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She dreamed of becoming Hollywood star but did not act in any film. Only death gave her what she longed for in life - fame.
It all started with the fact that on January 15, 1947 in Los Angeles, at about 10.30 in the morning, a certain Betsy Bersinger, walking through the park with her 3-year-old daughter, noticed a disassembled mannequin in the grass at the corner of 39th Street and Norton Avenue. As she approached, she realized with horror that it was a human body. Shocked, she did not even see who it belonged to in life, a man or a woman.
The body was cut into two parts in the waist area and dismembered (the external and internal genital organs, as well as the nipples, were removed). The woman's mouth was disfigured by a Chelsea smile.
After examining the crime scene, the detectives came to the first conclusions:
The location where the body was found was not the site of the murder. The crime was committed in another place and the already dismembered body was brought the night before, that is, from January 14 to 15, 1947;
- the offender performed complex manipulations with his victim: he tied him up, cut him, washed off the blood. The latter required especially a lot of effort, since with the injuries that the deceased received, there should be a lot of blood. However, neither on the ground next to the body nor on the body itself was any blood found;
- the killer made every effort to make it difficult to identify the corpse. The disfigured face was disfigured by hematomas and bore little resemblance to what it was in life. No things that belonged to the murdered, documents, as well as clothes were found;
At the same time, the killer was not interested in concealing the crime. The dismemberment of the body was undertaken by him, most likely, for the purpose of ease of transportation. The detectives decided that the criminal's actions were not chaotic, but differed in consistency and were subject to a certain plan.
The media, which widely covered the crime, reported that Short, shortly before her death, received the nickname "Black Dahlia." In addition, according to an official statement from the District Attorney of the City of Los Angeles and contrary to numerous mockumentary investigations that called the victim a "call girl", Elizabeth Short was not a prostitute.
Another popular myth was Short's allegedly undeveloped genitals from birth, as a result of which she was not able to have sexual intercourse. Los Angeles District Attorney's file contains interrogation transcripts three men with whom Short had a sexual relationship (including one police officer from Chicago). The final materials of the case indicate that Short had "normally developed reproductive organs." The results of the autopsy also stated that at the time of the murder, Short was not pregnant (and also did not become pregnant and did not give birth at all).
The investigation into the murder of the "Black Dahlia" by the Los Angeles police with the involvement of the FBI became the longest and largest in history law enforcement USA. Due to the complexity of the case, the operatives of the original investigation team took on suspicion every person who knew Elizabeth Short in one way or another. Several hundred people turned out to be suspects, several thousand were interrogated. The sensational and sometimes completely falsified reports of the journalists who covered the investigation, as well as the horrifying details of the crime committed, attracted close public attention. About 60 people confessed to this murder (among them several women). 22 people in different periods investigations were declared to be the killers of Elizabeth Short.
P.S. The murder of Elizabeth Short was the beginning of a change in California law. Now all sex offenders are subject to mandatory registration.
Due to ethical concerns, we are not releasing photographs of the found body of Elizabeth Short.
“The Black Dahlia case was and remains one of the most mysterious crimes in the history of the United States. Amateur detectives and forensic authors are sure that the police early despaired of finding the killer of Elizabeth Short, who dreamed of becoming an actress, but became famous only because of her death.
On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman named Betty Bersinger reported to the LAPD the discovery of a dismembered human body at the intersection of Norton Avenue and 39th Street. She, as it turned out, did not live in the area, but was simply heading to the shoe store with her 3-year-old daughter for shopping. Law enforcement officials who went to check the data quickly found the body of a woman in the grass, which was neatly divided into two parts along the waistline. Then the police could not even guess how difficult this case would be.
First steps
Soon, Detective Finis Brown arrived on the scene. After examining the body, he came to the conclusion that the murder of the woman was committed elsewhere, and the body was brought the previous night. It was difficult to determine the exact time of the victim's death, since no traces of blood were found, but, according to the conclusions of the experts, the unknown person died around the evening of January 14th. The offender, as one could see, performed a lot of rather complex manipulations with the woman: he tied her up (there were traces of ropes on her ankles, wrists and neck), beat and cut the victim for at least several hours.
Investigators immediately concluded that the offender tried to mutilate the body to make it harder to identify, and did not hide his atrocity.
