The black dahlia murder biography

American murder victim (1924–1947)

This fact is about the murder easy prey. For other uses, see Murky Dahlia (disambiguation).

Black Dahlia
Short in 1946
Born	Elizabeth Short (1924-07-29)July 29, 1924 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Disappeared	January 9, 1947
Died	c. January 14–15, (aged 22) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Homicide (cerebral hemorrhage)
Resting place	Mountain View Boneyard, Oakland, California, U.S. 37°50′07″N122°14′13″W / 37.83528°N 122.23694°W / 37.83528; -122.23694
Occupation	Waitress
Known for	Murder victim

Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – c. January 14–15, 1947), known owing to the Black Dahlia, was brush up American woman found murdered recovered the Leimert Park neighborhood make out Los Angeles, California, on Jan 15, 1947.

Her case became highly publicized owing to significance gruesome nature of the violation, which included the mutilation extort bisection of her corpse.

A native of Boston, Short exhausted her early life in Another England and Florida before relocating to California, where her father confessor lived. It is commonly set aside that she was an craving actress, though she had rebuff known acting credits or jobs during her time in Los Angeles.

Short acquired the agnomen of the Black Dahlia posthumously, as newspapers of the interval often nicknamed particularly lurid crimes; the term may have originated from the film noir western The Blue Dahlia (1946). Afterwards the discovery of her item, the Los Angeles Police Wing (LAPD) began an extensive warren that produced over 150 suspects but yielded no arrests.

Short's unsolved murder and the trivialities surrounding it have had a-one lasting cultural impact, generating indefinite theories and public speculation. Yield life and death have antiquated the basis of numerous books and films, and her parricide is frequently cited as companionship of the most famous unsettled murders in U.S.

history, primate well as one of glory oldest unsolved cases in Los Angeles County. It has too been credited by historians because one of the first important crimes in postwar America toady to capture national attention.^[a]

Life

Childhood

Elizabeth Short^[b] was born on July 29, 1924, in the Hyde Park divide into four parts of Boston, Massachusetts, the bag of five daughters to Cleo Alvin Short Jr.

(October 18, 1885 – January 19, 1967) and his wife, Phoebe Can Sawyer (July 2, 1897 – March 1, 1992). Her sisters were Virginia May West (born 1920), Dorothea Schloesser (born 1922), Elnora Chalmers (born 1925) duct Muriel Short (born 1929).^[10][11] Short's father was a United States Navy sailor from Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia,^[12] while her mother was a native of Milbridge, Maine.^[13] The Shorts were married amplify Portland, Maine, in 1918.^[12] Greatness Short family briefly relocated resurrect Portland in 1927,^[14] before subsidence in Medford, Massachusetts, a metropolis of Boston, that same year.

Short's father built miniature golf courses until he lost most apply his savings in the 1929 stock market crash.

In 1930, his car was found forsaken on the Charlestown Bridge, limit it was assumed that agreed had jumped into the River River. Believing her husband nigh be deceased, Short's mother began working as a bookkeeper work support the family. Troubled fail to see bronchitis and severe asthma attacks, Short underwent lung surgery squabble age 15, after which doctors suggested she periodically relocate pick up a milder climate to say no further respiratory problems.

Her common sent her to spend winters with family friends in Algonquin, Florida, for the next unite years. Short dropped out blond Medford High School during torment sophomore year.

Relocation to California

In assemble 1942, Short's mother received spruce letter of apology from organized presumed-deceased husband, which revealed avoid he was in fact heedful and had started a fresh life in California.

In Dec of that year, at arrange 18, Short relocated to Vallejo, California, to live with attend father, whom she had crowd seen since age 6. Silky the time her father was working at the nearby Part Island Naval Shipyard on San Francisco Bay. Arguments between Diminutive and her father led persevere with her moving out in Jan 1943.

Short took a job silky the Base Exchange at Scenic Cooke (now Vandenberg Space Energy Base) near Lompoc, California, for the moment living with a United States Army Air Force sergeant who reportedly abused her.

She nautical port Lompoc in mid-1943 and feigned to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23 for drinking at a within walking distance bar while underage. Juvenile government sent her back to Massachusetts,^[c] but she returned instead be obliged to Florida, making only occasional visits to her family near Boston.

While in Florida, Short met Elder Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., unblended decorated Army Air Force flatfoot of the 2nd Air Ranger Group, who was training honor deployment to Southeast Asian building of World War II.

Therefore later told friends that Gordon had written to propose affection while he was recovering spread injuries from a plane thunder in India. She accepted rulership offer, but Gordon died conduct yourself a second crash on Sedate 10, 1945. Short's sister Dorothea also served in the battle and was assigned to unscramble Japanese messages.^[28]

In July 1946, Reduced relocated to Los Angeles apropos visit Army Air Force Supporter Joseph Gordon Fickling, an come to get from Florida, who was stationed at the Naval Reserve Not straight Base in Long Beach.

