The ‘Black Dahlia’ Is Still Hollywood’s Biggest Unsolved Murder Mystery

Elizabeth Short was an aspiring actress in LA before her mutilated body was discovered by a mother and her child in an abandoned lot on January 15, 1947. At first mistaking the naked body for a discarded store mannequin, the woman realized at closer look that the body, cut in half at the waist and drained of its blood, was an actual person.

Short was 22 at the time of her murder and hailed from Medford, Massachusetts. She reportedly supported her acting pursuits as a cashier.

The case was never solved, and the obsession with the murder by the press caused the mystery to be immortalized with films, television series and music — including an entire band's name.

Short's body was said to have undergone a hemicorporectomy, a surgical procedure that was first taught in medical schools in the 1930s (although the first official procedure was reported in 1960) in which the lower body is amputated. The procedure has been used on patients with a crushed pelvis or for those with cancer in the spine or pelvis.

Due to the medical precision of the body's mutilation, the FBI looked first to University of Southern California Medical School for suspects, to no avail. A potential break in the case came when an anonymous letter with dustable prints was sent to police, presumably by the killer, but the prints were not in any databases.

To make matters more difficult for investigators, the murder was covered very widely in the news at the time, resulting in several people turning themselves in, with the LA Times reporting in 1996 that at least 500 people had claimed to be the killer. Police believed that some of the letters sent to authorities claiming to be from the killer were pranks and/or ploys by journalists to keep the story alive, like the one pictured below.

The Oscar-winning murder mystery film The Blue Dahlia premiered in April 1946 and its popularity bled over into news coverage of Short's murder, earning the case the nickname "The Black Dahlia Murder."

The main suspect

The most well-known suspect for Short's murder was a prominent LA doctor named George Hodel, who was also known for his exploits in LA's BDSM scene, and was described by his son Steve Hodel as "sex-crazed" to the LA Times.

Hodel's sons each described what it was like growing up with their father hosting sex parties at their lavish LA home for the city's elite. His daughter once described being abused during these parties when she lived with her father and half-brothers for a period before running away, eventually reporting the abuse to police — which prompted an investigation into Hodel, who was tried for incest.

Hodel became a suspect in the Black Dahlia case due to this after authorities bugged his house as part of the investigation, and overheard comments he made about the Black Dahlia case. According to AP, Hodel was heard saying: "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."

Elsewhere on the tape he reportedly said, "Maybe I did kill my secretary."

According to the LA Times, Hodel launched a "smear campaign" against his daughter, and despite the testimony of eyewitnesses, the charges were dismissed — but suspicion about his role in the Dahlia case remained. Authorities could never link him to the crime, however, and he was never charged. He passed away at age 91 in 1999 from congestive heart failure.

In the years that followed, Hodel's son Steve became an LA homicide detective from the 1960s to 80s. Upon retiring, he dedicated his time in the 1990s to investigating his father's connection the Black Dahlia, after finding photographs of the late actress in his father's belongings. Since then, Steve said he's uncovered more connections between his father and Short's murder, and also says Hodel may have been the Zodiac killer as well. As with the Black Dahlia murder, many people have come forward claiming to be the Zodiac killer.

In 2018, Stevel Hodel received what he believed to be a major piece of evidence implicating his father as the Black Dahlia murderer — a three page, handwritten letter sent to him by the 62 year old daughter of a former police informant, that said the killer was "GH" — seemingly standing for George Hodel.

Steve told ABC10 in 2021 that he was away with his mother and brothers when the crime took place, so his father would have been alone and able to commit the Black Dahlia murder. Short's body was discovered only 6 miles from their house, ABC10 reports. He has written several books about his theory that his father was the Black Dahlia killer. Hodel's great-granddaughters Rasha Pecoraro and Yvette Gentile hosted a podcast about their shared belief that he was the culprit, in 2019.

Another possible murderer?

The Hodels weren't the only people to go public with the belief that a family patriarch had killed committed the murder. Janice Knowlton, before her death in 2004, said she had uncovered repressed memories of her father George Knowlton killing Short after an alleged affair. Knowlton also wrote a book about her accusations, which included rape and molestation at the hands of her father, in her 1995 book, Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer.

Police said that Knowlton's memories never matched up with the facts of the case, but Knowlton remained adamant, appearing on television to discuss her theory on several programs, including "Larry King Live," saying that she remembers being in the family garage as her father murdered Elizabeth Short.

Despite Hodel or Knowlton's claims, there has never been any substantial evidence that would conclusively identify Short's murderer, though Hodel told ABC10 in 2021 that he's looking into forensic genealogy to solidify his theory.