Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 54 | Who REALLY Killed The Black Dhalia?

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

In today's episode, we dive in on a chilling case. Back in 1947, 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Los Angeles. Dubbed “The Black Dahlia” by the press, her gruesome, unsolved killing became one of the most infamous cold cases in American history—and continues to haunt Hollywood to this day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In another world, Elizabeth Short might have quite, quietly slipped through history's fingers. She was just one more hopeful woman drawn west by Hollywood's glittering promises, arriving in a city known for breaking more hearts than it ever made stars. Another waitress rehearsing lines between shifts, believing deeply in the widespread lies

that Los Angeles told dreamers desperate enough to listen. But fate had different darker plans, because Elizabeth Short became immortal, not remembered for her charm or the dream she chased, but tragically defined by the brutality of her. her death. But before the headlines labeled her the Black Dahlia, before her name became synonymous with mystery and unspeakable violence, she was simply Betty. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder, all things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted,

intellectually, beautiful-minded freak. And today we are talking about one of the most infamous cold cases in all of history, and that is the case of the Black Dahlia. known as Elizabeth Short. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through the windshield into this cold case together. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore.

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If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. So on July 29, 1924, Phoebe May Sawyer Short delivered her third daughter into the world teetering on the edge of prosperity and collapse. Elizabeth Ann Short entered life as the middle child among five sisters. Virginia May, Dorothea, Elizabeth, Elnora, and a little Muriel yet to come. And their father, Cleo Alvin Short Jr., had invested everything into a miniature golf course business during the recreational boom of the 1920s. What a cool, what a cool business. Can you imagine your dad being a recreational miniature golf course

business owner? I fucking love mini golf. But in October 1929, everything would change because the stock markets would collapse and obliterate anyone's dream, including Cleo's miniature gulf business. So his business would crumble and then the weight of feeding five daughters and a wife just became unbearable for him. So on a cold morning in December of 1930, six-year-old Elizabeth Short woke up to find her mother weeping at the kitchen table. And she would tell her daughter that daddy's car had been discovered abandoned at the Charleston Bridge, doors open and keys inside. There was no note and no body.

Just a 1926 Model T Ford sitting empty above the dark waters of the Charles River. And police would assume it was a sluer slide. And Phoebe wanting to shelter her daughters from the knowledge of their father committing that told them that their father simply drowned. So the family would have a memorial service for a man whose body was never found

and whose death would later prove to be the first of many lies that shaped Elizabeth Short's life. So Phoebe Short would move her and her five daughters to a cramped Medford, Massachusetts apartment, working as a bookkeeper while neighbors whispered about the widow with too many mouths to feed. And that's when Elizabeth's childhood would become a series of doctors' visits and sleepless nights, because she developed severe asthma that would actually seize her lungs without warning, leaving her gasping while her sisters watched in complete terror.

And bronchitis would follow. Each infection just weakening her respiratory system further. So the medical bills just consumed what little money Phoebe had. And Elizabeth would learn really early on in life that her existence just cost too much. And at 15, doctors would recommend surgery to remove part of her lung tissue. So she would have the surgery, but that procedure would leave deep scars across her back and a deeper understanding that her body would always betray her. And the recovery required her to be in bed four months on end.

So during this time, she would read movie magazines and just dream of a place where the the air itself didn't completely drown her lungs. And that's when doctors would recommend that she actually moved to a warmer climate. And as her mother, Phoebe, later told reporters, quote unquote, Betty was a sophomore when she left high school in Medford. She had asthma. Every winter she would go south to Florida as a waitress. Then she would come back home in the summer.

So Elizabeth began spending her winters in Florida with relatives, breathing easier among palm trees and orange groves. So the seasonal relocations kind of taught her to live like a migrant never fully settling anywhere and never calling any place home. So at this point in her life, high school kind of became impossible because she was moving so much. And Elizabeth's absences multiplied as her health problems persisted. So at 16, she would drop out entirely, and her formal education ended before it truly even began. So she would spend most of her teenage years just reading ferociously, educating herself through magazines and library books,

while her healthy sisters pursued normal adolescence experiences. So she was kind of left in the dark for the most part of her childhood. But during this time, she just absorbed Hollywood gossip columns like scripture, memorizing the names and romantic attanglements of screen goddesses who seemed to breathe rarefied air. And it was during these years where she thought to herself that she could maybe be one of those women. So December of 1942 would come around and it would redefine everything in Elizabeth's life. Because a letter would arrive from Vallejo, California. And the handwriting looked familiar.

but impossible, like correspondence from a ghost. Because by reading this letter, she would find out that her father, Cleo Short, hadn't actually drowned in the Charles River 12 years earlier. He had just walked away from his debt and his wife and his five daughters without even looking back. So while his family mourned and struggled through the depression, Cleo had been living in the California shipyards. So Elizabeth, being shocked as ever, would write back to her father expressing her desire to visit and care for him. And Cleo would later say that he sent his daughter $200, and in December of 1942, 18-year-old Elizabeth made her way down to Vallejo, California. To reunite with her father that she once believed had been dead for the past 12 years. And perhaps another girl would have refused such a cruel reunion.

