Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts; she grew up and lived in Medford. She was the third of five daughters of Cleo Short and Phoebe Mae Sawyer. Her father built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash, in which he lost much of the family's assets.
In 1930, he parked his car on a bridge and vanished, leading some to believe he had committed suicide. Short's mother moved the family to a small apartment in Medford and found work as a bookkeeper. It was not until later that Short would discover her father was alive and living in California.
Troubled by asthma and bronchitis, Short was sent to live for the winter in Miami, Florida, at the age of 16.
She spent the next three years living there during the cold months and in Medford the remainder of the year. At age 19, Short travelled to Vallejo, California, to live with her father, who was working nearby at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on San Francisco Bay. They moved to Los Angeles in early 1943, but an altercation resulted in her leaving there and finding work in the post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, California. Short next moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943, for underage drinking.
Following her arrest, she was sent back to Medford by the juvenile authorities in Santa Barbara. Short then returned to Florida to live, with occasional visits to Massachusetts.
In Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon, Jr., a decorated United States Army Air Force officer who was assigned to the 2nd Air Commando Group and in training for deployment to China Burma India Theater of Operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote her a letter from India proposing marriage while he was recovering from injuries sustained from an airplane crash. She accepted his proposal, but Gordon died in a second airplane crash on August 10, 1945, before he could return to the United States. She later exaggerated this story, saying that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air command confirmed that Gordon and Short were engaged, his family denied any connection after Short's murder.
Elizabeth Short returned to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, an old boyfriend she had met in Florida during the war. At the time Short returned to Los Angeles, Fickling was stationed at NARB, Long Beach. For the six months prior to her death, Short remained in southern California, mainly in the Los Angeles area.
the creepshow According to expert criminal profilers, the extent of injuries body of Elizabeth Short suffered suggests that she was killed by a person who knew her and was close to her. The only other killer profile that would cause this extent of injuries would be a psychopath mass murderer who chose Elizabeth Short as his next victim. However serial killers take several years and several victims before they reach this level of brutality. According to experts, serial killers modify the way they kill based on what gave them most gratification in previous victims.
the creepshow Elizabeth Short had a small tattoo of a rose on her thigh. This tattoo was cut off by the murderer(s) and shoved up her vagina along with a lot of grass. Autopsy results also suggested that Elizabeth Short was sexually abused and sodomized both before death as well as post mortem. Her stomach was filled with all sorts of matter, including faeces however no sperm was found anywhere on or near her body. Bruising suggests that Elizabeth Short was tortured prior to death as dead bodies don’t bruise. It is also interesting to note that Elizabeth Short was believed to suffer from genital defect which rendered her unable to have normal sex. However the coroner did not find anything unusual about her reproductive organs so the rumors of genital defects remain unconfirmed.
the creepshow Autopsy report further details that face of Elizabeth Short had deep 3″ long laceration that extended laterally from right corner of her mouth and a 2.5″ long laceration that extended laterally from left corner of her mouth making her look as if she was smiling. Her body was bruised in several places, including head and neck but no evidence of trauma indicative of strangulation was found on trachea, the thyroid glands or hyoid bone.

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