The infamous murder that still captivates for its brutality and the failure of the LAPD to find the killer, we look into the savage murder of Elizabeth Short or as she is better known The Black Dahlia.
*WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGERY OF THE BODY OF ELIZABETH SHORT AND OF THE CRIME SCENE, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!*
Elizabeth, "Betty or Beth" Short was born on July 29th 1924 in the Hyde Park area of Boston, Massachusetts, she was the third of five daughters born to Cleo A. Short and his wife Phoebe May Sawyer. She had 2 older sisters named Virginia and Dorothea and 2 younger sisters named Eleanora and Muriel. Elizabeth was said to look older than what she was and that she acted more mature than she actually was but her friends said that she was a very lively person. The family moved to Portland, Maine in 1927 before settling in Medford, a Boston suburb, the same year. Cleo Short built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash where he lost most of his savings and the family soon became broke. In 1930, his car was found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge where it was presumed that he had jumped to his death into the Charles River. Cleo's suspected death left Phoebe alone and a single parent of 5 daughters, and not only that she also had to deal with bankruptcy and credit collectors harassing her. All of this left her unable to afford her $35 a month rent, which forced her to move her 5 daughters in to a small apartment in Medford, where she worked as a bookkeeper to support them.
Elizabeth and her mother, Phoebe
Phoebe enjoyed taking her girls to the movies, Eleanora and Virginia weren't interested in films but Elizabeth and Muriel shared their mothers love for the silver screen. Muriel later recounted how Elizabeth would make their trip to the movies a special event and made sure that they were all dressed up and on other occasions they went window shopping in ladies boutiques, and dreamed of one day being able to own such beautiful things. Later in life Elizabeth was known to sometimes go short on food and buy a beautiful piece of clothing instead. It was a sad statement that she was used to having to go without ample amounts of food due to her tough start in life but the yearning for the beautiful clothing she dreamed of as a child never went away.
Elizabeth had problems with bronchitis and severe asthma attacks and underwent a lung operation at the age of 15. Doctors later advised her to move to somewhere with a milder climate so that her respiratory problems didn't get worse or inflamed, so to prevent any further problems arising she was sent to family friends who lived in Miami, Florida during the winter months. Elizabeth also dropped out of her sophomore year at Medford High School.
Decades after her daughter's murder during an interview Phoebe described Elizabeth; “She was a very affectionate, sweet girl and if she was out at night she always stopped in my bedroom to talk. And she would talk and talk and tell me everything that she had done and everything.” It was clear the two shared a very close bond. “...It was only 10 days ago when she wrote me from San Diego telling me she had a job in the naval hospital there. I never dreamed that she was having financial difficulties. Her letters were always so cheerful.” . It seemed Elizabeth was like most people who struggle, they always put on a happy face so no one will worry. It is likely Elizabeth's financial problems were what led her on the path that ended with her murder.
CALIFORNIA CALLS
In late 1942, Phoebe received a shocking letter from her presumed dead husband. In the note he revealed that he had faked his death and had started a new life in California, he asked Phoebe to forgive him and wondered if he could come home, but Phoebe refused. In December of that year, Elizabeth relocated to Vallejo, San Francisco to be with her father whom she hadn't seen since she was six years old. Cleo was working at the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay area. But Elizabeth and Cleo constantly argued and this resulted in Elizabeth moving out in January 1943. After his daughters death Cleo said Elizabeth had been more interested in servicemen and dancing than in housekeeping which was what led to her moving out. Cleo was a known alcoholic, when police informed him of the murder of his daughter he was too drunk at the time to fully understand what he was being told and then didn't seem too bothered about it.
Cleo Short
Elizabeth ended up taking a job at the Base Exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenburg Air Force Base) near Lompoc, where she lived with several friends and later an Army Air Force Sergeant who had reportedly abused her. Whilst working at the base she was voted "Camp Cutie" in a beauty contest. She left Lompoc in mid 1943 and moved to Santa Barbara where she was arrested on September 23rd 1943 for underage drinking at a local bar. The juvenile authorities sent her back to Medford but Elizabeth changed her mind and instead went to Florida, making only the occasional visit back home. Despite the arrest, Elizabeth did not drink or smoke and was described as a courteous young woman who didn't swear. People later said that Elizabeth was emotionally vulnerable and desperate for a relationship that would end in marriage. Some think the abandonment of her father had left Elizabeth with a need to find a loving man, something she had lacked so far in her life.
