CA CA - Elizabeth Short 'Black Dahlia', 22, Los Angeles, 15 Jan 1947

[Richard]

Not many people seem to know her middle name as I couldn't find it. I was able to confirm it as Betty or Ann through an ancestry record. Same birth date and estimated death date.

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"Betty" is a common nick name for Elizabeth.

This month marks 76 years since her murder.

 

[SimsGuy67]

"Betty" is a common nick name for Elizabeth.

This month marks 76 years since her murder.

Yeah. I realised after commenting. I think the record meant Elizabeth "Betty" Short instead. I think her middle name was Ann as I saw a lot of matching records for that. I hope her murder gets solved in the future.

 

[FergusMcDuck]

Larry Harnisch's theory has been mentioned in this thread before, but this is a great and comprehensive article about it. By far the best theory I've seen about this case.

 

[Betty P]

Larry Harnisch's theory has been mentioned in this thread before, but this is a great and comprehensive article about it. By far the best theory I've seen about this case.

Very good article. A lot of factual information that puts the case in perspective.

 

[summergirl1]

It's too bad his book hasn't been published yet.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this thread up.

 

[charminglane]

Larry Harnisch's theory has been mentioned in this thread before, but this is a great and comprehensive article about it. By far the best theory I've seen about this case.

I did not see this when it was first posted.
I know the author, Miles Corwin, from my work. He was an LA Times crime reporter.
You can see him standing behind Kardashian as Kardashian is reading OJ's letter at the podium during the Bronco chase in news reports.
Great guy, Miles! He also writes mysteries, of which I recommend.

 

[Kell1]

If I recall former FBI Profiler's Gregg McCrary and John Douglas both did separate profiles on the UNSUB in this case and felt very strongly that the killer responsible both knew the victim and was a sexually sadistic , and most likely was responsible for other murders.

Also I think I recall letters were sent to the police, with some of Shorts belongings.

 

[hootdings]

I find the profiles interesting too, mainly because there's so little to go on otherwise. One thing to keep in mind about the profiles is that McCrary and Douglas went off of general public information, some of which is wrong, like the Georgette Bauerdorf connections.

Also I think I recall letters were sent to the police, with some of Shorts belongings.

Right - the killer mailed the LA Examiner an envelope with miscellaneous stuff including her birth certificate and her address book. He doused the envelope in gasoline, presumably to obliterate fingerprints.

 

[hootdings]

Also I think I recall letters were sent to the police, with some of Shorts belongings.

Specifically:

 

[imstilla.grandma]

In 1942, Short’s mother received an apology letter from her husband, who had been presumed deceased for over a decade, according to Shattered Dreams. In the note, he said that he had begun a new life in Northern California.

Who Killed the Black Dahlia? Revisiting Elizabeth Short’s Unsolved Murder 78 Years Ago Today — and Why a Retired Detective Believes His Father Committed the Crime

Elizabeth Short was killed on Jan. 15, 1947, and her case was nicknamed the Black Dahlia murder. Here's everything to know about Elizabeth Short's death, including who was suspected of killing her.

people.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

It led the Los Angeles Police Department to believe that Short’s body had been moved from the spot where she was murdered 78 years ago this week on January 15, 1947, and deliberately left on the street

Black Dahlia: the unsolved murder that transfixed Los Angeles

The cold case of Elizabeth Short has both horrified and gripped the nation for decades. Rhian Lubin revisits the case 78 years on

www.independent.co.uk

 

[imstilla.grandma]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1129878095591150

 

[JerseyAnn]

Larry Harnisch's theory has been mentioned in this thread before, but this is a great and comprehensive article about it. By far the best theory I've seen about this case.

