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: Continue reading →