Episodes

  • Solving the Black Dahlia Trailer

    Solving the Black Dahlia Trailer
    Jan 12 2022
    In 1947, a young woman named Elizabeth Short was murdered in Los Angeles. The killer bisected her body and placed it on the side of a busy street six miles southwest of downtown. The LAPD questioned an endless line of suspects, some of whom claimed to be the killer. But none proved to know certain critical details about the crime scene. Desperate for a lead, a rogue LAPD team even kidnapped a suspect from Florida and interrogated him to no avail. Police could not identify the killer.

    Fast forward 75 years.

    Former CIA case officer Douglas Laux boards a bus in Los Angeles for the Black Dahlia tour. Doug, in his early 30s, is whisked to locations around LA related to Elizabeth Short’s murder. He knows virtually nothing about her case. He also isn’t sure why Short’s identity and name have been replaced by a mostly fictional Hollywood narrative of a tragic ingenue called the Black Dahlia who was murdered after visiting the Biltmore Hotel. But the fact that an unsolved murder from 1947 is still popular enough to support its own bus tour tells him there may be a lot of conflicting history to uncover. He’s surprised to discover that there are still many passionately argued different theories about who killed Elizabeth Short. But only one theory can be right, or they are all wrong. Doug decides to find out.

    Like many before him, Doug becomes fixated on the case. For eight years he leverages his CIA skillset to try and solve the Black Dahlia murder. Now, he believes he has.
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  • Episode 1: Photo Evidence

    Episode 1: Photo Evidence
    Jan 13 2022
    When former CIA case officer Douglas Laux takes a Hollywood bus tour about the unsolved 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, he knows virtually nothing about the victim, the crime, and the investigation. But when Doug learns just how many different theories there are about who did it, he decides to leverage his CIA skillset to try and solve it once and for all. The first person Doug seeks out is former LAPD detective, Steve Hodel, whose scandalous and personal theory about the case has become a Hollywood sensation.
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    46 mins
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  • Episode 2: Ok, But…

    Episode 2: Ok, But…
    Jan 13 2022

    Doug and Steve Hodel meet in Griffith Park near the infamous Sowden House, Steve’s childhood home and where he believes Elizabeth Short was murdered in the basement. Steve shares a wealth of information with Doug. In spite of some loose ends and question marks in the decades old case, Doug finds the retired LAPD detective’s story believable, if not entirely verifiable. It seems clear to Doug that no one knows more about this case than Steve Hodel, until Doug talks with former LA Times reporter, Larry Harnisch, who is ready to blow a hole right through Steve’s theories.
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    25 mins
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  • Episode 3: Enter Lex Luthor

    Episode 3: Enter Lex Luthor
    Jan 13 2022

    Larry Harnisch seems like the antithesis of Steve Hodel in every way but one. Both are widely considered to be the world’s foremost experts on the Black Dahlia case. But Larry has a very different theory about who killed Elizabeth Short, one he doesn’t so openly share. His theory has never been the subject of books--unlike Steve’s; and it has never been made into a popular TV series--also unlike Steve’s. Doug discovers that Larry is armed with all the same facts as Steve and will stop at nothing to prove that Steve’s claims about who killed Elizabeth Short are fiction.
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    19 mins
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  • Episode 4: Not Who, But Why

    Episode 4: Not Who, But Why
    Jan 13 2022
    Steve, Larry, and now Doug are not the only investigators to get sucked into the black hole of the 75-year-old Black Dahlia mystery. Some of the original LAPD officers who tried to solve the case became blinded by their theories, leading to disastrous consequences. The more Larry tells Doug about Elizabeth Short’s case, the more Doug feels torn between two very different theories. As Doug delves deeper into the case files, he tries to maintain an unbiased perspective. Much in the same way that Short’s life and identity were lost beneath the dramatized persona of the Black Dahlia, solving Short’s murder may involve dismantling the most popular theory about who did it, and looking at the case from a behavioral perspective.
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    18 mins
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  • Episode 5: Dahliaologists

    Episode 5: Dahliaologists
    Jan 13 2022
    As Doug traverses between two expert theories, he continues to wonder why the murder of Elizabeth Short still captivates American society 75 years later. While attending a criminologist’s lecture about the Dahlia case, he sees how the infamous crime can be understood through a modern lens. But Doug has an investigative problem. While he believes that Larry Harnisch’s theory may have the best circumstantial and behavioral evidence, he hasn’t been able to convince Larry to go on the record to reveal the name of the person he thinks killed Elizabeth Short.
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    33 mins
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  • Episode 6: Case Closed

    Episode 6: Case Closed
    Jan 13 2022

    Larry Harnisch tells Doug who he believes murdered Elizabeth Short. But even if Larry could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, would people even believe him after all this time? Larry’s theory lacks the splashy Hollywood appeal of Steve Hodel’s, but when Larry reveals the name to Doug, the pieces seem to fit together. But will there ever be a way to 100% prove the identity of Short’s killer? And how will Doug explain the bombshell dropped about a highly unlikely person investigating a very similar cold case murder... Elizabeth Short herself.
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    36 mins
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