Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

Arcade Publishing, 2003. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. Fine in fine dust jacket. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 481 pp. with bibliography. Illustrated with photographs. In 1947, the brutal, sadistic killing of Elizabeth Short, a beautiful young woman, led to the largest manhunt in Los Angeles history and became one of the most notorious murders of the 20th century. The crime became known as The Black Dahlia Murder"; the LAPD sought vainly to track down the killer without success. But soon after, L.A. newspapers began receiving notes from a person calling himself the Black Dahlia Avenger; he taunted the authorities, much like Jack The Ripper had done in Victorian England. The case was passsed down from year to year and in 1949, the D.A. convened a grand jury and pressured police to not only solve the case but also investigate a dozen of other murders of lone women in the Los Angeles area. As a result a "prime suspect" was indentified and named in secret---but never indicted. In this book the author offers a solution to the "Red Lipstick Murder" (that one occurred three weeks after the Black Dahlia). He identifies the killer, a true life Jekyll and Hyde, but also speaks to a massive police cover-up beginning as early as 1947.