Elizabeth Short

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Elizabeth Short (born July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park , Boston , Massachusetts , † probably January 14 or 15, 1947 in Los Angeles , California ; also known as Black Dahlia or Black Dahlia ) was an American murder victim.

The mysterious and gruesome circumstances of her death caused a great public sensation in the USA in the late 1940s. Her case is considered to be one of the most well-known unsolved murders in criminal history and has become a much-received subject in popular culture.

Life

Elizabeth Short, called "Betty", was born on July 29, 1924 to Cleo Alvin and Phoebe Mae Short in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park. Less than two years later, the family moved into a rented house in Medford, north of Boston . Short had two older sisters, Virginia and Dorothea, and two younger sisters, Eleonora and Muriel. Her father made a living by building miniature golf courses until his company ran into financial difficulties after the stock market crash in 1929 and had to be foreclosed. In October 1930, Cleo Short left the family without leaving a message. When the police have abandoned car near a bridge in Boston auffand, was initially believed that he suicide committed. Phoebe Short supported the family from now on with her occasional income as an accountant and with the help of government support. Elizabeth was considered a pretty, popular girl with mediocre school grades. According to Phoebe Short, Elizabeth suffered from " manic-depressive mood swings" after her father's disappearance . She had also suffered from asthma and had to undergo lung surgery in February 1939.

On medical advice, Short went to Florida for the winter months in 1940 because of the milder climate , where she worked at a beach resort in Miami Beach . After leaving high school after her sophomore year, she took on a few modeling jobs in the greater Miami area . In the spring of 1942 she returned to Medford and worked for some time as an usher in a Boston cinema. In the same year, her father, who now lived in Vallejo , California , sent a letter to her mother asking for forgiveness for his disappearance without a trace and for permission to return to the family. While Phoebe Short refused a reconciliation with her husband, Elizabeth took up letter contact with her father. She moved in with him in December 1942 in order to fulfill her dream of an acting career in California. In January 1943 the two spent three weeks together in Los Angeles, where they met a sergeant named "Chuck" who was stationed at the Camp Cooke Army base near Santa Barbara . After an argument with her father about money and his alcohol consumption, she left Los Angeles on January 29, 1943 and took a job in the post office of Camp Cooke. There she had many admirers and was voted Cutie of the Week (“cutest woman of the week”).

Mugshots from Elizabeth Short
September 23, 1943

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

On September 23, 1943, she was taken into custody near the camp after she had consumed alcohol as a minor and unaccompanied by a legal guardian. With the fingerprints and mugshots she took on that occasion , her body could later be identified. After this incident, Short returned to her family in Medford for a few weeks.

She spent the winter of 1943/1944 again in Florida, where she earned her living as a waitress and model. In August 1944 she moved back to Los Angeles, where she worked as a "B-Girl" ( animation girl ) and shared a hotel room with a colleague. In the hope of being discovered as an actress, she frequented bars and restaurants frequented by filmmakers, and where she met actors such as Franchot Tone and Arthur Lake . In September 1944, while working as a hostess in the Hollywood Canteen, she met Army pilot Joseph (according to another source, Gordon ) Fickling and entered into a love affair with him, which is documented by an exchange of letters that took place while Fickling was stationed in England. On October 12, 1944, Short raped and murdered a Hollywood Canteen colleague. The perpetrator could never be identified.

On New Year's Eve 1944, she met Army pilot Matthew Gordon (according to another source, Gordan ) Jr. during another stay in Florida. To her family and in letters addressed but never sent, Short expressed plans to marry Gordon after his return from World War II . In April 1945 Short returned to her family in Medford and took a job as a waitress in Cambridge . Shortly after the war ended, Short was informed by telegram from Gordon's mother that he had died in a plane crash in India. In a letter to Gordon's family, Short asked for money to start a new life. After Short's death, Gordon's mother denied to the press that her son was planning to marry Short. On the other hand, Short is said to have said several times to acquaintances that she and Gordon were married and that she was expecting a child from him that died in childbirth.

In December 1945 she moved to Jacksonville , Florida, where she stayed for three months before returning to Medford. In April 1946 she left Medford for the last time and made her way to Chicago . There she met Fickling again. The two resumed their relationship and in July 1946 she moved to live with him in Long Beach , Los Angeles. After Short's murder, a contemporary reported to the press that she was nicknamed Black Dahlia there while she was still alive - in reference to her black hair, the black clothes she often wore and the film The Blue Dahlia (1946) with Veronica Lake . In late August 1946, Fickling ended the relationship because he had doubts about Short's allegiance.

