and various suspects including Dr. George Hodel. Ash and Elina also touch on mental health, social media, and personal growth.

Ash and Elina start the episode with a light-hearted conversation about their morning routine and the importance of self-acceptance. They emphasize the need to support one another and not compare oneself to others.

The hosts transition to the Black Dahlia case, discussing Elizabeth Short's aspirations and the misconceptions surrounding her life. They highlight her struggles and the societal pressures she faced as a woman in Hollywood.

As they delve into the investigation, they mention key suspects such as Robert Manley and Daniel Vorhees, noting the challenges detectives faced in finding credible leads. They also discuss the various false confessions that complicated the case.

Finally, Ash and Elina present the theory surrounding Dr. George Hodel, exploring his background and potential connection to the murder. They conclude with thoughts on the ongoing fascination with the case and the possibility of it being solved in the future.

TLDR

Ash and Elina discuss the Black Dahlia case, focusing on Elizabeth Short's life, the investigation, and key suspects like Dr. George Hodel.

Episode

1:17:52
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hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elina and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid and it's Pat two
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of a tup oh my God and it's kind of morbid in the morning it is that's why you might you might hear sleep in our
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voices I know honestly probably not I woke up with a [ __ ] jolt this morning did you yeah I just well cuz I woke up
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yeah you were like yeah I was late what else is new but I made a good ass coffee she did
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she made a great ass coffee I wasn't sure if it was good I thought my beans OV extracted but no I think they
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extracted the correct amount I think they might have and then we had like fun girl talk this morning we did we lifted
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each other up we did it was women supporting women in the office we were like you're a badass [ __ ] tell
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yourself that every day yeah and and you know what you guys out there you're all
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bad ass [ __ ] and you should tell yourselves that every day yeah and don't compare yourself to anybody else no
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don't because you can do that until the end of time and you'll always find someone that you're like well I didn't
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do this and that person did that yeah okay do you did this so are you proud of your accomplishments that's the only
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thing that matters you like you you do and if you don't like you I'm sorry about that and you got to get to a place
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where you do like you first before you can do anything else and this is not an ad no it's really not it's just it's
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just it's just the Vibes of 2025 especially with all the Mayhem we surrounding us with [ __ ] Elon Musk
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deciding that he's an elected official like go [ __ ] yourself um so that with those vibes you have to get to a place
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where you like yourself if not for any other reason if not for any other reason but because we got to take care of that
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business truly but yeah so yeah it's just important and I want everybody to feel that way um I'm not really I think
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we've like this is the year of like social media just kind of being crumbling not the thing not not the vibe
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you know what I was listening I'm not going to get like everything completely correct because my memory is just a vast
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land but a vast land of nothing but I was listening to Alisa Kelly's podcast her horescope podcast is so [ __ ] good
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and she was talking about it was like at the beginning of 2025 I think it might have even been before 20 2025 it was
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like here's what how I think it's going to go basically and it's I think like when from when social media started
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we've done like a full circle basically like a full rotation oh absolutely so it's almost being flipped on its head
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now so there's going to be these like massive shifts in social media which could be them crumbling which it does
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kind of feel like and I'm not mad about it like I have been off of Instagram for
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probably 2 3 weeks now I am like my insides feel better yeah genuinely that's the thing like there was no there
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was no like inciting incident no that that really did this like really like truly there was no inciting incident
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like there's always like there's always [ __ ] in the comments everywhere like in every comment section it wasn't
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even that it was honestly just like for honestly mind citing incident was like my account following somebody that I
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didn't follow which I think we all know who that is yes that happened to mind too don't support that orange man but I
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was like I'm not going to stick around for this when like my account's being manipulated and like just see you know I
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follow like a lot of like uh news outlets and that kind of thing and I think it's good to have information but
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I think there we are living in an age where there's too much [ __ ] information there's too much
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misinformation and if you have any kind of anxiety at all it will eat alive it will and it's like and please know that
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like I know it's hard and it's a very hard line and we're not going to go too far into the story we're going to get
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into the the case but sometimes it feels good just like well you guys are like our our broes so we want to talk to you
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about it it's important and we care about your mental health because you guys are a [ __ ] rat ass community of
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of awesome [ __ ] and we want you to be okay so but it's a it's a it's a hard line to
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straddle to be informed but not be bombarded yes there yes that is the perfect way to say fine line and
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it is I don't know if I have fully comprehended that line yet it's hard it's very hard because of course you
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want to be informed but you don't want to be over informed to the point where you're you can't think of anything else
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or appreciate any kind of happiness in your own life well there's never been a day and age where you have a [ __ ]
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thing in your hand 247 that you can constantly be connected and constantly know what's going on like
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that is not how we're meant to live it is pretty [ __ ] up when you think about it and the the internet and like social
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media can be this beautiful place where amazing people can connect I do miss connecting to you guys that's the thing
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like there's where I'm like I'm like I love connecting to people but then it's like but then it's also in you know the
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human species is of is an onion of that that has some rotten layers to it and it's like and no matter what it's an
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evil onion with a lot of rot layers but there's some great layers some flavorful
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layers that will it'll make your soup delicious you know what it is there's shallots and there's onions exactly
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there you go I prefer shallots I love a shallot yeah Jean shallot Jean shallot I
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love sh I love a legum oh yeah speaking of that let's take a let's take a quick little little Veer are we um nothing's
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better than [ __ ] Pearl couscous with shallots and veggie broth yes and some herbs on it I like the idea
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of that but I want chicken broth the veggie broth gives it some kind of one thing about me some kind of something I
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[ __ ] hate veggie broth really when I tried my hand at vegetarianism is that's what it's called
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vegetarianism I I went like hard and fast with the veggie broth and I think now did it yeah it's it's not for me so
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I always do CH I always do um I always do bone broth there you go all right well there's there's our little tip yeah
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for for a new you yeah Pearl couscous though you know Drew doesn't like the pearled couscous he likes the regular
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couscous I like both so I made the Pearl couscous and he's like what's this one I'm like it's just bigger a bigger
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version bigger just pearls he's like I don't like it drew you're strange Drew I love that bands well you know what we're
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um we're all over the place we're everywhere and we have some really awesome things coming up we can't talk
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to you about yet but but [ __ ] you're going to know when they hit I feel like after they're hitting soon I feel like
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after this case there's probably only like one or two episodes before we can before it's like before it hits you in
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the face before it's going to smack you in the face so don't worry it's you're not going to be waiting months for this
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or no we wouldn't tease like and and we feel annoying but like we genuinely just
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can't but we're so [ __ ] excited because two of these things are happening like in real time for us next
