On the morning of January 15, 1947, a mother out for a walk with her child in a Los Angeles neighborhood made a horrifying discovery: the body of a young woman, gruesomely cut in half at the waist.
Initially, the mother thought the body was a mannequin due to its positioning just off the sidewalk, but as she got closer, the grim reality set in.
Despite the extensive mutilation, there was no blood at the scene, suggesting that the young woman had been killed elsewhere.
The investigation was taken over by the Los Angeles Police Department, with the FBI soon brought in to assist. Remarkably, they identified the victim—later known as the “Black Dahlia”—in just 56 minutes after receiving blurred fingerprints through a primitive fax machine called “Soundphoto.”
The victim was identified as Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress who earned the nickname due to her preference for black clothing and the recent release of the film "The Blue Dahlia."
Short’s fingerprints were already in the FBI’s extensive database, having been recorded twice: once when she applied for a job at Camp Cooke in January 1943, and again after being arrested for underage drinking in Santa Barbara seven months later. The FBI also shared her mug shot with the media.
To aid the L.A. police, the FBI conducted nationwide records checks on potential suspects and carried out numerous interviews.
Given the precise nature of the dismemberment, investigators speculated that the killer might have had surgical skills, prompting the FBI to look into students at the University of Southern California Medical School.
In a potential breakthrough, the Bureau sought to match fingerprints found on an anonymous letter that may have been sent by the murderer, but unfortunately, those prints were not in their files.
The identity of the Black Dahlia's killer remains a mystery, and as time continues to pass, it seems increasingly unlikely that the case will ever be resolved.