Alina
Appearances
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah, I became the internet for a second. I was like, let me just spout something that's complete bullshit with nothing to back it up.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It was common for murder victims to be dumped in various locations, like the lot where Elizabeth Short was found, especially around Los Angeles. It was just, you know, just the area. But from the moment investigators arrived at the scene, it was clear that this was not their run of the mill. No.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There was a lot here. It was definitely not the killer trying to get rid of this body quickly. No. That is for sure. Like, this was not like, I just have to remove myself from this situation. Shock factor. They had arranged Elizabeth Short's body in a very particular way and had chosen a location where she would 100% be discovered very quickly. Mm-hmm. Like... Very quickly.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And the way she was arranged, like the two halves of her body were placed close to one another with about 12 inches between them. And the upper half was placed somewhat asymmetrically from the lower half, like a little bit to the side. And her arms were raised above her head and both of them were bent at an angle. Okay. Very much so like you were posing for a photograph. Right. That makes sense.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She was also completely nude. But it was very much like she was posing like you would lay on a bed to pose for a photograph. Yeah. Like you would see in a magazine at the time.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Like a spicy magazine.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You know? Yeah. So it was very clear that they were trying to pose her in a way that it would shock and in a way that they they were definitely trying to send a message either about who they believed she was or about something else outside of something in their pathology. Exactly. The level of violence that the victim had been subjected to.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I'm glad it slapped for you. That was my lunch. I like that for you. Thanks. I had some cottage cheese with garlic and some sun-dried tomato and basil wheat thins. You have to say wheat thins. Wheat thins. It was delicious. That wasn't like my lunch. That was just a snack. Like a pre-lunch.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I mean, it exceeded what most veteran law enforcement officers and on the LAPD had ever seen or would ever see. Really saying something.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Detective P.W. Freestone told reporters at the scene, this is the most brutal example of a sex crime I have ever seen. She had been cleanly, and when I say cleanly, I mean cleanly bisected at the waist, which is shockingly cleanly. Absolutely insane. Yes. Whoever had done this, it felt like they had access to the type of tools required to do that in a surgical setting. Yeah. This is like...
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
This is kind of like when I go back to Jack the Ripper. Don't worry, I'll talk about the DNA soon. Thank you for tagging me and everything. But... This is kind of what I say with Jack the Ripper that I don't think, like, it's hard to understand how difficult it is to cut parts of the human body cleanly. Yeah, I can imagine. If you haven't tried to cut human body parts cleanly.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Can confidently say I've never tried.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So it's like if you have not been in a profession where you have done that or been around that, it's a little hard to wrap your brain around.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Especially if you've only seen it in like TV and all that kind of stuff in movies. So like with Jack the Ripper, I was always saying, I do believe this person has medical knowledge because to be able to do that stuff in the dark, in the light, it would take somebody who knows where these organs are. Yeah. And then to do it in the dark. It's like muscle memory.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Just feels like you have to know precisely where these things are. It's kind of the same thing here. This isn't somebody who just happened to figure out how to cleanly bisect a body. They knew how to do it. And they knew how to do it because they know where things are because they are medically trained. That's how I believe this situation is going here. I think you're right.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And there's also other parts of it that lead to that too, which we'll get to. There was also, and this is my next point here, there was a lack of blood at the scene. And it indicated obviously that this mutilation had occurred elsewhere and that she was likely killed elsewhere. But her body had also been completely drained of blood.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. Completely drained of blood. And it's just like, why? That's the thing. And I think it was.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I think it very much to me is another point in the column of this was a surgeon.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And just doing the most. Yeah. Almost like showing off their skills. Because it's like you have to have knowledge of vessels and the vascular system to know how to properly drain a body of blood. You also have to know how to do it, where to do it. You have to have the space to do it. And, you know, certain people that are suspects in this case have really big houses with basements.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I'm fairly certain it's five liters. Like a little over five perhaps. It's like somewhere around that. Okay. I lost like a ton of blood when I had my twins. I had to get like two transfusions. I think I lost like two liters of blood. So that's the only reason it's stuck in my head how many.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I said, are you going to eat something, bitch? And she said, I can't. I'm too excited. But don't worry. You will find out what this thing is. You will find out fairly soon, actually.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And to think about the procedure and the process of that. Yeah, I can't go that far. Because normally to do that. It means, I apologize for getting graphic here, but it's really all I can do. Normally to do that, you're going to hang the person upside down to allow all the blood to drain out, just gravity. You're not just going to sit them in a bathtub or anything like that and let...
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You really need some gravity to help you out here.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
To drain somebody completely. Usually it's like hanging them up over something.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That are less blood in each to drain at once kind of thing. You know what I mean? Like it's less... And again, we're getting graphic here, but here you are. You clicked on this, damn it. It's less messy. Yeah. And it's less of a distance for the blood to travel to drain out of the body. Right. Because you're cutting the travel in half, essentially.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So this would have to be somebody who has the capability of doing all of that. Right. Which is not your average Joe. Which is not just your guy on the street who was mad that she didn't date him. You know what I mean? Like, which is what they were really, like, going with for a while.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Hang tight. There's a couple of exciting things happening. I know we're being those annoying people who are like, we know something and you can't. But you will.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I'm like, I don't think any of these fucking dickwads that were just, like, being assholes to her are really capable of all this.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I think it's pretty safe to say that this person already had the knowledge because they...
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah, I mean, like, this person, and, I mean, if they're, again, this is speculation, obviously, but, like, if this is a surgeon who did this, then it's, like, they've performed clean cuts on the human body. Like, obviously, that kind of cut is, like, a very specific kind of cut, but who knows? It's, like, it's similar to other things, so amputations can be similar. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. The victim had also been beaten about the face and head. There was a ton of lacerations, especially on her face and head. And the thing that I think a lot of people really remember about this case, including myself, is that her killer had cut her mouth from ear to ear, creating... a Glasgow smile, a permanent, really ghoulish-looking grin on her face, essentially.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It's a very, very disturbing thing to look at. It's horrifying. It... That's why, like, this is such a ghoulish crime scene because it's, like, there's so much shock to this crime scene. One, she's nude. Two, she's bisected. She's been posed with her body in the right place, you know what I mean? Placements. Yep. But, like, away from each other to, like, showcase that she's two halves of a whole.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And even, again... But like a little to the side with her arms up like she's posing for a photo and then to see how horrifically she was beaten and cut and all kinds of things. But also she's got this ghoulish smile on her face that the permanent smile that has been chopped into her face. It's... Beyond. It's really beyond anything you've ever seen.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There was also a ton of superficial cuts and scrapes, other parts of her body. And there also appeared to be ligature marks on her neck, wrists and ankles. Now, this is kind of important and kind of something that you can take in many different ways.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Period. Period. So we're going to be covering a case today that you might be like, wait a second. Did I see this before? You did. You did. But I want to cover it better. We've grown. We covered it a long, long, long, long time ago. It's no longer on there. This is one of the first ones. Yeah, this is one of the first ones. So, you know, it's a case that deserves another look and a deeper dive.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Obviously, it could mean that she was bound when she was alive and was being restrained, which I fully believe can be the case and probably was the case. But this could also be one of those things where you say, okay, is that where she was hung upside down to be drained of blood? That would leave ligature marks too. That would leave ligature marks somewhere. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I mean, her neck was also, had ligature marks as well.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Which to me says it was part of like a torture or restraining. Yeah. But it also can have to do with being hung upside down if that's the case, if that's how it went. Yeah. If you think too hard about all these things all at once and you start thinking about what was happening during all this, it can like fuck you up. Like it's just like thinking about what she went through. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And nobody knows how long she was going through this.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. It's like, it feels like it was at least hours and hours for sure.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So police ended up fanning out, started combing the lot for any evidence they could get, but there was really little to be found. What they did collect, some of it was like a paper cement bag with what they thought was small drops of diluted blood on it. Investigators theorized that these cement bags were what were used to carry both sections of her body to this area.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There was also tire tracks visible on the sidewalk and a slightly bloody heel print of a man's shoe. This is good evidence. Yeah. But according to former detective Steve Hodel, which becomes a very important member of this case. And we just talked about him in the Rodney Alcala case. We did.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
According to him, quote, these two important pieces of evidence were not secured or photographed by the on-scene detectives.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Why would you not photograph that? And they were not photographed or secured. No. Like, bizarre. Those are important pieces of evidence. Mm-hmm.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. Like, you can genuinely narrow down a suspect with that shit. You can tell what kind of tire that is, what kind of car it comes from. You could tell what that shoe is, what kind of shoe that is, how many have been sold in the area. You can tell all that shit. Yeah, lots. But we're just, eh. Like, LAPD. Come on. What are you doing?
