Has The Black Dahlia Murder Finally Been Solved?

Originally published in Storia

Known as one of the most violent and gruesome murders in Hollywood history, the Black Dahlia murder involved the killing of struggling actress Elizabeth Short who was found in a vacant lot, cut up and mutilated in unimaginable ways.

When police found her, her body had been completely drained of blood and cut in half. The killer beat her savagely, carved a ‘Joker-esque’ smile into her face, and molested her with foreign objects, among many other horrors.

A crime as heinous as this should have been worked day and night until it was solved, but due to potential LAPD corruption and the potential killer’s connection to a Hollywood hotshot has prohibited police from confidently solving the crime that happened 70 years ago.

Until now.

A new book has been released by investigative author Piu Eatwell that promises to solve the mystery for good. Titled Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery, the book details how the murder went down and who is responsible.

The book begins by adding details about Elizabeth Short’s gruesome murder. He believes that she was strung up by her wrists and was hit repeatedly in the head and that these strikes are probably what killed her.

He states that because of the way the victim was cut up, the murderer had issues with “necrophilia and a fetishism with knives,” and that he either had medical training or experience in a mortuary.

Elizabeth Short was the third of five girls and was raised by her mother after her father faked his own suicide, only to resurface several years later. As she grew up, she always had a dream of being famous, but she was also a shy girl and very private.

After school, she went from job to job including working as a clerk at a U.S. Army Camp. It was there that she was arrested with a group of soldiers for underage drinking. The fingerprints obtained during that arrest were used to identify her after her murder.

Although she was shy, she was always fond of men and often teased them to get rides, clothes, and money when she needed it. According to police reports, she had been seen with at least 25 men in the days preceding her death.

The book reveals little-known details about how her posthumous nickname came into being. According to a pharmacist that saw her frequently, she often wore a lot of “black lacy things” which got the men calling her The Black Dahlia.

While she was trying to make it big in the movie business, she moved in with 55-year-old Mark Hansen, a powerful and wealthy Hollywood figure. Hansen’s influence was widespread as he owned more than a dozen movie theaters, a secret gambling casino, and was part owner of the famous Florentine Gardens.

It was no surprise that Short made her way to the Hansen home. It was widely known that Hansen kept a guest house behind his home where he kept some of his favorite girls. The women stayed there in hopes of getting work.

When Short arrived there, Hansen tried to come on to her, but Short said that she was a virgin. After ten days of her teasing, Hansen ordered her out of his house.

After police found Elizabeth Short’s mutilated body, Hansen became one of the primary suspects due to the fact that she had stayed with him and that he had a reputation of having “unnatural intimacies” with a number of women.

Still, without proof, the investigation continued. During the course of the investigation, over 500 disturbed individuals came forward claiming to be responsible for the murder.

However, the big break came when psychiatrist Dr. De River was able to lure a more rock solid suspect, Leslie Dillon, out of hiding after planting a magazine article into a pulp crime magazine.

Dillon was known as an errand boy of sorts for Mark Hansen, and when Hansen wasn’t getting what he wanted out of Short, he asked Dillon to “get rid of her.” He never considered murder to be a way of doing so, but he didn’t know that Dillon was such a dangerous man.

Police were able to further confirm Dillon as the murderer because he knew two facts about the murder that the media had yet to release. One was that a rose tattoo had been cut from her leg and inserted into her vagina, and a second that her pubic hair had been shoved into her rectum.

Dillon had also briefly worked at a mortuary and knew how to drain a corpse.

Still, even though the case on Leslie Dillon seemed to be airtight, the investigation could never be completed because of noted corruption within the LAPD and the theory that Hanson was connected with the police force and it was his influence that kept investigators quiet.

In a stirring interview with the homicide department, Dillon told them that if they let him go then he would keep quiet forever, but if they kept him in custody, then he would reveal secrets about the LAPD. Soon after that interview, he was gone.

At this point, everyone involved with the Black Dahlia case is dead, and most of the case documents have been locked away. Still, although the police may not come out with a final answer in the case, the details in Piu Eatwell book all but prove who was responsible.

 

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Ex-News Anchor Says Kevin Spacey Sexually Assaulted Her Son

Originally published in Storia

Next to Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey may be the most talked about Hollywood fixtures associated with the rash of recent sexual assault allegations that have occupied the headlines around Tinseltown.

According to former Boston television anchor Heather Unruh, one of Spacey’s victims was her 18-year-old son.

According to her, in 2016, Spacey put his hands down her son’s pants in a restaurant, and the actor was only prevented from doing further harm to “his victim” thanks to a helpful bystander.

Unruh’s claims first started back on October 13, when she sent a tweet stating that the actor “assaulted a loved one.”

Then, a couple of weeks later, Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance towards him in 1986 when he was 14 and the elder was 26. Spacey has said that he does not remember this particular instance taking place, but he has since apologized.

However, that accusation started a domino effect. Upon learning of Rapp’s allegations, Unruh finally had the courage to give the full details of her son’s story.

According to her statement, her son was in a restaurant when he excitedly saw actor Kevin Spacey and struck up a conversation. Things escalated quickly from there.

Unruh held a press conference with her lawyer Mitchell Garabedian to talk about the allegations. It is important to note that her son has yet to be named and was not at the press conference.

“Kevin Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink. And when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him…Kevin Spacey put his hands down my son’s pants and grabbed his genitals,” Unruh stated while as she spoke with tear filled eyes.

“My son panicked, he froze. He was intoxicated,” she continued.

It was then that Spacey left the table to go to the restroom.

While he was gone, a bystander who had allegedly witnessed the events went up to him. “She told him to run and he did. He ran as fast as he could to his grandmother’s house. He woke up his sister Kyla and the two of them called me that night here in Boston,” Unruh said.

While looking back on the situation, Unruh says that “he has tried his best to deal with it, as he says it’s always there and continues to bother him,” she says. “All of us have had sleepless nights and tremendous anger.”

Unruh also expressed her thankfulness to the bystander that came in and prevented further damage, although that unnamed woman has yet to come forward.

The newswoman also makes her feelings known about what should happen to Spacey. “I want to see Kevin Spacey go to jail. I want to see Kevin Spacey have the hand of justice come down on him,” she said.

Unruh continued: “Shame on you for what you did to my son. And shame on you for using your apology for Anthony Rapp to come out as a gay man. That was an appalling attempt to turn attention away from what you actually are — a sexual predator.”

She says that her son had been afraid to come out with the accusations earlier because of potential embarrassment, but because of the changing climate in the country towards this type of abuse, she says that“there’s less victim blaming going on right now.”

She adds that she was: “was really emboldened by the victims in the Harvey Weinstein case. They are astonishingly brave women.”

Unruh has since brought her evidence to police, and they are currently investigating Spacey.

After the many allegations have surfaced, Spacey has stated that he is making the effort to get better and is “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”

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