Who's Who in The Black Dahlia

Hollywood From Day One

With interest in crime at an all-time high, television and film directors are searching for classic tales from the past. We'll soon see "Lonely Hearts," starring the svelte Salma Hayek in the role of the grossly overweight serial killer Martha Beck, with Jared Leto as her counterpart, Raymond Fernandez. They lured victims with lonely hearts ads and were executed in 1951. Given Hayek's complete lack of resemblance to who she is playing, it seems directors aren't keen about the truth in "true crime." Fans of this genre will decide for themselves.

Salma Hayek

The same goes for the The Black Dahlia, about the discovery on an abandoned lot in an LA neighborhood of a severed female body. While it's based on James Ellroy's 1987 novel, he fictionalized the actual classic case from January 15, 1947, solving the as-yet unsolved murder. The Black Dahlia may suffer from Hollywoodization, but it was a case that was sensationalized right from the start. Way back then, an editor added "pretty" to the first newspaper story, giving it legs.

Elizabeth Short

Elizabeth Short, the twenty-two-year-old victim, may have been pretty by some standards, but she was also rough around the edges and not quite the innocent aspiring actress from the East Coast that some glorifications have depicted. Apparently she was both a tease and freeloader, taking but not giving up much. It appears that she played the flirtatious tease with the wrong guy, not realizing his capacity for violence. After unspeakable brutality, he drained her of blood, washed her down, carved her up, and sliced her in half before dropping off the nude parts for quick discovery. No doubt he gloried in the media circus that followed.