THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
Read About It in FBI Records
10/20/06
Interested
in the infamous unsolved murder of Elizabeth
Short, aka the “Black Dahlia,” the
22-year-old Hollywood starlet who was brutally
murdered in Los Angeles 60 years ago this
January?
Then we invite you to take a look
at the case
files posted on our Freedom of Information
Act website.
If you don’t know the story, Short—dubbed “Black
Dahlia” by the press for her rumored
penchant for sheer black clothes and for
a movie at that time—was found sliced
clean in half at the waist by a mother walking
her child in an L.A. neighborhood just before
11 a.m. on January 15, 1947. The body was
just a few feet from the sidewalk and posed
in the grass in such a way that the woman
reportedly thought it was a mannequin at
first. Despite the extensive mutilation and
cuts on the body, there wasn’t a drop
of blood at the scene, indicating Short had
been killed elsewhere. An extensive manhunt
followed, but the killer has never been identified.
Our files don’t provide a comprehensive
review of the ensuing investigation, of course,
since the L.A. Police Department had jurisdiction.
But you will find some interesting information,
including insights into our supporting role
in the case.
For example: You’ll
learn how we identified the victim as Elizabeth
Short in Washington just 56 minutes after
getting her blurred fingerprints via “Soundphoto” (a
primitive fax machine used by news services)
from Los Angeles.
Short’s prints actually appeared twice
in our massive collection (104 million at
the time)—first, because she had applied
for a job as a clerk at the commissary of
the Army’s Camp Cooke in California
in January 1943; second, because she had
been arrested by the Santa Barbara police
for underage drinking seven months later.
We also had her “mug shot” in
our files (see the above the graphic, which
includes one of Short’s actual fingerprints)
and provided it to the press. We did not
have a photo from her Army application as
some accounts have claimed.
What else you will find in our online
records:
- A variety of news clippings from the
early days of the case;
- Copies of Short’s birth and death
certificates (see Section 4);
- Various physical descriptions of Short
at her death, including one that describes
her as “white, female, twentytwo
(sic), five ft. six, one eighteen lbs.,
hair light brown, died (sic) black, green
eyes, bad teeth.”
- Results of our records checks on potential
subjects and our interviews across the
nation (although names are often blacked
out);
- A request for us to search for a match
to fingerprints found on an anonymous letter
that may have been sent to authorities
by the killer (in a tantalizing near-miss
break in the case, the prints weren’t
in our records);
- References to the extensive interference
of the press in the case (they had arrived
at the scene and taken pictures even before
the police), including a comment by our
Special Agent in Charge that “it
is not possible for the investigators to
have a confidential telephone conversation
or even read mail without some news reporter
looking it over to see if it relates to
this case.”
- Based on early suspicions that the murderer
may have had skills in dissection because
the body was so cleanly cut and mutilated,
a memo asking us to check out a group of
students at the University of Southern
California Medical School;
- Letters we received from private citizens
claiming to know the culprit, including
one who fingered a “Spanish fellow” with
a tattoo and ended his missive with the
confident “A word to the wise…”
We’re also providing, for the first
time, a copy
of a LAPD bulletin dated January 21, 1947
seeking information in the case.
While
you’re at, feel free to browse
through our records on other historic cases
in our Freedom
of Information Act electronic reading room.
Resources: FBI
History |
Byte Out of History stories
