Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. It's the murder that Time Magazine dubbed one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in the entire world. The 1947 murder of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short has become a staple in the true crime community.
From the brutality of the murder itself to the fact it's still unsolved decades later. The Black Dahlia murder has become one of the biggest mysteries in modern history. But even after all of these years, can Elizabeth's murder still be solved? And if so, can forensic science be the driving force to finally bring some much-needed answers in this disturbing case?
This is Forensic Tales, episode number 209, The Black Dahlia Revisited. ♪♪ ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. You can support my work in two simple ways. Become a valued patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales and leave a positive review. Now, let's get to this week's episode.
If you're listening to this episode when it comes out, today is January 1st, the first day of 2024. This is going to be different than your typical episode of Forensic Tales, since I'm taking a couple days off to celebrate the holidays with my family. But don't worry, you'll still want to listen to this one, especially if you're familiar with the story. With that being said, I hope you're having a happy and healthy holiday season and new year.
The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia, is one of this country's most infamous unsolved murders. Even after decades of investigating, we're still no closer to finding out who was responsible for this brutal murder. But the case isn't short on evidence. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of evidence in this case, including forensic evidence.
From crime scene photos to the autopsy to a 900-page grand jury report, there's no shortage of clues. But despite all of the evidence, why hasn't this murder ever been solved? Why has no one ever been arrested or brought to justice? In this special episode, we'll cover some of the most critical pieces of forensic evidence in the case and try to figure out if any of them can help identify Elizabeth Short's killer.
We'll also talk about some of the shortcomings that investigators faced back in 1947, that if the murder were to happen today, might have been used to help solve it. Finally, we'll see, even after all of these years, if forensic science can still be used to help identify a killer.
We covered the full story of Elizabeth Short's murder in an earlier episode of the show, episode 11. In fact, that episode came out over three years ago in 2020. But instead of going through all of the facts of the case, we're only going to focus on the physical and forensic evidence we've uncovered over the decades. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Black Dahlia case or the murder of Elizabeth Short, I highly recommend you listen to the full episode before this one.
But even if you don't, that's okay. We'll briefly recap the story and then take a deep dive into the evidence and try to understand why this case is still unsolved today. Okay, let's get to the episode. On January 15th, 1947, the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was found at Leimert Park in Los Angeles, California.
A woman out walking with her toddler stumbled upon what they first thought was a mannequin lying in the grass. But as the mom and her daughter got closer, they quickly realized it was no mannequin. It was the brutally murdered body of a young woman. Elizabeth's body had been cut at the waist, and her blood had been drained. Her face was cut from the corners of her mouth to both ears, almost like a joker smile.
Portions of one of her breasts and thighs had also been removed, but the ultimate cause of death was caused by blunt force trauma to her head and blood loss. Based on the evidence collected at the crime scene and the autopsy, people have speculated that Elizabeth might have been tortured for hours, if not days, before she was ultimately killed. She was only believed to have died about 10 to 12 hours before her body was discovered.
But the last known sighting of Elizabeth was almost one week earlier. So what happened to Elizabeth during that time? Over the decades, more than 50 people have come forward claiming to be the Black Dahlia's killer. But those were all lies. They simply wanted the fame that would come from being one of the most infamous killers. Besides false confessions, there's also been no shortage of potential suspects over the years.
The LAPD themselves even considered many of these people promising suspects at least during one point of their investigation. Some people on that suspect list include Mark Hansen, Dr. Patrick O'Reilly, Robert Manley, George Hodel, Hodel's friend Fred Sexton, Francis Sweeney, Bugsy Siegel, George Knowlton, Leslie Dillon, and Jack Anderson Wilson.
And that's just to name a few. The actual list of suspects considered over the years is endless. Now, like the list of suspects, a list of theories also runs endlessly. Some detectives believe that the same person who committed the Cleveland torso murders also killed Elizabeth. Another theory is that she was linked to the lipstick murders. But just like the suspects, none of these theories panned out either.