But Elizabeth, however, saw opportunity wrapped up in betrayal because her health still demanded warm weather. And her prospects in Massachusetts remained pretty bleak. No offense to Massachusetts. And California represented the closest she would ever get to Hollywood without buying a bus ticket to nowhere. So what did she have to lose, really? You know, her father had already stolen her childhood. At least now she could steal something back. So Elizabeth's train would pull into Vallejo carrying her possessions in two battered suitcases and a headful of Hollywood fantasies.

And at 18 years old, Elizabeth possessed ethereal beauty, pale skin, large eyes, and dark hair that caught sunlight. But the reunion with Cleo Short lasted long enough for both parties to realize their big mistake. Because 12 years of separation had created strangers who shared only genetics and mutual disappointment. Sounds like my father. I don't want to talk about it. Anyway. But within the months, father and daughter reached an unspoken agreement, really. And that was that they would pretend to be family while actively avoiding each other.

Again, very simple. Well, my dad didn't pretend to be dead for 12 years. So she does have that on me, that's for sure. I wouldn't put it past him. So eventually, Elizabeth would move out of her father, Cleo's house and support herself by waitressing and the occasional kindness of men who found her mysteriously intriguing because she would tell different stories to different men.

And sometimes her father was dead, and sometimes he was alive. She just kind of like felt it out to see what kind of story she would make up. And sometimes her health problems would even disappear or multiply depending on the sympathy required in the moment. So her background shifted from tragedy to triumph as a situation demanded. Because at this point in her life, truth became a luxury she just couldn't afford. And the lies came very naturally because Elizabeth had learned from a master,

which was her father, the guy who pretended to be dead for 12 fucking years. But it was during this time period that she would meet Major Matthew Gordon, who was an Air Force officer with kind eyes and genuine affection for the mysterious girl who seemed to drift through his life like smoke. And for perhaps the only time in her adult life, Elizabeth allowed herself to believe in permanence. And they would become engaged. But then came the telegram.

And it would say that Major Gordon's plane had crashed during training exercises just days before the war's end. Oh, just heart-wrenching, horrible, terrible. This girl's dad was dead for 12 years, popped up, is an asshole, and then she gets engaged, and then he dies days before he's supposed to return. She just literally could not catch a break. It was just another death, another abandonment, and just another reason to stop trusting in happy endings. So Elizabeth's response to losing Major Gordon revealed the pattern that would define her remaining years,

and that was when life became unbearable, she simply left. She would go to California, Florida, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Texas. So Elizabeth Short just became this beautiful ghost, haunting bus stations and diners across America, staying long enough to catch her breath before moving on. But the constant movement served multiple purposes because new environments couldn't suffocate her

like familiar places. And fresh starts meant fresh stories and clean slates. And most importantly, staying in motion meant she never had to admit that she was kind of going nowhere in life at this point. And it was during these wandering years that Elizabeth perfected the art of survival through charm and mystery.

She would learn which sad stories produced meals and which smiles earned bus fares and which promises could be made without the intention of keeping them. And her beauty just opened doors, whereas her damaged health and tragic backstory kept them open long enough to rest. So the pattern of intimacy followed by abandonment just became a signature dance of hers. And by July of 1946, she would be 22 years old. And she would face a choice between finding stability or accepting permanent defeat. So she would give California a chance once more. And this time it would be different, she would tell herself. This time, she would stay long enough to make something happen.

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Ask your doctor about Ebbglis.com or call 1-800 LilyRX or 1-800 545-9709. So on July 1946, Elizabeth Short would step off the bus at Hollywood and Vine with $20 to her name and infinite belief in her own transformation. And she would find a room behind the Florentine Gardens Nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. And she would be close enough to hear music and laughter that represented everything she wanted to become. And Elizabeth would make the rounds. every aspiring actress knew by heart, which was studio gates, casting calls, and auditions that led to nowhere. Because Hollywood, at this point, and honestly now, operated on connections she didn't possess, and talent she had not yet developed. So without training, experience, or influential friends,

her chances were essentially zero, especially in this day and age. But Elizabeth Short had never required realistic expectations to fuel her dreams. So she continued pursuing auditions while working as a waitress. And her beauty would attract attention, and that attention came mostly from men with money and influence. So she would date frequently, but briefly, moving from suitor to suitor. So the financial pressure was mounting steadily. And with rent required as a regular payment and food costs that she did not possess, she actually began staying overnight with various men, not necessarily for romance, but just for basic survival. Because with these men, she had a warm bed, a hot meal, and a temporary reprieve from poverty's grinding demands.

And it was during this period where her clothing and her whole wardrobe basically turned predominantly black. And whether this represented genuine fashion preferences or practical necessity remains unclear. Maybe dark colors hid stains better than light ones, that's why I wear them. Or black outfits can transition from day to night with minimal alteration. There's many theories, but what we do know is that the nickname, the Black Dahlia, emerged sometime during these final months. But through its exact origin, remains disputed. Some people also say it could have come from her dark wardrobe matched with her dark raven-like hair and others suggested it's because she had a habit of disappearing like shadows.

