Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

Novelist-turned-screenwriter Steve Fisher was very much on target in his character analysis for the Herald Express. Fisher — who wrote I Wake Up Screaming, Destination Tokyo, Song of the Thin Man, and Winter Kill for MGM and a screenplay based on Raymond Chandler's Lady in the Lake — not only evaluated the Dahlia case as it stood, but suggested what the fictional character Nick Charles would have done to force the suspect to turn himself in. Here are some extracts from his extensive 'profile' that appeared in the Herald Express on February 3, 1947, under the headline 'Noted Film Scenarist Predicts 'Dahlia' Killer Will Soon Be in Toils':

By following the case in the

Evening Herald

I think I know who the killer is, and think the police do also, and in a very short time will have his name. When the killer's name is published I think a lot of his friends will be very surprised and terrified. I think he is still in Los Angeles. When arrested his attorneys will plead insanity, but the killer will be his own worst enemy. He will not want people to think he is crazy. He is an egomaniac .. .

I believe that the killer believed that the Dahlia had wronged him, and because of his punctured ego, she had to be exposed. People had to know it. Vengeance had to complete itself. That is why he tortured her and chopped her up in ways so gruesome that many of the revolting details have not been revealed, even with all that has been printed about the Dahlia.

Fisher went on to conjecture that the killer wanted 'recognition,' and reveled in the publicity: It was his ego that impelled him to write to the police. (He was convinced the notes and cards sent to the authorities were authentic.) Presciently, Fisher also theorized that the killer must have been furious about all the 'nuts' who kept confessing to his murder, but comforted by the thought that, one by one, the police dismissed them. But, added Fisher, if 'a 'legitimate' suspect made a 'confession'... and the police announced the case solved,' the real killer would be so frustrated and upset that he would 'be driven at some point to come in and give the lie to the phony suspect's confession ... But, I believe the police right now have a definite 'line' on the real killer, and that kind of 'staging' won't be necessary. Look for a thriller finish to this case.'

That day the Express also ran a report about a forcible rape, including a photograph of the attractive victim, a Mrs. Sylvia Horan, who was described as '30 years old, honey-haired and shapely.' At first glance, the crime appeared to be an unrelated and isolated sexual attack, though the paper noted that it had occurred 'near the Dahlia murder spot.' Sylvia Horan might have been an important living witness to detectives in the Black Dahlia investigation if law enforcement had linked the Horan crime to the Short case.

Although the rape had occurred within the city limits, Mrs. Horan lived in the county and reported the crime to the sheriff after having been thrown out of the suspect's car in the sheriff's jurisdiction. She told deputies who took a 'courtesy report' for LAPD that she was an ex-WAC and married, but that her husband was in New York on business. She had gone alone to downtown Los Angeles to see a show. Afterward she was standing on the corner of 7th Street and Broadway when a 'suave stranger, driving a black coupe, drove up to her and offered to drive her home.' 'I accepted the ride,' she said, 'due to the late hour.' The stranger, who identified himself only as 'Bob,' drove her to a lonely spot on Stocker Boulevard between Crenshaw and La Brea Avenues, only eight blocks from where the body of Elizabeth Short had been found, and forcibly raped her.

Mrs. Horan reported, 'He grabbed me in his arms ... we were parked in his car on a very dark street... I was paralyzed with fright... I had a vision of the Black Dahlia, her body cut in half. . . I was in a situation ... so I submitted to his advances. I knew we were near the place where the Black Dahlia's body had been found, and I was terrified. All I could think of was to escape and get home alive.'

Mrs. Horan told the deputies that after the attack the man drove her to the Inglewood area and 'rudely pushed her from his automobile and fled. I was so afraid I forgot to get the license plate of his car.' The case was reported in the Examiner, but according to the public record of the Black Dahlia investigation, it was never incorporated into the Elizabeth Short case file and remained an isolated sexual assault.

Tuesday, February 4, 1947

Police reported to the press that they were on the lookout in San Diego for a 'sleek-haired Latin type, one of the most favored of the host of admirers attracted by the Dahlia's flashing beauty.' LAPD detectives told reporters they were 'working with San Diego authorities to run down clues to the handsome Latin's identity, and that they were also checking some new leads.'

In a separate statement the same day, detectives reported that, 'Due to the surgical neatness of the severed body, they were checking the possibility that she could have possibly been slain in a mortuary.'

Wednesday, February 5, 1947

Famed mystery writer Leslie Charteris, creator of the fictional amateur sleuth 'the Saint,' was called in to analyze the Dahlia murder for the Herald Express. His profile described a 'lone wolf' type, possibly suffering from impotence. Here is a brief excerpt from his long article:

Whether the murderer's impotence was or was not due to alcohol, and whether his resulting rage was or was not inflamed by the same thing, I can see him saying something like 'So you think you can laugh at me, do you? I'll keep that laugh on your face for good' — and he slashes her cheeks from the corners of her mouth to her ears, in the ghastly grin which is preserved on the morgue photos ...

I am practically certain that the man will be caught and I base this on a rather gruesome reason. My reason is that even if he should get away with this murder, it is almost certain that he will repeat it, and the next time he does it he has another chance to make a slip.

Thursday, February 6, 1947

Not to be outdone by their morning competitor, the Evening Herald Express brought in their own hired gun, the popular mystery writer David Goodis, who had recently written the bestseller Dark Passage, which, at the time of the Dahlia murder, was in production at Warner Brothers Studios. The now classic noir film would be released a few months after his article appeared, and paired film legend Humphrey Bogart with sultry Lauren Bacall. Goodis's lengthy 'profile' of the killer speculated that he met her in a bar:

The man — and I am certain it was a man — met her on the street or in a bar. They talked. They found each other interesting. Somewhere along the path of their conversation they fell into the channel of an erotic subject. This was the initial spark. It grew. Within the mind of the man it expanded and formed a chain between the conscious and the subconscious.

Suddenly, he was insane — completely. But Elizabeth Short did not notice this. She was intrigued by the man. There was something about him that magnetized her particular personality. When he invited her to his 'place,' she offered no argument.