The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles
This unsettling exposé presents a comprehensive look at the case the captivated Los Angeles in the 1940s. Wolfe, who investigated the controversial death of another Hollywood beauty in 1998's The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, turns his attention to aspiring starlet Elizabeth Short, whose severed body was found in a vacant lot on January 15, 1947. A student at Beverly Hills High at the time, the author felt the city's temperament in those days, which adds texture to his account of a murder police never intended to solve. Using files from the District Attorney's Office that were recently made public, Wolfe connects Bugsy Siegel and Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler to Short's death, detailing an extensive police cover-up and exhaustive efforts to mislead the press. Although his theory is largely circumstantial-he puts a lot of faith in a second-hand account from two cops he acknowledges were corrupt-his is the most credible explanation to date. Wolfe is also a first-rate writer who depicts a city where police and mobsters routinely committed atrocities and those with connections were dealt get-out-of-jail-free cards while women were murdered or went quietly missing. Photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.