Wow, best article I have ever read on the Black Dahlia case. I've been waiting for Harnisch's book to come out, and now I see his exhausting research is the reason for the hold-up. Which is a good thing. I'll definitely buy it when it's published.
I did read Piu Eatwell's book, and find it very interesting that the room at the Astor Motel was full of blood and body fluids - What are the chances of that happening on the same night as Short's murder?
Steve Hodel's first book was absorbing, very intriguing that his father was a suspect at the time.
I recall on one of the Black Dahlia documentaries, that a man came forward claiming that his mother was a dancer at Hansen's 'Florentine Gardens' and knew who the murderer was. Short had been staying for a time at Hansen's home which was at the time behind the 'Florentine Gardens'.
All around a very strange case.

 

[Molly's Mom]

I want to read a book on this case, even though I know most of the details by now, but I've never found one that seems to be unbiased towards one theory or another. I simply want a good book that will give me the facts and lay out the known elements so I can understand all the players.

Has anyone listened to the Buried Bones podcast that was just posted? It was phenomenal. I might just try to get a transcript of it. Paul Holes does a great job detailing the Dahlia case. It's graphic but you know that going into it.

 

[dotr]

Nov 16, 2025

BLACK DAHLIA REDUX: Author thinks he solved most infamous cold case in U.S.

After Elizabeth Short's defiled body was discovered in 1947, she would be known as the Black Dahlia. Brad Hunter has the latest development.

torontosun.com

“His name is Carl Balsiger,” Frankel told The Toronto Sun. “And he was at the top of the LAPD’s radar for the murder of Elizabeth Short.”

Frankel’s new tome, Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress and Their Hunter, pieces together Short’s final days, and ties his suspect to an equally gruesome horror show 2,500 kilometres away in Kansas City, six years before the Dahlia’s demise.

''Socialite Leila Welsh was the belle of the ball in bustling K.C., and she knew Balsiger.
“I was intrigued, and when he’s questioned by police, you know he’s lying, and the cops also think he’s lying,” the true crime TV producer said. “I think Balsiger killed both women.”

He had a CV of brutal assaults on women; he was a stalker, and he was a classmate of Welsh, travelling in the same social circles. What’s more, the Kansas City socialite’s body bore strikingly similar mutilations to that of Elizabeth Short?''

THE KILLER? Carl Balsiger.

Kansas City socialite Leila Welsh’s murder was chillingly similar to the Black Dahlia.

 

[Gators North]

Nov 16, 2025

BLACK DAHLIA REDUX: Author thinks he solved most infamous cold case in U.S.

After Elizabeth Short's defiled body was discovered in 1947, she would be known as the Black Dahlia. Brad Hunter has the latest development.

torontosun.com

“His name is Carl Balsiger,” Frankel told The Toronto Sun. “And he was at the top of the LAPD’s radar for the murder of Elizabeth Short.”

Frankel’s new tome, Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress and Their Hunter, pieces together Short’s final days, and ties his suspect to an equally gruesome horror show 2,500 kilometres away in Kansas City, six years before the Dahlia’s demise.
View attachment 625420
''Socialite Leila Welsh was the belle of the ball in bustling K.C., and she knew Balsiger.
“I was intrigued, and when he’s questioned by police, you know he’s lying, and the cops also think he’s lying,” the true crime TV producer said. “I think Balsiger killed both women.”

He had a CV of brutal assaults on women; he was a stalker, and he was a classmate of Welsh, travelling in the same social circles. What’s more, the Kansas City socialite’s body bore strikingly similar mutilations to that of Elizabeth Short?''
View attachment 625421
THE KILLER? Carl Balsiger.
View attachment 625422
Kansas City socialite Leila Welsh’s murder was chillingly similar to the Black Dahlia.

I might have to buy this book!

 

[cenazoic]

Larry Harnisch’s review of Sisters in Death.

 

[cenazoic]

Harnisch also reviews another upcoming (January 2026) Black Dahlia book, Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood, by William J. Mann.

 

[summergirl1]

Eli Frankel: I Was the Last Person to Interview the Black Dahlia Murder Witness.

On January 15, 1947, Betty Bersinger pushed her three-year-old daughter, Anne, in a stroller down a stretch of abandoned, weed-strewn lots on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The two blocks were pockm…

crimereads.com