10 Grim Details Surrounding Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia Murder

6 /10 Popular Victim

Elizabeth Short’s celebrity status was actual, but it was not because she played in a movie or televised program.

It was the relentlessness of the media in reporting the case that made her famous. The Los Angeles Record put stories about Short on its front page for 31 consecutive days. 

Rumors were inevitable. Some said she had been forced to eat feces and that flesh had been inserted into her rectum and vagina. It was hard to keep track of which news stories were true and mere fabrications.

5 /10 Black Dahlia

The press contributed to making Short known as “Black Dahlia,” supposedly because she liked to wear sheer black clothes. It was also a wordplay on the 1946 film The Blue Dahlia.

Los Angeles Examiner and Herald-Express reported that Short had been seen wearing a blouse and tight skirt when in reality the clothing was a black tailored suit.

That specific part of the story was a complete fabrication to imply an indication of sexual misadventures. No one can tell whether or not the sexual aspect was involved in the case with a reasonable degree of certainty.

4 /10 Medical Dissection

The FBI, in support of L.A. police, conducted interviews for potential leads across the nation. Since the body was cleanly cut, an early suspicion was that the perpetrator might have had medical training to dissect the human body.

The Bureau received fingerprints found on the anonymous letter that the killer might have sent to authorities.

The prints were not in FBI files; it was quite shocking because even back then FBI already had a massive record of fingerprints from more than 100 million individuals.

3 /10 Story Retold

The death of Elizabeth Short became a subject of numerous books, television specials, and movies. Most offered no new revelations, only repetition of information the public had learned from the police and newspapers.

Black Dahlia case has also inspired art projects and university theses in the decades since. It has been referenced in popular media, including video games and T.V. shows as well.

In 2006, the case received a major motion picture adaptation based on the 1987 novel “The Black Dahlia” written by James Ellroy. The film has the same title and was directed by Brian De Palma.

2 /10 Misinformation

Kim Cooper, who together with her husband run Esotouric’s literary, crime, and culture bus tours of Los Angeles, said that many people who visited their Black Dahlia tour were mostly misinformed about the case.

Cooper has always tried to debunk false stories in the tour and focused on Elizabeth Short as a person.

James Ellroy himself has stated he doesn’t hope that the police will find the murderer and close the case. According to Ellroy, the Black Dahlia case was never meant to be solved.

1 /10 A Theory

New theories keep on coming. One of the most recent was proposed by Steve Hodel, a former homicide detective.

He has suggested that George Hodel, his father, murdered Elizabeth Short. Steve even alleged his father responsible for other murders too.

When he went through his father’s possession, he found two pictures of a young woman in the back of a photo album. Steve thought the woman looked like the Black Dahlia.

He sent the photographs to facial recognition experts; it turned out one photo was of another woman, and the other photo remains unknown.