After detectives showed the Johnsons separate photographs retrieved from Elizabeth Short's luggage, the Johnsons positively identified both the victim and the man who had checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Barnes. This photo identification was a vital clue for detectives, because it was the first time someone had actually put the person calling himself Elizabeth Short's husband together with the victim at the same place only two days before the murder. Then, when 'Mr. Barnes' had returned alone, his behavior had been so bizarre that Mr. Johnson remembered it clearly. As of January 20, 1947, LAPD detectives therefore had in their files a photograph of someone who should have been their prime suspect in the Black Dahlia case, a man identified by two eyewitnesses as being with the victim alone in a hotel room just forty-eight hours before her murder. Who was this man? Where is that photograph today?
In addition to the Johnsons' interviews, a new search of the crime scene by fifty LAPD officers combing the area in a human grid turned up a man's military-type wristwatch lying in the vacant lot close to where the victim's body was originally discovered. The watch was taken into custody and, according to the newspaper reports, 'Police chemists were checking ownership of the military watch,' which was described as a '17-jewel 'Croton' with a leather-bound, steel snap band. Engraved on it are the words 'Swiss made, water proof, brevet, stainless steel back.''
Wednesday, January 22, 1947
At division roll calls that morning, homicide detectives circulated the following Los Angeles special police bulletin (exhibit 16) containing a photograph of Elizabeth Short and a detailed description of her clothing, and provided copies to uniformed officers working the various foot beats throughout the divisions. The bulletin requested officers to try to locate anyone with knowledge of the victim in the week preceding her murder. This special bulletin was posted in bus and cab terminals to enlist the public's help.
Exhibit 16
SPECIAL
WANTED INFORMATION ON ELIZABETH SHORT
Between Dates January 9 and 15, 1947
Description: Female, American, 22 years. 5 ft. 6 in.. Ill lbs. black hair, green eyes, very attractive, bad lower teeth, linger nails chewed to quick. This subject found brutally murdered, body severed and mutilated January 15, 1947, at 39th and Norton.
Subject on whom information wanted last seen January 9. 1947 when she got out of car at Biltmore Hotel. At that time she was wearing black suit. no collar on coal, probably Cardigan style, white fluffy blouse, black suede high-heeled shoes, nylon stockings, white gloves full-length beige coat, carried black plastic handbag (2 handles) 12 x It. in which she had black address book. Subject readily makes friends with both sexes and frequented cocktail bars and night spots. On leaving car the went into lobby of the Biltmore. and was last seen there.
Inquiry should he made at all hotels, motels, apartment houses, cocktail bars and lounges, night clubs to ascertain whereabouts of victim between dates mentioned. In conversations subject readily identified herself as Elizabeth or 'Beth' Short.
Attention Officers H. H. Hansen and F. A. Brown. Homicide Detail.
KINDLY ,NOTIFY C B. AORRALL. CHIEF OF POLICE, LCS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA
There was also a brief statement released to local newspapers concerning fingerprints that were lifted from a wine bottle found in the room at the East Washington Boulevard Hotel where Elizabeth and her 'husband' had stayed. The paper quoted two unnamed detectives, believed to have been from the Gangster Squad, assisting in the investigation, as having said they 'were satisfied that it was perhaps a case of mistaken identity' since 'the fingerprints did not belong to the victim, Elizabeth Short.'*
An LAPD organizational explanation is here called for. The 'Gangster Squad' no longer exists as an entity within the LAPD. In 1947, however, it was a separate squad of a dozen or so detectives, within the Homicide Division. The detectives assigned to this squad were supervised by their own lieutenant. Under his leadership, they were responsible for gathering intelligence and surveillance of 'known gangsters,' as well as for conducting city-wide investigations to identify and prosecute abortionists. The Gangster Squad detectives were the first officers to be loaned to assist regular homicide squad detectives in their manpower needs for any high-profile investigations. Historically, an uneasy relationship always existed between these interdepartment units and squads, each acting almost as its own fiefdom, with a lieutenant as lord. This was especially true in the 1940s when LAPD was rife with corruption, with many officers on the take. Anyone outside the separate squads, including 'brother officers,' were not to be trusted. After Chief Parker's selection as chief of police in 1950, the Gangster Squad was eventually split to become OCID (Organized Crime Intelligence Division) and PDID (Public Disorder Intelligence Division).
Thursday, January 23, 1947
Others conducting the investigation obviously took the Johnsons seriously, as newspapers reported that all LAPD officers had been instructed to 'be on the lookout for a man who might have registered with Miss Short as 'man and wife' at a hotel located at 300 E.Washington Blvd., on January 12.' A detailed description of 'Mr. Barnes,' positively identified by the Johnsons as checking in with the victim, was given to officers, but his description was not released to the general public.
Police also re-canvassed the Leimert Park neighborhood near 39th and Norton for a third time, conducting a door-to-door search for possible witnesses to the crime in yet another effort to identify somebody who might have seen anything on the morning of January 15. As part of this follow-up investigation, officers asked citizens in the immediate neighborhood the following two questions:
1) 'Do you know anyone in the neighborhood who is mentally unbalanced?'
2) 'Do you know of any medical students?'
But the re-canvass turned up no new eyewitnesses whose names police could release to the newspapers, whose coverage had already begun to turn against the police and their apparent lack of progress. On January 23, Agness Underwood wrote, in the
