John Gilmore is dead? Really?
Hidden in yet another rehash of the Black Dahlia case for the 70th anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s killing is word from Tony Mostrom in L.A. Weekly that “Severed” author John Gilmore died in October.
This tantalizing tidbit comes from the blog “Immortal Marilyn” and has been picked up by the notoriously inaccurate Wikipedia, so I am treading carefully until I can get reliable confirmation. John Gilmore’s website has no information on his purported death. Bethshort.com, which used to be closely affiliated with Gilmore and unleashed his collection of gruesome body pictures on the internet, is happily deceased and the domain is for sale for $2,000 if anybody wants it that badly.
All I will say for now is that “Severed,” Gilmore’s opus on the Black Dahlia case, is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction. And if Gilmore is really dead, boy do I have some stories for you.
Maybe we will finally find out whether he had a copy of Elizabeth Short’s autopsy, which he always claimed, but would never show anyone. In typical Gilmore fashion.
Updated at 4:45 p.m., Jan. 12, 2017.
Multiple sources have confirmed the death of John Gilmore on Oct. 13, 2016, from leukemia. He was 81.
