Hollywood’s Darkest Secret: The Black Dahlia Murder

I Wish You Were Here

Michelle Cuervo

True Crime

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In January 1947, the mutilated body of a young woman was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles—severed in half, drained of blood, and posed with eerie precision. Her name was Elizabeth Short. But the world would come to know her as The Black Dahlia. In this episode, we peel back the layers of one of the most haunting unsolved murders in American history. Who was Elizabeth before she became a headline? And why, after decades of suspects, theories, and confessions, does the case remain officially unsolved? From the dark feel of post-war Hollywood to the strange and disturbing clues left behind, this story is more than just a murder—it’s a descent into obsession, power, and the shadows where justice never quite reaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Guys, I'm gonna cry. I just recorded this entire episode and the audio wasn't recording.
0:06.6	I have been sitting here for two hours recording this episode. I just clicked stop, didn't record anything.
0:11.9	Here we go again. Have not moved from this spot. My butt hurts. I can't believe that this
0:16.7	happened. I can't believe that this happened. Anyway, I hope you guys are all doing well. My day is starting off
0:23.8	like this, but that's okay. Also, my mom, bless her. She, you know how you guys sometimes call me
0:30.5	mother on TikTok? She called me yesterday. She's like, why are people calling you mother on social
0:36.1	media? What's going on? I'm like, mommy,
0:39.1	you don't get it. I am mommy. I am mother. I'm just kidding. I was like, I don't know.
0:45.0	They're being weirdos. I don't know why they're calling me mommy. Okay, no. I am mother. I am
0:50.8	other. It's what I said. My mom, she doesn't get it. Anyway, that's off topic.
0:54.9	Well, second time is a charm. Is that what they say? Is that what the people say? Let's go.
0:59.6	It was just like any other morning. It was a quiet January morning when a woman walking her child
1:06.0	in a South Los Angeles neighborhood spotted what she thought was a discarded mannequin in a vacant lot.
1:13.6	It was pale, it was lifeless, and it was eerily post, split very clearly and cleanly in two
1:21.6	pieces. But as she stepped closer, she looked closer, her stomach sunk. This was no mannequin. It was a human body,
1:30.0	and it had been gruesomely mutilated, completely drained of blood, and left with a sinister kind
1:37.2	of precision. That kind of scene doesn't only shock a city, it haunts it. But who was this girl?
1:44.0	Who was she really? Was she simply another
1:47.1	starry-eyed dreamer chasing fame in Hollywood's golden age? Or something more. And more importantly,
1:54.1	who wanted her silenced so badly they carved it into history. Welcome to episode five of I Wish You Were Here. This is the
2:03.3	story of Elizabeth Short, otherwise known as the Black Dahlia. I feel like if you know true
2:12.9	crime, you know or have at the very least heard of the black dahlia. I was talking to my fiance
	...

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