Independent from Long Beach, California • 90

yV I gp yoetU Mtywyw S' I Vi mifaw MTU mSWeaaSMWWSHmm ijlM WWWMSSnSHSIMiOShr 7 -J 1 JS Torture Murder of Elizabeth Short Continues to Baffle Police By George Gi powers "San Diego to Los Angeles Jan. with a male companion. It was the body of the Black Dahlia, itesque torture marks covered the. ind trunk: talk turns to. fa-veteran police of-', ficers.

always wind up discussing the actress. She was ambitious and beautiful and full of life, but she had her 'moments of She would Jae gay-and carefree one moment, then in the -most-notorious unsolvedmurderof wV t6 Autopsy investigation revealed that suspect, -hut Cleared JThe.shOCkJlOW; chnrt-. vvtT had been J-shed aJjody Jbeenjdashed; Betty- ever, forced him to undergo psychiatric treatment for a mental them all, the brutal killing of Long Beach waitress Elisabeth (Betty) "Short, 22, on Jan. 15, 1947, in Los repea tedly'with a large knife for five days before rhe died. Then, they declared, the body was drained of its btood, carefully scrubbed and thejiair of the head "shampooed! despair the next Angeles.

SHE TRIED job after job and ap- fier 1,1 On the night of Jan. 10, Betty Short changed a dollar bill at a Los Angeles ending in failurerShe returned lo hotel cigar stand and tnade a -couple-mother in Massachusetts," and another of phone calls. She waited a while in romance. When that fell through, she the as if expecting an answer. Doctors found rope bbriis that indicated Miss Short may hae been tied up during the five days of her torture and such a crime, could go.

unsolved. Betty Short she was calledMThe Black Dahlia-rwas held captive in a Los Angeles apartment for five days, and savagely tortured, during that time. When she died, her killer bundled her body into a car and drove-15 mtesiintiHircame krtrwhera-' he 'dumped-iLr-T THERE ARE many theories as why she was called The Black Da' lia but tile most popular was her fondness for black, lingerie However, -Long who revealed her nickname -to the press, thinks it was the result of a. chance remark made in a. drug store here when another woman, observing black-haired Miss Short pass by, said: Her body ha'd been horribly muti- -lated in five days of agony.

AND, IB DAYS after, the crime had -been committed, -someone coollyv mailed to police a package containing-' her purse. Social Security card, ad- dress book and miscellaneous papers and receipts. They' ought to call her the Black Dahlia. The beauty of the her un- usual-name and habits, and the ajr- rogance of her murderer, drew so-much- attention that the Los Angeles police department assigned 50 detectives, to the case. The BIacVT)ahIiamddressbook-: contained 200 names, all of.

them men. lit the slow process of fracing suspects, police finally wound up with .41 Each "confession, however, failed to fit the facto of the murder. The Los Angeles Police Department still regards the case as often routine-Jy-quest However, not until Sept 13, 1949,.. -did they-even. find the apartment Misg.

Short was probably tied and tortured. Blood-stained sheets and clothes found there indicated a relationship to the cHmewhichbcCUrred Jm.a busy. street. similar-type crimes. brazen-as to kidnap a- RUMORS OF SCANDAL followed.

L.JC Waggoner, a Los Angeles officer told the county grand pretty girl off the street, hold her tive for five days and torture her with a butcher knife, dump. her. in. the middle of a great city, and calmly mail her personal effects to the jxriice? Police say, frankly, they havent the jury that he had been pulled off the case' when he was" "working a hot 1Long Beach angle." ghost of an idea. A grand jury spokesman said it was investigating widespread and persist-, ent minors of a payoff to authorities, 1 In Los Angele- BETTY SHORT one of four sisters -praised by-thelr-mo lh.ejinSalemL was an unusually pretty child," visions of Hollywood stardom; dancing in her She worked as a waitress, and some- times as a-theater usher.

"When she was l8, she went to Northern Call- Waggoner saidr "case could have been solved had been allowed to; continue investigating. -I was suddenly -1 taken off the case and I never did 'm'Y know why. Other officers and myself were making remarkable progress. Sixtoan years have elapsed since the brutal slaying of Bhabath but tbs unsolyodcnme remains an open gaso in Los Angolas polica files. fomia, to live, with her -TKey-set up housekeeping in-Vallejo, v' utnone came'." V.

but Betty WM unhappy almost im-J-1 came bide to Southern California, fi-mediatelythere were the ylsidna of'" Miiy toXohg Beach.iJ"" herv vigil, smiled to Jhe doo rm an and walked" out- into 7 i has-beeiv-fouixl-who-haa ii Hollywood end. hJ943 jsheand her -fatherbrokeup, Workihg as waitress In a coffee shop then in a bar, she thoughtf she' lufd finally found her man. an dfficer THE GRAND JURY, howeva, also, -questioned -other officers whP played key parts in. investigating tha Blade Dahlia and in the end de- -o -cided-it-could-find would gO mine, her father wouldnt -stay home." seat her alive" since shfe left the hotd. no-evidence-.

"payoffin the'situatlohw the- "Consequently' the Blade to- the. Air announced friends 'that marriage wad In the offing. Y- The romance collapsed when the officer was transferred east, and Betty Short started along the drifting path that lead to her death. Betty Short headed for Hollywood and heartbreak. She took an apart-, ment near the University of Southern California, campus, but couldnt settle down end couldnt, attract muner case, remains This despite thejact.

that the killer had the audadty to commit kidnap, torture and murder in the heart of a. big city -then mail the victims personal ef- i FIVE DAYS LATER, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter were walking along a sidewalk a grocery Store. The girl pointed into a -vacant lot and r'snW vl Her "Elizabeth hriays ieendkheettovR tbCm Traeth tire-days1 she --was What irljiWtrfects to nrrJ: .1.