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week mhm and then they'll be coming out to you in a like a couple weeks after that 38 days later you know someday
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we'll know you know how it goes but we know that like you know and we know that could be annoying to be like something's
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happening but I it's coming and you're going to love it and my God I'm so excited about it it's so exciting
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because also like the there's it's such a variety with these two things it's such a variety if it's going to fill
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your cup like in so many different ways yeah in different ways and The Vibes are
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going to be [ __ ] Immaculate chef's kiss [ __ ] Immaculate so just keep an eye out for that I promise you you'll
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know it's going to literally punch you in the jaw when it happens so we'll say it in the intro too like to you know
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whatever we end up talking about I mean you're going to know you just by the titles of yck baby ick yck all right
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well we chatted so we chatted this was a good chat guys remember the moral of the
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story just like make sure you like yourself it's really hard I get that took me long time took me past the age of 30 to
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really get to the place that's what everybody says it was really past 30 that I got to the place where I was like
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no [ __ ] I I'm me and I like me and I'm and that's okay I'm nearing it and I hope you are too I hope you are too
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listening if you need help we'll just keep telling you to do it don't worry exactly just think of think of me
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patting you on the back and being like you're [ __ ] great [ __ ] sometimes she genuinely actually does that to me it's
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great it's great so oh I guess we have to keep talking about this horrific case which is very fascinating and one that
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needs to be talked about because it is technically still unsolved uh we're talking about I know
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we're talking about the black doia case the murder of Elizabeth Short uh one thing I find interesting with this case
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uh is that the general consensus of the whole thing was like she was she was going out to Hollywood to become a star
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and blah blah blah and that was her only like but in reality it's like yeah she was you know she wanted to be an actor
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all that good but people make it seem like she was that's it and that was all that was and blah it's like no she
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literally was just looking for a new start yeah like she was genuinely looking to just start a new and
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obviously she had dreams of like you know being an actress and all that and she was doing extra work and all that
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modeling yeah but I think like that emphasis gets put too much on that not enough on like she was really going
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through a lot of [ __ ] yeah and she really just was looking for a place where she felt like she belonged I think
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that happens a lot with these kind of stories like the kind of stories where like a young girl goes out to Hollywood
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and she wants to be an actress but it's like that's never the only thing going on in somebody's life and in fact
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usually when a young girl is escaping to California to Hollywood it's for a whole
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bunch of other reasons yeah there's a myriad of reasons that are coming with it and on top of it she needed that
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weather was her that climate was her ideal climate because of her lungs so it's like there was many layers to this
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and I just think they don't get it doesn't get talked about enough when it like gets brought up I agre I see what
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you mean it just hits on like the she wanted to be a star and it's like yeah she did it's like that's an overarching
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she wanted to breathe too like that was part of it was pretty sick to have full lung
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capacity it was it was pretty awesome so when we last talked about this case we were talking about you know several of
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the suspects that seemed like good suspects and then would kind of fall apart at the seams Robert Manley was
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like a really big suspect and he was the one he was the redhaired man noou that was you
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know testing whether he loved his wife yeah that whole thing yeah uh remember that guy uh he he looked like a good
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suspect but he was also very forthcoming with the information he never really he
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never pushed away the investigators or tried to his his story stayed consistent right he he took a polygraph but fell
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asleep you know you know as one does you know sleep he's going to sleep I don't know but he was released from custody
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okay so cuz because we did also find out that two people who said they saw him with her and one said like literally off
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well they literally were like yeah like she said her name was this and then it ended up not being that at all so fake
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at this point they were looking only into her love life as a source of where this could be coming from this killer
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and they were now realizing you know what the boyfriend angle might not be a good anle maybe we got to start like
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widening our net here so with their best lead the redhaired man uh having turned
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out to be a dead end investigators on one of the nation's now most closely watched news stories found themselves in
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a bad place which is desperate that's not where we want to find our investigators on a case like
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this no because that's when things get messy yeah um yeah so detective Harry Hansen told reporters on January 23rd
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we're right back where we started which is also not a good place to be nearly 200 officers fanned out across the city
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looking for new Clues many following up on a lot of false confessions that were happening as well that was like a wave
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it's such a weird yeah thing the amount of men that came forward to be like me I
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did it it's like I feel like back then too yeah I'm like were you all just bored like what is going on here yeah
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what is the pathology there that makes somebody do that the pipeline from boredom to false confession yeah like
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what is that but they would be you know following up on these many false confessions just you know wasting their
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time and resources but they had to they don't know which one is false and which isn't or they were conducting house-to
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house searches in hopes of finding any new Witnesses so they really were going hard yeah uh meanwhile the coroner's
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inquest confirmed the details of the murder but offered really little else in a way of answers especially when it came
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to the Gap in time between her disappearance on January 9th and her murder right that was the hard
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thing to pinpoint investigators finally caught a lucky break on January 25th when a postal clerk spotted a package
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addressed simply to Los Angeles newspapers and he looked at it and he said huh that's weird that's weird
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that's suspicious so he immediately turned it over to the police and inside detectives found Elizabeth's birth
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certificate what her address book a baggage check ticket and other personal papers that
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belonged to her yeah of course as well as a note from the sender and in the note was in letters cut from magazines
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and newspapers like the classic Ransom note oh I hate that and the letter wrote here is Dalia's belongings letter to
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follow oh that's [ __ ] haunting yeah like that and they were really her her things so this was absolutely from the
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yeah now during his interview with detectives Robert Manley claimed to have seen Elizabeth's address book in her
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purse when he dropped her at the builtmore so that was a big thing that's huge now we we can at least follow that
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and he'd seen the baggage check ticket from the Greyhound station so given that detectives concluded that the sender of
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the package must have seen Elizabeth after she left the builtmore and could possibly be her killer mhm one detective
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told reporters we have so many leads we don't know which to choose first at this
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point which is a good place to be yeah but also a scary place to be it's a good place but like a a hairy place a hairy
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place exactly investigators theorized that the killer sensing the case was going cold had done this sent the
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materials to the press to keep his to update unquote work on the front page yeah he saw that things were cooling off
