Walter Bayley: The Surgeon Who May Have Killed Short In A Fit Of Rage
Getty ImagesElizabeth Short’s body was found in a vacant lot that just happened to be a black away from Walter Bayley’s ex-wife’s house.
Despite the Black Dahlia suspects considered over the years, LAPD detectives long suspected that Elizabeth Short’s killer was a skilled surgeon. After all, someone had expertly cut her body in two. And Los Angeles Times columnist Larry Harnisch believes that Walter Bayley was the doctor who did it.
When Harnisch started digging into the case in 1996, he found some unsettling connections between Bayley and the Black Dahlia murder. As explained by the Washington Post, Bayley’s daughter knew Short’s sister, the doctor had an office near the Biltmore Hotel where Short was last seen — and her body was dumped a block away from Bayley’s ex-wife’s house.
What’s more, Bayley seemed to match the profile of Short’s killer drawn up by FBI profiler John Douglas. As Harnisch wrote, “He was desensitized to blood, was comfortable with a knife, and although he had a medical degree, he did work with his hands rather than his brains. He also had a strong but troubled link to the immediate vicinity of the crime scene.”
YouTubeLarry Harnisch discusses the Black Dahlia case.
Harnisch believes that the doctor, fresh from a divorce and suffering from undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, may have crossed paths with Short somewhere near the Biltmore Hotel. After spending a few days together, Harnish suspects, something happened to incite Bayley’s rage.
Possibly, Short rebuffed him. Possibly, she told a lie she’d told before, about having a son who had died at a young age. As History Collection notes, Bayley actually did have a son who’d died at a young age, and Short’s body was found two days after the anniversary of his death.
The kicker, of course, is that Short’s body was found a 45-second walk from where Bayley’s ex-wife lived. Harnisch contends that it’s possible Bayley dumped her there to terrorize his ex-wife.
