Investigators then sought to bolster the case by using a technology new to law enforcement involving ear comparison. Earlier photos of Elizabeth Short in which her ears were visible were compared to the Thawyer photos. Paul Buckley, an analyst with the Film Forensics Institute who conducted one of the comparisons, said the tests proved that Short and the woman in the Thawyer photos were the same person.
“No doubt,” Buckley said. “Elizabeth Short is the woman in the photos the police found. Ear identification is as good as fingerprints, and one day law enforcement will accept that.”
But when the “ear evidence” was presented to prosecutors, O’Fallon rejected the case again, claiming ear comparison was an unproven technique.
Reached at his office Monday, O’Fallon declined to comment on his rejection of the case. He also denied that his decision was linked to the ongoing friction between him and LAPD chief Carl Detry, who endorsed O’Fallon’s opponent in the 2022 election.
“We make our decisions based on the law,” O’Fallon said. “Nothing else.”
But Jacqueline Gaither, who operates a blog called LAPD-watch, said the top prosecutor and police chief are locked in a political battle that is detrimental to the cause of justice in the city.
“These guys don’t like each other and this Black Dahlia case is a perfect example of how their issues affect the community,” Gaither said. “Luckily, the suspect in this case isn’t alive and can’t hurt anybody else. But there’s no doubt that O’Fallon rejected this case because he doesn’t want to give the LAPD and its chief the headlines. It’s petty and beneath his office.”
Gaither, a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, said she was disappointed that the city’s most notorious criminal case remains open. “Some say it’s a mystery that is part of the fabric of the city and that it should never be solved,” she said. “I don’t think so. This city has waited a long time for answers. I think we all need answers.”
Chief Detry did not return multiple calls for comment on the case and its rejection by the district attorney’s office.
Ballard put the phone aside. Anderson had done a good job with the story and she was pleased. It had done the trick as far as keeping Maddie Bosch on the Open-Unsolved team.
Morning light was beginning to creep around the drawn shades of the cottage. Ballard reached over to the table for the map she had bought at the airport the night before. It had been a long time since she was up-country and she wasn’t sure of the route. She couldn’t rely on her GPS app because cell service was always spotty there. She had to go the old-fashioned way, with a map. She opened it on the bed and smoothed out the sharp creases with her hand.
She found Kaupo and then used a finger to trace the Hana Highway out to Keawa Bay. The address Makani gave when arrested on traffic warrants was there on Haou Road. It looked like an hour’s drive, depending on the terrain. Ballard knew there were mostly growers out there, some legal, some not. Some surfers. Few tourists. She saw that she would pass by the stables where her horse, Kaupo Boy, had been boarded thirty years before.
She got up to get dressed for the final destination of the trip. She decided she would head out before she changed her mind. She would go find the woman who had brought her into the world and then had left her behind.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to all who made contributions big and small to this book. They include Asya Muchnick, Emad Akhtar, Bill Massey, Jane Davis, Heather Rizzo, Betsy Uhrig, Tracy Roe, Callie Connelly, Linda Connelly, John H. Welborne, Dennis Wojciechowski, Shannon Byrne, Tracy Conrad, Sean Harrington, and Terrill Lee Lankford. And many thanks as well to Mitzi Roberts for inspiring Renée Ballard, and to Rick Jackson, Tim Marcia, and David Lambkin.
The author also wishes to thank Michael Pietsch, Craig Young, Terry Adams, and Mario Pulice for their many, many years of support for his work.