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) |
| Cause of death | Homicide (cerebral hemorrhage)[1] |
| Resting place | Mountain View Cemetery,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 as theBlack Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in theLeimert Park neighborhood ofLos Angeles,California, on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized owing to the gruesome nature of the crime, which included themutilation andbisection of her corpse.
A native ofBoston, Short spent her early life inNew England andFlorida before relocating to California, where her father lived. It is commonly held that she was an aspiring actress, though she had no known acting credits or jobs during her time in Los Angeles. Short acquired the nickname of the Black Dahlia posthumously, as newspapers of the period often nicknamed particularly lurid crimes; the term may have originated from thefilm noir thrillerThe Blue Dahlia (1946). After the discovery of her body, theLos Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began an extensive investigation that produced over150 suspects but yielded no arrests.
Short'sunsolved murder and the details surrounding it have had a lasting cultural impact, generating various theories and public speculation. Her life and death have been the basis of numerous books and films, and her murder is frequently cited as one of the most famous unsolved murders in U.S. history, as well as one of the oldest unsolved cases inLos Angeles County.[2] It has likewise been credited by historians as one of the first major crimes inpostwar America to capture national attention.[a]
Elizabeth Short[b] was born on July 29, 1924, in theHyde Park neighborhood ofBoston,Massachusetts, the third of five daughters to Cleo Alvin Short Jr. (October 18, 1885 – January 19, 1967) and his wife, Phoebe May Sawyer (July 2, 1897 – March 1, 1992).[8][9] Her sisters were Virginia May West (born 1920), Dorothea Schloesser (born 1922), Elnora Chalmers (born 1925) and Muriel Short (born 1929).[10][11] Short's father was aUnited States Navy sailor fromGloucester Courthouse,Virginia,[12] while her mother was a native ofMilbridge,Maine.[13] The Shorts were married inPortland, Maine, in 1918.[12] The Short family briefly relocated to Portland in 1927,[14] before settling inMedford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, that same year.[15]
Short's father builtminiature golf courses until he lost most of his savings in the1929 stock market crash.[9] In 1930, his car was found abandoned on theCharlestown Bridge,[16] and it was assumed that he had jumped into theCharles River.[16] Believing her husband to be deceased, Short's mother began working as abookkeeper to support the family.[16] Troubled bybronchitis and severeasthma attacks, Short underwentlung surgery at age 15, after which doctors suggested she periodically relocate to a milder climate to prevent further respiratory problems.[17] Her mother sent her to spend winters with family friends inMiami,Florida, for the next three years.[18] Short dropped out ofMedford High School during hersophomore year.[19]
In late 1942, Short's mother received a letter of apology from her presumed-deceased husband, which revealed that he was in fact alive and had started a new life inCalifornia.[19] In December of that year, at age 18, Short relocated toVallejo, California, to live with her father, whom she had not seen since age 6.[20] At the time her father was working at the nearbyMare Island Naval Shipyard onSan Francisco Bay. Arguments between Short and her father led to her moving out in January 1943.[21]
Short took a job at theBase Exchange at Camp Cooke (nowVandenberg Space Force Base) nearLompoc, California, briefly living with aUnited States Army Air Force sergeant who reportedly abused her.[21] She left Lompoc in mid-1943 and moved toSanta Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23 for drinking at a local bar while underage.[22] Juvenile authorities sent her back to Massachusetts,[c] but she returned instead to Florida, making only occasional visits to her family near Boston.[25]
While in Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., a decorated Army Air Force officer of the2nd Air Commando Group, who was training for deployment toSoutheast Asian theater ofWorld War II. Short later told friends that Gordon had written to propose marriage while he was recovering from injuries from a plane crash inIndia.[26] She accepted his offer, but Gordon died in a second crash on August 10, 1945.[27] Short's sister Dorothea also served in the war and was assigned to decode Japanese messages.[28]
In July 1946, Short relocated toLos Angeles to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, an acquaintance from Florida,[29] who was stationed at theNaval Reserve Air Base inLong Beach.[30] Short spent the last six months of her life insouthern California, mostly in the Los Angeles area; shortly before her death she had been working as a waitress and rented a room behind the Florentine Gardens nightclub onHollywood Boulevard.[31] Short has been variously described and depicted as an aspiring or "would-be" actress.[32] According to some sources, she did in fact have aspirations to be a film star,[33] though she had no known acting jobs or credits.[d]
