The Black Dahlia - A Ghost Story

One can only assume that the ghost of Murder victims are some of the most restless spirits. And with a history filled with failed dreams and sensational Murders, Hollywood follows some of the most horrific tales followed by some of the most Ghostly Haunts. The Black Dahlia is certainly one of the most haunting of Hollywood victims. She has haunted Hollywood for more than 60 years. This is her mysterious story.

When James Moore entered the Hotel Biltmore one evening, someone was already inside. A woman dressed in Black from head to toe, a very pretty woman, standing quietly in the corner looking up. The elevator stopped on the 6th floor. James stepped to the side expecting the woman to get out but she remained inside. This is the 6th floor he said and stepped aside. As the woman brushed by him James felt a sudden chill. Stopping outside the elevator the woman looked back at James as if to ask him for help. He waited for her to say something but she didn't. Just as the elevator doors were about to close, he pressed the button to reopen them and when he did he looked out into the hallway and there was no one there.

James couldn't shake the peculiar sensation that swept over him. A few days later James stumbled across a book about Hollywood. Thumbing through the book he happened to come across a familiar face on page 52. It was a photograph of a pretty young woman dressed in all black. James recognized his companion from the elevator. But there was a problem. She had been dead for over half a century. And her story was a horrific tale. On a cold morning in January 1947, a Los Angles Mother and her little girl stumbled across what looked like a broken store dummy lying among some rubble in a vacant lot. It turned out to be the naked body of a young woman cut cleanly into and mutilated behind comprehension.

The body was covered with cigarette burns. Her wrists and ankles were in bondage and her mouth was slashed into a grim snare. After the initial investigation it was believed that her torture lasted for three days of which she was conscious most of the time. Nearly all the fingertips were sliced off. Prints of the remaining fingers were sent off to the FBI in Washington DC. The victim was identified as Elizabeth Short, a 22 year old whit female with black hair and blue eyes. She had distinctive artwork of a rose tattoo on her left thigh. She was born in Massachusetts to a working class family. Nothing stood out from her childhood except of a minor record of being a juvenile delinquent.

At the age of 18 she set out for the bright lights of Hollywood. Elizabeth Short came to Hollywood to become a star. Four years later she became an overnight sensation but not for her talent as a beautiful young actress. Rather she was made famous by the sadistic fashion of her killing. The spectacular interest in the case made the investigation difficult. The number of suspects grew by the minute. In fact to make the whole thing more bizarre, more than 50 people confessed to this lurid crime. Elizabeth Short was a rare beauty even among the thousands of beautiful actresses who flocked to Tinseltown yearly. It was her idea of dressing totally in Black so she would stand out in a crowd.

She especially liked sensuous black sheath dresses, black shoes, black stockings, and black lingerie which earned her the nickname The Black Dahlia. The investigation revealed more. Her social life ranged from the adventurous to the utterly dangerous. There was no doubt that The Black Dahlia used her sexy figure and pretty face to her full advantage. Her ambition to become a Movie Star slipped into a hazy dream that was never realized. Bars and nightclubs were her havens. There she met hundreds of men. And she shared more than just a drink. It was even in one of these clubs where she met a married man. He was the last man that was seen with her before the murder.

The majority of the time they spent the night drinking. The rest they spent in a local motel. The man said that afterwards he dropped Elizabeth Short off at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. His story was confirmed and he was dismissed as a suspect. The Black Dahlia's trail ended at the Biltmore Hotel, five days before her body was discovered. Exactly what happened during those five days remains a mystery. A letter was sent to the Los Angles press after the murder. It was a strange letter if there ever was one. Words clipped together from newspapers formed a crude message that said "Here are Dahlia's belongings, letter will follow". An address book, a social security card, and birth certificate were included with the letter.

They all belonged to Elizabeth Short. This provided undeniable evidence that the person whoever sent the letter was The Black Dahlia's killer. The paper that the letter was written on was smudged with fingerprints. It was sent to the FBI but despite a through search, no matching print could be found. The writer also failed to send the promised follow up letter. Even the address book filled with so many names failed to give the authorities a new lead. There was one peculiar thing though. A page was ripped from the little black book before it was sent. One has to wonder whose name was on that missing page. Could it have been the name that everyone was looking for?

Another suspect was a young Corporal in the US Army taken into custody after bragging about his kinky sexual encounter with the Black Dahlia. Suspicious bloodstains were found on his clothes and in his locker along with newspaper clippings about the murder. But his story turned out to be another hoax. Every time a new lead turned up, it fizzled out shortly thereafter. The killer was never found. There is no doubt in James Moore's mind that the encounter he had with the woman in Black in the Biltmore was the ghost of the Black Dahlia, leading to the conclusion that her spirit still lingers there.