Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1924, and was found dead in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. She is known posthumously as the Black Dahlia. The crime was widely publicized because of its brutality: her body was mutilated and cut in half. The case remains unsolved and is often called one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history, as well as one of Los Angeles County’s oldest open cases. Historians consider it one of the first major postwar crimes to draw national attention.

Short grew up in New England and Florida before moving to California, where her father lived. She is commonly thought to have been an aspiring actress, though she had no known acting jobs or credits in Los Angeles. The nickname “Black Dahlia” was given to her after her death, a practice common in newspapers at the time for sensational crimes; it may have come from the 1946 film *The Blue Dahlia*. After her body was discovered, the Los Angeles Police Department investigated more than 150 suspects but never made an arrest.

Short was the third of five daughters born to Cleo Alvin Short Jr. and Phoebe May Sawyer. Her father, a Navy sailor, built miniature golf courses but lost most of his savings in the 1929 stock market crash. In 1930, his car was found abandoned on a bridge, and he was presumed dead. Her mother worked as a bookkeeper to support the family. Short suffered from bronchitis and severe asthma, and after lung surgery at age 15, doctors advised a milder climate. She spent winters with family friends in Miami, Florida, and dropped out of high school during her sophomore year.

In late 1942, Short’s mother learned her husband was alive and living in California. Short moved to Vallejo to live with him at age 18, but arguments led her to move out in January 1943. She worked at a base exchange at Camp Cooke and briefly lived with an Army Air Force sergeant who reportedly abused her. After moving to Santa Barbara, she was arrested for underage drinking and sent back to Massachusetts, but she returned to Florida instead. While there, she met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., who proposed marriage by letter while recovering from a plane crash in India. She accepted, but he died in a second crash in August 1945.

In July 1946, Short moved to Los Angeles to visit an acquaintance from Florida. She spent her last six months in southern California, working as a waitress and renting a room behind a nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. On January 9, 1947, she returned from a trip to San Diego with a married salesman named Robert Manley. He said he dropped her off at the Biltmore Hotel, where she was to meet her sister. Staff recalled seeing her use the lobby telephone, and she was later seen at a nearby cocktail lounge. On the morning of January 15, her body—severed into two pieces—was found in a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park neighborhood.