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But other than that, there was really nothing else of note at the scene and no means of identifying this body. So she ended up being labeled at first Jane Doe number one and transported to the coroner's office. The next morning, an autopsy was conducted by Dr. Frederick Newbar, who was the chief autopsy surgeon for the county of Los Angeles.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Newbar listed the cause of death as, quote, hemorrhage and shock from a concussion of the brain and lacerations of her face. My God. They believed that that was all inflicted while she was conscious, which means that Glasgow Smile was inflicted while she was conscious and alive. And those were deep cuts.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Oh, it tore open her whole face. When you're looking from the side, it's like her jaw has been removed almost. That's horrific. And it's hemorrhage and shock from that, which is one of the most horrific things I can imagine. She died in shock from bleeding out. From having her face ripped open. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There was an additional incision from just below the navel to just above the pubic area and several smaller cuts and small bruises all over the body that were likely defensive wounds. So she was fighting back for part of this. I'm sure. There was also evidence suggesting that Elizabeth had been sexually assaulted. But samples taken during the autopsy came back negative for the presence of sperm.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Got it. Newbar estimated the time of death to be somewhere within a 24-hour window before the body was discovered, but he couldn't be more precise than that because, I mean, his body's drained of blood and has been mutilated in a way I can't even fathom. And of particular note, though, at least from Newbar's perspective, was how precise the bisection was, like we were talking about.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
In fact, it looked like it was actually what's called a hemocorporectomy, which is at this time in the 40s. a relatively new surgical procedure that came into use after World War II, and it involved removing everything below the waist from a surviving person.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
The Dave touch. A little Dave touch to it. So we decided to revisit it. And it's also, it happened in January, which we didn't even mean to do. I don't even know if I knew that. We're fresh out of January right now. Check it. We are going to be covering the Black Dahlia murder, the murder of Elizabeth Short. So this case has so many layers to it. This is going to be a two-parter. Two-parter.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
As far as Newbar could tell, the procedure had been done after death on this victim, who we now know as Elizabeth Short, and the precision with which it had been done really suggested that the killer, or at least the person who performed the bisection post-mortem... Because it could be two different people. ...had some experience with medicine and surgery.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Newbar also noted that the body appeared to have been thoroughly washed before it had been left in the lot.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Because everything is clean, you have a clean field, you... He's not going to go through all of that to drain blood and to bisect in such a clean way and then leave it messy. Yeah. It's just not something that I see happening. This hemocorporectomy that he's talking about would be performed like it's like a radical surgery. Like it is like last resort, like all you have left kind of thing.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And what you have to do is you have to cut between two specific lumbar vertebrae that makes it so that you don't have to cut bone. Okay. And they have to like reroute the spinal cord essentially. And they have to reroute because you're removing the genitalia, you're removing any of, you know, the rectum, all that stuff. So you're going to have to reroute everything.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Many different things for a living person. Right. It's a very intense procedure, a very complicated procedure. And again, this person cut in the same spot that you cut for this specific procedure. So that they didn't have to cut through a bone. Which is strange. And you, I'm telling you, you open up a body and you take a look at that spinal cord.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It is not as simplistic as you think it's going to be to just chop through between a vertebrae. You know what I mean? So it's got to be someone who knows what they're doing and has seen this before. They didn't just open her up for the first time and just figure it all out. Right. It's just not something they've opened people up before and they've seen what's going on.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Knowing the cause and estimated time of death was pretty important, but for investigators, they really wanted to know who this victim was. They were like, this is the most important.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
During the autopsy, fingerprints were taken and passed along to the main offices of the FBI, and in their coverage of the story the day after Short's body was discovered, the Los Angeles Examiner included a lengthy description of who the girl was. They were hoping someone would see this description of her, the physical description, and come forward.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Among other things, though, the examiner described her as between 15 and 16 years old. Nope. With enameled pink toenails and a three and a half inch operational scar on the right side of her back. She was also described as, quote, rather well developed with small bones and trim legs. Okay. Okay. I'm like, you want to throw any other descriptors in there?
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I'm like, I don't know if I would be able to be like, well, my cousin does have trim legs.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Okay. Very 40s. Truly. Fortunately for investigators, once the identification division of the Washington, D.C. office of the FBI got the photos of her fingerprints, they found a match within an hour. They identified Elizabeth Short from their card file of more than 104 million possible matches. Wow. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It must be. It has to be. It must. It must be. I'm getting into my transatlantic accent because we're going to Hollywood, baby. Yeah. Hollywood? Hollywood. We're going to Hollywood. And we're not in real life. I'm staying firmly planted over here. But yeah, this is a crazy case. It is the first case I can truly remember... Becoming unhinged obsessed with. I remember that.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She had a tough life, right? She had a tough stuff going on.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She was struggling. Now, Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924 in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, Ken.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There you go. She's from our neck of the woods, Ken. Boston. She's a Boston gal. She was born to Cleo Alvin and Phoebe Short and raised in Medford. Oh. Medford? Medford, I said. Wait, I'm going to Medford tonight. Holy shit. Get out of here. Medford. Medford is a working class suburb about 10 miles outside of the city. It's true. It's true. We can confirm. I was just going to say can confirm.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
At the time of Elizabeth's birth, Cleo worked in construction, building miniature golf courses and, you know, other kind of attractions like that. I didn't know mini golf was a thing way back then. Mini golf has been around since the dawn of time. We love to miniaturize things. We do. We do. And I respect that. I also respect that.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And when the stock market crashed in 1929, he became unfortunately unemployed and lost his savings. Oh, God. It was really bad for a lot of people. A year later in 1930, Charlestown police found Alvin's car abandoned on a bridge, and he was believed to have taken his own life by drowning in the Charles River. Wow.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But a short time later, it was discovered that Cleo had faked his own death and abandoned his family and moved to California.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
With Cleo gone, Phoebe Short became the sole provider for Elizabeth and her four sisters. And she was working as a bookkeeper. With only one income, the family struggled, but did manage to survive the depression without an insane amount of hardship, at least. She kept them afloat.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
During her childhood, Elizabeth began experiencing chronic bronchitis and severe asthma, which ultimately required lung surgery at age 15. Oh, wow. I don't know if you remember, there was a scar mentioned by Nubar in the autopsy that was from that surgery on her lungs. Following her surgery, the doctor suggested Elizabeth would be better off in warmer, drier climates.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So she began spending her winter breaks in Miami with family friends. Okay. This was kind of like that TB thing, like the tuberculosis thing where they thought like we just stick you out, you know, on a balcony and you'll get fresh air. Like that kind of thing.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It is better for your lungs. After three years of wintering in Miami, Elizabeth dropped out of Medford High School during her sophomore year and moved to Miami Beach. And she quickly found work as a waitress. Yeah. On her own for the first time, she struck up a relationship with Major Matt Gordon Jr., who was an Air Force pilot stationed at a nearby base.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
A short time later, in January of 1943, Gordon was shipped overseas, and Elizabeth decided to relocate to California, where she wanted to live with her father in Vallejo. Oh, so they reconnected. They reconnected. It was during this period that Elizabeth worked as a clerk at Camp Cook. That's where the fingerprints came from. But her relationship with her father... quickly became very strained.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And within a few weeks, she decided to move to Santa Barbara. Oh, wow, just weeks?
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Her father told a reporter after Elizabeth's death, I made her leave. I didn't want anything to do with her or any of the rest of the family again. Huh. You're an asshole.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Can you imagine? No. I didn't want anything to do with my child again or any of the rest of my family. My other four daughters who are living on the other coast. That's so fucked. You should have thought about that before you had a family. That's like wild douche behavior.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It was there in Santa Barbara that she was arrested for violating juvenile court laws when she was picked up for underage drinking at a Santa Barbara nightclub. During her hearing, the judge agreed to sentence her with probation, provided that Elizabeth accept a train ticket and return home to Medford, Massachusetts, and she agreed. Okay.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It was this and like Jack the Ripper that I really just could not stop. This one in particular, because I remember seeing, I believe it was one of those like E! True Hollywood stories or one of those like Mysteries and Scandals with A.J. Benza. They used to do the countdowns.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So she agreed to return to her mother in Massachusetts, but instead she chose to go to Florida. Once she was settled in Florida, she resumed her correspondence with Matt Gordon, the Air Force pilot. And in 1945, Gordon supposedly proposed they marry when he returned home from active duty. And despite only having met him in person a few times, Elizabeth accepted. It was Lerv.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Unfortunately, this enthusiasm was going to be short-lived because on August 10th, 1945, his plane was shot down and he was killed in the crash. That's so sad. Which is like another traumatic event in her life. Yeah, and she's 20. Yeah. Now, following Gordon's death, Elizabeth found work as a waitress again.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But within a few months, she decided she didn't want to stay in Florida and she returned home to Medford, Massachusetts. There, she found work in a local movie theater. And when she was back home, she really didn't feel like settled or satisfied like she thought she was going to feel. She thought she was going to feel some kind of comfort. She really didn't. She didn't love it here.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. And she was moving back when we were just heading into winter over here. Not the best time to move back here. No. But yeah, she wasn't feeling that great. And she knew she didn't feel really satisfied in Florida either. She was like, so neither one of these are working for me. So on April 17th, 1946, she packed up her few belongings and returned to California.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
This time she wanted to settle in Hollywood. Okay. By most accounts, it seemed like she struggled to find her footing in California for a while. According to Steve Hodel, Elizabeth was known to have lived as a transient at various boarding houses with a variety of roommates. She stayed at a hotel in Long Beach for several weeks during the summer months and then returned to Hollywood.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
There, once she got into Hollywood, she kind of bounced around a few times, staying at different places. And eventually she found an apartment where she lived with seven other young women, which, wow. I give you credit. That's like Ma, though. Ma lived with like, didn't she live with like four other girls when she was in Boston?