Chances are, if you've heard of this story, you remember it simply as the Black Dahlia murder. You might not even know that her real name is Elizabeth Short. And if that's you, don't worry, you're not alone. One of the many reasons why this murder is still talked about today is because the label, the Black Dahlia, a sensational name that the local LA media came up with at the time because of the rumored sheer black clothing that she allegedly wore. She also had black hair.
But the idea that Elizabeth only wore sheer black clothing is only a rumor. The movie The Blue Dahlia, released during that time, spread the Dahlia name like wildfire. Today, Elizabeth Short's killer remains unknown. Was it someone the LAPD considered? Or was it someone completely unknown to investigators? Did Elizabeth herself know her killer? Or was she targeted at random?
Are there additional victims out there? Or was this a single attack? Was more than one person involved? Or was this an act of a single person? And finally, the biggest question of all, will the Black Dahlia murder ever be solved? One of the biggest issues in solving the Black Dahlia murder is the crime scene itself. Simply put, there is no crime scene.
We have the location where Elizabeth Short's body was discovered, but that's not where she was killed. That's just where her killer dumped her body. The actual crime scene, where Elizabeth was tortured and eventually killed, remains a mystery. The last official sighting of Elizabeth Short was on January 9th, 1947.
That day, her friend Robert Manley dropped her off in front of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles after giving her a ride from San Diego. According to Robert Manley, Elizabeth planned to meet up with her sister, who was visiting Los Angeles from Boston. But even after dropping her off in front of the Biltmore, Robert Manley said he never saw Elizabeth again. In fact, no one did.
January 9th was the last that anyone reported seeing her. Fast forward one week. Elizabeth's body is discovered on January 15th, 1947. So we don't know where Elizabeth was between January 9th and January 15th or what she was doing. So that makes figuring out where exactly Elizabeth was killed almost impossible.
But here's the tricky part. We don't even know if Elizabeth was actually missing or not during that entire week from January 9th to the 15th. Based on what we know about her life at the time, she was somewhat of a drifter. She relied on other people, mostly older rich men, to get by. She didn't have a stable job at the time she was killed. She often stayed with different men throughout Los Angeles to get a roof over her head.
So just because no one reported seeing her between the 9th and the 15th doesn't necessarily mean she was missing that entire time. So this is also something else that makes figuring out the actual crime scene location extremely difficult for investigators. We know Limmert Park wasn't where she was killed because her body was cut in half and she had almost all of her blood drained. So that all happened somewhere else.
Somewhere, that gave the killer enough privacy, confidence, and time to do that. Then, they used the vacant lot to dump and display her body. One theory is that the killer, or killers, were familiar with the area. They knew that this would be an ideal place to dump a body without detection. But, that's only a theory and has never been confirmed.
Based on the autopsy, we know that Elizabeth was likely killed between 10 and 12 hours before her body was found. This is also pretty strange because she went missing about a week before that, so she wasn't murdered shortly after she was last seen in front of the Biltmore. More than likely, she was kidnapped and held somewhere for at least a couple of days before she was killed, which again makes it next to impossible to know the exact location of the crime scene.
Was she killed inside of a house? Was it a hotel? Was she originally taken somewhere shortly after she was kidnapped, but then killed somewhere else? Somewhere that has enough privacy to torture, mutilate, and cut a body in half without anyone seeing or hearing anything. If the LAPD had a crime scene, that could tell us a lot more about who did this. If it happened inside of a house, they would know who the house belonged to.
Or if it happened inside of some other building, like maybe a hotel, they could see who the particular room was registered to. But even bigger than that, if we knew where the crime scene was, we'd have an entire place to look for forensic evidence, like the killer's DNA or fingerprints.
Cutting a body in half and draining the blood isn't an easy or clean process. At some point, the killer would have probably left some type of DNA evidence behind. Now, we know that Elizabeth's body was wiped clean of DNA and fingerprints before it was dumped. But what about the crime scene? They probably weren't as careful to clean that down as they thought the police would never find it.
