Unsolved Murder: Leila Adele Welsh of Kansas City, MO (March 9, 1941) - Was It the Black Dahlia Killer?

Most of us have experienced waiting in a room for a nurse to call our name as we sit patiently reading magazine articles for a doctor's appointment. I was at an appointment where I had waited so long that I became engrossed in a long article about an unsolved murder in the Kansas City, the city I reside in, which made the story that more interesting. Unfortunately, my name was called before I could finish reading the article, but most of it was memorized except the whole name of the victim.

Later that day, I tried to search for the story without success because I didn't have enough information such as the victim's whole name. Years passed and I still wanted to know more about the victim and the details. One afternoon, I came across a blog detailing facts about a "Dorothy" Welsh which happened to be the same person I had been searching, but the first name was incorrect. There was some speculation as to the possibility that Dorothy had been murdered by the same person involved with the Black Dahlia crime. Needless to say, I became even more intrigued.

The fact remains readers like myself are drawn into the stories of unsolved mysteries. This is the story of Leila Adele Welsh, the victim of a brutal crime, after all the years between her passing and a reporter's article, and my living and the appointment which led me to her story.

The first incident of learning there were discussions about Leila Adele's murder on the internet were through a search for "Welsh." On The Black Dahlia in Hollywood Forum, viewers will learn that "Dorothy" Welsh is really "Leila" Welsh. There was mention of "Claude" which was also a name that Leila's brother George had been referenced in other articles. The interest and intrigue rests in details of similarities of the murders of Leila Adele Welsh (Fig. 1) and Elizabeth Short. Newspapers across the country had covered both these murders. Allegedly, Claude Welsh was in California at the time Short was murdered, but it was unknown if he and Short had ever met.

Also interesting is a fact that suspect in Short's murder, Carl Balsiger, was stationed in California at Camp Cooke at the same time (February 1943) during Short's employ there at its commissary. What's further interesting is that Carl Balsiger had apparently attended school in Kansas City with Leila Welsh. The method of operation in both murders contained distinct similarities. In two separate incidents, Balsiger had been involved in giving women "vicious beatings."₄ It is interesting, however, that Balsiger and Welsh were two of the original 25 suspects in the Short murder investigation.

Leila Adele Welsh was born in 1917. Her parents were George Winston Welsh and Marie Fleming Welsh. She came from a family with a strong academic background. She was a beauty contest runner up in 1937 at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

Initially, Leila attended a woman's college where her grandmother, Leila McKee, had served as its president. Then she attended the University of Missouri in Kansas City. After graduating in 1938, she went to teach in Knoxville, Illinois. She returned to Kansas City in the fall of 1940 where she lived with her mother and brother, George Winston Welsh, Jr. (Fig. 4).

On the night of March 9, 1941, Leila had been out on a date with Richard Funk whom she had been dating for five years (according to the Racine Journal Times, a Wisconsin newspaper article dated March 10, 1941). Leila and Richard had attended the police circus and then stopped to have a drink. When Richard brought her home, she spoke briefly with her mother. Shortly after that, her mother heard a thud, but thought her son had fallen off the davenport he was sleeping on.

A sorority sister from college had been interviewed and stated that she was told by Leila there was a man in Knoxville wanting to marry her which she didn't know how to handle. There was no mention of his name, so it does not appear he was a suspect.

Leila's paternal grandfather, James B. Welsh,¹ was born in Danville, Kentucky on March 15, 1852. After Mr. Welsh graduated from college, he was involved in a mercantile business for some 10 years in Danville. Welsh moved to Kansas City in 1882 and by 1886, he became involved with real estate. He and E.R. Crutcher formed a partnership that would handle a lot of business transactions in the city. Welsh became the President of the James B. Welsh Realty and Loan Company and from 1897 through 1899, their business grew with additions of other business they purchased. Mr. Welsh married Leila McKee in 1878, daughter of Professor James Lapsley McKee. Mr. McKee was the Vice President of Centre College, the same college Mr. Welsh had attended. Paternal grandparents, James and Leila, had two sons, namely McKee Welsh and George Winston Welsh (Leila's father).

Leila’s paternal grandmother, Leila S. McKee (Fig. 2), was born in 1858 in Kentucky. Her father, Professor James Lapsley McKee had served as Vice-President of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Leila’s grandmother had attended and graduated from the Western Female Seminary, and later served as its principal and president. A dorm named McKee Hall was named in her honor. She left in 1904 and married James B. Welsh. Leila’s grandmother passed away in 1938.₂

On March 9 after Leila had returned home from a date at approximately 1:30 a.m., it is believed the killer entered the bedroom through an open window. Her mother and brother were asleep at the time although later, her mother would state she had heard a thumping sound during the night, but assumed it was her son. Leila’s body was found the next day late in the morning by her mother who was wanting to wake her daughter up for church or for breakfast (it has been reported both ways). Before the killer had left, a chair had been lodged against the bedroom door so it wouldn't be easy for her mother to quickly get into the room. It's amazing not to read that her mother didn't have a stroke or heart attack upon seeing her daughter.

Leila, age 24, was found brutally murdered. The details were very gruesome. She had been struck in the head by a brick-layer's chisel hammer and her throat was so deeply cut, she was nearly decapitated. A piece of flesh had been removed from her right upper thigh. She wasn't sexually assaulted; she was brutally murdered. There was no robbery and the weapons were not hidden. There were no fingerprints, only bloody smudges on the window sill.

The hammer was left at the scene at the foot of her bed. A knife was found right outside the window in the ground. About 100 yards from the house bloodied cotton gloves were found with the piece of flesh.

Leila’s brother, George W. Welsh, Jr. (also referred to as “Claude” in some articles), was arrested based on circumstantial evidence. Since the family were heirs to the grandfather’s real estate fortune, the police believed money was the motive. Allegedly, too, an owner of a second hand store claimed to have sold the knife to George. Nearly four days prior the incident, a hardware store owner claimed to have sold the gloves to George. Prosecutors also presented evidence from her diary indicating the last entry in which the words, "broke up," had been written and they claimed it was George's handwriting.

According to The Kansas City Star published May 22, 1942, "So savage a crime at so fine an address shook the city, as did the indictment against brother George." The story was national news. On April 19, 1943, The Evening Independent out of St. Petersburg, Florida published an article by the Associated Press indicating Leila's brother had been acquitted of her murder. The Associated Press reported her mother had testified on her brother's behalf before an all male jury. The article also reported a comment from a draft board official who said Welsh (then 29) would receive his army induction on May 14.

Leila's murder is still unsolved.