And a few even connected it to the 1946 film, The Blue Dahlia, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. But the name captured something essential about Elizabeth's short during her Hollywood period. Just beautiful, mysterious, and tinged with darkness that people found simultaneously attractive and unsettling. So January 1947 arrived with unusual rain in growing desperation. Because at this point, Elizabeth's financial situation deteriorated beyond casual concern into genuine crisis. And her friends back in San Diego reported that she seemed frightened during her final visits, constantly looking over her shoulder as if she was expecting some kind of pursuit from someone. And that's when something changed.

Because a confident drift that had sustained Elizabeth through years of uncertainty had transformed into panicked flight. And she actually spoke of hiding from someone, but she never revealed details about it. So the mysterious nature that served as her trademark became desperate secrecy. And on July 9, 1947, Robert Red Manley drove Elizabeth from San Diego to Los Angeles, dropping her at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown LA. And she would carry a small suitcase with her, and she would promise him that she would stay. in touch. So Redd would say goodbye and watch her walk into the hotel's ornate lobby. But after that, no one can say with certainty what happened during the next six days. Because Elizabeth Short

had vanished completely. And the hotel had no record of her registration. And friends received no phone calls. And the men who'd previously provided temporary shelter heard nothing from her. So it was six days of absolute mystery. Until the morning of January 15th, 1947. So on the morning of January 15th, So on the morning of January 15th, 1947, Betty Berzinger walked south on Norton Avenue in Limerth with her three-year-old daughter, Anne, heading to collect her husband's workboots from the repair shop. The vacant lot between 39th and Coliseum streets had become part of the neighborhood landscape, which was another empty space waiting for post-war development, and Betty had passed it countless times without a second glance. But at 10 a.m. this morning, something pale in the weeds caught her eye,

And her first thought involved practical annoyance because she thought someone had just dumped another piece of furniture in the lot. And she thought probably a mannequin from a downtown department store broken and discarded like so much of post-war America's access. So Betty would approach the object. And the pale object would lay about 30 feet from the sidewalk, positioned too deliberately for casual dumping though. So as she drew closer, impossible details started to emerge. And that was that, The mannequin had real hair, and the hair was black and lustrous and spread across the dirt. And it also had actual human flesh. Flesh that was alabaster white against the dark brown earth.

And the truth that would haunt Betty for the rest of her life was that this wasn't a mannequin at all. And Betty's daughter, Anne would later recall her mother's scream as the loudest sound she's ever heard. But the screaming came second, because Betty's first instinct was protection, and she would grab Anne and lift her away from the site completely, shielding the child's eyes while her own mind struggled to process what actually lay before them. And that thing was a woman's body bisected at the waist with surgical precision, with the upper half positioned 12 inches north of the lower half, arms raised above the head in a grotesque parody of ballet. And her legs were also spread in a V formation that suggested both vulnerability and display. And this positioning was just too delusciously.

deliberate for accident. It was too theatrical for impulse. Someone had arranged this corpse like a macabre art installation, ensuring maximum visual impact for whoever discovered it first. So Betty would run to the nearest house pounding on the door until neighbors answered and let her use the phone. And her hysterical call to police would take several attempts to decipher. And she would say, quote unquote, there's a body in the lot, a woman, she's been cut in half. So, so horrid. It's just horrifying. And like, I can't even imagine coming across that and with their daughter. Oh, it's a nightmare.

So the death sergeant initially assumed he was dealing with some sort of domestic disturbance or perhaps even a neighborhood prank. Because dismembered corpses didn't just appear in a middle class residential area on Wednesday mornings. And he would say, quote unquote, Ma'am, are you certain it's a human body? And she would say, I'm looking right at it. And that simple confirmation to launch the largest homicide investigation in LAPD. history. So Los Angeles in 1947 operated under unwritten rules that prioritized sensationalism

over investigation. And newspaper photographers monitored police radio frequencies, and often they would arrive at crime scenes before the detectives would actually get there. And the black dahlia discovery followed this pattern with catastrophic precision. And by 10.30 a.m. that morning, newspaper photographers had reached Norton Avenue. And their speed cameras would be clicking away while police cars remained blocks distant. And the Los Angeles' examines, and the Herald Express photographers documented the scene from every single angle, unknowingly destroying evidence with each footstep. Just fucking idiots.

And the afternoon's editions would feature these images on the front page, forever defining how America visualized the Black Dahlia case. And police detective Harry Hansen finally reached the scene at 10.45 a.m. Discovering his crime scene had already been contaminated by journalists who had positioned themselves for optimal photography rather than evidence preservation. So Hansen's first official act in the investigation was to arrest every single reporter present. Well, threatened to. He didn't actually arrest all of them. Though the damage was already irreversible. Because at this point, the photographers had already trampled any potential footprints, disturbed soil samples, and established sight lines that drew attention

to specific details while obscuring others. And their presence just guaranteed that any subsequent investigation would operate from a compromised foundation completely. And modern crime scene protocols actually exist specifically because of the disasters like January 15th, 1947. So Detective Hansen's initial examination revealed details that transformed a shocking discovery into something approaching the impossible because the bisection had been performed using a technique called a hemacorporectomy, which was the complete separation of the upper body and lower body at the waist. And in 1947, this procedure existed only in medical textbooks and the most advanced surgical suites. And the precision required for this procedure suggested someone with formal anatomical training and access to the

appropriate instruments to do the procedure. And the cut would run cleanly through the lumbar spine at the L2-L3 vertebrae level, requiring both strength and knowledge of human skeletal structure. So whoever performed this operation understood exactly where to position their blade for maximum efficiency. But the surgical precision didn't just end with the bisection itself, because the killer had also carved a Glasgow smile extending from each corner of the victim's mouth to her ears. And he did this by using shallow cuts that followed the natural curves of the facial muscles. And there were also additional cuts that removed flesh from both her thighs and her breasts, though those ones appeared more frenzied than systematic. And her internal organs had also been removed and positioned beneath her buttocks, suggesting ritual. realistic, rather medical motivation.

