January 15, 1947
It was an early, cold January morning in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Betty Bersinger took her infant son for a walk in his carriage. She was approaching the 3900 block of Norton Avenue, which was paved, but not yet built up. Grass was growing wild in the vacant lots. In the grass, Betty saw a white form -- like a manaquin, but in two halves, sprawled in the grass. She never got closer. She never thought it was anything other than a a dummy, but something about felt so wrong that instead of investigating, she turned heel, went to the nearest house to use their phone. She called the police.
There's some question as to whether or the police or the reporters showed up first. However, there's no doubt of the horror they found there. She was naked. She had been bisected (some would say with medical precision) and cleaned, her body laid out in a very specific and lewd manner. She had chunks of flesh missing, but they think she died from the lascerations to her face -- incisions that went from the corners of her mouth up through the cheeks.
It was chaos at 39th and Norton. The crime scene was compromised by people tramping all over it. There were also some problems due to the rivalry between two different police factions. Though taunting notes in cut up newsprint were sent to the police, directing them to Beth's purse and other belongings, the case was never solved.
They did do something right though. Morgue techs collected her and sent her fingerprints through a primitive fax machine. Because she had worked at Camp Cook, they identified her by the end of the day.
Her name was Elizabeth Short.
posted by kuaptic. @ 6:49 PM
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