noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Let's momentarily return to our NOIRISH roots.

Here is the LINK to perhaps the most noirish post on NLA. It's an amazing list of murders in Los Angeles in the 1940s by NoirCityDame. (it was posted back in 2016)

I rediscovered her post because I was curious about the 1947 'butterfly' murder of Dorothy Montgomery.


julydogs/wordpress

I thought it was a real butterfly but it's a butterfly pin the victim was wearing.





From NOIRCITYDAME's post.



I am 99% certain this is the only time Dorothy Montgomery's murder has been mentioned on NLA.



I found some additional information.



Los-Angeles-Times (I think)


And this.

Oakland CA Newspaper

Unless I missed it somehow her murder was never solved.


Here's where I could use some help, noirishers. ..

I've been trying to locate the lot with the Pepper Trees. (of course it's probably not an empty lot any longer but there might still be some pepper trees at the location)
Per the articles it is (was) somewhere near 9115 Grape Street. I checked it out but it's confusing.

This requires the SuperWhip emoji. Go forth, minions!

.

[Noir_Noir]

I've arrowed what I think is 9115 Grape Street on this detail from an aerial dated May 1st 1947 ... a day before the murder.



mil.library.ucsb.edu


The “pepper tree lane” mentioned could be one of the the paths that run across the top.

The trees I've circled maybe the most likely area for where the body was found.


There are some trees in that area in this last GSV from 2018 but I can't identify any of them as pepper tree or not.



GSV

[ProphetM]

A blast from the past, please don't kill me!

From the 'beating a dead horse' department: Old timers here may recall the nearly-unending saga of the Arcade Depot palm tree. Many photographs of the palm at the depot featured a sign in front of the tree, but as I recall we never managed to find a photo large enough to 100% confirm what the sign said.

A post on Facebook finally enabled easy reading of 2 out of 3 lines, and a Google search based on that post led me to an even larger version of the photo where the entire sign could be read. I found the photo here:
https://delivery.library.ca.gov:8443...ps_pid=IE33015

At full zoom, the sign reads:

FAST DRIVING
NOT ALLOWED
On These Premises



A photo which was posted (checks notes) 11 years ago confirmed "NOT ALLOWED" as the middle line and "FAST DRIVING" as the probable first line, but the last line was still in question. JScott made a best guess of 'In These Premises' which is now confirmed as entirely correct but for the first letter. Good eyes, JScott.

Anti-climactic, I know, but I had to share.

[tovangar2]

Thank you ProphetM.

Much appreciated

[ethereal_reality]

.
re: The 'Butterfly' Murder - Dorothy Montgomery. R.I.P.


Holy Cow, Noir Noir!

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

I've arrowed what I think is 9115 Grape Street on this detail from an aerial dated May 1st 1947 ... a day before the murder.



The trees I've circled maybe the most likely area for where the body was found.

What are the odds that the aerial was taken the day before the murder. I'm stunned. (stunned, I tell you)

And you're no doubt correct that the spot where Montgomery's body was found is (was) among the clump of trees.

Also note the two diagonal lines. They are short cuts that people took across the lot. Perhaps Mrs. Montgomery was walking on one of the paths.
I've seen similar lines in other empty lots. I remember one such short cut clearly visible on an empty lot along Wilshire Blvd.


For example: (this isn't the Wilshire one)


I'm going to be really embarrassed if these lines are something other than paths and shortcuts. (written in 2018)

You can see other examples HERE.


.

[Mackerm]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

RE: RKO Hillstreet Theater, 1933


Positive posted by Scott Charles



It looks like I was wrong about the movie camera. Perhaps it's a speaker. ..Of course the other thing is a kleig light.
.

American Widescreen Museum

Some of the blimped cameras were big and boxy, notably the 3-strip Technicolor ones. The above picture is a blimped Ultra Panavision camera filming Raintree Country (1957.)

[westcork]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

A blast from the past, please don't kill me!

From the 'beating a dead horse' department: Old timers here may recall the nearly-unending saga of the Arcade Depot palm tree. Many photographs of the palm at the depot featured a sign in front of the tree, but as I recall we never managed to find a photo large enough to 100% confirm what the sign said.

A post on Facebook finally enabled easy reading of 2 out of 3 lines, and a Google search based on that post led me to an even larger version of the photo where the entire sign could be read. I found the photo here:
https://delivery.library.ca.gov:8443...ps_pid=IE33015

At full zoom, the sign reads:

FAST DRIVING
NOT ALLOWED
On These Premises



A photo which was posted (checks notes) 11 years ago confirmed "NOT ALLOWED" as the middle line and "FAST DRIVING" as the probable first line, but the last line was still in question. JScott made a best guess of 'In These Premises' which is now confirmed as entirely correct but for the first letter. Good eyes, JScott.

Anti-climactic, I know, but I had to share.

Seems like Los Angeles had a speeding problem before there were cars.

[JScott]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

JScott made a best guess of 'In These Premises' which is now confirmed as entirely correct but for the first letter. Good eyes, JScott.

Cool! Appreciate the followup.

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
re: The 'Butterfly' Murder - Dorothy Montgomery. R.I.P.


Holy Cow, Noir Noir!



What are the odds that the aerial was taken the day before the murder. I'm stunned. (stunned, I tell you)

And you're no doubt correct that the spot where Montgomery's body was found is (was) among the clump of trees.

Also note the two diagonal lines. They are short cuts that people took across the lot. Perhaps Mrs. Montgomery was walking on one of the paths.
I've seen similar lines in other empty lots. I remember one such short cut clearly visible on an empty lot along Wilshire Blvd.


For example: (this isn't the Wilshire one)


I'm going to be really embarrassed if these lines are something other than paths and shortcuts. (written in 2018)

You can see other examples HERE.


.

Very interesting post about poor Dorothy Montgomery. I hadn't remembered Noir City Dame's impressive list of 1940's murders of women, and now have just skimmed it - but noticed what looks like a big boo-boo in her mention of Jean Spangler's disappearance, which has always interested me. It says that Jean had once been Beth Short's roommate....What! Wait a minute!... Never heard that one before. Guess Noir City Dame just made a mistake. I googled the subject and no reference anywhere to any personal connection between the two women.
If anyone cares to correct me, please do.
By the way, was it here at NLA (or elsewhere?) that I read a couple of months ago that Mamie Van Doren, still going strong in Newport Beach at 94 or so, said that she was working on a new book & was going to give details about her and her mother's accquaintance with Elizabeth Short. I believe Mamie said that her mother was so frightened by the Black Dahlia murder that she asked Mamie to never publicly talk about it. Color me very intrigued.
Update: I read the MamieVan Doren item at Mamie's blog...here's what she wrote:
https://mamievandoreninsideout.wordp...-black-dahlia/