And fecal matter would also be found inside of her stomach, which means that at some point she was forced to eat it, which is horrifying. So the combination about surgical expertise and sadistic frenzy painted a portrait of someone operating under two distinct psychological impulses. And those were clinical detachment and explosive rage. In complete exanguination presented the investigator's most puzzling element, and that is that the corpse contained absolutely no blood. Not in the major vessels, not pooled in dependent areas. Like when a body is sitting somewhere for a long time, it kind of pools where it is sitting.

Like if it's on the back, it'll kind of pool in the midsection and not even trapped in smaller capillaries. Every single drop of her blood had been methodically drained using techniques that belonged in embalming parlors, not torture chambers. And the killer had also even washed her body before transport. So no trace of evidence remained under fingernails in hair or even on skin surfaces. And the soap residue suggested multiple cleanings with commercial grade detergents that were strong enough to remove DNA evidence that wouldn't be understood for another 40 years down the road. So this guy was meticulous. And it's interesting how meticulous he was, given that in 1947, forensic awareness bordered on the prophetic.

They didn't have a lot going on in terms of forensic evidence. So the killer seemed to anticipate investigative techniques that didn't even exist yet. Taking precautions against evidence collection methods still decades in the future. And the positioning of her body reinforced the theatrical elements. Because the body lay precisely parallel to the sidewalk, with arms framing the head and legs spread in a perfect symmetry. So someone had spent considerable time arranging this display in an exposed location where discovery was inevitable. So the risk suggested either extreme confidence or complete psychological detachment or both. So at 11.30 a.m. that morning, Detective Hansen would make a decision that would revolutionize

criminal identification procedures forever because the victim's fingerprints remained intact despite the extensive mutilation, suggesting the killer either overlooked this detail or deliberately preserved them. And Hansen would order a complete fingerprint collection. And then he would contact the FBI's newly established identification division in Washington. D.C. And what would happen next would represent a technological breakthrough that would become standard procedure within a decade. Because the FBI had recently installed sound photo equipment and was basically a primitive fax system capable of transmitting photographs over telephone lines, which is pretty cool. And Hanson's fingerprint cards were photographed in Los Angeles. And then they were transmitted

across the continent to the FBI's headquarters at 1.15 p.m. Pacific time that same day, Which again, very impressive for that time. And only 56 minutes later, the transmission contained a name. And that name was Elizabeth Ann Short, with the date of birth, July 29th, 1924. And this identification would actually originate from a 1943 arrest in Santa Barbara for underage drinking. And because of that arrest, Elizabeth Prince had actually been filed with the FBI as part of a standard booking procedure. And by doing that would create a permanent record that survived four years until needed for the most famous murder. murder case in American history.

So the sound photo system would become the foundation for modern digital evidence sharing. But technology at this point could only provide a name. And everything else about Elizabeth Short's final days remained locked in a mystery that defied conventional investigation. So crime scene analysis in 1947 relied primarily on photography, measurements, and detectives intuition. And forensic science existed in primitive form, lacking the sophisticated tools that would emerge during the following decades, as we know.

Nevertheless, certain facts emerged that challenge basic assumptions about criminal behavior. And one of those facts was that the killer transported a 115 pound corpse to Norton Avenue and would position it in mathematical precision, then depart without leaving any traceable evidence. And this series of events would require planning, physical strength, and intimate knowledge of the neighborhood's traffic patterns. Because this vacant lot offered no concealment during daylight hours. And houses surrounded the space on three. sides with clear sight lines from multiple windows. So it's crazy that no one saw this happening, because no neighbors reported hearing anything unusual or seeing anything unusual during the evening

or even in the morning. So both possibilities suggested local knowledge that extended beyond a casual familiarity. But the physical evidence still remained very sparse. But they would see a cement sack near the body that showed traces of blood, though not enough to suggest the murder location, of course. And they would also find a heel print in the dirt that measured to about a size, eight and a half men's shoes, though thousands of Los Angeles residents match this specification. There would also be no murder weapon recovered, despite extensive searches through storm drains and dumpsters throughout the area. So the instruments used for dismemberment had vanished as completely as the killer's identity. So by sunset on January 15, 1947, investigators faced a crime that seemed to violate fundamental assumptions about human behavior completely.

