Black Dahlia Case Study

L.A. Cold Cases: Elizabeth Short

¨The Black Dahlia’s killer was never found, making her murder one of the oldest cold case files in L.A. to date, and the city’s most famous¨ (Black Dahlia Biography). The ¨Black Dahlia¨ is a nickname given to Elizabeth Short for her preference of black clothing. At age 23, she was murdered and her assailant was never found. For over 71 years now, her murder has been a mystery and her death hasn’t failed to bring speculation, as to who did what, among the people who come across her tragic life story. Such speculations can be categorized into two theories: George Knowlton murdered Short, or Dr. George Hill Hodel did.

BACKGROUND

In December 1946, Dorothy French, who worked at San Diego’s Aztec Theater, spotted Short and found herself feeling sorry for the beautiful and mysterious woman, for she noticed, ¨she had been there for hours on that day in early December 1946, and she appeared to have nowhere else to go. French

¨She came up with circumstantial links from her father to a string of unsolved murders across the United States, from the family home in Massachusetts to California¨ (Katz 191). Amazingly, Knowlton’s family members were able to support her claims that George Knowlton was indeed a vicious man, and that he had boasted about having carried out numerous murders and not being caught (Katz 191). Unfortunately for officers, George Knowlton died in a car crash in 1962 near the area of Claremore, Oklahoma (Katz 191). In 1995, Janice published her book, Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer, and later committed suicide at age 67 in year 2004 (Katz 191). Through compelling evidence, Janice and her family declares George Knowlton as the Black Dahlia killer. Although Janice committed suicide her book and her findings still lives on to tell her story, as well as