60 Years Ago Today
The body of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia, was discovered.
ScaryFacts at AtBC reminded me, and Pamela from the Black Dahlia website invites people to post our thoughts on her bulletin board.
No one was ever prosecuted for this crime, though plenty have been named.
ScaryFacts at AtBC reminded me, and Pamela from the Black Dahlia website invites people to post our thoughts on her bulletin board.
No one was ever prosecuted for this crime, though plenty have been named.
Labels: Black Dahlia, crime
posted by Kristine | Monday, January 15, 2007
17 Comments:
I knew from the moment I met you I must preserve you
That was settled when the white-hot electric shock coursed down my spine
You would be my masterpiece
It wasn’t lust—no, lust is for school boy crushes and back seat romance
This was epic, more than mortal, more than power, eternal
You must be my masterpiece
Beauty fades, but yours will never, years, decades eons unchanged
Enshrined in stark reality in other’s minds, yet only we know the secret
You will be my masterpiece
As I lay you on the grass, placing you just as I had pictured it before
The beautiful work of butchery no one but you and I understand
Forever, you are my masterpiece
Kristine,
My wife read the poem and said it was too creepy. So if it's too freaky feel free to delete.
I guess I should explain my fascination with killers is trying to figure out what drives them--what switch in their mind causes them to see the heinous as not only acceptable but desirable.
I wonder what makes someone decide a 22 year old woman needs to die and needs to die with such dramatic obscenity. He wanted more than to murder, he wanted to create something - a something so evil yet to him so gratifying.
So, feel free to delete, and, no, I don't kill people in my spare time. Heck, I can't even crush a bug.
Scary
The poem is creepy. That's why I'm keeping it, if you don't mind.
Art isn't crime, and it's not thoughtcrime.
This country needs people who can crack a joke over a dead body, or we wouldn't have any cops, paramedics, surgeons, or morticians at all.
Or poets. Or sick-ass belly dancers/writers/provocateurs.
I am totally fascinated by serial or weird killers and know too much about them, their names, their methods, all the grotesque details, but I never, as I'm sure you never, lose sight of the fact that it's the victims that I really care about. I have a great deal of sympathy for Beth Short. Even before she was murdered people let her down right and left--her own father faked his suicide and suddenly entered her life when he needed a free housekeeper. What happened to her scared the living hell out of me. She didn't "deserve" it, and the cretin got away with it. She reminds me of so many girls I knew growing up, who didn't have the steady father figure that I did, whose fathers drank, smacked them around or worse, and having known these girls (and knowing how lucky I was to have a good man for a father) I suppose I'm haunted by Beth because of it.
My creepy costume was a part of me celebrating my favorite holiday, creepy, sick-ass Halloween, which is our opportunity to explore our dark and creepy sides in a safe, nonviolent, playful way.
I can't crush bugs either! :)
I'm glad you didn't find it offensive. I was more concerned you may think I'm going all "DaveScot" on you.
I've often thought the difference between a serial killer and genius can be very small. It must happen early, certainly before age 5, and then unfolds.
Dahmer was someone I could understand. He wanted love that would never leave. He saw murder (at first) as a way of keeping someone with him. He had an intense fear of rejection.
I understood when he talked about a day of decision where he wouldn't fight it any more.
Later he moved on to cannibalism so his lovers would end up a part of him.
I understood the trophy shrine he had sketched out. It was something he could control. It would make all those victims available and they would never leave.
At one time I considered going back to school to become a criminal profiler, then I watched an interview with one. She talked about what it is really like to sit across a table from serial killers and how terrifying it is to get "into their sites."
I decided I really didn't want to be on any serial killer's radar.
By the way I still haven't decided what I want to do when I grow up. Any ideas feel free to let me know.
After reading a lot about serial killers, I've decided that they just aren't that deep. No great mysteries, no terrible truths--they just don't have any deep feelings or empathy toward anyone. Walking the dog, going to work, killing someone--they're like phonograph records without deep groves, and the needle just bounces from one grove to another without meaning. They have no empathy.