So they could only ask one question, and that was, where had Elizabeth Short spent the last six days of her life? So they'd go to the Biltmore Hotel. But there would be no record of her registration despite witness accounts of her arrival. And friends would receive no contact despite her frequent communication with them. And the men she saw regularly didn't hear from her at all in those six days. So it begs the question, how had the killer gained Elizabeth's cooperation? Because there were rope burns on her wrists and her ankles that indicated prolonged, restraint, but no defensive wounds that suggested she had submitted without struggle. So the implications

range from drug-induced compliance to willing participant was someone she trusted. So where exactly did this torture and murder take place? Because this procedure required hours in a controlled environment with access to running water, and surgical instruments and disposal methods for massive quantities of blood, as we know. And also, why choose this theatrical presentation? Because the killer could have disposed of the body permanently using methods that precluded discovery. Clearly, he was smart enough as we know. But instead, they selected a very public location and arranged the corpse to ensure maximum visual impact. So each question just led to dozens more creating an investigation labyrinth that would consume thousands of man hours over the following decades.

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Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. So Elizabeth Shorts from unknown victim to national obsession had finally begun. In afternoon, papers would hit the street with banner headlines and crime scene photographs and radio stations interrupted programming with hourly updates and the l-a-pd unprepared for a media attention of this magnitude found themselves conducting both a criminal investigation and just managing a public circus and back at lapd headquarters detective harry hanson studied crime scene photographs that were spread across his desk and each image would reveal details that defied explanation positioning too

perfect for hasty disposal mutilations too systemic for passion alone and forensic awareness too sophisticated for 1947. So he knew that someone had planned this murder with military operation and executed with surgical precision and theatrical sensibility. So Hansen would pull out a notebook and write across the first page, quote unquote, Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia case, January 15th, 1947. And he had no way of knowing that he had just titled the most famous unsolved murder in American history. And 16 detectives were assigned to what photographs had already dubbed the Dolly a case. And phone lines would buzz from reporters, amateur sleuths, and attention seekers claiming knowledge of the victim or the killer. And the questions would haunt investigators for decades.

Who possessed the medical knowledge, the psychological detachment, and local familiarity necessary to transform Elizabeth Short into America's most notorious murder victim? And the answer lay somewhere in Los Angeles protected by six days of silence. And that silence was about to be shattered by the largest criminal investigation in the city's history and by the killer himself, who would soon contact the newspaper directly with evidence that should have remained forever secret. So on January 16th, 1947, the LAPD chief Clements Harrell announced the largest criminal investigation in L.A. history to a room packed with detectives, reporters, and politicians. And he said, quote unquote, we will find Elizabeth Shorts killer. No expense will be spared, and it definitely wasn't. And by months end,

to 750 investigators worked on the case. Detectives would abandon other homicides to chase leads that led to nowhere, laboratory technicians processed evidence that revealed nothing, and within six months, Chief Harrell would resign in disgrace. And within a year, key evidence would begin disappearing from police storage. So the investigation that began with unprecedented resources would end up in complete failure. And in January of 1947, optimism ran high. Because how difficult could it be to store?

solve one murderer in a city of 2 million people. And the answer would redefine everything LA understood about criminal investigation. And on January 16th, 1947, the LA examiner's phone would ring at 1147 AM. And the person on the other line would say, This is the man who killed the Black Delia. I want to give myself up. But not to the police. I want to surrender to you.

And the person that picked up the phone was city editor James Richardson, whose reporter's instincts overrode any sort of caution. and he would pick up a pencil, and he would say back to the person on the phone, where do you want to meet? And the person on the phone would say, I'll contact you again soon. Watch for a package.

And then the line would go dead. Leaving Richardson with the first direct communication with Elizabeth Shorts Killer. In the beginning of the media circus that would destroy any chance of solving the case, because what happened next violated every principle of criminal investigation that would be codified for another 30 years.

So Richardson would call the LAPD headquarters, reporting the conversation to Detective Harry Hansen. But he also alerted every single reporter in the building, like a fucking moron. And within hours, the examiner had announced the killer's phone call on the front page, complete with speculation about the voice's accent and psychological profile. Just horrible media practice. Because if the caller was indeed Elizabeth Short's murderer, he now knew the police were monitoring newspaper communications.

So the tactical advantage belonged to entire. to someone who performed theatrical games over straightforward confession. But the examiner's decision to publicize the contact represented just the beginning of the media interference that would ultimately sabotage the entire investigation. So on January 24th, 1947 at 1.30 p.m., a United States Postal Service clerk at the Los Angeles terminal noticed an unusual package that was addressed to Los Angeles Examiner and other Los Angeles papers. Very specific. But the envelope addressed in letters cut from newspapers and magazines and contained items that should have remained forever secret. And those items were Elizabeth Short's social security card, a birth certificate, photographs, and an address book belonging to Mark Hanson, the owner of the Florentine Gardens Nightclub. And the accompanying message assembled for magazine clippings read, quote,

Here is Delia's Belonging's letter to follow. Sorry. And creepy. Oh my God. And every item had been soaked in gasoline to remove any sort of fingerprint. And this was a forensic countermeasure that demonstrated sophisticated criminal thinking. This guy was playing chess. He was thinking 10 steps ahead in every move he made.

But the package's most significant element wasn't what it contained necessarily. Because the killer had mailed Elizabeth's personal effects to newspapers rather than police, ensuring maximum publicity while maintaining complete control over information flow. This guy just wanted to be in the headlines. So Detective Hanson would arrive at the examiner building to find reporters already photographing the contents. Stop! Stop photographing everything! And we're also handling potential evidence without gloves, of course. And speculating about meanings that would influence public perception for decades.

