Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Sensational Book
Review: Gilmore had it right when he wrote this concise, hard-bitten chunk of L.A. history in a prose and style that made the hair on my neck stand up and salute! He keeps getting it right every time he opens his mouth on some History Channel or E! show, talking about that totally and awesomely delectable Elizabeth Short, Night Queen of the LA back streets and cheap hotels and dingy bars crammed with gobs and loud-mouths and tinhors and grifters, all lookin' for a ticket to ride. I've gone from the first page to the end on 230 a half dozen times and haven't had my fill. Sorry all you other droops on the bandwagon, wish I could say the same but I can't. This one's right and ain't no coypu showing plastic teeth. Cool book. Cool read about a pretty girl as pretty as a full moon; skin as white and eyes as deep; sweet lost Betty/Beth/Elizabeth, to meet your Maker on such a hard, hard, lonely road. The loss of her makes you want to puke! A salute to cult-king John Gilmore for makin' me feel so sorry she's gone.
Rating:
Summary: The most complete story of L.A.'s most infamous murder
Review: I found Mr.Gilmore's book to be the most complete story of "The Black Dahlia" I've ever read to date. He uses fact rather than rumor to paint a full picture of Elizabeth Short without judgement or bias. He gives us answers to questions unanswere for over 50 years and reveals facts long hidden from the public. Mr. Gilmore takes us back in time to a dark and mysterious place where Beth Short and her alleged murderer lived. A place Beth spent her desperate last days that would eventually lead her to the man who would make her dreams of fame come true. Unfortunately, she would pay a nightmare price for it. John Gilmore's SEVERED is a must read for anyone interested in true crime, good writing, and truth about a young lady we really knew nothing about.
Rating:
Summary: A Truly Sensational Book
Review: John Gilmore has written the ungarnished story of Elizabeth Short. This is a brilliant book. He has uncovered her past, her days and nights in Hollywood; she becomes for the reader the real person that she was. Anyone who calls this book "trash" is 1) the Steve Hodel/James Ellroy front, or 2) a moron, entertained only by books for morons. Buy this book; it is gold.
Rating:
Summary: the essential text on elizabeth short
Review: John Gilmore provides the essential text on the Black Dahlia murder mystery with his true-crime classic "Severed." The book is a fascinating read on many, many levels. Gilmore's painstaking research and involvement in the case lead one to believe that had he been an investigator in the case, when it had happened, he would have actually solved it, and history would have been changed. While the Black Dahlia's (who was known to her folks as Elizabeth Short) brutal murder is somehow "solved" every time someone writes a book on the case, Gilmore offers the most satisfying, believable solution.
Gilmore has a knack for writing this type of stuff, and excellently covered the Manson Family in "The Garbage People," but as I mentioned, it is with noir-ish stories such as Ms. Short's sad tale that Gilmore excels in presenting. Although this is a true story, on some levels and in some parts, it reads like a gritty film noir script or a dime-novel detective story. The people and places of post-WW2 Los Angeles jump out at the reader, and you can almost get the feeling that Elizabeth Short was someone you once knew or had seen around at some point. As most historians know (especially those who specialize in journalistic history) Elizabeth's murder was one of the first of such events to grip the entire nation, due to the sheer brutality and carnal nature of the crime, but the sensational aspects were primarily a creation of the Hearst sensationalism machine of the day. Gilmore does an excellent job in presenting to the reader who Elizabeth actually was, and debunks several of the myths behind her. There were two Elizabeth Shorts, after all, as the reader will come to understand--there was the innocent girl from Massachusetts with dreams of succeeding in Hollywood, and there was also the "Black Dahlia," which was in fact a nickname Elizabeth was known by, but was blown out of proportion by the press.
I'd recommend this book to anyone, not only to students of true crime, but to anyone who enjoys a good read. It is a sad story, but Gilmore does an excellent job in presenting it in a factual manner. And for those who are interested in finding a book about this case, choose this over Steve Hodel's "Black Dahlia Avenger" any day.
Rating:
Summary: Still the Prince of Darkness
Review: SEVERED is by far the only credible text on the infamous Black Dahlia; the first nonfiction, true crime account to have been written on this horrible murder, this book stands light years ahead of anything that has appeared since the publication of John Gilmore's book. Gilmore is, without doubt, still the Prince of Darkness at exploring the shadow-world of our culture. This book is without equal, and others cobbled together on the Black Dahlia subject jumped on the bandwagon, smelling the blood of Elizabeth Short, to cash in on the trail blazed by Gilmore. This work has created an icon in Elizabeth Short, and as they once said about Ernest Hemingway, "now the jackals come to gorge on the feast". I have never read a book that opens the Postwar world of Los Angeles as does SEVERED. Gilmore puts the reader in the smokey cafes, the bars, stinking of booze and sweat; in the night clubs and dingy hotel rooms, and on the electric streetcars that long ago ceased to exist. In reading SEVERED, my senses were opened wide and I was caught up in the shadow-world Gilmore revealed. Then came the murder: a painful experience to read it because the author had made me so vulnerable and drew me right in. He snuck up on me, and then struck me with the full impact. I shudder recalling that moment. I recommend this book as a masterpiece of true crime literature, and most surely a guide book for all seeking to touch upon those lost yesterdays in the "city of angels," the subject of so many noir movies and dark novels. But the subject in SEVERED is real life, intriguing and frightening. The "Prince of Darkness" takes us through a lost world I shall never forget. I feel as though this strange girl, Elizabeth Short, the notorious Black Dahlia, stepped into my life and I now carry her with me wherever I go. There is something so powerful yet subtle about this book that it simply, as they say, "gets under your skin."
