blackdahlia.info

I knew Elizabeth "Bette" Short for ten years. She was my neighbor and friend in our hometown of Medford, Massachusetts. Haunted for years by her unsolved murder, in 1988 I embarked on a search for answers. What I thought would take a few months of research, turned into a strange ten-year odyssey, resulting in the book, Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder.

Posted here are many of the facts that I uncovered during my sojourn—information about suspects Dr. George Hodel, Robert Manley, Mark Hansen, Dr. Walter Bayley, Orson Welles and others, including the suspects investigated by the 1949 Grand Jury. (Link to SUSPECTS.) Documents from the Black Dahlia investigation include the Elizabeth Short Murder Inquest Transcript, (link to INQUEST), and excerpts from the Los Angeles District Attorney's files. (Link to DOCUMENTS.)

Quotes from people who knew Elizabeth Short are also posted on this site. (Link to QUOTES.) There is an extensive Elizabeth Short chronology, Fact vs. Fiction information, and a Black Dahlia bibliography. (Link to BIO INFORMATION.) The Photo Gallery includes photos of Elizabeth Short as a child and of her signature from a page of a classmate's high school yearbook.

Over the years Elizabeth Short has become one of the most maligned victims in the history of this country. Sensationalized in the newspapers of the time, the original stories were embellished by subsequent writers who portrayed Elizabeth Short as a promiscuous drinker, prostitute, and/or porn actress—none of which is true. I hope this site can help to set the record straight and stop the trashing of Elizabeth Short.