Aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was last seen. Her body, mutilated and cut in half, was discovered a week later in a Los Angeles parking lot. The gruesome case had it all: sex, violence and beauty. It has spurred widespread speculation, numerous books, movies and Web sites.
There is debate about which came first, the nickname or the murder. Newspapers said Short received the nickname in the summer of 1946, as a play on a movie title, “The Blue Dahlia,” and she liked to wear her black hair up like a bouquet. However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators’ reports say the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the crime.
Sensational media coverage captured the public’s imagination. More than 50 people confessed to the murder; police narrowed their list of suspects to 22. Throughout the years, many people have tried to solve Short’s murder. Theories of her killer range from a nightclub owner to a Los Angeles police officer to a famous Hollywood director, Orson Welles.
The case remains unsolved.
