Retired Black Dahlia detective names new favorite suspect in Joker-style murder of blood-drained actress

A retired detective who investigated the gruesome Black Dahlia murder has revealed his top suspect behind Americas most notorious cold case. 

Aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, 22, was found dead and drained of blood in a vacant lot in South Los Angles on January 15, 1947. 

Her face had been slashed Joker-style from cheek to jaw, and her body was cut in half with surgical precision. 

David Lambkin, 71, examined the case when he was head of the Los Angeles Police Departments Cold Case Unit in 2001 - more than a half-century after the killing. 

He has now told the Los Angeles Times he believes a surgeon, Dr. Walter Alonzo Bayley, whose estranged wife lived just one block from the crime scene, may have slayed Smart in a fit of rage after losing his son.

Elizabeth Short, 22, (pictured) was famously murdered in 1947 in Los Angeles and her case has never been solved. The aspiring actress was found strewn beside a sidewalk

The case gained national attention and Short, due to her fashion style, was quickly dubbed the Black Dahlia. She was found with her torso chopped in half, drained of blood and a joker smile carved into her face. Pictured: Shorts body at the crime scene

In an interview Wednesday, Lambkin first conceded how he believes the 1947 case will likely stay unsolved - before painting Bayley as his favorite suspect.

Very few have anything going for them, he said of the slew of suspects that came before in an interview with The LA Times. 

My favorite is [Bayley].

When asked why the former top cop told the paper how the researcher first responsible for the theory could actually connect his suspect to that location - something not seen in other speculations surrounding the slaying.

The man responsible for that theory is Larry Harnisch, a retired copy editor who previously worked for the Times.

Over the years, he has surfaced as one of the most knowledgeable experts on the case, which continues to captivate - and confound - the country so many years later.

He pointed to Bayley as a possible suspect back in 1997, years before Lambkin even began investigating.

The crux of his hypothesis was Bayleys undiagnosed brain disease - confirmed to be Alzheimers following his death in 1948.

David Lambkin (left) examined the case when he was head of the Los Angeles Police Departments Cold Case Unit in 2001 - more than a half-century after the killing. He supports a theory from Larry Harnisch (right), a retired copy editor who worked for the LA Times

They believe the man to blame is Dr. Walter Bayley (seen in this undated image), a surgeon whose wife lived a block from the scene

He was also in the middle of a divorce, and still reeling from the death of his son more than a decade before.

The boy died after being hit by a truck when he was just 11, and Shorts body was found two days after the anniversary of his death, Harnisch pointed out.

He began digging into the case while working at the paper in 1996, and soon found other unsettling connections between Bayley and the murder.

He was desensitized to blood, was comfortable with a knife, and although he had a medical degree, he did work with his hands rather than his brains, he wrote in his blog a few years later. 

He also had a strong but troubled link to the immediate vicinity of the crime scene, the researcher added - while also citing accounts of how the doctors degenerative diseases had vastly altered his personality.

At the time, Bayley had been 66, and was freshly kicked out of his home in the Leimert Park neighborhood of LA in January 1947 - where Shorts body was found.

She was found naked by a mother taking her child for a walk the morning of January 15, her body positioned in such a way she thought it was a mannequin at first glance.

Bayley had an office near the Biltmore Hotel, where Short was last seen. She was dropped off at the Biltmore by a traveling salesman who told cops she had been going to meet her sister

Despite the bodys horrific state, not a drop of blood was found - leading detectives Harry Hansen and Finis Brown to believe a surgical hand was responsible.

Harnisch, meanwhile, suspected the doctor at some point crossed paths with Short somewhere near the Biltmore Hotel. Bayley had an office near the hotel, where Short was last seen.

The two would most likely have known each other; Shorts sister had gotten married at the very house Bayley had been kicked out of, Harnisch pointed out. 

After a few days together, Bayley fell into a rage, kill Short and dump her body a block away from Bayleys estranged wifes house, according to Harnischs hypothesis.

Perhaps after being rebuffed romantically or losing his cool during a sensitive conversation, he theorized.

The latter option, the former journalist said, could have occurred when Short told a lie she was known to repeat while traversing Hollywood - that she had a son who died at a young age.

This false admission could have been what set Bayley off, he claimed - citing the surgeons already unstable state of mind at the time.

Within a year, Bayley would die following his battle with Alzheimers disease, with his January 1948 obituary hailing his work as an associate professor of surgery at University of Southern California and chief of staff at Los Angeles County Hospital.

It also pointed out how he maintained a private practice at the Professional Building at 1052 West 6th Street in Los Angeles, which was located a stones throw from the still-standing Biltmore.

The tribute also added how the doctor specializ[ed] in womens surgical procedures and treatment over the course of his decades-long career - experiences Harnisch said could have served as his practice.

She was found dead days later, seemingly placed on the sidewalk for all to see. The killer took such a risk to place the body where he did to make a statement, former agent John Douglas and Harnisch suspect

Police, meanwhile, previously learned that Short had several brief encounters with men in the months before her death - almost all of whom maintained the meets never led to sex.

Detectives handling the case would go on the bill the female victim as a tease, at the time saying: She probably went too far this time, and just set some guy off into a blind, berserk rage.

Following failures to find a suspect, the FBI was brought in to find the culprit.

Years later, a FBI profiler who worked on the case would tell Harnisch there had likely been meaning in where Shorts body was found - citing how it was seemingly placed on the sidewalk for all to see. 

The killer took such a risk to place the body where he did because he wanted to put the fear of God in that neighborhood, former agent John Douglas said, according to Harnisch.

Under the influence of alcohol, he is drawn like a magnet to that area, the retired investigator added - claiming must have had some connection to the neighborhood. 

Bayley met that criteria in spades, Harnisch and Lambkin both agreed - with the former telling the Times, Bayley had the skill to do what was done to [Short].

Hes not a perfect suspect, he added, but he checks more boxes than anyone else.

Hes not a perfect suspect, Harnisch added of Bayley being responsible for the womans still-shrouded death. But he checks more boxes than anyone else

Meanwhile, many other persons of interest have surfaced as suspects - some of them possessing a surgical background just as Bayley did.

But a lack of physical evidence - which Lambkin said was nonexistent even when he took on the case more than 20 years ago - has failed to produce anything concrete.

Suspects of note include George Hodel, a well-known surgeon who lived and worked in Los Angeles at the time of the murder.

His son, retired LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel, came forward in 2019 to claim that his father could be the one responsible - citing the way the body was cut up.

On Wednesday, however, Harnisch slammed that theory as crap - pointing to a lack of proof.

It’s fabricated, he told the paper - before putting to bed speculation surrounding another potential culprit in Biltmore bellhop Leslie Dillon, who was 27 at time.

He was booked on suspicion of the murder in January 1949, but was released after providing an air-tight alibi.

He didn’t do it, Harnisch said, adding that if the person responsible for the theory, true crime author Piu Eatwell, had talked to me for five minutes, I would have said, "Thats bulls**t."

Meanwhile, many other persons of interest have surfaced as suspects, including George Hodel, a well-known surgeon who lived and worked in Los Angeles at the time of the murder. On Wednesday, Harnisch slammed that theory as crap - pointing to a lack of proof

He also put to bed speculation surrounding another suspect, Biltmore bellhop Leslie Dillon, who  was booked on suspicion of the murder in January 1949, but was released after providing an air-tight alibi

Famed gangster Bugsy Siegel was even named as a person of interest - demonstrating how little evidence in the case their actually is

Harnisch called that theory - along with one that Orson Welles was responsible seemingly because he pretended to saw an assistant in two for a magic act in August 1943 (seen here) - ridiculous [and] painfully stupid

As to where the then-27-year-old hotel worker was at the time of the murder, Harnisch proclaimed, he was in San Francisco.

Another suspect came in the form of Dr. Patrick Shane O’Reilly, an Orthopedic surgeon in the Los Angeles area at the time of the murder. 

He was included in a 1951 suspect list curated by then LAPD Lieutenant Frank Johnson in 1951 for his association with two of Shorts friends, after assaulting one of their secretaries. He was investigated but never arrested. 

In 2023, it was discovered that OReilly was actually using an alias and that his real name was Patrick Trear, reigniting suspicions he could have been the person responsible.

But as is the case with all the other now-deceased persons of interests, nothing physically ever linked him to the crime, leading him to be cut loose. 

Another author famously fingered Citizen Kane director Orson Welles as the party responsible, seemingly because he pretended to saw an assistant in two for a magic act in August 1943.

People are so nuts, Harnisch said of the not-so-usual suspects. People don’t want the record set straight. People want this grab bag of noir tropes.

He proceeded such theories, including the one that painted the killer as famed gangster Bugsy Siegel, as ridiculous, painfully stupid.

The LAPD confirmed the The Black Dahlia case remains open. According to the FBI, it will likely stay unsolved

DailyMail.com has reached out to Harnisch and Lambkin for comment.

The LAPD confirmed the The Black Dahlia case - which inspired the 2006 film of the same  - remains open. 

According to the FBI, it will likely stay unsolved.

Harnisch, meanwhile, remains hard at work on his own book surrounding the Dahlia murder, which received its name for the victims dyed, jet-black hair and matching hue of the clothes.

Writers would go on to paint her as a femme fatale, after she was dropped off at the Biltmore by a traveling salesman who told cops she had been going to meet her sister - her last lie before being found days later.

Such tall tales were not irregular from the struggling actress, cops later found.

Harnisch believes this is how she met her end, at the hands of a broken, unbalanced man whom cops never got the chance to investigate.

Bayley today is interred at the Grand View Memorial Park and Crematory in Glendale. DailyMail.com was not able locate any of his living relatives for this report.