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and they weren't getting anywhere and he said why don't I help you out yeah which
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is so scary and very BTK very BTK like what if I send you a floppy disc BTK before
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BTK this was he probably looked at this and was like there it is and I do wonder
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if he looked at this and said well he never got caught yeah but he didn't put into any kind of thought that like
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technology had had grown that was a big part of it so while several detectives started running down the names in her
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address book other officers started combing area dumps looking for Elizabeth's missing clothes and purse
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the day before the package was received someone reported having seen a bag matching the description of her purse in
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a trash can on khaw Boulevard not far from a lot where the body was actually discovered on January 26th officers
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finally located the bag at the trash dump on East 26th Street which is crazy they found the bag um alongside one of
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the shoes Elizabeth had been wearing on the night she disappeared oh wow both were positively identified by Robert
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Manley as belonging to Elizabeth that when you genuinely think of like the work that had to have gone in into that
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think of how big like La is a pretty big place look at any dump yeah tell me how
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hard that would be to find one bag just piles and piles of random [ __ ] yeah like
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you that is that really is like that's detective detective work right there which not as detective work I would not
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want to have to do that's definitely not it um the bag was later identified by the cafe owner on crenchaw Boulevard who
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initially reported it to police okay so the cafe owner was like yeah that's the bag I saw
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now although there was still a possibility that the killer had followed Elizabeth to Los Angeles from San Diego
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where she had been before yep the receipt of the package and the discovery of the purse strongly indicated that the
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killer was local okay because he was sending it from a local place he's still around like he's around um detective
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Harry Fremont said I'm still convinced the Killer is still in town and I'm almost certain it is who has mailed us
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Elizabeth Short's belongings which I think is pretty safe to say I'm like yeah I'd say so having run down all the
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names in the address book now investigators ruled out all the men in the book which is wild yeah and began
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hop uh hoping the sender would follow another letter just to kind of help them out at this
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point was to follow I was going to say the note did indicate that another one would come and at this point they're
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like we kind of need the other one to come unfortunately the news of the package prompted another flood of new
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Anonymous correspondents most of which were h bookes because again people are going to people yeah rotten evil onions
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it's not great one letter read quote a certain girl is going to get same as es got if she squeals on
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us okay get it together people get it to [ __ ] together get a life and come on another letter said quote e short got it
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Carol Marshall is next okay okay other notes in the letters suggested the killer was going
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to give themselves up one of them said quote Dalia killer cracking wants terms that was a postcard from Pasadena [ __ ]
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off all of them were just [ __ ] yeah just people with absolutely no [ __ ] lives but among all of these there was
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one postcard written in plain block letters that caught investigators attention among all of them okay it said
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here it is unlike it said turning in Wednesday January 29th 10: a.m. had my fun at police Black doia Avenger hm
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unlike the other very obviously false claims the postcard from the Black doia Avenger seemed as though it could have
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come from the killer because not only did it lack the grandiosity of the other ones the the the silliness and
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Ridiculousness of the other ones the investigators thought the phrase here it is was referenced ing the Killer's
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earlier claim that a letter was going to fall a package which makes sense and the
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other ones didn't say that the other ones didn't cuz they didn't know that's what it said yep but this one says here
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it is here it is and it was also just like had fun [ __ ] with you bye but like bye it wasn't really saying like
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this person's next or like I'm going to turn myself in soon or yeah like something really stupid yeah just as the
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letter indicated on Wednesday January 29th a man came forward to LAPD and confessed that he had killed Elizabeth
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Short it was 33-year-old Daniel Vorhees hilarious last name yes truly uh told detectives that he had met
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Elizabeth Short two weeks earlier in downtown Los Angeles and quote took her for a ride on a Wilshire Boulevard bus
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and he stopped short of providing any other details about the murder itself wait so he just he took her for a bus
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ride is that what told he said he took her for a ride on the bus is that the thing people did who knows imagine a
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man's asking you being like do you want to go on a Peter Pan with do you want to
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go on a bus with me what do you think of Greyhound yeah I guess back then it was
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like you want to take a ride on the bus that's adorable in a way yeah not in this scenario not with Mr Vorhees but
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according to Mr Vorhees the two first met in 1941 and he'd taken her on several dates before they lost touch but
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when asked for more details about that meeting he again refused to say anything else uh but nevertheless Vorhees
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insisted quote I'm sick I did Kill Beth short okay and he was willing to sign any documents confessing to it so Daniel
00:21:02
Vorhees was booked into the county jail that evening on obviously suspicion of murder uh there was going to be a
00:21:08
polygraph exam planned for the following day because they wanted him to they wanted to wait to have him recover from
00:21:14
his quote bewildered and befuddled State he was at the time of his arrest okay which tells you a little bit about what
00:21:22
you need to know about like the state he was in and wildered and befuddled I don't know about this I don't know if I
00:21:30
want to believe a confession from somebody bewildered or befug exactly and while this may have seen at the time it
00:21:36
did seem at the time a major break in the case there were several things about his confession that made detectives
00:21:44
unfortunately a little skeptical they didn't want to be but they were yeah uh in addition to his refusal to provide
00:21:50
virtually any details about the murder or how he'd come to no short at all investigators also described his story
00:21:58
is quote generally incoherent yeah we're we're teetering off the edge here folks
00:22:04
and it was also full of contradictions um also when they contacted police in Phoenix LAPD
00:22:11
detectives learned that Vorhees had a long record of petty offenses and at the time of his arrest he was not really
00:22:18
living anywhere and appeared very confused apparently he was from Phoenix that's s it sounds like he was very
00:22:24
mentally ill it sounds like he was going through it for sure uh the next day Vorhees changed his story telling
00:22:31
detectives he quote might have killed short but but he couldn't lead police to the scene of the murder okay didn't know
00:22:38
where that was Vorhees was held for a few more days while police looked further into his story but eventually it
00:22:44
became very clear that this was a completely [ __ ] false confession and he was let go cuz this isn't the kind of
00:22:50
thing again I think we touched on it in the first part like somebody was like you know um I forget what the I think it
00:22:56
was a newspaper article said something and it was like the killer snapped and like they were in a crazy frame of mind
00:23:01
it's like this isn't the kind of murder that you would just like Snap and commit
00:23:05
and be like oh I don't have any recollection of what happened it's like like this was hours and hours hours long
00:23:10
like she was tortured she was bisected she fought you off she was her of blood for hours that takes a while right it's
00:23:19
like there's at some point you would have come to and remember had some recollection of part of it yeah you
00:23:24
don't commit that like what whatever that uh bisection thing was called and in a in a state of mind where you're not
00:23:30
going to remember doing it exactly exactly now like their theory about a spurned lover you know an ex of some
00:23:37
sort detectives had expressed a great deal of confidence that the letters from the Black doia Avenger would lead them
00:23:43
to Elizabeth shortz killer but after Daniel ves's confession turned out to be false and the communication with the
00:23:50
Avengers stopped they once again found themselves at a dead end yeah after two weeks of intense investigation involving
00:23:57
hundreds of lap PD Officers they had comb through all the leads and clues they had and they had yet to find the
00:24:03
murder weapon uh they didn't find the crime scene they didn't find a single suspect that was even remotely viable at
00:24:10
this point um the LA Times declared quote it appeared almost certain The elusive killer was a stranger to miss
00:24:18