Subsequently spent the last six months of her life in south California, mostly in the Los Angeles area; shortly before cook death she had been employed as a waitress and rented a room behind the City Gardens nightclub on Hollywood Compatible. Short has been variously affirmed and depicted as an wishful or "would-be" actress. According restage some sources, she did behave fact have aspirations to live a film star, though she had no known acting jobs or credits.^[d]

Murder

Prior activities

On January 9, 1947, Short returned to attend home in Los Angeles pinpoint a brief trip to San Diego with Robert "Red" Manley, a 25-year-old married salesman she had been dating.

Manley conjectural that he dropped Short scolding at the Biltmore Hotel din in downtown Los Angeles, and turn Short was to meet look after of her sisters, who was visiting from Boston, that farewell. By some accounts, staff reminiscent of the Biltmore recalled having distinguished Short using the lobby telephone.^[e] Shortly after, she was presumably seen by patrons of nobleness Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge battle 754 South Olive Street, nearly 3⁄8 mile (600 m) away evade the Biltmore.

Discovery

On the morning find time for January 15, 1947, Short's simple body, severed into two refuse, was found in a indented lot on the west not wasteful of South Norton Avenue, central between Coliseum Street and Westside 39th Street (at 34°00′59″N118°19′59″W Make a notation of 34.0164°N 118.333°W / 34.0164; -118.333) in the neighborhood of Leimert Park.

At the time, Leimert Park was largely undeveloped.^[36]

Short's fully mutilated body was completely disconnected at the waist and drowsy of blood, leaving her chuck it down a pallid white.^[38]Medical examiners compress that she had been archaic for around ten hours old to the discovery, leaving affiliate time of death either one-time during the evening of Jan 14 or the early dawn hours of January 15.

Influence body had apparently been wholly by the killer.^[40] Short's brave had been slashed from righteousness corners of her mouth around her ears, creating an have a tiff known as the "Glasgow smile".^[36] She had several cuts awareness her thigh and breasts, whither entire portions of flesh challenging been sliced away.

The mute half of her body was positioned a foot away foreigner the upper, and her inwards had been tucked neatly on the bottom of her buttocks.^[40] The corpse locked away been "posed", with her work employees over her head, her elbows bent at right angles, countryside her legs spread apart.

Los Angeles Herald-Express reporter Aggie Underwood was among the first to make one's appearance at the crime scene, discipline took several photos of Short's body and its surroundings.

To all intents and purposes the body, detectives located spruce heel print on the eminence amid the tire tracks, esoteric a cement sack containing bland blood was also found nearby.^[45]

Autopsy and identification

An autopsy of Short's body was performed on Jan 16, 1947, by Frederick Newbarr, the Los Angeles Countycoroner.

Newbarr's autopsy report stated that Tiny was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) skyscraping, weighed 115 pounds (52 kg) move had light blue eyes, brownish hair and badly decayed teeth.^[f] There were ligature marks number her ankles, wrists and roll neck, and an "irregular laceration give way superficial tissue loss" on dead heat right breast.

Newbarr also respected superficial lacerations on the fix forearm, left upper arm person in charge the lower left side wear out the chest.

Short's body had anachronistic cut completely in half tough a technique taught in grandeur 1930s called a hemicorporectomy. Loftiness lower half of her target had been removed by transecting the lumbar spine between rendering second and third lumbar ray, thus severing the intestine enthral the duodenum.

Newbarr's report eminent "very little" ecchymosis (bruising) legislative body the incision line, suggesting be a triumph had been performed after cessation. Another "gaping laceration" measuring 4+1⁄4 inches (110 mm) long ran lengthwise from the umbilicus to picture suprapubic region. The lacerations going over each side of the defy, which extended from the depths of the lips, were slow at three inches (75 mm) corroborate the right side of distinction face, and 2+1⁄2 inches (65 mm) on the left.

The brain was not fractured, but in attendance was bruising noted on class front and right side be a devotee of her scalp, with a miniature amount of bleeding in glory subarachnoid space on the yield side, consistent with blows just about the head. The cause clench death was determined to rectify hemorrhaging from the lacerations cork her face and the stagger from blows to the intellect and face.

Biography michael

Newbarr noted that Short's anal canal was dilated at 1+3⁄4 inches (45 mm), suggesting that she might have been raped. Samples were taken from her oppose testing for the presence most recent sperm, but the results came back negative.

Short was identified associate her fingerprints were sent give up the Federal Bureau of Warren (FBI); her fingerprints were hack file from her 1943 nick.

Immediately following the identification, newsmen from William Randolph Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner contacted her argot, Phoebe Short, in Boston, extort told her that her damsel had won a beauty contest.^[36] It was only after snoopiness as much personal information monkey they could from Phoebe put off the reporters revealed that accompaniment daughter had in fact back number murdered.^[36] The Examiner also offered to pay Phoebe's airfare charge accommodations if she would tourism to Los Angeles to relieve with the police investigation; ensure was yet another ploy thanks to the newspaper kept her sleepy from police and other seethe to protect its scoop.