The so-called “Glasgow smile” was carved on her face (due to the mutilations, the girl’s mouth froze in a crooked smile), and it itself was covered with multiple hematomas. The unknown person got rid of the clothes of the victim, which made the work of law enforcement agencies even more difficult. In addition, the offender removed the woman's nipples. Death, according to police, was the result of blows to the face and head.
The identity of the deceased was only established with the help of the FBI. After analyzing the fingerprints, it turned out that the deceased was 22-year-old Elizabeth Short. Immediately after the identification, the journalists of William Hearst, who worked in the Los Angeles Examiner, contacted the mother of the girl Phoebe Short, who lived near Boston, and reported that her daughter had won the beauty contest. After collecting quite an impressive amount of personal information, reporters finally told the mother of the deceased that in reality her daughter was brutally murdered. The journalists also offered the woman to fully pay all her expenses and accommodation in Los Angeles, where she can help in the investigation.
It was Phoebe who gave the cops the first intravital pictures Elizabeth. It turned out that the girl was very attractive and, as investigators suggested, planned to build a career as an actress.
Future star
Elizabeth was born on July 29, 1924 to a wealthy family of Cleo and Phoebe Short. She was the third of the couple's five children. In the first year of the Great Depression, the man's business failed and he decided to leave his family by faking his own suicide. For almost twenty years, everyone was sure that Cleo was dead, but in 1942, Phoebe received a letter from her husband, in which he apologized and explained that he had begun new life in California.
Soon Elizabeth went to her father, but after living with him for only a few months, she decided to move out. It turned out that relatives often quarreled. As a result, Short returned to Florida, where she met military pilot Matthew Gordon. He became Elizabeth's first love.
Elizabeth told all her friends and even her mother that the chosen one had proposed to her.
This information was confirmed by Matthew's colleagues, but his family insisted that he never had a relationship with Short. Gordon was killed in the crash of his plane on August 10, 1945.
In Los Angeles, Elizabeth went for another military pilot - Joseph Fickling. She met him in Florida. True, and these relations came to naught. Rumor has it, this was due to the huge number of fans of Short. One way or another, the girl lived in Los Angeles for the last six months of her life. She worked as a waitress in one of the establishments on Hollywood Boulevard.
About Elizabeth's attempts to build acting career There were all sorts of rumors. It was rumored that she regularly attended various castings, but no one paid attention to her. There is no evidence that Short acted in films at all. By the way, the girl most likely received the nickname Black Dahlia thanks to numerous journalists. They insist that Elizabeth was called that during her lifetime, but this information is refuted by friends and acquaintances of the girl.
First among many
Already on January 16, the police went on the trail of the first suspect. It turned out to be 25-year-old Robert Manley. He was married, but, as many of Elizabeth's acquaintances assured the police, he had an affair with her. It was he who was the last man who saw Short alive. On January 8, Robert took Elizabeth from big company friends, after which he took me to the hotel.
According to him, Short refused intimacy, and the next morning said that she needed to meet her sister at the Baltimore Hotel, and asked Manley to take her there by car.
The man fulfilled the will of the chosen one, after which he calmly went home. He never saw her again. Robert's words were confirmed not only by the polygraph, but also by the testimonies of the hotel workers. They said that Elizabeth was indeed seen in the lobby: she talked to someone on the phone and left without meeting her sister.
After all these testimonies, the police released Robert with peace of mind, finding out one more interesting fact. A few more days after the meeting with Manly, Short clearly remained alive - specialists insisted on this.
The next suspect was Elizabeth's previous lover, military pilot Joseph Fickling. Short's friends claimed that shortly before her death, the girl met with him. However, the Pentagon told the police that the lieutenant did not leave the location of his unit in Germany throughout January 1947, which means that he could not have committed the murder in another country.
false threads
On January 24, 1947, a strange letter with an incorrect address was detained at the post office. On the top of the envelope was handwritten: "Los Angeles Examiner and others printed editions Los Angeles". Below were letters and phrases cut from other newspapers: "This belongs to Dahlia." Inside the strange police envelope, completely unexpected finds awaited. Investigators found Elizabeth Short's birth certificate, her social security card, several photographs of the girl, and a notebook of one Mark Hansen. All of these items were carefully wiped of fingerprints. The detectives tried to send the remaining traces for analysis to the FBI, but they did not survive during transportation either.
