Here’s an article I wrote on the Black Dahlia several years ago. With the upcoming movie release, I thought I might as well share it with you:
The Black Dahlia
The murder of Elizabeth Short (also known as the Black Dahlia) remains to this day as one of California’s more extraordinary unsolved mysteries. And it seems to have been made of the stuff legends are made of - a brutal crime … the victim as a small-town girl gone off to Hollywood to make it in the movies … a list of suspects that seemed more like the Titanic’s passenger list than anything else …
Over the past half decade, countless articles, books, movies, and television shows have presented information on the Black Dahlia. And it seems like the more you know, the more questions you have. And yet the questions remain - Who killed the Black Dahlia and why?
The Victim
Elisabeth Short was born on July 29th, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, but a short while after she was born her family moved to the town of Medford - a few miles outside Boston.
By all accounts, Beth Short (known as Betty to friends and family) had always been a pretty girl. Her biggest concern was her health. She was plagued with a rather nasty case of athsma. One one occasion, she had to have an operation to remove some fluid from her lungs. Yet, even through all of that she still remained a friendly, feisty, and caring woman and everyone she met seemed to like her.
Her other major concern dealt with a certain birth defect. Her vaginal area was slightly deformed, causing normal penetration to be impossible. She also did not have a normal period. Several doctors stated when she was young that she would eventually outgrow this - however, she never did.
When she was a girl, her mother, Phoebe, would often take her and her younger sister to the movies. Beth loved this, and had often dreamt of being an actress. This was, perhaps, her biggest goal in life. Years later she would move to the Hollywood area, and try to make that dream a reality.
She would move in with her father, Cleo, for a short while when she was nineteen. He had moved there when Beth was a small girl after faking his suicide when his miniature golf course business went under. Years later, he contacted his wife and wanted to be a part of the family again. Phoebe refused. Beth’s relationship with her father was fairly rocky, and he eventually asked her to leave because he found her lazy, boy crazy, and untidy.
After having a rather rough time in Hollywood, she moved temporarily back to Medford, and then headed south to Miami Beach where she met Major Matt Gordon, a pilot. (She seemed to have romantic fantasies about servicemen.) During their engagement, however, he was sent to India. Before he could return home, he was killed in a plane crash. Beth Short had already decided the next thing in store for her was marriage, so after a short while, she called upon a former beau - another serviceman. But that relationship was doomed to failure as well.
Some of the servicemen who knew her started calling her The Black Dahlia. One of the popular films at the time was called The Blue Dahlia (with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd) and the name stuck because she dressed in black lacy dresses and had black frilly hair. Beth liked the nickname and started portraying this sultry personality.
The Murder Of The Black Dahlia
On January 15th, 1947 a young lady and her daughter were taking a stroll near a vacant lot when the two spotted what the woman first thought was a broken mannequin. But it wasn’t a mannequin - it was the nude body of a young woman, the lifeless body of the Black Dahlia.
She had been posed naked, on her back with her arms stretched above her head bent at the elbows, severed at the waist. Her lower half was angled upward at the hips, her legs spread-eagle. It was believed that she was severed after death, but some evidence suggests it was possible she was severed while still alive. Her bodyparts were placed in a line. The liver was exposed. Her face and breasts were slashed. Marks on her wrists and ankles suggested she’d been tied up, perhaps in an upside-down position Evidence also suggests that feces was placed in her mouth while being tortured.. An incision was also made crudely from her pubic region up to the navel.
After an autopsy was performed, a few more curious details would enter the picture. Some evidence suggested that she was frozen for a period of time, perhaps to aid preservation. Other evidence suggested that the body had been put down, at some point, face-down in dew covered grass and then turned over. The body had also been dead for at least ten hours before it was placed in that lot. Her hair and body had been extensively and painstakingly washed and cleaned. No evidence of semen was found, although that could have been because she had been washed so well. The official cause of death was listed as being caused by a concussion to the head, and to the wounds on her face and breasts.
The police tried everything they could think of to crack this high profile case. They spent countless hours trying to recreate the last few days of her life. They talked with friends, and even went as far as rounding up nearly every known (or suspected) sexual deviants or perverts and questioned them.
During their investigation, they located Robert Manly. He was a hardware salesman and known the Dahlia for only a short time. A week before her death, the two had checked into a motel, gone out to various nightclubs, and then headed back to the motel. Manly reports he slept in the bed while Beth Short slept in a chair. She had complained of not feeling well. The next morning, he had an appointment, but when he came back, she was now dressed, and apparently feeling a little better. She said she wanted to meet her sister so when Manly had to leave that evening, he left Elisabeth Short alone in the room waiting for her sister. This would be the last time anybody saw her alive. She disappeared for the next six days before turning up severed in the vacant lot. Manly became the first suspect the police had. However, after several long interrogations he was eventually released.
