Re: RARA-AVIS: Ellroy's Dahlia

Lawrence R. (goldensam@sprintmail.com)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 21:12:25 -0400 Excuse me for getting way off subject, but when I read David Yorkin's post,
I went off to amazon.com and looked for the book I entered 'severed' in the
title search and did not specify an author. I came up with 29 titlles, the
most fascinating (if that's the correct word for it ) of which was "101
Uses for a Severed Penis" by Dan Murphy. Which included the following
remarks from the publisher:

Sure ain't no accounting for taste

The publisher, Serious Publishing , 03/26/97:
The story of 101 Uses...
We had a surprising response to this book. Except for perhaps 30 copies,
it's completely sold out.
Most of the people who bought it seemed to fit an older demographic -- say
age 55+, and about
65% were women. It seems that the older you become, the less upset you are
about sexual
innuendo. We also sold many copies -- in quantity -- to doctors and other
professionals. We
imagined that maybe they were urologists who intended to place copies in
their waiting rooms as
some sort of cautionary measure. Whatever. We also had a lot of desperate
notes from people who
needed a copy for someone turning 50, leaving the company, taking a trip to
Norway, celebrating a
25th wedding anniversary. Most people who ordered by mail sent us funny
notes. Of the nearly
5000 copies we sold in the first year, four individuals were offended and
wrote Dan angry letters
denouncing him as a degenerate or traitor or some such creature (he's a very
nice man, by the way,
with a lovely wife and a sweet daughter). So four people were miffed and
about 4,996 were not.
YOU decide. We had lots of press on the book and Dan did many interviews.
He'll still talk to radio
shows (e-mail me at agarber@pacpress.southam.ca and I'll ask him -- we work
at the same
newspaper). And we may bring out a line of greeting cards. If we do, we'll
be sure to let the folks at
Amazon.com know.

David Yorkin wrote:

> This "Dahlia" thread proves that the case still continues to fascinate.
> One of the books mentioned was "Severed," written I believe, by John
> Gilmore. It was published by a small press in Santa Barbara. I find it
> amazing that people don't know about it, because it is the only book
> that actually SOLVES THE CASE! And it isn't bullshit, or a rip-off book,
> either.
>
> Gilmore's father was a cop, and he had access to the files. Gilmore
> writes about the last days of Betty Short, in the present tense, using
> the files and interviews available. All the characters Ellroy used are
> in there, plus others, like Mark Hellinger, the Hollywood producer.
>
> There were three questions that were asked to the numerous confessors,
> to weed out the frauds. In 1960, a man made a "hearsay" confession to
> the cops, which is inadmissible, about the death of Betty Short. The
> transcription of the confession, which was recorded, is in the book, and
> there is no doubt in my mind that this man was the actual killer,
> because he's the only one who could answer the three questions. However,
> he died before the police got to him.
>
> I won't spoil the details for everybody, but I'm convinced this is the
> real deal. The specifics are chilling and haunting, and when you read
> about Betty's death, it's a more of a horrendous event than even Ellroy
> could concoct. It's one hell of an intense read, and I heartily
> recommend it for all you Dahlia freaks out there!
>
> David
>
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--
Dick Tartow


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