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It's true. I think that was just like the easiest way to make it happen.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I mean, we lived with a bunch of our friends in Quincy, so I can't really.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah, we were living with a lot of people, so might as well. Before you have kids, before all that stuff. Now, during this time, Elizabeth was barely getting by on her wages from her job as a waitress at the Florentine Gardens nightclub. In a few weeks before her death, she had actually struggled to afford rent. She was really, like, had her last few pennies.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
yeah exactly and i remember it was one of those um i loved those i loved aj benza i don't know what he's up to now if he if he's good or bad right now i'm i'm not up on it and i bet he's fine i hope i'm gonna google it really because like i have fond memories of that show and him uh what's what if i just googled what's aj ben what's aj ben's up to
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. Her friend Ann Toth told detectives two or three weeks before Christmas, she said she was going to Berkeley. But instead of going to Berkeley, she went to San Diego. And she said just before Christmas Day, she sent me a wire saying she was low on funds and asking me to send her 20 bucks.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She had been gone about three weeks when I received another wire saying she was coming back and stating that a letter would follow. This is the last I heard of her. The letter never came.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. Ann Toth may have never heard from her friend again, but Elizabeth did return to Los Angeles on January 9th. That evening, she was seen leaving the Olive Street entrance of the Biltmore Hotel. And this would be the last time anyone but her killer would see Elizabeth Short alive. Now, by 1947, people in Los Angeles had become pretty accustomed to seeing reports of violence in the press.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But the story of Elizabeth Short's murder was truly unlike anything anybody had ever seen. The news of the discovery hit the papers that very afternoon and set off a media frenzy. And it's really due to what police historian Glynn Martin called, quote, the brutal, misogynistic and ritual nature that the murder contained. I mean, yeah. Now, again, it's true. She hadn't just been murdered.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She'd been mangled. She had been mutilated. I mean, she had been posed. She had been humiliated by being left naked and exposed like that. There was clear evidence of what a Los Angeles Times reporter called, quote, an orgy of torture.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That is honestly, as kind of like crass as that sounds, it is exactly what it seems to have happened here.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But again... Probably a better way to say it. Pretty crass. Adding to the sensationalism, the members of the press were quick to emphasize the sexual undertones of the crime, labeling the killer as, quote, a sex maniac and a sex fiend, which... I guess you can somewhat understand because she was found... Because why are you focusing on only that?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I can understand that they're saying there's a very big sexual aspect of this crime, a very sadistic sexual aspect of this crime. But not hyper-focusing on it. But, like, my friends, she was also drained of blood, bisected, and given a Glasgow smile.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I don't think we should focus on one aspect of this. Yeah, we should focus on all of it. But as was common at the time, journalists and law enforcement were kind of like intertwined in each other's work.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And the press would really play, just like the last couple of cases we've covered, play a big role in this case, particularly when it came to shaping how the public viewed the victim and viewing the potential killer. Once the victim was identified as Elizabeth Short, the story really picked up some more steam. Thanks in part to the, you know, she was beautiful and she was very mysterious. She was.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So it kind of, it lent itself very well to the time and people wanting to start salacious rumors and like dig into people's pasts and, oh, I think she was dating all these men. Apparently she had, she dated a lot of guys.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She's beautiful. She's mysterious. She's, you know, trying to find her footing there. Why the fuck not?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
The story quickly became what Martin called, quote, a sad cliche, the ultimate warning tale. Elizabeth Short had come to Hollywood to become an actress, but like so many young women before her, she'd only found disappointment, struggle, and ultimately death.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It is. Now, within days of the discovery, the press began referring to Short as the Black Dahlia. It was a reference to Elizabeth's, you know, she apparently loved the flower, the dahlia, and she wore one in her hair often. And she also wore a lot of black clothing and she had jet black hair. Right. So it's a very good reference.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
nickname for sure because it's mysterious it's got sticks with you it's got like it's for the press it's a really smart one that they picked because it's like like we said mysterious it's easy to remember and it's got this like sexy kind of undertone to it so they were really like going with what they were trying to wrap up here gonna sell papers exactly it's also possible though that they were influenced by the popular noir film the blue dahlia which was released the previous year i'm sure it was like a mix of them
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Regardless of where the name came from, it definitely added to the sensationalism and mysterious tone of the case. And like we said, that's the reason why it's part of the reason why it has so much notoriety today is that when it's easy to remember the name of the case, the Black Dahlia murder. it's easy to reference, you know what I mean?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And again, like you said, it's going to sell more papers, which means it's going to sell more books, which means it's going to be something people want to talk about. It's just a catchy name. It really is. So like the crime scene itself, the canvas of the neighborhood offered really few clues to guide the investigation.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
One local man, Bob Meyer, told detectives he'd seen a late 1930s model Ford sedan stop in front of the lot around 630 a.m. that day. And he said it lingered near the area where the body was found before driving away.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But he couldn't recall any of the other details.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
To me, that seems like somebody who's dropping off a body. Yep. Fortunately for detectives, the identification of the victim offered several new leads because now we could start connecting people to her. So they started with her mother, Phoebe, and they talked to her.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Investigators set out to learn everything they could about Elizabeth with Phoebe in the hope that something in her background would help lead them to her killer. Phoebe actually learned of her daughter's death when she received a call from a Los Angeles examiner, which was soon confirmed by LAPD detectives. That's awful. So she found out in an awful way.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
According to Phoebe, Elizabeth traveled to San Diego a few weeks before her death and had found work with the Naval Hospital there. She said she left Hollywood because of the movie strike, which made it difficult to get work as an extra. Phoebe didn't know why her daughter had returned to Los Angeles on the night of her disappearance, and she really couldn't offer any insight.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, given the sexual undertones of the murder, the investigation definitely turned to Elizabeth's romantic life. According to her mother, Phoebe, Elizabeth's only serious relationship was with Matt Gordon, the Air Force pilot who she planned to marry. Other than Matt Gordon, Phoebe Short knew really no other serious relationships that Elizabeth had been in before her death.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Her mother didn't know about serious relationships, but her friends and roommates definitely were like, she definitely had some relationships, but not serious.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. According to Los Angeles Times article filed shortly after her death, she was known among her friends as, quote, a girl with a different boyfriend every night.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Good for her. Several roommates and others who knew her claimed she had a fondness for sailors and often visited the nightclubs where soldiers were known to visit.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Oh, yeah. I think it's great. The aesthetic of that time. That's the thing, the aesthetic. The aesthetic, but not the vibe of what was happening.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
The aesthetic of the time is for sure. It's like a movie. Yeah, it really is. And her former roommate, Linda Rohr, said she was always going out and she loved to prowl the boulevard. Let's go, girl. Let's go, girls. In their interviews with those closest to her, investigators learned of several men they believe could have played a role in her death.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Of the men Short had dated, investigators were very interested in one boyfriend who Elizabeth had confessed to friends she was, quote, deadly afraid of. Oh. According to Elizabeth's former coworker, Cheryl Mayland, there was a, quote, tall, sinister, elderly man who approached her at a bar where she works a few weeks earlier and asked about Miss Short's whereabouts.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And Maylong thought it was possible that he could have been responsible for her death. Oh, wow. Other roommates told detectives about a radio announcer with a British accent named Maurice, whom they had heard Elizabeth talk about a few weeks before her death, but they didn't know anything else about him. Hmm. And I was like, some of these guys, you're like, wow, I feel bad for you. I know.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
They're just like, that guy? I just went on a date with her. Yeah, he's like, ugh. There were other mostly unnamed men who came up early in the investigation, including a man in Beverly Hills who had offered to pay Elizabeth's rent, and another in San Bernardino who asked her to move in with him. But those tips really went nowhere. They weren't involved. They were just trying to get with her.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
AJ Benza, what are you doing? What are you
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So, yeah. And then we have a lead detective on the case telling reporters... She probably went too far this time and just sent some guy into a blind, berserk rage. That's nice. And he called her a tease. Oh, of course. Yeah, it's her fault. What was she wearing? To which I ask that man, so how many women have you chopped in half because they supposedly teased you? Jesus Christ, sir.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
up to i just i when i mentioned him i was like you know you always got to be careful to be like oh fuck i don't because you don't want the only thing for anyone to hear out of this it's h.a benzo he's a bad guy and you're right it was mysteries and scandals mysteries and scandals i remember it was like he was the host and i remember him standing on us on a very rain sodden sidewalk yes it was dark there was lots of fog around him at all times and he would walk out
