



Written By: Terri PressleyTime has immortalized Elizabeth Short as the pinup girl of LA noir, and the story of the unemployed 22-year-old has inspired dozens of books, Web sites, a video game, a movie, and even an Australian swing band. The quest to pinpoint her killer has become a hobby for generations of armchair detectives.Aspiring actress, Elizabeth Short nicknamed the "Black Dahlia," was only 22 years old when she became the victim in a notorious 1947 murder case. (The name was a bit of word play based on the title of the 1946 movie ‘The Blue Dahlia’.) On January 15, 1947, Short's body, discovered in a Los Angeles vacant lot, was severed in two at her waist and severely mutilated. The gruesome nature of the crime and the Hollywood connection made the case a public sensation.