After evaluating all the evidence, the police came to the conclusion that the sender of the letter could easily be Elizabeth's killer. Because of the notebook, the investigators began to suspect Mark Hansen and came to him with an interrogation.
Mark turned out to be the owner of several places of entertainment in Los Angeles. He did not deny that the notebook was his, but he refused to admit that it had been stolen. Later, one of Hansen's friends explained that in reality it was Elizabeth who stole his notebook.
Over the next few weeks, police interviewed a total of about 150 men who could be potential suspects. More than 750 investigators did their best to solve this crime. However, representatives of law enforcement agencies were also hampered by journalists (at least, this was what the police themselves insisted on), and numerous schizophrenics who tried in every possible way to confuse the investigation by slandering themselves and their next of kin.
By the spring of 1947, the police began to consider the case of the Black Dahlia "grouse". However, here and there, the names of new suspects and leads surfaced. And some of them seemed very encouraging.
For example, a certain Leslie Dillon wrote rather long letters to Dr. Paul de River, in which he talked about his theories regarding the murder of Elizabeth Short. He did this in the smallest detail, which aroused the suspicion of the doctor. The police decided to check on Leslie, but since there was no official arrest warrant, they had to practically kidnap the man and lock him in one of the hotel rooms. Dillon managed to throw a small note into the street saying he was being held by force, causing local authorities However, the man was released. As a result, it turned out that in his letters Leslie did not voice his own thoughts at all: he just wanted to check one of his friends - Artie Lane. The police never managed to find out what Leslie was doing between January 9 and 15, 1947. Investigators were also unable to find sane evidence that Dillon was involved in the murder.
"They will never prove"
In 1949, the police had another suspect who seemed very, if I may say so, promising - Dr. George Hodel. His daughter Tamara accused her father of sexual harassment. Despite the fact that at least three witnesses confirmed the words of the girl, George was acquitted. Because of this trial, some of the police turned their attention to him as the possible murderer of Elizabeth Short. As a result, listening devices were installed at Hodel's house, which recorded a rather interesting monologue: “Suppose I killed her, killed the Black Dahlia. But they will never prove it. Can't prove it now. The cops can't talk to my secretary because she's dead. They certainly think that there was something fishy about this death. Maybe they'll figure it out soon. Maybe I killed my secretary too.”
The secretary that George was talking about - Ruth Spaulding - really was killed, but it happened already in 1945.
Then Hodel was suspected of killing a woman, because before the ambulance arrived, he burned some of her papers. Only later it turned out that the secretary wanted to go to the police to accuse her boss of deliberately misdiagnosing, forcing his patients to spend quite impressive money on more accurate tests and completely unnecessary medicines.
George's son later claimed that Elizabeth was one of his father's patients. In addition, according to the man, Hodel did not have an alibi. This version was also supported by the fact that the killer was clearly connected with the medical profession (otherwise it is rather difficult to explain such a skillful dismemberment).
In the end, George was never charged. As the investigators explained, no one but the doctor's son had ever seen him in the company of Elizabeth Short. Yes, and the acquaintances of the girl herself assured that she did not communicate with the doctor. In 1999, the man died. However, to this day, his son is trying with all his might to prove Hodel's involvement in this terrible murder. However, the man is sure that his father is a serial killer known as the Zodiac (you probably remember the movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal).
What if it's a maniac?
Some forensic writers and even investigators have found links between the Black Dahlia case and the Cleveland Butcher murders that took place between 1932 and 1938. The maniac, who became famous under this name, most often decapitated his victims or cut their torso almost in half.
That is why the police in 1947 linked him to the murder of Elizabeth Short. However, in the future, these cases were considered separately.
“The Black Dahlia case is also occasionally linked to the murder socialite Georgette Bauerdorf. She was strangled to death at her home in Hollywood in 1944. According to some forensic authors, the women were closely acquainted with each other. There are witnesses who claim that Elizabeth even worked for Georgette for a while. However, the police failed to confirm this information.
To be continued?
