EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles cold case detectives are delving into newly uncovered fingerprints from 1943 as they revisit the enigmatic Black Dahlia murder—the unsolved 1947 killing of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short.
The 22-year-old, originally from Massachusetts, was found brutally murdered in a Los Angeles vacant lot nearly eight decades ago. Her body had been severed in half, drained of blood, meticulously cleaned, and posed in such a way that a young woman who stumbled upon the scene initially mistook her for a mannequin, according to FBI reports.
“This is likely one of the most challenging cases due to the passage of time,” stated Detective Marty Mojarro, one of the two LAPD cold case investigators currently tasked with solving the mystery.
The case has drawn renewed attention following claims by independent forensic examiner Alex Baber, co-founder of the Cold Case Consultants of America. Baber suggests new evidence may connect Short’s former boyfriend, Marvin Margolis, to her murder, and possibly even to the Zodiac Killer, another notorious unsolved case in California.
Detective Mojarro acknowledges that while Baber’s claim requires thorough evaluation, it merits further exploration. Crucially, Baber has provided what he asserts is Margolis’ government-issued fingerprint card from 1943, a piece of evidence that police had not previously acquired.
Mojarro said the claim still needs vetting but warrants further investigation, and he has received what Baber says is Margolis’ government fingerprint card from 1943, which had not previously been obtained by police.
“As an investigator, if it potentially could help, I would absolutely not turn it down,” Mojarro told Fox News Digital.
An image of Marvin Merrill in 1969. (Courtesy of Alex Baber)
Margolis served in the Pacific in the Navy in World War II. He lived in Los Angeles after the war with a roommate named Bill Robinson, who was a Navy cryptologist, and he dated Short.
Margolis was among 22 persons of interest in her death identified in 1951, according to police records Baber shared with Fox News Digital previously. Later, he changed his name to Marvin Merrill, then again to Marty Merrill, and settled in the Midwest.
Mojarro said he could not comment on what other evidence the LAPD may or may not have in the case file to compare the exemplars to.
Baber said he believes this image shows Black Dahlia victim Elizabeth Short and was drawn by Marvin Margolis, who may have used the aliases Marvin Merrill and Marty Merrill. Margolis was an early suspect in Short’s 1947 murder. He was never charged and has since died. According to Baber, there are indentations from a pencil visible in person that add texture and new clues to the image, including wounds that are consistent with those found on Short and, more explosively, the word “Zodiac” in the lower right. (Alex Baber)
The FBI has revealed previously that there was a letter that may have been sent to authorities by Short’s killer. Fingerprints on the packaging were not a match for anything in the FBI’s database in the past.
According to Baber, his team at Cold Case Consultants was unable to exclude a print on the package, which was sent to the Los Angeles Herald Express on Jan. 24, 1947.
“It contained 23 pieces of Elizabeth’s personal belongings that would’ve been in her purse the night she was abducted and murdered on Jan. 14,” Baber said.
Alex Baber of Cold Case Consultants of America poses for a photo in the courtyard of the East Hampton Library during the Hamptons Whodunit event on Saturday, April 18. Baber presented evidence he says shows the Black Dahlia murder and Zodiac serial slayings were linked. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
For the LAPD’s cold case investigators, all leads with potential are worth vetting.
“We don’t have live witnesses to interview,” Mojarro said. “All the physical evidence that was ever collected — it is what it is.”
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