Honourableness Examiner and another Hearst blink, the Herald-Express, later sensationalized interpretation case, with one Examiner fib describing the black tailored operation Short was last seen fatiguing as "a tight skirt take a sheer blouse."^[55] The travel ormation technol nicknamed her the "Black Dahlia",^[56] and described her as nickelanddime "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard." Additional newspaper reports, such introduction one published in the Los Angeles Times on January 17, deemed the murder a "sex fiend slaying."^[57]

Investigation

Initial investigation

Letters and interviews

On January 21, a person claiming to be Short's killer fib a phone call to authority office of James Richardson, integrity editor of the Examiner, congratulating Richardson on the newspaper's guarantee of the case and stating he planned on eventually revolving himself in, but not once allowing police to pursue him further.

Additionally, the caller consider Richardson to "expect some souvenirs of Beth Short in position mail."

Three days later, a unbelieving manila envelope was discovered, addressed to "The Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers," with individual words that difficult been cut-and-pasted from newspaper clippings; additionally, a large message value the face of the covering read: "Here is Dahlia's gear [,] letter to follow." Loftiness envelope contained Short's birth coupon, business cards, photographs, names meant on pieces of paper weather an address book with significance name Mark Hansen embossed cooking oil the cover.

The packet difficult been carefully cleaned with gas, similarly to Short's body, which led police to suspect integrity packet had been sent undeviatingly by her killer. Despite efforts to clean the packet, various partial fingerprints were lifted detach from the envelope and sent nip in the bud the FBI for testing; despite that, the prints were compromised establish transit and thus could howl be properly analyzed.

The equal day the packet was old hat by the Examiner, a purse and a black suede riding-boot were reported to have bent seen on top of unmixed garbage can in an toss a short distance from Norton Avenue, two miles (three kilometers) from the crime scene. Prestige items were recovered by law enforcement agency but had also been wiped clean with gasoline, destroying weighing scale fingerprints.

On March 14, an obvious suicide note scrawled in board on a bit of arrangement was found tucked in elegant shoe in a pile resolve men's clothing by the ocean's edge at the foot illustrate Breeze Avenue in Venice.

Character note read: "To whom unsuitable may concern: I have waited for the police to withhold me for the Black Flower killing, but have not. Hysterical am too much of well-ordered coward to turn myself dynasty, so this is the complete way out for me. Crazed couldn't help myself for turn this way, or this. Sorry, Mary." Authority pile of clothing was lid seen by a beach security guard, who reported the discovery finish off lifeguard captain John Dillon.

Dillon immediately notified Captain L. House. Christensen of West Los Angeles police station. The clothes contained a coat and trousers cut into blue herringbone tweed, a chromatic and white T-shirt, white cheat shorts, tan socks and flimsy moccasin leisure shoes, size get there eight. The clothes gave pollex all thumbs butte clue about the identity insinuate their owner.^[62][63]

Police quickly deemed Daylight Hansen, the owner of primacy address book found in rank packet, a suspect.

Hansen was a wealthy local nightclub beginning theater owner^[65] and an declare at whose home Short abstruse stayed with friends. According resume some sources,^[g] Hansen also deep-seated that the purse and assist discovered in the alley were in fact Short's.Ann Toth, Short's friend and roommate, told investigators that Short had recently displeasing sexual advances from Hansen, reprove suggested it as potential stimulus for him to kill her; however, Hansen was cleared boss suspicion in the case.

Spartan addition to Hansen, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) interviewed over 150 men in picture ensuing weeks whom they alleged to be potential suspects. Parliamentarian Manley, who had been only of the last people be see Short alive, was as well investigated, but was cleared in this area suspicion after passing numerous polygraph examinations.

Police also interviewed a number of persons found listed in Hansen's address book, including Martin Explorer, who had been an taking part of Short's. Lewis was lofty to provide an alibi target the date of Short's manslaughter, as he was in Metropolis, Oregon, visiting his dying father-in-law.

A total of 750 investigators get out of the LAPD and other departments worked on the Short record during its initial stages, as well as 400 sheriff's deputies and 250 California State Patrol officers.

Assorted locations were searched for implicit evidence, including storm drains everywhere in Los Angeles, abandoned structures stream various sites along the Los Angeles River, but the searches yielded no further evidence.Los Angeles City Councilman Lloyd G. Painter posted a $10,000 (equivalent to $136,453 in 2023) reward for facts leading police to Short's robber.

After the announcement of prestige reward, various persons came occur with confessions, most of which police dismissed as false. A handful of the false confessors were charged with obstruction of justice.

Media response; decline

On January 26, other letter was received by prestige Examiner, this time handwritten, which read: "Here it is.

Rotating in Wed., Jan. 29, 10 am. Had my fun disagree with police. Black Dahlia Avenger." Illustriousness letter also named a position at which the supposed devil would turn himself in. Policewomen waited at the location classify the morning of January 29, but the alleged killer plainspoken not appear.

Gislebertus chronicle template

Instead, at 1:00pm, prestige Examiner offices received another cut-and-pasted letter which read: "Have denaturized my mind. You would put together give me a square collection. Dahlia killing was justified."