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You fucking psychopath. Truly.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
What kind of blind... Not all of them, but what are some men? What kind of blind, berserk rage makes you do that? Drain the blood from someone and perform a highly complex surgical procedure? What a dumb thing to say. Like, he probably went into a blind, berserk rage and then went to medical school real quick and learned how to do that. Like... That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard someone say.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That's not a blind rage, my friend. That's a shameful statement. She was tortured. That's a shameful statement for so many layers. One, oh, okay, it's her fault. She's a tease. And two, that's just dumb. Yeah. That's just a dumb statement. Don't be silly like that. Don't be fucking dumb.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Okay? Don't. Don't be a dumb bitch. He already was, though. What was... On the rewatch.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It feels like 2025 is just bringing out the dumb bitches. I don't know what it is. We were so hopeful. We were. But you know, it's okay. It's still great. Yeah. In some ways. In like one. One way. One way, sure. Yeah, or another. Yeah, one way or another. But yeah, go listen to Scream if you want to. Hey! You know? Anyway. But yeah, that was a dumb bitch thing to say.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Among the more promising leads, though, was a tip from another, about another former boyfriend, Joseph Fickling, who she met in California in 1944. Like Matt Gordon, Fickling was a former Air Force pilot living in North Carolina, and the two had been writing back and forth as recently as Elizabeth's time in San Diego.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So very, very, like, recent to when she died. Yep. Fickling told detectives, she told me not to write her anymore at San Diego and that she was in Chicago, or that she was going to Chicago, excuse me. Oh. In April 1947, Fickling started to suspect he was only one of Elizabeth's romantic interests. Well, And that her expression of love for him might have been disingenuous.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
He wrote in April to her, you say in your letter you want us to be good friends, but from your wire you seem you want more than that.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, based on the letters between them that investigators discovered among Elizabeth's belongings, Fickling's confusion and Elizabeth's ambivalence eventually led to the end of their relationship. Yeah. He wrote in one letter, in your letter, you mentioned a ring from Matt. You gave no further explanation. I really don't understand. I wouldn't want to interfere. OK, well, he seems respectful.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
He does. Like, that's a pretty respectful thing to say. Like, hey, you just mentioned that another guy gave you an engagement ring. So, like, I don't want to interfere in that. I'm going to I'm going to bow out.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
The letters indicate that Elizabeth had told Fickling about her proposed marriage to Matt Gordon, but failed to mention that Gordon had died two years earlier. Okay. That's an interesting play.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah. In an interview with Charlotte, North Carolina detectives, Fickling said he'd last heard from Elizabeth in a letter dated January 8th, 1947, the night she left San Diego. Oh, wow. And he hadn't heard from her since. Yeah. And given that he was on the other side of the country when she was killed, he was quickly ruled out as a suspect.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
But they just got like a little more insight into what was going on in her life, I guess. A few days into their investigation, detectives learned that when she returned from San Diego, Elizabeth had been traveling in the company of, quote, an unidentified red-haired man.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
On January 20th, detectives picked up 25-year-old Robert Manley, a salesman the press described as, quote, slender, neatly dressed man with carrot-hued hair. Not carrot. Not carrot-hued. Not carrot top over here. And he was believed to have been with Elizabeth on the night she disappeared. Uh-oh.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Manley admitted to police that he had casually dated Elizabeth since first meeting a few weeks before Christmas and that he had dropped her off at the Biltmore the night she disappeared. But he flatly denied having anything to do with her murder. He told detectives, my wife and I had had some misunderstandings. I guess so.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
and start telling you the story. And I can, it is, right?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I thought I'd make a little test to see if I were still in love with my wife. So he picked up Elizabeth at a nightclub and they hit it off.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You know what your hair is? Carrot-hued. Okay, ginger. All right. Okay, no soul. All right.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
According to Manley, he picked Elizabeth up at a Pacific Beach motel on January 8th and drove her back to Los Angeles. But he had not connected Elizabeth with the stories in the papers, and thus he did not come forward to the police.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Well, investigators were also unconvinced by this, and they asked Manley to take a polygraph examination, and he agreed. But after the long drive from San Diego and many hours of intense questioning by police, he couldn't keep from falling asleep during the exam, and it was postponed. That's giving rude. That's giving... That's giving what?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Adrenaline would be shooting me into the Kuiper belt.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Well, and the thing is, here's the thing. He was very forthcoming with information, regardless of falling asleep during the polygraph. He was very forthcoming when he was conscious. Yeah, when he was conscious, he was forthcoming with information. And he told police the last time he'd seen Elizabeth, he noticed several scratches on her upper arms. Huh.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And she attributed them to an intensely jealous boyfriend. Ooh. And she described him as an Italian with black hair who lived in San Diego. Okay. So we're like, who's that guy? Yeah, who is him?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So although he appeared to be telling the truth, Manley's story was inconsistent with other statements gathered by police, particularly that of William Sullivan, a railway express clerk who claimed to have seen Elizabeth on January 14th. According to Sullivan, quote, a woman resembling a woman resembling short visited the office about noon on January 14th, accompanied by a red haired man.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
and inquired about shipping a trunk and some suitcases to Ketchkin Hospital. When asked to whom the items were being shipped, the woman said to herself and gave the name Elizabeth Short. Okay. The same couple was seen about an hour later by Jadel Gray, a waitress at a cafe in San Diego.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Gray described the man as, quote, very fair complexioned and said his hair was quite straight and he was slightly freckled. Okay.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
See, it's, it has a special place in my heart. Core memories. Core memories. And I remember seeing the Black Dahlia case and I remember them showing some version. I don't know if my mind is like twisting. No, it's not because I remember it too. Some version, maybe it was a sketch or something of her autopsy photo.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Sounds like a ginger. Based on these witness identifications, Manley was beginning to look like a pretty strong suspect. He sure was. But the following day, Sullivan admitted to detectives that he had been mistaken in his identification of Manley and in fact did not believe it was the same person.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Sullivan changed his story when police told him that another young woman matching Short's description had come forward to say she had been at the express office with her red haired boyfriend on January 14th. Oh, shit. When he was shown a picture of the woman, he immediately recognized her as the one person he'd seen that night. And remember, he said that she used her name. So he just lied.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Oh, what the hell? Like, what the fuck? And with Sullivan's identification now recanted, the mystery of the red-haired man proved to be a dead end, and Captain Jack Donahue ordered Robert Manley released from custody immediately. All right.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, only one week into the investigation, detectives who had been certain the key to finding Elizabeth's killer was in her love life had now begun to accept the boyfriend angle was probably a dead end. Yeah, it seemed like it. They weren't going to find him in there. And that is where we are going to end for part one. You butthead. Because we have some real suspects coming in part two.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I know who they are. And it's going to get crazy. The story just gets wilder as you go.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Because I remember seeing the Glasgow smile. I remember seeing that vividly. And I remember that being the point when I said, what?
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Yeah, it's like from the... It's that classic photo where you can... It looks, you know, the crime scene looks like there is a mannequin laying in the grass. Yeah, yeah. And of course, we're going to get into the specifics of this because it was not a bloody crime scene. She was drained of blood. Yeah. In part two, we will get into all the theories. We're going to talk about who we think did it.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Hey, weirdos. I'm Alina. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
We're going to talk about, you know, a lot of the people that they were going after for suspects. So don't worry, we'll get more into that. And I think in part two, too, we'll kind of go through even more of some of the nuances of this stuff. But right now, we're going to tell you about Elizabeth Short. I'm going to tell you about the crime scene. I'm going to tell you about how she was found.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And we'll get a little bit into some of the suspects.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So strap in AJ Benza. I hope you're listening. Oh, my God. Hi, AJ Benza.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You know, we're live Googling right now. We're taking us back to a cool and very overcast day, January 15th, 1947. All right. This is when Betty Bersinger and her three-year-old daughter, Anne, left the house for a nice little morning walk. Just a stroll. Yeah, just a stroll.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles, which is just five miles south of Hollywood, was a very newly developed and planned community. And there were still a lot of vacant lots in it. They were along Norton Avenue. And people would use these vacant lots a lot of the time because people are always going to people.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
To dump garbage everywhere. Other stuff, you know, like be the dumb part of people. So when Betty caught sight of a pale white thing in the tall grass in the empty lot, she thought, oh, someone left a broken tailor's mannequin in the lot rather than just getting rid of it properly. Yeah.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You know, it was just one of those things that she kind of walked by and was like, can people stop peopling, please?