1943 arrest mug shot
It was in Florida that she met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., he was a decorated Army Air Force Officer at the 2nd Air Commando Group and was training for deployment to the China Burma India Theatre of Operations during World War II. Elizabeth had told friends that Matthew had written to her with a marriage proposal whilst recovering from injuries that he had sustained in a plane crash in India. She had accepted his offer but Matthew died in a second crash on August 10 1945, less than a week before the surrender of Japan which ended the war. Gordon's mother later refuted the claims that her son and Elizabeth were engaged.
Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr.
After her loss she moved to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, whom she had first met in Florida. Joseph was stationed at the Naval Reserve Air Base in Long Beach but he later moved to another state. This again left Elizabeth with no where to go which in turn then left her vulnerable to others.
In December 1946, Dorothy French took in Elizabeth after spotting her at the Aztec Theatre in San Diego, she had looked like she had no where to go after she discovered her asleep on the chairs. Dorothy took her to the home she shared with her mother in Camino Padera, Pacific Beach. Elizabeth did waitressing while she was there but she spent most of her days sleeping in late and moping about. When she did venture out in the evenings she would go out to nightclubs, where she would talk to men who would buy her drinks all night but she would never leave with any of them. Some people took this behaviour to mean that Elizabeth was a sex worker but infact she was just a regular young woman who was short on money and used her looks to get drinks and generally have a good time. By the new year the French family thought Elizabeth had overstayed her welcome and asked her to leave on January 8th 1947.
Elizabeth spent what would end up being the last six months of her life in southern California, mostly in LA, where she worked as a waitress and rented a room behind the Florentine Gardens nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. Elizabeth would later be described as an aspiring or "would be" actress but did not have any acting jobs or credits at the time of her death. Her love of Hollywood came from watching movies when she was younger, the only affordable entertainment she had as a child to take her away from her life.
THE LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH SHORT
On January 9th 1947, Elizabeth returned to Los Angeles with Robert "Red" Manley, a 25 year old married salesman, whom she had met on one of her nights out. He said they had stayed in a motel together but that nothing had happened between them; he had slept on the bed whilst Elizabeth had slept on a chair. Robert initially had dropped Elizabeth off at the Los Angeles bus station where she had stored some luggage, he then took her to the Biltmore Hotel, which was situated in downtown Los Angeles, as she had said that she was meeting her sister there as she was visiting from Boston that afternoon. She asked Red if he would enquire about her sister, Virginia West, at the reception whilst she powdered her nose, the receptionist told Red that no one under that name had booked in. This was a lie as Virginia had not had any plans at all to meet her sister at the motel that day. Annoyed at how much time Elizabeth was taking in the powder room and anxious to get home to his family, Red left the hotel at 6.30pm and never saw Elizabeth again.
Various photographs of Elizabeth Short
There were witnesses who had claimed to have seen Elizabeth inside the hotel using the lobby phone and shortly after she was seen at the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge (which is a short distance from the hotel). Red was the last person to have officially seen her alive which made him a prime suspect but he passed two lie detector tests and had an alibi so he was cleared of any involvement.
22 year old Elizabeth was last seen alive on January 9th and this "missing week" has led many to try and discover her movements before her body was found on January 15th. Many of these sightings had simply been other women who had looked similar and were mistaken for Elizabeth and others were pure fiction. No one really knows Elizabeth's whereabouts in the lead up to her body being discovered.
A GRIM DISCOVERY
On the morning of a chilly January 15th 1947 at 10am, Betty Bersinger was walking along the street with her three year old daughter, Anne, when she spotted what she thought was a mannequin that had been thrown away but as she got closer she realised her mistake, it was the nude body of a woman. She rushed to a nearby house and called the police. The body was found in a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, in Leimert Park.