short um and they wrote as even her closest Associates G have given not the slightest inkling to police of the
00:24:25
identity of the murderer Chief of Police donaho agreed telling reporters that most likely quote the black doia Nemesis
00:24:33
was a pickup whom she did not previously know in the earlier days of February tips continued to come into the LAPD and
00:24:42
each one they ran down they didn't ignore any of them they didn't just assume they were stupid they ran down
00:24:47
and pursued all of them among them was a woman in Long Beach who claimed to have
00:24:52
heard quote unearthly screams coming from a quote long expensive on the night Elizabeth
00:24:59
disappeared uhhuh did you call call anyone when that was going on this informant told police she'd been waiting
00:25:07
at a bus stop that evening when she saw a man quote holding a woman down in the rear seat of the car with a man in a
00:25:14
woman on the front seat and she didn't call why are you waiting until now to say anything then
00:25:22
there was a tip from Elizabeth's friends where they were just trying to like think of anything they were trying to
00:25:27
think of anything that could help so they said she had recently quote plugged cavities in her teeth with wax from
00:25:33
candies which sent investigators back to potential witnesses to ask whether they'd seen anyone caring for their
00:25:40
teeth in such a way wait what she would plug her the cavities in her teeth with wax candies
00:25:47
yeah and so they were saying like did you see any did you see her buying wax candies did you see anybody cuz like who
00:25:53
knows did you see somebody like fiddling with their teeth have like with you know
00:25:57
sticking something in their teeth a bus anywhere they're literally trying literally anything cuz these are like
00:26:04
unique traits you remember that that they're like okay maybe might be able to go somewhere with that yeah like maybe
00:26:10
that's something if somebody says like Oh weird I did see a girl sitting there like sticking something in her tooth on
00:26:15
the bus or something like that that can at least help them figure something out right While most of the tips came from
00:26:20
the Los Angeles area they did receive calls and letters from other parts of the country too which very unnecessarily
00:26:27
taxed agency resources it just made it even worse in early February for example investigators received a call from
00:26:34
officials at Fort Dicks in New Jersey uh reporting that one of their soldiers Joseph Dume had disclosed to Army
00:26:42
investigators that he'd been on a date with Elizabeth Short the night she disappeared now he's in New Jersey yeah
00:26:48
according to Dee he had gone on a date with short on the evening of January 9th but quote after the date his mind went
00:26:54
blank and the next thing he remembered he was in Pennsylvania station in New York across the country from where she
00:27:01
was yeah totally Fort Dicks investigators analyzed the uniform Dume had been wearing that night and found
00:27:08
what turned out to be blood stains on one of the pockets of his pants creepy now when they began digging into his
00:27:14
background investigators learned that the 29-year-old Soldier had been married three times and on at least one occasion
00:27:22
he had been examined by a psychiatrist who recommended he be hospitalized for psychological reasons
00:27:28
also while D's claimed to have been in Los Angeles the previous month there was no record of him having traveled to
00:27:34
California recently yeah it was eventually determined that he had nothing to do with Elizabeth's murder
00:27:39
and the blood stains in his pockets could have quote come from a bloody handkerchief oh okay but by then
00:27:45
investigators had already wasted several days and precious man hours in this completely false [ __ ] lead which is
00:27:52
really [ __ ] annoying as the first week of February came to an end investigators had become so desperate
00:27:58
for any new leads and eventually returned to what the Press described as quite as quote twice cold Clues so there
00:28:04
was doubling back on things while some members of the team went back to Old suspects and Witnesses hoping to find
00:28:11
anything that could Point them in a New Direction several other detectives started following anything that even
00:28:17
resembled a lead no matter how insignificant like the cavity thing right this included a report from a a
00:28:24
young woman in Culver City who told police she'd been waiting for a bus when a man in a 1940 sedan approached her
00:28:32
Isabelle Foster said quote the man asked me if I wanted a ride I refused he then
00:28:37
took out a long butcher knife and ordered me into his car Jesus she started to panic and started to cry and
00:28:43
the man told her shut up or he would give me what he gave the black doia okay which like here's the thing I
00:28:51
don't think he's out here I could be wrong cuz he's a [ __ ] [ __ ] whoever did this so it's like whatever it would
00:28:58
be weird to me if he was just out on the street being like shut up or I'll do to
00:29:02
you like I did the black doia like I don't think he's just going to be like the black doia yeah like I don't think
00:29:07
I'm going to be out like I don't think he's going to be running around saying it to everybody out on the streets maybe
00:29:11
he's saying it to people in his life yeah for sure I could see this guy being an idiot and who we think it might be I
00:29:18
think he was talking about it with people in his life I don't think he's had a random bust stop trying to kidnap
00:29:23
somebody and being like if you don't get in my car I'm going to do the same thing
00:29:25
I did to the black doia to you well it's also like if if I do get in your car that's when you'll probably do it ex and
00:29:30
it's like now this girl's going to fight even more like you kidding that doesn't
00:29:33
make sense yeah reports like that of Daniel Vorhees Joseph D's Isabelle Foster's report of this man with the
00:29:41
butcher knife and all the others they didn't pan out and they were so common yeah they were just they kept coming in
00:29:49
from the moment the body was discovered the front pages of every major newspaper
00:29:54
in the LA area were dominated by the case of the black doia so it just kept on coming such intense public interest
00:30:01
drove equally intense press coverage and led to so many hoaxes so many false confessions tons of mistaken ident
00:30:09
identities complete lies just people inserting themselves while these stories may have been you know great to read in
00:30:15
the paper very interesting and they Honestly made the case appear very complex and very fastpaced and very like
00:30:23
you know like we're running down leads and we're doing this the truth was this whole thing was indicative of just how
00:30:30
little information detectives had to work with yep and it soon became apparent to the press and the readers of
00:30:36
these papers that the case was growing cold yeah and because every time these things came out it was like no yep and
00:30:42
we don't have anything now by the end of February investigators were literally grasping at straws at this point looking
00:30:48
for any detail or any clue that could just give a little spark to this case but they were coming up empty which is
00:30:56
crazy with how this how this woman and it kills me because they had Clues at the crime scene and they failed
00:31:05
footprint and tire tracks massive Clues so to be honest they [ __ ] themselves from the beginning it's real cool that
00:31:12
they're running down leads now you [ __ ] yourself over you had Clues which I don't I will never understand why they
00:31:17
didn't photograph that that footprint and the and the tire Treads yeah why would you not take photographs take a
00:31:24
mold of it like do whatever you can right like that's and it to let that crime scene become
00:31:30
so contaminated and congested I just yeah yeah I'm like did they come out and say like we didn't take the photograph
00:31:37
because blah blah blah no I think they just things it's the same thing as like it got lost and this is the like they
00:31:43
just don't explain it yeah a few weeks later investigators acknowledged that they had no leads and that this case was
00:31:50
cold now the story of the black doia murder had dominated the papers for weeks with stories informed very heavily
00:31:56
by people just theorizing and speculating and whatever bits of information the LAPD was willing to
00:32:02
parcel out to the public uh the latter of these included information about certain arrests and potential suspects
00:32:09
who were inevitably and very quickly ruled out but behind the scenes there were other suspects whose names weren't
00:32:16
immediately released to the press and who were considered way more seriously than the people they were releasing to
00:32:23
the Press also in the years since Elizabeth Short's death a large number number of authors and journalists
00:32:30
they've published books and articles naming many suspects ranging from famous people like Orson Wells and Woody
00:32:37
Guthrie and even notorious gangster Bugsy seagull lots of people have been fingered for this the suspect list
00:32:45
contained more than 20 names including many doctors and a few women huh which I don't know if I just the pathology of
00:32:53
this one I don't see it but I could obviously be wrong yeah um well some of these theories have been very debunked
00:32:59
over the years like very easily uh there remains a small list of names that many
00:33:04
believe contains the Killer's identity in there this girl I believe it I definitely think so so this one is
00:33:13
interesting so in John Gilmore's 1994 book severed the true story of the black doia murder the author strongly suspects
00:33:23
Jack Anderson Wilson AKA Arnold Smith as the killer based largely on circumstantial evidence which is
00:33:31
evidence yeah no matter what no matter what that's really all we got at this point and he bases it on an interview he
00:33:37
conducted with Wilson before his death in the interview Wilson claimed to have been driven to kill by some Supernatural
00:33:44
Force MH um he told Gilmore he had to do that when the spirit overtook himh Wilson went on to hint at his
00:33:53
participation in the murder saying quote you understand the trouble I could get into because of what did if he could
00:33:59
somehow make it seem like that he didn't do it you know what I mean it's like we're talking about litigation and that
00:34:04
sort of thing everyone is entitled to go nuts what everyone is entitled to go nuts no this is like that investigator
00:34:16
being like you know she probably teased him and he went berserk like and again babes we're not entitled to that like I
00:34:21
don't it separates us from the animals you need to like what are you talking about we're not entitled to l and kill
00:34:28
someone this isn't like the spirit overtook me and I became frenzied this is not that this is not a frenzy Mur
00:34:34
that's the thing this is not a disorganized frenzied passionate moment of crazy anger moment
00:34:43
meticulous murder this is hours and hours and I think it was controlled torture and I think it was
00:34:52
planned yes it's like she are we forgetting that the blood was drained from her body everyone that requires a
00:35:02
lot and the bsection you're not the bsection is so clean you're not going to convince me that somebody who was
00:35:08
overtaken by a spirit and like lost their mind was like yeah I just figured out how to bicep her I just figured it
00:35:13
out I'm I will not encourage you to look at the crime scene photos cuz I'll never
