Black Dahlia Cases
True Crime Case Study
“Dahlia killing was justified.”
BLACK DAHLIA: LOS ANGELES MURDER MYSTERY
One of the most infamous crimes in American history, the horrific and brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, known after her death as the Black Dahlia, has endured as a classic example of true crime noir, and a case that has inspired a lasting cultural interest, in particular because of the complex nature of the investigation, and the many unanswered questions that persist in this unsolved crime.
An aspiring actress, Elizabeth Short was a beautiful and alluring woman, who enjoyed the attention of men and the envy of women. Her turbulent life was brought to a premature and violent end, when at the age of twenty-two, her naked body was found at an abandoned lot, cut in half and posed by her killer, where a passer-by stumbled upon this ghastly and unspeakable sight.
BLACK DAHLIA: SUSPECTS
The Black Dahlia investigation would eventually identify as many as 150 potential suspects, most of whom were questioned and eliminated from police enquiries. These included Robert “Red” Manley, the last person to see Elizabeth Short alive, and Mark Hansen, a wealthy local nightclub and theater proprietor who owned an address book found among Short’s belongings. Many former boyfriends and those enamoured with the Black Dahlia were interrogated and ruled out as the killer. A number of letters, purportedly from the killer were sent to police and the press.
Detectives long held the suspicion that the Black Dahlia’s killer could have been responsible for other, similar crimes. Among these was a doctor suspected of orchestrating the Cleveland Torso Murders, and George Hodel, a Los Angeles doctor with an interest in the darker side of the Surrealist art scene, who was under police surveillance. Hodel, who was suspected in other unsolved crimes, would never be ruled out of the investigation, and is considered the prime suspect.
BLACK DAHLIA: CONNECTED CRIMES
Long before and many years after the mutilated body of the Black Dahlia was found bisected and dumped in an abandoned lot in January 1947, other women were being murdered on the streets of Los Angeles. Months after Elizabeth Short’s gruesome death, the body of Jeanne French was found, naked, beaten and daubed in red lipstick by her killer. Others, such as Jean Spangler, simply disappeared, and her fate and whereabouts remain unknown.
A similar series of murders occurred in San Diego in the decade before the Black Dahlia slaying, which saw the ghastly killing of Louise Teuber and the kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Virginia Brooks, whose body was found in a gunny sack. Investigators have never succeeded in establishing a connection been the Black Dahlia and some of the many unsolved murders of young women in Los Angeles, most of which remain unsolved.