Who Killed the Black Dahlia? Revisiting Elizabeth Short’s Unsolved Murder 78 Years Ago Today — and Why a Retired Detective Believes His Father Committed the Crime

On Jan. 15, 1947, Elizabeth Short’s body was found cut in half and left in an abandoned lot in Los Angeles

It’s been over 70 years since Hollywood’s most infamous unsolved murder took place.

In the early hours of Jan. 15, 1947, 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered and then left on the side of the road in an undeveloped Los Angeles neighborhood. Her body had been mutilated and cut in half with surgical precision. Despite the gruesome killing, not a drop of blood was left behind.

News of Short’s death spread quickly, and before authorities could cordon off the crime scene, reporters swarmed the area. It began an intense period of tabloid press coverage fueled by rumors and inaccurate reporting. The media dubbed Short the “Black Dahlia,” a nickname inspired by the 1946 film The Blue Dahlia and influenced by Short’s rumored penchant for black clothing.

The initial investigation into the murder delved into Short’s mysterious life, filled with questions about the men she knew and how she lived her life. Hundreds of suspects were considered throughout the inquisition, and several falsely confessed to the crime.

Although the LAPD had leads into Short’s death, including handwritten notes from the killer, no one was ever charged. The Black Dahlia remains an unsolved mystery and a case that detectives are still working on today.

So who killed the Black Dahlia? Here's everything to know about what happened to Elizabeth Short 78 years after her murder and where the investigation stands today.

Who was Elizabeth Short?

Short was born on July 29, 1924, and grew up outside Boston with her parents and four sisters, per The Black Dahlia: Shattered Dreams. When she was 6 years old, her father lost the family’s savings following the 1929 stock market crash and mysteriously disappeared. His car was later found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge, where he was believed to have died by suicide.

After dealing with a respiratory condition and undergoing surgery, a 16-year-old Short began spending winters in Florida with family friends — per a doctor's recommendation who believed the milder climate would help improve her health. Eventually, Short dropped out of high school and regularly visited her loved ones.

In 1942, Short’s mother received an apology letter from her husband, who had been presumed deceased for over a decade, according to Shattered Dreams. In the note, he said that he had begun a new life in Northern California. Soon after, when Short was 18, she decided to join him, but it was short-lived and she moved out in early 1943.

Later that year, she relocated to Santa Barbara but ended up being arrested for underage drinking and was sent home to her mother. Short again moved to Florida for a while before returning to L.A. to reportedly pursue her dreams of acting. Less than six months later, she would be dead.

What happened in the time leading up to Elizabeth Short’s murder?

Over the last six months of her life in L.A., Short is said to have lived in multiple places across the city while working various jobs. Several men have since recalled enjoying Short’s company, taking her on dates and offering her gifts. She struggled financially but always seemed to come up with money for rent and other necessities.

“Miss Short’s life in Hollywood seemed to follow a pattern. She didn’t have any visible signs of employment, she’d be broke, and then suddenly have some money," former police officer Vince Carter said in Shattered Dreams.

He continued, "Her roommates, the bartenders, and the hotel clerks all came up with the same story. She was secretive — never one to confide. She never said what she was really doing, or who she was really going out with, or where she was really going."

In December 1946, just weeks before her murder, Short left L.A. for San Diego. She allegedly told friends that she was scared but didn’t explain why and immediately moved. When Short arrived in San Diego, she met another young woman named Dorothy French, who allowed her to stay with her family.

During her time with them, Short admitted she was hiding from an ex-boyfriend out of fear, per Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius Murder. French revealed that several weeks into Short’s stay, two men and a woman came to the home looking for her. Upon hearing about the visitors, Short became “very frightened” and “panicky,” refusing to see them. They eventually left, and she decided to relocate.

According to Shattered Dreams, Short departed on Jan. 8 with a traveling salesman she had been seeing. They drove back to L.A. together, and he dropped her off at the Biltmore Hotel, where she claimed to be meeting her sister. (Short's sibling Virginia later told authorities they hadn't arranged to see each other.)

Hotel employees recounted seeing Short make several telephone calls in the lobby that evening, growing increasingly frantic. She finally departed the hotel around 10 p.m., and it was the last confirmed time she was seen alive.

The next few days of Short’s life leading up to her murder have been shrouded in some degree of mystery. Her exact whereabouts are unknown, aside from sporadic sightings and an alleged encounter with Officer Myrl McBride, who claimed to have seen Short on Jan. 14, just hours before she was found dead.

According to Black Dahlia Avenger, McBride told authorities that the woman, believed to be Short, approached her “sobbing in terror” and claimed that someone threatened to kill her. Short appeared too shaken up to return to a bar she had been in to retrieve her purse, so McBride accompanied her. By then, the man was gone and McBride left Short's side.

Later, McBride saw Short exiting the same bar with two men and a woman, and the officer checked in on her. Although she appeared to be fine at the time, Short was murdered hours later.

Who discovered Elizabeth Short after she was murdered?

On the morning of Jan. 15, 1947, Short’s body was discovered by a young mother on a walk with her child through Leimert Park, an L.A. neighborhood that was largely undeveloped at the time.

Noticing the body from afar, the woman first believed it to be a mannequin, per the FBI, due to the contorted position of the limbs. As she approached the grassy area on the side of the road, she found something much more horrific.

Short’s naked body had been severed at the waist with surgical precision. Though internal organs were removed, the extensively mutilated corpse had been drained of blood, indicating that Short had been killed elsewhere. Her face was also bruised and cut, with a grisly slash running from each side of her mouth.