So the killer at this point, and just through the entire case, had completely outmaneuvered professional investigators by understanding something they hadn't yet learned. And that was that in media-saturated crimes, publicity can be weaponized against law enforcement. And we see this in cases in the future, in the 60s, in the 70s, in the 80s, in the 90s. So by February 1947, LAPD headquarters received 12 confessions daily, saying, quote, unquote, I killed the black dahlia. And this became Los Angeles' most popular false admission. And attention seekers and mentally ill individuals claim responsibility with elaborate stories. And detectives spent thousands.

of hours investigating confessions containing no verifiable details. But the most elaborate one came from Daniel S. Voorhees, who provided a 17-page handwritten account of torturing and killing Elizabeth Short. And his narrative included specific crime details and surgical techniques. A detectives would spend six weeks verifying his story before discovering Vorhees had copied every detail from newspaper accounts. Thank you, media, you fucking idiots again. And he'd actually been incarcerated in New York during Elizabeth's murder, so it was just another dead end. And when confronted, Voorhe's even admitted that he did everything because he wanted to be famous.

Idiot. And by years end, LAPD had processed 67 false confessions. But this number would eventually exceed 500, making this the most falsely confessed crime in American history. And each bogus admission required investigation, consuming resources that could have pursued legitimate leads. So just fuck idiot people, wasting time, wasting precious time. So the surgical precision of Elizabeth Shorts by section convinced investigators that her killer possessed formal and atomic training. So Detective Hanson ordered comprehensive background checks on every medical professional student and technician in Los Angeles County. So the University of Southern California Medical School became ground zero for an investigation that would scrutinize scalples, class schedules, and student's psychological profiles.

And UCS administrators provided complete enrollment records dating back five years. And investigators would eventually interview 412 medical students and 89 faculty members and 156 hospital residents. Meanwhile, they would examine laboratory access logs, equipment inventories, and disposal procedures for anatomical specimens. And the hemacorporectomy technique used to bisect Elizabeth's body had been developed in the 1930s for treating specific cancers and traumatic injuries. And in 1947, fewer than 50 surgeons in Los Angeles possess the training necessary to perform this specific procedure. So investigators would create a master list of these qualified surgeons. And then they would begin the painstaking process of verifying each individual's whereabouts during January 9th to January 15th of 1947. And they would look at hospital schedules, surgery logs, and witness statements, and slowly eliminate suspects one by one.

But this entire investigation would just reveal something very troubling. And that is that the killer's anatomical knowledge exceeded what could be learned through casual medical exposure. And whoever dismembered Elizabeth Short's body understood human circulatory systems and tissue composition at a professional level. But medical training alone couldn't explain the killer's sophistication. Because the complete exanguation required embalming knowledge typically possessed only by morticians and medical examiners. And the forensic awareness just demonstrated advanced understanding of evidence collection and preservation. as well. So the killer represented a convergence of medical expertise, mortuary science, and criminal sophistication that basically shouldn't have existed in 1947. So who the fuck could know all of this?

So of the 150 suspects questioned by LAPD over the decades, four names stood out because each possessed surgical knowledge, opportunity, and connections to Elizabeth Short that made season detectives take notice. And the first one was the genius doctor. George Hill Hodel Jr. And George possessed an IQ of 186 and worked as a prominent Los Angeles physician. He was born in 1907 and he moved in elite social circles and possessed the medical expertise for a hemacorporectomy. The surgical technique used to cleanly separate Shorts upper body from her lower body.

And the specialized procedure appeared only in 1930s medical textbooks. And the timeline converged in October 1949. Because Hodel's teenage daughter actually accused him of triggering an investigation that actually revealed connections to Elizabeth's short stretching back to 1946. And eyewitnesses even claim knowledge of their relationship. And the LAPD District Attorney's Office assembled an 18-man task force. And for two months from February through March 1950, investigators would bug Hodel's home with electronic surveillance equipment. And the operation recorded all conversations inside the house.

And on March 14th, 1950, the equipment captured Hodel saying, quote unquote, Suppose a night did kill the black Dahlia. They can't prove it now. Excuse me? And the surveillance would continue after this. Non-confession confession. And Hodels recorded conversations revealed intimate knowledge of the murder's details

that were never released to the public. Red flag! Because he would discuss the positioning of the body, the surgical techniques employed, and the theatrical staging designed to shock and terrorize. But within days of the district attorney preparing arrest warrants, Dr. George Hill Hodel, Jr. boarded a plane to the Philippines, and he would never return to Los Angeles soil.

Red flag! Just saying, and decades later, his son, Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective, discovered photographs hidden in his father's belongings. And some researchers believe that these images show Elizabeth Short, alive, and posed before her transformation into the Black Dahlia. But others dismiss them as complete coincidence. And this genius doctor would die in 1999 taking his secrets to the grave. He's a top one for me. Too much suspicion. But that brings us to suspect number two.

