Is anyone else here a fan of true crimes? I worry about whether I'm being morbid by admitting that I am, but I am. I used to watch Investigation Discovery all the time then go research the cases online, but then I realized that in a way, I was surrounding myself with death and it started to affect my mood. One of the downfalls of anxiety disorder on a normal day is a preoccupation of thoughts related to death or other negative occurrences, and here I was watching a channel that focused exclusively on death. It started to get to me and I noticed I was starting to backslide a little, so I had to wean myself off of it. I'm still intrigued by true crime though, especially the ones from the Old Hollywood days. Anyway, let's get started!
1. The Black Dahlia
You know I couldn't have a post about true or unsolved Old Hollywood crimes without including one of the most infamous cases of the type. I don't know anyone who at this point hasn't either read about or seen The Black Dahlia, so it would be borderline impossible for me to relay information that everyone hasn't already heard. Elizabeth Short was an aspiring starlet when she was found, horribly mutilated, in downtown Los Angeles back in 1947. There was an almost surgical precision with how she had been dismembered; the lady who discovered her at first mistook her for a broken mannequin. There were never any real breaks in the case and her murder remains unsolved.
I'd never seen the photos before, but while I was searching for photos of her to add to this post, I ended up finding the crime scene photos as well. Like I said before, I don't do gore, so I got a lot more than I bargained for. If you're squeamish like I am, please don't search for The Black Dahlia in the Images section unless you're prepared to see them. This case is still as much of a mystery today as it was when she was found nearly 70 years ago; no real motive, suspects or breaks in the official case have been discovered. Just about everyone connected to the case or the victim have since died, so the story of the Black Dahlia seems fated to remain a cold case. There is, however, a man named Steve Hodel who is building a pretty strong case against the man he believes is responsible for the death of Elizabeth Short and possibly a few others. His own father, Dr. George Hodel, was once on the list of suspects in the Black Dahlia murder but was later cleared. The website io9 has a sufficient rundown of Hodel's investigation into the case, but if you want the full story, check out Steve Hodel's blog.
2. Christa Helm
Christa Helm was a new one for me to hear about, mainly because the media never gave it the attention that they gave Elizabeth Short's murder. Christa Helm was an upcoming actress who fled an abusive upbringing in order to be New York's, then Hollywood's "Next Big Thing," and after some bit work in smaller movies, was waiting for her breakthrough role. What she became more famous for were her liasons with several Hollywood bigwigs and her party girl lifestyle. While out one night in 1977(her exact whereabouts, other than attending a party earlier that night, are still unclear), she was attacked from behind, where she was stabbed over 30 times and bludgeoned with a blunt instrument, before being left to die under a car. Despite such high-profile popularity, her murder was barely covered by the press and the event as a whole was allowed to vanish from mainstream coverage.
The newspaper clipping above is from the article "The Unsolved Murder of Hollywood Starlet, Christa Helm," and is by far the most in-depth coverage of this case. The gist of the newspaper article mentions how items that could have proven helpful to solving the murder were later taken, such as Christa's purse, which was said to have contained the names of many of Hollywood's elite. No solid leads have ever been found, the stolen items were never retrieved, and even though many people Christa knew are still alive, none have provided any helpful information. Two freelance writers, one of whom focuses almost exclusively on the careers and memoirs of yesteryear's stars, worked closely with Christa Helm's daughter Nicole to bring the case to light. It is their goal that by reminding the public of both who Christa Helm was and the way she was brutally murdered that justice may one day prevail.
3. William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor has one of the strangest unsolved cases I've ever heard of. He was discovered at home with what was initially reported as a 'natural death,' until he was turned over and a .38 caliber gunshot wound was discovered in his upper back. Rumor has it he'd been dead some 12 hours before the police were even called. His murder was odd because from a surface look at events, he wasn't disliked. The Paramount film producer worked steadily after arriving in Hollywood; over 60 films have him listed as a director. The story gets stranger from there. In addition to a number of unsubstantiated rumors and young starlets who saw their careers vanish after his murder, there was also the matter of Taylor himself, who was revealed to have abandoned his family, changed his name and moved to Hollywood some years prior.
The unsubstantiated rumors ranged from him being part of some secret Hollywood club, in which he and other men used opium and had sexual encounters, to rumors that he was gay and his valet was in charge of discreetly finding him men to sleep with, to even more rumors that the powers that be in Hollywood made every effort to keep the truth about Taylor's murder from going public. (On another note, that was one hell of a run-on sentence. I'm sorry.) The amount of suspects began to line up, but one by one, they were all crossed off the list. Taylor seemingly had a habit of having less than savory people around, such as his first valet, who had a criminal record and had been fired by Taylor less than a year before Taylor's death, and even his second valet (the one I mentioned above), who also had a criminal record. A number of supposed confessions to Taylor's murder were reported over the years, but nothing ever held enough water to close the case. Officially, this case is still open, but if the rumor about Hollywood shutting down efforts to solve the case are true, it will likely remain at a stalemate. Criminal Element has a brief look into this investigation and some of the various faces at the forefront of the trial, while the website William Desmond Taylor goes into much more detail about everything involved in the investigation.
