Famous Crime Writer Tries to Solve One of L.A.'s Oldest Mysteries

Michael Connelly is one of America's most famous crime writers. He created the detective Harry Bosch and has sold 90 million books. Now he is working on something different — a true crime podcast called 'Killer in the Code' that tries to solve a murder from 1947 that has never been explained.

The podcast's second season started this week. It focuses on a young woman named Elizabeth Short, who was killed in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. A mother walking her toddler found Short's body in an empty lot in the Leimert Park neighborhood. Newspapers began calling the victim 'the Black Dahlia,' and that nickname has stuck for more than 75 years. The case was never solved.

The man Connelly believes is responsible is a World War II veteran named Marvin Margolis. Connelly was brought into the story by two retired Los Angeles police detectives who told him about an amateur investigator from West Virginia named Alex Baber. Baber claimed he had solved one of the Zodiac's short coded messages using artificial intelligence, and the name he landed on was Marvin Margolis.

Margolis had a real connection to Elizabeth Short. He lived in Los Angeles in 1946, and Short stayed with him for 12 days at an apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. After she was murdered, police questioned Margolis but cleared him, and he eventually moved back to Chicago. He died in 1993 without ever being charged.

The podcast argues that the war changed Margolis in harmful ways. He was buried under rubble for 24 hours after heavy rain collapsed a field hospital during a battle in World War II. The military recorded that he suffered from 'battlefield neurosis,' which today might be called post-traumatic stress. He was also bitter that he never received a Purple Heart medal despite feeling he earned one.

Not everyone agrees with Connelly's conclusions. Larry Harnisch, a leading expert on the Black Dahlia case, called the podcast 'a scam.' Journalist Elon Green wrote a detailed article pointing out flaws in the evidence, including the possibility that Margolis changed his name to avoid discrimination — not to hide from police. Code expert David Oranchak also argued that the Z13 cipher is too short to reliably solve, and that Baber's method was flawed.

Despite strong criticism, Connelly is pressing forward. A former federal judge reviewed the evidence and said it was enough to convince a reasonable jury. The LAPD is reportedly testing physical evidence that could link Margolis to Short's murder. For Connelly, the search for justice is what drives him — no matter how cold or old the case may be.