The Torso Slayings, Lipstick Murders, The Black Dahlia Killing – The Work Of The “Most Prolific Mass Murderer” In American History?
While in the United Kingdom Jack The Ripper stalked the streets of London’s East End at the end of the nineteenth century, in America, although in theories only, it seems that an unsolved murder in Los Angeles, an unsolved set of murders in Cleveland Ohio and three murders in Chicago, may have in fact been the “work” of one person, America's own elusive "ripper", who according to one crime writer, Lawrence Scherb, “was the most prolific mass murderer in the history of the United States!”
On 15th January 1947 in Los Angeles, a grim and disturbing discovery of a young woman’s naked body was discovered on a vacant lot in the Leimert Park area of the city. She was sawn completely in half, neatly and precisely gutted, and her body drained entirely of blood before being purposely positioned where it could easily be seen. Scherb stated:
“Her face had been very brutally cut from ear to ear in a grin. Her throat had been cut and she had been mutilated sexually.”
It was later determined that she had been tied and hung from her hands, feet, and even neck (such were the burn marks on her wrists, feet, and neck). Furthermore, she had likely been tortured in the hours leading up to her death.
The young lady in question was later identified as twenty-two-year old, Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress who was known locally as Black Dahlia – apparently for her preference for black dresses and black underwear.
The young lady in question was later identified as twenty-two-year old, Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress who was known locally as Black Dahlia – apparently for her preference for black dresses and black underwear.
Elizabeth Short 1924-1947
The Black Dahlia Killing - The Murder Of Elizabeth Short
Short’s story is one that is arguably very typical of young people who head out to the City of Angels, both then and now. She was “desperate” to be a Hollywood actress, but instead found herself in prostitution and keeping “the wrong company.” There were even rumors of her making “sadistic pornographic movies” as a way to make ends meet and to make “connections” in the film industry.
Short was also said to frequent the infamous Cecil Hotel, which has a chequered past, to say the least, and was very recently the site of the strange disappearance of Elisa Lam – you can read a little about the hotel and Elisa Lam here.
Police investigated many leads and interviewed many of the men who knew Short. All had alibis and the police had nothing left to go on. Then out of the blue, a package was sent to a local newspaper that was apparently from the killer. It contained Short’s address book (which essentially was a list of her “clients”) which had one particular page removed – the police felt it was almost certain that the killer’s details would have been on that page. The package also contained a note made of newspaper letters, Short’s birth certificate, photographs and her business cards.
The package, however, didn’t lead to an arrest, and officially today, her murder is still unsolved. The videos below look at the basics of the case.
Short was also said to frequent the infamous Cecil Hotel, which has a chequered past, to say the least, and was very recently the site of the strange disappearance of Elisa Lam – you can read a little about the hotel and Elisa Lam here.
Police investigated many leads and interviewed many of the men who knew Short. All had alibis and the police had nothing left to go on. Then out of the blue, a package was sent to a local newspaper that was apparently from the killer. It contained Short’s address book (which essentially was a list of her “clients”) which had one particular page removed – the police felt it was almost certain that the killer’s details would have been on that page. The package also contained a note made of newspaper letters, Short’s birth certificate, photographs and her business cards.
The package, however, didn’t lead to an arrest, and officially today, her murder is still unsolved. The videos below look at the basics of the case.
The grim discovery of Elizabeth Short.
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The Mad Butcher Of Cleveland
Over a decade earlier between 1934 and 1938, the city of Cleveland in Ohio was bombarded with thirteen gruesome killings, many of which it would be revealed years after the fact, bore remarkable similarities to the murder of Elizabeth Short.
The victims tended to be homeless people or prostitutes and the manner in which they were killed suggested at least basic medical training. They were all decapitated and sawn with sound precision by use of a butcher’s knife. Also, like Short had been, their bodies were “cleaned” after death (Short’s hair was even said to have been washed). Many of the victims in the Cleveland Torso murders also bore markings on their wrists and ankles similar to those found on Short.