The discovery of Elizabeth's body
When the police arrived at the scene they were disturbed to see what had been done to the victim, the woman's blue eyes had been left wide open, her nude body had been cut in half at the waist and drained of blood that had left her skin a pallid white. Medical Examiners later determined that she had been dead for around ten hours before she was found, which meant her death had occurred during the evening of January 14th to the early morning hours of January 15th. Her body had been washed by her killer, probably in an attempt to destroy evidence. Elizabeth's face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, creating what is referred to as a Glasgow Smile, she had several cuts to her thigh and breasts where in some places entire sections had been cut away. The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper half and her intestines had been neatly tucked beneath her buttocks; her body had also been posed, with her hands placed over her head, her elbows bent at right angles and her legs spread wide apart. The lack of blood at the scene suggested that she had been killed elsewhere and the fact that the killer had made no attempt to hide the body but in fact had took the time to pose it suggested they had wanted to shock people.
Elizabeth's body after it was covered with some fabric
News of the grisly murder soon spread and before long large crowds and reporters descended on the area, Los Angeles Herald-Express reporter Aggie Underwood was amongst the first to arrive and managed to take several photos of the crime scene and body. Whilst the LAPD didn't do much to stop the crowds from being in the crime scene they at least covered Elizabeth's nude body with a piece of fabric. The police didn't find much at the crime scene but did manage to find a heel print near the body amid tyre tracks and a cement sack containing watery blood which was also found nearby, they thought this had been used to carry the body from the murder scene. They didn't know who their Jane Doe was though as no identification was found.
IDENTIFIYING JANE DOE
An autopsy was performed on January 16th 1947 by Fredrick Newbarr, who was the Los Angeles County coroner. The report stated the woman (at the time unidentified) as 5 foot 5 inches, 115 pounds, 15 to 20 years old, had light blue eyes, naturally brown hair that had been dyed black with a small amount of her roots showing and badly decayed teeth. The woman had ligature marks on her ankles, wrists and neck which suggested that she had been bound and what was described as "irregular laceration with superficial tissue loss" on her right breast, the woman also had lacerations on her right forearm, left upper arm and the lower left side of the chest.
Crime scene photos before Elizabeth's body was covered
The body had been cut in half using a method taught in the 1930's called a hemicoporectomy which meant her lower half had been removed by cutting the lumbar spine between the third lumbar vertebrae. Newbarr noted that there was very little bruising along the incision line which suggested the act had been done after death. He also noted a "gaping laceration" measuring around 4 1/4 inches in length that went from the naval to the pubic bone area. The cuts to the right side of the mouth measured three inches and on the left side 2 and a half inches. Her skull was not fractured but there was bruising on the front and right side of her scalp with some signs of bleeding which suggested that she had been hit on the head. The cause of death was determined to be from haemorrhaging from the lacerations to the face (shock from blood loss) and from blows to the head and face. There was dilation to the anus which suggested that she had been raped but samples taken to find evidence of sperm came back negative but that obviously does not mean that she wasn't raped, the killer's cleaning of the body had erased all evidence of rape. The blows to the head, face and the Glasgow Smile were done whilst Elizabeth had still been alive whilst all the other injuries had been inflicted after her death.
Elizabeth on the autopsy table
Her stomach was filled with faeces, there is some debate about how this had happened as some believed it had been another sick and twisted thing her killer had done to her while others believed that it had happened due to her being bisected. There were also some reports that had said that her pubic hair had been cut and that she had been forced to eat it and that it was also inserted into her vagina and anus, but that wasn't something that was reported in everything at the time and we cannot be sure if this is one of the many inaccurate stories that have been reported in the case.
Elizabeth's face photographed during her autopsy
There have been many rumours around Elizabeth's body and what was done to her:
All of her organs were intact and present, none had been removed.
Her breasts were not sliced off, as some had claimed.
Her teeth had decay and bad hygiene but were not knocked out or removed.
Her ear was not removed as a memento by the killer.
Her genitalia were not deformed nor had a medical condition that had stopped her from having intercourse.
No cigarette burns were found on her body.
No words, letters or clues were carved into her skin.
Elizabeth was finally identified as the Jane Doe after her fingerprints were sent to the FBI and they found a match from her 1943 arrest. Immediately after she had been identified reporters from the Los Angeles Herald contacted Phoebe Short in Boston to inform her that her daughter had won a beauty contest and once they had gotten every last detail they possibly could out of her, Phoebe was very proud of her beautiful daughter and loved to talk about her, they callously told her that Elizabeth had in fact been murdered. Phoebe didn't believe what the reporters had told her until the Medford police finally came to her house and confirmed that Elizabeth had been murdered. The reporters then offered the grieving mother airfare and accommodation to travel to LA in order to help the police in their investigation but this was another despicable trick as they wanted to protect their "scoop" from the police and other reporters.
