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
LAPD Special Bulletin, January 1947
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 Herald Express, a story under the headline "Will 'Dahlia' Slaying Join Album of Unsolved Murders?" in which she included the names and photographs of Ora Murray, Georgette Bauerdorf, and Gertrude Evelyn Landon, three earlier Los Angeles-area unsolved murder victims. The story suggested there might well be a connection between these previous unsolved homicides and that of Elizabeth Short.
HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCH
FOR DAHLIA MURDER CLUE
Underwood's article began:
W
EREWOLVES
L
EAVE
T
RAIL OF
W
OMEN
M
URDERS IN
L
.A.
In the gory album of unsolved murders, kidnappings and crimes against women in general, Los Angeles police may have to insert a new page — "The Mystery of the Sadistic Slaying of Elizabeth Short — the Black Dahlia." So far all clues have failed. This latest murder mystery which has provoked the greatest mobilization of crime detection experts in the city's history, is the latest in a long series. The finding of her dismembered body was preceded by other gruesome discoveries of women victims slain for lust, for revenge, for reasons unknown.
Underwood's article provided the names and details of seven recent L.A. lone female victims of unsolved sex-related murders.
On the afternoon of January 23, Los Angeles Examiner city editor James Richardson received a phone call from a man identifying himself as the Black Dahlia killer. In Richardson's autobiography, For the Life of Me: Memoirs of a City Editor, he describes the eerie call and the killer's follow-up. Richardson explained that he never published the story in the paper at the time because he wanted to keep the evidence confidential, even though there was a feeding frenzy among crime reporters for any stray piece of information on the case. His revelation of the phone call became an important piece of evidence for me, primarily because of his verbatim description of his brief conversation with the killer and his impressions of the suspect. That this call came from the real killer is not in doubt. During their conversation he promised Richardson to send him "a few of her [Elizabeth's] belongings." As Richardson described the conversation: