 3825 S Norton Ave | January 19th 1947 Welcome to the two-part season finale event of “Hollywoodland: Unsolved.” Please note that this case is one of the more graphic cases discussed on this show yet and may be frightening to listeners under the age of 13 - so listener digression is advised. On a brisk Wednesday morning in January of 1947, an attractive house wife, named Betty Bersinger, was taking a walk with her 3-year-old daughter to a shoe repaired shop a few blocks away when she noticed what looked like a mannequin lying in the field ahead of her. According to reports, she thought it had fallen off of a truck and didn’t suspect anything other than the uncomfortable feeling she had. She crossed the street and continued to make her way to the shoe shop. It wasn’t until she got closer that she saw that the mannequin was in fact the naked body of a young women and rushed to a nearby residence to notify the police. The body was severed at the waste and appeared to be laid out carefully as though she was basking in the southern California sun. There were also three inch gashes cut into her face – causing her to have a permanent smile. The the dark hair of the women was framing her delicate features and her body was stoic and complete white, perfectly drained of blood. Her breasts had been slashed and an alleged “BD” had been carved into her left thigh. This cold case has stumped the LAPD for 70 years. The body belonged to an aspiring actress with raven black hair and a reputation in the Los Angeles party scene – her name was Elizabeth Short. I’m your host, Ansley, and welcome to Hollywoodland: Unsolved and the investigation into the Murder of the Black Dahlia. A gorgeous young 20’s wannabe from Medford, Massachusetts, Short made her way to the dazzling lights of Hollywood in July of 1946 in pursuit of fame and fortune. She would only live in the City of Angels for 6 months before her gruesome murder. Short grew up in a broken home – her father, Cleo Short, made a living building mini gold courses until the market crashed and through the 1920s the family lost most their assets. By 1930, Cleo parked his car on a bridged and vanished – leaving the family to believe he had committed suicide. Short was the middle of 5 girls and after her father’s apparent suicide, her mother did the best she could to give her 5 daughters a good life. Yet living on a single mother’s paycheck in a large family proved to be too much and Short’s mother quickly asked for help. According to reports, Short at a young age became fascinated with movies and by her early teen’s she set her sights on becoming an actress. Years later, Short learned that her father was alive and well and living in California and when she was 19 – she made her way out west to live with him. So let’s pause for a second, according to documents – Short’s father faked his death to get out of taking care of his family, but later took in Short in California? No wonder Short proved later to have unstable relationships with men- having a father straight up abandon her, her sisters and her mother only to have him later treat Short to a glamorous stint in Santa Barbara. Having a father like that did her no favors. Her time in California with her father didn’t last long though. Short was never been one to follow the rules or blend into the crowd – shortly after moving in with her father in California, she arrested at a Santa Barbra saloon at the age of 19 for underage drinking and sent back to Massachusetts to live with her mother and 4 sisters where she split the time between Florida and Massachusetts. While living in Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon, Jr., an alleged decorated United States Army Air Force officer, who would later propose to her through a letter he wrote while deployed in India. The proposal never came to fruition because Major Gordon, Jr. died in an airplane crash before he could make it back to the United States. This story is fishy because there are not documents that prove the Major Gordon Jr. ever actually proposed to Short but there is a photo of the two together proving that they did at least go on a date. Short met another military man in California in 1944, Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling – who would later be stationed out in Long Beach, CA. and in the summer of 1946, Short made her way out there to visit him and made southern California her home. Fickling was one of the last people to receive communication from Short. Allegedly he received a letter dated January 8th 1947 stating that she no longer wanted communication with him and that she was moving from San Diego to Chicago. With her big dreams of being a star, Short spent much of her time in Los Angeles and with a reputation for dazzling the men and sometimes teasing them a bit too much. She has been described by peers and former classmates as being a little on the easy side… and loved being the life of the party. From when she made the leap to Los Angeles until her death, Short made sure to make herself know with the Hollywood bar scene. Short’s body was found completely drained of blood and her stone cold torso was cut in half. According to reports – “Shorts body had been quote expertly bisected” end quote. For the police – this was their first lead. It gave them the idea that the killer had to be someone with medical knowledge because Short’s body was cut with such precision and knowledge and wiped clean. QUOTE "It was pretty gruesome," Brian Carr, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who has long worked on the Dahlia case, later said. "I just can't imagine someone doing that to another human being." END QUOTE There is speculation as to why she was given the name “the Black Dalilah” after her death. One theory was she often wore a large Dalilah in her hair and there had been an old Noir film called the “Black Dahlia” and a reporter, having found out that Short often wore Dahlia’s in her hair, dubbed her with that nickname. The police interviewed literally thousands of people – everyone who had known Short was a suspect and on January 24th – 5 days after her body was found was found a chilling message arrived at the Los Angeles police department - hodgepodged together with letters cut out from magazines and newspapers that read “here is dahlia’s belongings – letter to follow” Some of Short’s personal belongings were sent with the note including her birth certificate and personal papers – and included in those items was an address book that allegedly belonged to Mark Hansen. Hansen was the owner of a popular Hollywood nightclub called Florentine Gardens where Short was known to frequent. Hansen also let Short stay at his house a number of times where she shared a bedroom with Hansen’s girlfriend, Ann Toth according to reports. On January 8th – the day before she went missing – Short called Hansen in Los Angeles from San Diego where she was staying with an alleged lover Red Manley. When asked about why his address book was sent with Short’s belongings, one report states QUOTE “Hansen told the LAPD that the address book had belonged to him, yet he had never used it. He said that he had given the address book to Elizabeth as a gift for her to use as her own.” (http://unc.live/2rl6JqA) QUOTE Hansen gave conflicting reports over the years but no criminal charges were ever brought upon him. He was the lead suspect in the case in 1949 but was never convicted. Personally, I don’t think he did it. So let’s look at some other suspects…. The first was Robert Red Manley – Red for short. Red Manley was a salesman who claimed to have spent the night in a Santa Barbra motel with Short before her death and claims to have driven her from Santa Barbra back to Los Angeles where he dropped her off at the Biltmore Hotel. According to reports, he stayed with Short for a while at the hotel, hanging out in the lounger and bar areas – Short says that she doesn’t want to leave because she is waiting for a call – but she refuses to say from who. Manley – being a married man – needed to get back home to his wife before the though anything suspicious was going on. So Manley left Short at the Biltmore Hotel on the night of January 9th. According to reports – one of the bell captains, late in the evening, recall seeing Short leave the hotel and walk out onto Olive street in downtown Los Angeles. That is the last time anyone saw Elizabeth Short alive. There were 6 nights in between her leaving the hotel and her body being found – January 9th – January 15th According to biographer John Gilmore, the first person to notice Shorts body was a boy who was on his paper route. He saw a car (presumable a dark sedan) heading down the street with its headlights off. The boy claimed that he say the person remove something from the automobile and get back in the car, hesitate, and then leave. That is where the attractive housewife comes in – she was walking down that same street later that morning, saw the body and notified the police. In the mid to late 40’s TV wasn’t widespread yet, but there were 5 major newspapers in the Los Angeles area. Two reporters for the LA Examiner, heard about the body in the park through the police radio and made their way to the scene of the crime. These reporters did everything from take pictures of the body to later breaking into the morgue and fingerprinting Short with soot from a match. For the duration of the case, the reporters seemed to stay ahead of the police. Red Manley was the original suspect: his name, along with Shorts name, were listed on a Los Angeles motel guest book – when this information got back to the police, Manley was taken into custody. He was later released due to lack of evidence and Manley’s wife backing up his alibi. Something seems weird here, right? Why was Manley’s name listed on the address book that short kept – with a total of 75 men who met her on the streets of Hollywood and in clubs and bars. According to reports – Manley being questioned for Short’s murder haunted him for the rest of his life. Is that because he was guilty? Moving on to the next suspect Residing at 5121 Franklin Ave – just a few blocks from Hollywood in Los Feliz stands a massive Mayan temple replica covered by lush greenery – lived George Hodel. This home is known as “the franklin house” and is believed by many to be where Short was murdered and rained of blood. The home is vast and features a courtyard swimming pool and secret room hidden by sliding bookshelves. Steve Hodel – George’s son who grew up in the house stated that the room was off limits to the children when he was growing up in the house. He believes that this is where Short’s body was mutilated and wiped clean. It is interesting to note, that this location is about 8 miles away from George Hodel’s home at 5121 Franklin Ave. In Los Angeles – eight miles is a long way to go (I just mapped it, and at around 7:30 on a Sunday evening, it would take over 35 mins to get from Hodel’s home to where the body was found). Granted there is more traffic now, but his home on Franklin Ave is in a bustling area in the heart of the city. Not an ideal area to transport a body to a car and drive it across town. (Also – did anyone ever look into the vehicles of the suspects? I know DNA testing was still at thing of the future but maybe investigating and searching their vehicles would have proved to be fruitful? Steve Hodel – convinced of his father’s guilt – has spent his life dedicated to proving his father’s guilt and served a number of years in the LAPD as well becoming a licensed California Private Investigator. Hodel with uses software to compare facial features of the autopsy photos to ones found in his father’s secret photo album – according to his discoveries, George Hodel had secret images of Elizabeth Short – linking him to Short and proving that they had some sort of relationship. But I let you hear that for yourself next episode…… According to Hodel – his father’s placement of the body and meticulous care he took to drain and clean the body was an attempt at surrealist art – sounds like a pretty sick guy if you ask me. There is a whole section on Steve Hodel’s website where he explains his father’s relationship to surrealist artist Man Ray. Hodel thinks that his father was trying to copy an image that Ray had made, but one up him by doing it in person…. Hodel’s report on this theory is lengthy so I’ll attach the link at the top of the show notes and on the website because this is an incredibly interesting theory. The way George Hodel was linked to the Black Dahlia was through another run-in with the law – George was on trial for incest with his daughter. He won the incest case, but while he was being questioned about the Black Dahlia, the DA took the opportunity to bug his house and for 40 days the DA spied on George Hodel. That was the only time George Hodel was ever questioned. To me this is a missed opportunity. I’m sure by this point, you think that George Hodel is the killer… In the transcripts of the recordings taken by the DA something stands out – quote by George Hodel stating quote “supposin’ I did kill the black Dalilah, they couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary anymore because she’s dead.” End quote. Whoa. Hold on a second – first off: he sort of admitted to doing it, right? and Second: did he kill his secretary too to keep her quiet? I actually found Steve Hodel’s personal Facebook page when I started researching for the show last year and reached out to him. But more on that later…. Now let’s talk about the location where the body was found – the intersection of 39th and Norton (please refer to the map in the show notes for the exact location). At the time, that area was at the end of the subdivision and was where trash was sometimes dumped. Why would Hodel pick that vacant lot on the other side of town from where he killed short and drained her of blood? Does he have a connection to this area? The lot one south block from where The Black Dahlia was found belonged to Ruth Bailey – the wife of a doctor. But not just any doctor – a surgeon. Coincidence? I’m not sure, but the police stated from the beginning of the investigation that the killer had to be someone with expert knowledge of the body dude to the precise way that Elizabeth Short’s body was severed and how meticulously it was expertly drained of blood. So this adds another suspect to the case …. Dr. Walter Bayley. Dr. Walter Bayley – former chief of staff at LA County Hospital, fit the profile of who the police were looking for. Upon his death, his wife and girlfriend ended up in a legal battle over his belongings with his girlfriend claiming she knew a secret that would ruin him personally and professionally. Was this secret a murder? We will never know, Dr. Bayley, his girlfriend and Mrs. Bayley have all long since passed away. There is factual evidence linking Walter Bailey to Elizabeth Short – but there isn’t even record that they knew each other… so that makes since as to why the police might have missed him as a suspect. However looking into it deeper now – there is evidence that the Short family did have ties to the neighborhood where her body was found and the lot owned by Dr. Walter Bayley. As it turns out, Bayley’s daughter - Barbara Lindgren was a friend of Elizabeth Short’s sister, Virginia and her husband. To make that even weirder? Virginia was the Matron of Honor at Barbara Lindgren’s wedding. So the two families had a stronger connection than the police ever looked into. While researching this case I came across a site dedicated to research on the Black Dahlia from UNC and found this account interesting. The site says QUOTE “The LAPD never considered Bayley a suspect in the Black Dahlia case. However, many theorists believed he could be linked to Elizabeth Short’s murder due to the man’s medical expertise. Detective Harry Hansen told the 1949 Grand Jury that the killer had to be a “top medical man” and “a fine surgeon.” Bayley was sixty-seven years old at the time of Elizabeth Short’s death and had no known history of violence or criminal activity. He likely had not even known or met Elizabeth Short even though his daughter was a friend to Virginia Short. Larry Harnisch, a copy editor and writer for The Los Angeles Times, started studying the Black Dahlia case in 1996. He eventually concluded that Bayley could have been Elizabeth Short’s killer. While some critics of this theory say that Bayley would have been too old and weak for the crime, the original investigators believed the body could have been cut in half for easier transport. Harnisch believed this would have made it possible for Bayley to transport and dispose of Elizabeth Short’s body. Harnisch also believed that Bayley’s neurological deterioration could have contributed to his violent ways against Elizabeth. He claimed the neurological condition was known to illicit violent behavior in otherwise calm individuals” END QUOTE (http://unc.live/2s5EM9j). This theory is interesting to me because of the placement of the body and the idea that it was cut in half to make it easier to carry. What I also think is interesting is whoever had Short’s body had to keep if for about 5 days. Who would have the amount of time it took to sever a human spine with exact precision and drain all of the blood with such medical expertise? A retired surgeon sounds like a killer option to me. (Pun anyone?) While looked into Dr. Bayley deeper, I learned that not only did he have this degenerative brain condition but he was also alleged to be a part of an under the table abortion ring. So why hasn’t DNA testing been used? With technology now we should easily be able to lift DNA off of the letter sent to the LAPD 10 days after the Dahlia murder – that all sounds great…. Except the little problem that all of the evidence is gone. Detective Brian Carr of the Los Angeles Police Department said in an interview when asked about the evidence and the letters sent from the alleged killer quote “I don’t know where it’s at… I haven’t been able to locate them.” End quote. What?! He goes on to say “Those envelopes – that we earlier mentioned – they are not to be found.” Hold on – you’re telling me, Detective Carr that all of the physical evidence from Hollywood’s most notorious unsolved murder is… gone?! Everyone of notability one the case all state that it is all gone. Hodel has been quoted as saying “everything is gone, everything has disappeared. And their position is ‘they don’t know it’s just gone.” When asked about his take on the missing evidence, Hodle thinks that this is no accident. “The real telling thing about this is the fact that everything connected to George Hodel – all of the transcripts, all of the tape recordings, all of the witness interviews – everything had disappeared.” Ray Pinker who was a detective on the case for years allegedly kept filing cabinets worth of documents on the Black Dahlia case. When his widow was asked why in a 2003 LA Times Interviews she stated QUOTE "She was a professional sponger, not an out-and-out prostitute," Ruby Pinker said. "She didn't like to work and wanted to play, which she did, and paid for it in the end. Ray pitied her because she was a beautiful girl with such terrible teeth," plugged with wax, "a sign that nobody cared about her." END QUOTE. His files proved to be nothing more than trails of dead ends when investigators looked at the cold case years later. So… how will a case with all of the original evidence ever get solved? It’s terrible, but it probably won’t. But why not try…. Redd Manley. George Hodel. William Bayley. Those are the top 3 suspects I have found while researching the case. But upon further review – I stumbled upon a website that looks at the idea what a woman may have killed Elizabeth Short. I don’t know why this idea never occurred to me – maybe it is because the cops interviewed dozens of men in the murder case but hardly looked at the potential of a woman being the killer. Stay with me. We will dive into that in Part 2 of the season finale. An amazing map for the Black Dahlia case is up on HollywoodlandPod.com (man Brian Balzerini is talented!) as well as all of the addresses and references to my research for this case. All elements of Hollywoodland Unsolved are produced by me, with graphics and maps by Brian Balzerini and music by my amazing father. Make sure to tune in for Part 2 of the Season Finale of Hollywoodland: Unsolved. Who killed the Black Dahlia? We will look deeper into the suspects discussed this episode, the potential of a woman killer, what Short did for those 5 days? Was she dead the whole time? And…. I have a little surprise for you. You won’t want to miss it. SOURCES: http://bit.ly/2k3nDdJ | http://bit.ly/2jvlcQ4 | http://bit.ly/2j7Vjme | http://bit.ly/2k3nDdJ | http://bit.ly/2iA0Rtp | http://bit.ly/2k3nPtt | http://imdb.to/2jmt58e | http://bit.ly/2jmt7gm | http://bit.ly/2rB2pIg | http://bit.ly/29ByhRZ | http://lat.ms/1JHvSCY | http://bit.ly/2sHh9p4
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The Mysterious Death of Thomas Ince
November 16, 1942 A lavish boating excursion ended in mystery when Hollywood Producer, Thomas Ince, died under circumstances that to this day have not been explained. The official report say indigestion and heart attack but elatedly he was shot in the head by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. The scandal that followed left this case unsolved today. Was the supposed indigestion really the cause of Thomas Ince’s untimely death? And if it was, why was his widow gifted a trust fund (and a lavish building in the heart of Hollywood) by Hearst? What happened that fateful night aboard the ( OH NIII DUH)? Apparently there was even a Los Angeles Times article that didn’t make to publication titled “Movie Producer Shot On Hearst Yacht.” So what really happened to Thomas Ince? And why is this story a mystery still today? I’m your host Ansley and welcome to Hollywoodland: Unsolved. I must warn you that this episode may be frightening to listeners under the age of 13, so listener digression is advised. Thomas Ince was born into a show-biz fam on November 16th 1882 in Newport, Road Island. He began his journey in the entertainment industry as an actor and after many failed attempts to make it as a stage actor, he switched gears to filmmaking. Ince went on the change the film industry and became one of the biggest film moguls of the time. He was reported to be the first person to build a movie studio which he called “Inceville”. According to reports many of his techniques of writing and filming are still used today such as the use of assistant directors and shooting scenes separately instead of one long scene like a play. (http://bit.ly/2si8TZ0). The studio was built in Santa Ynez Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains and QUOTE “It consisted of several thousand acres filled with stages, entire neighborhoods of multicolored houses, from the humblest abode to gigantic mansions, commissaries, dressing rooms, props and more. There were several different nations represented at the studio, from Japanese villages to French Chalets. Ince even hired performers from a Wild West show to live at the studio, including an entire Sioux Indian tribe, who pitched their teepees on the grounds.” END QUOTE Ince would eventually become known for being the “Father of the Western” style of filmmaking and had quite a portfolio to uphold that title. (http://bit.ly/1KFfOif). Ince eventually sold “Inceville” to a western star and began building a new movie studio in Culver City, which still stands today right on Culver Boulevard. QUOTE “The administration building is instantly recognizable, not only for its resemblance to Mount Vernon but also because the façade was used as the front of Tara in the film Gone With the Wind. Culver studios boasted 40 colonial style revival buildings, a fire department, a hospital and a swimming pool. Royalty and presidents were taken on tours of the studio and came away duly impressed.” END QUOTE But his story came to an untimely end when he was escorted off of a yacht owed by William Randolph Hearst to due to alleged illness. He died within days was was immediately cremated and no autopsy was done. (http://bit.ly/2qBgNMo). And there are many conflicting stories as to what actually happened to Thomas Ince. Let’s start at the beginning…. On the weekend of November 15th, in celebration of his 43rd birthday, the Yacht’s owner – Newspaper bigwig – William Randolph Hearst hosted the ride from Los Angeles to San Diego. The trip wasn’t originally for Ince’s birthday but a dinner was set in celebration. Later that was all denied by one of the passengers…. Aboard the ship was Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies – an actress- as well as Charlie Chaplin, his secretory, Louella Parsons (who would go on to be one of the biggest gossip columnist of the time), a jazz band and a few other guests, including Ince’s wife – Eleanora Ince, or Nell as she was called. (http://bit.ly/2rJf4bq). Marion Davies later said that Ince wasn’t originally invited but was requested by Nell because she thought her husband QUOTE “needed the rest.” END QUOTE So what happened that night? One report states - QUOTE “A grand dinner ensued with much merry making but no drinking, according to Davis. Others have claimed the booze was freely flowing. Ince himself supposedly told doctors later that he had consumed alcohol while aboard the yacht. Hearst was a well-known teetotaler and did not tolerate drinking in his presence, but that did not stop his guests from sneaking their own booze on board so the truth probably lies somewhere in between. Sometime during the middle of the night, Ince became violently ill and was removed from the yacht and placed on a train in San Diego bound for Los Angeles. The version doctor Goodman gave, however, was that both he and Ince had been up early Monday morning and left the yacht together, as both planned to return to Los Angeles before the others had awakened. According to the doctor, Ince fell ill with a heart attack while en route and was removed from the train to a hotel, where another physician, Dr. T.A. Parker, was called. It seems odd that a doctor, who suspected this man was having a heart attack, would not try to get him to a hospital. Ince’s wife was called and she rushed to be with her husband. Again, rather than be transported to a hospital, he insisted he wanted to go home and was brought to Los Angeles, where he died in his wife’s arms the next day.” END QUOTE Well… that doesn’t seem too far-fetched right? What I think is really interesting that that no corners report was ever done and the remains of Ince were cremated immediately so no investigation could ever be done. Strange right? Immediately after the death the newspapers had a field day. Allegedly the front page of the LA times read “Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht.” Yikes. But that story didn’t get printed – what did get printed was that Ince had fallen ill while visiting Hearst’s ranch and had been taken home by an ambience only to die at his family’s side. This story didn’t hold weight for long because too many people had seen Ince board the Oneida in San Diego. Rumors of foul play were fueled by Charlie Chaplin’s secretary claiming to have seen a bullet hole in Ince’s head. The rumors reached the district attorney office and he felt pressure to investigate – but he only questioned on man, Dr. Daniel Goodman who was a Hearst employee, who stated that he took the train down to San Diego with Ince and stated that Ince had claimed chest pain on the trip – as to aid to the heart attack story. It was enough to suffice the district attorney though because he didn’t question anyone else in the cast. A theory as to why the DA’s office only interviewed one person – A doctor no doubt – was because he suspected that there might have been alcohol involved. Apparently it was a well-known secret that there was alcohol aboard the Oneida. This was during probation so that would have gotten a whole lot of important people in a whole lot of trouble and we all know that the Los Angeles police don’t have the best reputation of doing what is right and just and for doing what is – well, paid for by the highest bidder. I think that Hearst was far too powerful with far too much money for this investigation to go any further. So what happened to Thomas Ince aboard the Oneida? So let’s say that Ince was shot – if so, by who and why? One theory is that he was shot by mistake – that the gun was supposed to be aimed at someone else. Allegedly Hearst was in a relationship of sorts with Marion Davies and allegedly Charlie Chaplin was having an affair with her behind his back. According to the stories, Hearst invited Chaplin to come on this excursion so he could witness how happy him and Davies were with the hopes that he would back off. While on board, Hearst allegedly caught Chaplin and Davies in a less that flattering position and Hearst stormed out to get his gun, returned and aimed at Chaplin but aboard the unpredictable seas, shot Ince instead. Another is that Davie and Ince were full-on caught in bed together and Hearst shot Ince in a fit of rage (with a diamond incrusted pistol, allegedly). D.W. Griffith remarked in later years, “All you have to do to make Hearst turn white as a ghost is mention Ince’s name. There’s plenty wrong there, but Hearst is too big to touch.” So something definitely went down. Another interesting clue that fuels the “Hearst accidentally killed Ince” theory is that Ince’s wife, Eleanor Ince, was potentially paid off. After Ince’s death, Eleanor moved to Europe and was allegedly given a trust fund to live on by Hearst as well as had the building– the famed Chateau Elysee Apartment building in Hollywood – was paid off in full by Hearst before Eleanor left for Europe. (http://bit.ly/2ssuqxH) Sounds suspicious if you ask me. One more thing to note is Louella Parsons, one of the passengers on the Oneida that night and the soon-to-be-famous gossip columnist, was just an up and comer at the time of this fateful boat ride – but soon after she was offered a lifetime contract with Hearst corporation… even though later she furiously denied being anywhere near the yacht at the time. Another theory of what happened to Ince was killed because he raped Abigail Kingsolving – Marion Davie’s secretary. Stay with me. One of my favorite websites “Hollywoodland Forever Blog” states QUOTE: “Another quite messy scenario is that of an unknown character, Abigail Kinsolving. Miss Kinsolving happened to be Miss Davies Secretary, and from most stories she is not among those listed as being aboard the Oneida that night. However, apparently through the Hollywood gossip circuit, the story claims that Abigail was raped by Ince aboard Hearst's yacht and that she shot him in self-defense or even quite possibly stabbed him in the head. Another report states that she only admitted to being raped by Ince, but never mentioned anything about how he died, or even if the death was related to her rape. Stories go on to state that Abigail became pregnant from that incident and gave birth to a daughter, Louise just months later. As you know, a pregnancy takes an entire nine months. So for her to give birth just a "few months" later sounds fishy to me. Also, the reports claim that Ince raped her on Saturday night, the 15th of November. That is impossible, Ince didn't even board the Oneida until Sunday morning (the 16th) in San Diego because he had been busy at the premiere of "The Mirage" and an ongoing production deal he was negotiating with Hearst's International Film Corporation. So if Abigail claimed to have been raped by Ince on the 15th aboard the Oneida, then that was a lie.” END WUOTE So – if we are going to roll with the Abigail was impregnated by Ince why would she kill him then? Due to the time that she allegedly gave birth, we have to assume that she was already expecting long before she stepped aboard the Oneida. Perhaps she became enraged with jealousy aboard the ship when she saw Ince with another passenger – Margaret Livingston who was allegedly Ince mistress. Did Abigail become enraged and act out of anger? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned right? This theory is interesting to me for a number of reasons There is more to the story though… after digging into this theory I learned that
Abigail’s child was placed in an orphanage but was allegedly supported financially by Davies for years. Why? There are so many unanswered questions and bizarre facts that make this case suspicious. Between the newspaper articles fabricating where Ince was, to the mysterious death of Abigail to Eleonore Ince being gifted a freakin building? What I am still in clear about is when was Ince on the train with Doctor Goodman? Alledgely it was on the drive DOWN to meet everyone in San Diego where they then boarded the ship and his alleged heart attack (or gunshot) took place on the ride back UP to Los Angeles. I believe that Ince was in fact killed accidentally. I do believe he was shot (they were out to sea, so who would have heard it). I also believe that Ince was in fact having an affair with Abigail Kingsolving and I think that she was going to talk and someone from the Hearst’s empire took care of her. As for Nell? There are conflicting stories – one states that she was gifted a trust including The Chateau Elysee in Hollywood and booked it to Europe. The other states that even if she was gifted that, the stock market crash of 1929 left her life in shambles where she spent the rest of her days as a taxi cab driver. But – the world may never know the truth as to what happened that night on board the Oneida. This story has created so much speculation over the years that a big Hollywood blockbuster was made about it years later – in 2001 to be exact –starring Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies, Edward Herrmann as William Randolf Hearst and Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince. Definitely adding that one to my “must watch list.” As far as the Chateau Elysee in Hollywood? Well the building still stands and has made quite a name for it’s as the celebrity center for a little religion known as Scientoloty. Have you heard of it? (http://bit.ly/2rY8D4d) So what do you think? Was Ince shot by Hearst in a fit of rage after catching him with Davies? Was it really indigestion that led to a heart attack? Or was Abigail Kingsolving telling the truth? Tweet me at @HollywoodlandPC or email me at Hollywoodlandpod@gmai.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this because my jury is still out on this one. I’ve included a complete reference list of all of my research in the show notes as well as links to the accounts I quotes in this episode. Please feel free to check them out for more information on the mysterious death of Thomas Ince and those involved. As always, the maps and address are included in the show notes and on the website so you can try to track down the killer and finally nail down just want happened aboard the yacht that night. Next time on Hollywoodland: Unsolved. We dive into one of the most chilling murders to ever strike Hollywood. With twists and turns at every corner, this 70-year old cold case has been the subject of movies and books for almost a century. When Elizabeth Short’s body was found dismembered in a vacant lot in Hollywood – the police began a wild goose chase that would leave behind a trail of mystery. The murder of the Black Dahlia. All elements of Hollywoodland: Unsolved are produced by me, with graphics and maps by Brian Balzerini and music by my amazing father. |
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