The police were flooded with calls from people who knew the Black Dahlia. It took major manpower to handle the volume of calls and to follow up on the tremendous amount of information. Meanwhile, Phoebe Short arrives in California to claim her daughter’s body. It seems her ex-husband wanted nothing to do with the whole fiasco. Later, Phoebe would bury her daughter in The Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
And then the local papers received a package containing a few of Elizabeth Short’s personal belongings such as an address book with pages torn out, her social security card, birth certificate, business cards, photographs of her with various servicemen, claim checks for suitcases she had left at the bus station - accompanied by a note made from newspaper clippings which said, “Here are Dahlia’s Belongings” and “Letter to Follow.” The police tried to lift fingerprints off all of this, but none were able to be found. Each and every name in the address book was tracked down and interviewed, but not much came of it.
The Investigation
The investigation went nowhere fast. Every lead seemed to turn into a dead end. And yet, everyone seemed to know something about the Dahlia’s death, or had some connection that nobody else had. For example…
Two detectives sat in a local restaurant discussing the case. When they returned to the station, they got a call from a man who said he had seen the killer. As it turns out, he was the waiter at the restaurant and the two officers were to whom the man referred.
An astrologer said that if they buried the Dahlia with an egg in her hand, her killer would be caught.
Several landlords reported that their problem tenants were most likely the killer. Many women reported their ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands.
One serviceman was reported to military police by another serviceman with whom he had fought about money. The man who was reported had blood on his clothing and had some newspaper clippings of the Dahlia. The man confessed, saying that he could have done this since he often got violent toward women when he was drunk. The police saw through his confession eventually and he was sent to a psychiatrist.
In fact, as many as fifty different people confessed to the crime - but there were none the police took seriously.
Suspects
A crime reporter for the Herald Express named Aggie Underwood wanted the police to investigate a connection between the death of the Black Dahlia and the murder of a socialite named Georgette Bauerdorf. Bauerdorf. had known the Dahlia and had died in what Underwood considered similar circumstances - she had been strangled and raped before being drowned in a bathtub with a towel thrust into her mouth to keep her from crying out. The police never followed this lead, citing various reasons.
Janice Knowlton wrote a book titled Daddy Was The Black Dahlia Killer in which she tells of the affair Elizabeth Short had with her father George and pinning the murder on him. According to officials, George Knowlton was never considered a suspect.
Another popular book - Severed: The True Story Of The Black Dahlia Murder by John Gillmore, which contained a totally different view (and sources of information). While it is recommended that you read both books, it is also recommended that you make your own judgements on the information they contain.
Not much to go on. I know. Perhaps this - above anything else - explains why the case remains open andd unsolved, even after over fifty years.
The Killer
From the evidence presented, we can make certain educated guesses at what the killer was like, or certain other bits of information about him. I must strongly note here that since the killer is still unknown - all we are able to do is make these educated guesses. Even though the information presented in this section is logical - there is still a chance that it may not be correct.
Beth Short was a high risk victim. We can guess this since she was emotionally vulnerable, had a somewhat needy personality, led a lifestyle of club hopping, was often homeless, and had a dependant personality. Any killer who was looking for women who he could dominate and manipulate would have been easily attracted to her from the get go.
The nature of the crime suggests that this was a lust murder - although certain aspects of the crime tells us that it dosn’t fit the normal bill. Most lust murderers are, for the most part, disorganized types. However, since the killer went to such legnths to was the body (we can assume to get rid of physical evidence) and the manner in which she was severed, and these are definate signs of an organized offender, an interesting discussion on his personality traits can be made.
Since the body was killed elsewhere and then left in a vaccant lot, we can assume a few more details. The killer would have to have a car. Considering the year is 1947 and that most Americans did not own cars at this point in history, we can either conclude that he was criminally sophisticated enough to be able to steal one without it ever showing up as evidence, or that he was wealthy enough to be able to afford one.
The area where the killer dumped the body was not a busy intersection, however it was populated and nobody ever reported seeing anything amiss. We can assume here that since nobody saw anything out of order, that the killer either blended into his surroundings so that nobody would remember seeing him, or that he went completely unseen however unlikely that is bound to be.
In order to have tied the Dahlia up and torture her the way he did, he must have had his own home (or other such place to - cough snort - work) and he probably lived alone. It would be difficult (but not totally impossible) to pull this sort of thing off had he lived in an appartment, or if he lived with another person. But, then again, considering that the person he lived with might have gone away (as in out of town), and since he cleaned up The Dahlia very well, we can also assume he thoroughly cleaned the area where he kept and killed her, so that no traces were left when the others returned. However unlikely this scenario might be, I must also admit it could be possible.
Since the body was placed out in the open for people to find, we can also surmize that his intention for doing this was to shock or offend the entire community, and make a statement. He also appearantly was not too woried about leaving behind evidence of his identity, thus relating again to the fact that he cleaned the body.
Later, he would communicate with the police. This would suggest that he wanted credability, he wanted to outfox or outsmart the investigators, and that while he was fairly bright, he wasn’t too smart.
The crime also showed definate signs of sadism. He manipulated and degraded his victim to such a drastic level that we can guess his anger wasn’t against her, personally, but against her as a woman, suggesting his anger was toward all women. Or, at least all woman who the Dahlia reminded him of.
Now, granted – I haven’t seen the movie yet, but from what I am hearing – one of his next movies may just prove me wrong again. I’m talking about a movie, currently set to release in November called Milk.
Me? I just wonder what Barbra Streisand is thinking right now?