00:35:18
encourage you to do that no and these have been shared so many times that unfortunately they're everywhere if
00:35:23
you're familiar with this Cas you are familiar with them I looked at them because I we were going into this case
00:35:30
it is a remarkably clean bisection yeah the this is not like I'm sorry to get graphic here but you're here it is not
00:35:40
like a tearing through somebody kind of thing like this is not a ragged cut it's
00:35:46
a cut that is so [ __ ] clean it's clinical is what it is right that is a clinical cut if I ever saw one you will
00:35:56
never convince me that this person is not a doctor or a surgeon exactly it's the same thing as Jack the Ripper you're
00:36:01
just not going to convince me I agree it's just the way it is for it and we will get into that don't worry yeah uh
00:36:07
in the years since the publication of that book severed the true story of the black doia murder severed has come under
00:36:14
a lot of scrutiny for a lot of inaccuracies mistakes you know a lot of that stuff among other things um the
00:36:21
author Gilmore paid Wilson for the interview okay and which does happen for sure but in these Cas is that that makes
00:36:29
your eyebrow raise a little and the transcript indicates the conversation occurred over the course of many rounds
00:36:35
of drinks oh well that's which can taint things not great uh it has also been pointed out that years after severed was
00:36:42
released Gilmore had Advanced an entirely different theory about the killing so it kind of taints this
00:36:48
original one because you're like right um in a 1982 interview with the Los Angeles Herald examiner Gilmore
00:36:55
described a suspect he refers to only as Mr Jones uh according to Gilmore Mr Jones had confessed the murder to one of
00:37:02
Gilmore's contacts okay now in this version of events Gilmore claims that Mr Jones picked short up at the builtmore
00:37:10
and quote she and Jones traveled from an apartment in Hollywood to the Roosevelt
00:37:14
Hotel where he picked up a key to the house at 33rd in Trinity Jones was angered by Elizabeth Short's behavior
00:37:21
and her refusal to give in to his advances the two quarreled about a phone call she wanted to make and when she she
00:37:27
insisted on leaving the the wooden house and incensed Jones beat her raped her and then losing all control nope
00:37:35
tortured her and ultimately killed her no in his frenzy to cut the body up for disposal purposes nope that's not why
00:37:44
she was cut no that was not for disposal purposes she was posed she was you are trying to dispose of a body
00:37:51
you cut off the limbs you I know this sounds horrible but if you're doing it for disposal purposes
00:37:58
you are putting it into bags so it isn't found or that it is found in several different places you are not putting her
00:38:04
next to a sidewalk where she is found posed and honestly if it was for if it was simply only 100% for disposal
00:38:11
purposes this is awful but you would assume she would be in more pieces exactly she her limbs would be easier
00:38:17
disposal you don't leave limbs on if you're trying to dispose of a body easily and again this is a horrible
00:38:22
discussion to have but it's just this doesn't make sense yeah like that you can't tell me this was for disposal
00:38:28
purposes no and then this was for it was for shock Factor she was posed like she
00:38:33
was getting a photo taken right that's not what that was don't tell me that was disposal if it was she would be in bags
00:38:39
y she would not be laid out on the grass no like come on um so it says Jones cut
00:38:45
the body in half then panicked at the prospect of Discovery and he wrapped each part of Elizabeth's short there
00:38:52
there was two two in curtains from the house nope there was cement bags wrapped the entire bundle in an oil skin
00:39:01
tablecloth and loaded the body in his car no and at what point did he decide to drain her of all her blood exactly
00:39:08
you didn't mention that yeah we're we're we're always skipping that one in these
00:39:11
confessions where where'd you do that where did you do that how long did it take how'd you know how to do it yeah
00:39:17
like come on Gilmore claimed to have that tracked Mr Jones down in 1978 and found him living in Indianapolis the
00:39:26
author went to see the man however and when he arrived he just decided not to talk to him okay Gilmore said quote I
00:39:33
just looked at him now I'm sorry I didn't talk to him about Elizabeth short because I didn't know at the time that
00:39:38
he had killed her I didn't have that part of the story I didn't know there was a situation between my contact and
00:39:43
Jones that there was always an antagonism what so it just gets a little messy this this whole pretty messy and
00:39:52
it's a little weird yeah so there's that don't know about any of those were big suspects that people talk about for a
00:39:57
little while but then in 1991 and this one's there's a big there's a big issue with this one to me okay in 1991 another
00:40:07
suspect was put forward when 54-year-old Westminster resident Janice Nolton went
00:40:11
to the Press claiming her father George Nolton was shorts killer okay Janice had
00:40:17
been undergoing psychiatric treatment at the time and claimed she had uncovered repress memories of witnessing her
00:40:23
father kill Elizabeth in their garage okay now that was in January AR 1947 that she claimed it happen she claimed
00:40:30
that her father who died in a car accident in 1962 had been dating Elizabeth in 1947 and that short had
00:40:37
been staying quote in a makeshift sleeping room in their garage where she had a miscarriage for me already I have like a
00:40:47
ding-ding ding where his name would have been in her address book if she was dating him exactly yeah yeah precisely
00:40:53
at least in my opinion there's that but then there's another big one that to I was like nope now according to Nolton
00:41:00
she quote remembers the woman Elizabeth Short sitting in a chair under a bright light and her father hitting the woman
00:41:06
in the face and head with a claw hammer now that's horrible and she did have lacerations and many wounds to her
00:41:14
head but did she have like skull fractures she um I'm not sure if she had skull fractures but she had a lot of
00:41:19
lacerations to her face in her head like if you're beaten with a claw hammer a lot of times you have skull fractures
00:41:25
here's the thing because Janice said she witnessed this while hiding in the family's garage okay I think Janice went
00:41:33
through some horrible [ __ ] in her childhood very clearly and I feel for her absolutely to be to be coming out
00:41:40
with this kind of thing a lot of stuff has happened ab and she was going through psychiatric treatment so she was
00:41:45
obviously trying to work through ome stuff yeah so I'm not saying that I don't believe this because I don't I
00:41:51
think she's just straight up lying about anything I just don't think she's gone through a lot and I think this is kind
00:41:57
kind of a manifestation of some of that and I can't imagine what she did see with her own father well she probably
00:42:01
did see this happen to somebody I just don't think that person was a little short um she said in the garage she
00:42:08
witnessed her father use a power saw to cut the body in half no no that cut is not a power saw cut a
00:42:19
power saw would leave there would be some ragged unfortunately again I'm going to get graphic there was going to
00:42:25
there's going to be some edges and some tearing there's going to be I mean she had there's there's full organs right at
00:42:34
the edge of that cut that are fully intact right that they are not touched they are not nicked they are not ragged
00:42:40
they are not destroyed and mangled they are intact which means it was something very meticulous used to do this one
00:42:45
think of a power saw it's going to be vibrating yeah it's going to an organ slip very easily and exactly mled where
00:42:53
she was found the top half of Elizabeth Short she has found there is very clearly a large organ protruding from
00:43:02
the top of her body right that would have been falling out of there and it would have been nicked and mangled and
00:43:07
destroyed it with a power saw a power saw was I will die on the hill a power saw was not used to cut her in half no
00:43:15
it just wasn't no it was a surgical situation instrument yeah 100% yep so immediately when I heard a power saw in
00:43:23
a garage I said absolutely not um the following day she says Janice said her father quote took the body to a utility
00:43:30
room next to the pier and gutted and cleaned the victim's body she wasn't she was not gutted maybe she meant the Blood
00:43:38
Part maybe like that was her version of being saying it but this one just doesn't and why would
00:43:46
for me yeah and I just it just doesn't no but I do feel for her I do I feel for Janice a lot because obviously there's
00:43:52
some stuff going on there and hopefully able to work through that sounds like he
00:43:57
was awful um and the thing is in the mid to late 1980s there was repressed memories had like a moment like it was
00:44:05
like that was the concept of that be it gained a lot of Attraction and um like a
00:44:11
lot of you know practitioners in mental health Fields were like very focused on it for a little while um I believe they
00:44:19
exist for sure oh they absolutely I do believe too much was placed on them in the 1980s it actually there there was a
00:44:25
lot of that being the drivers of a lot of the satanic panic in the later 80s and early 90s think I don't think it's
00:44:31
something that you can rely on too heavily because memories are already faulty yeah you can't hang your hat on
00:44:36
them and I'm not saying repressed memories don't exist I literally like I've experienced repressed memory but
00:44:42
again it can they can be Wy and a lot of times with repressed memories even in my
00:44:47
own experience there's missing pieces still within those memories exactly it's not it's not always a full picture
00:44:54
exactly and it uh and our brains are our brains are meant like they they by Design fill in details exactly and like
00:45:03
based on experiences based on what we're consuming based on so many different things feelings emotions how you feel
00:45:09
that day what you ate what you did you know mean like read like and it's like again repress memories absolutely I
00:45:18
believe they exist I believe they can be very helpful I believe they can be very
00:45:21
helpful moving through things and dealing with things like I that's the thing wholeheartedly I think to hang your hat
00:45:30
on a repressed memory is like hanging your hat on an eyewitness there's got to be more there's going to be some human
00:45:36
error here and there's going to be repressed memories can be like a mismash of different memories that are all
00:45:43
smushed into one y so it's like you might be that might have happened she might have saw that but again like you
00:45:48
said I don't think it was Elizabeth Short she sh saw I think she's seen Elizabeth Short y she's seen the story
00:45:55
and your brain can marry those two I just the details don't fit for me but again feel for Janice because holy [ __ ]
00:46:05
to even think that about your own father this some bad [ __ ] capable of a lot of
00:46:10
[ __ ] nefarious [ __ ] yeah um it was around the mid90s people did start to realize that like hanging your hat on
00:46:19
repressed memories was not the best course of action and that like we said indeed they exist but they are fuzzy
00:46:25
