“Betty Short and I Go Back”: James Ellroy and the Metanarrative of the Black Dahlia Case

Abstract

For much of his literary career, James Ellroy has shrewdly avoided the usual pitfalls that crime novelists fall into when interacting with the “true crime” genre.¹ Truman Capote’s critical reputation may have suffered due to his perceived exploitation of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith during the writing of In Cold Blood; Joseph Wambaugh’s dealings with investigators on the Susan Reinert murder case for his book Echoes in the Darkness led to a serious miscarriage of justice; and Patricia Cornwell’s self-financed investigation into unmasking the identity of Jack the Ripper led to widespread derision.² Yet while his seventh novel, The Black Dahlia, posited a fictional solution to the unsolved Dahlia homicide case, Ellroy has never claimed that his version of events amounted to a true crime theory. Instead, Ellroy’s novel is part of the metanarrative of the Black Dahlia case, building on the already abundant myth and speculation surrounding the murder of Elizabeth Short. However, Ellroy’s extraneous work on the Dahlia case, his publicity tours, his involvement with true crime authors and the cinematic adaptations of his work, are part, as I will argue, of the metanarrative ofThe Black Dahlia that once conceived by Ellroy could not be controlled.