Introduction

Elizabeth Short, posthumously known as "The Black Dahlia", was an aspiring American actress.

Early Life

Born Elizabeth Short, on July 29, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Cleo Short and Pheobe Mae Sawyer, Short is one of the most notorious murder victims in recent history.

Short was the third of five daughters born to Cleo and Pheobe Short.

In the beginning of her life, Short and her family moved quite often.

The most unique reason being after the 1929 stock market crash. Short's father, Cleo, built miniature golf courses until the market crash here he lost majority of his life savings and the family was broke.

In 1930, Cleo Short's car was found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge. Many believed he committed suicide by jumping into the Charles river.

Agreeing with suspicions of her husband's suicide, Pheobe Short packed and relocated to a small apartment in Medford with her five daughters. This is where she worked as a bookkeeper to support her family.

Elizabeth, a long time sufferer of severe asthma attacks and bronchitis, Short gad lung surgry at the age of 15. Following her surgery, doctors suggested she move somewhere with a milder climate during the winter months in an effort to reduce the probability of more respitory problems. This resulted in her mother sending her to live with family friends in Miami, Florida during the winter months. This living arrangement would occur over the following three years; with Short spending winters with family friends in Miami and the rest of the year with her mother and sister's in Medford.

In late 1942, a surprising letter arrived, from none other than Cleo Short; a letter of apology. As it turns out, he had not committed suicide. Instead he relocated to California and began a new life.

In December of that year, Elizabeth, now 18, relocated to Vallejo, California to live with her father, whom she had not seen in 12 years. At the time of her moving with him, he worked at the Mare Island Navy Shipyard.

Their living arrangement didn't last long as by January, Elizabeth decided to move out after numerous arguments between her and her father.

Not long after moving out, she began working at the Base Exchange )now known as Vandenberg Air Force Base) in Camp Cooke, near Lompoc. She began living with several friends, as well as briefly with an Army Air Force Sargeant who allegedly abused her.

Once again, the living arangement was short lived as by mid-1943 Short had moved to Santa Barbara. Thos is also where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking.

Elizabeth Short's mugshot from her arrest in September 1943.

She was sent back to Medford by juvenile authorities. However, she instead went to Florida, occasionally making visits to Massachusetts.

During her time in Florida, Elizabeth met a man, Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., a decorated Army officer in the 2nd Air Commando Group.

Gordon was training in preparation for deployment to the China Burma India Theater Of Operations of World War II.

Short told friends that Gordon had written a letter, proposing marriage, while he recovered from injuries sustained in a plane crash in India.

She accepted his proposal. Unfortunately Gordon died in a second plane crash on August 10, 1945, not even a week before Japan surrendered, ending the war.

In July 1946, Short relocated to Los Angeles to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, whom she'd met in Florida. Fickling was stationed at the Naval Reserve Air Base in Long Beach.

Short spent most of the last six months of her life in Southern California, mainly Los Angeles.

Not long before her death, Short was working as a waitress and rented a room behind the Floremtine Gardens Nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard.

While she was known as an "aspiring" actress, Short had no known acting jobs or credits.

Murder

Before the murder

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

Manley claims he dropped Short off at the Biltmore Hotel located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

He also claimed Short was going to visit one of her sisters, who had been visiting from Boston that afternoon.

In some accounts, employees at the Biltmore Hotel recall seeing Short use the lobby telephone.

Not long after, she was allegedly spotted by patrons of the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge at 754 South Olive Street, approximately one-half mile away from the Biltmore Hotel.

Discovery

Short's naked body was found severed in two in a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 49 Street, in Lemiert Park, Los Angeles.

At the time of the discovery, the land was mostly undeveloped.

Her body was discovered by a local resident, Betty Bersinger, at approximately 10:00 AM.

Bersinger was walking with her three year old daughter and initially believed she had stumbled upon a mannequin that had been discarded by a store.

Upon discovering it was in fact a corpse, she rushed to a nearby house to call police.

Short's body had been severely mutilated and was bisected at the waist. Her body had also been completely emptied of blood, leaving her skin a very pale white.

Medical examiners had determined she had been dead for about ten hours. This put her time of death at some time during the evening of January 14 or in the early morning of January 15.

It was clear to them her body had been washed by the killer.

Her face had been slashed at the mouth from ear to ear, creating what was known as the "Glasgow Smile."

There were several cuts on her thighs and breasts, where entire slices of flesh had been removed.

Her lower body was positioned a foot away from her upper half and her intestines had been tucked neatly under her buttocks.

The body had been posed; hands above her head, elbows at right angles and her legs spread apart.