An entire crime scene is much harder to clean than just a body. One of the many potential crime scene locations thrown around over the decades has been the Astor Motel, a seedy one-star hotel known for offering hourly rates to rent out a room in downtown Los Angeles. Over the years, it's been speculated whether Elizabeth was taken to the Astor Motel, and that's where she was tortured and killed.
The Astor Motel started swirling around after it was reported that one of the rooms was, quote, covered in blood and fecal matter right around the time of Elizabeth's murder. But by the time the LAPD found out about this bloody room and went to the Astor Motel to find out more, the hotel had destroyed all of the guest records. So there was no way of figuring out who rented out that particular room at the time the blood was discovered.
And because this was discovered a few years after Elizabeth's murder, there was nothing the police could do when it came to the forensic evidence. Simply put, it had been way too long and whatever forensic or physical evidence there was, it's just been too much time for them to do anything with it. Do you know what I don't miss at all? That vicious week before my period each month.
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That's happy mammoth.com and use code tails for 15% off today. Without any evidence from the crime scene, the only place where LAPD could get evidence was from the body. But as we already know, that was also a major problem for detectives. Although Elizabeth's entire official autopsy has never been publicly released, parts of it have been over the years. Now here's some of what we do know.
Elizabeth's autopsy was performed by the Los Angeles County Coroner the day after her body was found, January 16, 1947. Even though her official cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and blood loss, a lot of her other injuries were caused after she was already dead. Elizabeth's body was bisected in half between her second and third vertebrae.
This is how the killer was able to separate the bottom half of her body from the top half. Many people have speculated over the years whether this was someone who was just an ordinary person off the street, and if that's the case, could an ordinary person be able to cut a body in half? Or if it was someone with some type of medical background, maybe a doctor or a surgeon.
Even the LAPD seemed to consider this as a strong possibility when they went out and interviewed dozens of doctors, surgeons, and medical students in the area. Even some of their top suspects over the years were Los Angeles-based doctors. But maybe this was meant to be a distraction. The police spent a lot of time and resources going down a rabbit hole that might not have existed before.
Maybe Elizabeth's killer didn't have any type of medical or surgical background. Maybe he or she was a hunter or a butcher or just a sick individual. There's also been a lot of debate about why this was even done in the first place. Why go through all the trouble of cutting a body in half? One theory is that it was done out of convenience.
They needed to do it to be able to transport her body from the actual crime scene to where her body was dumped. So it was simply a convenience play. But others speculate that that rationale was far more sinister. These people argue that it was about their fantasy and they wanted to cut her in half. They didn't need to do it for transportation or convenience purposes. It was simply something they wanted to do.
One of the hallmarks of this case is the lacerations or cuts to Elizabeth's face. If you've read anything about this story, you've probably heard about what has been described as either the Joker smile or Glasgow smile across her face. Cuts that went from the edges of her mouth up to her ears. According to the autopsy, each cut was about three inches long, but the meaning behind it isn't known.
Many people thought the cuts might have been some type of message that the killer was trying to send, either a message to someone else or a message to Elizabeth directly. If the message was directed at someone else, it could have meant something like, keep your mouth shut, or something like this might happen to you. Or if the message was directed at Elizabeth herself, it could have meant something similar about keeping quiet.
It's even possible that the cuts didn't have a message. It was just yet another thing the killer had some type of fantasy about and just decided to do. A lot of the other cuts to Elizabeth's body were thought to have happened after she was dead. She had cuts to her forehead and the top of her head. There were multiple crisscross-type cuts to the lower part of her stomach. Part of one of her breasts and thighs had also been cut out.
And let's not forget that almost all of the blood had been drained from her body post-mortem. Again, was that done out of convenience for transportation purposes or part of a bigger, darker plan? From an evidence collection standpoint for the LAPD officers back in 1947, Elizabeth's body was a nightmare. Based on all of her injuries, whoever did this would have had to have their hands all over her.
