The Black Dahlia: The Murder of Elizabeth Short That Haunts Los Angeles Forever (1947)

The Discovery

On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter through a vacant lot at 3825 Norton Avenue in Leimert Park discovered what she initially believed was a discarded store mannequin lying in the weeds. It was the nude body of a young woman, severed at the waist, completely drained of blood, with the flesh of her face cut from the corners of her mouth toward her ears in a wide, grotesque grin. The two body halves had been arranged with deliberate precision several feet apart. The skin had been scrubbed clean. There were no fingerprints on the scene, no tire tracks that could be identified, and no witnesses. LAPD homicide detectives arrived within the hour.

Elizabeth Short

Elizabeth Short was 22 years old, born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 29, 1924. She had lived in Los Angeles intermittently since 1942, hoping to break into the film industry. She was working as a waitress and living in a series of rooming houses and hotels at the time of her murder. She was last seen alive outside the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on January 9, 1947 — six days before her body was found. The press, drawing on her dark clothing and the Blue Dahlia film then playing in theaters, dubbed her "The Black Dahlia."

The Investigation

The LAPD launched one of the largest investigations in the department's history. Detectives eventually identified more than 150 suspects. The Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Examiner competed aggressively in covering the case, with the Examiner receiving portions of Short's belongings — including her address book and photos — directly from the killer via mail in January 1947. The FBI opened a parallel investigation. Despite all of this, no charges were ever filed. More than 500 people confessed to the murder over the following decades; each confession was investigated and disproved. The FBI file on Elizabeth Short runs to hundreds of pages and remains publicly accessible.

The Hodel Theory

In 2003, retired LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel published Black Dahlia Avenger, naming his late father, Dr. George Hodel, as the murderer. Steve Hodel presented circumstantial evidence including his father's surgical training, his proximity to Short, and a partially deciphered recording from a 1949 LAPD wiretap of George Hodel's home in which Hodel appears to say: "Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead." The wiretap's existence was confirmed in 2003 by the release of grand jury documents. George Hodel died in 1999. No charges were ever filed against him or anyone else.

The Unresolved Legacy

The murder of Elizabeth Short has generated dozens of books, multiple films, a television series, a video game, and an ongoing industry of true crime investigation. The case is cited by the FBI as one of its most studied historical cases. The location where her body was found — now a quiet residential block in Leimert Park — is marked by no monument. The lot where she lay has long since been built over. The city of Los Angeles has never formally acknowledged the case beyond its presence in police records. In 2023, the LAPD confirmed the case file remains open. Elizabeth Short's death at 22, in the city she had come to for hope, remains the defining unsolved tragedy of modern Los Angeles.