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UFO

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The Black Dahlia Murder: The Life and Death of Elizabeth Short

Status: Unsolved

Characteristics: Mutilation, surgical precision, posing, possible necrophilia.

Location and time: South Norton Avenue, Los Angeles, California. January 15th 1947.

Suspects: George Hodel, Mark Hansen, Robert Manly, Norman Chandler, Walter Bailey, Leslie Dillon, Joseph Dumais, George Knowlton, Patrick S. O'Reilly, and Jack Anderson Wilson.

Death: Body severed at waist with surgical precision, mouth cut on both sides to the ears, then dubbed the “Glasgow Smile”. The body was drained of blood and appeared to have been cleaned.

Life of Victim: Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 29th, 1924. In 1930, her father Cleo Short parked his car on a bridge and simply vanished. Many believed he had committed suicide, however Elizabeth later found he was alive and living in California. Elizabeth’s mother, Phoebe Mae Sawyer then moved the family to Medford.  At 16, due to lung problems, Elizabeth was sent to Miami, Florida for the winters, remaining in Medford during the warmer months. This went on for three years, until she went to live with her father in Vallejo, California. A later arrest in Santa Barbara resulted in Short being sent back to Medford, then she decided to move back to Florida. There she met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., an Air Force officer. While on duty, he later proposed through a letter but died before he could return to the United States. In 1946, Elizabeth went to Los Angeles to visit Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling of the Air force, an old boyfriend. For the six months prior to her death Elizabeth lived in the Los Angeles area.

Discovery and Murder: Around 10 a.m. on January 15th 1947, a local resident name Betty Bersinger walking with her daughter saw what she thought was a broken, discarded store mannequin lying in the grass on the side of the street. Upon closer inspection, she discovered it was a dead body, and went to a nearby house to phone the police. The officers arrived at the scene, met by a hoard of reporters and a severely mutilated corpse. Short’s body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood. Her mouth had been slashed open from the corners to her ears. She also had multiple cuts on her thighs and breasts, where portions of flesh had been completely removed, speculated to possibly have removed bite marks on the skin. The body had been washed and posed, with the two halves of her body spaced 1ft. apart, and her arms raised above her head at 45 degree angles. There were ligature marks on her wrists, ankles and neck, as well as multiple bruises on her face. Short died of hemorrhage from the lacerations on her face, indicating her mouth was sliced open while she was still alive. She also died from shock due to the blows on her head and face.

Investigation: As the case remains unsolved, the investigator’s didn’t get very far. They also claimed that the reporters on the scene had possibly destroyed important evidence, causing the case to remain unsolved. However, on January 23rd 1947, someone claiming to be the killer mailed the Los Angeles Examiner. The writer seemed to be concerned with the news of the murder fading fast, and then offered to mail some of Short’s personal items to the newspaper. The next day, a package arrived including Short’s birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen on the cover. Hansen then became a suspect. However, due to the case’s popularity, over 50 men and women had confessed to the murder, and hundreds of tips flowed in every time it came up in the press or a movie about it was released, swamping the investigators. Out of all of this, about 25 people were considered to be viable suspects.

Theories: Among many theories, crime authors have speculated the Sort case may have had a connection to the Cleveland Torso Murders. A former suspect, Jack Anderson Wilson was investigated in Short’s murder as well, however before an arrest was made Wilson died unexpectedly in a fire in 1982. Another theory is a connection to the 1946 murder and dismemberment of a young girl named Suzanne Degnan in Chicago. Possible connection were the dismemberment, Short’s body being found three blocks away from Degnan Boulevard, and uncanny similarities between the Degnan ransom note and the Black Dahlia Avenger’s letters, a name given by the press. Convicted serial killer William Heirens served life in prison for Degnan’s murder, as well as the Lipstick Killer murders, however he claims he was tortured by the police and forced into a confession. Steve Hodel, a crime author, believes his father, George Hill Hodel, may have been responsible for the Lipstick Murders as well as Elizabeth Short’s death.

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Photograph of Elizabeth Short with an unknown man, on an unknown date.

Short became known as the “Black Dahlia” when she was murdered in 1947. Her mutilated body was found sprawled across grass, sliced in half at the waist and with an eerie smile cut into her face. 

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Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking.

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The Black Dahlia crime scene - then and now.

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❤

Black Daliah “Mysteries & Scandals”

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Awww

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Never really realized how much fat was inbetween organs too!

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