In the more than 70 years that have passed since Elizabeth's murder, the police have never come close to solving this strange puzzle. Hundreds of forensic authors, journalists and other lovers of detective investigation put forward a variety of versions of what happened, but none of them could withstand the criticism of law enforcement agencies.
The murder of Elizabeth Short remains unsolved to this day, considered one of the most mysterious in the history of crimes committed in the United States.
That is why it has had a strong influence on world culture. So, in 2006, the film "Black Dahlia" was released, where Elizabeth played Mia Kirshner. And in an episode of the series " American history Horror, the role of Short went to actress Mina Suvari.
Many private detectives and forensic authors assure that it is too early to put an end to the Black Dahlia case. It is possible that new information about the murder of Elizabeth Short will soon appear. However, for some reason we strongly doubt this.
October 7, 2012, 17:42(eng. Elizabeth Short), known as the Black Dahlia (eng. the Black Dahlia); July 29, 1924 – January 15, 1947) was the victim of an unsolved crime that occurred in the Los Angeles area in 1947. The murder of Elizabeth Short was and remains one of the most brutal and mysterious crimes committed in the United States. Biography
Elizabeth Short, raised with four sisters by her mother in Massachusetts, moved at age 19 to Los Angeles, California, to her father, who left the family, with whom, however, she did not have a relationship. After a short wandering, Short moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested for drinking alcohol as a minor and sent back to Massachusetts. For the next few years, she lived mainly in Florida, where she earned money as a waitress. In Florida, she met US Air Force Major Matthew M. Gordon, Jr., whom she told her friends about as her fiancé: Gordon himself was on a flight exercise in India, from where Short wrote letters. One way or another, the marriage plans were not destined to come true, since Gordon died in a plane crash on August 10, 1945 before he could return to the United States and marry Short. 
Short later claimed that she and Gordon were already married at the time of his death, and that they had a child who died in infancy. The fact of the engagement was at least confirmed by Gordon's colleagues; however, Gordon's family has strongly denied Gordon's connection to Elizabeth Short ever since her murder took place. In 1946, Short returned to California to see her former lover, Lieutenant Gordon Fickling, whom she had met in Florida. For the remaining six months of her life, she remained in southern California, mostly in Los Angeles, staying in countless hotels, rented apartments and private homes, never staying anywhere for more than a couple of weeks. 
Elizabeth Short was last seen alive on January 9, 1947, in the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. At that time, Short was 22 years old. Murder On January 15, 1947, the mutilated body of Elizabeth Short was found on a derelict property along South Norton Avenue in Leimert Park, near the city limits of Los Angeles. The body was cut into two parts in the waist area and dismembered (the external and internal genital organs, as well as the nipples, were removed). The woman's mouth was cut open from ear to ear. The killer of Elizabeth Short was never found by the police, and the Black Dahlia case remains unsolved to this day. Short herself was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California, and not in Massachusetts (because her elder sister lived in Berkeley and because, in her words, "Elizabeth loved California"). 
Consequence
Immediately after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Short, a number of people contacted the police, stating that they had seen the girl in the period between her last appearance in public on January 9 and the discovery of her body. However, each time it turned out that the witnesses mistakenly took other women for Short (none of those who contacted the police knew Short during her lifetime). 
