Her murder hasn't been solved for nearly 80 years. Why the Black Dahlia case will never die

All this week, we’ve been shining a flashlight on some hair raising history and haunts from across the Southland for our Spooky L.A. series.

For our final installment on this Hallow’s Eve, we take a look at one of L.A.'s most notorious cold cases, the brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia murder.

Kim Cooper of Esotouric L.A. leads crime tours across the city, and one of them takes thrill seekers down the same block where the body of Short was found in 1947. She tells us the story of the Black Dahlia.

Who was the Black Dahlia?

Short was in her early 20s when she came to Southern California. Cooper likens her to a transient, having bounced from place to place before finally landing in Long Beach.

Cooper said that one of her friends nicknamed her the Black Dahlia after a motion picture called Blue Dahlia that was released in 1946.

“Just as a funny little lark, her friend said, 'Oh, Beth, you’re like the Black Dahlia with your curly hair, and flowers behind your ear, and those dark clothes you always wear,” Cooper said.

A murder mystery

Nearly 80 years later, Elizabeth Short's murder remains unsolved. Short was found by Betty Bersinger while out for a walk with her child in Leimert Park on Jan. 15, 1947. Instead of taking a main street, the duo went down a quiet, smaller street when Bersinger spotted something in the weeds up ahead. The closer she got, she realized what she was seeing was a body and quickly picked up her child and ran.

Part of what keeps people intrigued is the way Short's body was found.

“She was cut in half and not just cut in half but posed with the body a bit apart,” Cooper said.

The condition of her body led puzzled investigators to believe that perhaps someone with medical knowledge — or a butcher — could have been responsible. Police looked into several people, but, Cooper said, they overlooked a surgeon who lived a block away from Short.

When Cooper takes guests on the Black Dahlia tour, they begin at 39th Street and Norton Avenue and walk down the long block to the murder site. They stop at a fire hydrant, just 50 feet from where Short's body was found.

“Standing there, looking up, when the day is clear, you can actually see the Hollywood sign. And Hollywood is where this person in life, Elizabeth Short, spent so much of her time frolicking. She never was anywhere near there except in that moment of death. It's a heavy place,” Cooper said.

Cooper said she pauses right there for a moment with the tour group.

“She was one of us," Cooper said. "She almost had a chance to grow and live and be happy here. The least we can do is respect her and show a little love.”

Why the Black Dahlia case is so compelling

We asked Cooper why the case is still so compelling after all these years.

“Her story gives us a window into what life was like for these sort of transient butterfly characters who were just flitting around the edges of the wartime world,” Cooper said.

Of the few things that are known about the Black Dahlia, one is that she lost someone she loved during war.

But another reason her story resonates with us now, is that her situation is not unlike one that Angelenos continue to experience — a housing shortage.

“There was an incredible housing crisis, which was a huge part of Beth's short story,” Cooper said. “And I think that empathy, familiarity, and a sense of what if is something that people hold when they hear about this case.”

Cooper added that without journalists, we would not know who the Black Dahlia was. They investigated her like the police did and told her story. The tragic irony is, however, we would not have known who she was, if it wasn’t for her death.

With that thought, we hope you enjoyed this mini series of Spooky L.A. history. Let us know if you would like for us to continue this series next Halloween. Stay safe and happy Halloween!