Elizabeth Short^[1][2][3] (July 29, 1924 – ca. January 15, 1947) was an American woman and the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. She acquired the moniker The Black Dahlia posthumously by newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly colorful. Short was found mutilated, her body severed at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation along with several books and film adaptations.

Early life

Elizabeth Short was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the third of five daughters of Cleo Short and Phoebe Mae Sawyer. Her father built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash, in which he lost much of the family's assets. In 1930, he parked his car on a bridge and vanished,^[4] leading some to believe he had committed suicide. Short's mother moved the family to a small apartment in Medford, and found work as a bookkeeper. It was not until later that Short would discover her father was alive and was living in California.

Troubled by asthma and bronchitis, Short was sent to live for the winter in Miami, Florida at the age of 16. She spent the next three years living there during the cold months and in Medford the remainder of the year. At age 19, Short travelled to Vallejo, California, to live with her father, who was working nearby at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, located on San Francisco Bay. The two moved to Los Angeles in early 1943, but an altercation resulted in her leaving there and finding work in the post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, California. Short next moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943, for underage drinking. Following her arrest, she was sent back to Medford by the juvenile authorities in Santa Barbara. Short then returned to Florida to live, with occasional visits back to Massachusetts.

In Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., a decorated United States Army Air Corps officer who was assigned to the 2nd Air Commando Group and in training for deployment to China Burma India Theater of Operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote her a letter from India proposing marriage while he was recovering from injuries he sustained from an airplane crash. She accepted his proposal, but Gordon died in an airplane crash on August 10, 1945, before he could return to the United States. She later exaggerated this story, saying that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air commandos confirmed that Gordon and Short were engaged, his family denied any connection after Short's murder.

Elizabeth Short returned to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Corps Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, an old boyfriend she had met in Florida during the war. At the time Short returned to Los Angeles, Fickling was stationed at NARB, Long Beach. For the six months prior to her death, Short remained in southern California, mainly in the Los Angeles area. During this time, she lived in several hotels, apartment buildings, rooming houses, and private homes, never staying anywhere for more than two weeks.^{[citation needed]}

Murder and aftermath

The body of Elizabeth Short was found on January 15, 1947, on vacant land located midway between Coliseum and 39 Street on the west side of Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. The body was discovered by local resident Betty Bersinger, who was walking with her three-year-old daughter^[5]. Her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood^[6] and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears. The body had been washed and cleaned and she had been "posed" with her hands over her head and elbows bent at right angles.^[4]

The autopsy stated Short was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), weighed 115 pounds (52 kg), and had light blue eyes, brown hair, and badly decayed teeth. Although the skull was not fractured, Short had bruising 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. Cause of death was blood loss from the lacerations to the face combined with shock due to a concussion of the brain.

On January 24, 1947, the killer mailed a packet to a 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, the last person known to have seen Short alive (on January 9) became the prime suspect. On January 25, Short's handbag and one shoe were found in a rubbish bin a short distance from Norton Avenue. Due to the notoriety of the case, 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 released. Sergeant 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."

Gerry Ramlow, a Los Angeles Daily News reporter later stated: "If the murder was never solved it was because of the reporters ... They were all over, trampling evidence, withholding information." It took several days for Homicide to take full control of the investigation and reporters roamed freely throughout the departments offices, sat at desks, and answered the phones. Many tips from the public were not passed on to police as reporters rushed out to get "scoops". William Randolph Hearst's papers, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner sensationalised 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." As time passed the media coverage became more outragious with claims her lifestyle "made her victim material," when in fact those who knew her all reported that Short did not smoke, drink or swear.

Short was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. After her other sisters had grown and married, Short's mother moved to Oakland to be near her daughter's grave. Phoebe Short finally returned to the East Coast in the 1970s and lived into her nineties.^[4]

Rumors and popular misconceptions

According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Elizabeth Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a word play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state, however, that the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. Los Angeles Herald-Express reporter Bevo Means, who interviewed Short's acquaintances at the drug store, is credited with first using the "Black Dahlia" name.^[7]

A number of people, none of whom knew Short, contacted police and the newspapers claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week"—a time period between the time of her January 9 disappearance and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, wherein, in some cases, those interviewed were identifying other women they had mistaken for Short.^[8]

Many "true crime" books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid 1940s; these claims have never been substantiated and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case. A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946" states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946 and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period. Although a popular portrayal amongst her acquaintances and many true crime authors was of Short as a call girl, the Los Angeles district attorney's grand jury proved there was no existing evidence that she was ever a prostitute and the district attorney's office attributes the claim to confusion with a prostitute of the same name. Another widely circulated rumor holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of a congenital defect that left her with "infantile genitalia." Los Angeles County district attorney's files state that the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had sex,^[9] including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case.^[10] The FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's alleged lovers. Found in the Los Angeles district attorney's files and in the Los Angeles Police Department's summary of the case, Short's autopsy describes her reproductive organs as anatomically normal although the report notes evidence of what it called "female trouble." The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what had been claimed prior to and following her death.^[9]

Suspects

At the time, the Black Dahlia murder investigation was the largest LAPD investigation since the murder of Marion Parker in 1927.^{[citation needed]} Because of the size of the investigation, the case also enlisted the help of hundreds of officers borrowed from other law enforcement agencies. Because of the complexity of the case, the original investigators treated every person who knew Short with suspicion until eliminated as a suspect.^{[citation needed]} Around two hundred people were considered suspects and thousands were interviewed by police.^{[citation needed]} Owing to the nature of the crime, sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage focused intense public attention on the case. Most of the approximately 50 people who confessed to the murder were men.

