HER LIFE: Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924, in Boston,
Massachusetts and was the third of five daughters. In 1930, her father's car
was found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge and it was assumed that he had
committed suicide. Short had bronchitis and severe asthma attacks, and
underwent lung surgery at age 15. After the doctors recommendation, Short
spent her winters in Florida and the rest of the year with her mother and
siblings back in Massachusetts. Short's father was found alive and she went
to live with him in California, however frequent arguments between them led
to her moving out. She was arrested in Santa Barbara on September 23, 1943,
for underage drinking and she moved back to Florida, rarely visiting her
family in Massachusetts. While in Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael
Gordon, Jr., an Army Air Force officer at the 2nd Air Commando Group, but
Gordon died in a plane crash on August 10, 1945. She then moved to Los
Angeles in 1946. Short spent the last six months of her life in Southern
California. Shortly before her death, she had been working as a waitress.
Short had been described as an aspiring actress.
DEATH: She was last seen on January 9th, 1947. Short had returned to Los Angeles after a
visit to metropolis with Manley, a married salesman she had been dating.
Manley stated that he dropped Short off at the Biltmore Hotel located at 506
South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. On January 15, 1947, Short's body was
found severed into two pieces on a lot on the side of South Norton Avenue,
midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street in Leimert Park, L.A.
Betty Bersinger discovered the body at approximately 10 a.m. while walking
together with her three-year-old daughter. Bersinger initially thought she
had found a mannequin. Short's severely mutilated body was completely
severed at the waist and drained of blood, leaving her skin white. Medical
examiners determined that she had been dead for around ten hours before the
intervention, leaving her time of death either sometime during the evening of
January 14, or the first morning hours of January 15. Short's face had been
slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears. The corpse had been
posed, together with her hands over her head, her elbows bent at right
angles, and her legs spread apart. Near the body, detectives located a heel
print on the bottom amid the tire tracks and a cement sack containing watery
blood was also found nearby. The body had been cut completely in half by a
method called hemicorporectomy. The Examiner and another Hearst newspaper,
the L.A. Herald-Express, later sensationalized the case, with one article from
the Examiner describing the black tailored suit Short was last seen wearing
as "a tight skirt and a sheer blouse". The media nicknamed her "Black
Dahlia".
INVESTIGATION: On January 21, 1947, someone claiming to be Short's killer
placed a call to the office of James Richardson, the editor of the Examiner,
congratulating Richardson on the newspaper's coverage of the case, and
stated he planned on eventually turning himself in, but not before allowing
police to pursue him further. On January 24, an envelope was
discovered by a U.S. communication worker. The envelope had been addressed
to "The Los Angeles Examiner and other la papers" with individual words that
had been cut-and-pasted from newspaper clippings. Additionally, an oversized
message on the face of the envelope read: "Here is Dahlia's belongings
letter to follow". The envelope contained 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 duvet. The packet had been
carefully cleaned with gasoline, similarly to Short's body, which led police
to suspect the packet had been sent directly by her killer. Despite the
efforts to wash the packet, several partial fingerprints were lifted from
the envelope and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing;
however, the prints were compromised in transit and thus could not be
properly analyzed. The same day the packet was received by the Examiner, a
handbag and a black shoe were reported to have been seen on top of a dustbin
in an alley a brief distance from Norton Avenue, two miles from where
Short's body had been discovered. The objects were recovered by police, but
they had also been cleaned with gasoline, destroying any fingerprints. On
March 14, an obvious suicide note scrawled in pencil on a touch of foolscap
was found in a shoe in a pile of men's clothing by the
ocean's edge at the foot of Breeze Ave Venice. The note read: "To whom it's
going to concern: I've waited for the police to capture me for the Black
Dahlia killing, but haven't. I'm too much of a coward to show
myself in, so this is often the most effective resolution on behalf of me. I
could not help myself for that, or this. Sorry, Mary.". Police quickly
deemed Mark Hansen, the owner of the address book found within the packet, a
suspect. Ann Toth, Short's friend and roommate, told investigators that
Short had recently rejected sexual advances from Hansen, and suggested it as
a potential cause for him to kill her, however, he was cleared of suspicion
within the case. Additionally to Hansen, the local department interviewed
over 150 men within the ensuing weeks whom they believed to be potential
suspects. Manley, who had been one amongst the last people to see Short
alive, was also investigated, but was cleared of suspicion after passing
polygraph examinations. Police also interviewed several persons
found listed in Hansen's address book, including Martin Lewis, who had been
a friend of Short's. Lewis was ready to provide an alibi for the date of
Short's murder, as he was in Portland, Oregon, visiting his father-in-law.
When interviewed, lead investigator Captain Jack Donahue told the press that
he believed Short's murder had taken place in an exceedingly remote building
or shack on the outskirts of L.A, and her body transported into town where
it absolutely was disposed of. Supporting the precise cuts and dissection of
Short's corpse, the LAPD looked into the chance that the murderer may be a
someone with medical knowledge. In mid-February 1947,
the LAPD served a warrant to the University of Southern California school of
medicine, which was located near where Short's body had been
discovered, requesting a whole list of the program's students. The
university agreed as the students' identities remain private. Background
checks were conducted, but they yielded no results. By the spring of 1947,
Short's murder had become a chilly case with few new leads.