Who was the most well-known suspect in the Black Dahlia murder?
In her 1999 book, Mary Pacios, a former neighbor of the Short family, suggested filmmaker Orson Welles as a suspect. Pacios bases this theory on such factors as Welles’ volatile temperament and his obsession with cutting-in-half as indicated by the visual clues Pacios claims can be found in the crazy house set he designed for scenes that were later deleted from “The Lady From Shanghai,” a film Welles was making around the time of the murder. Pacios also cites the magic act Welles performed to entertain soldiers during World War II. She believes that the bi-section of the body was part of the killer’s signature and an acting out of the perpetrator’s obsession. Welles applied for his passport on January 24, 1947, the same date the killer mailed a packet to Los Angeles newspapers. Welles left the country for an extended stay in Europe ten months after the murder. According to Pacios, witnesses she has interviewed say that both Welles and the victim frequented Brittingham’s restaurant in L