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Exactly. But then Betty got closer to the object, which was just a few inches from the edge of the sidewalk. If you have ever seen the crime scene photos or anything like that or been to that area, you know that she was right up out in the open. To think that she was with her three-year-old daughter. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That shakes me to my core. And, I mean, Elizabeth's body was right on the grass next to the sidewalk. I mean, all of it was intentional. And she immediately realized she was not looking at a mannequin at all, but a horrifically mutilated body of a young woman who had been bisected at the waist.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I think that's what initially really drew me to this case, like made me just like morbidly fascinated and absolutely horrified by this case was just the extent of the mutilation that was done to this woman. Yeah. I could not conceive of it. I still can't conceive of it.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Even to this day, it stays as one of the most horrific cases of mutilation. Oh, yeah. You can conjure. Now, at the sight of this poor woman's absolutely mangled body, Betty immediately grabbed her daughter and ran for the nearest phone. And she called the University Division of the LAPD and reported what she had seen.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, she was fully panicked, obviously, and absolutely horrified, going through complete shock. So she didn't adequately describe what she found. She wasn't able to convey it in a way that it would be a little understandable. How would you? So the communications officer on the other end noted that it was a, quote, possible 390, which is a stuporous drunk down in the lot at 39th and Norton Avenue.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
It's like, dude, why would she be that horrified if it was just a drunk person stumbling around? That's the thing. Like, I'm like, I feel like you even if you note that as like, I think this is what she said, you should be like, but she sounds really upset. So it could get there fast. There's other things going on here.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, whether because of confusion or poor communication, the officer also neglected to get the caller's name or phone number. So didn't know her name was Betty, didn't know how to contact her after that. Oof. I don't really know why. Maybe because they were thinking it was like a stuporous drunk situation. Maybe like first day on the job type vibes. Very first day on the job.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Training and their overseer was like in the bathroom. A lot of this scene was manhandled in a very bad way, which I think led to the reason why we don't have definitive things even today. That was the opposite of a bang-up job. Yeah, not great at all. In fact, it was going to be a full 10 days before investigators were able to track Bersinger down through notices in the papers.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Like, they couldn't find her anywhere. Wow. All they had was that initial call, and then that was it. So they just came up upon it and were like, okay. Jesus. Now, expecting to find someone sleeping off a night of drinking in a lot, the dispatcher sent a single patrol call to investigate the call.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And countless journalists and press photographers had heard the call go out over the police radios that they all kept in their cars. So they all kind of followed just to... See if there was any story there. Yeah. Los Angeles Examiner reporter Will Fowler and his partner Felix Pagel were the first to arrive at the scene before the LAPD had arrived. Oh, shit.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I haven't had Subway in a long time.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
So the journalists arrived before the police. And y'all know how that goes.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That's never good. They were shocked. Because Fowler said, there's something about a dead body you couldn't mistake. It's difficult to describe two parts of a body as being one. However, both halves were facing upwards. Her arms were extended above her head. Her translucent blue eyes were half opened. So I closed her eyelids.
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Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now that's really sweet. Don't touch a dead body. Why the fuck did you touch a dead body? Yeah. Don't be the hero. I'm sorry. Beautiful. Beautiful sentiment. Love that for you.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
That you were trying to be respectful. Here's my thing to everybody. Don't fucking touch a dead body if you find it.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
You don't disturb that. No. Don't disturb the scene. You don't know. anything about what's going on here you don't know if something was injected into her eyes you don't know if something was put it like you don't know yeah so just sweet boy don't touch again the sentiment love it he's respectful very empathetic i wanted to close her eyes don't don't do that yeah don't involve yourself
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
Now, the patrol officers arrived a few moments later and quickly called the division to let them know, no, it was not a drunk sleeping off a night of drinking in a vacant lot, but a horribly mutilated dead woman. Thank you for fucking that up on the highest level you possibly could.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
I would think so. Like you're not sending the homicide division to a sleeping drunk. Yeah, exactly. I'm just a little confused. And again, I've never been in this situation. How the person on the other end confused what she said so hard. Yeah. And like you said, with the amount of anxiety and panic in her voice... I feel like you would question.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
She's not going to be that upset about a drunk sleeping. It's like, I don't know. I feel like there should have been a little, maybe, I don't know if she hung up quickly and maybe they couldn't get anything else. I don't know. But I'm like, wow, this really, this game of telephone busted up right away.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
The news, of course, brought more reporters and soon the crime scene was absolutely overtaken by reporters, photographers, additional LAPD officers. Probably just onlookers. Just chaos.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And in order to keep as many people as they could out of the crime scene now, detectives told patrol officers and some of the reporters at this point, because they needed however many people they could, to make a human chain around the perimeter to keep people out. Dear God. But by this point, the scene had been absolutely trampled by so many people coming and going.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
And honestly, it remained open to the press long after investigators left as well. So whatever evidence was maybe there, totally tainted.
Morbid
Episode 647: A Deeper Dive into the Murder of Elizabeth Short (Part 1)
exactly most likely and it's like after investigators left that scene should have been cordoned off and somebody should have been stationed there and that way they can go back to the scene if they need to something comes up you go wait let's get back to that scene and take a look again yeah and they didn't do any of that so people were just trampling right through it right after they left it's like guys what were you thinking i don't i don't get it at all
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
The fact that she was like, you fucking bums. No, no, no. She didn't say that. An innocent girl. You dirty fish peddling bums. Dirty fish peddling bums. You got the wrong girl in there. Looks like you got the wrong girl.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
You know, I was looking up 1920s slang because I'm going to try to throw it in here as we go. I love you. To go on a drinking spree on a toot. On a toot. Just, oh, you know, he's a, you know where apples is. He's just on a toot. On a toot. That's what your kids call a fart. So it makes it even funnier. It's so funny. Like everything was funnier.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Like I know life was not funnier because like, you know.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
She's, I'm not condoning anything that she has done. No. It's kind of iconic. No, it's truly iconic. It's kind of iconic. She said. She's like, I was right in your face. She said, LOL. And you got the wrong person. I'm telling you, you got the wrong person and you're still not letting her go.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Which obviously, like, that part is not great, because you're like, these grocers do not deserve to be... Terrorized. ...losing their...
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I'm like, sir, she's been seen. She's been... She's been witnessed by several people who have been held up at these stores.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Yeah, they just don't want to admit that. It's a hoax? You know what this is? There's a lady that's making us run for our money here, and we're not happy with it.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I'm going somewhere with this. Me and Mikey both were like, no, no, no, it's not that. I was like, for me it is.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
It makes me think of in Scream 1 when Stu is like... No, there's no way a girl could have killed him. And Randy's like, it takes a man to do something like that. Oh, my God. It's so true. That's the perfect quote for this. That's the vibe that I'm getting. It takes a man to do something like that. I love it. That's exactly what this is giving. That's the vibe.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
She's getting out there with her glad rags. What's a glad rag?
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
We're five days out. It's the new year for you. It's 2025. What's it like in the future? It's been the new year for you. Yeah. Is it cool there? I hope so. Is everything better?
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I was going to say they won't because it's not aliens. It's the government. So I don't want them to abduct me.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I'm just kind of complacent now. That's like scary for you, though. Yeah, I'm like numb to it.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
wow fond of fun you're a shitbag he was like you're having too much fun i'm gonna make them think you're a bandit you have a fuck-ass bob i'm gonna put you in the big house men suck like you're the worst are you kidding he's like and it's like her brother it's like shut the fuck up yeah shut the fuck up shut the fuck up sibling like get the fuck out of here yeah she's having too much fun i gotta throw in the big house you're not my dad yeah get the fuck out of here
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
They do have such zest and flair. What else do they have? They're very hotsy-totsy. They are very hotsy-totsy. And you know what? We got a lot of bob-haired patsies sitting in the big house right now. Tell me everything. What? Bob-haired patsies? Yeah, patsies are people who are set up. A fool, a chump. A chump? And they're sitting in the big house in jail.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I'm wearing sweatpants. We need to do a listener tale that's 1920s themed so we can go. Literally yesterday. I don't know how we do that, but we'll figure it out.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Just encouraging their hair to grow. Like, please grow, please grow, please grow.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I immediately thought of a bunch of fuck-ass bob-haired flappers just walking in, flashing about. Freeze!
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Yeah, she's got a transatlantic accent. Yes, 100%. Yeah, she's got the bob haircut.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
You know, they were doing these little ones that were going well. At night. And they got two. They were putting on the Ritz. They were high-hatting. I know what that's all about. High-hatting. They were getting swelled. They were. Throwing on the side. Acting high-toned.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Hold on. You know, simmer down. You've got to cool your jets. Hold your horses. Keep your shirt on. I like keep your shirt on. Take it easy.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
It was, honestly, it was, oh, Mikey's worried that everyone's going to come after me, probably. Listen, they love me, so you better pull it. No, it was awesome. That was such a good transition. Oh, now they're really going to come after you because that was fake as fuck. No, but I wish everybody saw the finger guns that went along with it because it really added to it.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Oh, if you shoot me in the arm... Like, I would have come out and I would have been like, next time I'm getting that gun.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
She does look 20. She looks younger than that, to be honest.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
And in that sense, you're like, obviously being in the position of robbing people. Whilst pregnant. Already. You lose that argument. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's it. But now you almost believe her when she says, like, we didn't intend to hurt anybody because they never tried to before.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
You know, like, it seemed like the intimidation tactic was what they were going with and it seemed to work. Yes. Which is wrong. And throwing people off kilter with her being the first one going in there with the gun, I think was their intention, like throwing them off completely at first. Yep. And then Ed can saunter in all tall and like, you know.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
But it's not okay. They had put themselves in that position to begin with. So it's like precisely your argument falls flat.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
You don't say. Jesus Christ. I love how it's just like automatically. Like that is the wildest story. Like she's talking to Joe Bonino. These men with Italian names, they're definitely part of the underworld. They have to be.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
The image of her is falling slowly. Yeah. Now a little faster, actually. They're making an example of her. It's hitting the skids.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
I love how they're like, that's not womanly. I'm like, yeah. Excuse me?