On January 9, 1947, Short returned to her home in Los Angeles after a brief trip toSan Diego with Robert "Red" Manley, a 25-year-old married salesman she had been dating.[31] Manley stated that he dropped Short off at theBiltmore Hotel indowntown Los Angeles, and that Short was to meet one of her sisters, who was visiting from Boston, that afternoon.[31] By some accounts, staff of the Biltmore recalled having seen Short using the lobby telephone.[e] Shortly after, she was allegedly seen by patrons of the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge at 754 South Olive Street, approximately3⁄8 mile (600 m) away from the Biltmore.[31]
On the morning of January 15, 1947, Short's naked body, severed into two pieces, was found in a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street (at34°00′59″N118°19′59″W / 34.0164°N 118.333°W /34.0164; -118.333) in the neighborhood ofLeimert Park, which was largely undeveloped at the time.[36]
Short's severelymutilated body was completely severed at the waist and drained of blood, leaving her skin a pallid white.[37][38]Medical examiners determined that she had been dead for around ten hours prior to the discovery, leaving her time of death either sometime during the evening of January 14 or the early morning hours of January 15.[39] The body had apparently been washed by the killer.[40] Short's face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, creating an effect known as the "Glasgow smile".[36] She had several cuts on her thigh and breasts, where entire portions of flesh had been sliced away.[41] The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper, and herintestines had been tucked neatly beneath her buttocks.[40] The corpse had been "posed", with her hands over her head, her elbows bent at right angles, and her legs spread apart.[39][37]
Los Angeles Herald-Express reporterAggie Underwood was among the first to arrive at the crime scene, and took several photos of Short's body and its surroundings.[42] Near the body, detectives located a heel print on the ground amid the tire tracks,[43] and a cement sack containing watery blood was also found nearby.[44][45]
Anautopsy of Short's body was performed on January 16, 1947, by Frederick Newbarr, theLos Angeles Countycoroner.[46] Newbarr's autopsy report 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.[47][f] There were ligature marks on her ankles, wrists and neck, and an "irregularlaceration with superficial tissue loss" on her right breast.[48] Newbarr also noted superficial lacerations on the right forearm, left upper arm and the lower left side of the chest.[48]
Short's body had been cut completely in half by a technique taught in the 1930s called ahemicorporectomy. The lower half of her body had been removed by transecting the lumbar spine between the second and thirdlumbar vertebrae, thus severing the intestine at theduodenum. Newbarr's report noted "very little"ecchymosis (bruising) along the incision line, suggesting it had been performed after death.[49] Another "gaping laceration" measuring4+1⁄4 inches (110 mm) long ran longitudinally from theumbilicus to thesuprapubic region.[49] The lacerations on each side of the face, which extended from the corners of the lips, were measured at three inches (75 mm) on the right side of the face, and2+1⁄2 inches (65 mm) on the left.[48] The skull was not fractured, but there was bruising noted on the front and right side of her scalp, with a small amount of bleeding in thesubarachnoid space on the right side, consistent with blows to the head.[48] The cause of death was determined to behemorrhaging from the lacerations to her face and the shock from blows to the head and face.[50] Newbarr noted that Short's anal canal was dilated at1+3⁄4 inches (45 mm), suggesting that she might have beenraped.[49] Samples were taken from her body testing for the presence of sperm, but the results came back negative.[51]
Short was identified after her fingerprints were sent to theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); her fingerprints were on file from her 1943 arrest.[52] Immediately following the identification, reporters fromWilliam Randolph Hearst'sLos Angeles Examiner contacted her mother, Phoebe Short, in Boston, and told her that her daughter had won a beauty contest.[53][36] It was only after prying as much personal information as they could from Phoebe that the reporters revealed that her daughter had in fact been murdered.[36] TheExaminer also offered to pay Phoebe's airfare and accommodations if she would travel to Los Angeles to help with the police investigation; that was yet another ploy since the newspaper kept her away from police and other reporters to protect itsscoop.[54] TheExaminer and another Hearst newspaper, theHerald-Express, latersensationalized the case, with oneExaminer article describing the black tailored suit Short was last seen wearing as "a tight skirt and a sheer blouse."[55] The media nicknamed her the "Black Dahlia",[56] and described her as an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard." Additional newspaper reports, such as one published in theLos Angeles Times on January 17, deemed the murder a "sex fiend slaying."[57]
