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Black Dahlia

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This article is about the murder of Elizabeth Short. For other uses, see The Black Dahlia (disambiguation).
Elizabeth Short
Elizabeth Short, September 23, 1943
Born(1924-07-29)July 29, 1924
Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Diedca. January 15, 1947(1947-01-15) (aged 22)
Los Angeles, California, United States
OccupationWaitress
Parent(s)Cleo Short and Phoebe Mae Sawyer

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

Early life

Elizabeth Short was born in greater Boston, Massachusetts; she grew up and lived in Medford. She was 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.

Arrest photo from 1943 for underage drinking

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 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 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.

Murder and aftermath

The grave of Elizabeth Short

The body of Elizabeth Short was found in the Leimert Park district of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her remains had been left on a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street. (34°0′59.19″N 118°19′58.51″W / 34.0164417°N 118.3329194°W / 34.0164417; -118.3329194) The body was discovered by local resident Betty Bersinger, who was walking with her three-year-old daughter.[5] Short's severely mutilated body had been found nude and severed at the waist, completely drained of blood.[6] Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, called the Glasgow smile. 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) tall, weighed 115 pounds (52 kg), and had light blue eyes, brown hair, and badly decayed teeth. There were marks on her ankles and wrists made by rope, consistent with being tied either spreadeagled or hung upside down. There was evidence she had been forced to eat feces. 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. The cause of death was blood loss from the lacerations to the face combined with shock due to a concussion of the brain.

On January 23, 1947, the killer rang the editor of the Los Angeles Examiner, expressing concern that news of the murder was tailing off in the newspapers and offering to mail items belonging to Short to the editor. The following day a packet arrived at the 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. The killer would later write more letters to the newspaper, calling himself "the Black Dahlia Avenger". On January 25, Short's handbag and one shoe were found in a garbage 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 about it is 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 the police to take full control of the investigation during which time reporters roamed freely throughout the department's offices, sat at officers desks, and answered their phones. Many tips from the public were not passed on to police as the reporters who received them rushed out to get "scoops".

William Randolph Hearst's papers, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Examiner, sensationalized 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 outrageous with claims her lifestyle "made her victim material", when 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 up 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 90s.[4]

According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Elizabeth Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" at a Long Beach, California drugstore in mid-1946, as a word play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state 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 with,[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

Main article: Black Dahlia 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 200 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.

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 later discounted any relationship between the two cases. However new evidence implicating a former Cleveland torso murder suspect, Jack Anderson Wilson with Short's death was investigated by Detective St. John in 1980. St. John claimed he was close to arresting Wilson for the death of Short when Wilson unexpectedly died in a fire on February 4, 1982.[12]

Crime authors such as Steve Hodel and William Rasmussen have suggested a link between the Short murder and the 1946 murder and dismemberment of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago.[13] Captain Donahoe of the Los Angeles police also stated publicly that he believed the Black Dahlia and Lipstick murders were "likely connected."[14][15] 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 and there were striking similarities between the writing of the Degnan ransom note and that of "the Black Dahlia Avenger." For example, both used a combination of capitals and small letters, the Degnan note read in part "BuRN This FoR heR SAfTY" with both notes containing a similar mis-shapen letter P and have one word matching exactly.[16] 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.[17]

In the media

Literature

  • Neo-noir author James Ellroy based his 1987 book The Black Dahlia on the crime.
  • 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.

Television, film and video games

References

2

Further reading

2
  • 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.
  • "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. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  • The Black Dahlia photos at rotten.com

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