Broken: The Black Dahlia Murder - Part One: The Girl in the Empty Lot

Once Upon A Crime

Esther Ludlow

True Crime, Society & Culture, Crime, Truecrime, Criminology, History, Criminals

4.6 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In January 1947, a mother walking through a quiet Los Angeles neighborhood made a horrifying discovery — the bisected body of a young woman posed in a vacant lot.

Within hours, newspapers had a headline that would echo for decades: The Black Dahlia Murder.

In this first episode of BROKEN: The Black Dahlia Murder, host Esther Ludlow revisits the shocking discovery of Elizabeth Short’s body and explores how the media turned one of America’s most brutal crimes into legend.

You’ll learn how police handed reporters nearly unrestricted access to the case, how wild speculation replaced evidence, and how myths — from “party girl” to “femme fatale” — erased the real woman behind the name.

Seventy-eight years later, her story is still broken by rumor and sensationalism.

Now, Once Upon a Crime seeks to restore the truth.

In this six-part series, Esther will uncover the real Elizabeth Short — and tell the story the headlines never did.

About This Series

BROKEN: The Black Dahlia Murder is a six-part Once Upon a Crime original series.

Through extensive research, historical records, and firsthand accounts, Esther Ludlow uncovers the truth behind America’s most infamous unsolved murder, separating fact from fiction to rediscover the real woman behind the myth.

Upcoming episode:

Part Two: Discovering Elizabeth - The true biography of Elizabeth Short: her childhood, her dreams, and how her life led her to Los Angeles.

Release date: October 25th

Sources & References

Los Angeles Police Department and FBI case archives and reports.
“Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood” by William J. Mann, Simon & Schuster, (Advanced Reader Copy), Publication date: January 13, 2026.
“Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder” by John Gilmore.
Historic articles from the Los Angeles Times and The Examiner (1947). (Accessed on Newspapers.com.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast details true crime cases. It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.
0:07.2	It is not intended for children. Listener discretion is advised.
0:13.1	Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime. I'm your host, Esther Ludlow.
0:20.4	In January of 1947, a young woman's body was discovered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles,
0:27.6	mutilated, severed in half, and displayed with shocking precision.
0:32.6	The brutal crime would ignite headlines around the world, and turn one woman, Elizabeth Short, into an enduring
0:40.3	legend. They called her the Black Dahlia. The Black Dahlia. The Black Dahlia. The Black Dahlia.
0:46.3	The Black Dahlia.
0:48.3	In this six-part series, Broken, the Black Dahlia Murder, all attempt to uncover the truth behind Elizabeth
0:56.4	Short, the real woman behind the myth. Who was she? What drove her to Los Angeles? Why did
1:04.3	she become known as the Black Dahlia? And most importantly, why was she murdered and who killed her?
1:12.5	We'll sift through decades of speculation, sensationalism, and conspiracy
1:16.9	to uncover the story of a woman whose voice was silenced,
1:21.2	but whose legend refused to die.
1:24.2	Before she was a mystery, she was Elizabeth.
1:28.3	In this episode, we'll travel to the vacant lot where Elizabeth Short's brief life ended, but where the myth of the Black Dahlia began.
1:39.3	This is Part 1, The Girl in the Empty Lot.
2:02.9	It was a cold January morning in Los Angeles.
2:07.3	The kind of winter day when the light feels pale and sharp,
2:10.2	and the city still hums from the night before,
2:13.1	when temperatures dropped to 39 degrees,
2:16.7	unusually frigid for the typically temperate city of angels.
	...

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