“The Black Dahlia†was the nickname given by the press to the young woman (Elizabeth Short) found murdered and mutilated in Los Angeles over half a century ago. Elizabeth Short’s story was brief and terrible, and, as such, supplied much grist for the mills of the morbidly inclined. Her murder was never solved, but that has not stopped many writers, film makers and amateur sleuths from posing solutions to her death. The few known facts are scanty. Elizabeth was born in Massachusetts. When she was five years old, her father went on the lam, looking as if he were a possible suicide. When he turned up in Southern California, young Elizabeth, at the age of 19, went to join him. The reunion was short-lived, as apparently Daddy didn’t approve of the many men that the pretty young woman dated. After being arrested for underage drinking, Elizabeth was shipped back to her mother in Massachusetts, but returned soon thereafter. Although engaged at one point, her fiancé died in the war; she never married and she never bore a child. She was brutally murdered, no one knows who did it, and the case is cold to this day. That doesn’t stop the curious from the alluring task of trying to find the missing clue. A sad story to be attached to so beautiful a name.