It's the "normal" people who have depth, or at least can have depth, but they're degraded by having this "just an average American" label pinned on them.
By the way I still haven't decided what I want to do when I grow up. Any ideas feel free to let me know.
You could always become a librarian. ;-)
A librarian? I'm trying to find a career allowing me to be a cheerleader. Not in the literal sense, but a person who spends their time believing in others and encouraging them to greatness. Sure, it's on the sidelines, but can you imagine a better job?
But that's exactly what librarians do. :)
Kristine,
Forgive me for being obtuse, but I'm not seeing how librarians do this. While I see you as far from the "average" librarian, I am having trouble seeing how librarians are the motivating, "I believe in you" encouragers I want to be. Please don't think this is trite, I really don't see it and would be happy to hear your explanation.
I don't have a prejudice against librarians--I've even heard some
have a surprising wild side.
(Of course I may be taking your comment much more seriously than you intended. If so, forgive. At 43 it's a strange thing to wonder what you want to do with the rest of your life so I take this stuff seriously. Seriously.)
Scary
Hmmm... You know, you've really asked a good question. I guess the best example I can think of is the school librarian in an elementary or middle school, who is much more involved than your average librarian in motivating children to love books, or the public librarian in the children's section who coordinates storyhour and stuff like that, or librarians who coordinate literacy programs, immigrant outreach, technology classes to seniors, etc. I'm not really the person to ask about this because I'm drifting toward the technical services/systems development/science reference areas.
No really, an excellent question. Maybe I should raise this with my professors. It would be a good question for my reference class, definitely.
And I'm 41, and still a largely unpublished writer, so don't worry! Library science is full of people who say "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up." I have a feeling there are a lot of people like that in a lot of professions. I am!
I can't see myself as being a librarian - nothing about it really floats my boat.
Maybe I'll meet Charles Cutter on the road to Damascus and completely change my tune.
I joke some about not knowing what I want to be when I grow up. I am already what I want to be for the most part: A husband, a father and a friend. Everywhere I go I meet the most amazing people and get to look into their amazing lives.
Everything else is just salad dressing.
But I still want to find work I enjoy and can pay the bills as well. It's an amorphous image in my mind that at times seems almost clear and at others seems like smoke.
I’ll get it clear one day. No rush.
Maybe I'll meet Charles Cutter on the road to Damascus and completely change my tune.
Hahahaha! My cataloging professor would have loved that one!
Just don't run into Melvil Dewey. (And don't let your wife, daughter, or female relatives run into him, either! Ahhh! What a jerk he was!)
Damn Dewey his confounded system!
Love the system, hate the systemer. ;-)
I'm watching the "The Black Dahlia" rightnow on PPV. I'll let you know what I think.
The Black Dahlia was disappointing. I don't really know what else to say about it. I wanted the focus of the story to be much more about Beth Short.
Really! I totally agree. And aren't you a little tired of seeing Scarlett Johannsen everywhere? I sure am.
Yeah, the movie was a flop for me. However, I liked the actress who played Beth Short. And I thought that the use of the screen tests, while completely fictional, were an effective way to dramatize certain parts of her life. Her telling the story of Major Matthew Gordon's death just about broke my heart, because the scene wasn't maudlin, but so realistic: "Ha ha, I can sure tell a happy story, can't I?" And in the other "screen test," when the director tells her, "I need more sadness!" and she says, "Oh. I can do that," I thought, I'll just bet you can, you poor thing. Poor kid never got a break.
You're right, the movie needed to focus on Beth. She's the real story, not the other stuff, which was mostly cliches.
It was worth the $2.99 fee just to see it. I also agree the girl who played Elizabeth was interesting and carried herself with the type of subtle yet overwhelming sexuality I suspect Short must have displayed.
But there was so little of her compared with what I expected.
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