THE BLACK DAHLIA (ELIZABETH SHORT): BIOGRAPHY - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Elizabeth Short (1924-1947), better known as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman aspiring actress, who rose to fame after being brutally murdered. Her body was found mutilated and the investigations were never able to shed any light on the case. Her murder inspired a large number of movies and books.

The nickname of Black Dahlia was due to the fact that in those days a film called the Blue Dahlia was released, in which its protagonist appeared dead; the obvious change from blue to black was due to the fact that Elizabeth used to always wear black.

The Black Dahlia. Source: Los Angeles Police Department

Early years

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Cleo Short and Phoebe Mae Sawyer. Father Cleo was a builder of miniature golf courses. She decided to abandon the family in the Depression of 1929.

Her mother, Phoebe, had to take care of all five daughters by working in various trades simultaneously. However, the money to live came especially from public assistance. Years later the father, Cleo, appeared in California and wanted to return to his family; Phoebe flatly refused.

Movie hobby

Short grew up with the conviction that she was a pretty girl. In front of the others she acted in a very casual way, everyone believed that she was older, she seemed very mature.

His great entertainment was the movies, a distraction the Short family could afford; Despite suffering from asthma, according to his friends, he was a person with incredible energy.

Tense relationships

As he grew older, his father, Cleo, offered to go live with him in California. Although he had worked in a few restaurants, he knew he had to move to be a big movie star. So he packed his suitcase and went to his father.

Relations did not go well, as Mr. Short criticized her for her laziness, bad habits and courtships. Finally, months later she left the house. She was forced to earn money to live, so she got a job as a cashier.

The military were interested in her, but it was known that she was not an easy girl, because, although vulnerable, she was anxious above all to seal a relationship that would be consummated in a marriage.

Mess with the police

In September 1943, Elizabeth had a confrontation with the police that did not progress. I was with some friends and they made a lot of noise in a restaurant so the owners called the police.

Elizabeth was a minor and the police took pity on her case by sending her to Massachusetts. She would return to California with the firm intention of being a great actress. She fell in love with a pilot named Gordon Flicking and, although they made wedding plans, nothing was successful as the man had to travel to Europe.

Model

Later she got some modeling jobs, but she wasn't sure of continuing her career. She began dating the military and fell in love with another pilot, Matt Gordon.

Gordon left for India but died there, leaving Short alone and heartbroken. In her loneliness she wanted to contact her ex-boyfriend, Flicking. She called her and fell in love again. She left Los Angeles on December 8, 1946, bound for San Diego.

In San Diego she became friends with Dorothy French. Short confessed that being a Hollywood star was quite complex with all the actor strikes. Finally, after that meeting, she ended up living for a couple of months at Dorothy's mother's house.

The brutal murder

It was in January 1947 that the great tragedy occurred: Elizabeth Short was mutilated, cut in half in Los Angeles. The body was found in a vacant lot, who found it was a neighbor of the place, Mrs. Bersinger, who was walking around with her daughter and thought that the body was that of a broken mannequin.

Taking a closer look, he saw that it was a body split in two, and on its face there were cuts from the corner of the lips to the ears.

The Police Department officer who was contacted said it was hideous, that he did not know how someone could do that with another human being. Not only did the murderer mutilate and dissect the body, but he drained the blood and washed it.

Autopsy

The autopsy of the Black Dahlia corroborated the viciousness that the murderer had had with the girl, since apparently she had been tied up for three days and received numerous blows and lacerations, even cigarette burns. The cause of death was loss of blood from all the cuts received and a concussion.

The case went viral

On January 23, 1947, the killer called the Los Angeles Examiner and promised to deliver some of Short's items: photographs, cards, and his birth certificate.

Later this same man called the newspaper again and proclaimed himself "the avenger of the Black Dahlia." Men and women appeared from everywhere claiming to be Short's killers.

She even tried to incriminate her father, Cleo, who lived very close to where she was murdered. But when consulted, he said that he had not heard from his daughter for three years and had little interest in her life.

Front page

The murder of the Black Dahlia made the front page for several months in many of the major American newspapers. Later there were many false reports and confessions.

There was only one witness who claimed to have observed a black sedan parked at the scene in the early hours of the day, but could not testify anything else.

The case was partly unsolved because the same reporters withheld information from the police, trampled on evidence, or when some citizens provided new information they withheld it without apparent justification.

The case of the Black Dahlia became very frivolous in the media, exaggerating aspects of her life and calling her an adventurous girl, when many of her close friends knew that Short did not smoke or drink.

References

1. From Spain, R. (2019). The Mystery of the Black Dahlia. Recovered from cronicaglobal.elespanol.com
2. FBI (nd). The Black Dahlia. Recovered from fbi.gov
3. IMDB (sf). Elizabeth Short. Biography. Recovered from imdb.com
4. Miras, E. (2017). The “Black Dahlia”, the macabre murder of the 1940s that was never solved. Recovered from abc.es
5. The Black Daliah (nd). The Life of Elizabeth Short. Recovered from blackdahlia.web.unc.edu