I'm obsessed with True Crime, if you couldn't tell. This was and is the OG true crime mystery and still hasn't been solved. It has been, in my opinion, a long time coming as it is very victim centered and works to debunk the victim blaming that has occurred for decades.
For those of you that don't know, Elizabeth Short has been identified as the Black Dahlia - a woman that was found bloodless and bisected at her torso (and obviously dead) in a grassy lot on a very cold January morning in 1957 in Los Angeles. In writing this book, Professor Mann has relied upon documents that he got through FOIA requests which included but are not limited to autopsy reports, grand jury transcripts and police reports. In writing this book, the author hopes to humanize Elizabeth, although he cannot give us any further ideas as to who may have committed this horrible act. Ms. Short's means were particularly limited - she was one of four girls that was being raised by a single mother in Medford, MA after her cruel father left the family. In the wake of World War II, she was one of many young girls that migrated to LA hoping to break into Hollywood. She often left behind debts in rooming houses and relied upon men to buy her lunch at the lunch counters. Her teeth were terrible, and she often fixed them with melted wax poured into her mouth.
What I really loved about this book was how it captured the LA of the turn of the century and really attempted to humanize the victim. His book focuses less on who the killer was and actually focuses on SHort's last months in an effort to assist in figuring out who she was. It also was an encyclopedia of mess-ups on the part of the LAPD, including officers that go rogue and failures to account for certain suspect's and their alibis.
I very much enjoyed this intriguing and well researched book, and appreciated the perspective that it provided. Definitely a much needed take on an approximately 80 year old case.
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