Quote:
Originally Posted by rcarlton
Another noirish unsolved murder: Diane Sparks
 LAPL
Photograph caption reads: "Her murder still unsolved two years after death". Photograph printed: Jan. 29, 1948. |
Some more on her:
Movies she appeared in:
1935
George White's 1935 Scandals (uncredited) (linked to a scene in the movie, Diane may be in the audience, Jane Wyman had an uncredited part also).
1934
The Captain Hates the Sea (uncredited) (the 3 Stooges were in this movie).
1934
Tripping Through the Tropics (short)
1934
Love Detectives (short) (Betty Grable)
Dancer (uncredited)
Birth: Sep. 14, 1914
Empire
Coos County
Oregon, USA
Death: Mar. 13, 1946
Van Nuys
Los Angeles County
California, USA
Born Edjana Bell Ingram
Guardian: Edward Bernhard MaxMeyer
Stage name: Diane Dahl
Diane was a Hollywood movie actress in the 1930s. She was murdered; the crime remains unsolved. She was 31 yrs 5 months 20 days old when she died. Her death was linked to the grizzly "Black Dahlia Murder" cases.
In the early 1930's Max Factor listed her as one of the
ten most beautiful women in Hollywood. She was a dancer and supporting actress appearing in several movies.
Screen names used during her career: Diane Dahl and Diane Meyer, but there were others. At the time of her death she was married to Los Angeles Police Officer Edward George Sparks; George was born in Missouri 26 Nov 1903. When she married him she left acting.
On January 29th 1946 her husband reported her missing. Her mutilated body was discovered six weeks later on 10 March by two children playing in a Roscoe area canyon in Van Nuys, San Fernando; she had been shot in the head. Perhaps it was the mutilations that linked her death to the Black Dahlia Murder cases - she was missing one complete arm and the hand from the other arm.
The prime suspect lived next door to the Sparks' and the two families were good friends. The neighbor and Diane had been seen together the day she died. A gun, the murder weapon found near the body was engraved with the initials of the suspect, "RG". He was a husband and father of three young daughters. An all-woman jury acquitted Ramon Gonzales of the crime on 31 July 1946.
News of her death and the subsequent murder trial was carried nationally & internationally via AP and UP services, reported in the local LA Examiner, LA Times, SF Valley News and Long Beach Independent newspapers and widely circulated from New York-New England through Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and the South, to the Far West of Washington, Idaho, Nevada and other states. The stories appeared in issues of the European edition of the Stars and Stripes.
After the trial, George left the LAPD and moved to Texas.
George took his own life on 09 Feb 1953 in Fall County Texas. His body was returned to Missouri and was buried in Mt Tabor Cemetery near Hurdland Missouri.
Diane's genealogy is cloudy.
Her mother, Anna Dorothy DAHL married Edgar Charles Ingram approx 1911-1912; they lived in Empire, Coos Bay, Oregon. The marriage produced a daughter whom they named Edjana Bell. Edjana is a combination of father-mother's names.
Abt 1916 Anna Dorothy married Benjamin Teschner. The union produced daughter Marie born 1918 Oregon. The Teschner marriage lasted into 1920. By 1930, Anna had married Edward Bernhardt MaxMeyer. Edjana Bell's name was "changed" to Dorothy. Both Dorothy and sister Marie used the last name MaxMeyer, but i haven't verified whether the E.B.MaxMeyer relationship was one of adoption. The origin of and why (Edjana-Dorothy) used the name Diane is not known to me.
Family links:
Parents:
Anna Dorothy Dahl MaxMeyer (1896 - 1991)
Spouse:
George Ernest Sparks (1902 - 1953)
Burial:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Glendale
Los Angeles County
California, USA
Plot: Evertide, space 1, lot 246
Find a Grave
George Sparks
Birth: Nov. 26, 1902
Hurdland
Knox County
Missouri, USA
Death: Feb. 9, 1953
Falls County
Texas, USA
info provided by family member Terry Sparks
SIBLINGS-------------
Ada Marie Sparks FAG# 79126770
Samuel F Sparks FAG# 79127699
John Goodson Sparks FAG# 79127588
Walter Edward Sparks FAG# 79127898
Perle Sparks FAG# 79128084
George E Sparks FAG# 65563167
Hazel Elizabeth Sparks FAG# 79127158 TWIN
Grace Estella Sparks FAG# 69887191 TWIN
Raymond Roy Sparks FAG# 24514118
George's first wife was Ethel .... no additional info
His second wife was Diane Ingram MaxMeyer, former film actress known as Diane Dahl (and others.) see the memorials under "Spouses". George had no children.
George joined the Los Angeles Police Dept as a motorcycle officer and served 14 years until after the trial of Ramon Gonzales accused of murdering George's wife - Diane Sparks - July 1946. He moved to Dallas Texas and lived near his brother Samuel F Sparks.
"My father, also an LAPD after Diane's murder, was a cousin to Diane. Dad knew George and said George returned to Texas with a broken heart. He took his own life in Fall County Texas," wrote John Dahl.
His body was returned to family home in Missouri to be buried with his parents in the new Mount Tabor Cemetery, Hurdland MO.
Family links:
Parents:
John Wesley Sparks (1852 - 1929)
Sallie Elizabeth Janney Sparks (1874 - 1961)
Spouse:
Edjana Bell Ingram Sparks (1914 - 1946)*
*Calculated relationship
Burial:
Landsberry Cemetery
Knox County
Missouri, USA
Created by: JOHN DAHL
Record added: Feb 12, 2011
Find A Grave Memorial# 65563167
Find a Grave
Diane's mother was attractive also:
Anna Dorothy MaxMeyer
Find a Grave
Further digging finds that her younger sister was in over 30 movies!
Marie Evelyne Heath, Born June 29, 1918, in Portland, Oregon, passed away in Sacramento on Monday, April 16, 2012, at age 93.
She was preceded in death by parents Benjamin Teschner and Anna Dorothy MaxMeyer, stepfather E. B. MaxMeyer, beloved sister Diane Sparks and brother Tom Teschner.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 70 years, Norton Heath, and sons Jim Heath and Don Heath (Ritsuko), granddaughter Erika Heath, sister Carol Scott and brother Benjamin Teschner, Jr.
Marie lived 22 years in Willits until last December. She was an accomplished artist and a strong supporter of animal welfare.
During the late 1930s she appeared in about 30 Hollywood movies, including
Test Pilot and
Suez.
Find a Grave