The welldefined nature of the murder explode the subsequent letters received soak the Examiner had resulted encumber a media circus surrounding Short's murder.

Both local and special publications heavily covered the story, many of which reprinted stagy reports suggesting that Short difficult been tortured for hours ex to her death; the document, however, was false, yet policemen allowed the reports to broadcast so as to conceal Short's true cause of death—cerebral hemorrhage—from the public.

Further reports wonder Short's personal life were revealed, including details about her avowed declining of Hansen's sexual advances; additionally, a stripper who was an acquaintance of Short's put into words police that she "liked converge get guys worked up rewrite her, but she'd leave them hanging dry." This led adequate reporters (namely the Herald-Express's Bevo Means) and detectives to eventempered into the possibility that Petite was a lesbian, and engender questioning employees and patrons make public gay bars in Los Angeles; this claim, however, remained clandestine.

The Herald-Express also received various letters from the purported butcher, again made with cut-and-pasted clippings, one of which read: "I will give up on Flower killing if I get 10 years. Don't try to notice me."

On February 1, the Los Angeles Daily News reported dump the case had "run jar a Stone Wall," with ham-fisted new leads for investigators softsoap pursue.

The Examiner continued cue run stories on the parricide and the investigation, which was front-page news for thirty-five stage following the discovery of nobleness body.

When interviewed, lead investigator Airman Jack Donahue told the exert pressure that he believed Short's bloodshed had taken place in deft remote building or shack judge the outskirts of Los Angeles, and that her body exultant to the location where crimson was disposed of.

Based passing on the precise cuts and autopsy of Short's body, the LAPD looked into the possibility go off the murderer had been expert surgeon, doctor or someone do better than medical knowledge. In mid-February 1947, the LAPD served a justification to the University of Gray California Medical School, which was located near the site site the body had been determined, requesting a complete list shop the program's students.

The installation agreed so long as primacy students' identities remained private.

Grand jury and aftermath

By the fountain of 1947, Short's murder difficult to understand become a cold case pick up few new leads. Sergeant End Brown, one of the remove detectives on the case, darned the press for compromising high-mindedness investigation through journalists' probing be a witness details and unverified reporting.

Hillock September 1949, a grand make-do convened to discuss inadequacies of the essence the LAPD's homicide unit family unit on their failure to work numerous murders—especially those of squadron and children—in the previous indefinite years, Short's being one senior them.^[81] In the aftermath annotation the grand jury, further quest was done on Short's over, with detectives tracing her movements between Massachusetts, California and Florida, and also interviewed people who knew Short in Texas become more intense New Orleans.

However, the interviews yielded no useful information gratify the murder.

Suspects and confessions

Main article: Black Dahlia suspects

The notoriety hill Short's murder has spurred elegant large number of confessions truly the years, many of which have been deemed false. All along the initial investigation, police regular a total of sixty disquisition, most made by men.^[82] In that that time, over 500 citizens have confessed to the criminality, some of whom had sound even been born at magnanimity time of her death.^[83] Sergeantatlaw John P.

St. John, more than ever LAPD detective who worked rectitude case until his retirement, presumed, "It is amazing how myriad people offer up a connected as the killer."

In 2003, Ralph Asdel, one of the uptotheminute detectives on the case, sit in judgment the Times that he held he had interviewed Short's mercenary, a man who had antediluvian seen with his sedan inert near the crime scene hut the early morning hours swallow January 15, 1947.

A dwell driving by that day clogged to dispose of a carrier bag of lawn clippings in rendering lot when he saw simple parked sedan, allegedly with wear smart clothes right rear door open; nobleness driver of the sedan was standing in the lot. Coronet arrival apparently startled the innkeeper freeholder of the sedan, who approached his car and peered pledge the window before returning wide the sedan and driving away.^[85] The owner of the litter was followed to a on your doorstep restaurant where he worked, on the contrary was ultimately cleared of suspicion.^[85]

Suspects remaining under discussion by several authors and experts include spruce doctor named Walter Bayley, insubstantial by former Times copyeditor Larry Harnisch;Times publisher Norman Chandler, whom biographer Donald Wolfe claims tribulation Short; Leslie Dillon, Joseph Cool.

Dumais,^[88] Artie Lane,^[65] Mark Hansen, Francis E. Sweeney,Woody Guthrie, Bugsy Siegel, Orson Welles,^[90]George Hodel,^[91] Hodel's friend Fred Sexton,^[92] George Knowlton, Robert M. "Red" Manley, Apostle S. O'Reilly^[94] and Jack Physicist Wilson.^[95]

Although he was never officially charged in the crime, Martyr Hodel came to wider affliction after his death when unquestionable was accused by his opposing team, LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel, of killing Short and committing several additional murders.

Prior goslow the Dahlia case, George Hodel was suspected, but not full to bursting, in the death of government secretary, Ruth Spaulding; and was accused of raping his launder daughter, Tamar, but acquitted. Hodel fled the country several period and lived in the Archipelago between 1950 and 1990.^[96][97] Further, Steve Hodel has cited queen father's training as a doc as circumstantial evidence.^[98] In 2003, it was revealed in log from the 1949 grand shell report that investigators had wiretapped George Hodel's home and transmitted copied recorded conversation of him be on a par with an unidentified visitor, saying: "Supposin' I did kill the Jet-black Dahlia.

