Chapter 23 ~ The Two Time Loser

It was the unnamed girl living at Hansen’s house that told the undercover officer about the jewelry scam and about a curious comment she said she overheard. The unidentified girl said that Anne called Bill Miller and said that Elizabeth Short had been murdered and that, “We had better get together.”

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Chief Bradley, Captain Donahoe and Sergeants Brown and Hansen all approached Chief of Police Horrall and asked for permission to bug Mark Hansen’s house. Horrall consented and Brown set up secret listening and recording devices in Hansen’s home between March and October, 1947 and made, according to Brown, “about six recordings altogether, large recordings, which are turn-on, turn off.”

The surveillance produced nothing of value concerning Elizabeth Short’s murder.

Eight or nine months after the murder of Elizabeth Short, Finis Brown decided to put an undercover man in the Carlos Avenue home to observe suspect Mark Hansen. Hansen agreed, because he “had a lot of people he wanted to talk about,” police reported.

According to detectives, “Hansen wanted to tell the Police Department about this fellow — ‘he is a pimp’ — and this girl, ‘is a prostitute’ and so forth, but that would be the ostensible purpose of putting a man out there, but the real reason was to watch Hansen.  We complied.  Hansen introduced him around to people, thieves and so forth.  Undercover man ostensibly went to work as a automobile salesman out in Hollywood area and he was watching Hansen.”

During this time, Hansen told Brown about Lola Titus, which would later lead to Hansen saying, “get Brown for me,” after he was shot by Lola  in 1949. Brown explained that Hansen had, “- given me some information on her.”  When Lola shot Hansen, she called him “a damn cop lover.” Brown said later that  “Apparently she believed he had give some information on her to the police.”

While Hansen was in the hospital, Brown said, “Jones of the Crime Lab went over the whole house, checked for blood in other rooms.  During the time that I went out there, I have checked myself, the various rooms, when the opportunity presented itself, to check bathrooms and such.”

The Unidentified Girl

An unidentified girl that lived at the Carlos Avenue house told an undercover office about a jewelry scam that was handled by Bill Miller, who operated a jewelry shop on Frank Street in Santa Monica. The girl revealed stories about how Miller was going through bankruptcy and replaced his first grade stock with “second grade, third-grade stones,” according to the undercover officer.  Supposedly, Miller brought the quality stones, valued at approximately $50,000, to Hansen and planned on paying off creditors “ten cents on the dollar.” A search of Hansen’s home turned up nothing, but immediately after, Miller settled for fifty cents on the dollar and returned the first grade material. Miller was described as “an ex-convict, two time loser.”

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