Dahlia killer was sadistic, Zodiac sought publicity: Experts cast doubts on link ^42.6%

Los Angeles Times - By Christopher Goffard - 4/30/2026, 10:00 AM

Negativity Bias 18.4% - Appeal to Emotion 15.2% - Appeal to Authority 12.9%

The woman known as the Black Dahlia had not been dead long before the smears began. Two months after her mutilated, bisected body was found in a South Los Angeles lot on Jan. 15, 1947, a newspaper headline asked: “‘Dahlia’ to Blame?” Looming over the case was the suspicion that Elizabeth Short, who was jobless and homeless when she died... more