The Black Dahlia, After the Episode

Thought it was really interesting what they did with Elizabeth Short's story -- in terms of the AHS world, they gave us a really plausible story. The Black Dahlia case, as everyone knows, is still unsolved and the subject of media coverage to this day -- countless books have been written on theories surrounding her murder. I thought it was fantastic that the writers took a real life American Horror Story in the case of the Black Dahlia and applied it to the show, all the while answering the great mystery.

They followed what happend to the body pretty closely -- from what I read on Wikipedia (I claim to be no expert on this, haha.) her body was cut in two, sort of meticulously and severly mutilated. Apparently some had believed that it might have been done by a doctor because of the precision. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth to near her ears, apparently this is called a "Glasgow smile." We got a reason for this -- Dr. Montgomery was getting drugged up, doing what he does best -- mutilating dead beings. Gross.

He offers his fellow doctor the explanation that he drained the blood for easier transporting. Charles also explains that her face was just too sad looking and that's why the slashings were there.

Interesting.

However, she was also said to severly beaten and it looked as if she or her body had been tied up.

"Gilmore surmised in his book that before the coroner's report was handed to the police working on the case, only Elizabeth and her mother knew about her sexual limitations. Knowledge of this fact only added to her mother's pain in the few weeks following the murder when the press portrayed her daughter as a man-chaser and a hooker."

Check out the article the excerpt from above is from -- a good read about Elizabeth short if you're interested.

So apparently, the writers stuck more with the media-fabricated story than the truth, but I'll take. I thought it was really interesting. Not sure if it plays into the story any further than the piggy man guy did, but it was cool and she is a ghost in the house we haven't met yet. What did you think?

Leads to me to think that maybe she was supposed to serve as an example for what Tate needs? She wanted help from Ben because he was a therapist. It seemed like after their talk Hayden helped her -- she snapped her out of her dream and made her perhaps accent her death and the circumstances surrounding her? Could Tate just need to accept his death and the circumstances leading it to be a peaceful soul?

Back Miss Short. I was happy to see her reappear and her story be given an present day ode-to (for the second time!) later in the episode after Hayden kills Travis who just wants to be famous as well. Travis' ghost, Hayden and Elizabeth plan for him to be found just as Short was, convincing Larry to cart him to some grass near a basketball court.

In that scene, it really does seem like Elizabeth has come to grips with her death and achieving her dream because she encourages Travis to follow her lead.

Wonder if we'll see her again? I doubt it, but it would be fun!

What do you think of the whole Black Dahlia inclusion?

-- EDITED --

Apparently, the story AHS fabricated for Elizabeth Short's death isn't too far off from one of the actual suspects' in the case -- Walter Bayley is now considered a suspect -- he was a fine surgeon at the time, suffering from a degenerative brain disease. It is said that he was seperated, but his mistress knew a deep, dark secret of his. Read more about him and other suspects in the case here.