Upon the discovery of her body, passersby and reporters gathered at the scene. Los Angeles Herald Express reporter Aggie Underwood was one of the first people on the scene and took several photos of the corpse and crime scene.

Close to the body, detectives located a heel print amidst the tire tracks as well as a cement sack containing watery blood.

Autopsy and Identification

An autopsy of the then unidentified body was conducted by Frederick Newman, the coroner of Los Angeles County, on January 16, 1947. In his report, he stated the victim was 5" 5' tall, weighed 115lbs, had light blue eyes, brown hair and badly decayed teeth.

Ligature marks were found on her ankles, wrist and neck. She also had a "irregular laceration with superficial tissue loss" on her right breast. He also noted superficial lacerations on the right forearm, left upper arm and the lower left left side of the chest.

Most notably, the body had been severed in half in a technique called hemicorporectomy, which was taught in the 1930's. The lower half of her body had been removed by transfecting the lumbar spine between her second vertebra and third lumbar vertebra, thus severing the intestine at the duodenum.

Newman noted "very little" ecchymosis (bruising) along the incision line, which would suggest the severing was done post mortem (after death). Another "gaping laceration" measuring 4.25 inches (108mm), ran longitudinally from the umbilicus and suprapubic region. The laceration on the right side of her face measured 3 inches while the one of the left measured 2.5. Both lacerations extended from her lips.

Her skull was not fractured, though bruising was noted on the front and side of her scalp with small amounts of bleeding in the subarachnoid space on the right side, which would be consistent with blows to the head.

Her case of death was determined to be from hemorrhaging from the lacerations to her face and shock from blows to her head and face.

The coroner also noted her anal can was dilated at 1.75 inches, suggesting the possibility she had been raped. After retrieving samples from the body, tests were conducted, and there was no semen present.

Short was identified after her photo had been sent out via Soundphoto, a device that was used to transmit images by telephone, and had typically been used for news photos. Short's fingerprints were on file after her 1943 arrest.

Almost immediately following her identification, reporters from William Randolph Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner contacted her mother, Phoebe Short, in Boston, telling her that her daughter had won a beauty contest. Of course this was false. The reporters pried for personal information about her daughter. Only after obtaining as much information they could on Short did they reveal the truth to her mother about her daughter's grisly murder. The newspaper then offered to pay her airfare if she willingly travelled to Los Angeles to aid in the investigation. Though that was yet another ploy, as when she arrived, they kept her from police and other reporters, in order to maintain their "scoop". 

The Examiner and another Hearst newspaper, the Los Angeles Herald-Express, went on to sensationalize the crime by describing the black tailored suit Short was last seen in as a "tight skirt and a sheer blouse". The media who had a habit of nicknaming victims, labelled her the Black Dahlia, describing her as an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard". Additional newspaper articles, including the January 17th edition of the Los Angeles Times deemed the crime a "sex fiend slaying".

Short's death certificate

Investigation

Initial Investigation

Letters and Interviews

On January 21, 1947, a person claiming to be responsible for the murder of the Black Dahlia placed a phone call to the office of James Richardson, the editor of The Examiner. In this call, they congratulated Richardson on the newspaper's coverage of the crime, staring he planned to turn himself in, but not before causing the police to pursue him further. He also told Richardson to "expect some souvenirs of Beth Short in the mail".

On January 24th, a suspicious manila envelope was discovered by a U.S postal worker. The envelope had been addressed to "The Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers" with clippings of words cut and pasted from newspaper articles. In addition to the clippings, the envelope bore a large message on its face; "Here is Dahlia's belongings [,] letter to follow". Inside the envelope was Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper and an address book with Mark Hansen written on the cover.

The packet had been thoroughly clean with gasoline, much like Short's body, which only furthered police's suspicion that the packet had come directly from her killer. Despite the thorough cleaning, several fingerprints were found on the envelope and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unfortunately, the fingerprints were compromised during transfer, thus making them impossible to analyze properly.

The same day the Examiner received the packet, a handbag and a black suede shoe was reportedly found atop a garbage can in an alley a short distance from Norton Avenue, 2 miles (3.2km) from where Short's body was found. Police recovered the items and upon testing them discovered they had also been cleaned with gasoline, leaving no prints.

On March 14th, an apparent suicide note written in pencil on a piece of paper that was found tucked in a shoe in a pile of men's clothing near the  edge of the ocean shore of Breeze Avenue. Venice. 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 this, or that. Sorry Mary." The first person to notice the pile of clothing was a beach caretaker who reported it to John Dillon, a lifeguard captain. Upon receiving this information, Dillon immediately contacted Capt. L. E Christensen of West Los Angeles Police Station. The pile of clothes included a coat and trousers of herringbone tweed, a brown and white Y t-shirt, white jockey shorts, tan socks and tan moccasin leisure shoes, size about eight. Despite all of this, the items of clothing gave no indication to whom they belonged.

