These are two of the most famous unsolved cases in American criminal history: that of ‘Black Dahlia‘and that of ‘Zodiac’. The two occurred in California just decades apart, but now an investigation maintains that the two are linked and that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the murder of Elizabeth Short.
In 1947, Short, a 22-year-old aspiring Hollywood actress, was found dead in Los Angeles. His mutilated body He had been cut at the waist, and on his face the murder painted a grotesque knife smile. The case, nicknamed “the Black Dahlia” because of the color of the victim’s hair and clothing, was never solved.
Two decades later, the Zodiac Killer plunged Northern California into a world of terror. Stalking young couples under the cover of darkness, this man caused at least five victims and he mocked the police and the newspapers by sending letters and cryptograms in which he challenged them to discover his identity.
Investigator Alex Baber says the man responsible for the six deaths, and possibly many others, was a former U.S. Navy doctor named Marvin Skipton Margolis.
As indicated in the Daily MailMargolis not only had a relationship with Elizabeth Short in the months before her death, but also owned a Japanese bayonet which matched the injuries of two of Zodiac’s victims.
His military training included marksmanship (several Zodiac victims were shot down) and, as a Navy medic, he had the knowledge to dismember bodies with surgical precision. Additionally, he also had experience in code-breaking.
Baber suggests that Margolis even confessed to the crimes on his deathbed. According to the Daily MailBaber is taken very seriously and several law enforcement agencies in California and The FBI itself analyzes its conclusions.
Born in Chicago in 1925 to parents of Russian and Polish descent, Marvin Skipton Margolis always wanted to become a surgeon and moved to Los Angeles to begin his medical training. Based on investigative files, Baber believes Short and Margolis They met in the summer of 1946. and they started dating and were a couple for a few months, until about three months before the murder.
Years later, Margolis married his first wife, had two children and worked as a used car salesman. After her first marriage ended, she remarried and had two more children. In 1960, he moved to Kansas, where he reinvented himself as an artist.
Finally, in the spring of 1962, he returned to the West Coast and began work in the real estate sector. By the end of 1969, five victims had been killed and two injured in four seemingly random attacks carried out by Zodiac.
Margolis died in California in 1993, taking their secrets with them. However, a box of alleged evidence provided to Baber — who works with a group called Cold Case Consultants of America — by the suspect’s youngest son reopened the case.
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