When the coroner later examined the body, he ruled that the cause of death was due to hemorrhaging from the lacerations to Short’s face and the shock from the repeated strikes to her head, according to Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia.

How was Elizabeth Short’s body identified?

When police arrived at the scene of the crime, they had no idea about the identity of the mysterious young woman. Being so disfigured, authorities knew that they would be unable to share photos of the body with the public.

Instead, they took her fingerprints and allowed an artist from the Los Angeles Examiner to sketch a recreation of the unidentified woman, per The Black Dahlia: Shattered Dreams.

Police quickly mailed a copy of Short’s fingerprints to the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., but being cross-country, they knew it would be days before they received answers. That’s when a staff member at the Examiner suggested that authorities send the fingerprints using the newspaper’s new Soundphoto machine — an early version of a fax machine.

Hours later, the FBI successfully identified Short, thanks to the fingerprints they had on record from when she applied for a job on an army base in California and when she was arrested for underage drinking.

Why was Elizabeth Short called the Black Dahlia?

The origins of Short’s Black Dahlia nickname date back to long before her murder.

When Short was briefly living in the Long Beach area of California, she was reportedly given the name as a play on the 1946 film The Blue Dahlia and as a tribute to Short’s dark hair and rumored preference for wearing black clothing, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Around the time that Short was murdered, it was common for newspapers to assign a nickname for murder cases, especially those involving women. Upon news of Short’s death, the case made major headlines, and the media became engrossed in coverage of the investigation. The day after Short was found dead, the Examiner sold the most copies it had since World War II ended, per The Guardian.

While outlets initially dubbed the Short’s killing the Werewolf Murder, writers quickly pivoted when they learned of her nickname, per the Los Angeles Times. While it’s unclear which journalist discovered the name first, the Black Dahlia name appeared in print for the first time in both the Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Daily News on Jan. 17.

Newspapers would go on to cover the case in a sensational manner for months — with related items making front page news for 31 consecutive days on the cover of the Los Angeles Record, according to The Guardian.

What happened during the investigation into Elizabeth Short’s murder?

After Short's body was discovered, the Los Angeles Police Department launched an investigation, which ran until 1950, when it was shut down, according to 48 Hours.

Over three years, the LAPD received dozens of clues, leads and false confessions — but ultimately, it all yielded no substantial results.

As months passed, the investigation continued, and the police ruled out suspects. Still, the media continued to extensively cover the murder with baseless claims.

In 1949, a grand jury convened to discuss the inability of LAPD’s homicide unit to solve murders, during which Short’s death was further investigated. In front of the grand jury, Detective Harry Hansen, who was assigned to the case, said in a sworn testimony that he still believed a “medical man” was behind the crime because of how Short’s body was severed, per the Los Angeles Times.

The trial led to further investigative interviews with friends, family and suspects, but there were no additional leads on the case.

Was anyone ever charged for Elizabeth Short’s murder?

To this day, no one has ever been officially charged for Short’s murder.

Several people remained suspects until their deaths, including nightclub owner Mark Hansen, who knew Short.

Through the years, people have continued to investigate the case, including Detective Hansen, who searched for Short’s killer for 23 years until his retirement. "My only regret is that I never solved the murder of Elizabeth Short," he said in 1968, per the United Press International.

Who is widely believed to have killed Elizabeth Short?

While there are numerous theories about Short’s murder, one of the most highly suspected culprits is Dr. George Hodel, a gynecologist who had a clinic in L.A.

He was known to throw parties for Hollywood’s rich and famous and was rumored to be dating Short before her death, per 48 Hours. Hodel was initially labeled a suspect in 1949 after he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting his teenage daughter.

Although acquitted, his name was brought forth as a potential suspect in the Black Dahlia case. He was listed as one of the few remaining primary suspects when the case was discussed before a grand jury later that year.

During that time, authorities wire-tapped Hodel’s home and recorded him making jarring statements, seemingly confessing to the 1945 death of his former secretary Ruth Spaulding as well as suspicious comments about Short’s murder. (Spaulding died of a drug overdose.)

“Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn’t prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she’s dead,” Hodel said in the recordings. “Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary.”

Hodel eventually relocated to the Philippines, living there for the next four decades. Much of the information about his status as a suspect was not publicly known until his son Steve, a former LAPD detective and private investigator, began looking into his father’s involvement in the murder.

When Hodel died in 1999, Steve found a photo in his father’s belongings that appeared to be Short. While it has remained unconfirmed if the photo is actually Short, it began Steve’s inquiry into her murder.

In his years of research and investigation, Steve has come across other pieces of evidence tying his father to the murder, including “five witnesses in newspapers describing him as [Short’s] boyfriend.” He also had formal training as a surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.

On top of that, Steve and a handwriting expert discovered eerie similarities between his father’s writing and letters sent to The Examiner in 1947. He also found receipts for bags of cement purchased by his father just days before Short’s death — the same brand as an empty bag of cement found near her corpse. Then, in 2018, Steve told the South Pasadenan that he had uncovered a 70-year-old letter from a former police informant who had written that Short was killed by a man named “GH.”

Although the LAPD looked into Steve’s research, they chose not to pursue his leads. (He believes his father was friendly with officers and they were protecting him.) Still, some officials believed that he may have cracked the case.

“I told Steve, if his father was still alive, I would have filed murder charges against him,” L.A. Deputy District Attorney Steve Kay told PEOPLE. “His evidence was very persuasive.”