Épisodes

  • Episode 7 - Suspects and the End

    Episode 7 - Suspects and the End
    Feb 23 2026
    Episode 6: Other Suspects and the End of the Case Episode Summary In the final chapter of our Black Dahlia series, the investigation widens one last time. With the major theories exhausted, police files and later researchers turn toward a cluster of secondary suspects whose names surfaced briefly, then disappeared. Some were questioned and released. Others were investigated quietly and never revisited. Together, they form the outer perimeter of the case. This episode examines three of the most persistent alternate suspects, the reasons they were considered, and the evidence that ultimately failed to sustain those theories. It also addresses how the investigation finally dissolved, why no official closure ever came, and how the Black Dahlia transformed from an active homicide into one of the most mythologized crimes in American history. The episode concludes with the argument that the case did not remain unsolved because the truth was unknowable, but because the investigation fractured under pressure, politics, and institutional failure. What survived was not resolution, but narrative. Featured Subjects Leslie Dillon A bellhop with an interest in crime who corresponded with LAPD psychiatrist J. Paul De River. Dillon’s detailed letters raised suspicion, but inconsistencies, lack of corroboration, and procedural misconduct ultimately undermined the case against him. Jack Anderson Wilson A former LAPD informant and convicted criminal who claimed responsibility for the murder while hospitalized. His confession failed to match known evidence and was dismissed by investigators. Jeff Connors A bit-part actor who died by suicide in 1947 and was briefly examined due to timing and rumor. No physical or documentary evidence ever linked him to Elizabeth Short. The Collapse of the Investigation By mid-1947, the case was no longer being worked in any coordinated way. Tips continued to arrive, but no suspect remained active. Files were reorganized, leads were deprioritized, and responsibility quietly dispersed. Key Topics Covered Why confessions in high-profile cases often fail verification The role of police psychiatry in 1940s investigations How media pressure reshaped investigative priorities The disappearance of suspects through bureaucratic attrition The moment the case effectively ended without announcement Sources and References Primary and Historical Sources Los Angeles Times Black Dahlia Archivehttps://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-black-dahlia/ FBI Vault: Black Dahlia Fileshttps://vault.fbi.gov/Black%20Dahlia LAPD Historical Homicide Fileshttps://www.lapdonline.org/history/ Books and Longform Research John Gilmore, _Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder_https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/163983.Severed Larry Harnisch, “The Black Dahlia Files”http://www.lmharnisch.com Steve Hodel, _Black Dahlia Avenger_https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164564.Black_Dahlia_Avenger Janice Knowlton and Michael Newton, _Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer_https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289238.Daddy_Was_the_Black_Dahlia_Killer Academic and Contextual Material FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Archivehttps://leb.fbi.gov Postwar Los Angeles Policing Historyhttps://www.lapdhistory.org Episode Review Episode 6 closes the Black Dahlia series not with revelation, but with examination. By moving away from dominant theories and toward the structure of failure itself, the episode reframes the case as a study in investigative collapse rather than criminal brilliance. It emphasizes proximity, documentation, and institutional behavior over mythmaking, leaving listeners with a clear understanding of why the case ended the way it did. No culprit is crowned.No certainty is manufactured.The story ends where the investigation actually did. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
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    33 min
  • The Black Dahlia - Part six: Marvin Margolis

    The Black Dahlia - Part six: Marvin Margolis
    Feb 16 2026
    AI True Crime — Episode Six: Marvin Margolis

    Episode Six examines Marvin Margolis, a suspect briefly questioned by the LAPD in the weeks following the murder of Elizabeth Short. Unlike figures who later came to dominate public discussion of the case, Margolis was investigated contemporaneously, during the period when detectives were still operating under urgency rather than hindsight.

    The episode traces how Margolis entered the investigation through proximity, circumstance, and behavioral concern rather than theory. His questioning occurred amid a flood of tips, false confessions, and public pressure that defined the earliest phase of the case.

    We explore what investigators sought during his interview, what failed to emerge, and why Margolis did not generate sufficient evidence to justify continued attention. He did not confess, did not contradict verified timelines, and did not produce material leads.

    The episode examines how his name disappeared from the record not through formal clearance or concealment, but through investigative triage as the case shifted toward suspects who produced narrative momentum rather than procedural progress.

    Margolis becomes a control case, illustrating how ordinary suspects are evaluated, abandoned, and forgotten in real investigations. His brief involvement highlights the contrast between early police procedure and later theory-driven reconstructions.

    Episode Six concludes by reframing the Black Dahlia case as one shaped not only by what is unknown, but by how absence becomes misread as meaning once evidence and memory decay.

