When I first heard of The Black Dahlia I thought it was a movie, not a true crime. Turns out that movie was The Blue Dahlia and The Black Dahlia was the name given to a woman called Elizabeth Short not long after she was found bisected and mutilated. The crime did later become a movie in 2006, as well as featuring in an episode of American Horror Story: The Murder House and numerous other shows and movies.
The story is gruesome, disturbing, and unsolved. That is unless you believe that a police officer’s father could have been the murderer.
Who was Elizabeth Short, better known as The Black Dahlia?
Plagued by Bronchitis and Asthma, Elizabeth underwent lung surgery at the age of fifteen and was advised by the doctors to live in a milder climate during the winter. So for the next three years, Elizabeth left Massachusetts, where she’d lived since she was born in July 1924, and her four sisters to stay with family friends in Florida.
Her mother was Phoebe, who became a bookkeeper to support her children after their father Cleo’s car was found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge. It was presumed to be a suicide as a result of monetary problems.
But when Elizabeth was 18 they received a letter from Cleo who had started a new life in California. Elizabeth decided to join him but things didn’t go well and she eventually moved out. It wasn’t long before she was in trouble with the law, getting herself arrested for underage drinking in a local bar the authorities decided to send her back to her mother. Instead, Elizabeth went to Florida where she met and got engaged to an Army Airforce Officer who would die in a plane crash before they could get married.
But when Elizabeth was 18 they received a letter from Cleo who had started a new life in California. Elizabeth decided to join him but things didn’t go well and she eventually moved out. It wasn’t long before she was in trouble with the law, getting herself arrested for underage drinking in a local bar the authorities decided to send her back to her mother. Instead, Elizabeth went to Florida where she met and got engaged to an Army Airforce Officer who would die in a plane crash before they could get married.
Returning to California, this time to Los Angeles, she worked as a waitress and rented a room behind a nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. And whilst many said she aspired to be an actress she had no acting credits to her name.
Last seen alive on the 9th of January 1947, in the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge at 754 South Olive Street.
Time of Death: between the evening of Jan 14 and the early hours of Jan 15
Six days later she was discovered -severed at the waist and drained of blood, her face slashed from mouth to ears, the body washed clean of additional evidence, and posed with legs spread and arms raised- by a mother out walking with her young daughter.
Entire portions of flesh had been cut from her thighs and breasts, and her intestines were tucked beneath her bottom. Near the body were a sack of watery blood and a boot heel amongst tire tracks.
Any other evidence could have been erased by the early presence of locals, passersby and reporters. Including one from the Los Angeles Express-Herold who took the first photos of Elizabeth Short as she was found.
The autopsy revealed ligature marks on her wrists, ankles, and neck. Further superficial lacerations. And that the bifurcation was done following a known procedure from the 1930s used to amputate the lower half of the body and in this instance, performed after death. She had also most likely received blows to the head whilst alive and there were indicators of rape.
Misleading Phoebe
Reporters told Elizabeth’s mother that her daughter had won a beauty contest in an attempt to get as much information as they could from her. It was only when they had exhausted their enquiry that they revealed the truth.
Offering her air fares and a hotel, the media kept Phoebe away from the police to enable them to get the exclusive.
The Call
The editor of The Examiner got a phone call on the 21st January 1947 congratulating him on his reporting skills and indicating that the caller was the killer. Saying that whilst he might eventually turn himself in, he wasn’t ready to do that just yet. The editor was to expect further evidence in the mail and a suspicious package soon followed, which contained Elizabeth’s birth certificate, some business cards, photographs, handwritten names, and Mark Hanson’s address book -a wealthy nightclub owner who was quickly considered a suspect before being cleared of suspicion.
Like the body, the package had been cleaned. However, partial fingerprints were lifted from the package by the FBI but couldn’t be fully analyzed. Further evidence was recovered by police from a bin in an alley not far from where her body had been found. But again, they had been wiped clean and there was very little to connect them to Elizabeth.
The Beach
In an odd twist, a pile of clothes was found on the beach with a suicide note in one shoe which read:
To whom it may concern: I have waited for the police to capture me for the Black Dahlia killing, but have not. I am too much of a coward to turn myself in, so this is the best way out for me. I couldn’t help myself for that, or this. Sorry, Mary.
The Black Dahlia – Wikipedia
The clothes gave no indication of to whom they belonged.
Other Suspects in The Black Dahlia Murder
During the course of the investigation, the police interviewed over 150 possible male suspects. They cleared Robert Manley, a salesman who had been dating Elizabeth and one of the last people to see her alive, using polygraph tests. And interviewed a number of people mentioned in the Hanson address book.
The police searched storm drains, abandoned structures, and sites along the Los Angeles River. They were of the opinion that Elizabeth had been murdered somewhere remote and then her remains transported to where she was found. They suspected that the murderer had some medical training due to the nature of her bisection and as a result did an investigation into the local medical university’s students, running background checks. But they found nothing of significance.
Over 560 people have confessed to The Black Dahlia Murder. And many have come forward to offer up one of their relatives as the murderer, including George Hill Hodel Jr by his son, Homicide Detective Steve Hodel. This included the information that George Hill Hodel Jr had some medical training and may have been involved in the death of his secretary.
Rumours and misleading facts have circulated over the years from authors to newspapers to the confessors to those who purportedly knew Elizabeth Short whilst she lived in Los Angeles. Most can be debunked or have little to no corroborating evidence.
The facts and the evidence from the police investigation and autopsy at the time include:
- She was bisected in the way described in a medical journal from the 1930s -performed post-mortem
- Drained of blood -had been bled out at another location
- Slashed from mouth to ears
- Body washed clean
- posed with legs spread and arms raised
- portions of flesh cut from breast and thigh
- laceration from the belly button down
- Intestines under her bottom
- A bag of watery blood at the scene
- Bootheel and tire tracks
- Ligature marks on wrists, ankles, and neck
- superficial lacerations
- indicators of rape
- blows to head on the front and right side
- Cause of death: haemorrhaging from injuries inflicted to face and head
Perhaps this is one that will never be solved. Who do you think did it?
Horror and Fantasy Author – Also writing as K.T. McQueen. Love Western Horror, cowboy boots, my cactus Collin, & my Demon Cat.
Moths – I hate moths, the way they flutter at your face!
