Biography for
Elizabeth Short (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

29 July 1924, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, USA

Date of Death

15 January 1947, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (homicide)

Nickname

The Black Dahlia
Betty
Beth

Height

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Phoebe and Cleo Short. When she was five her father disappeared. His car was later found near a lake later, apparently abandoned, which led to the belief that he had committed suicide. However, he later appeared at home and apologized to his wife for leaving the family like that. Nevertheless, she wouldn't take him back, and he left the family again and moved to the West Coast.

Elizabeth developed a passion for movies in her youth, and when she turned 19 she decided to visit her father in California. She stayed with him for a while, but it wasn't long before he kicked her out for "not doing anything with her life"; apparently he also wasn't enamored of the fact that Elizabeth was "dating" a lot of different men.

After moving out, Elizabeth traveled to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested for underage drinking and sent back home to Massachusetts. She returned to California in 1946, this time to Hollywood to try her luck in pictures. It was rumored at the time that in her eagerness to break into the movies she made liberal use of the "casting couch"; if so, it didn't do her any good, as she didn't get so much as a bit part.

On January 15th, 1947, her body was found cut in half in a vacant lot in Hollywood. It was assumed that she had died the previous day. The press named the crime "The Black Dahlia murder", mostly because of Elizabeth's dark hair and her practice of often times wearing black or dark clothing. The murder started one of the most intense investigations in Los Angeles history, but there was little to go on, and although the police said they did have suspects, no arrests were ever made. The case still remains unsolved.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Lola

Trivia

Buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, Alameda County Section 66 Marker 798.

In 2003 a retired Los Angeles Police Dept. homicide detective, Steve Hodel, found several pictures of her among papers left by his late father George, a former surgeon. Upon further investigation, he discovered that his father had been a prime suspect in her murder. The police at the time believed that because her body had been so precisely dismembered, only a skilled physician could have done it. George Hodel was not only a surgeon but it turned out that he had been carrying on an affair with her. After police initially questioned him about his relationship he fled the country to the Philippines, abandoning his family, and never returned. Steven Hodel now believes that his father was actually a serial killer who murdered at least a dozen women, including her, and that he fled the country because he was tipped off that he was a suspect in her murder by corrupt police with whom he was running an illegal abortion practice.

New England monument erected in Medford, Massachusetts on July 29, 1993, by documentary filmmaker Kyle J. Wood on what would have been her 69th birthday.

This infamous murder has been the subject of intense and sometimes bizarre speculation and theorizing. At least six authors claim to have solved the murder, each offering a different solution. Two separate and unrelated people have published sensationalistic books claiming that their fathers committed the crime. Another author suggested filmmaker Orson Welles as the killer. Author and screenwriter Donald H. Wolf has written yet another book on the case, to be published in 2005, promising to implicate an as-yet-unnamed "Hollywood mogul" in the crime.

The Regal Biltmore Hotel added a Black Dahlia cocktail to its menu after her death.

Was last seen alive January 9, 1947, when she went to meet her sister at The Regal Biltmore Hotel (506 South Grand Avenue) in Los Angeles.

Her body was found at 3925 South Norton Avenue, roughly three miles from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Is portrayed by Mia Kirshner in The Black Dahlia (2006).

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