Elizabeth Short was was an aspiring actress born on July 29, 1924, ninety-five years ago today. Most don’t know her name, but have likely heard of The Black Dahlia. Short’s murder was one of most infamous and gruesome in Hollywood history. I’ll give no details of the crime because they can be easily found and are highly disturbing.
It’s possible that Short was Intersex. The coroner’s reported stated that she had Infantile Genitalia (possibly Turner syndrome or some other condition). They were the size of a child’s, so she was incapable of vaginal sex. The murderer may have committed the crime after finding this out. Violence has always been common against those who don’t conform to the cisgender hetero binary.
There’s an hollywood adage, “never get caught with a dead girl or a live boy.” Hollywood has a long history of covering up people’s crimes and personal indiscretions, especially in the 1940s when the murder occurred (1947). Short’s killer could have been anyone from the famous to the anonymous.
One suspect was a guy named George Hodel, a Los Angeles doctor. And one of the biggest proponents of Hodel’s guilt is his own son Steve, a former LAPD homicide detective, who has written two books based on that theory. Steve Hodel also believes his father may have been behind several other murders including those of the Zodiac Killer. Hodel was in fact investigated in Short’s murder, the LAPD going so far as to bug his house, but was never charged.