The Black Dahlia *gruesome photos included*

"The Black Dahlia" was a nickname given to Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – c. January 15, 1947), an American woman who was the victim of a much-publicized murder in 1947. Short acquired the moniker posthumously from newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly lurid. It may have been derived from a film noir murder mystery, the title of which alluded to a Dahlia of a different color, The Blue Dahlia, released several months before, in April, 1946. Short was found mutilated, her body sliced in half at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation, leading to many suspects, along with several books and film adaptations of the story. Short's murder is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history.

Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, the third of five daughters of Cleo and Phoebe May (Sawyer) Short. She grew up in the suburb of Medford, Massachusetts. Her father built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash, when he lost most of his money. One day in 1930, he parked his car on a bridge and was never seen again, leading many to presume he had committed suicide. Phoebe May Short moved her family into a small apartment in Medford and went to work as a bookkeeper to support them. It was not until years later that the family discovered that Cleo Short was still alive, and living in California.

Because she was troubled by asthma and bronchitis, Elizabeth Short was sent at age 16 to spend the winter in Miami. During the next three years, she would live in Florida during the cold months and spend the rest of the year in Medford. When she was 19, she travelled to Vallejo, California, to live with her father, who was working at the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard on San Francisco Bay. In early 1943, Short and her father moved to Los Angeles, but an argument caused her to leave and take a job at the post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, California. She soon moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking. The juvenile authorities sent her back to Medford; however, she instead returned to Florida, making only occasional visits to Massachusetts.

While in Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon, Jr., a decorated United States Army Air Force officer then at the 2nd Air Commando Group, where he was training for deployment to the China Burma India Theater of Operations. She told her friends that he had written to propose marriage while he was recovering from injuries from a plane crash in India. She accepted his offer, but Gordon died in a second crash on August 10, 1945, less than a week before Japan's surrender ended World War II.

Short returned to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, whom she knew from Florida. Fickling was stationed at NARB, Long Beach, and Short would spend the last six months of her life in southern California, mostly in the Los Angeles area.

On the morning of January 15, 1947, the nude body of Elizabeth Short was found in two pieces on a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street (at 34.0164°N 118.333°W) in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Local resident Betty Bersinger discovered the body about 10:00 am, as she was walking with her three-year-old daughter; Bersinger at first thought it was a discarded store mannequin. When she realized it was a corpse, however, she rushed to a nearby house and telephoned the police.

Short's severely mutilated body was completely severed at the waist and drained entirely of blood. The body also had obviously been washed by the killer. Short's face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, creating an effect called the Glasgow smile. Short also had multiple cuts on her thigh and breasts, where entire portions of flesh had been sliced away. The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper, and her intestines had been tucked neatly under her buttocks. The corpse had been "posed", with her hands over her head, her elbows bent at right angles, and her legs spread. Nearby, the detectives found a cement sack which contained droplets of watery blood. There was also a heel print on the ground amid the tire tracks.

An autopsy stated that Short was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall, weighed 115 pounds (52 kg), and had light blue eyes, brown hair, and badly decayed teeth. There were ligature marks on her ankles, wrists, and neck. The skull was not fractured, but Short had bruises on the front and right side of her scalp, with a small amount of bleeding in the subarachnoid space on the right side, consistent with blows to the head. The cause of death was determined to be hemorrhaging from the lacerations to her face and shock from blows on the head and face.

Following Short's identification, reporters from the Los Angeles Examiner contacted her mother, Phoebe Short, and told her that her daughter had won a beauty contest. Only after prying as much personal information as they could from Mrs. Short, did the reporters tell her that her daughter had actually been murdered. The newspaper offered to pay her air fare and accommodations, if she would travel to Los Angeles to help with the police investigation. However, it was again a ploy, since the newspaper kept her away from police and other reporters to protect their scoop. William Randolph Hearst's papers, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Examiner, later sensationalized the case: The black tailored suit Short was last seen wearing became "a tight skirt and a sheer blouse" and Elizabeth Short became the "Black Dahlia", an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard".