Scherb wrote:
The victims tended to be homeless people or prostitutes and the manner in which they were killed suggested at least basic medical training. They were all decapitated and sawn with sound precision by use of a butcher’s knife. Also, like Short had been, their bodies were “cleaned” after death (Short’s hair was even said to have been washed). Many of the victims in the Cleveland Torso murders also bore markings on their wrists and ankles similar to those found on Short.
Scherb wrote:
“The killer apparently had a fetish for cleanliness and cleaned the Dahlia’s body very carefully with water, washed it very carefully, shampooed her hair and scrubbed her with a bristle brush so severely that he left bristles embedded in her skin. The Cleveland victims also indicate that there were attempts to clean bodies. A butcher knife was used to bisect the Dahlia. And a butcher knife was used to dismember, decapitate and bisect victims in Cleveland!"
FBI man, Elliot Ness, was even brought in to track down the killer. Some even felt Ness had indeed discovered the killer's identity, but simply did not have the evidence to prove it. Although the bodies seemed to be coming from the down and out areas such as Kingsbury Run, Ness suspected the killer would have his own house with which to commit the murders and “work on them”, as well as his own car to transport the bodies around. He suspected the killer came from “the higher end” of the social ladder.
Ness’s biographer, Oscar Fraley stated “This lady socialite who was working with him came to him and said, ‘A member of one of our influential families fits your profile.’ So Eliot said, ‘That’s fine, let’s meet him.’ This man admitted that he had been to medical school, so Eliot thought surely he had the guy.”
It is said that Ness twice interviewed the suspect – who he never publicly named (according to Colin and Damon Wilson’s 'Unsolved Crimes' book, Ness referred to the man as Gaylord Sundheim) - and each time the suspect didn’t break, allegedly even telling Ness to “prove it” – prove he was The Mad Butcher of Cleveland.
Shortly after this, though, “Sundheim” volunteered himself into a mental institution, which may have been his smartest move, as now he was “committed” he could simply plead insanity should Ness persist with questioning.
The murders did stop in Cleveland – with Colin and Damon Wilson stating that “Sundheim” died in the institution around 1940. However, Scherb had a different theory, “If one is voluntarily in a mental hospital, you are free to legally walk out any time you want. And I think that’s exactly what he did!”
It was known that Ness would receive postcards from “Sundheim” almost taunting and jeering at him with their messages. However, sometime around early 1940, Ness received a letter allegedly from the Torso Killer, postmarked as sent from California. In it, he stated that he had “moved to sunny California” and was now “performing medical experiments upon his guinea pig victims here in Los Angeles!”
Had the Torso Killer, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run left the mental institution and traveled to California where he would later murder Elizabeth Short?
Also early in 1940, the bodies of three decapitated bodies were discovered in an old unused rail carriage in Pittsburgh, relatively speaking, near to Cleveland. Were these the work of the same person? No clues were discovered at the crime scene and the murders are officially unsolved. The video below looks at the Cleveland Torso Murders in a little more detail.
Ness’s biographer, Oscar Fraley stated “This lady socialite who was working with him came to him and said, ‘A member of one of our influential families fits your profile.’ So Eliot said, ‘That’s fine, let’s meet him.’ This man admitted that he had been to medical school, so Eliot thought surely he had the guy.”
It is said that Ness twice interviewed the suspect – who he never publicly named (according to Colin and Damon Wilson’s 'Unsolved Crimes' book, Ness referred to the man as Gaylord Sundheim) - and each time the suspect didn’t break, allegedly even telling Ness to “prove it” – prove he was The Mad Butcher of Cleveland.
Shortly after this, though, “Sundheim” volunteered himself into a mental institution, which may have been his smartest move, as now he was “committed” he could simply plead insanity should Ness persist with questioning.
The murders did stop in Cleveland – with Colin and Damon Wilson stating that “Sundheim” died in the institution around 1940. However, Scherb had a different theory, “If one is voluntarily in a mental hospital, you are free to legally walk out any time you want. And I think that’s exactly what he did!”