On January 21,[58] a person claiming to be Short's killer placed a phone call to the office of James Richardson, the editor of theExaminer, congratulating Richardson on the newspaper's coverage of the case and stating he planned on eventually turning himself in, but not before allowing police to pursue him further.[31] Additionally, the caller told Richardson to "expect some souvenirs of Beth Short in the mail."[31]
Three days later, a suspicious manila envelope was discovered, addressed to "TheLos Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers," with individual words that had been cut-and-pasted from newspaper clippings; additionally, a large message on the face of the envelope read: "Here is Dahlia's belongings [,] letter to follow."[31] The envelope contained 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.[59] The packet had been carefully cleaned with gasoline, similarly to Short's body, which led police to suspect the packet had been sent directly by her killer.[60] Despite efforts to clean the packet, several partial fingerprints were lifted from the envelope and sent to the FBI for testing; however, the prints were compromised in transit and thus could not be properly analyzed.[61] The same day the packet was received by theExaminer, a handbag and a black suede shoe were reported to have been seen on top of a garbage can in an alley a short distance from Norton Avenue, two miles (three kilometers) from the crime scene. The items were recovered by police but had also been wiped clean with gasoline, destroying any fingerprints.[15]
On March 14, an apparentsuicide note scrawled in pencil on a bit of paper was found tucked in a shoe in a pile of men's clothing by the ocean's edge at the foot of Breeze Avenue inVenice. The note 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 pile of clothing was first seen by a beach caretaker, who reported the discovery to lifeguard captain John Dillon. Dillon immediately notified Captain L. E. Christensen ofWest Los Angeles police station. The clothes included a coat and trousers of blue herringbone tweed, a brown and white T-shirt, white jockey shorts, tan socks and tan moccasin leisure shoes, size about eight. The clothes gave no clue about the identity of their owner.[62][63]
Police quickly deemed Mark Hansen, the owner of the address book found in the packet, a suspect.[64] Hansen was a wealthy local nightclub and theater owner[65] and an acquaintance at whose home Short had stayed with friends.[66] According to some sources,[g] Hansen also confirmed that the purse and shoe discovered in the alley were in fact Short's.[31]Ann Toth, Short's friend and roommate, told investigators that Short had recently rejected sexual advances from Hansen, and suggested it as potential motive for him to kill her;[15] however, Hansen was cleared of suspicion in the case.[67] In addition to Hansen, theLos Angeles Police Department (LAPD) interviewed over 150 men in the ensuing weeks whom they believed to be potential suspects.[68] Robert Manley, who had been one of the last people to see Short alive, was also investigated, but was cleared of suspicion after passing numerouspolygraph examinations.[15] Police also interviewed several persons found listed in Hansen's address book, including Martin Lewis, who had been an acquaintance of Short's.[69] Lewis was able to provide analibi for the date of Short's murder, as he was inPortland,Oregon, visiting his dying father-in-law.[70]
A total of 750 investigators from the LAPD and other departments worked on the Short case during its initial stages, including 400 sheriff's deputies and 250California State Patrol officers.[61][71] Various locations were searched for potential evidence, including storm drains throughout Los Angeles, abandoned structures and various sites along theLos Angeles River, but the searches yielded no further evidence.[71]Los Angeles City Councilman Lloyd G. Davis posted a$10,000 (equivalent to $140,820 in 2024) reward for information leading police to Short's killer.[72] After the announcement of the reward, various persons came forward with confessions, most of which police dismissed as false. Several of the false confessors were charged withobstruction of justice.[73]
On January 26, another letter was received by theExaminer, this time handwritten, which read: "Here it is. Turning in Wed., Jan. 29, 10 am. Had my fun at police. Black Dahlia Avenger."[67] The letter also named a location at which the supposed killer would turn himself in. Police waited at the location on the morning of January 29, but the alleged killer did not appear.[67] Instead, at 1:00pm, theExaminer offices received another cut-and-pasted letter which read: "Have changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified."[74]