Theories and possible related murders

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.^[11] 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 discounted any relationship between the two cases.^{[citation needed]} The LAPD continued to look for similarities in other murder cases for possible connections well into the 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

Crime authors such as Steve Hodel have suggested a link between the Short murder and the 1946 murder and dismemberment of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago.^[12] 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. Currently, convicted serial killer William Heirens is serving time for Degnan's murder. Initially arrested at age 17 for breaking into a residence close to that of Suzanne Degnan, Heirens claims he was tortured by police, forced to confess, and made a scapegoat in the Degnan murder.^{[citation needed]}

Books, films, and other media

Adaptations

• A 1975 TV movie about the case, Who Is the Black Dahlia? by Robert Lenski and starring Lucie Arnaz, is a highly fictionalized version of the murder. Many details were changed because several people, including Short's mother and Red Manley, who brought Short from San Diego to Los Angeles, refused to sign releases for the studio.
• A film by Brian De Palma, The Black Dahlia, based on the James Ellroy novel described below, stars Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Rose McGowan and Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short and was released in September 2006.

Selected references in other media

Music

• The Black Dahlia Murder (band)
• The song "In California" by alt-country songwriter Neko Case contains the lyric, "the Black Dahlia smiles and smiles," a reference to the lacerations to Short's face.

Literature

• John Gregory Dunne used the murder as a point of departure in his 1977 novel True Confessions, which was made into the 1981 film of the same name starring Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro with a screenplay by Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion.
• Neo-noir author James Ellroy based his 1987 book, The Black Dahlia on the crime.
• Max Allan Collins combined the Black Dahlia and Cleveland Torso Murder in his Shamus Award-winning 2002 novel Angel in Black, featuring his character, private investigator Nathan Heller.
• William Randolph Fowler, a reporter at the scene of the crime, included the Black Dahlia case in his 1991 autobiography Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman.
• The book Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism And The Black Dahlia Murder by Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss compares the Black Dahlia murder to surrealist art.
• Jack Webb's novel The Badge includes an entire section devoted to the case of the Black Dahlia.
• The plot of the Lynda La Plante novel The Red Dahlia features a copycat killer emulating the Black Dahlia case. The book has since been adapted into the 2010 TV mini-series Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia.

Television and film

• The case inspired the 1953 noir film The Blue Gardenia, including a title song sung by Nat King Cole.
• In the thirteenth episode of season 4 ("The Black Dahlia"-1988) of the NBC television series Hunter, Sgt. Rick Hunter investigates the Black Dahlia case, as old bones with cuts identical to Elizabeth Short's are found under an old building.

See also

• Glasgow smile
• Black Dahlia suspects

References

Further reading

• Daniel, Jacque (2004). The Curse of the Black Dahlia. Los Angeles: Digital Data Werks. ISBN 0-9651604-2-4. 
• Fowler, Will (1991). Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman. Minneapolis: Roundtable Publishing. ISBN 0-915677-61-X. 
• Gilmore, John (2006) [1994]. Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia. Los Angeles: Amok Books. ISBN 1-878923-17-X. 
• Hodel, Steve (2003). Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder. New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-664-3. 
• Knowlton, Janice; Newton, Michael (1995). Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer: The Identity of America's Most Notorious Serial Murderer – Revealed at Last. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-88084-5. 
• Nelson, Mark; Sarah Hudson Bayliss (2006). Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder. New York: Bulfinch Press. ISBN ISBN 0-8212-5819-2. 
• Pacios, Mary (1999). Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse. ISBN 1-58500-484-7. 
• Rasmussen, William T. (2005). Corroborating Evidence: The Black Dahlia Murder. Santa Fe, NM: Sunstone Press. ISBN 0-86534-536-8. 
• Richardson, James (1954). For the Life of Me: Memoirs of a City Editor. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. (ISBN unavailable). 
• Smith, Jack (1981). Jack Smith's L.A. New York: Pinnacle Books. ISBN 0-523-41493-5. 
• Underwood, Agness (1949). Newspaperwoman. New York: Harper and Brothers. (ISBN unavailable). 
• Wagner, Rob Leicester (2000). Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers, 1920–1962. Upland, Calif.: Dragonflyer Press. (ISBN ISBN 0-944933-80-7). 
• Webb, Jack (1958). The Badge: The Inside Story of One of America's Great Police Departments. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-09-949973-8. 
• Wolfe, Donald H. (2005). The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles. New York: ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-058249-9. 

External links

• Black Dahlia Killer Profile on America's Most Wanted
• Black Dahlia in The Los Angeles Times.
• truTV entry for Black Dahlia.
• The FBI's Black Dahlia files from the FBI's Freedom of Information Act site.

  Note that the FBI file incorrectly lists her as Elizabeth Ann Short. In reality, she had no middle name.

  • FBI file Part 1
  • FBI file Part 2
  • FBI file Part 3
  • FBI file Part 4
• "Somebody Knows" episode a 1950 radio program on the case.
• Black Dahlia murder with rare photos from the LA Public Library
• "Black Dahlia". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4490. Retrieved August 11, 2010. 
• The Black Dahlia