It was known that Ness would receive postcards from “Sundheim” almost taunting and jeering at him with their messages. However, sometime around early 1940, Ness received a letter allegedly from the Torso Killer, postmarked as sent from California. In it, he stated that he had “moved to sunny California” and was now “performing medical experiments upon his guinea pig victims here in Los Angeles!”
Had the Torso Killer, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run left the mental institution and traveled to California where he would later murder Elizabeth Short?
Also early in 1940, the bodies of three decapitated bodies were discovered in an old unused rail carriage in Pittsburgh, relatively speaking, near to Cleveland. Were these the work of the same person? No clues were discovered at the crime scene and the murders are officially unsolved. The video below looks at the Cleveland Torso Murders in a little more detail.
Eliot Ness could never "officially" capture The Cleveland Torso Murderer
The Investigation And Theories Of Steve Hodel
Another author, Steve Hodel, also made the connection with another murder and even goes as far as to name the person who he reasons is the killer, his own father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, who was a leading physician and a leading doctor to the stars in Hollywood during the time of Short’s murder. And with the help of “bought off” police officers and powerful Hollywood types, his involvement was covered up, at least according to Steve Hodel. It should be noted, George Hodel was a suspect in the investigation, so much so that much of his home was even bugged at one stage.
Steve Hodel also suspected his father was “probably” the “Lipstick Murderer” – three murders that took place in Chicago in summer 1945 and into winter of 1946 and that seventeen-year-old William Heirens was arrested for and allegedly confessed to. He would spent the rest of his life in prison for until his death in 2012.
Many believe that Heirens conviction was unsafe and that the police were “under pressure” from the local newspapers to catch the killer, so much so that Heirens confession was literally beaten out of him - a stance and statement he kept to all of his life. He essentially felt he was made the scapegoat for a crime the police had no leads for and were getting increasing pressure from all sides to "solve."
The first Lipstick killing occurred on 5th June 1945 when Josephine Ross was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed several times and had been decapitated, her head was eventually found wrapped in one of her dresses. Nothing was taken from the apartment. With initial suspects all having strong alibis, the police had no leads.
The killer struck again on 10th December 1945 when Frances Brown was discovered with a knife through her neck and a bullet wound to her head. She had also been stabbed repeatedly but like Ross before, nothing had been taken from the apartment.
This time though there was a message left for the police written on the mirror in lipstick which read:
Steve Hodel also suspected his father was “probably” the “Lipstick Murderer” – three murders that took place in Chicago in summer 1945 and into winter of 1946 and that seventeen-year-old William Heirens was arrested for and allegedly confessed to. He would spent the rest of his life in prison for until his death in 2012.
Many believe that Heirens conviction was unsafe and that the police were “under pressure” from the local newspapers to catch the killer, so much so that Heirens confession was literally beaten out of him - a stance and statement he kept to all of his life. He essentially felt he was made the scapegoat for a crime the police had no leads for and were getting increasing pressure from all sides to "solve."
The first Lipstick killing occurred on 5th June 1945 when Josephine Ross was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed several times and had been decapitated, her head was eventually found wrapped in one of her dresses. Nothing was taken from the apartment. With initial suspects all having strong alibis, the police had no leads.
The killer struck again on 10th December 1945 when Frances Brown was discovered with a knife through her neck and a bullet wound to her head. She had also been stabbed repeatedly but like Ross before, nothing had been taken from the apartment.
This time though there was a message left for the police written on the mirror in lipstick which read:
"For heavens
sake catch me
before I kill more
I cannot control myself"
The night clerk, John Derick stated that he had seen a man leave the apartment who looked “nervous” as he fumbled for his keys and left the building. He was said to have been around thirty-five to forty years old according to Derick – remember the man who was eventually charged with the murder was seventeen at the time of his arrest! Again the police had no obvious leads, and whether it was intentional or not, several days after the second murder they seemed in disarray even more when, despite the sighting from Derick, they now believed the killer “to be a woman!”
