Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short "Black Dahlia"
Short's September 1943 mugshot
Born	(1924-07-29)July 29, 1924 Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	c. January 15, 1947(1947-01-15) (aged 22) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California
Occupation	Waitress
Parent(s)	Cleo Short (father) Phoebe Mae Sawyer (mother)

"The Black Dahlia" was a nickname given to Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – c. January 15, 1947), an American woman who was the victim of a much-publicized murder in 1947. Short acquired the moniker posthumously from newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly lurid. The "Black Dahlia" nickname may have been derived from a film noir murder mystery, The Blue Dahlia, released in April 1946. Short was found mutilated, her body sliced in half at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation, leading to many suspects, along with several books, television, and film adaptations of the story. Short's murder is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history.

Short was born in Hyde Park, Boston, the third of five daughters of Cleo and Phoebe May (Sawyer) Short. She grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. Her father built miniature golf courses until the , when he lost most of his money. One day in 1930, he parked his car on a bridge and was not heard from for years, leading many to presume he had committed suicide. Phoebe May Short moved her family into a small apartment in Medford and went to work as a bookkeeper to support them. It was not until a letter of apology was received that the family learned Cleo Short was still alive, and living in California.

Troubled by asthma and bronchitis, Elizabeth Short was sent at age sixteen to spend the winter in Miami. During the next three years, she lived in Florida during the cold months and spent the rest of the year in Medford. At age nineteen, she travelled to Vallejo, California, to live with her father, who was working at the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard on San Francisco Bay. Early in 1943, Short and her father moved to Los Angeles, but she left him following an argument, and took a job at the post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, California. She soon moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking. The juvenile authorities sent her back to Medford, but she returned instead to Florida, and made only occasional visits to Massachusetts.