Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder

by Piu Eatwell

Overview

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection
One of Bustle's "Best True Crime Books of the Year"

“[A] juicy page turner . . . capturing both the allure and the perils of the dream factory that promised riches and fame.”—New York Times Book Review

The gruesome 1947 murder of hopeful starlet Elizabeth Short holds a permanent place in American lore as one of our most inscrutable true-crime mysteries. In a groundbreaking feat of detection hailed as “extensive” and “convincing” (Bustle), skilled legal sleuth Piu Eatwell cracks the case after seventy years, rescuing Short from tabloid fodder to reveal the woman behind the headlines. Drawing on recently unredacted FBI and LAPD files and exclusive interviews, Black Dahlia, Red Rose is a gripping panorama of noir-tinged 1940s Hollywood and a definitive account of one of the biggest unsolved murders of American legal history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631494932
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	11/13/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	400,201
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Piu Eatwell is the author of Black Dahlia, Red Rose and The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse and has produced and researched historical documentaries for the BBC and other channels, including the widely acclaimed film Charles Manson: The Man Who Killed the Sixties. She divides her time between Paris and London with her husband and three children.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Key Dramatis Personae xvii

Part 1 Fallen Angel

1 Farewell My Lovely 3

2 A Double Life 14

3 The Capture 27

4 Gilda 38

5 Dial M for Murder 45

6 House of Strangers 54

7 The Big Sleep 62

Part 2 Dark Passage

8 The Letter 83

9 The Suspect 93

10 Behind Locked Doors 100

11 Deadline at Dawn 108

12 Breaking Point 118

13 The Lodger 128

14 Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye 146

15 Panic in the Streets 151

Part 3 Raw Deal

16 Key Witness 165

17 The Glass Alibi 177

18 The Verdict 196

19 Detour 206

20 Fall Guy 211

21 Voice in the Wind 222

Part 4 Out of the Past

22 The Name of the Rose 233

23 Specter of the Rose 255

24 The Woman in the Window 263

Postscript 268

Afterword to the Paperback Edition 271

Acknowledgments 275

Full Dramatis Personae 279

Notes 287

Bibliography 333

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

"A meticulously researched work that is delivered with all the punch, pace and suspense of the finest noir thrillers . . . Eatwell never forgets the tragic figure at the heart of her story, while emphasising the callousness of the post-second World War era in which she was so brutally murdered."

The Irish Times

"There will be other books. There will be other theories. They’ll have to meet the Eatwell standard."

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Piu Eatwell is hot on the trail of one of the twentieth century’s most famous cold cases—the Black Dahlia murder—and she takes us along for the ride…back to Los Angeles in the winter of 1947, back to the wealth of evidence assembled by the cops, by the tabloids and news dailies, by a 1949 grand jury. The ride is well worth taking, especially when she hones in on a plausible and previously neglected suspect in the case."

Jon Lewis

"Compulsively readable, impeccably researched and heart-rending at times, Black Dahlia, Red Rose deserves a place at the top of any true crime aficionado’s bookshelf. With forensic precision and an admirable eye for detail, Piu Eatwell not only uncovers plausible new insights into the notorious and brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, she unpicks the mores of the time, delves into the motivations of the main players and blasts through the smoky noir clichés surrounding 1940s Los Angeles."

Sarah Lotz

"Eatwell writes brilliantly . . . After decades of cultural appropriation by journalists, novelists and film-makers, Eatwell has finally offered [Elizabeth] Short a type of belated justice. Her book reads like a thriller, but it never loses sight of the real woman whose life was so savagely extinguished."

Sunday Times

…[a] juicy page-turner…For all its salacious content, Eatwell's historical crime study is an expansive work that delves into the broader culture of postwar Los Angeles…Her immersive style is filled with camera-ready period detail.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

08/21/2017
The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short and the ensuing hunt for the so-called Black Dahlia killer baffled the LAPD and fascinated the public at the time, and has been studied by crime historians in the decades since. In this ambitious but overstuffed account, Eatwell (The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse) too often gets tangled up in the web of mystery surrounding the still-unsolved crime rather than unraveling it. When a young woman’s bisected body was discovered in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park on Jan. 15, 1947, identifying her proved challenging for LAPD detectives. From the outset, the press took a strong interest in the case, particularly the Los Angeles Examiner and the Herald-Express. It was ultimately the Examiner that first identified the victim as 22-year-old Short, after the staff sent the corpse’s fingerprints to the FBI. In agonizing detail, Eatwell catalogues the LAPD’s struggle for answers, even after the discovery of Short’s luggage, containing an address book filled with potential suspects. Often preoccupied with tracing the corruption scandals that ran rampant within the LAPD, Eatwell, who oddly becomes a character in the narrative at the end, makes a convincing case for the Black Dahlia killer’s identity, but takes far too long and far too twisted a road to get there. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Black Dahlia, Red Rose . . . put[s] Elizabeth Short at the center of her own story, while still managing to read like a classic noir tale. Eatwell's extensive research pays off in the narrative, which is impressively detailed. . . . Fascinating."

Bustle

"Black Dahlia, Red Rose by Piu Eatwell provides fresh evidence that we can never get enough of our favorite pin-up corpse. . . . [A] juicy page turner…capturing both the allure and the perils of the dream factory that promised riches and fame to star-struck young women from tired little towns all over war-weary America and who, even today, find themselves at the mercy of predatory men."

New York Times Book Review

10/15/2017
Seventy years after the murder of Elizabeth Short, infamously called the "Black Dahlia," sent shock waves through Los Angeles, Eatwell (The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse) presents a thoroughly researched look at the crime and subsequent investigation conducted by the LAPD. Eatwell successfully paints a portrait of the city and its police department, signifying that the cover-up and corruption involved in this case (as well as throughout the department) was a product of the time and not reflective of today's practices. Although the featured photographs will likely be familiar to true crime sleuths who have studied the case, many of the supporting documents are full of previously unreleased information pertaining to Short's murder. Eatwell has included files (many of which are newly available) from the LAPD and FBI investigations as well as interviews. VERDICT The investigative materials provide a solid foundation for Eatwell's film noir-style narrative; a first purchase where true crime titles circulate widely.—Mattie Cook, Lake Odessa Comm. Lib., MI

Library Journal