Close ups of Elizabeth's body when she was discovered
The media went wild for the case, Elizabeth was an attractive young woman (a beauty queen no less) chasing the dream of stardom who had been horrifically killed, an article in the Examiner, stated that Elizabeth was last seen wearing a tight black skirt and a sheer blouse. Soon, they had started calling Elizabeth the "Black Dahlia" due to her rumoured penchant for black clothing and for the Blue Dahlia film that had come out at the time. There is also the theory that she was called that while alive due to her wearing Dahlia's in her hair but the true origin of the "Black Dahlia" name is a mystery as the case was originally dubbed the "Werewolf Murder". The media also started calling her an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard". Elizabeth was painted as a sex driven woman who had dressed provocatively. Elizabeth was called a prostitute, a lesbian and a rumour circulated that she couldn't have sex due to having abnormal genitals. There was also the rumour of her being pregnant. All these things were false and were created by the press in their attempt to sell papers to capitalise on her murder.
Elizabeth's funeral, her mother, her sister and her brother in law can be seen
Cleo Short refused to identify his daughter's body and instead left the task to Phoebe to perform, he also refused to attend her funeral. After his daughters murder he tried to justify his actions; “I didn’t want anything to do with her or any of the rest of the family then. I was through.”. Elizabeth was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, California on January 25th 1947, her mother buried her there as Elizabeth had always loved California and her mother ended up settling in the area so she could be close to Elizabeth. In 1993, a memorial was erected in her hometown of Medford.
Elizabeth's grave in Mountain View Cemetery, California
THE INVESTIGATION BEGINS
On January 21st 1947, a person called the editor of the Examiner and claimed to be the killer, the caller praised the editor for their coverage on the murder and that he planned on eventually handing himself into the police after he had let the LAPD chase him a while longer, chillingly he told the editor to expect "some souvenirs of Beth Short in the mail".
On January 24th, an odd manila envelope was discovered by a U.S. Postal Service worker that was addressed to "The Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers", the address had been made out of cut out newspaper clippings and had a large message on it that read; "Here is the Dahlia's belongings, letter to follow". The envelope contained Elizabeth's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, a stub from the bus station, names written on a piece of paper and an address book with the name, Mark Hansen, embossed on the front, some of the pages had been torn out. Just like Elizabeth's body, the contents had been cleaned with gasoline which led police to believe this was actually sent by her killer. Despite the best efforts of the killer some partial fingerprints were found on the envelope and sent to the FBI but due to the prints being compromised in transit the prints could not be properly analysed.
The letter along with Elizabeth's personal items
On the same day, a discovery was made of a handbag and a black suede shoe. They were found on the top of a garbage can in an alley a short distance from Norton Avenue, about two miles away from where Elizabeth had been found. These items had also been wiped down with gasoline to destroy any fingerprints. The items were identified by Robert Manley as he was the last person to see her.
Elizabeth's shoe and handbag
On March 14th, an apparent suicide note confessed to the murder, but neither the clothes nor the note gave any clue to the identity of the man. The note was found tucked into a shoe with a pile of men's clothing by the oceans edge of Breeze Avenue, Venice, it read:
"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."
Police had one of their first suspects, Mark Hansen. The wealthy nightclub and theatre owner was an acquaintance of Elizabeth's, she had even stayed at his house with friends at one point. A friend of Elizabeth's had said that she had rejected sexual advances from Hansen and suggested that a wounded pride had been his motive. Hansen later told the police that Elizabeth had been scared and crying before her death, saying that she had to get out of there (meaning the apartments she was living in at the time) but Hansen did not know what it was that had upset her. He also said that Elizabeth had stolen the address book from him and that he had never gotten the chance to use it.
Mark Hansen
Using the address book, police interviewed and investigated the many names in the book but to no avail. After a reward of $100,000 was announced for any information that would lead to Elizabeth's killer, police found plenty of people coming forward to confess and accuse but all of them were dead ends and a few people found themselves charged with obstruction of justice.
