The Black Dahlia Profiled

December 31, 1944: Short's playgirl lifestyle changes when she meets Matt Gordon, who stood out from the testosterone horde, a major with the Flying Tigers.

August 14, 1945: Short had finally stops worrying that Matt will be killed in combat. Instead she fantasizes about her upcoming nuptials. News reaches her that Matt has been killed.

July 1946: Short returns to Southern California to be close to Joseph Gordon Fickling,

November 13 to December 15, 1946: Short lives in a cramped two-bedroom apartment in Hollywood with eight other young women.

Early January 1947: Short who was staying with a family is asked her to leave. Manley comes to pick her up. He later tells a reporter that they stayed in a local motel but Short slept in her clothes and the pair did not have sex,.

January 8, 1947: seven days before the murder, Fickling receives a letter from Short. In it, she tells him she is moving to Chicago, where she hopes to become a fashion model.

January 9, 1947: Manley drives her to Los Angeles and helps her check her luggage at the bus station. She tells him she is going to Berkeley to stay with her sister, whom she is meeting at the Biltmore hotel downtown. Manley accompanies her into the hotel lobby, but takes leave of her at 6:30 p.m. to return to his family in San Diego.

January 15, 1947: Short's body is discovered.

January 25, 1947: Short's black patent leather purse and one of her black open-toed pumps is found in a dumpster at 1819^th E. 25^th street, several miles from the crime scene. Robert Manley identifies the items as hers.