The death of Elizabeth Short was made famous for two things; one, the brutality of it, and two, the fact that it remains unsolved even into the present day. Whether due to lack of substantial clues or incompetence, willful or otherwise, on the part of investigators, the crime that shocked the nation in 1947 never got any closure, breeding a whole host of armchair detectives attempting to reach the conclusions that were never reached at the time.

Piu Marie Eatwell is not an armchair detective, or if she is, she's in a league of her own. Using her experience as a lawyer and what must have been every waking hour doing tireless research, Eatwell reached a conclusion as to who she believed to have committed the murders, and wrote an entire book to prove it. Whether or not there is any substance to Eatwell's theories, I can't say with any sort of confidence. It seems that others who have done more research than I have issues with her belief that Leslie Dillon was the murderer, based on the fact that he was likely in San Francisco at the time of the killings. However, from what I've read, that claim in unsubstantiated, and therefore Leslie Dillon remains a valid suspect. Perhaps Eatwell is wrong, or maybe she is right on the money, but I was convinced by her arguments.

I never thought that I was squeamish with violence, but lately I've been more and more disturbed by the gory descriptions in my nonfiction reading choices. The descriptions of what was done to Elizabeth Short before she died, and immediately afterward were painful to read. Imagining the terror that this young woman, only twenty-two at the time, must have felt was so upsetting. I have seen the photos of the Black Dahlia killing before this, but seeing them again after reading this book was an incredibly different experience. It went from an "oh gross" reaction to extreme horror at the fact that something like this could happen. Perhaps knowing more about Ms. Short and her life gave an extra depth to my empathy for what happened to her, making the photos that much harder to look at, or perhaps age is a contributing factor. Regardless, I was deeply moved by what happened to Elizabeth Short, and incredibly frustrated with the outcome of the case.

The fact of the matter is that Elizabeth Short's case was mishandled by multiple parties, not the least of which was the couple that owned a hotel, in which a room was found coated in blood and feces around the time of Elizabeth Short's death. The couple, in an attempt to avoid any interference from the police, as they had previous run-ins with them, cleaned up the room and likely destroyed key evidence in the case. This single action changed the entire course of the case, in my opinion. The DNA evidence alone might have been enough that now, in our age of advanced technology, we could have an answer. Alas, we'll never know.

Another factor that was upsetting to me was the way in which Elizabeth Short herself was treated throughout the case. At some point in the case, Elizabeth's sex life was called into question. The fact that she had been spotted around town with multiple men translated in the minds of judgmental America into promiscuity, and promiscuity translated into at least a small amount of culpability in her own demise. Her murder was used as a warning to bad girls about what could happen if they ever branched away from their families, and her national reputation morphed into that of the whore, the temptress. Whether or not Elizabeth Short slept with every man she was seen with, or even more than that, is irrelevant. She was a twenty-two year old woman, at the peak of her beauty and just starting out in the world. She had every right to explore it as she wished, and the fact that some sadistic prick took that from her is in no way an indicator of what Elizabeth Short did or did not do wrong in her life.

I know that I'm preaching to the choir with the modern audience of this book, because times have changed, but the injustice of the way that Elizabeth Short was handled during what should have been her lifetime is annoying to me.

I rated this book three stars because of the dry way in which it was delivered. I listened to this as an Audiobook, and the reader was a male with a very deep, dry voice. There is nothing wrong with a male narrator, in general, but I prefer the higher pitched voices of females as they are easier to hear over the sounds of traffic as I drive to work. That combined with the narrative style of the writing made the book not quite as enjoyable as it could have been. Obviously, as a nonfiction book, it's not going to have the same style as a fictional novel, but a little pizazz goes a long way in keeping the reader interested in what they're absorbing. Still, I think that Eatwell was very thorough in her research and the book was very good for what it was.