    Sources and References

    https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-dahlia

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-14/black-dahlia-murder-los-angeles-history

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/black-dahlia-murder-180964709/

    https://www.waterandpower.org/museum/Black_Dahlia_Murder.html

    https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr30.php

    https://www.lapdonline.org/history-of-the-lapd/

    https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01.php

    https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jan-15-me-18740-story.html

    https://daily.jstor.org/the-black-dahlia-and-the-problem-of-victim-blaming/

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    30 min
  • The Black Dahlia - Episode 5 - George Hodel

    The Black Dahlia - Episode 5 - George Hodel
    Feb 9 2026
    AI True Crime — Episode Five: The Hodel Theory

    Episode Five examines the most widely known suspect in the Black Dahlia case: Dr. George Hodel. Rather than presenting the theory as solution or accusation, this episode focuses on how the idea formed, why it gained dominance, and where its claims weaken under scrutiny.

    The episode begins with the reemergence of Hodel’s name decades after the murder, following renewed public attention generated by the release of LAPD surveillance records and accusations made by his son, Steve Hodel. Unlike earlier suspects, George Hodel entered the narrative with a profession, an address, and documented police interest, giving the theory a sense of permanence.

    We examine Hodel’s background as a Los Angeles physician, his role in elite social and artistic circles, and his residence on Franklin Avenue. The house itself becomes a symbolic centerpiece of the theory, despite never being processed as a crime scene and later being demolished.

    Central focus is placed on the 1949–1950 LAPD wiretaps installed inside Hodel’s home. The episode explores what the recordings actually contain, how detectives interpreted them at the time, and how later retellings reframed ambiguous statements as implied confession.

    The episode revisits claims that the killer possessed medical knowledge, returning to original autopsy findings and distinguishing documented forensic observations from newspaper embellishment and later myth-making.

    Attention then turns to Steve Hodel’s published accusations, including allegations of abuse, analysis of photographs, and interpretive reconstruction of events. The emotional power of a son accusing his father is examined alongside the limitations of retrospective investigation.

    We analyze the coincidences that sustain belief in the theory: disputed photographs, geographic overlap, travel timelines, and pattern recognition. These elements are explored as narrative mechanisms rather than evidentiary proof.

    The episode also presents the strongest arguments against the theory, including the absence of physical evidence, the lack of eyewitness linkage between Hodel and Elizabeth Short, prosecutorial refusal to file charges, and the risks of confirmation bias.

    Episode Five concludes by examining why the Hodel theory continues to dominate discussion of the case. It argues that the theory persists not because it resolves the murder, but because it provides structure in a case defined by missing evidence and investigative failure.

    Sources and References

    https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-dahlia

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-14/black-dahlia-murder-los-angeles-history

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/black-dahlia-murder-180964709/

    https://www.waterandpower.org/museum/Black_Dahlia_Murder.html

    https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr30.php

    https://www.lapdonline.org/history-of-the-lapd/

    https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01.php

    https://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169464315/the-black-dahlia-case-a-son-accuses-his-father

    https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-mar-05-me-dahlia5-story.html

    https://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-Avenger-True-Story/dp/0060959377

    https://www.history.com/news/black-dahlia-murder-george-hodel

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2012.81.1.5

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    48 min
  • The Black Dahlia - Part 4 - The Investigation

