On January 15, 1947, a woman was walking in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park neighborhood when she stumbled upon a discarded mannequin in a vacant lot. As she drew closer, however, she realized it wasn’t a mannequin at all, but rather the body of a dead woman who’d been mutilated.
The discovery launched one of the largest homicide investigations in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. However, the murder of Elizabeth Short, who became known as the “Black Dahlia,” has remained unsolved ever since.
Now, nearly 80 years later, police are investigating newly uncovered evidence that could shed light on the gruesome crime. Marty Mojarro, a cold case investigator for the LAPD, told Fox News Digital he’s looking into a 1943 fingerprint card that purportedly bears the prints of Marvin Margolis, Short’s ex-boyfriend and an early suspect in the case.
The card was discovered by Alex Baber, a self-taught cryptographer and independent forensic examiner who co-founded Cold Case Consultants of America. Baber believes the fingerprint card could potentially help solve several cold cases—the murder of the Black Dahlia as well as the five murders attributed to the Zodiac Killer.
He’s spent the last five years looking into the unsolved mysteries and claims to have cracked the mystifying, 13-letter code the Zodiac Killer used to identify himself in an April 1970 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. According to Baber, the so-called Z13 cipher spells out “Marvin Merrill,” one of the names Margolis used.
Whether the fingerprint card will help advance the investigation remains to be seen. But investigators working on the Black Dahlia case welcome any and all potential leads because, after nearly eight decades, they “don't have live witnesses to interview," Mojarro told Fox News Digital.
“This is probably one of the most difficult cases [to solve], realistically, because of the time that’s passed," he added.
Are the Zodiac Killer and the Black Dahlia's Killer the Same Person?
A self-taught codebreaker believes he’s solved two of the most vexing cold cases of the 20th century.
A self-taught codebreaker believes he’s solved two of the most vexing cold cases of the 20th century.
Who Was the Black Dahlia?
The Black Dahlia is the nickname given to Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress found dead in 1947. She was discovered naked, with her body cut in half at the waist and drained of blood. Short’s corpse was covered in deep cuts, and a “Glasgow smile” had been sliced ear-to-ear across her cheeks.
Based on the lack of blood found at the scene, police determined she’d been killed elsewhere, then moved. Her body had been butchered with surgical precision, leading investigators to believe her killer likely worked in medicine.
The case created a media circus with reporters playing up the crime and sullying Short’s reputation with unfounded rumors about her lifestyle and dating habits, Kevin Hale, a retired police chief who now serves as chair of the criminal justice program at Post University, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
The sensationalized coverage fueled a “morbid fascination” with Short’s death among the public, he adds. “New theories and rumors were emerging daily in Los Angeles.”
Police have investigated numerous suspects over the years, including Margolis, who was a 21-year-old World War II veteran studying pre-medicine at the University of Southern California at the time of Short’s murder.
Margolis briefly lived with Short three months before her murder, but he didn’t admit that to investigators right away. After being questioned in connection with the crime, he moved to Chicago and changed his name to Marvin Merrill, then to Marty Merrill. He died of cancer in July 1993 at the age of 68.