The graphic nature of the murder and the subsequent letters received by theExaminer had resulted in amedia circus surrounding Short's murder.[75] Both local and national publications heavily covered the story, many of which reprinted sensationalistic reports suggesting that Short had been tortured for hours prior to her death; the information, however, was false, yet police allowed the reports to circulate so as to conceal Short's true cause of death—cerebral hemorrhage—from the public.[61] Further reports about Short's personal life were publicized, including details about her alleged declining of Hansen's sexual advances; additionally, astripper who was an acquaintance of Short's told police that she "liked to get guys worked up over her, but she'd leave them hanging dry."[76] This led some reporters (namely theHerald-Express's Bevo Means) and detectives to look into the possibility that Short was alesbian, and begin questioning employees and patrons ofgay bars in Los Angeles; this claim, however, remained unsubstantiated.[61][73] TheHerald-Express also received several letters from the purported killer, again made with cut-and-pasted clippings, one of which read: "I will give up on Dahlia killing if I get 10 years. Don't try to find me."[77]
On February 1, theLos Angeles Daily News reported that the case had "run into a Stone Wall," with no new leads for investigators to pursue.[61] TheExaminer continued to run stories on the murder and the investigation, which was front-page news for thirty-five days following the discovery of the body.[39]
When interviewed, lead investigator Captain Jack Donahue told the press that he believed Short's murder had taken place in a remote building or shack on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and that her body transported to the location where it was disposed of.[78] Based on the precise cuts and dissection of Short's body, the LAPD looked into the possibility that the murderer had been a surgeon, doctor or someone with medical knowledge. In mid-February 1947, the LAPD served a warrant to theUniversity of Southern California Medical School, which was located near the site where the body had been discovered, requesting a complete list of the program's students.[67] The university agreed so long as the students' identities remained private. Background checks were conducted but yielded no results.[67]
By the spring of 1947, Short's murder had become acold case with few new leads.[78] Sergeant Finis Brown, one of the lead detectives on the case, blamed the press for compromising the investigation through journalists' probing of details and unverified reporting.[79] In September 1949, agrand jury convened to discuss inadequacies in the LAPD's homicide unit based on their failure to solve numerous murders—especially those of women and children—in the previous several years, Short's being one of them.[80][81] In the aftermath of the grand jury, further investigation was done on Short's past, with detectives tracing her movements between Massachusetts, California and Florida, and also interviewed people who knew Short inTexas andNew Orleans. However, the interviews yielded no useful information in the murder.[79]
The notoriety of Short's murder has spurred a large number of confessions over the years, many of which have been deemed false. During the initial investigation, police received a total of sixty confessions, most made by men.[82] Since that time, over 500 people have confessed to the crime, some of whom had not even been born at the time of her death.[83] SergeantJohn P. St. John, an LAPD detective who worked the case until his retirement, stated, "It is amazing how many people offer up a relative as the killer."[84]
In 2003, Ralph Asdel, one of the original detectives on the case, told theTimes that he believed he had interviewed Short's killer, a man who had been seen with his sedan parked near the crime scene in the early morning hours of January 15, 1947. A neighbor driving by that day stopped to dispose of a bag of lawn clippings in the lot when he saw a parked sedan, allegedly with its right rear door open; the driver of the sedan was standing in the lot. His arrival apparently startled the owner of the sedan, who approached his car and peered in the window before returning to the sedan and driving away.[85] The owner of the sedan was followed to a local restaurant where he worked, but was ultimately cleared of suspicion.[85]
Suspects remaining under discussion by various authors and experts include a doctor named Walter Bayley, proposed by formerTimes copyeditor Larry Harnisch;[74]Times publisherNorman Chandler, whom biographer Donald Wolfe claims impregnated Short;[86] Leslie Dillon,[87] Joseph A. Dumais,[88] Artie Lane,[65] Mark Hansen,[64] Francis E. Sweeney,[89]Woody Guthrie,Bugsy Siegel,Orson Welles,[90]George Hodel,[91] Hodel's friendFred Sexton,[92] George Knowlton,[93] Robert M. "Red" Manley,[15] Patrick S. O'Reilly,[94] andJack Anderson Wilson.[74][95]
Although he was never formally charged in the crime, George Hodel came to wider attention after his death when he was accused by his son, LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel, of killing Short and committing several additional murders. Prior to the Dahlia case, George Hodel was suspected, but not charged, in the death of his secretary, Ruth Spaulding; and was accused of raping his own daughter, Tamar, butacquitted. Hodel fled the country several times and lived in the Philippines between 1950 and 1990.[96][97] Additionally, Steve Hodel has cited his father's training as a surgeon as circumstantial evidence.[98] In 2003, it was revealed in notes from the 1949 grand jury report that investigators hadwiretapped George Hodel's home and obtained recorded conversation of him with an unidentified visitor, saying: "Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary because she's dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary."[91]