But why weren't there any fingerprints or DNA left behind? Well, when her body was discovered, it had been completely cleaned and wiped down, essentially destroying any evidence left behind by her killer. If there were fingerprints, they had been washed away. DNA? Also washed away when they cleaned the body from head to toe. Bristles from some type of brush were found on her body, suggesting a brush was used to scrub her body.
Now, this killer was way ahead of their time for the mid-1940s. Elizabeth's entire body was cleansed of any physical evidence linking anyone to the murder. When Elizabeth's body was taken for the autopsy, investigators didn't find a single trace of physical or forensic evidence. Despite the cuts, the bisection, the joker smile, the mutilation...
Not a single fingerprint or drop of the killer's DNA was left behind. Elizabeth's body was dumped on a grassy lot a few feet from the sidewalk. Back in 1947, this spot was just a grassy field. But today, there are houses all around the exact spot where her body was dumped.
I actually had the opportunity to stand and visit the same spot where she was found. And let me tell you, it's directly in someone's front yard. But back in 1947, there was almost nothing there. But it wasn't exactly a remote location either. In fact, it didn't take long for the woman and her toddler who were walking in the neighborhood to find her.
Elizabeth was probably dumped there only a few hours before she was discovered. So whoever did this was probably only a few minutes that they had to pull over, get Elizabeth's body out of the car, and then pose her in the grass. This only took a couple minutes. I say pose because Elizabeth's body was intentionally displayed. She wasn't just simply thrown from a car.
Her arms were posed over her head in almost like a "help me" type position. Her head was tilted to one side, and the lower half of her body was a couple inches away from the top half, with both of her legs spread apart. Not to mention, she was completely naked. So what exactly did this location mean to the LAPD? Well, of course, we don't know the answer to that for sure, but there's no shortage of possible theories here.
One theory is that the killer was familiar with this part of Los Angeles. It was a place they knew that they could quickly get in and get out with anyone seeing them. And this wouldn't be the first time a killer dumped a body in a place they're familiar with. Most killers are probably familiar with a dump site in one way or another. It's why they feel safe and know that they can get away with it.
Some of the suspects the LAPD looked at only lived a couple miles away from where the body was dumped. But another theory is that the killer wasn't familiar with the area. They simply picked it out of convenience. Maybe they drove around looking for a quiet and secluded area to dump the body, and that's how they ended up on that particular street.
Based on the time Elizabeth's body was found, the police can assume she was put there sometime in the middle of the night or the early morning hours of January 15th. She was probably only there for a few hours before she was found. The LAPD have considered both possibilities. On one hand, the killer wants to be familiar with the area, but they don't want to be so familiar that the police will automatically know that it was them.
So it can't be someone with known ties to that neighborhood. But on the other hand, you don't want to be driving around downtown Los Angeles with a dead body inside your car for too long. So they couldn't have been driving around for that long before they dumped her. About a week after the murder, a person claiming to be the killer called The Examiner, a Los Angeles newspaper company, on January 21st.
He said he planned on turning himself into the police, but before he did, they could expect some of Elizabeth's personal items to pop up in the mail. And sure enough, he was right. Three days later, on January 24th, a manila envelope arrived at the examiner, exactly like the caller said.
Inside were Elizabeth's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen written on the front, the name of one of the top suspects named in the 1949 grand jury report. But similar to the body, everything inside the envelope had been wiped clean of fingerprints and DNA.
According to many media outlets, the envelope had even been wiped down with gasoline. So the chances of recovering any type of physical or forensic evidence were practically zero. Yet another sign the killer was way ahead of their time and knew they had to be careful when it came to forensic evidence. But what if they weren't so careful?
Well, if they hadn't wiped it down, the LAPD probably could have been able to find a fingerprint or two. Even though the official fingerprint database didn't come along until many years later, the FBI had been collecting fingerprints since the early 1920s. Even the LAPD had its own database of fingerprints.
