Welcome to the fourth session of the Black Dahlia Book Club!

I finally got tired of talking about George Hodel and Steve Hodel (at this point, I know Steve’s monologues from memory) so I decided to spend some time looking at portrayals of the murder and the investigation. I consider myself first and foremost a historian of the Black Dahlia case, and think it’s important to examine the source material in detail to emphasize the challenges of researching the murder.

In this episode, I looked at the treatment of the Black Dahlia case in early crime anthologies leading up to Jack Webb’s The Badge in 1958. Books I discussed (none of which is especially accurate):

—Problems of Modern American Crime (1923), by Veronica King. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet…. –
–Terror in the Streets (1951), by Howard Whitman, adapted from articles in Collier’s magazine.
https://archive.org/details/terrorins…
—My Favorite True Mystery (1954), article by Craig Rice, adapted from articles in Hearst’s The American Weekly Magazine. https://archive.org/details/myfavorit…
—Ten Perfect Crimes (1954), by Hank Serling, with an extremely downbeat portrayal of Elizabeth Short. https://archive.org/details/tenperfec…

I also discussed:

–The Herald-Express and “Werewolf” killings.
–Victim blaming and the Black Dahlia case.
–Will Fowler’s lies about the Black Dahlia case.
–Why do some authors apply today’s ideologies and politics to the Black Dahlia case?
–Was the Black Dahlia case famous from the first day or did it grow?
–Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon II and publication of crime scene and morgue photos of Elizabeth Short.
–Did Aggie Underwood have any suspicions about who the killer was?
–Why was Examiner city editor Jim Richardson disliked?

Email me your questions and I’ll answer them!