In 1991, Janice Knowlton, who was aged 10 at the time of Short's murder, claimed that she witnessed her father, George Knowlton, beat Short to death with aclaw hammer in the detached garage of her family's home inWestminster.[99] She also published a book titledDaddy was the Black Dahlia Killer in 1995, in which she made additional claims that her fathersexually abused her.[93] The book was condemned as "trash" by Knowlton's stepsister, Jolane Emerson, who stated: "She believed it, but it wasn't reality. I know, because I lived with her father for sixteen years."[100] Additionally, St. John told theTimes that Knowlton's claims were "not consistent with the facts of the case."[100]
The 2017 bookBlack Dahlia, Red Rose byPiu Eatwell focuses on Leslie Dillon, abellhop who was a formermortician's assistant; his associates Mark Hansen and Jeff Connors; and Sergeant Finis Brown, a lead detective who had links to Hansen and was allegedlycorrupt.[65] Eatwell posits that Short was murdered because she knew too much about the men's involvement in a scheme for robbing hotels. She further suggests that Short was killed at the Aster Motel in Los Angeles, where the owners reported finding one of their rooms "covered in blood and fecal matter" on the morning Short's body was found.[65] TheExaminer stated in 1949 that LAPD chief William A. Worton denied that the Aster Motel had anything to do with the case, although its rival newspaper, theLos Angeles Herald, claimed that the murder took place there.[101]
In 2000, Buz Williams, a retired detective with theLong Beach Police Department, wrote an article for the LBPD newsletterThe Rap Sheet on Short's murder. His father, Richard F. Williams, was a member of the LAPD's Gangster Squad investigating the case. Williams' father reportedly believed that Dillon was the killer, and that when Dillon returned to his home state ofOklahoma he was able to avoidextradition to California because his ex-wife Georgia Stevenson was second cousins withIllinois GovernorAdlai Stevenson II, who contacted thegovernor of Oklahoma on Dillon's behalf. Williams' article claimed that Dillon sued the LAPD for $3 million, but that the suit was dropped.[102] Harnisch disputes this, stating that Dillon was cleared by police after an exhaustive investigation and that thedistrict attorney's files positively placed him inSan Francisco when Short was killed.[103] Harnisch claims that there was no LAPD coverup, and that Dillon did in fact receive a financial settlement from the City of Los Angeles, but has not produced concrete evidence to prove this.[104]
Several crime authors, as well as police detective Peter Merylo, have suspected a link between the Short murder and theCleveland Torso Murders, which took place inCleveland,Ohio, between 1934 and 1938.[106][107] As part of their investigation into other murders that took place before and after the Short killing, the original LAPD investigators studied the Torso Murders in 1947 but later discounted any connection between the two cases. In 1980, new evidence implicating a former Torso Murder suspect, Jack Anderson Wilson, was investigated by St. John in relation to Short's murder. He claimed he was close to arresting Wilson in Short's murder, but that Wilson died in a fire on February 4, 1982.[108] The possible connection to the Torso Murders received renewed media attention when it was profiled on theNBC seriesUnsolved Mysteries in 1992, in whichEliot Ness biographerOscar Fraley suggested Ness knew the identity of the killer responsible for both cases.[105]
Crime authors such as Steve Hodel and William Rasmussen have suggested a link between the Short murder and the 1946 murder and dismemberment of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan inChicago,Illinois.[109] Captain Donahoe of the LAPD stated publicly that he believed the Black Dahlia and the "Lipstick Murders" in Chicago were "likely connected."[110] Among the evidence cited is the fact that Short's body was found on Norton Avenue, three blocks west of Degnan Boulevard, Degnan being the last name of the girl from Chicago. There were also striking similarities between the handwriting on the Degnanransom note and that of the "Black Dahlia Avenger." Both texts used a combination of capitals and small letters (the Degnan note read in part "BuRN This FoR heR SAfTY" [sic]), and both notes contain a similar misshapen letter P and have one word that matches exactly.[111] Convictedserial killerWilliam Heirens served life in prison for Degnan's murder. Initially arrested at age 17 for breaking into a residence close to that of Degnan, Heirens claimed he wastortured by police, forced to confess and made ascapegoat for the murder.[112] After being taken from the medical infirmary at theDixon Correctional Center on February 26, 2012, for health problems, Heirens died at theUniversity of Illinois Medical Center on March 5, 2012, at age 83.
