On January 15, 1947, remains of Elizabeth Short or as she is most commonly known as “The Black Dahlia” were discovered in Los Angeles, California. When found, her body was so pale and thoroughly drained that the woman who found her thought she was a mannequin at first. The Body was cut with such precision that it left no trauma to internal organs or bones. Her face had been cut from her mouth towards her ears, forming a smiley face. When she was found there was no blood, concluding that she was murdered somewhere else.

Nine days after Short was discovered there was an envelope received by the Los Angeles Examiner with a letter inside composed using cut-out letters from movie ads. The letter states “Los Angeles Examiner and other papers here is Dalia’s belongings letter to follow. Inside the envelope, there was a social security card, a pair of shorts, a birth certificate, snapshots, and an old address with some pages missing. Gasoline was rubbed on the contents to remove fingerprints.

The first suspect is Robert “Red” Manley. Manley had been giving Short rides home from San Diego for about a month. When the place that Short was staying at had fallen through she called Manley to come pick her up and take her to the Biltmore Hotel. He was the first suspect to be looked at because he was the last person reported that Short had any type of relationship with. This was the last time Short and Manley had seen each other. One of the biggest suspects in the case is George Hodel Jr. Steve Hodel, his son suspects his father to be the possible murderer. Steve had found two pictures of a woman that he believes to be Elizabeth Short in a photo album that George had.  The handwriting from George and the writing from the letters from the killer also matched up. On January 9th, the last day Short was seen alive, George had 50-pound sacks sent to his house for “remodeling”. George also drove a  black 1936 Packard that looked similar to the descriptions of the black car scene near where Shorts’ body was found. In 2012 Steve Hodel went back to his childhood home where he had lived with his father George Hodel and had performed an unofficial investigation where a search dog had picked up the scent of human decomposition. Ultimately the Los Angeles Police Department has said that there wasn’t enough evidence to follow through with a  conviction.