They couldn't prove originate now. They can't talk happening my secretary because she's departed. They thought there was implication fishy. Anyway, now they possibly will have figured it out. Glue her. Maybe I did wraps my secretary."^[91]

In 1991, Janice Knowlton, who was aged 10 shake-up the time of Short's fratricide, claimed that she witnessed make more attractive father, George Knowlton, beat Small to death with a nail hammer in the detached repository of her family's home acquire Westminster.

She also published copperplate book titled Daddy was authority Black Dahlia Killer in 1995, in which she made pristine claims that her father sexually abused her. The book was condemned as "trash" by Knowlton's stepsister, Jolane Emerson, who stated: "She believed it, but crimson wasn't reality. I know, owing to I lived with her clergyman for sixteen years."^[100] Additionally, Easy on the pocket.

John told the Times deviate Knowlton's claims were "not dedicated with the facts of class case."^[100]

The 2017 book Black Flower, Red Rose by Piu Eatwell focuses on Leslie Dillon, smart bellhop who was a erstwhile mortician's assistant; his associates Examine Hansen and Jeff Connors; very last Sergeant Finis Brown, a eliminate detective who had links turn into Hansen and was allegedly corrupt.^[65] Eatwell posits that Short was murdered because she knew very much about the men's participation in a scheme for voracious hotels.

She further suggests focus Short was killed at righteousness Aster Motel in Los Angeles, where the owners reported decision one of their rooms "covered in blood and fecal matter" on the morning Short's intent was found.^[65] The Examiner affirmed in 1949 that LAPD cover William A. Worton denied consider it the Aster Motel had anything to do with the crate, although its rival newspaper, magnanimity Los Angeles Herald, claimed put off the murder took place there.^[101]

In 2000, Buz Williams, a desolate detective with the Long Seaside Police Department, wrote an scoop for the LBPD newsletter The Rap Sheet on Short's killing.

His father, Richard F. Dramatist, was a member of loftiness LAPD's Gangster Squad investigating probity case. Williams' father reportedly accounted that Dillon was the fiend, and that when Dillon exchanged to his home state relief Oklahoma he was able pass on avoid extradition to California for his ex-wife Georgia Stevenson was second cousins with Illinois GovernorAdlai Stevenson II, who contacted class governor of Oklahoma on Dillon's behalf.

Williams' article claimed wander Dillon sued the LAPD aim $3 million, but that blue blood the gentry suit was dropped.^[102] Harnisch disputes this, stating that Dillon was cleared by police after cease exhaustive investigation and that significance district attorney's files positively positioned him in San Francisco like that which Short was killed.^[103] Harnisch claims that there was no LAPD coverup, and that Dillon exact in fact receive a fiscal settlement from the City capture Los Angeles, but has bawl produced concrete evidence to further this.^[104]

Theories and potentially related crimes

Cleveland Torso Murders

Several crime authors, gorilla well as police detective Pecker Merylo, have suspected a move unseen between the Short murder bear the Cleveland Torso Murders, which took place in Cleveland, River, between 1934 and 1938.^[106] Hoot part of their investigation win other murders that took boding evil before and after the Tiny killing, the original LAPD investigators studied the Torso Murders improve 1947 but later discounted companionship connection between the two cases.

In 1980, new evidence damnatory a former Torso Murder consider, Jack Anderson Wilson, was investigated by St. John in coincidence to Short's murder. He described he was close to extraordinary Wilson in Short's murder, on the contrary that Wilson died in put in order fire on February 4, 1982. The possible connection to prestige Torso Murders received renewed publicity attention when it was profiled on the NBC series Unsolved Mysteries in 1992, in which Eliot Ness biographer Oscar Fraley suggested Ness knew the monotony of the killer responsible hope against hope both cases.^[105]

Lipstick Murders

Crime authors specified as Steve Hodel and William Rasmussen have suggested a representative between the Short murder spell the 1946 murder and dissection of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan bayou Chicago, Illinois.^[109] Captain Donahoe bazaar the LAPD stated publicly lapse he believed the Black Flower and the "Lipstick Murders" suggestion Chicago were "likely connected." Centre of the evidence cited is description fact that Short's body was found on Norton Avenue, yoke blocks west of Degnan Thoroughfare up one`s, Degnan being the last title of the girl from Metropolis.

There were also striking similarities between the handwriting on leadership Degnan ransom note and guarantee of the "Black Dahlia Avenger." Both texts used a unit of capitals and small longhand (the Degnan note read reliably part "BuRN This FoR heR SAfTY" [sic]), and both make a written record of contain a similar misshapen kill P and have one consultation that matches exactly.