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
She was very lost. She was very lost. And what she did was wrong. Very bad choices.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Because you think she, I mean, she obviously grew up with nothing. With nothing rough. Yeah, with nothing. And it's like she clearly fell into these, like, you know, detective magazines and all that. She fell into her own deluge. And thought it was going to be this glamorous, like, yeah. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Yeah, because while she was obviously lost and like thought it was going to be this whole glamorous thing, she also wasn't thinking about the people whose lives she was completely destroying. And putting at risk. That kind of money, taking that from somebody like a grocer or somebody who owns a business. That's their whole livelihood. That's it.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
And they have families, too, that they need to take care of. So it's like, yeah, you may be pregnant. You may be trying to feed your kid. Right. Taking it out of somebody else's mouth who's working hard for it is not the way to do it.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Yeah. That was a swell, a Jake, a Nifty, the cat's meow, the cat's pajamas, the bee's knees. I was having a ball. It was a whoopee. And with all that being said, we sure hope you keep listening.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Yeah, she's like, you think I want to leave that in the sink? Fair enough.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
Oh my God, they're like going, they're like, let's communicate with the cops. Full send. Yes. Yes.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Hey weirdos, Elena here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with Morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. It's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion. No ads, just you and early access to new episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Not all of them are in there for like killing people. You know what I mean? Like, it's like petty crimes are there. Right. And it's like they're just sitting there waiting to be bombed now. So in response, the government implemented a policy where any inmate with less than three months left on their sentence and boys who completed at least six months of their sentence would be released.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
The result was a massive, massive uptick in criminal activity at a time when law enforcement was already overworked and their attention was understandably in many other places.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So during this period, police relied on support from civilian volunteers who were instrumental in coordinating air raid precaution efforts and could be identified now, like these volunteer citizens, they could be identified by their helmets and air raid precautions armband. So you could know who you could trust, quote unquote. Mm-hmm.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But unfortunately, as people are going to do, they're going to people. So petty criminals quickly realized those armbands gave the wearer considerable power. And according to an article by Duncan Campbell, criminals began to kit themselves out with an ARP warden's helmet and armband and smash their way into shops when no one was looking. So they just started using it.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
It's like Ted Bundy carrying around a police badge. Exactly. Exactly. Under the circumstances, law enforcement and the public had to make distinctions between what was and what wasn't behavior worth prosecuting, because they can't go after everybody now. In simple terms, stealing a blanket from a shop would ordinarily be considered theft.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But during wartime, most people would probably agree with you that stealing a blanket from a shop to cover a body in the street was probably not criminal behavior. Yeah, fair enough. So things were, lines were being blurred, which makes it very scary. It's never great.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Now in wartime England, looting and shoplifting alone were such huge massive problems that the court set aside two days each week just to prosecute those charged for those crimes. But they were not the only crimes that were clogging up the courts.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I was going to say, it's a trend. I have no idea where we are. You know what? You know where I'm at.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
The less scrupulous business owners, for example, were known to exploit the rationing of wartime goods by selling additional products at like crazy over, like price gouging, essentially. And even some doctors were more than happy to disqualify a young man from military service just for a few extra bucks. So everybody's suddenly tilting in the wrong direction on the moral scale here. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
With the British justice system just so bogged down with additional crime and a dramatic increase in public need, other crimes were kind of ignored. Like sex work, for example, was a big crime back then, considered a big crime, and it flourished during the wartime years. In part because it was obviously, like, way less important of, like, who is it really? Like, what are we doing here? You know?
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But also because these women provided what some were arguing was a valuable service to the military men. Yeah. So... You're going to prosecute them? Like, come on. Just let everybody live. There's a lot of way worse shit happening in here.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
In London's Piccadilly Circus, for example, the so-called Piccadilly Commandos, as the area's sex workers were known, catered to thousands of young men about to ship off to the front lines, all of which went largely ignored by the police. They just let it happen. You know, they're going off to war. Yeah, you know, whatever.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
With that said, the lax attitudes around sex work at the time and law enforcement turning a blind eye to the whole thing allowed for at least one man to quickly and easily find victims with who he could get very close to very easily and act out his murderous fantasies that he had very clearly been having for a long time. Yeah. So it's like, it's a double-edged sword for real. Definitely.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Now, given the tensions and frustrations being felt across Britain in those days, murder seemed like an inevitable thing that was going to happen. In fact, within just two weeks of the announcements of the nightly blackouts, the report of the first murder came in from Edinburgh on September 15th, 1939.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And this victim, in this case, 52-year-old Isabella Ralph, had no fixed address and did make her living sometimes doing sex work. Okay. Now, in the case of Isabella Ralph, the press reported the death and gave like a brief overview of the circumstances. That was really it. Just a quick little mention.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
You know, with cities being ripped apart by German air raids and families being separated by evacuations and displacement, it seemed like everyone just kind of moved on from this murder of this woman, this, you know, like nomadic woman in Scotland. Fortunately, Edinburgh police got lucky and a few days later they arrested John Henry Connell. A 24-year-old bricklayer that was living in Edinburgh.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Damn, 24. Yeah. Upon being arrested, Connell told police he'd taken a room at a boarding house, and the next day he realized that he had some money that was stolen. So he confronted Isabella Ralph, with whom he'd had... Relations. Relations with the previous evening. Okay. And he managed to retrieve his stolen money.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But in the process of this whole thing, the two got physically aggressive with each other. They started struggling. And he said he grabbed her throat in order to stop her from screaming. And oops, he killed her. I think we all know by now how long it takes to manually strangle someone. Uh-huh. So that's bullshit. You don't just go, oh, oh, I tried to make her stop screaming. It's so crazy.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I held it there for like, you know, many, many minutes. At the very least, it's three minutes, right? At least like four, I think.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah. And it's consistent pressure, too. It's like if you let off even for a second, it starts the clock again. Yeah. Now, at trial, Connell's lawyer claimed his client had never intended to kill Isabella, and he had only wanted to get his stolen money back. Despite the evidence showing that several of Isabella Ralph's ribs had been crushed in the process...
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Indicating a very much higher degree of violence than he was talking about. The judge accepted the lesser plea of culpable homicide and sentenced Connell to three years of penal servitude. Wow.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
In handing down the sentence, Lord Justice Clark told him, I'm satisfied that the result of your conduct was the very last thing you anticipated, but you took this woman's life through violence, which you inflicted upon her. So he's like, I'm confident that you didn't mean to kill her, but you did.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
essentially okay now the murder of isabella ralph which was definitely a violent homicide like yes good try illustrates two important things about the press and the judicial system's understanding of murder at the time especially of the lower class persuasion during this time period first regardless of the brutality or sensational nature of the crime the
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Page space was limited and editorial and journalistic priorities were given to coverage of the war at the time. So they were just not going to focus on this. And second, the justice system, particularly the resources of the police and the court system, had very limited bandwidth and were eager to process what they considered lesser crimes as quickly and with as little attention as possible. Right.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
these two realities are definitely going to be an important factor in why there was relatively little coverage of what would end up being a serial killer operating in London during these blackouts. Especially when you consider the obvious comparisons to none other than England's most notorious and mysterious killer, Jack the Ripper. There's a very obvious, like, you can compare them.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah, definitely. And it's like... It shows you how fucking bonkers it was at the time. That they're not talking about, like, a Jack the Ripper 2.0. A second Jack the Ripper, essentially, is kind of going unnoticed and not really talked about. It's like, that should have been literal. Like, Jack the Ripper at the time... Was all anyone was talking about.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Literally all they were talking about. All the press was talking about. Anybody on the street. And this one, which is essentially the same, like, M.O., but somehow more sadistic, is not even being talked about.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah. And it wasn't being reported on. Now, by the winter of 1942... The war had been dragging on for more than a year, and violence had honestly, for the residents of London, had just become a normal thing. They just dealt with it every day. Violence, violence, violence. Still, even the most hardened of Londoners would have been absolutely shocked by the first discovery.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
This discovery was made by plumbers William Baldwin and Harold Batchelder on their way to work on the morning of February 9th, 1942. So as the two men passed through Montague Place in Marylebone, I looked this up, Marylebone, that morning, they noticed what looked to be a broken flashlight laying in the snow just outside of one of these windows. They're like basically handmade air raids shelters.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I have a feeling I know what happened to you because it might have happened to me as well.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
If you look it up, it's like a little kind of a half circle, like a half sphere. Kind of made with notes, kind of made with like a tin almost with like a little opening so you can scoot in and hide essentially. Okay.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Next to it, they found a woman's green wool turban-style hat, some matches, and some Ovaltine tablets. Then, as they got closer to it, they saw what looked like the pale leg of what they believed was a mannequin sticking out of the doorway of the shelter.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Harold Batchelder ran to the nearest phone and called the police and PC John Miles arrived a short time later. They discovered this was a human body because initially they thought it was a mannequin, but they were like, let's call it in. Yeah, just in case. With all like the objects that clearly belong to a woman, we're not going to check ourselves.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So upon seeing this woman's body, Miles knew it was not an accidental death. Yeah. So he called for additional officers and he secured the scene. Now, as far as the officers at the scene could tell, the woman in the air raid shelter had been brutalized by her attacker. Her face and neck were badly bruised.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Her clothes were torn, her skirt had been pulled up to her thighs, and she had been violently sexually assaulted. The following day, the pathologist, Sir Bernard Spilsbury... Spilsbury. I love this name. Sir Bernard Spilsbury. It's a very important name. It is an important name. He concluded his post-mortem examination, and he reported that...