yeah um and a lot of people like you know when it was all like really heightened in like the late 80s early
00:46:33
90s when satanic Panic was starting to like explode a lot of members of law enforcement took reports of repress
00:46:39
press memories very serious even if they were out of this world strange and unrealistic they would take them as fact
00:46:48
right it was almost like not great yeah it was which is not it's just not fact there it's in someone's mind you can't
00:46:55
rely on that it's well it's just as as much as circumstantial evidence is real ref memories are real but they are
00:47:01
circumstantial evidence you got to have them along with some really concrete [ __ ] exactly um in this however with the
00:47:08
LAPD you know trying to chase anything down they even had a hard time believing this particular story um detective John
00:47:18
St John said we have a lot of people offering up their fathers and various relatives as the black dollia murder so
00:47:24
sad which means there's a lot of shitty dads out there which is like get it together we been um he said the things
00:47:30
that she meaning Janice is saying are not consistent with the facts of the case and it's not uh regardless of
00:47:37
whether you know detective St John believed her Janice remained convinced her father was involved uh she told the
00:47:43
reporter he was a very sadistic man which again breaks my heart for her um she claimed that he didn't just kill
00:47:51
Elizabeth Short either she also said she recalled two other murders committed by
00:47:55
her father and she believed Lees one of the victims was mutilated and buried in the family's yard in Westminster oh damn
00:48:02
so when she said this investigators in Los Angeles although they were suspicious of the claims members of the
00:48:08
Westminster police department were like well we should [ __ ] look into this like we didn't just Let It Go um
00:48:14
Westminster Lieutenant Larry W uh wner said repress memories like these do check out sometimes it's not unusual
00:48:21
which is exactly how I feel it's like can't ignore them but you you know hang your hat on them so in the summer of
00:48:27
1991 investigators in Westminster received approval to excavate the empty lot where nolon's house once stood yeah
00:48:35
just on the chance that Janice's memories were accurate um he told the reporter the detective or the lieutenant
00:48:42
excuse me he said she seems to think that we may find a purse or some other belongings of Elizabeth Short a few days
00:48:48
later when the site was excavated technicians found quote a rusty knife animal bone fragments and costume
00:48:55
jewelry weird but found no conclusive evidence of a murder that said was a little
00:49:03
strange cuz they said the items did appear to be buried on purpose yeah um and they did find that unusual so they
00:49:08
said we don't know how significant this is but it's definitely interesting why would anyone put such things that far
00:49:14
underground right so it is strange and it sounds like her father was a sadistic [ __ ] and maybe he did do some [ __ ] they
00:49:20
didn't find anything connected to Elizabeth yeah now despite the strangeness of the items found under the
00:49:25
house there was nothing indicating a crime even had occurred just that it was weird so w Westminster police did
00:49:32
decline to open an investigation CU they were like yeah I we can't do that based
00:49:37
on a rusty knife and costume jewelry it's like there's nothing here that says somebody was even hurt like it's just
00:49:42
not uh nevertheless Janice maintained her belief that her father had killed Elizabeth and actually went on some
00:49:48
high-profile talk shows like Larry King live Sally Jesse Raphael oh and promoted
00:49:54
her story okay in 1995 she co-published a book with Michael Newton titled Daddy was the black doia killer damn yeah even
00:50:03
after her story and the popularity of her book had passed Janice remained con like on that story and convinced that
00:50:10
her father was responsible um he a Los Angeles Times Reporter Harry uh Harish said quote she'd leave long rambling
00:50:20
voice messages on my answering machine at the times so it sounds like she really she was going through through
00:50:27
some stuff um she died unfortunately by an intentional drug overdose on March 5th 2004 oh man so I feel bad for Janice
00:50:36
that's that's a tough life cuz I don't judging by that story I don't believe that her father was the killer of
00:50:43
Elizabeth sh but I feel feel her dad was a bad man yeah and a sadistic Man by her
00:50:48
account yeah and that she went through a lot clearly I I just feel bad yeah that's
00:50:55
like I feel like that's like that's a lot and then to die by Suicide it's like obviously she was psychologically going
00:51:02
through a lot by a lot yeah you know and it's really sad um again it's very unlikely that her father was Elizabeth
00:51:10
schz killer um but in 2003 another person stepped forward to offer up his father as a potential
00:51:18
suspect in the case and this story is the one is the story in my opinion same um in his 2003 book Black doia Avenger a
00:51:29
genius for murder former LAPD homicide detective Steve hodell who is a good [ __ ] guy a good [ __ ]
00:51:38
guy yeah he you've heard his name we talked about call case we' I think we've talked about him even before we talked
00:51:44
about him a few times he is known by his colleagues as a good cop and a good guy
00:51:52
um he offers a very compelling case for who he believes is the killer his father
00:51:58
Dr George hodell doctor Dr George hodell he a surgeon right yep he sure was um he
00:52:05
believes he killed Elizabeth Short and so do I at the time of Elizabeth Short's disappearance and murder Dr hodell was a
00:52:11
well-known and highly respected physician and the one-time head of the country's social hygiene
00:52:18
Bureau uh according to hodell quote he was a hard and cold individual with a huge ego whose demeanor bordered on
00:52:26
tyrannical wow uh he said also he was an experienced physician he had the skills
00:52:33
tools and the space necessary to commit this murder without detection cuz that's
00:52:38
the other thing you need the space for this murder that is something to carry in my opinion none of the other suspects
00:52:45
have they don't have the skills they don't have the tools and they do not have the space right you need a lot of
00:52:51
space and it needs to be secret hidden space she was alive when her mouth was cut she was alive MH there's going to be
00:53:03
as [ __ ] maab as that is there's a lot of noise that was going to be happening here and he needed somewhere he could do
00:53:10
this where no one was going to find him and no one was going to hear him and to me cuz you might be thinking like okay
00:53:15
well that other guy had a garage that's one not enough space two people are going to hear screaming they're going to
00:53:21
they're going to hear those tools mixed with the screaming that if that's the way it happened it just doesn't make
00:53:27
sense for me no it doesn't make sense it really do he had George hodell I want you to look it up because I I know
00:53:34
you're all like immediately going to Google because I also did this oh yeah get get on it uh look at his house at
00:53:41
the time it's a huge house he didn't you have like a huge basement huge basement
00:53:45
basement huge basement wait correct me if I'm wrong was there like tunnels and [ __ ] I think there was just like a it
00:53:51
was a Labyrinthian kind of basement like there was a lot of space lot of space a
00:53:55
lot of space away from the rest of the house offshoots there was a lot of people in that house that were willing
00:54:02
to do a lot of [ __ ] up [ __ ] to save their own [ __ ] to make money to save their reputations L times when it's
00:54:10
wrapped up in money craziest nastiest out of this world [ __ ] happens he was also he made sure to hire people in his
00:54:20
house like cuz he he was very rich he was he had a maid he had all kinds of [ __ ] I me he's a [ __ ] surgeon he made
00:54:26
those were people that he was also [ __ ] by the way yeah so he made sure that everyone was on his side like
00:54:33
that's like he was that none of them were going to talk and he had [ __ ] on all of them yeah so this guy relied on
00:54:39
blackmail he relied on it and he was there was so much dirty [ __ ] and we're going to get into it but I I encourage
00:54:47
you to read the book by Steve hodell know anything I'm just he's convinced me it is it is captivating it's a very
00:54:55
captivating case it's one that has too many coincidences for me and for me I'm not a big coincidence person there's
00:55:04
that many it's two on the nose now George hodell Jr was born and raised in Los Angeles in the first decade of the
00:55:13
20th century which was a very big and exciting time for expansion for the city as a child he was incredibly intelligent
00:55:22
he consistently scored the highest on every test he was very very smart and ultimately he graduated high school
00:55:28
early and enrolled in the California Institute of Technology at 15 years old wow one result of his obvious
00:55:36
intelligence was that George was treated very differently than his peers his whole life and given the impression that
00:55:43
he was special and deserving of special treatment young age it's not you know it
00:55:49
can be great yeah but not great for the ego here just one year into his education at Caltech George was expelled
00:55:57
yikes according to Steve hodell his expulsion was either for being kicked out for engaging in a sexual
00:56:03
relationship with a faculty member's wife meanwhile he was 15 right or for repeatedly gambling on campus which was
00:56:10
against the school's rules maybe both yeah in the years that followed George drifted from job to job including
00:56:16
working as a crime reporter with the Los Angeles record during the prohibition era wow before finally enrolling in
00:56:22
Premed at Berkeley in 1929 which is insane insane from there he went on to pursue a medical degree at the
00:56:29
University of California and he graduated with a medical degree in 1936 he also went to school at the time where
00:56:36
that specific bsection method was being taught coincidence number one yeah following his graduation George worked
00:56:45
his way up through the State Health System also making very high society friends along the way friends with lots
00:56:51
of Hollywood Elites along the way I think we're learning now that that means something connections yeah I think we're
00:56:58
learning that that has something uh it was through this social network that he met his first wife Dorothy Harvey who
00:57:06
was the former wife of director John Houston with whom hodell had one child a daughter named Tamar hodell's marriage
00:57:14
to Dorothy Harvey didn't last long but his relationship with his daughter Tamar would prove pivotal yeah not only to his
00:57:21
life but in Steve's case against his father on October 1st 194 49 Tamar disappeared from the couple's home on
00:57:29
Franklin Street and was nowhere to be seen she was I believe at this point she was about 14ish yeah um after several
00:57:36
hours of contacting friends and neighbors George hodell did contact the LAPD and reported her missing two days
00:57:43
later she was found to be staying at a friend's house and she was taken into custody by the
00:57:48
LAPD while she talked with the police officer she explained that she'd run away because quote my home life is too
00:57:54
depressing because of all those sex parties at the Franklin house yeah now coming from someone so young the
00:58:02