Between 1943 and 1949, over a dozen unsolved murders occurred in Los Angeles which involved thesexual mutilation of young attractive women.[113][114][115] Authorities suspected at the time that they could have been the work of a single unidentified serial killer.[116][117][118] In 1949, a Los Angeles Countygrand jury was tasked with investigating the failure on the part of law enforcement to solve the cases.[80][81] As a result, further investigation was done on the homicides although none of them were solved.[79]
Numerous details regarding Short's personal life and death have been points of public dispute.[i] The eager involvement of both the public and press in solving her murder have been credited as factors that complicated the investigation significantly, resulting in a complex, sometimes inconsistent narrative of events.[150] According to Anne Marie DiStefano of thePortland Tribune, many "unsubstantiated stories" have circulated about Short over the years: "She was aprostitute, she was frigid, she was pregnant, she was a lesbian. And somehow, instead of fading away over time, the legend of the Black Dahlia just keeps getting more convoluted."[151] Harnisch has refuted several supposed rumors and popular conceptions about Short and also disputed the validity of Gilmore's bookSevered, claiming the book is "25% mistakes, and 50% fiction."[6] Harnisch had examined the district attorney's files (he claimed that Steve Hodel has examined some of them pertaining to his father, along withTimes columnist Steve Lopez) and contrary to Eatwell's claims, the files showed that Dillon was thoroughly investigated and was determined to have been in San Francisco when Short was killed. Harnisch speculated that Eatwell either did not find these files or she chose to ignore them.[104]
A number of people, none of whom knew Short, contacted police and newspapers claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week," between her January 9 disappearance and the discovery of 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 days leading up to her murder and the discovery of her body are unknown.[149]
After the discovery of Short's body, numerous Los Angeles newspapers printed headlines claiming she had been tortured leading up to her death.[55] This was denied by law enforcement at the time, but they allowed the claims to circulate so as to keep Short's actual cause of death a secret from the public.[61] Some sources, such as Oliver Cyriax'sCrime: An Encyclopedia (1993), state that Short's body was covered incigarette burns inflicted on her while she was still alive,[153] though there is no indication of this in her official autopsy report.[41]
InSevered, Gilmore states that the coroner who performed Short's autopsy suggested in conversation that she had been forced to consumefeces based on his findings when examining the contents of her stomach.[154] This claim has been denied by Harnisch[6] and is also not indicated in Short's official autopsy,[41] though it has been reprinted in several print[155] and online media.[156]
According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" from staff and patrons at a Long Beach drugstore in mid-1946 as wordplay on the filmThe Blue Dahlia (1946).[157][158] Other popularly-circulated rumors claim that the media crafted the name because Short adorned her hair withdahlias.[149] According to the FBI's official website, Short received the first part of the nickname from the press "for her rumored penchant for sheer black clothes."[159]
However, reports by district attorney's investigators state that the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering her murder;Herald-Express reporter Bevo Means, who interviewed Short's acquaintances at the drugstore, has been credited with first using the "Black Dahlia" name,[160] though reporters Underwood andJack Smith have been alternatively named as its creators.[149] While some sources claim that Short was referred to or went by the name during her life, others dispute this.[j] Both Gilmore[161] and Harnisch agree that the name originated during Short's lifetime and was not a creation of the press: Harnisch states that it was in fact a nickname she earned from the staff of the Long Beach drugstore she frequented;[6] inSevered, Gilmore names an A.L. Landers as the proprietor of the drugstore, though he does not provide the store's name.[162] Prior to the circulation of the "Black Dahlia" name, Short's killing had been dubbed the "Werewolf Murder" by theHerald-Express because of the brutal nature of the crime.[71][149]
