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Elizabeth Short, described by police as a white female, aged 22, five foot six 118 pounds, light brown hair that was dyed black, green eyes, and bad teeth was murdered on January 15th, 1947. Her body was found in a vacant lot by a mother walking with her child. The body was displayed in such a way that the mother believed it was a mannequin at first glance. Upon arrival police were met with a plethora of reporters who had seemingly beaten them to the seen. Not much is known about what had happened the night of Short’s murder, and theories range from a date gone bad, to running into a stranger with malicious intentions while walking alone at night. Regardless of what the theory is, this case has been a running mystery for 75 years. Over 60 known confessions, and over 1000 different police interrogations, but still no proof definitive evidence linking anyone to the crime. So today we aim to answer the 75 year old question, who killed Elizabeth Short? The police received a letter from the alleged killer on February 3rd, 1947. The letter was mostly free of any evidence that could aid the police, but not entirely free. There was a fingerprint found on the letter, and police databases would be checked to see if they could find a match. Unfortunately, the fingerprint wasn’t found in files of single fingerprints. So, this potential break in the case, ended up leading to nothing. As stated earlier, there are up to 60 known confessions to the murder of Elizabeth Short. One of those coming from a 33 year old man named Daniel Vorhees. On January 28th, police captain Jack Donohue stated that a 33 year old man walked into police headquarters saying he wanted to confess to the sadistic murder and mutilation of Elizabeth Short. That man gave his name as Daniel S. Vorhees. Before this happened, police had also received an anonymous phone call from a man saying, “I can’t stand it any longer I want to confess to the murder of the Black Dahlia. Not long after receiving the call Vorhees would walk into the homicide department and say, “I can’t stand it any longer, I want to confess to the Black Dahlia murder.” Detective Ed Barrett was one of the questioners during the interrogation, displayed a sheet of paper with the words “I did kill Elizabeth Short,” and Vorhees signed his name. Barrett also recalls Vorhees saying, “I am so sick I can’t stand it. I simply had to get it off my chest.” When questioned about the letters that the police received, Vorhees denied having written any of them. One of them stating that the killer would give him or herself up at 10 A.M the next day. The Phoenix police, which is the city that Daniel is from, identified him as the man who was arrested 5 times in Phoenix. One of those crimes including assault with intention to commit rape. So, we solved the crime, Daniel Vorhees killed the Black Dahlia, right? Well not quite. For starters Daniel’s alleged connection to Elizabeth was that they had dated in 1941. This already doesn’t make sense because Elizabeth didn’t travel to the west coast until she was 19. If you do the math that means she didn’t go west until 1943. So how could a man from Phoenix, Arizona be dating a woman from Medford Massachusetts? Especially during this time period where the only form of long range communication was writing letters. He claimed that he was with Short two weeks prior to the murder but refused to give any more details about what occurred that night. Daniel would also tell stories about his charges in Phoenix and said that he wasn’t imprisoned and rather required to serve in the air corps in 1941. When asked about the story again, the time period would change, as he now said he had to serve in 1943, showing clear inconsistencies in his story. Along with that the police were still receiving letters from the other individual claiming to be the killer, which proved that Daniel was at least telling the truth about not writing the letters. The letter stated that the killer wouldn’t give themselves up until their terms were agreed upon. Stating that, “I will give up in Dahlia killing if I receive 10 years, don’t try to find me.” By this time an autopsy was done on Short, and a lot of different things were revealed. The official cause of death was hemorrhage and shock. Along with that, her mouth was slit exactly 3 inches on each side. It is believed that this occurred while she was still alive. She also received a concussion induced by blows on the head. This also played a part in her death. There were other mutilations found as well. One of them being the well-known fact that her body was cut clean in half. She also had other cuts, lacerations, and missing pieces of flesh all throughout her body, all occurring after she had died. The murder brought up a strange memory for policewoman Myrl McBride. After seeing the photographs McBride could recall an encounter she had with Short at a bus station. McBride recalls Short coming up to her at the station saying, “Someone wants to kill me.” Short then went on to discuss a man she met in the bar that repeatedly threatened her life if he ever found her with another man. McBride said that she later saw Short re-enter the bar and eventually leave with two men and another woman.