MARILYN MANSON's 'Murder' Pictures Shown At Scottish Murder Trial

January 6, 2005

Nicola Stow of Edinburgh Evening News is reporting that the jury in Scottish murder trial was today (Jan. 6) shown paintings by rock star MARILYN MANSON depicting the horrific murder of a young woman.

Detective Constable Adam Brunton told the court he was asked to carry out research on Internet sites relating to MANSON as part of the murder investigation.

He told the court he discovered the pictures, which featured in the singer's "Golden Age of Grotesque" exhibition, on the star's website.

The trial at the High Court in Edinburgh has already heard how accused Luke Mitchell bought a MANSON CD two days after his girlfriend's body was found.

Mitchell denies murdering 14-year-old Jodi Jones (photo) on June 30 2003 at a wooded area near Roan’s Dyke, between the Newbattle and Easthouses areas of Dalkeith, Midlothian.

The MANSON images relate to the killing of young American woman Elizabeth Short in 1947, known as the Black Dahlia murder.

Among the watercolours featured on the website was MANSON's depiction of Elizabeth Short's body cut in half at the stomach. Another showed the woman with a huge gash to her mouth extending to her ear.

Referring to the pictures in court today Alan Turnbull, QC, prosecuting asked Mr Brunton: "Do we see that the paintings include some views of a body more or less cut in half?" Mr Brunton agreed.

The jury was then shown four separate paintings in MANSON's Elizabeth Short Series.

The first was entitled "Elizabeth Short as Snow White (a smile 1)", which showed a painting of Miss Short's face without any injuries.

The next painting to be shown on the screen of the courtroom was entitled "Elizabeth Short as Snow White (a smile 2)" .

This picture showed Miss Short with facial injuries, including wounds to her forehead and, as Mr Turnbull pointed out "more obviously large wounds on the sides of her mouth which stretched towards her ears".

The third picture to be shown to the jury was called "Elizabeth Short as Snow White" with the subtitle "Now a Special Sort of Death for One So Fair".

The picture was a graphic image of the injuries she sustained when she was killed. These included an injury to her right breast and where she was cut in half at the stomach.

The final image — "Elizabeth Shaw as Snow White You’re Sure You Will Be Comfortable". This again showed injuries to her face, breast and stomach.

Mr Turnbull said: "All of these paintings are for sale and relate to what became known as the Black Dahlia murder, which remained unsolved?" Mr Brunton replied: "Yes, that is correct."

The court also heard that MANSON describes the Elizabeth Short Series as "my favorite part of the show" on the website. Read more.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).