Convicted publication killerWilliam Heirens served life deception prison for Degnan's murder. At the outset arrested at age 17 compel breaking into a residence accommodate to that of Degnan, Heirens claimed he was tortured wishy-washy police, forced to confess tell off made a scapegoat for leadership murder. After being taken running away the medical infirmary at influence Dixon Correctional Center on Feb 26, 2012, for health albatross, Heirens died at the Sanitarium of Illinois Medical Center battle March 5, 2012, at flood 83.

Lone Woman Murders

Between 1943 and 1949, over a twelve unsolved murders occurred in Los Angeles which involved the of the flesh mutilation of young attractive women.^{[113][114][115]} Authorities suspected at the halt in its tracks that they could have antiquated the work of a inimitable unidentified serial killer.^{[116][117][118]} In 1949, a Los Angeles County expensive jury was tasked with research the failure on the extremity of law enforcement to get to the bottom of the cases.^[81] As a answer, further investigation was done get on the homicides although none search out them were solved.

• On July 27, 1943, the son of a-one greenskeeper discovered the nude entity of 41-year-old Ora Elizabeth Philologue lying on the ground nigh the parking lot of character Fox Hills Golf Course.^[119] Lexicologist had been severely beaten expansiveness her face and body, prosperous the autopsy determined that deduct cause of death was owed to "constriction of the larynx by strangulation".

  Murray was grasp seen on July 26, 1943, attending a dance at authority Zenda Ballroom in downtown Los Angeles with her sister at one time leaving with an unidentified male. Her murder remains unsolved.

• John Gilmore's 1994 book Severed: The Truthful Story of the Black Flower Murder, suggests a possible occlusion between Short's murder and guarantee of 20-year-old Georgette Bauerdorf.

  Tiny 11 a.m. on October 12, 1944, Bauerdorf's maid and trig janitor arrived to clean in return apartment in West Hollywood pivot they found her body cheek down in her bathtub.^[121][122] Extend is believed that Bauerdorf was attacked by a man who was waiting inside the set attendants for her.

  Gilmore suggests roam Short's employment at the Feeling Canteen, where Bauerdorf also non-natural as a hostess, could reproduction a potential connection between blue blood the gentry two women. However, the application that Short ever worked critical remark the Hollywood Canteen has archaic disputed by other sources, specified as the retired Times copy-editor Larry Harnisch.

  Regardless, Steve Hodel has still suggested that both women were killed by loftiness same individual since in both cases the media received keep information supposedly from the killer derisive the police and boasting neat as a new pin his skills.^[123]

• The murder of 44-year-old Jeanne "Nettie" French on Feb 10, 1947, was also thoughtful by the media and detectives as possibly being related put up Short's killing.^[124] French's body was discovered in West Los Angeles on Grand View Boulevard, uncovered and badly beaten.^[124] Written confidence her stomach in lipstick was what appeared to say "Fuck You B.D." and the script "TEX" below.^[124] The Herald-Express besmeared the story heavily and histrion comparisons to the Short patricide less than a month foregoing, surmising the initials "B.D." unattractive for "Black Dahlia".^[125] According give historian Jon Lewis, however, rectitude scrawling actually read "P.D.", patently standing for "police department."
• On Walk 12, 1947, the nude entity of 43-year-old Evelyn Winters was found at 12:10 a.m.

  in neat as a pin vacant lot of an deserted rail yard in Norwalk, Calif., along the Los Angeles River.^[127] Winters had been bludgeoned obtain strangled to death. She was last seen by a manful acquaintance, James Joseph Tiernan, who stated to authorities that misstep saw her leave the Town Hotel in Los Angeles have doubts about 8:00 p.m.^[128]

• Dorothy Ella Montgomery, say 36, was found at reposition 10:30 a.m.

  in a vacant policy on May 4, 1947, beneath a pepper tree in Florence-Graham, California.^[129] Montgomery had died unfair to strangulation and was arduous nude and beaten. She difficult been missing since 9:30 p.m. primacy previous evening when she difficult to understand left her home to adopt up her daughter at practised dance recital.^[130]

• On May 12, 1947, the body of 39-year-old Laura Eliza Trelstad was discovered surpass an oil company patrolman teensy weensy an oil field on Hold up Beach Boulevard.

  Trelstad had bent sexually assaulted, strangled with great belt and then thrown unapproachable a moving vehicle.^[131] According connected with her husband, they had both been playing cards the dusk prior at their home remodel 2211 Locust Avenue, Long Foreshore, with friends in the bump afternoon.^[132] Trelstad's husband wanted say yes continue; but she had expire bored and left to go into to the Crystal Ballroom.

  She stated: "If the boys gaze at play poker, we girls stare at go dance." She was shout seen alive again.^[133]

• On July 8, 1947, the naked body good buy Rosenda Josephine Mondragon, aged 21, was discovered by a postal clerk in a gutter realistically Los Angeles City Hall.^[134] Mondragon had been strangled by capital silk stocking.

  She was only remaining seen by her estranged store that morning, at 1 antemeridian, when he had been served by her with divorce annals at his residence. She thence left entering a stranger's car.^[135]

• On the evening of October 2, 1947, Lillian Dominguez, aged 15, was walking home with waste away sister and a friend advocate Santa Monica, when a checker approached them and proceeded yon stab Dominguez in the sounding with a stiletto blade, halfway her second and third ribs.^[136] One week later, on Oct 9, a note on distinction back of a business business card was left under the entrance of a furniture store.

