The Black Dahlia (2006)

Kevin Dunn: Elizabeth Short's Father

Quotes 

• The Coroner : On gross pathology, we have a female Caucasian between sixteen and thirty. The cadaver is presented in two halves with bisection level with the umbilicus. Through and through lacerations of both mouth corners. No visible bruising on the neck. Rectangular abrasions on the wing tips of the sphenoid bones. And, oh! A puncture wound, here, in the palm. On the palm of the right hand. Investigation of upper half abdominal cavity reveals no free-flowing blood. Intestines, stomach, spleen, liver - all removed.

  Elizabeth Short's Father : Is it all right to smoke, doctor?

  The Coroner : She won't mind. Lower half of cadaver reveals removal of all reproductive organs. Both legs broken at the knee. Questions?

  Elizabeth Short's Father : What's your best guess?

  The Coroner : Well, here's what she wasn't - she wasn't raped and she wasn't pregnant. In terms of the nitty gritty, the cause of death is either the mouth wound here or she was beaten to death with something like a baseball bat.

  Lee Blanchard : What about her insides?

  The Coroner : They came out posthumously. I'd say then he drained the blood from the body and washed it clean, probably in a bathtub.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : Hollywood will fuck you when no-one else will.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : [debriefing the police officers]  Listen up! Gentlemen, thank you. Raymond Junior Nash. Statutory rape, armed robbery, felony mayhem. Texas State Prison. Alcatraz.

  Ellis Loew : Mr. Nash pistol-whipped a little old lady in a stickup near Leimert Park, Tuesday morning. She died last night.

  Elizabeth Short's Father : Anything common in the sex beefs?

  Ellis Loew : Negro girls. Young ones. All the complainants have been coloreds.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : All right, listen up. No reporters view the body. You photo men - finish taking your pictures now. Coroner's men - put a sheet on the body as soon as they are done. We set up a perimeter six feet back. Any reporter crosses it - arrest him. Now gentlemen, before this gets out of hand, let's put the kibosh on something. With publicity, you get confessions. With confessions, you get crazies, liars, and false leads. So, we keep some things quiet. The uh, ear to ear facial lacerations, disembowelment - you keep this information to yourselves. Not your wives, not your girlfriends, and no other officers, and I mean no... Bleichert, what the hell are you doing here? Where the hell's Blanchard?

  Ofcr. Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert : He's right here.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : Stupid son of a bitch, getting himself killed over a little mope like Bobby DeWitt. Damn. Did you tell Kay?

  [Bucky nods] 

  Elizabeth Short's Father : Well, that's as far as it goes then. Mo Friedman was right. Our boy doesn't need any more headlines. Neither does Kay.

  [points to boxes of evidence for the Black Dahlia case] 

  Elizabeth Short's Father : This... I want you to stick with me here. We are going to make something of this.

• Ofcr. Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert : Was that soldier her boyfriend, Mr. Short?

  Elizabeth Short's Father : Boyfriend? They were all her boyfriends. As long as they wore a uniform. See, Betty believed in quantity before quality.

  Lee Blanchard : You calling your own daughter a tramp?

  Elizabeth Short's Father : I got five daughters. One rotten apple ain't so bad.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : I got an alibi just in case you think I did it. Tighter than a crab's ass, and that is airtight.

• Elizabeth Short's Father : Bevo's painting Betty in a black dress like some actress in that Alan Ladd movie, "Blue Dahlia".