The media, which widely covered the crime, reported that Short, shortly before her death, received the nickname "Black Dahlia" (a kind of play on the then popular movie "The Blue Dahlia" with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in the lead roles). The Los Angeles police have repeatedly stated that the press invented this story only in order to "brighten" the name of the murder case in their articles. In confirmation of these words, people who knew Short during her lifetime had never heard of such a nickname for her. .JPG)
In addition, according to an official statement from the District Attorney of the City of Los Angeles, and contrary to numerous quasi-documentary investigations that called the victim a "call girl", Elizabeth Short was not a prostitute. Another popular myth was Short's allegedly undeveloped genitals from birth, as a result of which she was not able to have sexual intercourse. The Los Angeles District Attorney's file includes transcripts of interrogations of three men with whom Short had a sexual relationship (including one police officer from Chicago). The final materials of the case indicate that Short had "normally developed reproductive organs." The results of the autopsy also stated the fact that at the time of the murder, Short was not pregnant (and also, in principle, did not become pregnant and did not give birth). The investigation into the murder of the "Black Dahlia" by the Los Angeles police with the involvement of the FBI became the longest and largest in the history of US law enforcement. Due to the complexity of the case, the operatives of the original investigation team took on suspicion every person who knew Elizabeth Short in one way or another. Several hundred people turned out to be suspects, several thousand were interrogated. The sensational and sometimes completely falsified reports of the journalists who covered the investigation, as well as the horrifying details of the crime committed, attracted close public attention. About 60 people confessed to this murder (among them several women). 22 people in different periods of the investigation were declared the killers of Elizabeth Short. A complete list of them is published on the website blackdahlia.info. In popular culture The famous author of detectives James Ellroy based on the murder of Elizabeth Short wrote in 1987 the novel "The Black Dahlia". This book was the first of his L.A. Quartet, describing the mores of Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the corruption and depravity that reigned there. In 2006, a big-budget film adaptation of Ellroy's novel under the same name was released on the screens of the world (in the Russian box office, the name was changed to The Black Orchid). Directed by Brian De Palma. In the role of Elizabeth Short - famous television actress Mia Kirshner. Popular actors Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, as well as two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank starred in the rest of the roles. 
In 2002, rock singer Marilyn Manson released a series of watercolor paintings based on the Short murder. 
The murder of the "Black Dahlia" was reflected in numerous references in music: songs about the Black Dahlia were sung by artists such as Anthrax, Lamb of God, Lisa Marr, Bob Belden, "Hollywood Undead". There is also a death metal band called The Black Dahlia Murder. In August 2006, Variety reported that New Line Cinema had acquired film rights to another book about the Black Dahlia murder, a novel titled Black Dahlia Avenger written by Los Angeles private detective Steve Hodel. According to his own investigation, Short's real killer was Hodel's own father, who after his death left his son a photo album, where one of the photographs showed the torn body of Elizabeth Short. Hodel tried to trace the father's connection to the victim and concluded that he was a serial killer and that Short was not the only one among his victims. No specific release date for the film has yet been announced. It is also known that Kevin Spacey and Johnny Depp became interested in the project. References to this murder appear many times in the detective story. computer game, 2011 L.A. noire, where main character also investigates the brutal murders of women in 1940s Los Angeles. 
Elizabeth Short appears as a character in the television series American Horror Story. In episode 9, we see her murder, which, according to the creators of the series, was unintentional, then dismemberment and the discovery of the body. Elizabeth herself later appears as a ghost. The role of Elizabeth was played by Mina Suvari.
On January 15, 1947, the police immediately went to the wake-up call. On the phone, the woman reported that she had found a creepy, mutilated corpse of a stranger on an empty Los Angeles plot of land.
When the police arrived at the scene of the discovery of the murdered woman, they could not believe their eyes: although what the killer did to the body was unthinkable and the body was neatly cut in half, there was no blood.
The victim of this terrible incident was nicknamed the Black Dahlia for its former beauty, and this murder was destined to become one of the most mysterious crimes in the United States.
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Murder details
Elizabeth lay on her back, her arms raised up, her legs wide apart. A piece of flesh was cut from her leg and attached to her genitals. The killer had recently washed her hair, so that even when the body was discovered, it was still damp. The entire body was covered with bruises and bruises, in places the flesh was cut off, and the mouth was cut from ear to ear.
There were rope marks around the wrists and ankles. But the worst thing, perhaps, was that the body was neatly cut in half - the dividing line passed right above her waist.
The coroners called the cause of death "a heart attack and shock caused by a concussion, and cut wounds on the face", there was literally no living place left on the body. The autopsy also showed that most of the wounds were inflicted before the victim died, and traces of feces were found in her stomach. And, perhaps, at the moment when the killer began to cut her in half, the girl was still alive.
It took the police several hours to find out the name of the victim. Her name was Elizabeth Short and she was only 22 years old.
Who is Elizabeth Short?
Despite the horrifying death, Elizabeth's life did not indulge either. Nature gave her a bright, memorable appearance - she somehow resembled a porcelain doll with perfect facial features and blue eyes. But her favorite color was black: she wore black dresses, jeans, even underwear and stockings. However, Elizabeth received her nickname after her death.
