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Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Phoebe and Cleo Short. When she was five her father disappeared. His car was later found near a lake later, apparently abandoned, which led to the belief that he had committed suicide. However, he later appeared at home and apologized to his wife for leaving the family like that. Nevertheless, she wouldn`t take him back, and he left the family again and moved to the West Coast.

Elizabeth developed a passion for movies in her youth, and when she turned 19 she decided to visit her father in California. She stayed with him for a while, but it wasn`t long before he kicked her out for "not doing anything with her life"; apparently he also wasn`t enamored of the fact that Elizabeth was "dating" a lot of different men.

After moving out, Elizabeth traveled to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested for underage drinking and sent back home to Massachusetts. She returned to California in 1946, this time to Hollywood to try her luck in pictures. It was rumored at the time that in her eagerness to break into the movies she made liberal use of the "casting couch"; if so, it didn`t do her any good, as she didn`t get so much as a bit part.

On January 15th, 1947, her body was found cut in half in a vacant lot in Hollywood. It was assumed that she had died the previous day. The press named the crime "The Black Dahlia murder", mostly because of Elizabeth`s dark hair and her practice of often times wearing black or dark clothing. The murder started one of the most intense investigations in Los Angeles history, but there was little to go on, and although the police said they did have suspects, no arrests were ever made. The case still remains unsolved.