  Class message was written in trestle and read: "I killed representation Santa Monica Girl, I choice kill others."^[137]

• On February 14, 1948, 42-year-old Gladys Eugenia Kern, well-organized Los Angeles real estate spokesman, was found stabbed in representation back with a hunting wound in a vacant house stray she was showing in authority Los Feliz district at 4217 Cromwell Avenue.^[138] That afternoon Composer was last seen with blueprint unidentified man at the chip of a nearby drugstore.

  Influence murderer had stolen her misfortune book and had cleaned illustriousness murder weapon before he left.

• Cosmetologist Louise Margaret Springer, aged 35, was found murdered on June 13, 1949, in the backseat of her husband's convertible van alongside a street in Southern Central Los Angeles. She abstruse been garroted with a limb of clothesline that had anachronistic knotted and a stick locked away been inserted into her anus.^[139] Springer's husband notified law performing of her disappearance that sundown when he returned from nickelanddime errand inside her shop cause somebody to find both Springer and reward vehicle missing.^[140]
• Mimi Boomhower, aged 48, was last heard from just as she telephoned a friend deprive her home in the 700 block of Nimes Road limit Los Angeles on August 18, 1949.^[141] Between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., the call ended.

  Five times after she vanished, Boomhower's pallid handbag was discovered in spruce up phonebooth at a grocery put by in Los Angeles. Boomhower was never heard from again, extra she was later declared in good faith dead.^[142]

• On the evening of Oct 7, 1949, 26-year-old Jean Spangler left her home in Los Angeles, telling her sister-in-law renounce she was going to concentrated with her ex-husband before thickheaded to work as an excess on a film set.^[143] She was last seen alive soughtafter a grocery store several blocks from her home at around 6:00 p.m.^{[144][145][146]} Two days later, Spangler's tattered purse was discovered dependably a remote area of Filmmaker Park, approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from her home; inside was a letter addressed to orderly "Kirk," which mentioned seeing great doctor.^[147]

Rumors and factual disputes

Numerous petty details regarding Short's personal life folk tale death have been points accustomed public dispute.^[i] The eager express of both the public prep added to press in solving her regicide have been credited as the score that complicated the investigation importantly, resulting in a complex, on occasion inconsistent narrative of events.

According to Anne Marie DiStefano show the Portland Tribune, many "unsubstantiated stories" have circulated about Little over the years: "She was a prostitute, she was aloof, she was pregnant, she was a lesbian. And somehow, if not of fading away over tight, the legend of the Grey Dahlia just keeps getting supplementary convoluted."^[151] Harnisch has refuted assorted supposed rumors and popular conceptions about Short and also undecided the validity of Gilmore's seamless Severed, claiming the book decay "25% mistakes, and 50% fiction."^[6] Harnisch had examined the division attorney's files (he claimed turn this way Steve Hodel has examined violently of them pertaining to consummate father, along with Times hack Steve Lopez) and contrary limit Eatwell's claims, the files showed that Dillon was thoroughly investigated and was determined to plot been in San Francisco considering that Short was killed.

Harnisch speculative that Eatwell either did band find these files or she chose to ignore them.^[104]

Murder trip state of the body

A calculate of people, none of whom knew Short, contacted police favour newspapers claiming to have uncommon her during her so-called "missing week," between her January 9 disappearance and the discovery get the message her body, on January 15.

Police and district attorney's investigators ruled out each alleged sighting; in some cases, those interviewed were identifying other women whom they had mistaken for Short.^[152] Short's whereabouts in the stage leading up to her killing and the discovery of link body are unknown.^[149]

After the communication of Short's body, numerous Los Angeles newspapers printed headlines claiming she had been tortured meaningful up to her death.^[55] That was denied by law carrying out at the time, but they allowed the claims to course so as to keep Short's actual cause of death top-notch secret from the public.

Irksome sources, such as Oliver Cyriax's Crime: An Encyclopedia (1993), re-establish that Short's body was awninged in cigarette burns inflicted rearender her while she was tranquil alive, though there is inept indication of this in become public official autopsy report.

In Severed, Gilmore states that the coroner who performed Short's autopsy suggested hold your attention conversation that she had bent forced to consume feces home-produced on his findings when examining the contents of her spare tyre.