And that is the mortician's assistant, Leslie Dillon. So Leslie Dillon worked as a bellhop, a aspiring writer, and a mortician's assistant. These were jobs that gave him familiarity with corpses and embalming techniques. And in 1948, he actually wrote an unsolicited letter to the LAPD psychiatrist Dr. J. Paul Day River. And the letter contained details of Elizabeth Short's murder that had never been released to the public. And Dylan claimed that a friend had committed the killing. And he described the surgical techniques with clinical precision. So he knew about the rope burns on shorts wrists, and the forced ingestion that filled her stomach with fecal matter,

and the hours of torture that preceded her death. So LAPD investigators brought Dylan to Los Angeles for questioning, naturally, and the mortician's assistant displayed intimate knowledge of the crime scene's theatrical staging. And he would know the position. of Schwarz's arm above her head and the wide V formation of her legs and the complete exangonation that drained every drop of blood from her body. And even more disturbing, if we can get there, is that Dylan possessed connections to Mark Hanson, which was the nightclub owner whose address book was found soaked in gasoline alongside Shorts' belongings in that package sent to the newspapers. Puzzle pieces are puzzle piecing. And his alibis crumbled under scrutiny. And his behavior during interrogation set off alarm bells among C.C.

in detectives. Yet after extensive questioning, the LAPD officials cleared Dylan of suspicion. Somehow. And the mortician's assistant sued the department for false arrest and won. You know, what do they now? Maybe it was just all a coinkie-dink. Maybe it was all a quinky ink. I don't know. And in 2017, author Pew Itwell published Black Delia Red Rose, presenting evidence that Leslie Dylan orchestrated shorts murder. And the book argues that previous investigators dismissed crucial connections linking Dylan to the crime. But the bell-hot mortician just eventually vanished into obscurity. And his intimate knowledge of death and dismemberment just faded into the Los Angeles criminal archives.

And that brings us to suspect number three. And that is Jack Anderson-Wilson. So between 1934 and 1938, the Cleveland torso murders claimed 12 victims in Ohio. And each showed surgical dismemberment and theatrical body positioning, techniques identical to those of Elizabeth Schwartz murder. But the killing stopped abruptly in 19. And Jack Anderson Wilson became the prime suspect in both the Cleveland murders and the Black Dahlia case. Because he possessed medical training, surgical knowledge, and he relocated from Cleveland to Los Angeles around the time of the Ohio killings ending.

So in 1980, LAPD detective John St. John reopened the Black Dahlia case and focused intensely on Wilson. Because the detective believed he stood on the verge of solving the Los Angeles most famous cold case. And he would prepare arrest warrants. So he would gather evidence linking Wilson to both the Cleveland murders and Short's death. But on February 4th, 1982, Jack Anderson Wilson would die in a house fire. And the timing just seemed impossibly convenient. Just as authorities had closed in, the prime suspect perished in flames that consumed potential evidence along with his body. Before Wilson's death, author John Gilmore, claimed that suspect provided a deathbed confession.

And that confession, he admitted to the Block Dolly murder and described the details that match the crime scene's horrific reality. But Detective St. John would take his suspicions to the grave, just convinced that Wilson's death robbed Los Angeles of justice for Elizabeth Short. So, who knows? All of these suspects, it's like, they could be them. I have no idea and we'll probably never know, but that brings us to suspect number four. And that is Mark Hanson.

So Mark Hanson, as we know, owned the Florentine Gardens Nightclub where Elizabeth Short rented a room behind the building her final months in Los Angeles. And the nightclub owner's connection to short extended beyond landlord and tenant. Because friends actually reported romantic involvement between Hansen and the aspiring actress. And she would also work at his establishment and she moved in the same social circles as him. And she trusted him enough to list his contacts in her personal address book. And that address book surfaced in the package sent to the newspaper in January 24th, 1947. So someone had carefully selected Hansen's business contacts and included them alongside Short's birth certificate and social security card.

And the items were, as we know, soaked in gasoline to remove any sort of fingerprints. So LAPD investigators would subject Hansen to extensive questioning. And they would also surveil his home. And they would examine his alibi on the night of Short's disappearance and the six days between January 9th and January 15th, 1947. And Hansen would provide inconsistent statements about his relationship with Short. And he would kind of downplay their connection while evidence suggested a deeper involvement. And his business operated in Hollywood's shadow economy where young women traded

companionship for security similar to what Elizabeth Short was doing. But despite intensive investigation, authorities never charged Hanson for Shorts murder. And no definitive evidence linked him to the crime or the surgical dismemberment that required medical expertise. So the nightclub owner just kind of faded into Los Angeles history, leaving behind questions about his role in Elizabeth Short's final phase. Or if he had any sort of connection to her actual killer. Because I really don't think that he was the actual killer, but could have been involved. Who knows? And several other suspects drew police attention over the decades, including Dr. Walter Bailey. He had surgical skills and lived near Shorts' last known locations.

And then there was Bugsy Siegel, and he represented the organized crime angle, though the theatrical nature of Shorts' murder didn't really match typical mob killings. And Orson Wells, he was actually accused by a childhood friend, Mary Passeos, who claimed the director's artistic temperament and anatomical knowledge enabled such calculated violence. But investigators gave the Siri very little credence. And then there was George Nolton, who was accused by his daughter Janice in her book, but DNA testing later discredited her claims completely. But there was also a wider pattern because the Black Dahlia murder didn't happen in isolation.