So if they had found at least one fingerprint on the letter or anything inside of it, they might have had a chance at finding a match. On the same day the letter popped up, a handbag and a pair of black suede shoes were found on top of a trash can less than two miles away from where the body was found. But just like the letters, they were also wiped clean with gasoline and essentially were useless when it came to forensic evidence.
Although most people probably assume the letter that was mailed to the examiner came from Elizabeth's killer, there's no way of knowing that for sure. The reason why we assume it's from the killer is because they had a lot of Elizabeth's personal belongings, like her birth certificate. Why would they have any of that if they weren't the killer? But it's also possible it wasn't the actual killer who mailed it.
It could just have easily as been someone else that the killer got to do it. Someone who didn't actually participate in the murder at all. If Elizabeth Short was killed today, would her killer have been able to get away with it like they did back in 1947? Most people, including myself, would likely say probably not. The type of forensic and DNA testing we have today is too advanced to get away with a crime like this.
But because it happened decades before this technology was available to the LAPD, it's one of the primary reasons the killer or killers have been untraceable. Despite meticulously cleaning the body and wiping it down with gasoline, the type of advanced technology we have today might have been able to still find something. This includes touch DNA or trace DNA.
In 1947, the police would have needed a lot of DNA to be able to do anything with it. Today, police departments can test trace DNA from only a few skin cells. Touched DNA could have been collected from many places, from the dump site to anywhere on Elizabeth's body. Anything that came in contact with the killer could have been collected and tested.
But besides DNA testing, you've also got digital forensic evidence. If Elizabeth had a cell phone, the police could trace that. Or if she had a laptop, they would have known all about her internet searches. These modern-day techniques could also be used against potential suspects. In 1949, a grand jury was assembled to try and figure out why the case still hadn't been solved.
When all was said and done, the grand jury came up with at least five people they believed were promising suspects. With that information, the LAPD could have looked at any of those suspects' digital forensic evidence to see if there was anything linking them to the murder. But again, that wasn't possible back then. Time magazine listed the murder of Elizabeth Short as one of the most infamous unsolved cases in the entire world.
This begs the question, can one of the most infamous unsolved murders ever be solved? And will the Black Dahlia be one of them? My guess is yes. I personally think that it is possible for Elizabeth's murderer to still be solved today. And here's why. Even though I think Elizabeth's killer is likely already dead...
I don't think they're the only ones who know that they did it. In other words, there are more people out there who might know something. I also think it's likely that more than one person was involved in the murder. Or at least, at the very least, I should say, the prime suspect had help. They had help maybe by dismembering Elizabeth. Or maybe they had help by disposing of her body. Or even the actual kidnapping.
I think they had help from at least one or two other people. If that's the case, at least a handful of people out there do know something, and it just takes one person with accurate information and knowledge to finally come forward. Even if a lot of those people are also dead, there's still a chance they told someone else about what they know, a friend or even a family member, and there's still a chance that someone can come forward.
Or the police will eventually uncover previously overlooked evidence that points towards a particular killer. A deathbed confession letter hidden away inside a family member's basement. A videotape recording of a confession. Something incriminating. There is also a slight chance forensic science can be used to solve Elizabeth's murder.
A new type of testing can be done on whatever is left from her remains or any of the evidence already in police custody. It's almost impossible to know where forensic testing is headed and what type of technology will be created to help solve this mystery. But if you ask me, the Black Dahlia case isn't unsolvable. It might be one of the most infamous unsolved murders of all time, but it doesn't have to stay that way.
And maybe, just maybe, emerging forensic science will be what finally cracks the case wide open. Thank you so much for listening to this special episode of Forensic Tales. As I mentioned at the top of the show, this wasn't your typical episode this week because of the holidays. But I hope you enjoyed listening to this deep dive into Elizabeth Short's murder. And again, I hope you're having a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season.
A regular episode of the show will return next week. I'll see you then. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon.
Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. ♪
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