Daniel Voorhees
Born
Daniel S. Voorhees

1913
DisappearedJanuary 16, 1947
Los Angeles, California
StatusMissing for 76 years, 11 months and 23 days

Daniel S. Voorhees (1913 – disappeared January 16, 1947) was a transient[1] restaurant porter who confessed to the murder of Elizabeth Short on January 28, 1947.[2][3] He asked members of the Los Angeles Police Department to meet him in downtown Los Angeles, at 4th Street and Hill Street. Voorhees was eliminated as a suspect in the Black Dahlia slaying because his handwriting did not match that in the killer's note,[4] and after he refused to give any details and his testimony was proven false.[2][5]

Voorhees was just one of around 500 people who came forward claiming to have killed Elizabeth Short after the case gained notoriety in the national press, some did seeking fame while others did because of mental illness,[5] with Voorhees falling into both categories.[6]

Background

Daniel S. Voorhees was an Army veteran who served during World War II[6][7] from Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America where he had a wife and 9-year-old daughter who were contacted by the Phoenix Police Department at the request of the LAPD;[2] he also had a criminal record in Phoenix for petty crimes.[8]

Voorhees had been working as a porter in a Los Angeles hotel when he called the police to confess to Short's murder citing a guilty conscience.[2]

After confessing, Voorhees spent the night in the Los Angeles County Jail after he told LAPD detective E.R. Barrett that he met with Elizabeth Short on Hill Street two weeks earlier. He claimed to have taken her for a ride on a Wilshire Boulevard bus. He did not say where the two of them went or whether they saw one another later. A police psychiatrist, Dr. Paul De River,[6] delayed a lie detector test on Voorhees until he recovered from what was described as a "befuddled and bewildered" state. Voorhees said that he met Short in 1941 and dated her several times. He refused to say where he met Short on these occasions and police investigators established that when Voorhees claimed to have met Short she was a teenager living on the East Coast and so he was dismissed as an attention-seeker.[5] Indeed, contemporary FBI and police memorandums note that Voorhees was just seeking fame and was mentally ill.[6][5]

Disappearance

On the day Short's body was discovered, January 15, 1947, Voorhees registered at a hotel at 1012 East Seventh Street in Los Angeles, at 10:45 A.M. He checked out of the hotel on the morning of January 16, 1947. The hotel owner stated that he had not seen Voorhees after this date and he was not tracked down any further by the police who had dismissed him as a suspect by this point.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Beth Short Slaying Suspect Jailed After Asserting Admission of Crime, January 15, 1947, Pg. 2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Man confesses 'Dahlia' killing". National news. The Decatur Daily Review. Vol. 69, no. 27. Decatur, Illinois, United States of America: The Review Pub. Co. The Associated Press (AP). 29 January 1947. p. 3. LCCN 90054700. OCLC 22714420. Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ Murphy, Michael, ed. (1 February 1947). ""Black Dahlia" murder: Many "confessions"". International news section. Barrier Daily Truth. Vol. XXXIX, no. 12157. Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia: Barrier Industrial Council. p. 5. Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via Trove (National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ Black Dahlia Avenger, Stephen Hodel, Arcade Publishing, 2003, pp. 174.
  5. 1 2 3 4 White, Carl G. (3 September 2017). Scully, Sean; Harley, Samie; Taylor, Davis (eds.). "Confessing to the Black Dahlia murder". Napa Valley Register. From The Mailbag: Marijuana creates awful odor. Napa, California, United States of America: Napa Valley Publishing (Lee Enterprises). OCLC 27716818. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Evans, C.W. (29 January 1947). "Unknown subject; Elizabeth Short, victim; murder: Miscellaneous information concerning Beth Short (office memorandum)" (PDF). Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Black Dahlia FBI file. Letter to R. Rosen. Los Angeles, California, United States of America: United States Department of Justice. p. 24. Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ Sawyer, Robert W.; Fowler, Henry N., eds. (29 January 1947). "Suspect booked on admission of murder of 'Black Dahlia'". Main section. The Bend Bulletin. Vol. LVI, no. 45. Bend, Oregon, United States of America: Central Oregon Press. United Press (UP). p. 1. Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via Google Newspapers.
  8. ↑ Clark, Howard A., ed. (29 January 1947). "Doubt story girl murder told police". Main section. Madera Daily Tribune. Vol. LIV, no. 280. Madera, California, United States of America: Glen D. Close, Inc. Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
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