Manytrue crime books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s, including Gilmore'sSevered, which claims she worked at the Hollywood Canteen. This is disputed by Harnisch, who states that Short did not, in fact, live in Los Angeles until after the canteen's closing in 1945.[6] Although some of Short's acquaintances and several commentators described Short as a prostitute orcall girl during her time in Los Angeles,[k] according to Harnisch, the contemporaneousgrand jury proved that there was no existing evidence that she was ever a prostitute.[6] Harnisch claims that the rumor regarding Short's history as a prostitute originates fromJohn Gregory Dunne's 1977 novelTrue Confessions, which is based in part on the crime.[6]
Another widely circulated rumor (sometimes used to counter claims that Short was a prostitute)[164] holds that Short was unable to havesexual intercourse because of a congenital defect that resulted ingonadal dysgenesis, also known as "infantile genitalia."[l] Los Angeles County district attorney's files state that the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had engaged in sex,[165] including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case; FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's alleged lovers.[166] Short's autopsy itself, which was reprinted in full[41] in Michael Newton's 2009 bookThe Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, notes that heruterus was "small"; however, no other information in the autopsy is provided that would suggest her reproductive organs were anything other than anatomically normal.[47][49] 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.[165]
Another rumor—that Short was a lesbian—has often circulated; according to Gilmore, this rumor began after Means was told by the deputy coroner that Short "wasn't having sex with men" owing to her allegedly "small" genitalia.[167] Means took this to mean that Short had sex with women, and both he andHerald-Express reporter Sid Hughes began fruitlessly investigating gay bars in Los Angeles for further information.[73]
Short is interred at theMountain View Cemetery inOakland.[163] After her younger sister, Elnora, had grown up and married, their mother Phoebe 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 and died in 1992.[35][13] On February 2, 1947, just two weeks after Short's murder,Republicanstate assemblymanC. Don Field was prompted by the case to introduce a bill calling for the formation of asex offender registry; the state of California would become the first U.S. state to make the registration ofsex offenders mandatory.[67]
Short's murder has been described as one of the most brutal and culturally enduring crimes in U.S. history,[98] andTime magazine listed it as one of the most infamous unsolved cases in the world.[168]
Short's life and death have been the basis of numerous books, television shows and films, both fictionalized and non-fiction. Among the most famous fictional accounts of Short's death isJames Ellroy's 1987 novelThe Black Dahlia, which, in addition to the murder, explored "the larger fields of politics, crime, corruption, and paranoia in post-war Los Angeles," according to cultural critic David M. Fine.[169] Ellroy's novel was adapted into a2006 film of the same name by directorBrian De Palma: Short was played by actressMia Kirshner.[157] Both Ellroy's novel and its film adaptation bear little relation to the facts of the case.[170]Michael Connelly's 2024 novelThe Waiting has a major subplot involving the Black Dahlia case.
Short was also portrayed in heavily fictionalized accounts byLucie Arnaz in the 1975 television filmWho Is the Black Dahlia?,[171] by Jessica Nelson in Season Four, Episode 13 ofHunter,[172] and byMena Suvari in the seriesAmerican Horror Story in 2011, featuring Short in the plot line of the episode "Spooky Little Girl",[173] and again in 2018 with "Return to Murder House".[174]
Copy of Short's registered birth certificate showing that no middle name was included
Arbitrary as such reasoning may sound to modern Americans, 21 stuck as a threshold age through the 19th century and into the 20th.
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