The lipstick message left at the second of the "Lipstick Murder"
The last murder, and the murder that Heirens “confessed” to was the murder of six-year-old, Suzanne Degnan, who went missing on 7th January 1946 from her family apartment. The police spoke with neighbors when the girl was reported missing as they searched the area. A ransom note was also left near where Degnan was taken.
An anonymous phone call was placed to police shortly after telling them to “search in the sewers near the Degnan home!” They did and made the discovery of the head of a young girl – Suzanne Degnan. Her remaining body parts and torso were discovered in various drains nearby.
Aside from the similar manner in which they were killed – particularly Suzanne Degnan – Hodel argues that Elizabeth Short's body was found on Norton Avenue three blocks west of Degnan Boulevard, Degnan being the last name of the girl from Chicago. He also states there are striking similarities between the writing of the Degnan ransom note that was found and the note that was sent to the police in the aftermath of Short’s murder. They both used the same combinations of capital and lower case letters and, in particular, both notes contain a similar misshapen letter “P.”
So what of Dr. George Hodel?
In 1949 he was accused by his fourteen-year-old daughter of incest and of “forcing her to take part in orgies” – after a lengthy trial he was acquitted and in 1950 he “fled” to Asia, leaving his family behind. Coincidentally or not, the murders of this kind that had been “plaguing” the LAPD at the time ceased.
One of these murders could very likely include actress Jean Spangler, then twenty-six years old. Like Short, she was an aspiring actress and her career was on the rise in 1949 when she simply vanished. Only her purse was found days later in Griffith Park, not far from the Hodel home. A note inside the purse hinted she was going to have an abortion, which was then illegal in California.
According to Steve Hodel, Dr. George Hodel was one of the few physicians who then performed abortions in Los Angeles and furthermore, he claims that Spangler and his father had a mutual friend that would almost certainly have introduced them!
Perhaps the last words should go to Dr. George Hodel, who was captured saying on the surveillance tapes prior to him leaving America in 1950, “ Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia? They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary because she’s dead!”
Check out the short videos below - a top ten type round up of Unsolved Murders! And for a more in-depth read on Steve Hodel's claims click here as well as the further videos below.
[Marcus Lowth October 2015]
An anonymous phone call was placed to police shortly after telling them to “search in the sewers near the Degnan home!” They did and made the discovery of the head of a young girl – Suzanne Degnan. Her remaining body parts and torso were discovered in various drains nearby.
Aside from the similar manner in which they were killed – particularly Suzanne Degnan – Hodel argues that Elizabeth Short's body was found on Norton Avenue three blocks west of Degnan Boulevard, Degnan being the last name of the girl from Chicago. He also states there are striking similarities between the writing of the Degnan ransom note that was found and the note that was sent to the police in the aftermath of Short’s murder. They both used the same combinations of capital and lower case letters and, in particular, both notes contain a similar misshapen letter “P.”
So what of Dr. George Hodel?
In 1949 he was accused by his fourteen-year-old daughter of incest and of “forcing her to take part in orgies” – after a lengthy trial he was acquitted and in 1950 he “fled” to Asia, leaving his family behind. Coincidentally or not, the murders of this kind that had been “plaguing” the LAPD at the time ceased.
One of these murders could very likely include actress Jean Spangler, then twenty-six years old. Like Short, she was an aspiring actress and her career was on the rise in 1949 when she simply vanished. Only her purse was found days later in Griffith Park, not far from the Hodel home. A note inside the purse hinted she was going to have an abortion, which was then illegal in California.
According to Steve Hodel, Dr. George Hodel was one of the few physicians who then performed abortions in Los Angeles and furthermore, he claims that Spangler and his father had a mutual friend that would almost certainly have introduced them!
Perhaps the last words should go to Dr. George Hodel, who was captured saying on the surveillance tapes prior to him leaving America in 1950, “ Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia? They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary because she’s dead!”
Check out the short videos below - a top ten type round up of Unsolved Murders! And for a more in-depth read on Steve Hodel's claims click here as well as the further videos below.
[Marcus Lowth October 2015]
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