Path · 3 stops · 8.5 km
The Black Dahlia
A self-guided driving tour by Here Before Us
Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old from Boston, was found murdered in Leimert Park on January 15, 1947. The newspapers called her the "Black Dahlia". The LAPD investigated more than 150 suspects but made no arrests, and it remains one of the most famous unsolved murders in U.S. history. She was a real young woman, and the last stop is a residential street, so please be respectful.
Stops
On January 9, 1947, Robert "Red" Manley, a salesman she had been dating, said he dropped Short off here after a trip to San Diego; she was to meet one of her sisters, visiting from Boston. By some accounts hotel staff saw her using the lobby telephone. The days that followed, until her body was found, are known as…
Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner, published from this building completed in 1914, was the first newspaper to break the story, and the case led most of the city's front pages for three months. On January 21 a caller claiming to be the killer phoned its editor, James Richardson.
On the morning of January 15, 1947, her body was found in a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street. Leimert Park was largely undeveloped at the time. People live here now: please stay on the sidewalk.
Here Before Us