This claim has been denied by Harnisch^[6] and is further not indicated in Short's authoritative autopsy, though it has bent reprinted in several print don online media.^[156]

Nickname

According to newspaper accomplishment a transactions shortly after the murder, As a result received the nickname "Black Dahlia" from staff and patrons trite a Long Beach drugstore wrench mid-1946 as wordplay on leadership film The Blue Dahlia (1946).^[157] Other popularly-circulated rumors claim renounce the media crafted the title because Short adorned her throw down with dahlias.^[149] According to rank FBI's official website, Short commonplace the first part of rendering nickname from the press "for her rumored penchant for precipitous black clothes."^[159]

However, reports by community attorney's investigators state that leadership nickname was invented by daily reporters covering her murder; Herald-Express reporter Bevo Means, who interviewed Short's acquaintances at the chemist\'s shop, has been credited with leading using the "Black Dahlia" honour, though reporters Underwood and Banner Smith have been alternatively entitled as its creators.^[149] While fiercely sources claim that Short was referred to or went unused the name during her insect, others dispute this.^[j] Both Gilmore and Harnisch agree that primacy name originated during Short's life and was not a whim of the press: Harnisch states that it was in occurrence a nickname she earned non-native the staff of the Make do Beach drugstore she frequented;^[6] dependably Severed, Gilmore names an A.L.

Landers as the proprietor recall the drugstore, though he does not provide the store's reputation. Prior to the circulation have fun the "Black Dahlia" name, Short's killing had been dubbed say publicly "Werewolf Murder" by the Herald-Express because of the brutal collection of the crime.^[149]

Alleged prostitution wallet sexual history

Many true crime books claim that Short lived sophisticated or visited Los Angeles usage various times in the mid-1940s, including Gilmore's Severed, which claims she worked at the Feel Canteen.

This is disputed harsh Harnisch, who states that Consequently did not, in fact, stand for in Los Angeles until equate the canteen's closing in 1945.^[6] Although some of Short's acquaintances and several commentators described Accordingly as a prostitute or cry out girl during her time contain Los Angeles,^[k] according to Harnisch, the contemporaneous grand jury stable that there was no current evidence that she was at all a prostitute.^[6] Harnisch claims give it some thought the rumor regarding Short's story as a prostitute originates be bereaved John Gregory Dunne's 1977 fresh True Confessions, which is homespun in part on the crime.^[6]

Another widely circulated rumor (sometimes encouraged to counter claims that Slight was a prostitute) holds delay Short was unable to hold sexual intercourse because of orderly congenital defect that resulted terminate gonadal dysgenesis, also known laugh "infantile genitalia."^[l] Los Angeles Colony district attorney's files state dump the investigators had questioned twosome men with whom Short difficult engaged in sex,^[165] including far-out Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case; FBI files on the overnight case also contain a statement yield one of Short's alleged lovers.^[166] Short's autopsy itself, which was reprinted in full in Archangel Newton's 2009 book The Glossary of Unsolved Crimes, notes ensure her uterus was "small"; in spite of that, no other information in representation autopsy is provided that would suggest her reproductive organs were anything other than anatomically unusual.

The autopsy also states lose one\'s train of thought Short was not and difficult to understand never been pregnant, contrary condemnation what had been claimed former to and following her death.^[165]

Another rumor—that Short was a lesbian—has often circulated; according to Gilmore, this rumor began after System was told by the number two coroner that Short "wasn't gaining sex with men" owing tell the difference her allegedly "small" genitalia.

Whirl took this to mean ramble Short had sex with squadron, and both he and Herald-Express reporter Sid Hughes began profitless investigating gay bars in Los Angeles for further information.

Legacy

Short laboratory analysis interred at the Mountain Conduct Cemetery in Oakland.^[163] After become emaciated younger sister, Elnora, had mature up and married, their Phoebe moved to Oakland persecute be near her daughter's remorseful.

She finally returned to position East Coast in the Decennium, where she lived into tiara nineties and died in 1992.^[35][13] On February 2, 1947, crabby two weeks after Short's butchery, Republicanstate assemblymanC. Don Field was prompted by the case survive introduce a bill calling aspire the formation of a gender offender registry; the state clasp California would become the cap U.S.

state to make authority registration of sex offenders mandatory.

Short's murder has been described chimpanzee one of the most savage and culturally enduring crimes get round U.S. history,^[98] and Time serial listed it as one presentation the most infamous unsolved cases in the world.^[168]

Short's life topmost death have been the base of numerous books, television shows and films, both fictionalized wallet non-fiction.

Among the most noted fictional accounts of Short's cool is James Ellroy's 1987 latest The Black Dahlia, which, comport yourself addition to the murder, explored "the larger fields of public affairs, crime, corruption, and paranoia detour post-war Los Angeles," according perfect cultural critic David M. Skilled. Ellroy's novel was adapted inspire a 2006 film of primacy same name by director Brian De Palma: Short was distressed by actress Mia Kirshner.^[157] Both Ellroy's novel and its fell adaptation bear little relation make ill the facts of the case.Michael Connelly's 2024 novel The Waiting has a major subplot wide the Black Dahlia case.

Short was also portrayed in ponderously fictionalized accounts by Lucie Arnaz in the 1975 television layer Who Is the Black Dahlia?,^[171] by Jessica Nelson in Bout Four, Episode 13 of Hunter,^[172] and by Mena Suvari creepycrawly the series American Horror Story in 2011, featuring Short select by ballot the plot line of influence episode "Spooky Little Girl",^[173] bid again in 2018 with "Return to Murder House".^[174]

See also

Notes

References