Episode 32: The Black Dahlia Part 1

Jul 8

The Black Dahlia, Part 1: Who Was Elizabeth Short Before the Headlines?

Before she became known to the world as the Black Dahlia, she was just Betty. Elizabeth Short — a girl who couldn't stay in one place, who could talk her way into anyone's life and out of anyone's bed, and who spent the last years of her life bouncing between hotels, borrowed apartments, and the goodwill of strangers. This episode, Sam & Briana trace Elizabeth Short's path from a broken childhood in Massachusetts to the streets of Los Angeles, in the days before her name became one of true crime's most infamous cold cases.

Who Was Elizabeth Short

Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 29, 1924, to Phoebe and Cleo Short — a middle child among five daughters. Her father, Cleo, worked as a top salesman for Miniature Golf Courses of America, and business was good enough that the family lived comfortably, eventually settling in Medford, Massachusetts. Then the Great Depression hit. No one was spending money on mini golf when they couldn't afford groceries, and Cleo sank into debt. One day, he simply disappeared — parked his car at Sullivan Square with the keys inside and took roughly $500 of the family's savings with him. Phoebe considered him dead, whether he was or not, and rebuilt a life as a bookkeeper, raising five daughters largely on her own, moving whenever rent got too high.

Betty grew up helping around the house, but she was also known for wandering — walking the streets with a flower tucked in her dark hair, chatting up anyone who'd talk back. She also battled serious asthma as a child, bad enough that she was sent to Florida most winters and eventually underwent lung surgery that left a permanent scar near her rib — a detail that would later matter.

Reuniting With Her Father — and Losing Him Again

Nearly a decade after vanishing, Cleo resurfaced and tried to reconcile with Phoebe. She wasn't interested — she'd told people he was dead, and that was that. Cleo announced he was relocating to Vallejo, California. Betty, who hadn't seen her father since she was seven and still remembered the version of him who'd once spoiled his daughters, was the one who wanted back in. She moved out to live with him, working as his housekeeper. It didn't last. Cleo eventually kicked her out, citing her messiness and her habit of staying out late — often with men.

A Young Woman on Her Own in Wartime California

Betty stayed in California anyway. In January 1943, she landed a job as a post exchange clerk at Camp Cooke, a military training base, where soldiers reportedly adored her and her manager called her polite and sweet. But Betty didn't stay anywhere long. She soon moved to Santa Barbara to live with a friend, Vera Green, and quit the job.

One night out with Vera and a group of soldiers ended with Betty's arrest — a passerby decided she looked too young to be drinking with servicemen and called police. She was booked on a charge covering everything from drunkenness to disorderly conduct, fingerprinted, and noted to have a rose tattoo on her left thigh. She was released on the condition she return home to Massachusetts. She did — briefly.

The Men: Matt Gordon and Gordon Fickling

In 1944, Betty met an army flier named Matt Gordon while visiting Miami. They went on one date before he shipped out, but he kept writing — telling his mother and squadmates he intended to marry her. Matt died in 1945, not in combat but in a crash while showboating with his plane. A ring meant for Betty, sent by a squad member, was never found. When his obituary ran, mentioning their engagement, Betty clipped it, carried it in her wallet — and crossed out "engaged" to write "married" instead. They never were.

Around the same time, Betty was also involved with another flier, Gordon Fickling, whom she'd also met in Miami. Their long-distance relationship was intense and jealous on his end — he once wrote asking how many other lips she'd kissed since they'd last met. When he finally returned stateside in 1946 and asked her to join him in Long Beach, she took her time getting there, stopping in Chicago for two weeks along the way.

Wandering Through Los Angeles

Once in Long Beach, Betty stayed at the Washington Apartments while Gordon remained on base — and predictably, she didn't sit still. She was soon seen around town with another man, which didn't sit well with Gordon. He moved her to a private apartment, which changed nothing. Betty told him she wanted to move to LA to pursue modeling, and he rented her a room there while he returned to base. When he came back to check on her, their relationship had shifted for good.

