This is the Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case for July 2026. The Black Dahlia Book Club will meet July 21, 2026. The next Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case will be August 4, 2026.

In this session, I discussed (again) Mamie Van Doren’s impossible claim of being friends with Elizabeth Short. The latest exploits of Michael Connelly & Co. in Killer in the Code. And Talestorm Productions  (formerly Aspen Entertainment) and its claims of finding the location where Elizabeth Short was murdered.

Also:

–“True” crime is in trouble when Popular Mechanics is writing about the Black Dahlia case.

–Please don’t send me “solutions” to other unsolved murders. I don’t have time to critique theories.

—Killer in the Code and Alex Baber’s self-promotion of Season 2, plus Connelly & Co.’s upcoming appearances in August at Cal State L.A. and in October for the Southwest Association of Forensic Scientists.

–Patrolwoman Myrl McBride’s encounter with a random woman who was not Elizabeth Short, despite claims by Alex Baber and Steve Hodel.

–Woodie Guthrie and the Black Dahlia case.

–Mary Pacios, Orson Welles and the Black Dahlia case.

–Is there a definitive book on the Black Dahlia case?

–What was the Leimert Park neighborhood like in the 1940s, what it’s like now and how the murder of Elizabeth Short affected the neighborhood?

–Does Elizabeth Short’s family have a favorite suspect in the Black Dahlia case?

–The Aster Motel, the hidden room and Deconstructing Dahlia.

–What did Elizabeth Short want to accomplish in Los Angeles?

–Did Elizabeth Short ever want to go to Chicago?

–Identifying Elizabeth Short in the morgue.

–The LAPD’s view of the Black Dahlia case.

–What director should make a movie of the Black Dahlia case?

–Elizabeth Short’s tattoo.