Elizabeth grew up in a single-parent family - her parents divorced when she was only six years old, and her mother was forced to find ways to take care of four young children in the midst of the Great Depression alone.
At seventeen, Elizabeth left her family and went looking for a better life in Miami. Having settled down as a waitress in a cafe, the girl fell madly in love with a military man. Maybe everything would have worked out well for the couple, but the man went to war. Elizabeth swore to wait for him and honestly kept her word.
She hoped to marry him, but fate had something else in store for her. So, soon Elizabeth received a telegram saying that her beloved had died on the battlefield. Elizabeth was inconsolable. She began to drink and give herself to any man who offered her a drink and a hot dinner. For depraved behavior, she was detained by the police and sent by train to her hometown.
Elizabeth had no desire to return home. She got off the train and traveled to the nearest town with the firm intention of starting a new life. And she almost succeeded - falling in love with Air Major Matt Gordon again. History repeats itself. Matt is forced to go to war, and Elizabeth promises to wait for him. Hoping that this time will be different, and when Matt comes home, they will get married.
Elizabeth waited two years until, in August 1946, a postman knocked on her door, bringing a telegram from her lover's mother. It said the following: “We received a notice from the War Department. My son Matt was killed in a plane crash." One can only imagine how these words resonated in Elizabeth's heart. All hopes, all pictures happy life collapsed. Again.
Elizabeth packed her things and took off again. This time, her goal was not a new crush. She was aiming for Hollywood.
Destination Hollywood
In those years, girls who were overwhelmed with hopes of becoming actresses were not so uncommon. Elizabeth did not disdain short love affairs - this time she planned to find a man who would open the world of fame and cinema for her.
Elizabeth was last seen in the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel. There she made an appointment with her sister, but there the traces of the girl break off. Perhaps that is where she met her killer.
What the journalists did was terrible. In an attempt to learn as much as possible about the victim, members of the media called Elizabeth's mother, lying that she had won a beauty pageant and they would like to know more about her daughter. Only after the mother, delighted to tears, posted the story of her daughter, was she informed that, in fact, the girl was dead.
Public reaction
Nine days later, someone sent a package to the Examiner that contained Elizabeth's papers: birth certificate, social security card, address book, and Matt Gordon's obituary. The package smelled strongly of gasoline, which means that the sender carefully wiped fingerprints from it.
The murder remained unsolved, but the most terrible thing about it was not even the cruelty with which someone dealt with a young girl. The worst thing was the destruction of the dream. At that time, every second girl dreamed of becoming an actress and going to conquer Hollywood. They believed that they had their whole life ahead of them, that they were beautiful, smart and ambitious. These will definitely not be left on the sidelines of life.
The case of the Black Dahlia showed them what their dreams are really worth. No matter how successful you are, you are the one who catches rides on the road to California - nameless and defenseless.
Elizabeth has become an iconic figure, symbols of the destruction of girlish hopes.
Even many decades later, there is still no answer to the question of who could have done this to a young girl.
One of the most terrible and mysterious murders in the United States took place back in 1947, and to this day, everyone who gets acquainted with this case shudders. The fate of a girl who aspired to artistic glory, but became famous for her terrible death, shocks with her tragedy. The story of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia, has been compared in cruelty to the victims of Jack the Ripper. The post DOES NOT CONTAIN photos depicting the mutilated body of a girl.
The story began on January 15, 1947, when at 10-30 in the morning in Los Angeles at the corner of 39th Street and Norton Avenue, local resident Betsy Bersinger, along with her 3-year-old daughter, noticed scattered parts of a mannequin in a park on the ground. However, coming closer, she was horrified to see that it was a human corpse.
The body, bloodless and cut in half, belonged to a woman. Internal organs and blood were removed. A monstrous cut from ear to ear and numerous beatings disfigured the face of the victim. The victim was not pregnant, and no signs of rape were found. A lot of questions were raised by the process of dismembering the girl, which was performed accurately, skillfully and with the help of very sharp tools. The investigators immediately ruled out the axe, the saw, and leaned towards the butcher's implements or surgical instruments. It has also been suggested that the killer was specially trained.