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Aside from the bruising on her face and neck, there were, quote, a number of small abrasions to her upper, including a small amount of abrasions to her exposed right breast. The cause of death was listed as manual strangulation. She ended up being the least brutalized of all of his victims, if you can believe it. Just to give you a heads up for what's to come. Okay. Okay.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
The only blood found on the victim was her own, but the bruising on her neck and fingerprints found at the scene suggested that she'd been killed by a left-handed person. Ah, interesting that they could figure that out back in the 30s. Isn't that interesting? A few days later, the victim was identified as Evelyn Hamilton, a 41-year-old pharmacist from Essex. Oh. So she was just going to her job.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
stock of the frosted sugar cookie creamer and i second that please please please show that that requires it please i've only had one bottle of it because that's the only bottle i've been able to find this season me too and it's making me upset and you know we gotta shoot our shot here That's the thing. We got to shoot it.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But unfortunately, no one at the Lions Corner remembered whether she was joined by a man that evening. So they couldn't really determine whether she'd been lured to the shelter or simply attacked on her way back from the hospital or the hostel. Detectives had only just begun investigating the Hamilton murder when a report of a similar murder was reported on February 10th.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
This is just the next day. Right. That morning, two meter readers from the electric company were doing their rounds, you know, just going from rooming house to rooming house. And they were trying to go into one place in a rooming house on Wardour Street in Soho. So the men knocked on the door of 34-year-old Evan Oatley's room and they got no reply. The manager was like, no, she's home.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like, I know this. I saw her. Like, she hasn't left. So the manager was like, you know what? Did you try the door? And they were like, well, no, we can't just like walk into people's houses. So we didn't. And he was like, no, I know she's home. I'm just going to like see if I can open it and yell for her. Yeah. So he jiggled the door and it was unlocked.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So they ended up going inside, and as they entered the apartment, they found Evelyn lying face up on her bed. They later said they believed she had a red scarf around her neck, but found out it was just that her neck had been violently slashed open. Wow. Yeah. The men ran into the street to find the nearest police officer and returned with Inspector John Hennessy.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
In his report filed later that day, Hennessy described what he saw when he entered the apartment. This is rough. I flashed my torch and saw a woman believed to be Evelyn Oatley on her back on a divan or single bed in a transverse position. We looked it up in a divan. I didn't know what that was. No, me neither. It's apparently like a chaise lounge, essentially.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Her head was pointing north and was hanging over down the side of the bed. She was naked except for a slender garment which covered her breasts. I saw that her throat had been cut and a hand torch was wedged in her private parts. Oh, my God. It gets worse. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Superintendent Fred Sherrill is kind of like a fingerprint expert as well. Oh, wow. So he was like really big in this case.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And even he couldn't, he was the one that determined that they were probably left hand, this person was probably left handed and tried to run these fingerprints alongside like known offenders and couldn't find a match anywhere. He was the one that determined. Person wasn't known.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Things that had been used in this murder and on Evelyn were a razor blade, a can opener, parts of a broken mirror, a flashlight, and curling tongs. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's literally unthinkable rage and sadism in this case. That's why I was saying that there's a different element here than there was in Jack the Ripper case. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Not worse per se, but it's a different level for sure.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah. It's sadism and it appears to be that the killer is taking a lot of time to torture and inflict pain and mutilations on these victims while they are alive.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like the Hamilton murder, there was very little evidence found at the scene, and no one could think of any reason that someone would kill Oatley. At the time of her death, Evelyn was married, but had been living apart from her husband Harold for some time while she pursued an acting career in London.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
According to Harold Oatley, Evelyn was, quote, "...fascinated with West End life and would not leave it." But while it was true that she was hoping to make her way in the theater, she had worked at a nightclub for a little while, but while her husband was away, she had been supporting herself as a full-time sex worker since 1939.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I did just realize that this is going to come out after the holidays and maybe it won't be available.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
The last time anyone had seen her was when she was with a dark-haired airman the night before. This dark-haired airman had approached her, somebody said. And according to... This really cool YouTuber, he's fascinating. His channel, he's called Well I Never.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And he's just this British man who will tell you all about these amazing things and horrifying things. Love it.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Apparently her friends, and this like really will like break your heart when he said it, her friends later said she had turned to sex work, you know, obviously for income while her husband was away, but also because she was afraid of sleeping in her apartment alone because of the blackouts. So like she just wanted company.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
She was just lonely and scared. It's like really sad. According to the medical examiner, Evelyn Oatley had been, quote, beaten and strangled to unconsciousness and then suffered extensive sexually motivated mutilations inflicted by the killer using a safety razor, curling tongs, a corner fragment of a broken mirror, and the tin can opener.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Evelyn's cause of death was the five and a half inch wound on her neck that severed her carotid artery, which was believed to have been inflicted with the two inch razor blade. Right. Now, among the evidence that was found in the room were unidentified fingerprints on the fragment of the broken mirror and the tin can opener. And they again indicated that the killer was left handed.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So we're relating these two cases. Even though they are very different. Yeah. Otherwise, it looked like there was obviously a huge struggle, but that there was also only one thing missing. And it was like a silver cigarette case that was in her purse. Just a trophy. But her bank books and her money were still there.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Now, that makes me think that in the first case, the Hamilton murder, they said they found her purse close by, but on the sidewalk. I think somebody passing by just stole her shit.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I don't even know if he did. He maybe took her identification, but I don't know if he took her money.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And he doesn't. It doesn't look like he brings these things with him. Yeah. It looks like he finds them where he is. Oh, okay.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So I think he just didn't have anything available to him. I think if he did, it probably would have been the exact same thing. Yeah. But it was outside. Yeah. What's even worse is a neighbor told police later that a little after midnight the night before, they had heard a radio suddenly turn up really loud from that apartment, enough that they could hear it through the walls.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
We always say how much we hate that. Fucking hate that. He literally was doing it to drown out her screams. Yeah. Now, on February 12th, a sex worker named Catherine Mulcahy nearly lost her life to this man. Oh, God. She got away? Yes. Apparently, a very nice-looking, clean-cut man approached her while she was soliciting on Regent Street, and she agreed to work with him.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Once they were at her apartment and the whole thing began, he got on top of her and attacked her immediately. He dug his knees as hard as he could into her abdomen and started trying to strangle her manually, but she fought back hard.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And apparently she still had her boots on and she kicked him as hard as she could off of her and ran the fuck out of there to her neighbors completely nude. He ran after her and threw money at her claiming he was drunk and he didn't mean to and then he ran away.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But he left something behind. What do you mean? He left a belt behind, a Royal Air Force belt specifically.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And remember, the night before, Evelyn had been seen being approached by a nice, clean-cut, dark-haired Air Force man.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And then they're this. They're this. Scary. Yeah. Now, he went right on that evening to kill again after this, what he would consider a failure. Yeah. But that victim would not be discovered until February 13th. So we're going to get there, but I'm trying to go in order of the discoveries while maintaining the timeline. Okay.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Because I want you to get the idea of how bloodthirsty this fucker really was. Like he barely went a day, sometimes even hours between murders. It was like a spree. And when one failed, he would immediately find another woman to kill. So he does go right to another one, but she is not found for a couple of days. Okay.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So the police and press had honestly barely begun to even process Evelyn Oatley's scene when a report of yet another body came in not 24 hours later. On the afternoon of the 13th, 15-year-old—and it's not her who died— A 15-year-old Barbara Lowe went to visit her mother, Margaret, at her apartment in North Soho.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
When Barbara's knocks, didn't get an answer, she asked a neighbor if they'd seen her mother, Margaret. But the neighbor was like, you know what? I haven't seen her in a couple of days. And there is a package that's been sitting on the step for a couple of days. So it was not her mom's character to go away without saying anything or to, like, just abandon her in any way.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So Barbara called the police, who dispatched an officer to the apartment. They used a spare key and were able to get inside. But when they went inside, D.S. Leonard Blacktop was very surprised to see that the blackout curtains were still drawn and everything was completely dark. And he was like, are you sure she's in here?
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And he switched on his flashlight and started making his way through the place. And in the kitchen, he saw a woman's purse was laying on the floor and everything in the purse was strewn across the floor. So finally, he reached the last door in the apartment, which was Margaret's bedroom. The door was locked, but Barbara gave the detective permission to force the door open so they could get inside.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Fortunately, he was able to stop Barbara from coming into the room. which spared her a lot of horror. Margaret Lowe's body was on the bed, completely nude, and having probably been there for at least a day or two. Her face and head were brutally beaten, and beaten with what the detective assumed was the fireplace poker that lay in two pieces on the floor beside her. It broke. A fireplace poker.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Those things are usually like wrought iron. Later, the autopsy would show that her jaw had been shattered by the blows. One of her stockings had been tied tightly around her neck and knotted. It had dug into her skin. And her body had been badly damaged.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
badly mutilated um with among other things a razor a potato peeler and a kit and a table knife and and this is horrifying not that everything else hasn't been there was a large serrated bread knife protruding from a wound near her groin and a wax candle had been inserted into her vagina Yeah, everybody is literally in this room in a state of absolute shock.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
When I tell you that I was not ready for this case to be as brutal as it is, I had no idea. I don't know if we've heard anything that brutal back to back. The fact that this... Has gone largely kind of like under the radar even now.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like I've said we're going to cover the Blackout Ripper to a couple people and they're like, oh, what's that?