THE CASE TURNS COLD
On January 26th, another letter turned up, the hand-written note said; "Here it is. Turning in Wed., Jan 29, 10am. Had my fun at police. Black Dahlia Avenger.". The letter also named a location where the killer would turn themselves in, to which the police eagerly waited at the location but the killer failed to show. Another letter showed up at 1.00pm in the original cut out letters style stating; "Have changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified.".
Newspaper article from the Los Angeles Times
The media frenzy continued due to the horrific details, the press reported that Elizabeth had been tortured for hours before her death but the police let it continue in order to hide the true cause of death being a blow to the head a secret. Elizabeth's personal life was also scrutinised, the rejection of Hansen and a stripper who claimed to be an acquaintance of Elizabeth said she "liked to get guys worked up over her, but she'd leave them hanging dry.". This led some reporters to believe Elizabeth was a lesbian and tried to get local gay bar owners to support this theory but it has never been proven. The Herald-Express also received several of the cut out letters, one stated "I will give up on Dahlia killing if I get 10 years. Don't look for me.".
Elizabeth Short
On February 1st, it was reported that the case had gone cold with no more leads to follow. During an interview, Captain Jack Donahue said he believed that Elizabeth had been murdered in a remote shack or building on the outskirts of LA and her body transported into the city to be disposed of. Based on the precise cuts and injuries to Elizabeth the LAPD believed their killer had been a surgeon, doctor or someone with medical knowledge. In mid February 1947, the LAPD served the University of Southern California Medical School with a warrant to see the list of students as the school was situated near where Elizabeth had been found. The University agreed on the condition that the identities of students remained private, unfortunately this did not uncover any leads.
By the spring of 1947, the case was officially cold. One of the lead detectives on the case blamed the media for compromising their investigation. In September 1949, a grand jury came together to discuss the inadequacies in the LAPD's homicide unit and their failure in solving numerous murders; in particular the failure to solve the murders of women and children, with Elizabeth's case being amongst the list. After the grand jury's damning report about the LAPD failings, more work was done on Elizabeth's case which involved trying to trace her movements in the years that led up to her murder but those interviews once again did not turn up anything new.
Reward poster for information leading to Elizabeth's killer
Police started to wonder if the Cleveland Torso Murders in the 1930's could be connected but the details of the case didn't add up so they dismissed the theory. There were other murders of young women that were thought to be connected but once again the details just didn't add up, it seemed Elizabeth's murder was a stand alone murder which was odd considering what had been done to her.
At the inquest into Elizabeth's murder in Los Angeles, Phoebe Short was asked to tell the hearing of her daughter's death to which she replied; "She was murdered!" as she rose from her chair and tried to regain her composure. She then continued “Elizabeth always wanted to be an actress. She was ambitious and beautiful and full of life, but she had her moments of despondency. Betty always loved California so, so I think we’ll have the funeral in Berkeley. That is, as soon as the body is released."
Phoebe Short
THE KILLER FINALLY UNMASKED?
The media frenzy brought plenty of confessions , during the initial investigation there were 60. Since then that figure has risen to over 500 people that have confessed to the murder, some of those not even being born at the time of it. The case saw many suspects but police could never pin down a viable one.
A notable suspect is George Hodel, he has become a popular suspect due to his son, Steve Hodel, being the one who accused him not only of Elizabeth's murder but others as well after his death in 1999. George, a physician, came under suspicion in 1945 after the death of his secretary, Ruth Spaulding, which had been caused by a drug overdose. There was suspicion that he had murdered Ruth to cover up financial fraud such as billing patients for tests that had never been performed and to protect secrets such as police officers and politicians having women get secret abortions. After Elizabeth's murder the LAPD focused on 25 serious suspects with Hodel being on that list, although this wouldn't be known publicly until decades later.
George Hodel
In late 1949, George was accused by his teenage daughter, Tamar, of sexual abuse that resulted in her becoming pregnant to which she was then given a back-alley abortion. After a lengthy and heavily publicised trial George was acquitted after one of the three witnesses recanted her earlier statement and refused to come forward, it is theorised that George threatened the witness into keeping silent.
It was this case that brought him to the LAPD's attention, not only were they looking into sex offenders in the area but Tamar had also accused her father of being the killer of Elizabeth. George's medical knowledge also rang alarm bells as he would have had the skills to be able to perform the mutilations. At least eight witnesses had come forward to say that they had first hand knowledge of a 1946 relationship between Elizabeth and George.
All this only came to light in 2003, when a file labelled "George Hodel - Black Dahlia File" was discovered in the archives in the Los Angeles County District Attorneys office. The file revealed that George was one of their top suspects in 1950, his Hollywood residence was bugged by an 18 man DA and LAPD task force between February 15th to March 27th 1950. Transcripts of the bugging revealed Hodel's connection to illegal abortions, paying off law enforcement and his possible involvement in Elizabeth's and Ruth's deaths, there is chilling movement on 19th February 1950:
"8.25pm - Woman screamed. Woman screamed again. (It should be noted, the woman not heard before scream.)"
Later in the day, George talks to a confidant:
"Realise there was nothing I could do, put a pillow over her head and cover her with a blanket. Get a taxi. Expired 12.59. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her."
The surveillance continues after this but there is another suspicious statement: “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary any more because she’s dead.”
George was also a suspect in the June 1949 murder of Louise Springer, also known as the Green Twig Murder, though like Elizabeth, this information wasn't available to the public until July 2018. You can view our case on Louise Springer here.
The former Hodel family home as it looks today
In October 1949, George's name was in a formal report to the grand jury as one of the five prime suspects in Elizabeth's murder but the five names weren't submitted to the grand jury for indictment as the investigation was still ongoing. In April 1950, the LAPD had gathered enough evidence to charge George with Elizabeth's murder but he had already left the country. He later settled in the Philippines and started a new family, he was there until 1990 before finally dying in San Francisco in 1999 at the age of 91 without ever having being charged in connection with the case.
Steve Hodel, a former LAPD homicide detective, has maintained his father's guilt and believes that he snuck back to the US to commit further murders before fleeing back to the Philippines. We highly recommend reading Steve's various writings and interviews regarding his fathers guilt as they paint a very intriguing picture. Steve's investigation is very interesting, it started with the discovery of a photo album owned by George, inside it contained a portrait photo of a dark haired young woman whom Steve believes to be Elizabeth. Steve also believes his father may be a serial killer, he suspects him of being Chicago's "Lipstick Killer" of the latter part of the 1940's, the Manila "Jigsaw Killer" of 1967 and of being the infamous "Zodiac Killer" who terrorised San Francisco in the 1960's and of various other crimes.
The photo (right) of the woman Steve's believes is Elizabeth Short
Steve has received a mixed response to his claims. The LAPD officer in charge of the case recently, Detective Brian Carr, thought that Steve's case was built more on intriguing facts put together than on any hard evidence. Elizabeth's relatives also disagreed with Steve that the woman in the photo album was her.
Steve also found evidence of contracting work that had taken place on his childhood home at the time of the murder; this involved amongst many items 10 five pound bags of concrete, the same size and brand that was found near Elizabeth's body and what police believed at the time was used to carry her body in.
Steve Hodel at his home
Officials from both the LAPD and the District Attorneys office privately stated that the Black Dahlia case was solved and that George was indeed the killer but they lacked the evidence to go to trial. Several quotes from prominent members of the LAPD and DA's office state the killer as a doctor in Hollywood who was involved in abortions but failed to state the name of the doctor. The files in the DA's office confirm the doctor mentioned was George Hodel. Recently, there has been the push from officials to close Elizabeth's case as they felt confident in the investigation Steve had done in identifying his father as the killer.
In July 2018, Sandi Nichols from Indianapolis, Indiana, discovered a letter written by her deceased grandfather, W. Glenn Martin, while going through her mothers things after her recent death. The letter was dated October 26th 1949, it went on to describe how Martin was an LAPD paid informant and was working for S McCauley (LAPD Internal Affairs) with the aim to identify and arrest corrupt police officers. In this letter a person referred to as GH was described as an acquaintance of both Martin and McCauley and referred to him as the killer of Elizabeth and Louise Springer (the Green Twig Murder), stating that both himself and GH knew Louise. The letter also stated that GH was known and also protected by law enforcement officers and that they had let him go. The letter was instructed to only be opened if any harm came to his daughters, as no harm did come to his daughters the letter remained unopened for 70 years. We take this to mean that Martin had been threatened with harm to his daughters if he did not keep quiet about what he knew.
Another credible suspect was Leslie Dillon. He was a 27 year old bellhop, aspiring writer and former morticians assistant. He came into the spotlight after writing to LAPD psychiatrist Dr J. Paul De River in October 1948. Dillon reached out to the doctor after having read an article the doctor had written in a detective magazine about the Black Dahlia and had wanted to discuss his own theories about the case. Dillon said his friend Jeff Connors was the killer but Dr De River believed Jeff to be a figment of Dillon's imagination and that Dillon was in fact the killer as he simply knew too much to not be involved. Dillon also mentioned an intense interest in sadism and sexual violence.
Leslie Dillon
After being convinced to meet up and point out Jeff to Dr De River, Dillon was arrested by an undercover police officer after he had failed to find Jeff Connors and after he revealed very intimate knowledge about the crime, the plan was to take Dillon back to Los Angeles. It was then Dillon wrote out a plea for help on a postcard and tossed it out of the hotel window which a passer-by found and handed into the police. After they returned to Los Angeles they discovered that Jeff Connors really did exist but that his real name was Artie Lane. It's not clear why Dillon had the wrong name.
Lane had been living in Los Angeles at the time of Elizabeth's murder and was employed at Columbia Studios, which was a favourite hangout of Elizabeth's, as a maintenance man. Dillon however could not be definitively placed in Los Angeles at the time of the murder and the police could not find any clues as to where Dillon was between January 9th to January 15th, this is very suspicious as this is also Elizabeth's missing week. Dillon tried to sue to the LAPD after his release but quickly dropped it when he found out that he was wanted by Santa Monica police for robbery.
On a frosty morning on January 15th 1947, the owner of the Aster Motel in downtown LA, Henry Hoffman, opened the door to cabin three and was shocked to see a slaughterhouse like scene, the bedroom and bathroom were covered in blood and faeces. He later found in the cabin next door (cabin nine) someone had left a bundle of women's clothes wrapped up in brown paper, also stained in blood. As Hoffman had been arrested for beating his wife only four days prior (as well as being an ex con) he decided to clean up the mess himself and he burned the blood soaked sheets rather than inform the police; he even failed to tell them when they came to enquire about Elizabeth who had been found the very same morning that he had found the bloody scene.
The New Aster Motel as it is today
This is where Mark Hansen comes back into the story, the Danish business man had rumoured links to the mob. He allowed young (usually down on their luck) women such as Elizabeth to stay with him but Hansen had got annoyed with her and threw her out. Hansen had apparently been organising robberies (like the one Dillon was wanted for) and it was theorised that Elizabeth had found out about his activities so Hansen decided that she needed to be silenced. This is where we will hypothesise what happened based on this. Somehow, Elizabeth and Dillon (also Hansen perhaps) end up at the Astor Motel, perhaps Hansen had attempted to placate an upset Elizabeth with a place to stay. It appeared that Elizabeth had originally been in cabin nine due to what we assumed were her clothes being found in the cabin, and there were witnesses who reported that a dark haired woman that matched Elizabeth's description had been seen at the motel. Dillon was in cabin three and managed to some how convince Elizabeth or lured her into his cabin, as Hanson had instructed him to get rid of her. Once Elizabeth was in his room, he tied her up and tortured her and finally killed her (whether that was the aim or whether to torture her into remaining quiet). He then used his mortuary knowledge to bisect her and drained all of her blood, leaving behind the gruesome room. There was a theory of the Glasgow Smile being done to ruin Elizabeth's looks after she had rejected Hansen's advances. Of course Hansen had a clean criminal record and has never been linked to anything officially that we could find.
These are three of the many suspects that have been mentioned over the decades but we have focused on these men as they are the most mentioned and that people have a direct accusation of either at the time or in the time since Elizabeth's murder.
OUR CONCLUSION
At Apollo's Raven, we find the murder of Elizabeth particularly tragic as not only did she lose her life in a brutal and horrific manner but she was then condemned by the press for simply being a lost and typical 22 year old woman. The way she was described is terrible and the actions of the reporters, especially in the case of Phoebe Short, Elizabeth's mother, was despicable. We agree with the LAPD's statement of how the case being sensationalised and the reporters ruining any chance of witnesses being credible hurt their case but we also find fault with them. Various people who have looked into the case in the decades since have pointed out that this was a time when the LAPD was extremely corrupt so the killer may very well have slipped through the fingers of a corrupt police officer.
