Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder
by Amok Books

	Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder
	Customer Rating: Sales Rank: 30771 Available from Amazon
	$12.21

Book Description

The Black Dahlia murder hit post-War Los Angeles like a bombshell and this impenetrable mystery was the haunting crown jewel of LAPD’s unsolved murders. Even before her savage death, beautiful 22-year old Elizabeth Short, an aspiring starlet and nightclub habitu‚, was known as the Black Dahlia. Since her horrible demise, she has become a magnetic icon in American pop culture, a mythical symbol of noir Hollywood. In this new, expanded edition, John Gilmore plumbs to the dark core of this terrifying story that he argues can never be truly solved and delivers to us the real Elizabeth Short, the girl who became the enigmatic Black Dahlia. He ushers the reader into her world and her life in intimate, searing, explosive, first-hand revelations. <P>The most satisfying and disturbing conclusion to the Black Dahlia case. After reading Severed, I feel like I truly know Elizabeth Short and her killer. -- David Lynch <P>The most uncanny evocation of LA during and after the war His portrait of Elizabeth Short as a strange, unknowable somnambulist sleepwalking through that unique junction of time and space is permanently haunting. -- Gary Indiana

Reader Reviews

Due to the mystery and sensationalism surrounding her murder, Elizabeth Short has been much over-glamorized by both the media and crime buffs alike. In "Severed," John Gilmore does an amazing job of portraying Ms. Short as a real person...warts and all. I've read many works on this case (both fictional and non-fictional) and this is the first one that's left me feeling as if I could relate to Ms. Short as a human being.

I think what I admire most about this book, though, is the author appears to stick to the facts and ONLY the facts. I get the impression that if something wasn't documented and couldn't be verified, Mr. Gilmore elected not to include it.

Unlike some other readers, I feel that Gilmore's theory of who killed Beth Short is probably the most plausible of any I'm aware of. It may not be the sexy revelation we've all been wishing for, but as Freud said, "sometime a cigar is just a cigar."