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Nearly 80 years ago, an aspiring actress named Elizabeth Short took a chance and moved to Hollywood,

chasing a dream of fame.

In death, she would become infamous, one of the most well-known cold cases in history, the Black Dahlia.

On the morning of January 15, 1947, in Los Angeles, Elizabeth Schwartz's body is discovered.

Police and press descended on the scene.

Detective Brian Carr is from the Los Angeles Police Department.

She's discovered, nude, imposed, cut in half, mutilated.

It was pretty gruesome.

I just can't imagine someone doing that to another human being.

Whoever killed the Dahlia drained her body of blood and scrubbed it clean.

The only witness reported seeing a black sedan parked in the area in the early morning hours.

At autopsy, investigators discovered that the body had been expertly bisected

between the second and third lumbar vertebrae, a clue that gave police their first lead on a possible

suspect. The condition of the body was at the time they believed that someone, was someone who had

some medical or surgical experience.

From what I've seen, I believe it was probably some type of a surgical instrument that made

the cut.

Decades before Zodiac and BTK, there was the Black Dahlia Avenger, probably the first murderer to live out his fantasy through the media

and taunt police in the process. In total, at least 13 separate mailings to the police and press,

claiming to be from the hand of the Black Dahlia's killer. All were checked out, but none ever led

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