statement was very shocking to the police officer U more shocking though was Tamar's confession that not only had
00:58:08
she seen the parties but also quote took part in them by the time the interview ended a few hours later Tamar had
00:58:15
implicated her father and three other adults in a conspiracy of abuse as well as confessing to having engaged in
00:58:22
various sex acts with several of her male classmates at Hollywood High high school so she was being abused on a
00:58:31
galactic level yep that is the only way to describe that given the severity of these accusations and the notoriety of
00:58:38
the men at the center of the Scandal the authorities moved very quickly and George hodell was arrested a few days
00:58:43
later and held on $5,000 bail guys get it together by the time he posted bail a few hours later the story had reached
00:58:51
the press and the one prestigious doctor was now being associated with sex parties an incest not great uh in
00:58:58
interviews with police and reporters Tamar claimed that Dr hodell had been molesting her since she was 11 years old
00:59:04
this is her father and that she had been encouraged to participate in sex acts with other adults at various House
00:59:09
Parties to which she obvious couldn't consent was she was raped that's what that means that's that's the clearer way
00:59:16
to say that not that she was you know encouraged to participate she was raped she was raped in early December 1949
00:59:25
George Odell went on trial for the abuse of his daughter and the da presented several witnesses who claimed to have
00:59:32
been at the sex parties and verified what she alleged wow even hodell himself and this should not be
00:59:40
understated because even hodell himself stated in depositions that he had been quote delving into the mystery of love
00:59:49
and the universe with his daughter yeah no there's no mystery about [ __ ] your own child
00:59:56
later he will claim like no I didn't do anything it's like nope you said it you said it because he also suggested that
01:00:03
his memory of the events was quote unclear like a dream he's [ __ ] he's disgusting in the the case should have
01:00:13
been an easy prosecution for the da close and chat open and chat had it not been said close and chat close andat
01:00:19
don't open close shut just shut it yeah throw throw him behind bars but there was one statement made by Tamar during
01:00:25
questioning from the defense that kind of made it changed it a little before ending his questioning defense attorney
01:00:31
Robert NE uh neeb asked one last question he said Tamar do you recall a conversation you had with a roommate at
01:00:40
the Franklin house by the name of Joe Barrett and do you recall in that conversation making the following
01:00:45
statement to him quote this house has secret passages my father is the murderer of
01:00:51
the Black Dalia my father is going to kill me and all the rest of the members of this household because he has a Lust
01:00:57
For Blood he is insane the courtroom was [ __ ] stunned by this I would think and Tamar tried to
01:01:04
explain that she had no recollection of having said that I mean of course she's scared for her [ __ ] life yeah despite
01:01:11
the strength of the case going into the trial it soon became clear that the defense had intended to make her seem
01:01:17
like a petty vindictive daughter who was willing to lie in order to get revenge on her father who she felt ignored her
01:01:25
that's what they were trying trying to go with I think she wished that he ignored her honestly she'd be better off
01:01:30
one defense witness after another took to the stand to call Tamar a liar or Worse to recant their previous
01:01:37
statements corroborating her initial accusations so they had said she was a and then they would come back and be
01:01:42
like just kidding real nice she's a child Steve hodell later learned that several of those [ __ ] Witnesses had
01:01:48
been offered large sums of money by his father to lie on the stand I think they call that hush money and I hope you are
01:01:54
having the life you deserve or you having the afterlife that you deserve to all those people I fully believe in
01:02:00
karma at the end of the trial George hodell was found innocent of the charges abely insane even after get you out of
01:02:07
anything he said he had been exploring the Dre world [ __ ] it was with his child
01:02:14
yeah you're [ __ ] gross dude several months later George relocated to Hawaii where he remarried and cut off
01:02:20
communication with all of his children wow nice he's a piece of [ __ ] that's good but they're better off without him
01:02:25
yeah Steve hodell hadn't given that statement about the black doia during the trial much thought really until he
01:02:32
was going through his father's belongings after he died in 1999 I hope he thought a horrible death I do too and
01:02:38
he came across a small photo album that not only contained a photo of Steve's ex-wife taken before he'd ever met her
01:02:45
but also a photo of Elizabeth Short that is insane uh coincidence number two everyone yeah the photos caught Steve
01:02:55
off guard and he started going through his father's history more closely hoping to find out why he had a photo of a
01:03:01
notorious murder victim he also found other photos that he believes could be Elizabeth sh but they have not been
01:03:07
confirmed okay uh over the course of several years Steve hodell combed through old police files and City
01:03:13
archives remember he is an LAPD homicide he's a detective um and he talked to anyone who knew his father and could
01:03:20
provide any insight into his history through that process he learned that his father's close relationship sh with many
01:03:27
celebrities including the artist manray who was a surrealist artist would figure
01:03:33
prominently in his theory according to Steve in the mid1 1940s Dr George hodell had become known as a reliable and
01:03:41
discreet provider of abortions whose Client List included Elizabeth Short meaning he had even more blackmail on
01:03:48
people exactly in his interviews Steve claims to have spoken with at least eight people who quote asserted that
01:03:54
they knew firsthand that had some kind of relationship with short at least eight people have said that that's a lot
01:04:00
of people yeah based on and that that um that artist manre he does a painting a couple of his paintings are very
01:04:10
reminiscent of the scene yeah uh based on all the pieces he uncovered while writing his book Steve hodell concluded
01:04:17
that his father coaxed Elizabeth Short to a party at his house where she was subjected to sexual assault torture and
01:04:24
eventually murdered he offers a large amount of circumstantial evidence to support this claim and again like I said
01:04:30
circumstantial evidence is good evidence um including the fact that Short's body
01:04:35
was found to be positioned in a way that like I said recalled two of man R man Ray's more famous works of art which Dr
01:04:45
uh George hodell or yeah Dr George hodell were was very interested in yeah now you can also he was like very into
01:04:53
like surrealist dream [ __ ] clearly hear it when he says it was all a dream and I
01:04:58
was exploring the dream of the universe and blah blah blah like he's very into that [ __ ] so that does figure
01:05:03
prominently despite the circumstantial nature of the evidence Steve wasn't alone in his suspicions either following
01:05:10
hodell's acquit for assaulting his daughter LAPD detectives started looking closer at him as a suspect in the
01:05:17
Elizabeth shortcase oh [ __ ] so during that time they were like whoa whoa what about this guy wait a second the other
01:05:23
officers outside of Steve hodell this included Dr hodell being followed by investigators for several weeks and
01:05:30
having his phones tapped for a period of time which when you hear about the phone
01:05:35
tapping of it all I'm like I don't know how you continue going into this like how did you not even build more against
01:05:40
it because I think people got paid off during this period George hodell had been heard on more than one occasion to
01:05:49
vaguely allude to his participation in Elizabeth Short's murder in one phone conversation on the the first day of
01:05:56
being tapped George tells a friend supposing I did Kill the black doia they can't prove it now because my secretary
01:06:04
is dead coincidence number three who says that not me and ultimately the investigation into George hodell went
01:06:12
nowhere and was ended when he moved to Hawaii in 1950 but let me tell you a little more about that why that's insane
01:06:19
yeah so on the very first day after he said that supposing I killed the black doia they can't prove it now cuz my my
01:06:26
secretary's dead and it's also like why do those two things correlate to each other George exactly on that same those
01:06:32
first few days he said that they also got the statement of they got that statement they got him bragging about
01:06:38
paying off law enforcement wow uh having officers demoted that's good who were peeking too quick too much into his [ __ ]
01:06:47
and he Tau like anybody who was like looking further into his like the case against you know that his daughter had
01:06:54
against him and anybody who was on that that he was getting demoted paying off people to get like to turn on the stand
01:07:01
which they have proof of which is how he was ultimately acquitted yeah and his physician friends were also part of all
01:07:08
this like these conversations apparently so there was a lieutenant je gemson who was working
01:07:14
hodell's case and one of his physician friends that he talked to this Lieutenant jemson he was quoted in a
01:07:23
report as saying to this lieutenant someday I'm going to fix Tamar I'm going to cut a chunk out of her calf of her
01:07:30
leg and fry it and eat it in front of her eyes and then puke it up in front of her
01:07:34
face um what those are his friends physician friends saying that about his daughter who he is accused and most
01:07:45
definitely assaulted yeah oh just of note the there is a large portion of Flesh removed violent ly from Elizabeth
01:07:56
Short's thigh by the way and her right breast was saw off so hearing some of his friends say I
01:08:06
would cut a piece of her calf out and fry it and eat it in front of her is pretty noteworthy when you look that
01:08:13
there are pieces of Elizabeth Short's flesh that have been very obviously and very intentionally removed from her body
01:08:20
in fatty parts of her body as well yeah her thigh and a one whole breast wow like you're telling me that's
01:08:29
coincidence that we just happen to have a guy that's saying he's going to do that I think that's coincidence number
01:08:34
four now wow holy [ __ ] yeah in February when when they were tapping his phone there was one day where they hear George
01:08:40
hodell speaking of his secretary Ruth Spalding who he was speaking of before my secretary dead he said he she died
01:08:48
she died under suspicious overdose in 1945 and this time he's saying quote they thought there was something fishy
01:08:57
anyways now they may have figured it out killed her maybe I did kill my secretary so he literally just said it
01:09:03
killed her like what do you you have you literally have it and if he had any Rel
01:09:10
and apparently if he had any relationship with Elizabeth Short that secretary would have known about it of
01:09:14
course she would have obviously she organized all the [ __ ] according to Steve hodell the LAPD at the time
01:09:20
acknowledged that they suspected and investigated hodell of intentionally overdose ing his secretary with seanol
