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And in Black Dahlia news…

You may think you’re up on your Black Dahlia lore, but you might have missed two recent books that take very different approaches to the case. First, there’s the memoir from Jacque Daniel, "The Curse of the Black Dahlia." Daniel was daughter and secretary to police psychiatrist Paul de River, whose involvement in the case was tinged with controversy. See her site for ordering info and her rebuttal of the claims in Donald Wolfe’s recent, worthless contribution to the genre.

Then there’s "Exquisite Corpse" by Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss, which takes as gospel the Steve Hodel theory of mutilation murder as homage a l’art moderne, and digs into the notion of the posing and abuses of Beth Short’s body as a Surrealist art piece. While not quite as loopy as Gareth Penn’s "Times 17" (Zodiac Killer as earthworks artist), it does sound rather outré.

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Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

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Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

4 thoughts on “And in Black Dahlia news…”

  1. i would like to know why you call wolfe’s book worthless. have you read it? i found it well written and quite believable. the website you reference picks on an obvious typo and then expounds on a difference of opinion. there is nothing there that discredit’s wolfe’s theory for me.

    jd chandler
    portlandcrime.blogspot.com

  2. For a thorough discrediting of Wolfe’s book, please see 1947project blogger (and Black Dahlia scholar) Larry Harnisch’s page-by-page analysis, which cites hundreds of errors, falsehoods and outright lies, culminating in a forged document and plagiarism. The book is not what it appears to be.

    Larry’s Wolfe blog:
    https://lmharnisch.blogspot.com/

  3. Beth Short could not be possessed in life, what makes you all think you can own her death????

    The most frightening fact is that her murder is celebrated rather than the unique spirit of her.

  4. Jimmy, you’re barking up the wrong tree here. The 1947project treats all murder victims with respect, and in the case of Elizabeth Short and our occasional bus tours about her murder, our intent is to humanize the victim and help passengers understand who she was and how the real woman came to be transformed in the imaginations of writers, filmmakers and the public.

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