Naturally after his address book was found amongst her belongings, Mark Hansen, a wealthy nightclub and theatre owner, was quickly deemed a suspect by police. He was an acquaintance whose home Short had lived with friends. According to some sources, he confirmed the shoe and handbag discovered in the alley as belonging to Short. Ann Toth, Short's friend and roommate, informed investigators that Short had recently rejected the sexual advances of Hansen, suggesting it as a potential cause for him to kill her. However, Hansen was later cleared of involvement.

In the following weeks, including Hansen,  Los Angeles Police Department interviewed more than 150 men they considered potential suspects. Manley, one of the last people to see Short alive was also considered a suspect, but was ultimately cleared after passing numerous polygraph tests. Multiple people from Hansen's address book were also interviewed, including Martin Lewis, who had been an acquaintance of Short. Though Lewis was able to provide an alibi clearing him of suspicion. He had been in Portland, Oregon, visiting his father who was dying of kidney failure.

A total of 750 investigators from the LAPD and other departments were involved in the case, including 400 Sheriff's deputies and 250 California State Patrol officers. They searched various locations throughout Los Angeles, including storm drains, abandoned structures and multiple sites along the Los Angeles River for potential evidence. No further evidence was located. A reward of $10,000 ($114, 501 in 2019) was offered by City councilman Lloyd G. Davis for any information that would lead to Short's killer. Following the offering of the reward, multiple came forward, offering what police would later deem false confessions. Several of those who offered false confessions were arrested for obstruction of justice.

Media Response; decline

On January 26th, the Examiner received another letter. This time it was handwritten. It read: "Here it is. Turning in Wed., Jan. 29 , 10 a.m. Had my fun at police. Black Dahlia Avenger". In the letter there was a location where the supposed killer intended to turn themself in.

On the morning of January 29th, police waited at the aforementioned location, but the killer didn't show. At 1:00 p.m the Examiner received another letter, again copy and pasted, which read, "Have changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified".

The graphic nature and subsequent letters received by the Examiner resulted in a media frenzy surrounding the case. Local and national publications alike covered the story extensively. Many of them reprinted sensationalistic rumors suggesting Short had been tortured for hours before her death. The information, false as it was, police allowed them to circulate as a means to conceal her true cause of death - cerebral hemorrhaging. 

Reports on Short's personal life continued to emerge, including details of her alleged denial of Hansen's advances. In addition, a stripper, an acquaintance of Short came forward and told police Short "liked to get guys worked up over her, but she'd leave them hanging dry". This statement caused reporters (namely the Herald Express' Bevo Means) to explore the possibility Short was a lesbian. They began visiting gay bars in Los Angeles but the rumor remains unsubstantiated. 

The Herald-Express received several letters, again cut and paste, one of which said, "I will give up on Dahlia killing if I get 10 years. Don't try to find me."

On February 1st, the Los Angeles Times reported the case had hit a "run into a Stone Wall" with no additional leads for officers to pursue. Following the discovery of the body, The Examiner continued to run stories on the murder, which was front Page News for 35 days. 

In an interview, lead investigator Capt. Jack Donahue said he believed Short's murder had occured in a remote building or shack on the outskirts of Los Angeles, then her body was transported to where it was later found. 

With the precise cuts and dissection of Short's body, the LAPD entertained the idea that the killer was possibly a surgeon, doctor, or at the very least someone with extensive medical knowledge.

In April 1947, the LAPD issued a warrant to the University of California Medical School, which was located in close proximity to where Short's body had been found, requesting a complete list of the program's students. The university agreed to the terms, do long as the students remained anonymous. Background checks were conducted, thought they yielded no results.

Grand Jury and Aftermath

By Spring of 1947, Short's murder had become a cold case with few new leads. One of the lead investigators, Sgt. Finnish Brown, blamed the media for compromising the integrity of the case due to the intensive probing of details and unverified reporting. 

In September 1949, a grand jury convened in an attempt to discuss inadequacies within the LAPD homicide unit in regards to their failure to solve numerous murders - many of women and children, in the past several years, including Short's. 

Following the grand jury, more research was done into Short's past, including tracing her movements between Massachusetts, Florida and California. They also interviewed people who knew her from Texas and New Orleans though this provided no new information that would help solve her murder.