THE BLACK DAHLIA : LOS ANGELES'S MOST FAMOUS UNSOLVED MURDER

THE BLACK DAHLIA : LOS ANGELE'S MOST FAMOUS UNSOLVED MURDER

If we say that there is no perfect crime, unsolved crimes are a reality. Sometimes these are minor offences, but other much more sordid and atrocious crimes that  allow police officers to swim in mystery for months, years and even decades. Among these causes that left behind the forces of law and order is that of the Black Dahlia, to which we have never associated a murderer : classical murder in American culture and great subject arising from the greatest conspiracy theories of all time.

Who is the Black Dahlia?

The one we knew as the “Black Dahlia” was actually named Elizabeth Short. Third in a family of five, she is abandoned by her father when she is young. Like many, Cleo Short’s company did not resist the stock market crash of 1929, so the family economies flew away. The following year, his car was found on a bridge, completely empty. The thesis of suicide is evoked, but the man rather went on the run by abandoning his wife and five daughters.

Following her father’s sudden departure, Elizabeth grew up with her mother and sisters in a small apartment in Medford, Massachusetts. Starting at the age of 16, due to her asthma and chronic bronchitis problems, Short had to spend the long and cold winter months in Florida before returning to Medford with his family. At the age of 19, she found her father in California and decided to move there in order to live with the man she thought had been dead all these years.

In early 1943, the father and his daughter moved to the Los Angeles area, but fought violently, forcing Elizabeth to leave for Camp Cooke where she would find work. Shortly thereafter, she moved back to the Santa Barbara area where she rubbed herself for the first time in the judicial system. The police are making her arrest because she is drunk while she is a minor. The youth court sent her back to her mother in Medford, but she returned to Florida to visit her mother and sisters in Massachusetts a few times.

An aborted marriage and macabre murder

When she returned to Florida, Short fell in love with Major Matthew Michael Gordon Jr. Flying in the Indian region for the American army, Gordon Jr. sends a letter of proposal to the girl. While accepting the proposal, the situation turns to drama when the pilot kills himself in an aircraft accident shortly before returning to the United States. Elizabeth will tell his friends that she married the soldier and that they were expecting a child, which of course was not true.

In July 1946, Short moved back to the Los Angeles area to see Lieutenant Joseph Gordon flicking, a former boyfriend with whom she reconnected. Staying mostly in southern California, everything seems to stabilize in the young woman’s life until the day the remains of her corpse are discovered.

On January 15, 1947, while taking a walk, Betty Bersinger saw parts of what looked like a human body. Believing at first that it was a broken model of a business, Bersinger soon realizes that it is indeed a dismembered human body that she have under her eyes! She rushes to the nearest home and contacts the police right away.

The constables and investigators arriving at the scene, they quickly notice that the crime is not trivial. Not only is the body terribly mutilated, with deep cuts to the cheeks giving a sinister smile to the corpse, but it was severely severed in two in the basin region! The torso and abdomen are one foot away and the intestines have been securely tied under the corpse’s buttocks. In addition, he was completely bled out while his limbs were meticulously arranged. His arms were placed above his head, forming 90-degree angles at the elbows, while the legs were spread. Close to the body they found a cement bag containing aqueous blood and a heel print in the middle of tire tracks.

The body is entrusted to the pathologists for an autopsy, which concludes that it is indeed Elizabeth Short. Many wounds are visible to the wrists and neck, and although the pathologist does not diagnose a concussion, he mentions in his report that the young woman received several blows to the head. The doctor concluded that death was caused by bleeding from the visible lacerations on Short’s face, as well as the shock that followed all the blows to the head and face.

The media take over the case

Because of the atrocity of the murder, the media quickly seized the story and, as is all too often the case, publicized it excessively while romanticizing it. In addition, the clothes she was wearing the last time she was seen were altered, and she was quickly nicknamed the "Black Dahlia," claiming that she was an adventurer walking the streets of Hollywood. The more time goes by, the more the newspapers add and scribe the situation to the point where some people mention that Short’s lifestyle made her a perfect victim.

The publicity around Short’s murder not only outraged the public, it fascinated the public to the point where the police began to receive more and more letters from people claiming to be the perpetrators of the crime. In addition, a man named Mark Hensen phoned the Los Angeles Examiner claiming to be responsible for the crime of the Black Dahlia and sent several personal effects that belonged to Short to support his claim. Investigations showed that Short stayed at Hensen’s house with friends, but he wasn’t the murderer.

A total of 50 men and women claimed to be responsible for this homicide, but no irrefutable evidence could link them to the crime. In search of a certain celebrity or a moment of glory over an act of barbarism that had been strongly publicized, these people were ready to make themselves responsible or to report relatives in order to be known. Personally, I think that this is stupid... Some police officers said that “it was astounding to see the number of people willing to report a loved one in this affair,” while one reporter mentioned that the publicity generated around the Black Dahlia was probably the source of the failure of the investigation, as the media seized all the evidence and distorted it to the point where the police could not do their job properly.

Why the Black Dahlia?

Why is this case known as “The Black Dahlia”? Since the killer was never identified, there is no reference to the perpetrator. Even for Short herself, the nickname “Dahlia Noir” makes little sense at first glance. Where does it come from then?

As mentioned earlier, the name “Dahlia Noir” was invented by the media to identify Elizabeth Short. It is believed that this referred to her black hair like black dahlia or to that flower she wore in her hairstyle. The nickname could also evoke the dark clothes she wore at the time of the assassination. Still others link the nickname to the film Le Dahlia Bleu, which appeared shortly before the murder of Short and whose story revolved around a murdered young woman and the search for her killer. Unfortunately, we will never really know what the media referred to when they nicknamed the young woman.

The influence of that murder on culture

The Black Dahlia affair has generated a lot of ink and has fuelled the minds of many writers and filmmakers over the decades. For example, James Elroy published a novel called "Short in 1987", while Steve Hodel wrote an essay called "The Black Dahlia Case in 2005". More recently, a comic book telling this story has emerged.

In terms of the video game, an adventure game called "Black Dahlia" was designed in 1998, while the game L.A. Black from Rockstar Games openly refers to this assassination. The cinema also did not miss the opportunity to report the events of this crime. In 2006, a documentary entitled "The truth about The Black Dahlia" took the stage, as did Brian De Palma’s film "The Black Dahlia". This case has also been mentioned in many television series, including episode 9 of the first American Horror Story season and seasons 2 and 3 of the demonic series.

Mmmm... Intriguing no? In my humble opinion, I am certain that the murderer is currently dead. It has been 72 years since Elizabeth Short’s body was found, so it is unlikely that her executioner is still alive. That is the mystery of this story. Are we ever going to find out the truth about this murder? I want to know what you think! It is to follow!