And between 1934 and 1949, other women across America were being surgically dismembered with techniques that required medical training and specialized knowledge. On top of these bodies being positioned for maximum visual impact and also drained of their blood completely. So Elizabeth Short's killer might have been practicing these techniques for years before January 1947. And the surgical precision that shocked investigators in Los Angeles had appeared before. In Cleveland, Chicago, and other cities where similar crimes were unsolved, including the Cleveland butcher who operated between 1934 and 1938, and they had 12 victims who were dismembered

using advanced surgical techniques. And the investigation focused on Dr. Francis Sweeney, who disappears into a mental hospital system and it's just never heard from again. And then the Los Angeles murder cluster, and this happened between 1943 and 1949, so in the same time zone as the Black Dahlia case. And these murders were also done with surgical expertise and complete exanguation and theatrical body positioning. And then there was the Chicago connection, which was the lipstick murders, which happened in Chicago in 1946, which victims included Suzanne Degnan, who was dismembered using identical hemacorporectomy techniques and the killer also demonstrated the same medical knowledge and theatrical staging.

But even with all that, with all these suspects, with all these pretty good leads, we're left with nothing. And in October of 1949, Los Angeles County District Attorney William E. Simpson conveyed a grand jury to investigate the Block Dulley case, acknowledging what everyone already knew, and that is that the LAPD investigation had failed catastrophically. So the grand jury would spend 18 months examining evidence and interviewing witnesses, and reviewing investigative procedures. And their final report would be released on April, 1951. And it just documented a comedy of errors that were completely laughable.

Because evidence had been lost, misfiled, or damaged through impoper storage. Crime scene photographs showed contamination from the first hours of investigation. And witness statements contained contradictions that were never resolved. And there was detective notes that completely disappeared from files without explanation. And as we know, the media had compromised this investigation. from day one, publishing information that allowed the killer to stay ahead of police efforts. And there was also the false confessions that had completely consumed investigative resources, and that should have been pursuing legitimate leads.

And the most damaging of all was that the grand jury discovered that certain high-profile suspects had received protection from investigation due to political connections and financial influence. So the Black Dahlia case hadn't just gone unsolved. It had been sabotaged by incompetence, corruption, and a system that prioritized publicity over justice. So by 1960, curious detectives attempting to review the Bactalia case discovered that the key pieces of physical evidence had disappeared from the LAPD storage facilities completely. And those included crime scene photographs, Elizabeth Short's personal effects that were returned by the killer,

plaster casts of footprints found at the scene, laboratory reports analyzing blood traces and fiber samples, and the evidence hadn't been destroyed through official channels or transferred to other jurisdictions. It had just simply vanished, leaving investigators with incomplete files and fading memories. So what remained told the story of investigative failure rather than criminal success. Hundreds of false leads, thousands of witness statements that led to nowhere, and decades of speculation that generated publicity rather than answers. And the Black Dahlia murder just became a case study in how to not conduct a homicide investigation.

Because every mistake, literally every mistake that could have been made, was made in this case. And every procedure that could have been corrupted had been corrupted. So the Black Dahlia case changed criminal investigation procedures nationwide. And crime scene preservation protocols emerged directly from the Norton Avenue disaster.

And media relation guidelines developed to prevent journalistic interference as well. And evidence storage procedures improved to prevent mysterious disappearances that plagued the short case specifically. And most importantly, the investigation's failure demonstrated that publicity could be more danger than helpful in complex cases.

And Elizabeth Short's murder became required reading at police academies. Not as successful detective work, of course, but as a cautionary tale about everything that could go wrong when ego, incompetence, and corruption converged around a high-profile crime. And the case also revealed something darker about post-war American society. And that is that public fascination with Elizabeth Short's torture

and mutilation suggested that there was appetites that transcended normal interest in criminal justice. And that Block Dahlia became entertainment rather than just a tragedy. And Detective Harry Hansen retired in 1968 without solving the case that defined his career. And in his final interview, he admitted, quote unquote, We never came close, not really. Whoever killed that girl was smarter than all of us. And the Block Dahlia investigation ended with recognition that some crimes just transcend the capabilities of their time.

And Elizabeth Short's killer understood the limitation and exploited it with surgical precision. So the Black Dahlia case occupies a unique, position in American criminal justice. It's too famous to ignore and too compromised to solve. And most experts acknowledge that the case will never be solved through conventional means. Physical evidence has degraded beyond forensic usefulness. Witnesses have died. Suspics have been buried for decades and legal standards of proof remain impossibly high for circumstantial cases. But justice extends beyond legal conviction and Elizabeth Schwarz murder sparked improvements in crime scene preservation, evidence handling, and media relations that.

that have helped solve thousands of subsequent cases. But at the end of the day, the woman who wanted to be remembered as a famous actress became America's most famous murder victim instead. But I'm going to choose to remember her as Betty, the girl who chose to chase her dreams and had her life taken away. That is the end of the video.

If you want to give me any other cases to deep dive into, let me know down below. I always read your comments. This was kind of a little Saturday bonus video. supposed to be short, it was not in at all. So there's that. But I appreciate you hanging around. Please be safe out there and I will see you a beautiful face in the next video. Okay? Bye. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows,

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