Despite the almost complete absence of blood and huge wounds on the face, the police quickly determined the time of the crime - the first half of January 14, a day before the discovery of the body. In addition, the victim was identified as Elizabeth Short. The police, based on the examination of the place of discovery of the murdered woman, came to some obvious conclusions. The crime was committed in another place, and the body was taken to 39th Street already dismembered. Numerous manipulations were carried out with the body: binding, incisions, removal of blood, the face of the murdered woman was mutilated to make it difficult to identify. The dismemberment itself was carried out, most likely, to facilitate transportation and was of an orderly nature without signs of spontaneous embitterment.
The Betty Short Story.
Betty was born July 29, 1924 in Massachusetts to Phoebe and Cleo Short. The father left the family in 1929. At the age of 19, Betty moves to live with her father in Vallejo, California, but their relationship does not work out, and leaves for Santa Barbara. Here she leads a fairly free lifestyle and even gets arrested for drinking. Betty wants to become an actress, but so far she can only get a job as a dishwasher and a model in a department store.
Continuing to visit nightclubs, in 1944 she met Major Matt Gordon, who heads the Flying Tigers. He even proposed marriage to the girl. Matt served in the Philippines, while Betty returned to her mother in Madford, Massachusetts, to prepare for the wedding. Already after the end of World War II, Betty receives the sad news about the death of her lover during a flight to India.
Betty suffered the loss of her betrothed for several weeks, and then returned to Miami and began to lead a wild life, often appearing in the company different men, from war heroes to hardened criminals. However, Betty did not let anyone go beyond the paid dinner. Some researchers classify Betty as lung women behavior, but no direct evidence was obtained. Short spends all his and donated money on the most fashionable and stylish outfits, mostly black. In 1946, she moved to Southern California to live with Joseph Flicking, an Air Force lieutenant. They quickly broke up and Flicking left for the Carolinas, where he became a civilian pilot. But correspondence continued between them, the last letter from Betty Joseph received a week before her death. For the last six months of her life, Betty often moved and literally changed her companions.
Suspects in the Short case.
Betty had a very wide circle of acquaintances in Hollywood. During the interrogation, it turned out that the last person alive to see her was Robert Manley (merchant, 25 years old), to whom she got into the car. Among other acquaintances of the victim were well-known figures in the film industry. So, Frenchot Ton, a film producer, even admitted his intentions to seduce a girl. However, she was impregnable, as with most of the gentlemen, whose names surfaced during the investigation.
Mark Hansen, the owner of a chain of nightly entertainment establishments, also fell under the spell of Elizabeth Short, but, like many, did not get what he wanted. In addition, he noted that the girl was constantly surrounded by more and more new gentlemen, with whom Betty behaved provocatively and ambiguously. Short deliberately exploited the image of a vamp woman, and the habit of dressing in all black and her love for dahlias led to the girl's nickname - "Black Dahlia" ("Black Dahlia" - Black Dahlia).
A lot of information was given out by Short's companion in the apartment, Barbara Lee. She told the police about Betty's acquaintance with Georgette Bauerdorf, a wealthy California woman who was brutally murdered in her own pool in 1945. This murder was never solved. After lengthy interrogations, the police found the first real suspect, Robert Manley, who was the last person to see the girl.
Manley was detained and interrogated for two days. The suspect did not deny the fact of acquaintance with the murdered, but claimed that he was rejected, like most fans. The last place he saw Elizabeth was at the Baltimore Hotel, where she asked for a lift, ostensibly to meet her sister. The hotel staff confirmed that Short was at the hotel on January 9 and left on foot in an unknown direction. My sister was in Massachusetts at the time. Manly had to be released.
For more than a year, the police have been investigating and checked for involvement in the murder of more than 20 people. However, it wasn't until February 1948 that another real lead appeared - an anonymous letter with colorful and detailed description murders. The police traced the path of the letter and found Leslie Dillon, who was in California at the time of the murder and could have committed this crime. A whole dramatization was played out with the call of the suspect to work in Nevada. At the same time, in the process of detention, some laws of America were violated, which prohibit the police of one state from working in the territory of other states.
