Black dahlia skullgirls

The Crime Is Discovered

On the morning of January 15, 1947, Los Angeles resident Betty Bersinger was walking with her young daughter through Leimert Park when she came upon an unexpected sight. In a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue, there was what appeared to be a naked body completely split into two halves at the waist. The scene was so shocking that Mrs. Bersinger immediately dismissed it as simply being a store mannequin that had been thrown away. It wasn’t until she got closer that she made a gruesome realization – she was looking at the very real body of a young woman who had been slain, drained of blood, cut in two and posed.

Mrs. Bersinger ran away in terror and alerted the authorities. The eventual arrival of the police and the media triggered the start of one of the most infamous criminal investigations in history, one which still remains a dark mystery – the case of the Black Dahlia.

It wasn’t long before the grisly discovery attracted an audience to play witness to a scene that made even hardened police officers shudder. Besides the fact that the young

Elizabeth Short's murder remains one of the oldest cold cases in Los Angeles—and the most sensational killing in a notoriously dark period of the city’s history. On January 15, 1947, a local resident found the mutilated body of a young woman in a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue, near L.A.’s Leimert Park. The victim was Short, a 22-year-old native of Medford, Massachusetts, one of countless Hollywood hopefuls who had gravitated to Southern California with dreams of a movie career. Newspapers covering the case dubbed her “the Black Dahlia,” and the moniker became far more widely known than Short’s own name. 

The murder was a particularly brutal one. Short's torso had been cut in half. Some of her organs had been removed. Her head had been bludgeoned.  Slashes carved on either side of her mouth created the look of a maniacal grin. And the medical examiner found fecal matter in her stomach, suggesting she had been forced to eat it before being killed.

Despite a lengthy investigation, during which hundreds of officers interviewed anyone they could find who had e

The Black Dahlia Murder (band)

American melodic death metal band

The Black Dahlia Murder

The Black Dahlia Murder in 2024

OriginWaterford, Michigan, U.S.
GenresMelodic death metal, death metal
Years active2001–present
LabelsMetal Blade
Members
  • Brian Eschbach
  • Max Lavelle
  • Alan Cassidy
  • Brandon Ellis
  • Ryan Knight
Past members
  • Trevor Strnad
  • John Deering
  • Mike Schepman
  • Cory Grady
  • Sean Gauvreau
  • John Kempainen
  • David Lock
  • Ryan "Bart" Williams
  • Zach Gibson
  • Pierre Langlois
  • Shannon Lucas

The Black Dahlia Murder is an American melodic death metal band from Waterford, Michigan, formed in 2001. Their name is derived from the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, often referred to as Black Dahlia. Currently, the band consists of lead vocalist Brian Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and guitarists Brandon Ellis and Ryan Knight. The Black Dahlia Murder has undergone various lineup changes, with Trevor Strnad and Eschbach remaining the only constant members, until the former's death in 2022, which then saw Eschba

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