Rating: 
Summary: Long On Style, Short On Data
Review: The Black Dahlia case is unique, I think, among the several dozen murder cases that form the core of the twentieth-century true crime canon not because of the particular horrors of the crime, but because we know -- in the verifiable, documentary sense of that word -- very little about either the victim or the killer.
The "Black Dahlia truth-told-at-last" book business is a peculiar one, as a result. In nearly every case, these books are *involved* in the crime: the author is the daughter or son of the (asserted) killer, or the childhood friend of the victim, or the interlocutor (in Gilmore's case) in a conversation with the suspect.
The two phenomena -- the lack of deep and broad data on the victim or her killer, and the highly-involved nature of these narratives -- are related; in the absence of facts, we readers want at least the guarantee of an author's personal knowledge.
(For those of you who are surprised by the vituperative quality of a lot of the reviews of Black Dahlia books, this may be the reason: hard-core Dahlia fans give their allegiance to a narrative, rather than to evidence, and so feel the need to defend their narratives against all comers. Don't be put off by this; it's perfectly possible to read the Dahlia literature without becoming a crank.)
Gilmore's a good writer. Reading this book is a pleasure: no doubt about that. But Gilmore -- like most true crime writers raised in the post-WWII documdrama school -- forgets to remind us that much of what passes for transcription and photo-realistic description in *Severed* is in fact creative writing: fictionalization.
And I don't think a dispassionate reader will find that he's made a sound or even credible case for his suspect's involvement (or, some readers will say, for that suspect's existence).
I found Gilmore's evocation of Elizabeth Short's milieu quite compelling. I feel certain, even if I cannot possibly prove it, that Gilmore has somehow captured the mute despair, the cognitive dissonance, the plebian beauty and tawdriness of Short's life and times *as it indeed was*.
But I think a dispassionate reader will have to conclude that the book fails, pretty much completely, on procedural grounds -- the case cannot, in any sense, be declared 'solved' on the basis of Gilmore's arguments.
Nonetheless, a definite keeper.
Rating:
Summary: A DISTURBING AND UNFORGETTABLE BOOK
Review: This book by John Gilmore tells a most haunting tale about the young wannabe actress Elizabeth Short. She is known as the Black Dahlia because she dresses in black, has black hair, is most beautiful and a very odd girl. Her brutal murder in post-War Hollywood becomes a milestone for the dark side of Los Angeles. This book transcends the true crime genre, is more than mystery, more than drama, and unfolds as a searching tale within the American psyche. This is a raw, powerful, insightful story, and John Gilmore tells it brilliantly. He explores the dark world like a cat, and it is no wonder Gilmore has become such a cult figure. With haunting, evocative prose, Gilmore digs into the victim's odd nature, paving it as the road to her violent murder.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST THERE IS
Review: This book is by far the best ever written on the Black Dahlia. It has become a classic, a highly respected work in law enforcement circles, in crime literature, and is a "Goth" bible. Almost everything that can possibly be known about Elizabeth Short (of whom this book has made an icon), the Black Dahlia, is contained within these pages. Time and an erosion (a flood of trash in the wake of this work, i.e., the "Daddy Did It" books by Janice Knowlton and Steven Hodel) has taken a toll on whatever other information exists out there. It has faded and been warped by now, as well as death taken its toll. John Gilmore is an amazing writer and this is a testament to the noir age of Los Angeles and Hollywood. Fine writing, drama, a compelling sense of immediacy make this book a near-masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This is an incredible book. Gilmore pays very close attention to detail. The author takes the reader through Elizabeth Short's life, as well as her death. This book was perfect in every sense of the word. The only thing the reader was left yearning for was an arrest!
Rating:
Summary: ON THE EDGE OF COUNTERCULTURE
Review: Without a doubt, this book simmers on the surface in the caldron of modern classics. The story is bizarre, historically fascinating, shocking, troubling. At the same time author John Gilmore rushes the reader on a rollercoaster of sights, smells and tastes; things become alive under our scrutiny. Death and violent murder get a stranglehold on us! Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, moves through this tale as an untouchable Princess of the Night. After reading Gilmore's book, I now dream about her! Destined to never rise above her pitiful plight, the lovely creature is fingered by fate to fail in life and die a spectacular death, thus launching her into stardom (for all time), somewhere on the other side of the big movie screen of darkness. The way Gilmore handles this is what makes the read so superb, so chillingly unforgettable. He is a genius at peeling stark images and drilling these into the readers heads like a mad dentist. This book is way out on its own special crest (as are Gilmore's other books like LAID BARE and LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG, and his work on Charles Manson), surfing a most unique wave indeed. He is creating American NEO NOIR. Recommend this book? It's an absolute necessity!
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