    The Black Dahlia - Part 4 - The Investigation
    Feb 2 2026
    AI True Crime — Episode Four: The Investigation Episode Four follows the official investigation into the murder of Elizabeth Short from January through the spring of 1947, examining how the case unraveled almost as quickly as it began. The episode opens with the discovery of Short’s body in Leimert Park and the immediate failures at the crime scene. Civilians were allowed near the body, footprints were disturbed, and reporters arrived before a secure perimeter was established. From the beginning, evidence preservation was inconsistent and poorly controlled. We move through the autopsy conducted by Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Frederick Newbarr, including the cause of death, evidence of prolonged violence, and the bisection of the body. The episode draws a clear distinction between what the coroner documented and what newspapers later exaggerated, particularly claims surrounding surgical skill. As the investigation developed, police attention narrowed prematurely. The belief that the killer must have had medical training shaped early suspect selection and sidelined other possibilities. This tunnel vision persisted even as evidence failed to support it. The episode examines the destructive role of the press, especially the competition between Los Angeles newspapers. Details were published before verification, the nickname “Black Dahlia” was coined, and in one infamous incident a reporter contacted Elizabeth Short’s mother under false pretenses to extract personal information. These actions permanently contaminated witness memory and public understanding of the case. Dozens of false confessions followed, consuming investigative resources and overwhelming detectives. Each confession collapsed under scrutiny, but together they delayed meaningful progress and buried legitimate tips. As pressure mounted, police focus shifted toward Elizabeth Short herself. Her clothing, movements, and social life were scrutinized in official reports, subtly redirecting blame away from the perpetrator and onto the victim. Internal conflict within the LAPD further fractured the investigation. Jurisdictional confusion, competing theories, and lack of centralized leadership prevented a unified strategy. Evidence was logged unevenly, and early mistakes became permanent. By the spring of 1947, momentum had stalled. Detectives were reassigned. The case remained officially open but functionally inactive. Episode Four concludes by showing that the investigation did not fail because of one dramatic mistake, but because of many small ones made quickly and never corrected. These early failures would define every suspect, theory, and interpretation that followed. Sources and References https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-dahlia https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/black-dahlia-murder-180964709/ https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-14/black-dahlia-murder-los-angeles-history https://waterandpower.org/museum/Black_Dahlia_Murder.html https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr30.php https://www.coroner.lacounty.gov/operations-divisions/ https://www.lapdonline.org/history-of-the-lapd/ https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01.php https://niemanreports.org/articles/tabloid-press-and-crime/ https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/episodes/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jan-15-me-18740-story.html https://innocenceproject.org/false-confessions/ https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/false-confessions https://daily.jstor.org/the-black-dahlia-and-the-problem-of-victim-blaming/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2012.81.1.5 This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
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    2 h et 10 min
  • The Black Dahlia: Part 3 - The City

    The Black Dahlia: Part 3 - The City
    Jan 26 2026
    AI True Crime — Episode Three: The City Brief Episode Review

    Episode Three shifts focus away from suspects and toward infrastructure. Instead of treating Los Angeles as a backdrop, the episode examines it as a system that enabled both the crime and the investigative failure. Postwar instability, transient housing, informal policing, competitive press culture, and the city’s dependence on movement over recordkeeping are shown not as abstract forces, but as everyday conditions. The episode argues that the Black Dahlia case did not become unsolvable later. It was structurally compromised from the beginning by how the city functioned.

    Links & Reference Material Los Angeles in the 1940s

    https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_1940s.htmlhttps://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01.phphttps://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/episodes/

    Postwar Housing & Transience

    https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-housing-crisis-after-world-war-iihttps://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2012.81.1.5

    Policing in Mid-Century Los Angeles

    https://www.lapdonline.org/history-of-the-lapd/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25177119

    Press Culture & Crime Reporting

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-14/black-dahlia-murder-los-angeles-historyhttps://niemanreports.org/articles/tabloid-press-and-crime/

    The Black Dahlia Case (Contextual, Not Theoretical)

    https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-dahliahttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/black-dahlia-murder-180964709/

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    29 min
  • The Black Dahlia: Part Two - Elizabeth Short

    The Black Dahlia: Part Two - Elizabeth Short
    Jan 19 2026
    Episode Two – Elizabeth Short

    A.I. True Crime

    Before she was a nickname, Elizabeth Short was a young woman moving through postwar America with few protections and fewer records. This episode strips away the mythology and looks at what can actually be verified about her life before January 1947.

    Elizabeth Short was born in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, in 1924, one of five daughters in a family destabilized by the Great Depression and her father’s disappearance. As a teenager, she suffered from serious respiratory illness, asthma and bronchitis severe enough that doctors advised warmer climates. That medical reality explains much of her movement between Massachusetts, Florida, and California, a fact later reporting largely ignored.

    Short lived without a permanent address, relying on friends, relatives, and inexpensive hotels. She worked intermittently, left little paperwork behind, and moved when arrangements ended. This was not unusual in the late 1940s, but after her death, it was recast as evidence of moral failure or secrecy.

    There is no verified evidence that Elizabeth Short had an acting career, a studio contract, or film roles. Claims about her ambitions and relationships largely originate from post-mortem police interviews and press accounts shaped by sensational demand rather than documentation.

    This episode examines how illness, poverty, and transience were transformed into scandal, how repetition replaced verification, and how Elizabeth Short’s life was rewritten almost immediately after her murder into something easier to consume and easier to blame.

    This is A.I. True Crime.The intelligence is artificial.But the crime is real.

