Elizabeth Short (Black Dahlia) ENG

Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 29th 1924, and 22 years later this aspiring actress was brutally murdered. She was born as 1 of 5 born to Cleo and Phoebe Short, Cleo short abandoned them when she was only 5 years old. At a young age she fell in love with cinema and by her teenage years she was certain this was the career path she wanted.

By the mid-1940s, Elizabeth Short was living in Los Angeles, California, working as a waitress to support herself while dreaming of catching her big break into Hollywood's acting scene. Her chance at stardom, however, would never come. In January 1947, a horrific tragedy occurred: At the age of 22, Short was brutally murdered in Los Angeles, her body cut in half and severely mutilated. Her body was found nude and posed, by a local female resident on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot near Leimert Park, on the 3800 block of L.A.'s South Norton Avenue.

In addition to dissecting and mutilating her body, Short's killer had drained her corpse of blood and scrubbed it clean.

An in-depth, lengthy investigation by the L.A.P.D. ensued, leading to a number of false reports, including several false murder confessions and ultimately leaving detectives grasping at straws. The sole witness of the murder had reported seeing a black sedan parked in the area in the early morning hours, but could provide police with little else. The combination of faulty witnesses and a lack of hard evidence surrounding the case greatly hindered its progress, and, despite numerous allegations and leads over the years, the Black Dahlia's killer was never found. Today, the Black Dahlia murder remains one of the oldest cold case files in L.A., as well as the city's most famous.