01:09:27
which is a barbituate and a sedative yeah they said they looked into him they thought he did it they investigated it
01:09:34
at the time there is a lot on these tapes and I urge you to check them out because holy [ __ ] he was a shady dude
01:09:41
and he was just it's literally proven that he was paying Law Enforcement Officers he was talking about it and
01:09:46
often times he would talk in German to his friends saying these things yeah it's insane the transcripts of these
01:09:54
tapes are Bonkers they're bananas I don't know how we just fluffed it away and we're like
01:10:01
ah I don't know maybe he's a suspect what you almost wonder if he did know that he was being that they had
01:10:07
absolutely did at [ __ ] with them he absolutely did at one point it's insane now in the early 2000s Steve hodell
01:10:14
presented all his materials to the Los Angeles District Attorney they reviewed the material and ultimately decided not
01:10:21
to pursue the case for why mistake mistake in my my opinion [ __ ] you guys I think it's such
01:10:28
a big mistake they didn't like dude he's dead the least you could do just look look into it and see he done all the
01:10:36
[ __ ] leg work he might as well give it a shot well it's like you're not getting any more money from this guy
01:10:39
he's dead yeah [ __ ] convict him yeah convict him he can't hurt you anymore let's let's go and also the people that
01:10:47
were at that time being paid off by him and all that [ __ ] that's the older L LD
01:10:51
this is supposed to be a new crop of people that are supposed to be going through this that you're not those
01:10:56
people and it's like look into it man there's enough here he absolutely in my opinion he is absolutely without a doubt
01:11:04
the yes if you look at the transcripts of these tapes there's also a time where they caught a woman screaming on the
01:11:11
tape and then they hear George hodell talking to another person on the tape saying leave no Trace that's good and a
01:11:17
woman is screaming and they didn't go check that out and even Steve hodell is like I don't understand how nobody
01:11:24
listening to those at the time they were tapping him like live why nobody made the 5 minute trip from the state the
01:11:30
department to go check on what was happening because they were he was like at the very least there was like at the
01:11:35
very least there was felonious assault of a woman happening clearly and they didn't do anything so that to me tells
01:11:42
me everything it's like you didn't want to intervene on that what the [ __ ] were
01:11:46
you going to intervene on nothing if it cost them money it's crazy I very much encourage you to look into that whole
01:11:54
part imagine coming to that realization and imagine what his [ __ ] childhood was
01:12:00
exactly like my God and it must be frustrating that nobody's [ __ ] listening to you yeah now since
01:12:06
Elizabeth Short's body was found in that bacon lot in 1947 her murder has fascinated and I'm one of those people
01:12:14
fascinated the public and generated no small amount of myths legends lore everything associated with it um by this
01:12:21
point it's entirely likely what's known about the victim in the case is a lot of Legend in fact like we've given
01:12:28
you all the facts we can but a lot of things you'll hear we were talking about how like you know she went to Hollywood
01:12:33
to become a star like that's that was true a very small yeah it's like she had a lot more
01:12:40
that she wanted to accomplish out there like getting her life together and like starting over being healthy being able
01:12:46
to breathe like meeting someone she had all kinds of aspirations so it's like a lot of this became you know and there's
01:12:53
things you'll hear that you can easily do yeah um on one hand the notoriety of the case you know it's surprising
01:13:01
because there was very little evidence that they had um and it's not like Elizabeth Short was like a famous
01:13:08
actress at the time she was you know a a civilian walking around trying to get a
01:13:13
job right but when you look at how she was found what she endured and the Mystery surrounding her it's easier to
01:13:22
understand why this has become such a Fascination for everybody pool of suspects that pool of suspects and just
01:13:27
like that crime scene there's no way this wasn't going to well Fascinate people going back to the the manray of
01:13:34
it all like you guys got to look at some of those photos and then look it's interesting to say the least to even
01:13:40
just like don't look at the crime scene photos if you don't want to but even just to hear them described the way that
01:13:45
her body was positioned off center yeah like look at man R just go look at it and this also is like the intersection
01:13:52
between Hollywood and murder which is that always is going to get everybody's attention it's just it's a fascinating
01:14:00
place it's a dark place it's a scary place it's a beautiful place it's a shimmery place you know it's like all
01:14:07
layered it is so layered um since her death you know Elizabeth Short has become a symbol for anyone you know
01:14:15
hoping to moralize in One Direction or the other because a lot is placed on you know how many boyfriends she had and
01:14:24
what she was doing with her life whatever the facts it seems unlikely that anyone's going to be
01:14:31
really satisfied with an ending to this case because people have so many different theories thoughts and theories
01:14:38
but I think people I almost think it's like the Jack the Ripper case where you don't even know anymore if people want
01:14:45
it solved that are not like part of the case you know what I mean that they just
01:14:49
want to keep talking about it and keep theorizing um a former LA Times Reporter Larry Harish who we mentioned earlier
01:14:57
said people don't want the record set straight people want this grab bag of Noir tropes yeah which is not cool not
01:15:04
great that honestly he said it perfectly it's a bunch of Noir tropes a grab bag of Noir tropes and when you really look
01:15:11
at the reality of the case and I I this is just our opinion that I think Steve hodell is on to something here abolutely
01:15:18
I think he he's a very interesting person to listen to and a trusted Source a trusted Source uh you know somebody
01:15:25
who has a long history of not being a [ __ ] uh that I can tell I think it's an interesting one and
01:15:33
I think it can be solved I really do I think it can and I think we just need to keep pushing for it you never know like
01:15:40
we said a cold case is never cold it's never cold it's never cold it just gets a little chilly and we just got to give
01:15:45
it a blanket so I think we can do it Steve let's go Steve's like I tried Steve's like but I've done everything
01:15:52
like I literally went everybody I could Steve I don't know I want to re approach
01:15:55
when there's new people exactly we just got to reignite it reinvigorate it keep it in people's ears keep talking about
01:16:02
it keep bringing new things forward and eventually it's going to happen I know it um so that is the case of the black
01:16:08
Delia the murder of Elizabeth Short it's a crazy one it is and I'm glad we' Revisited it I wanted to give it a
01:16:15
little more uh def space more and time and attention and yeah different things yeah for sure very very interesting case
01:16:24
I think we we could probably revisit it again in even like five more years and we have more abely and thanks to Dave
01:16:29
for doing such a good job with this one too cuz Dave is one of the smartest people I know he is he's
01:16:34
lovely you guys should all have a friend like Dave you should so we hope that you
01:16:39
keep listening and we hope you keep it weird I honey honey we don't got to say it
01:16:48
that's so Weir they don't fill your own cup Bring It full circle Steve let's talk Steve
01:16:56
[Music] [Music] [Music]

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This episode stands out for the following:

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Episode Highlights

  • The State of Social Media
    Ash and Elina discuss the crumbling state of social media and its impact on mental health.
    “I have been off of Instagram for probably 2-3 weeks now; my insides feel better.”
    @ 03m 06s
    February 24, 2025
  • The Black Dahlia Case
    Introduction to the infamous unsolved murder case of Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia.
    “We're talking about the Black Dahlia case, the murder of Elizabeth Short.”
    @ 09m 00s
    February 24, 2025
  • Daniel Vorhees Confesses
    Daniel Vorhees confesses to killing Elizabeth Short but provides little detail, raising skepticism.
    “I'm sick. I did kill Beth Short.”
    @ 20m 53s
    February 24, 2025
  • The Case Grows Cold
    By the end of February, investigators acknowledge the case is growing cold with no leads.
    “Investigators had become so desperate for any new leads.”
    @ 27m 56s
    February 24, 2025
  • False Leads and Confessions
    Investigators face numerous false confessions and leads, complicating the case further.
    “Reports like that... didn't pan out.”
    @ 29m 37s
    February 24, 2025
  • Janice Nolton's Claims
    In 1991, Janice Nolton claimed her father was Elizabeth Short's killer, citing repressed memories.
    “He was a very sadistic man.”
    @ 47m 45s
    February 24, 2025
  • Investigation into Janice's Memories
    Investigators excavated a lot where Janice's childhood home once stood, finding strange items but no evidence of murder.
    “Weird but found no conclusive evidence of a murder.”
    @ 48m 55s
    February 24, 2025
  • Steve Hodell's Accusation
    In 2003, former LAPD detective Steve Hodell accused his father, Dr. George Hodell, of being Elizabeth Short's killer.
    “He was a hard and cold individual with a huge ego.”
    @ 52m 24s
    February 24, 2025
  • Tamar's Accusations
    Tamar implicated her father in a conspiracy of abuse, revealing shocking details of her trauma.
    “She was raped, that's what that means.”
    @ 59m 11s
    February 24, 2025
  • The Aftermath of Lies
    Witnesses recanted their statements, revealing the extent of manipulation and hush money.
    “I hope you are having the afterlife that you deserve.”
    @ 01h 01m 54s
    February 24, 2025
  • Public Fascination
    The case of Elizabeth Short has become a symbol of myth and legend in true crime.
    “It's a grab bag of Noir tropes.”
    @ 01h 15m 01s
    February 24, 2025
  • Never Cold Cases
    The pursuit of justice for cold cases remains vital, as new evidence can always emerge.
    “A cold case is never cold.”
    @ 01h 15m 41s
    February 24, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • The human species is an onion with some rotten layers.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • I'm sick. I did kill Beth Short.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • You understand the trouble I could get into because of what I did.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • I feel for Janice a lot because obviously there's some stuff going on there.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • She was raped, that's what that means.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • It's a grab bag of Noir tropes.
    A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast

Key Moments

  • Mental Health04:33
  • Black Dahlia Case09:00
  • Confession20:53
  • Desperate Investigators27:56
  • Hodell's Claims51:55
  • Janice's Confession57:54
  • Noir Tropes1:15:01
  • Cold Case Pursuit1:15:41

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown