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All week long for our Spooky LA series, we’ve been shining a flashlight on some chilling history and places from across the Southland.
she was cut in half and her murder was never solved. 70 years later, why the Black Dahlia case will never disappear into history.
For our final episode this Hallow’s Eve, we look at one of LA’s most infamous cold cases, the brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia murder.
Kim Cooper of Esotouric LA leads crime tours around the city, and one of them takes thrill seekers to the same block where Short’s body was found in 1947. She tells us the story of the Black Dahlia.
Who was the Black Dahlia?
Short was in her early 20s when she came to Southern California. Cooper compares her to a transient, who bounced from place to place before finally landing in Long Beach.
Cooper said one of her friends nicknamed her Black Dahlia after a movie called Blue Dahlia which was released in 1946.
“Just like a funny little lark, her friend said, ‘Oh, Beth, you’re like the Black Dahlia with your curly hair and flowers behind your ear, and those dark clothes you always wear,’” Cooper said.
A murder mystery
Nearly 80 years later, Elizabeth Short’s murder remains unsolved. Short was found by Betty Bersinger while walking with her child in Leimert Park on January 15, 1947. Instead of taking a main street, the duo turned onto a quiet, smaller street when the Bersinger spotted something in the weeds ahead. . The closer she got, she realized what she saw was a body, quickly picked up her child and ran away.
Part of what keeps people intrigued is how Short’s body was found.
“She was cut in half and not just cut in half, but posed with the body a little bit apart,” Cooper said.
The condition of her body led puzzled researchers to believe that perhaps someone with medical knowledge – or a butcher – could be responsible. Police investigated several people, but, Cooper said, they overlooked a surgeon who lived a block away from Short.
When Cooper takes guests on the Black Dahlia tour, they start at 39th Street and Norton Ave. and they walk down the long block to the murder scene. They stop at a fire hydrant, just 50 feet from where Short was found.
“If you stand there and look up, on a clear day you can see the Hollywood sign. And Hollywood is where this person in life, Elizabeth Short, spent so much of her time frolicking. She was never near there except at the time of death. It’s a tough place,” Cooper said.
Cooper said she takes a break there with the tour group because
“She was one of us,” Cooper said. ‘She almost had the chance to grow here, live and be happy. The least we can do is respect her and show her a little love.”
Why the Black Dahlia case is so compelling
We asked Cooper why the case is still so compelling after all these years.
“Her story gives us a glimpse into what life was like for these kind of transient butterfly characters who just flitted around the edges of the war world,” Cooper said.
Of the few things known about the Black Dahlia, she also lost someone she loved during the war.
But another reason why her story resonates with us now is that her situation is not much different from the one Angelenos continue to experience: a housing shortage.
“There was an incredible housing crisis, which was a big part of Beth’s short story,” Cooper said. “And I think empathy, familiarity and a sense of ‘what if’ is something that people cherish when they hear about this case.”
Cooper added that without journalists we wouldn’t know who the Black Dahlia was. They investigated her like the police did and told her story. The tragic irony, however, is that without her death we would not have known who she was.
With that in mind, we hope you enjoyed this miniseries about the history of Spooky LA. Let us know if you’d like us to continue this series next Halloween. Stay safe and happy Halloween!