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Elizabeth Short - Black Dahlia
18:32 Oct 08 2010
Times Read: 595








Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – ca. January 15, 1947) was an American woman and the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. She acquired the moniker "The Black Dahlia" posthumously by newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly colorful. Short was found mutilated, her body severed at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation along with several books and film adaptations.



Elizabeth Short was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the third of five daughters of Cleo Short and Phoebe Mae Sawyer. Her father built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash, in which he lost much of the family's assets. In 1930, he parked his car on a bridge and vanished, leading some to believe he had committed suicide. Short's mother moved the family to a small apartment in Medford, and found work as a bookkeeper. It was not until later that Short would discover her father was alive and was living in California.



Troubled by asthma and bronchitis, Short was sent to live for the winter in Miami, Florida at the age of 16. She spent the next three years living there during the cold months and in Medford the remainder of the year. At age 19, Short travelled to Vallejo, California, to live with her father, who was working nearby at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, located on San Francisco Bay. The two moved to Los Angeles in early 1943, but an altercation resulted in her leaving there and finding work in the post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, California. Short next moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943, for underage drinking. Following her arrest, she was sent back to Medford by the juvenile authorities in Santa Barbara. Short then returned to Florida to live, with occasional visits back to Massachusetts.



In Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr., a decorated United States Army Air Corps officer who was assigned to the 2nd Air Commando Group and in training for deployment to China Burma India Theater of Operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote her a letter from India proposing marriage while he was recovering from injuries he sustained from an airplane crash. She accepted his proposal, but Gordon died in an airplane crash on August 10, 1945, before he could return to the United States. She later exaggerated this story, saying that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air commandos confirmed that Gordon and Short were engaged, his family denied any connection after Short's murder.



Elizabeth Short returned to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Corps Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, an old boyfriend she had met in Florida during the war. At the time Short returned to Los Angeles, Fickling was stationed at NARB, Long Beach. For the six months prior to her death, Short remained in southern California, mainly in the Los Angeles area. During this time, she lived in several hotels, apartment buildings, rooming houses, and private homes, never staying anywhere for more than two weeks.



The body of Elizabeth Short was found on January 15, 1947, on vacant land located midway between Coliseum and 39 Street on the west side of Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. The body was discovered by local resident Betty Bersinger, who was walking with her three-year-old daughter. Her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears. The body had been washed and cleaned and she had been "posed" with her hands over her head and elbows bent at right angles.



The autopsy stated Short was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), weighed 115 pounds (52 kg), and had light blue eyes, brown hair, and badly decayed teeth. Although the skull was not fractured, Short had bruising on the front and right side of her scalp with a small amount of bleeding in the Subarachnoid space on the right side consistent with blows to the head. Cause of death was blood loss from the lacerations to the face combined with shock due to a concussion of the brain.



On January 24, 1947, the killer mailed a packet to a Los Angeles newspaper containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper and an address book with the name Mark Hansen embossed on the cover. Hansen, the last person known to have seen Short alive (on January 9) became the prime suspect. On January 25, Short's handbag and one shoe were found in a rubbish bin a short distance from Norton Avenue. Due to the notoriety of the case, more than 50 men and women have confessed to the murder and police are swamped with tips every time a newspaper mentions the case or a book or movie released. Sergeant St John, a detective who worked the case until his retirement stated: "It is amazing how many people offer up a relative as the killer."



Gerry Ramlow, a Los Angeles Daily News reporter later stated: "If the murder was never solved it was because of the reporters ... They were all over, trampling evidence, withholding information." It took several days for Homicide to take full control of the investigation and reporters roamed freely throughout the departments offices, sat at desks, and answered the phones. Many tips from the public were not passed on to police as reporters rushed out to get "scoops". William Randolph Hearst's papers, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner sensationalised the case, the black tailored suit Short was last seen wearing became "a tight skirt and a sheer blouse" and Elizabeth Short became the "Black Dahlia," an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard." As time passed the media coverage became more outragious with claims her lifestyle "made her victim material," when in fact those who knew her all reported that Short did not smoke, drink or swear.



Short was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. After her other sisters had grown and married, Short's mother moved to Oakland to be near her daughter's grave. Phoebe Short finally returned to the East Coast in the 1970s and lived into her nineties.