4. Jean Spangler
This is another case I found while researching for this post, and it hit me just how many young starlets either disappeared (and presumed to have been murdered), were murdered or committed suicide back in the days of Old Hollywood. Jean Spangler was another upcoming actress and dancer in Hollywood when she disappeared without warning in the autumn of 1949. This case got more and more cold by the minute, from the various dead-ends in retracing Jean's whereabouts, some of which were supplied by Jean herself, to the people she was last seen with. Acres of land were searched and there were sightings of Jean as far away as here in my hometown of El Paso, TX, but none of those claims or sightings were ever confirmed and those, too, eventually ran cold. There are a number of theories about what happened to Jean Spangler, but none have resulted in a break substantial enough to crack the case. A more detailed account of events, as well as some solid lines of inquiry as to what may have happened to her, can be read at Historic Horrors.
5. The 'Masked Marvel' Murder
This is a lesser-known case because, much like Christa Helm's murder, David Bacon's mysterious murder wasn't given much time in the press. This, like many of the other cases on the list, seems to have been 'the perfect murder,' in which no murder weapon was ever found, no solid leads, motives or suspects were ever found or questioned, and the case vanished from view. In a very strange twist, the Examiner, who covered this story and its few details a few years ago, tried to access some of the case files only to be told by LAPD that all info regarding the case had been destroyed.
Let's start from the beginning. After being discovered by Howard Hughes, David Bacon was given a few bit parts in films and was growing increasingly frustrated until he was cast as a character known as the Masked Marvel. In September 1943, this came to a screeching halt when, after Bacon spent the day at the beach, residents spotted his car weaving dangerously before jumping the curb and coming to a stop in a bean field. A shirtless Bacon exited the car, bleeding from what turned out to be a knife wound in his back, and he collapsed. A neighbor got to him in time for Bacon to plead for help, but he died immediately afterward. An autopsy showed that the small knife punctured his heart, causing a hemorrhage that had a 20-minute window before the victim usually died, 20 minutes being the absolute max. Some witnesses reported spotting a passenger alongside Bacon, giving some weight to the theory that he'd possibly picked up a hitchhiker, but those sightings were never confirmed. Robbery was ruled out as a motive, as his money and rings were still in his car. Smaller clues (an unidentified sweater with blonde hairs was the most promising one) never panned out and the case went cold. It was confirmed that Bacon was stabbed in the vehicle and left to bleed out as he presumably drove for help, but nobody was ever able to confirm the identity of the passenger in the car with him. The story gets more confusing from here; The Daily Mirror has a 10-part series on the full investigation into Bacon's death. It's quite a read.
6. Marilyn Sheppard
Finally, I chose this one because while the person in question wasn't involved with the industry, it received national press coverage on a number of occasions throughout the years. Her husband, who always professed his innocence before and after being convicted and serving nearly a decade in prison for the crime, became a professional wrestler by the name of "Killer" Sam Sheppard. I wouldn't be surprised if the nickname was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his being a prime suspect in the murder of his wife, but it comes off as rather callous to me regardless of the reason. Moving on though, at the time Sheppard was an osteopathic physician and in the summer of 1954, the couple entertained neighbors then went to bed, Marilyn in the couple's bedroom and Sam on the daybed downstairs. At some point during the night, she was bludgeoned to death, and Sam's version of events states that after hearing Marilyn scream out, he ran upstairs, where he was knocked unconscious. After coming to, he saw the person downstairs and chased them outside, where they fought before he was knocked unconscious again. When he came to, he called for their neighbors and the police, and the frenzy began.
This case was the subject of many passionate debates on both sides. While a trial in the fall of 1954 convicted Sam Sheppard of his wife's murder and he served nearly a decade in prison for it, the trial was overturned and he was later acquitted because his rights to due process had been violated. He wrote a book about his experience, made an unsuccessful return to the chiropractic field, and after marrying his third wife, became a pro wrestler. Some will allude that this was the O.J. case of the '50s, while others will say that the wrong person took the fall. An article by Cleveland.com touches on both sides of the matter. NOVA Online has a pretty thorough timeline of events from the night of the murder onward. At this point, the case has been left to speculation and as of last year, the case details were released online. I'm not sure what the official ruling of this case is, but Sheppard's son picked up the case and due to advancements in DNA, was able to rule his father out as being linked to the DNA found at the crime scene. Despite that though, there are still a number of people who still believe Sheppard is guilty.
So those are just a few of the many unsolved murder cases that hit Hollywood over the past 100 years. Cold cases always fascinate me because they show you how forensics and technology as a whole has changed since these cases were fresh, so it's easier to see how certain cases may have been stumped by the lack of resources or technology back then. There are levels of how tragic these cases are for me, but the biggest one is that many of these cases have a high probability of never being definitively solved.
I'm sorry I haven't been sticking to the schedule I believe I told you I was setting for this month's posts; I know they haven't had any real rhyme or rhythm so far, but the issue will be corrected this weekend so bear with me. I hope you've enjoyed the first few posts, however, and I'll see you soon!
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