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
You had never heard of it. Nobody had ever heard of it. And this is what it is. A potato peeler.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Because he's using just kitchen items. Oh God. Like he's just using what is around. This is brutal. Which is even more fucked up that this man is coming in. He knows he can strangle them to death. So he's not worried about, he doesn't seem to be worried about like the end result. He knows he can probably get the end result, but he's just coming in there being like, I'll just use what's around.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like, potato peeler, razor, fucking candle.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
She's using sweet cream instead of frosting.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And her mom had been like, you know, just trying to make ends, like just trying to, and keep her in boarding school too. Like pay to keep her in boarding school. Because, so fingerprints were found in the apartment and again, left-handed. So they're connecting it. now. But that wasn't, and obviously she had some commonalities with the other victims.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But until the early 1930s, Margaret and her husband had been relatively wealthy, living off an income from the dry goods store and boarding house that they had owned together. But her husband died in 1932 and the income quickly went away. And Margaret found herself desperate to support herself and her daughter. So she turned to sex work.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
What am I going to do? Thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Those are useful. So to gain some much needed perspective, we're going to shift into something that's Honestly going to shock you, I believe, everyone listening. The case that I am covering today, so I'm going to be covering the Blackout Ripper. Oh, I haven't heard of this one. His name is Gordon Cummins.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
This was not, and again, her daughter was going to boarding school and she wanted to keep her in boarding school. So she did this to keep her daughter where she was safest. Yeah. Now, this was not the first time that she'd relied on sex work for income, but she was kind of hoping to have left it behind when she met her husband and like started a family.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And she did until he died. Right. Which is really just, like, heartbreaking. I feel so bad because, like, you know she didn't want to. No. Now, the similarities between the victims weren't lost on the press. One reporter wrote, the three West End murders have all been discovered within an area of just over one square mile.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
As each woman was strangled, the possibility that all three were the victims of the same person cannot be ruled out. There were, of course, other details about the cases that the press hadn't even been aware of at the time, and it probably would have only strengthened their belief that the women were victims of the same man.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But there was really not a lot of time to consider all the connections between the cases because another victim was discovered just hours after Margaret Lowe's body had been found.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah, just one after the other after the other. Yeah. And that's where we're going to end part one, just because I think there's a lot in here and it's very heavy. But this is, I mean, luckily, you know, he gets caught. That's the good thing.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
It's shocking when he's caught because he's not a walking monster on the outside.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
It's just... The Jack the Ripper case is so brutal and, like, so vicious and, like, it's shocking when you go through it bit by bit and find out the injuries to these women. And then, like, this is just, like, because you can't help but compare the two because they're in the same, you know, relative, you know, corner of the world. Sure. Not, like, you know, too far away in time from each other.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And it's the same kind of victim profile. It's the same... Motive. Almost, like, frenzy when it comes to, like, how quickly and how many victims he was ranking up here.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But it's, like, there's just, like, so... He has to be such an evil fuck. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like, he has to be such an evil fuck.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah, and part two, there's more. He's not done. So part two is not, you know, just the arrest and all that. He's not done. Right. And he's as brutal.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah, he's definitely assuming. But this guy... I knew, I had heard of this case, but I didn't know the details. And when I looked further into it, I was like, whoa. So he, this happened after Jack the Ripper. Okay. Also happened over in Europe, though. And... Many Rippers in Europe. Many Rippers. We have a few over here, too, but... These ones are rough.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And the thing is, I hesitate to say any ripper is worse than the other because they're all fucking terrible. That's why they are literally called rippers. Yeah. But the thing with the blackout ripper that we're going to cover today, this is going to be a two-parter, by the way, because there's a lot. But he is, like, with Jack the Ripper... Sorry, I'm, like, everywhere.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
My thoughts are all over the place. It's because you didn't have the right coffee cream. I didn't. That's very true. So Jack the Ripper was pretty methodical about the way he went about things. Seemed like he had... almost like a plan when he went into each murder. He did it quick. He did it relatively, you know, clean isn't the word, but like very quick and smooth.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
He also did his mutilation post-mortem for the most part. Really, the only one that you can point to is Mary Kelly at the end that was like frenzied and out of control and totally off the map, which some people even wonder if... Obviously we went into that if that's all connected and all that, but we won't go into that. But the blackout ripper, Gordon Cummins, he's a mutilator.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But he is like sadistic because his mutilation is not done post-mortem. Okay. It seems like he enjoys hurting women and he enjoys hurting women when they can feel it. Like torturing them. Yeah. He mutilates and tortures while they are alive. And it's so – well, I hesitate to say he is worse because obviously it is all awful. Yeah. He's different. He's a different brand of Ripper.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
He's a different level of Ripper, I would say. It's very upsetting. I'm giving you a trigger warning up front. And this is very graphic, and there is a lot of really fucked up, gruesome things that he does to his victims. So please be aware of that. Okay. Good news is, though, they caught him. That's good. He's not a Jack the Ripper. He's a Gordon. He's a Gordon. He got caught.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
He's Gordon the Idiot. So let's take it back, shall we? Let's take it back, back, back. We're going back. How far? into when German bombing raids were happening during World War II. That's far back. Taking it back. We're in the 30s, late 30s, early 40s. So in response to the onset of German bombing raids during World War II, a lot of England's most vulnerable citizens were evacuated.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And temporarily, they were taken out of the urban areas to be safer in the more rural parts of the country. Because it was a really, really dangerous time and very unprecedented and very, like, unpredictable time. But those who stayed in the cities would spend years enduring blackouts. So scary.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And these were periods where the city was intentionally plunged into darkness to prevent German bombers from easily identifying urban areas.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
areas to bomb that's so sad that they even had to do that to avoid being bombed oh and it's all that in and of itself is an awful awful thing if you research into these blackouts yeah horrific and they were sick they were a huge inconvenience and obviously like tough to deal with in a myriad of ways, but they were also a safety risk for everybody.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
But for at least one person, they offered the perfect opportunity to enact what was clearly his darkest fantasies. This man clearly had been thinking about this. You don't just go and do this. And he didn't have a criminal record.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
So he went straight. He must have been thinking about this for a long time. And this gave him the opportunity. Yeah. So when the German army invaded Poland in September 1939, like we said, countries all over Europe were forced to take a position and develop a strategy just in case they were drawn into the conflict.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
In England, where attacks from Germany were kind of, everybody was just waiting for it. It was imminent, essentially. The war secretary just quickly mobilized the British armed forces and began evacuating 1.5 million citizens. Wow. Those citizens were mostly like women, children, the elderly, the most vulnerable, like I said.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Taking them out of the cities, bringing them to the countryside, that's where they were going to be safer. But these would end up being super traumatic for a lot of people because they ended up being relocated to the homes of strangers often. And they also wouldn't know what happened to the people that they left behind. The homes.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Like fathers, you know, brothers, all like husbands, all kinds of people. Yeah. And that was for like many years they dealt with this. Under those circumstances, when the bombs began falling a few months later, many of these people chose to just return home instead of being separated from their families and just dealt with the chaos that was about to ensue.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
During this time, all lights, electric or natural, were to be extinguished.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Straight up blackness. So scary. I don't think any of us can truly appreciate how dark that was happening here. Because we are, no matter what, there's lights around us at all times. Always. It's like when we covered Jack the Ripper, we talked about how I don't think people take into account how wild it is that he did what he did with such precision. In that darkness. In how dark it was.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
There wasn't street lamps. He was doing this by the light of a small flame up in a corner. Right. Like, that's insane. And then here, there's no light whatsoever. It is a black that you can't even conceive of.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Because it takes away all your senses. It totally like, it puts you in a place of like... Just complete vulnerability. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
I don't think, I feel like it would make me crazy. Yeah, I feel you. Not having any kind of like perception of what was around you. That's what would scare me the most. That would fuck you up.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Hey, weirdos. I'm Alina. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
And it's not like this was something you could just like not do because if you violated this blackout, you were going to be subject to fines of various amounts. And it was as simple as like lighting a match would get you a fine. And these people couldn't afford this stuff and they couldn't afford to be thrown in jail. And also you don't want to be the person who fucks it up.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Yeah. And obviously, like you said, like you don't want to be the one to fuck this up because what they were doing was trying to stay hidden from German bombers identifying them as targets during air raids. But while it was like strategically made sense for the time because like what else are they going to do? It had obviously added risks with it. It's like, yeah, you are safe from air raids.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
You're not safe from each other. Right. And that's a problem. Yeah. In the first month alone, traffic deaths doubled, and by January 1942, one in five people had sustained some form of injury from the blackouts.
Morbid
Episode 635: Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper (Part 1)
Now, as all this chaos was unfolding, the question that came about was, what do we do with the nation's countless prisoners that are now, yeah, unlike the free British citizens who could evacuate or hide during an air raid, people in prison and youth detention centers were just sitting targets. It's like, what do you do? Do you just let them be sitting?