While I run with the possibly flawed assumption that 1. Orson Welles was a credible suspect in the Black Dahlia case, and that 2. there is a connection between Surrealism and the Black Dahlia case, and that 3. there may be some parallels in Orson Welles’ behavior relative to the time of the Black Dahlia murder and Roman Polanski’s behavior relative to the time of the murder of his wife Sharon Tate (all of which are more thought experiments than anything), I built out a little network mimicking the network from the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ book.
I was actually surprised to find all the connections to Kenneth Anger as well as Curtis Harrington – who was a lifelong friend of Anger – and also John Gilmore who is famous for his Hollywood connections and for writing on the Black Dahlia and Charles Manson matters. Presumably Anger’s proximity to Gilmore explains the Dahlia crime scene photos in the Hollywood Babylon II book.
In addition to being connected to two of the Manson family killers – and even Manson himself – Kenneth Anger also knew Mark David Chapman, John Lennon’s assassin. In a strange twist, it seems that Anger was also suspected or investigated by police of making ‘snuff films’ according to biographer Bill Landis.
Seems odd Anger is right in the middle of all this, even as a thought experiment – to be connected objectively to multiple murderers, to be an apparent suspect in the production of snuff films, and to have been involved in setting the public information space about the Dahlia case by publishing previously unseen photos. I didn’t even know who he was till two weeks ago. Anger’s centrality (as well as other Surrealist directors) around these crimes might support the idea of a surrealism involvement.
Someone posted the PDF of Anger’s book here: https://monoskop.org/images/9/94/Anger_Kenneth_Hollywood_Babylon_II.pdf . It is a 30+ MB download.
(This network could probably be expanded at the bottom right based on Ed Sanders’ work to include figures from the Process Church and L. Ron Hubbard as potential influences on Sirhan Sirhan connected to Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons. I’d also note many seeming HUAC and pro-communist connections, even in the apparent influence of Maya Deren on Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger.)