The Black Dahlia

Most people never think that they’ll be someone's murder victim. The Black Dahlia is a
famous murder and cold case from California. A lot of people have tried to figure it out and have
even written books about it, but no one was ever charged with the crime. It's even reported that
hundreds of people went to the police station and confessed to the murder. The Black Dahlia
murder was one of the most gruesome murders in America.
Before getting into the details of the murder, the Black Dahlia’s backstory is important to
cover. Elizabeth Short was a 22-year-old girl from Boston, Massachusetts. She was described by
the Daily Police Bulletin as, "Female, American, 22 years, 5 ft. 6 in., 118 lbs., black hair, green
eyes, very attractive..." She moved to Los Angeles six months before her untimely death hoping
to be a Hollywood actress. She was nicknamed the ‘Black Dahlia’ after a movie that came out a
year before the murder called The Blue Dahlia, a crime movie about the murder of a woman
named Helen. She was also nicknamed that because she mostly wore black clothing. Short had a
bright future and a potentially successful acting career, but sadly her life was cut short.
She was last seen on a phone call at the Biltmore hotel. Short’s body was found in a
neighborhood park on January 15, 1947, by a mother and her child. She at first thought it was a
mannequin because of how it was posed, but soon after realizing that it was a corpse, she called
the police. According to the article The Gruesome Story of the Black Dahlia Murder - And Why
the Case Remains Unsolved, "...completely drained of blood." Making it easily passable as a
mannequin wasn’t hard in her pale state. Her body was able to be identified by “sound photo”
from her fingerprints because she applied as a clerk for an Army camp and from her getting
arrested for underage drinking. Short’s body discovery was shocking to everyone, especially in
the state they found it in.
As previously stated, the Black Dahlia story was a very tragic and grisly murder. Short’s
body was cut in half at the waist and no blood was found on the scene. Her body had random
tissue missing and cuts, as well as bruises everywhere. Her face had been cut to have a Glasgow
smile, some think that it was given to her while she was alive. It had been suspected that she had
been killed somewhere else and then dumped, because of the lack of blood. Supposedly she was
carried to the park in a cement sack that had traces of blood on it. Whoever had killed her
probably had some type of medical practice.
There were even more disturbing details to Elizabeth Short’s murder. Her stomach was
supposedly filled with human excrement, making people believe she was force-fed it while she
was alive. She was also missing some organs. One source also said that a rose tattoo on her thigh
was cut off and put into her vagina. The article The Black Dahlia stated, "An autopsy showed
that she had ultimately been killed because of lacerations and a hemorrhage on her head due to
blows to the face." Her death is truly disturbing and probably made many others afraid to leave
their houses.
The Black Dahlia’s murderer may have reached out to the police and a newspaper.
"Shortly thereafter on the 24th, the Examiner received a package with Short’s birth certificate,
photos, business cards, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen on the cover. Also
included was a letter pasted together from newspaper and magazine letter clippings that read,
'Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers here is Dahlia’s belongings letter to
follow.'" From The Gruesome Story of the Black Dahlia Murder - And Why the Case Remains
Unsolved. Eventually, they got a package with her business cards, photographs, birth certificate,
and more. The package had been cleaned with gasoline to prevent fingerprints, but despite that,
they found one that they sent to be tested and it was damaged in the transfer. Another time they
found a suicide note in a man's coat on a bridge that had the note, “To whom it may concern: I
have waited for the police to capture me for the Black Dahlia killing, but have not. I am too
much of a coward to turn myself in, so this is the best way out for me. I couldn’t help myself for
that, or this. Sorry, Mary.” These letters could be faked by either the press to get a better
reputation or by the people who want to mess with the news and there’s always the possibility
that the actual killer did these.
The cold case of Elizabeth Short is one of the most disturbing murders to happen in
America. Short had a lot of impact on the people in California's lives, even more so after death.
She had one of the worst ends someone could have in their life, having a brutal ending to what
could've been an epic life. Her life’s end was even worse because her killer was never officially
found. The search for the Black Dahlia murderer came up jumbled with many different
outcomes. Her gruesome death showed just how cruel some killers could be.