During the arrest (without a warrant and the right to arrest), the suspect was transported in the trunk of a car from Las Vegas to California, where he was held in a hotel. However, the unfortunate Dillon managed to throw a note out of the toilet window, in which he called ... the police for help. The hotel was surrounded and taken by storm. The inconsistency of the work of the structures floated out, and Dillon turned out to be a trivial schizophrenic, impressed by newspaper articles about the death of a girl.
At this time, in the winter of 1948, another interesting version appears. An informant reported to a police officer that petty criminal Al Morrison was talking about the brutal murder of a girl with a black ribbon around her neck (this detail added credibility, since Short wore such a ribbon before her death). The information was passed on to Sergeant Harry Hansen, who was in charge of the investigation. Based on the information received, the location of the murder was a hotel on the corner of 31st and Trinity Streets.
The informer spoke in detail, according to the offender, about the rape, murder and dismemberment of the body. After showing the informant a number of photographs, he confidently identified Al Morrison, who was also known as Arnold Smith, aka Jack Anderson Wilson. An important detail also surfaced - Morrison had already been interrogated in the murder of Georgette Bauerdorf, who knew E. Short.
The police decided to conduct a cunning operation to detain the suspect Wilson-Smith-Morrison, but several times he managed to get away from his pursuers, either on a whim or by chance. But in the end, fate played a cruel joke on Morrison, he burned to death in a hotel room, falling asleep with a lit cigarette.
It seemed that things had come to a standstill. But at this time, the police checked the version with the search for the scene of the murder of Short, combing the buildings surrounding the site of the discovery of the body. Suddenly, the police came to Walter Bailey, previously accused of sexual harassment. He and his wife owned 3959 Norton Avenue, a block from where Short was found dead.
Previously, Walter Bailey was a highly successful medical practitioner, lecturing at the University of California and in charge of a hospital. However, in 1946, several nurses made claims of sexual harassment against Dr. Bailey. As a result, she left him, he lost his place as head physician and the right to teach at the university. Bailey even had to marry one of the young nurses, but this did not save his tarnished reputation. Bailey's house at 3959 Norton Avenue was empty at the time, but had been refurbished. And the doctor himself periodically visited there. The presence of the place, the surgical practice and the bad reputation of Bailey simply obliged the police to check this version. But here, too, the investigators were pursued by failure - the policemen who came for interrogation discovered a half-crazy old man who was being pursued by Alzheimer's disease.
Since then, 70 years have passed, during this time fifty versions have been put forward, thousands of documents have been checked, and hundreds of witnesses have taken testimonies. The Short case was overgrown with myths, for example, about her acquaintance with Monroe and Reagan (not confirmed). There were videos with the heroine surrounded by unknown people. However, a 460-page book by retired homicide detective Steve Hodel, published in 1995, was a sensation.
The author claimed to know who committed the murder of E. Short. However, the surprises did not end there - Steve Hodel suggested that 20 more girls across the United States became victims. Moreover, the killer was identified as the author's own father - George Hodel.
The hero of the investigation was a rather talented person - the author literary works, poet, musician and even a journalist in the crime genre. George Hodel was the founder of the STI clinic. At the same time, he turned out to be a lover beautiful women Among them was Elizabeth Short. There were even photos from the family album. The father of the author of the study first came to the attention of the police when, in 1949, his daughter was accused of sexual molestation. own father. Also 14 summer daughter Tamar accused her father of killing Short.
In December 1949, a trial took place at which Dorothy Hodel's mother accused her daughter of slander and claimed that her daughter was mentally ill and a clinical liar. The verdict of the court, handed down on December 23, turned out to be unexpected: all the persons accused by Tamar Hodel were released from suspicion, while Tamar herself was declared the victim of deliberate manipulations by ... 22-year-old Barbara Sherman, one of the three witnesses for the prosecution.
Analyzing trial, the defendant's son alleges manipulation of the police by his father, George Hodel. The police warned about the installation of listening equipment in his house, carried out explanatory work with witnesses. However, even the successful outcome of the case did not save Hodel's reputation; he left the city and returned only 30 years later in 1979. The character accused by his son died in 1999 in a state of deep insanity.
As a result of comparing the psychological profile of the killer and George Hodel, the police found some discrepancies and similarities, but at the moment there is no definite conclusion. Note the impact of the death of Betty Short on California law - from that moment on, all sex offenders are subject to mandatory registration.
