Jan. 15, 1947: The Black Dahlia

It's the most famous, and gruesome, murder case in Los Angeles history. Perhaps even U.S. history. There are countless books on the subject, all claiming to know who took the life of 22-year-old Elizabeth "Betty" Short, but the case remains unsolved. It will most likely remain that way. Forever a question without an answer.

Her body was discovered on the morning of January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, by a young mother out taking her daughter for a walk. She had last been seen alive on January 9. Between that time, she had suffered unspeakable torture. Her body, which had been severed in two at the waist, had been washed cleaned and posed for its discovery. Police investigation into the case was hampered by its notoriety as the press continued to get in their way at every turn. It was a reporter who nicknamed her "The Black Dahlia," since Short was fond of wearing black and a film called The Blue Dahlia had just come out a year earlier.

The killer called, and later mailed, several of Short's belongings to the Los Angeles Examiner, in attempts to gain more publicity for his crime. Sadly, with the limits of technology that existed then, it was impossible to trace the calls or packages back to their owner. Oddly enough, many of the authors who've written books on the case claim that the killer was a family member. Of the many unsolved cases, this one seems to speak something personal to any who study it.

READ MORE: The Black Dahlia Web Site

READ MORE: Heaven Is HERE! Larry Harnisch's Site on Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia

READ MORE: Wikipedia

ON FILM: The Black Dahlia (inspired by)

Jan. 11, 1992: Meaner-Than-Hell Girls

It's stories like the murders of Shanda Sharer and Junko Faruta that just break the heart. Like Junko Faruta, 12-year-old Shanda Sharer was kidnapped, tortured, and eventually murdered by four teens in Madison, IN. Only these teens were all girls. What's equally stunning is how young they were.

The ringleader, Melinda Loveless (16), wanted revenge of the worst kind against Sharer for dating her former girlfiend, Amanda Heavrin (14). Loveless convinced three other friends, Laurie Tackett (17), Hope Rippey (15), and Toni Lawrence (15), to aid in the killing. Two of the girls convinced Sharer to sneak out of her parent's house after midnight, claiming that Heavrin was waiting for her nearby. As soon as she got in the car, Loveless came out of hiding and held her at knifepoint. For the next several hours, while driving around to various locations, they forced Sharer to strip, beat her, tried to cut her throat (the knife was too dull), stabbed her, and beat her with a tire iron. In between each attack, they threw Sharer in the trunk, even parking outside Tackett's home for a time. Thinking she was dead, they drove Sharer to a final location and set her on fire, not realizing at the time that she was still barely clinging to life.

That night, Lawrence and Rippey both confessed to their parents what they had done. All four girls were tried as adults and eventually excepted plea bargains to escape the death penalty. Toni Lawrence was given 20 years, but served only nine. Rippey was sentenced to 50 years, but only served 16. Currently, Loveless and Tackett are still in prison (having also received 60-year sentences), trying to get their sentences reduced as well.

READ MORE: Wikipedia

READ MORE: The Crime Library

Jan. 7, 2007: Murders Ignored by the Media

The savage kidnapping, torture, and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom actually made headlines for not making headlines. The possible reasons why sparked a great deal of debate that overshadowed the horrible crimes committed against them.

On the night of Saturday, January 6, Christian and Newsom went out on a date in Knoxville, TN. On their way home, their vehicle was hijacked by three men, Letalvis D. Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson and George Thomas. The couple was blindfolded and taken back to Davidson's rented house. Aided by Vanessa Coleman, Christian and Newsom were both raped and tortured for hours, well into the next morning. Newsome was the first to be killed when he was dragged outside, shot multiple times, and his body set on fire. In addition, Christian was beaten savagely, had a chemical poured down her throat, and was bound and placed inside several trash bags and a trash can, where she suffocated.

With the help of her mobile phone provider, Christian's parents and police were able to find her abandoned vehicle. Fingerprint evidence led police to Davidson's unoccupied residence, where they found Christian's body in the kitchen, still in the trash can.

Following the arrests of Cobbins, Davidson, Thomas, and Coleman, the story failed to gain any coverage from the national media, despite the absolute savagery of the crimes. Many theorized it might have had to do with race, since the victims were white and the perpetrators were all black. Compared to similar cases where the races were reversed, such as Tawana Brawley and the Duke lacrosse case, it seems to be a reasonable argument. It certainly didn't help, though, when a group of white supremacists took up the charge.

Thankfully, everyone involved received stiff sentences. Davidson was the only one of the group sentenced to death. Cobbins and Thomas were both sentenced to life without parole. Coleman was sentenced to 53 years, and Eric Boyd (the lone accessory to the crimes) was given 18 years.

READ MORE: Bristolblog.com

READ MORE: MSNBC.com

Jan. 5, 1993: First Legal Hanging in Nearly 30 Years

Westley Allan Dodd was executed by hanging at at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He was the first person executed by hanging in the US since 1965. According to Washington State law, Dodd had to choose between hanging and lethal injection. He chose hanging because, he said, "that's the way [victim] Lee Iseli died."

Dodd got just what he deserved. He had been molesting children since he was a teenager, first preying on his own cousins. As he got older, he moved up to torture and murder, eventually becoming known as "The Vancouver Child Killer." His victims included brothers Cole (age 11) and William Neer (age 10) and four-year-old Lee Iseli. He was finally caught trying to abduct another boy from a movie theater. Searching his home, police found a homemade (and fortunately unused) torture rack.

READ MORE: The Crime Library

Jan. 4, 1989: The Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case

On January 4, 1989, four teenage boys murdered 16 year-old Junko Faruta, after having kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured her for weeks on end, in Tokyo, Japan. The details of the crimes committed against Faruta are difficult to even read. But what is perhaps more disturbing is that the perpetrators received very little punishment.

On November 25, 1988, the boys abducted Faruta and held her captive in the house owned by one of the boy's parents. They told the parents that she was a girlfriend (a ruse they later dropped) and forced her to call her own parents and tell them that she had run away. Over the next 44 days, they did unspeakable things to her, including rape, rape with foreign objects, beatings, burnings, dropping heavy objects on her, and more. Attempts to escape or call the police resulted in more torture. What's worse, the parents who owned the house knew what was going on, but refused to help due to fear for their own lives, as one of the boys was a member of Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia). Faruta eventually begged them to kill her and "get it over with."

After she finally died from her numerous injuries, they dumped her body in a 55-gallon drum, filled it with cement, and dumped it in an empty lot. The body wasn't discovered until a year later.

The four teens pled guilty to a reduced charge of "committing bodily injury that resulted in death", instead of murder, and received minimal sentences. The ringleader of the group served less than ten years. The parents of one boy sold their house for 50 million yen and paid it in compensation to Faruta's family. An attempted civil suit by her parents, unfortunately, went nowhere. Two of them changed their names and one was convicted and returned to prison in yet another assault case.

READ MORE: Wikipedia

READ MORE: Facebook Group