In the fall of 1946 Short lived partly with casual acquaintances in cheap hotels, in which she often did not pay the rent, as well as in shabby apartments in the greater Los Angeles area. On December 8, 1946, she took a bus to San Diego , not knowing where she would spend the night. She wanted to spend the night in a cinema; the cashier Dorothy French felt sorry for her and let her live with her family in San Diego. On January 8, 1947, she wrote a letter to Fickling stating that she wanted to go to Chicago with a certain Jack to become a model. On the same day, the French family reportedly asked them to leave their home. She was hitchhiking and was picked up by Robert Manley. He took her to a cafe in San Diego and the two stayed in a hotel. He slept in bed, she was fully dressed in an armchair because she was not feeling well. The next morning Manley drove her back to Los Angeles, where he checked in her suitcase with her at the bus depot. She said she wanted to meet her sister Virginia at the downtown Biltmore Hotel and then take her to Berkeley , where Virginia was staying. None of that was right, Manley waited with her until about half past six in the evening. During the evening she left the hotel lobby. Three people said they saw her that evening in a downtown cocktail bar. What happened after that is unclear.

Find and autopsy of her body

Elizabeth Short's grave

On the morning of January 15, 1947, at around 10:30 a.m., Short's body was found by a walker in the grass next to the sidewalk on the west side of Norton Avenue between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street in the Leimert Park district of Los Angeles ( 34 ° 0 ′ 59 ″  N , 118 ° 19 ′ 58.8 ″  W ). The property on which the body was lying was still vacant at the time.

The body was lying on its back, naked and completely severed at waist level. There was a space of about a foot between the upper and lower halves of the body . Some of her internal organs had been removed, and her pubic area and breasts were mutilated. Her arms were stretched up next to her head and her face was turned to the street. The corners of the mouth were slit in the shape of a Glasgow smile up to the ears and the head and face showed massive blows from a dull object. The corpse appeared bloodless and as if it had been in the water for some time. Since no traces of blood were found at the place where the body was found, police investigators came to the conclusion that Short must have been killed elsewhere. The officials also saw that the corpse had not just been dumped, but actually displayed.

During the autopsy of the corpse, the coroner found traces of ankles on wrists, ankles, thighs and neck and as the cause of death bleeding to death . The cuts to the face and the blows to the head had been inflicted on Short while she was still alive, the remaining mutilations postmortem . The transection of the body had been performed with a surgical instrument and by someone with practical surgical experience. The coroner could neither confirm nor rule out rape . An examination for traces of sperm was negative.

Short was buried on January 25, 1947 in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland .

The perpetrator or perpetrators have never been identified, although the case has generated a great deal of media and public interest.

reception

The Black Dahlia case is considered to be one of the most well-known unsolved murders in Los Angeles history.

The Fate of Shorts was also circulated as a warning - the story of a light-hearted young woman who went to Hollywood in hopes of a career as an actress and had a terrible end there.

The novel The Black Dahlia and its film adaptation The Black Dahlia are based on the incident. A Melodic Death Metal - band of Detroit called in line with this, The Black Dahlia Murder .

literature

  • Jacque Daniel: The Curse of the Black Dahlia. Digital Data Werks , Los Angeles, CA 2004, ISBN 0-9651604-2-4 .
  • James Ellroy: The Black Dahlia. The Mysterious Press, New York, NY 1987, ISBN 0-89296-206-2 .
  • John Gilmore : Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia. Amok Books, Los Angeles, CA 2006, ISBN 1-878923-18-8 .
  • Steve Hodel: Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder. Arcade Publishing, New York, NY 2003, ISBN 1-55970-664-3 .
  • Janice Knowlton, Michael Newton: Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer. Pocket Books, New York, NY 1995, ISBN 0-671-88084-5 .
  • Mark Nelson, Sarah Hudson Bayliss: Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder. Bulfinch Press, New York, NY 2006, ISBN 0-8212-5819-2 .
  • Mary Pacios: Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder. Authorhouse, Bloomington, IN 1999, ISBN 1-58500-484-7 .
  • William T. Rasmussen: Corroborating Evidence: The Black Dahlia Murder. Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM 2005, ISBN 0-86534-536-8 .
  • Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles. ReganBooks, New York, NY 2006, ISBN 978-0-06-058250-0 .

Web links

Commons : Elizabeth Short  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Gilmore: Severed. 2006, pp. 61 ff.
    Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, p. 52 ff.
  2. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 53-55.
  3. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 56-58.
  4. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 30, 58, 101.
  5. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 101-110.
  6. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 87-89, 114.
    Piu Eatwell: Black Dahlia. Red rose. 2017, pp. 105-108.
    John Gilmore: Severed . 2006, pp. 138-141, 149-151.
  7. ^ Piu Eatwell: Black Dahlia. Red rose. 2017, p. 62 f.
  8. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, p. 8 f.
  9. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 8-11.
  10. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, pp. 31-33.
  11. ↑ John Gilmore: Severed . 2006, p. 318.
  12. ^ Donald H. Wolfe: The Black Dahlia Files. 2006, p. 96.
  13. ^ Piu Eatwell: Black Dahlia. Red rose. Coronet, London, UK 2017, ISBN 978-1-473-66635-1 , p. 594.
  14. ↑ James Bartlett: The Black Dahlia: Los Angeles' most famous unsolved murder. In: BBC News . January 8, 2017, accessed January 8, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Short, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Black Dahlia, The
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American murder victim
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Hyde Park, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1947 or January 15, 1947
Place of death los Angeles