The Black Dahlia is the popular name for murder victim Elizabeth Ann Short, who was killed in January 1947. Her body was dumped in a vacant lot in Los Angeles, California, severed and mutilated. The crime was never solved but has been the subject of intense speculation ever since. Neo-noir author James Ellroy based a book around the crime, and Short's murder has been key to the popular perception of Los Angeles as a dystopian land of broken dreams.