On January 23, 1947, a person claiming to be the killer called the editor of the Los Angeles Examiner, expressing concern that news of the murder was tailing off and offering to mail items belonging to Short to the editor. The following day, a packet arrived at the Los Angeles newspaper containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen embossed on the cover. Hansen, an acquaintance at whose home she had stayed with friends, immediately became a suspect. One or more others would write more letters to the newspaper, signing them "the Black Dahlia Avenger", after the name given Short by the newspapers. On January 25, Short's handbag and one shoe were reported seen on top of a garbage can in an alley a short distance from Norton Avenue. They were finally located at the dump.

Due to the notoriety of the case, over the years more than 50 men and women have confessed to the murder, and police are swamped with tips every time a newspaper mentions the case or a book or movie is released about it. Sergeant John P. St. John, a detective who worked the case until his retirement, stated, "It is amazing how many people offer up a relative as the killer."

Short was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. After her sisters had grown up and married, Phoebe Short moved to Oakland to be near her daughter's grave. She finally returned to the east coast in the 1970s, where she lived into her nineties..

The Black Dahlia murder investigation was conducted by the LAPD. The Department also enlisted the help of hundreds of officers borrowed from other law enforcement agencies. Owing to the nature of the crime, sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage focused intense public attention on the case.

About 60 people confessed to the murder, mostly men. Of those, 25 were considered viable suspects by the Los Angeles District Attorney. In the course of the investigation, some of the original 25 were eliminated, and several new suspects were proposed. Suspects remaining under discussion by various authors and experts include Walter Bayley, Norman Chandler, Leslie Dillon, Joseph A. Dumais, Mark Hansen, Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, George Hill Hodel, Hodel's friend Fred Sexton, George Knowlton, Robert M. "Red" Manley, Patrick S. O'Reilly, and Jack Anderson Wilson.

Some crime authors have speculated on a link between the Short murder and the Cleveland Torso Murders, which took place in Cleveland between 1934 and 1938. As with a large number of killings that took place before and after the Short murder, the original LAPD investigators looked into the Cleveland murders in 1947 and later discounted any relationship between the two cases. Nevertheless, new evidence implicating a former Cleveland torso murder suspect, Jack Anderson Wilson (a.k.a. Arnold Smith), was investigated by Detective John P. St. John in 1980 in connection with Short's death. St. John claimed he was close to arresting Wilson for the murder of Short, but Wilson died in a fire on February 4, 1982.

Crime authors such as Steve Hodel (son of George Hill Hodel) and William Rasmussen have suggested a link between the Short murder and the 1946 murder and dismemberment of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago. Captain Donahoe of the Los Angeles police also stated publicly that he believed the Black Dahlia and Lipstick murders were "likely connected". Among the evidence cited is the fact that Elizabeth Short's body was found on Norton Avenue three blocks west of Degnan Boulevard, Degnan being the last name of the girl from Chicago, and that there were striking similarities between the writing of the Degnan ransom note and that of "the Black Dahlia Avenger". For example, both used a combination of capitals and small letters (the Degnan note read in part "BuRN This FoR heR SAfTY"), and both notes contain a similar misshapen letter P and have one word matching exactly. Convicted serial killer William Heirens served life in prison for Degnan's murder. Initially arrested at age 17 for breaking into a residence close to that of Suzanne Degnan, Heirens claimed he was tortured by police, forced to confess, and made a scapegoat in the Degnan murder.

Did you guys read The Black Dahlia Avenger book? It has alot of valuable evidence to the author's father being the murderer.

Otto Van der Muellen wrote:Did you guys read The Black Dahlia Avenger book? It has alot of valuable evidence to the author's father being the murderer.

I own a copy of the book as well as a copy of Hodel's other books - "Most Evil" and "Black Dahlia Avenger II," but I haven't really read any of them. I have read a lot of his work online, though. Some people accuse him of making shit up to sell more books, but I have seen documents that prove at least some of his claims are true. Do I think his father was the one that murdered Elizabeth Short? Maybe. I think he is definitely the best suspect. Do I think he was the Zodiac Killer? No way.

I never knew Elizabeth lived in Vallejo and that her father worked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. I really think Zodiac worked there in the 60's.

Have there been any links between this case and Zodiac?