Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder the most extensive non-fiction accounts of Elizabeth Short's murder. 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 glamour-cum-sordidness. The book offer a documented solution to the case as endorsed by law enforcement and forensic science experts. Through the narrative, Gilmore, whose father was an LAPD officer at the time of the murder, unravels the multilayered mystery of Short's slaying. Gilmore tells several previously unrevealed stories at once,
Charles Walton (murder victim) he would say in 1945 was that "The natives of Upper and Lower Quinton and the surrounding district are of a secretive disposition and they do not take easily to strangers". However, the truth may be that no one had seen anything and therefore had nothing to tell. Charles Walton (murder victim) Charles Walton (1870–1945) was found murdered on the evening of 14 February 1945, (St Valentine’s Day), at The Firs farm on the slopes of Meon Hill, Lower Quinton in Warwickshire, England. The case is notable as the foremost police detective of the era, Chief Inspector Robert Fabian, led