Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder is a 1994 American historical true crime book by John Gilmore. The book details the life and death of Elizabeth Short, also known as "The Black Dahlia," an infamous murder victim whose mutilated body was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles in 1947, and whose murder has remained unsolved for decades. According to Gilmore, he was inspired to write the book after having met Elizabeth Short when he was eleven years old. Published in 1994, it was the first and one of
Murder of Laura Law one of the suspects, even though he was at a union meeting at the time of the murder. Bill Law, a communist and labor activist, claimed that the murder happened when government agents were caught by Laura looking for evidence for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Other stories claim that communists from the Soviet Union killed her because of what she might have known about the then-ongoing Winter War (1939-1940). The story of Laura Law’s murder reveals the political and ethnic atmosphere of Aberdeen, Washington during the 1940s. The division between White Finns and Red Finns, and the different