Elizabeth
We find Steve Hodel's investigation of his father very compelling, the evidence that he has pointed out is very promising and that several members of the DA's office and the LAPD agree with him that George Hodel is in fact the killer are also a good sign. We feel that George Hodel is a very good candidate as being the murderer of Elizabeth Short due to the fact that the LAPD at the time had him as a prime suspect and were about to arrest him for the murder. Witnesses had said that they knew George and Elizabeth had been in some sort of a relationship, there is also his medical knowledge and his callous attitude in the bugged recordings all paint the picture of a man guilty of something. We also cannot ignore the fact that George had a lot of influence and knew secrets about important people so he would have enjoyed a certain level of protection and even a heads up of any investigation that might have led to him. We highly recommend reading Steve's book on his investigation as he goes into detail about all his findings and gives a look at what his father was like as a person.
Leslie Dillon's involvement is also intriguing, he had the knowledge to drain Elizabeth's body of blood but did he know how to cut her in half, we aren't 100% convinced. The LAPD had been made a fool of during the investigation for their failure to solve what still remains one of the most infamous cases in the world and they seemed to have made a big show of capturing Dillion despite the evidence on him being hearsay rather than a tangible clue. We recommend reading Piu Eatwell's book "Black Dahlia, Red Rose" for a full look into the theory of Leslie Dillon being the murderer.
At the end of the day we find it sad that Elizabeth herself has been reduced to the Black Dahlia name, many don't even know her name until you say about her murder. Elizabeth was a lot like most 22 year old women, a little lost, looking for a true love, hoping for something better just around the corner and lacking the funds to follow her dreams, her murder will most likely never truly be solved but we can hope that perhaps one of these days one of the many theories will prove to be true and Elizabeth's story can finally have an ending.
Elizabeth Short
Our theory for what happened to Elizabeth is that due to her lack of funds she did what many young and attractive women do, they go on dates with men and let them pay but have no real interest in having anything more than a few dates. We think it was this flirtatious (yet innocent) behaviour that ultimately led to her death. It is a story that is sadly well known, some men do not take rejection well. Elizabeth may have been slightly naïve to this fact that not all men would accept her declining to take things any further. We believe the man responsible saw Elizabeth as an easy target, a sweet beautiful girl who dreamed of being a star, and he probably thought that she would do anything to achieve that dream. We think that she rejected the man's advances which infuriated him. This then led to him attacking her, tying her up and subjecting her to a vicious attack that only ended when she finally died due to her injuries. The man responsible clearly did all of these things to Elizabeth out of anger, giving her a Glasgow Smile tells us he did that to ruin her beauty, dumping her body and posing it in a suggestive manner was done so in a effort to humiliate her and make a mockery out of her rejection of him.
We feel that the Aster Motel is likely to be the murder scene as we find the timing of the discovery of a blood soaked and faeces covered room on the morning of Elizabeth's body also being discovered too coincidental. This is because of the motel being situated nearby; Elizabeth's blood being drained from her body, the evidence of her being raped, the faeces in her stomach, witnesses saying that they saw a woman matching Elizabeth's description and the women's clothes found in the room next door with blood on them all point to this conclusion. It is a shame that the motel owner did not tell the LAPD of his discovery and instead destroyed what little evidence there was in the case by cleaning it up, it truly is a devastating blow that his own worries of self preservation may have cost Elizabeth her chance at real justice.
Today, people know Elizabeth due to the Black Dahlia name but some others may know her due to her becoming a character on a show called American Horror Story where she is portrayed by the actress Mena Suvari in the first season or as it's referred to the Murder House. This portrayal of Elizabeth sees her visit the Murder House for some dental work after seducing Dr David Curran, who works from his home, into doing it for free. After rendering her unconscious with nitrous oxide he rapes her but finds out after that Elizabeth has fatally overdosed from the nitrous oxide during the rape. Panicked he takes her to the basement where one of the ghosts residing there (surgeon Charles Montgomery) offers his assistance and mutilates her body.
Mena Suvari as Elizabeth Short on American Horror Story
We find this quote about Elizabeth to be quite true of what we have come to understand about her, although we wouldn't have called her pitiful:
"A pitiful wanderer, ricocheting from one cheap job to another and from one cheap man to another in a sad search for a good husband and a home and happiness." Los Angeles Examiner, Editor Jimmy Richardson
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