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	Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder John Gilmore   The grisly 1947 murder of aspiring starlet and nightclub habitué Elizabeth Short, known even before her death as the "Black Dahlia," has over the decades transmogrified from L.A.'s crime of the century to an almost mythical symbol of Hollywood Babylon/film noir glamor-cum-sordidness. Severed, the first true-crime book published on the strangest of all "unsolved" murders in the annals of modern crime, offers the documented solution to the case as endorsed by law enforcement and forensic science experts. It is appropriate that hard-boiled, Hollywood-born author John Gilmore, whose father was an LAPD officer at the time of the murder, should be the one to unravel the multilayered mystery of this archetypal Los Angeles slaying, having begun his painstaking investigations into the case over 35 years ago.   ISBN 1-878923-10-2 trade paper 288pp., illustrated $16.95
amokbooks.com 2005
	Reviews:   "With his hauntingly evocative prose, Gilmore tells several previously unrevealed stories at once, each filled with its own bizarre elements, which transcends the true crime genre. One is the tale of victim Elizabeth Short, small-town beauty queen with big hopes who seemed to float through her tragically futile life, already an alluring yet doom-laden enigma. Another is the tangled inside story of the police investigation and remorseless Hearst-stoked press hoopla which paralleled it. Finally, Gilmore reveals the twisted psychology and down-and-out life story of the actual murderer–as well as the startling circumstances and gruesome details of the killer's indirect confessions to him. Severed contains a 32-page photo section with many never-before-published photos from the life of Elizabeth Short and from the case including graphic crime scene and postmortem police photos. "The most satifying and disturbing conclusion to the Black Dahlia case. After reading Severed, I feel like I truly know Elizabeth Short and her killer." – David Lynch   "I love Severed. It is the most uncanny evocation of Los Angeles during and after the war. I've read it about seven times. His portrait of Elizabeth Short as this strange, unknowable somnabulist sleepwalking through that unique junction of time and space is permanently haunting." – Gary Indiana   "My god this is a frightening tale ... The most famous murder in L.A., and we suddenly see that we knew nothing before, only the glitter and red of blood. This is now a Pandora's Box." – Kenneth Anger.   top of page