    Sources

    Severedhttps://archive.org/details/severedtruecrim00gilm

    Black Dahlia Avengerhttps://archive.org/details/blackdahliaaveng00hode

    The Black Dahliahttps://archive.org/details/blackdahlia00ellr

    FBI Vault – Elizabeth Shorthttps://vault.fbi.gov/elizabeth-short-the-black-dahlia

    Smithsonian Magazine – Who Was the Black Dahlia?https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-the-black-dahlia-18724963/

    Los Angeles Times Historical Archivehttps://www.latimes.com/archives

    Massachusetts Vital Recordshttps://www.mass.gov/vital-records

    FamilySearch – Elizabeth Short Recordshttps://www.familysearch.org

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    32 min
  • The Black Dahlia: Part One - The Body

    The Black Dahlia: Part One - The Body
    Jan 12 2026
    Episode Notes The Black Dahlia, Episode One: The Body Show Notes In the opening episode of our six-part Black Dahlia series, we examine the discovery of Elizabeth Short’s body and the rapid collapse of investigative control in January 1947 Los Angeles. This episode focuses on the crime scene, the forensic realities of the murder, the role of media sensationalism, and the institutional pressures that shaped the investigation from its earliest hours. We trace how a homicide became a spectacle, how evidence was compromised, and how the murder transformed into a permanent cultural wound before it ever had a chance to be solved. Episode One Recap (Brief Prose) On January 15, 1947, the mutilated body of twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. What initially appeared to be a shocking but solvable crime quickly escalated into one of the most infamous unsolved murders in American history. The body had been deliberately posed, drained of blood, washed, and severed with anatomical precision, indicating prolonged violence carried out in a private, controlled space. As police struggled to manage an overwhelming flood of tips, confessions, and press scrutiny, early investigative missteps compounded. The crime scene was compromised, witness memories were shaped by headlines, and evidence handling deteriorated under pressure. Meanwhile, the killer’s communications with newspapers ensured the crime remained in the public eye, transforming the investigation into a performance. By the end of the first weeks, the case had already begun to slip away. Elizabeth Short was reduced to a symbol, the murder became a narrative larger than the facts, and Los Angeles found itself unable to contain the spectacle it had helped create. Episode One ends not with answers, but with the moment when the opportunity for clarity was lost. Sources and Further Reading (Long list of verified, reputable links for show notes and listener follow-up) https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/the-black-dahlia https://vault.fbi.gov/Black%20Dahlia https://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1128 https://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1130 https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/the-black-dahlia-murder-70-years-later/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-01-15-me-2903-story.html https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-15/black-dahlia-murder-75-years-later https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-grisly-true-story-of-the-black-dahlia-180964582/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Short https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-black-dahlia-is-found https://www.history.com/news/black-dahlia-murder-unsolved https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-murders/black-dahlia/ https://www.biography.com/crime/elizabeth-short https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/la-the-black-dahlia/ https://www.npr.org/2017/01/15/509900391/70-years-after-the-black-dahlia-murder-remains-unsolved https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/18/the-black-dahlia https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/42939/the-blue-dahlia/ https://www.library.ca.gov/california-history/black-dahlia/ https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8j960gh/ https://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/short-elizabeth.htm https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/the-black-dahlia https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Black-Dahlia-murder-remains-unsolved-10853371.php https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/15/black-dahlia-elizabeth-short-unsolved-murder https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/15/us/black-dahlia-murder-anniversary/index.html https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38626287 https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Black_Dahlia_Analysis.pdf https://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/BlackDahliaCaseSummary.pdf This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
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    32 min
  • The Murder of William Desmond Taylor - Part Three

    The Murder of William Desmond Taylor - Part Three
    Jan 5 2026
    Episode Notes Episode Three: William Desmond Taylor — Media, Legacy, and Interpretation

    Episode focus:This episode addresses how the Taylor murder was transformed from an active investigation into a permanent cultural mystery, and how media portrayals, secondary scholarship, and narrative-driven interpretations reshaped public understanding of the case.

    Subjects covered:

    • Early tabloid framing and the shift from investigation to scandal

    • The emergence of “Taylorology” as a speculative genre

    • Repeated media adaptations and fictionalizations

    • The role of Cast of Killers in popularizing a narrative resolution

    • Why prosecution never occurred despite converging evidence

    Key analytical points:

    • Ambiguity became culturally preferable to accountability

    • Later portrayals often privilege narrative coherence over documentary support

    • Media repetition hardened assumptions rather than clarified facts

    • The absence of legal resolution has been misinterpreted as evidentiary failure

    Works discussed:

    • Cast of Killers by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick

    • Contemporary newspaper reporting from 1922

    • FBI retrospective material

    • Film and television adaptations referencing the case

    Primary sources and reporting:

    https://archive.org/details/castofkillers00kirk

    https://vault.fbi.gov/william-desmond-taylor

    https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-william-desmond-taylor/

    https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-02-06-ca-61399-story.html

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mysterious-murder-of-william-desmond-taylor-180973834/

    https://silentfilm.org/the-murder-of-william-desmond-taylor/

    https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/199180%7C153969/William-Desmond-Taylor/

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    45 min