In LA, Betty reconnected with an old acquaintance, Marjorie Graham, who'd relocated from Massachusetts herself. Betty showed up at Marjorie's workplace in visible distress, spinning a story about a hospitalized fiancé and a lost trunk of belongings. Marjorie took her in — the first in a long line of people who would extend Betty a kindness she rarely repaid.

Betty and Marjorie moved through a string of Los Angeles addresses together: the rough-around-the-edges Hawthorne Hotel (where a roommate, 15-year-old Lynn Martin, was passing herself off as 23), then the Figueroa Hotel, then a bungalow belonging to an up-and-coming musician named Syd Zaid. Betty never held a job during any of it — she got by on meals bought for her by men she met around town, all while keeping physical relationships at arm's length using a rotating cast of excuses: a grieving fiancée act with Matt Gordon's obituary, a jealous ex back in Long Beach, anything to keep the attention without the expectation.

Mark Hansen and the Florentine Gardens

Eventually, Syd introduced the girls to Mark Hansen, owner of the Florentine Gardens nightclub — a man known around Hollywood for taking in young women who were down on their luck. Mark had a pattern: bring women into his home, court them with dinners and attention, and expect something in return. Those who went along with it stayed. Those who didn't were pushed out.

Another woman already living in Mark's house, an aspiring actress named Anne Toth, became close with Betty and took her under her wing — even as she recognized exactly how Mark's arrangement worked. Betty used her usual deflection with Mark too, claiming to be an engaged virgin waiting on a recovering soldier. It kept him at bay, but not his temper. Mark's rule was no men in the house, and Betty broke it constantly, sneaking dates in and getting caught. Two weeks after moving in, Mark had had enough of Betty's revolving door of men — and Marjorie drinking through his liquor cabinet — and kicked them both out.

A Revolving Door of Addresses

What followed was a string of short stays: a cramped studio with two men Betty and Marjorie barely knew, a return trip to Mark's doorstep after (by her account) being slapped by a roommate, a chance encounter with a photographer named Glen Kearns who drove her around LA for a photoshoot, and eventually a return to Mark's house — this time with actual house rules Betty mostly followed, right up until Mark came home with another woman and Betty, in a fit of jealousy over rules she herself never respected, got thrown out for good.

Anne and her boyfriend Leo drove Betty to her next stop: the Chancellor Apartments, a dollar-a-day attic room shared by seven women, run by a landlord with a record for arson and bombing-related offenses. By December, Betty was out of money and out of favors. She showed up at Mark's for dinner, asked to move back in, and was turned down. Anne offered comfort and a coat instead. It was the last time Anne ever saw her.

The Final Known Days

Two days later, Betty boarded a bus to San Diego for reasons no one has ever fully explained. She wandered into an all-night movie theater with all her luggage and sat through six hours of films before an usher, Dorothy French, struck up a conversation with her. Betty admitted she was broke and stranded, and Dorothy — like so many before her — took pity, bringing Betty home to stay with her family.

One night turned into weeks. Betty told the French family she was a model with celebrity connections, and locals began to believe she was some kind of visiting starlet. During her stay, she met a man named Robert "Red" Manley at a bus stop. The two spent time together over the following weeks — dinners, dancing, long conversations — though Betty, true to form, kept physical distance between them even as she accepted his company and attention.

By early January 1947, Betty had worn out her welcome with the French family and had nowhere left to turn. On January 9th, Red drove her back into Los Angeles. She asked to be dropped at the Biltmore Hotel, claiming she was meeting her sister. She wasn't. Witnesses reported seeing her making phone calls from a payphone in the lobby before disappearing into the city for several more days — spotted at a bar, and later at the Cecil Hotel.

And then, the trail goes cold. To this day, no one has ever definitively accounted for Elizabeth Short's final week alive. The next confirmed sighting of Betty would make headlines around the world — and change true crime history forever.

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