EXCERPTS FROM
MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS
In the District Attorney's Files
Concerning
Elizabeth Short and Jeanne French Investigations



UNTITLED REPORT, dated October 28, 1949
Page 3
After examination of the files and evidence it appears that the investigative efforts should be continued and concentrated on the following suspects:
Leslie Dillon -- Mark Hanson -- Carl Balsiger -- Glenn Wolfe --
Henry Hubert Hoffman -- Dr. George Hodel

Also the victim's doctor, as he is a suspect and he is unknown. (Victim has stated to several persons that she was taking treatments from a Los Angeles Doctor for female trouble and asthma just prior to her death.)

Page 8
This victim knew at least fifty men at the time of her death and at least twenty-five men had been seen with her within the sixty-day period preceding her death. She was not a prostitute. She has been confused with a Los Angeles prostitute by the same name.... According to the autopsy surgeon her sex organs indicated female trouble.

Page 13
On January 12th at 11:30 a.m. Leslie Dillon was released.

These records and reports which were obtained from the officers of the police department and the Chief of Police indicate to the undersigned that the present administrators of the police department are of the opinion that there was an error made on the part of the preceding administrators when they assigned the Gangster Squad and Dr. Paul DeRiver as Psychiatrist to investigate the Short murder. They appear to be of the opinion that the Homicide Division officers should have had control over it at all times.

Page 14
The LAPD records and reports indicate some stupidity and carelessness on the part of the more inexperienced officers who were working on the case from time to time, but as of this report dated October 28, 1949 there has not been found any indication of payoff, misconduct or concealment of facts on the part of any officers.
....It is the consensus of Officers Ed Barrett, Jack Smyre, F. A. Brown and the undersigned that there is insufficient evidence as of this date, October 28, 1949, upon which any suspect could now be brought to trial for the murder of Elizabeth Short

Respectfully submitted,


_____________________________
FRANK B. JEMISON


EVIDENCE AND DECLARATIONS TENDING TO CONNECT OR DISCONNECT LESLIE DILLON TO THE MURDERS OF ELIZABETH SHORT, JEANNE FRENCH AND GLADYS KERN, Dated November 23, 1949
Page 12
The preceding statements of Leslie Dillon have been recorded and the records of these statements are booked in the crime lab division of the police department. These statements do not indicate that Leslie Dillon was familiar with what the killer did in connection with the cutting, or the cutting done on the Short body.
....
According to the letters written by Dillon, using the names of Jack Sands from Florida, which letters are booked in the police department, indicate that he knew only the facts of the mutilations that were published in the True Detective magazines and in the newspapers.

Page 13
SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE that Dillon has never been able to establish an alibi for the period of time involved.

In this regard, it has been found by investigators that statements and evidence does indicate that Dillon was probably in the City of San Francisco during the period of this murder.

Relative to the Gladys Kern murder on February 16, 1948, the payroll records of the National Hotel of Miami Beach, Florida indicate that Leslie Dillon was employed there from January 4, 1948 until February 29, 1948.
....
The records do indicate that Leslie Dillon was in the City of Los Angeles on February 10, 1947 at the time of the murder of Jeanne French.

Page 16
IT IS BELIEVED BY SOME that Leslie Dillon murdered Jeanne French on February 10, 1947.

The facts do not indicate a similar method of operation. The body of Jeanne French was found at 8:15 a.m. on February 10, 1947, 303 feet north of Indianapolis Street on Grandview Avenue in a vacant lot or field. The fact that there was a large quantity of blood, plus the fact that it appeared that she had been kicked in the face, as there was a heel mark which slid down her face and which heel made an imprint in the ground near the victim's face. These facts indicate that she was murdered at the scene where the body was found, while in the case of the victim Elizabeth Short there was no blood under the body, the body had been scrubbed clean and the bdy had been cut as described in the previous report.

The cause of the death of Jeanne French, was due, according to the Coroner, to fractured ribs and multiple injuries caused by some blunt instrument of blows. There were no cuts on the French body. The initials which were written in lipstick on her body and which have been referred to as B.D., upon close examination it will be found that the initials are, in fact, P.D. See Coroner's report, 2/10/47, copy of which is in the Los Angeles Police Department, French case file.

UNDATED PENDING REPORT to 1949 GRAND JURY, signed by Lt. Frank B. Jemison, Investigator
Page 4
[Finis Brown]... was not available at the time, so Thad Brown, his brother, believing Hansen might die, thought there was a possibility he might get some information from him. So he contacted him and then assisted in the arrest of Lola Titus, who was charged with the shooting. Further, this Grand Jury was informed by the undersigned that Thad Brown had had no control over or jurisdiction in the investigation of the murder of Elizabeth Short until sometime after August, 1949; that the undersigned had investigated and had found no evidence that would indicate Mark Hansen had paid off any officers in the L.A.P.D.
....
The Grand Jury was advised that the modus operandi used in the murder of Elizabeth Short was entirely different that that used in the murder of Jeanne French; that the physical evidence indicated that Jeanne French was a victim of a revenge murder brought on by hatred and resulting in a beating administered by fists and feet, and that there were no knife cuts on her body similar to the cuts found on the body of Elizabeth Short.

The undersigned then informed the Grand Jury as to the suspect Marvin Margolis, who was the only known boy friend of victim Elizabeth Short who was a pre-medical student at U.S.C....

They were also told about suspect Jack Ragsdale, who was a butcher and had said he had taken Elizabeth Short out socially, and that it had been reported that he had said he murdered her; this suspect resided at 4470 South Crenshaw, five blocks from where the body was found, but this suspect had been eliminated upon investigation by Officer Ed Barrett and the undersigned just the day preceding the Grand Jury session.

They were advised that there appeared to be insufficient evidence to place Dillon in Los Angeles at the time of this murder and none whatsoever to connect him with it.

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury decided to close their investigations of these murders and to recommend to the 1950 Grand Jury that they continue the inquiry. In cooperation with officers of the L.A.P.D. the undersigned then continued the investigation of the murders of Jeanne French and Elizabeth Short. See D.A. file number 30-1336 and also D.A. file number 30-1265.