Daniel S. Voorhees
Daniel S. Voorhees (1913-possibly 2004) was a transient[1] restaurant porter who confessed to the murder of Elizabeth Short on January 28, 1947. 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.[2]
Daniel Voorhees | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel S. Voorhees 1913 |
| Disappeared | January 16, 1947 Los Angeles, California |
| Status | Missing for 74 years and 18 days; may have died in 2004 |
| Died | Possibly 2004 |
Background
Voorhees spent the night in the Los Angeles County Jail after he told LAPD detective E.R. Barrett that he met 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 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.
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.[1]
A person named Daniel S. Voorhees, with the same year of birth, died in 2004 and was buried at Tahoma National Cemetery, in Washington State.[3] The burial record suggests that this man was a technical sergeant in the US Army during World War II.
See also
References
- Beth Short Slaying Suspect Jailed After Asserting Admission of Crime, January 29, 1947, Pg. 2.
- Black Dahlia Avenger, Stephen Hodel, Arcade Publishing, 2003, pp. 174.
- The searchable index of burials at the National Cemetery Administration includes the following details: VOORHEES, DANIEL S TSGT US ARMY WORLD WAR II DATE OF BIRTH: 10/27/1913 DATE OF DEATH: 05/30/2004 BURIED AT: SECTION P ROW E SITE 105 [...] TAHOMA NATIONAL CEMETERY 18600 SE 240TH ST KENT, WA. (Source: National Cemetery Administration, 2014, Nationwide Gravesite Locator.)