Sensing another Dahlia-type murder story in the making, newspapers quickly sent reporters out to pursue their own investigations. Here is my reconstructed timeline of what they reported:
Wednesday, October 5, 1949
Spangler, while working on a movie set at Columbia Pictures studios with actor Robert Cummings, told Cummings that she 'had a happy new romance' and was having the time of her life. She did not tell Cummings her new boyfriend's name.
Thursday, October 6, 1949
LAPD detective W. E. Brennan, in charge of the investigation, told the press that 'Miss Spangler had a date with a man the night before her disappearance.' Reporters also learned that a married couple, friends of the victim, had spoken with her briefly in front of the Hollywood Ranch Market. Spangler had been seen sitting with a 'clean cut man in his thirties' in a black sedan parked in the Ranch Market parking lot. A short time later, witnesses saw Spangler and her companion standing at a nearby hot dog stand, which was located directly across the street from the studio apartment where Man Ray and his wife, Juliet, were living, approximately one mile from the Franklin House.
Friday, October 7, 1949; 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Jean Spangler left her apartment at 6216 Colgate Avenue in Hollywood at 5:30 p.m. after telling her sister-in- law Sophie Spangler, who was babysitting Christine, that she would be home that night but expected to be late. Jean called the apartment two hours later at 7:30 p.m. to check on her daughter, spoke briefly with her sister-in- law, and again confirmed she would be home that night.
Saturday, October 8, 1949; 1:30 a.m.
Witness Terry Taylor, the proprietor of the Cheese Box Restaurant at 8033 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, who also knew the victim personally, recalled seeing her seated at a front table with a man he described as, 'male, 30- 35, brown hair, clean cut, tallish with a medium build.' His information was confirmed by a second witness, Joseph Epstein, who sold papers in front of the restaurant, who also identified Spangler as being there at about 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.
2:00 a.m.
Witness A1 'the Sheik' Lazaar, a radio personality who broadcast his show live from the Cheese Box, said he saw Spangler sitting at the restaurant with two men he didn't know. When he approached the threesome at their table to do a radio interview, he saw that Miss Spangler 'appeared to be arguing with the two men.' When one of the men saw him walk up to the table, he abruptly signaled to him that they did not want to talk to him, and 'the Sheik,' in his own words, 'veered away and did not attempt to conduct the interview.'
9:00 A.M.
When Jean Spangler failed to return home, her sister-in-law, fearing foul play, contacted LAPD and filed a missing persons report. Dexter Benner picked up his daughter at his ex-wife's apartment and took her home to his place, intending to bring her back the following day.
Sunday, October 9, 1949
On Sunday morning, October 9, Jean Spangler's purse was found lying ten feet off the roadway at the entrance to Fern Dell Park, the exact location where Father would drop me and my brothers off to play during the summer months of 1949 when he went to his downtown office or made house calls. The park is exactly six-tenths of a mile from the Franklin House. A park employee, Hugh Anger, found the purse and called the police.
The handle on Spangler's purse was torn loose and the purse itself had been ripped, which indicated a struggle. A handwritten note, written in pencil by the victim, was found in the purse:
Kirk,
Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott.
Will work best this way while Mother is away.
. . . some of the officers working the case inclined to the belief that she may be the 10th victim of a series of unsolved female mutilation murders. The maniacal slaughter of women began with the famed Black Dahlia case in 1947, when the tortured and gruesomely carved body of black-haired Elizabeth Short was found naked in a weed- grown lot.
As in the Spangler disappearance, also in the Black Dahlia case a purse was featured when some unknown person mailed it to police during the investigation of her baffling fate.
And more recently a purse containing a note was found in the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of Mimi Boomhower, wealthy and flirtatious Bel Air widow.
Jean's mother, Mrs. Florence Spangler, was out of town visiting relatives in Kentucky when she heard of her daughter's disappearance. She immediately returned home and, according to the papers, provided detectives with the name of a man whom she thought was responsible. The
The mother of film actress Jean Spangler, who mysteriously disappeared five days ago, said today she is convinced her daughter has been murdered, and gave police the name of the man she thought responsible for the girl's death. 'I am sure this man hired somebody to do away with my daughter,' said Mrs. Florence Spangler, who arrived here today from a vacation in Kentucky.
Police refused to reveal the name of the man named by Mrs. Spangler but said they had already questioned him at some length.
The intensive two-hundred-man search by LAPD officers of Fern Dell Park, on horseback and on foot, revealed nothing new. The victim's body was never found, and the police never released the name of the man provided by Florence Spangler, whom they had questioned regarding the victim's disappearance. Although no progress was made in the case, Deputy Chief Thad Brown, in what appeared to be more of a public relations move than part of the actual investigation, interviewed actor Kirk Douglas to ascertain whether he might be the 'Kirk' mentioned in her note. Douglas indicated he did not personally know the victim and could provide police with no information related to her disappearance.
On October 13, 1949, some six days into the Spangler murder investigation, LAPD homicide detectives again arrested Tom Evans. Evans was booked on a technical charge of robbery after detectives found him in possession of a large amount of cash, with, according to the charges, 'no visible means of support.'
