Just as compelling are the murders of Mimi Boomhower and Jean Spangler, which also occurred in Los Angeles during the key Dahlia years. Like the above three, they too bear distinctive, perhaps unique, thoughtprints.
24
The Boomhower-Spangler
Kidnap- Murders
Mimi Boomhower (August 18, 1949)
THE STORY OF MIMI BOOMHOWER'S disappearance broke on August 24, 1949, in the morning editions of the Los Angeles papers. The Bel Air socialite and 'prominent heiress' had apparently vanished from her mansion six days earlier. Mimi, referred to by her friends as 'the Merry Widow' because of her fondness for 'going out on the town' and partying at various Hollywood nightclubs, had lived alone since the death of her husband in 1943. LAPD police detectives, who responded to the Boomhower home in Bel Air, discovered that all the house lights had been left on, her car was in the garage, the refrigerator was filled with fresh food and produce, and items recently ordered by her from stores had been delivered the day after her disappearance. Deputy Chief of Detectives Thad Brown issued a statement to the press in which he said, 'We simply do not know what happened to her.'
An unidentified witness found Boomhower's white purse in a telephone booth at a supermarket located at 9331 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, with a note written directly onto the purse in large handprinted letters that read:
POLICE DEPT. —
WE FOUND THIS AT BEACH THURSDAY NIGHT
In retracing her movements, the police learned that the last known person to have seen her was her business manager, Carl Manaugh, who had spoken with her at his Hollywood office on Thursday afternoon, August 18. Manaugh told the police that Mrs. Boomhower had informed him 'she was meeting a gentleman at 7:00 p.m. at her home,' whom he believed may have been a prospective buyer for the mansion. An article in the
A possible suspect, identified by the newspaper as 'Tom E. Evans, ex-host on Tony Cornero's gambling ship and former dope peddler, is to be questioned in West Los Angeles today.' An ex ex-LAPD officer phoned in a tip that several days before her disappearance he saw Evans with the victim having drinks at the bar at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.
Tom Evans was a gambler, with a criminal record in Los Angeles dating back to the early 1920s. He had prior local arrests for bootlegging and robbery and had convictions for 'opium running.' As the former associate and employee of Los Angeles vice czar and gambling ship owner Tony Cornero, Evans was well-known to LAPD, who ran him out of town after the shooting and wounding of Cornero in Hollywood in 1948. Cornero's assailant was never identified or arrested.
Evans told reporters who questioned him after he was identified in the paper, 'Sure I was in the bar at the hotel last week — I'm there every day.' He was taken to West Los Angeles Division police station and questioned by detectives, but denied knowing the victim. Detectives told the press they believed that Evans was 'in the clear, and that someone probably just had a grudge against him,' adding that they had been receiving numerous phone calls and tips and had eighty names of possible suspects. In the course of my investigation, I learned that Tom Evans was not only Tony Cornero's bodyguard, but also an acquaintance and associate of my father, dating back to 1925.
After interviewing Mrs. Boomhower's friends and business associates, police learned that only days before her disappearance she had inadvertendy acknowledged to her furrier William Marco that she 'had been secretly married.' She said she couldn't give Marco an order for a fur she was contemplating buying, because 'I'll have to talk it over with my present husband.' Then Marco said that the victim 'checked herself' and said, 'I'll talk it over with my family and come back.'
The only public clue of substance was the victim's purse, which the police laboratory determined contained no particles of sand that could have substantiated its having been found at the beach. The police believed that the purse had been left at the phone booth by the suspect himself, because the phone booth was only a few miles from her home and the purse appeared only a few hours after her kidnapping. A citizen who anonymously turned in evidence to police would more likely attach a note to it.
On September 30, 1949, the court declared that Boomhower was dead, but to this day her body has never been recovered and the case remains in LAPD files as another unsolved homicide.
The Physical Evidence
As indicated, it is highly unusual that a witness would write a note directly on the victim's purse. People who make such finds usually attach a note to the evidence. Los Angeles's three largest newspapers — the
Earlier, I had sent Hannah McFarland the known and questioned documents relating to the Black Dahlia and Jeanne French cases. At this point in my investigation, in September 2000, I sent her a copy of that photograph, informing her only that the questioned-document sample was written in the year 1949 and that the purse was believed to be made of leather. Below is the photograph as it originally appeared, modified by the arrowed markings that were made by McFarland as part of her analysis.
Here is her report:
September 28, 2000
RE: Analysis of Q10 — Printing on Purse
