Possibly one of the most famous cold cases of the 20th century, the case of Elizabeth Ann Short has kept the American public fascinated for decades. The gruesome murder shocked an America emerging victorious from war and happily going about peace. The case remains unsolved by LAPD to this day.
On the morning of January 15, 1947, Elizabeth Ann Short's body was found in a vacant lot in San Francisco. She had been missing for a week. However, this was not just a normal police discovery: many things about her body were out of place in a murder. Firstly, she was nude. Secondly, she was perfectly clean. Thirdly, her entire body was drained of blood. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the discovery was the state of her body: it was bisected and further mutilated, almost beyond recognition.
It is unclear where and when Short acquired the nickname "the Black Dahlia." She was beautiful and had a penchant for wearing black, and there was a popular movie released in 1946 titled "The Blue Dahlia." Some say that she was called the Black Dahlia by some peers starting in the summer of '46, but others say that the press invented the name in order to sensationalize the case. Short's mother, living in Massachusetts, was horrified to hear of her daughter's murder and of the turns the case was taking in the press. Journalists did all they could to draw attention to the case of a girl following her acting dream being destroyed by her alleged risky lifestyle. Reports from many men claimed that Short had led a very promiscuous sexual life, some saying that she was a prostitute and a "call girl," but coroner's and doctor's reports say otherwise. A sexual defect has been mentioned in all investigations of the case, making it impossible for Short to be sexually active at all, not to mention a prostitute.
Though there have been almost 60 confessors to the murder of Elizabeth Short, none of these people were ever charged as guilty. Men and women alike made false confessions for a variety of reasons, from getting their name in the press to finding long-lost relatives. There was nothing left with Short's body that would have provided a lead to police. All leads and confessions were exhausted within months of Short's murder. Nobody was ever convicted.
There have been many pop culture references to The Black Dahlia through the years. Numerous books and movies are based on the story of Elizabeth Short. There are multiple websites devoted solely to the case. http://www.bethshort.com/ is a good website to go to if you're looking for the basics of the case. http://www.blackdahliasolution.org/ has a slightly more confusing yet in-depth discussion of the case. Both have the original photos from when the body was found and the coroner's records, but bethshort.com does not display them as part of the website (there are links to the photos). They are clearly displayed on blackdahliasolution.org with no warning to the viewer, so if you do not have a strong stomach or do not want to see something absolutely disgusting, DO NOT VISIT THIS WEBSITE.
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