I received a query yesterday from someone at Los Angeles magazine wanting to know the address on South Norton Avenue where the body of Elizabeth Short was found.
The crime scene is usually given as “39th and Norton,” the nearest cross streets, which appears in the original news reports and was picked up by James Ellroy in “The Black Dahlia.” In fact, years ago, one poor soul wrote an Internet post – in a very poor imitation of the hard-boiled style – about flying into LAX, renting a car and driving to 39th and Norton, assuming that he had been at the spot where the body of Elizabeth Short was found. And of course, he missed it entirely.
As I told this individual from Los Angeles magazine, I never give out the address due to consideration for the homeowners. The place where Elizabeth Short was found is now someone’s frontyard.
I have always been wary of giving out the address, but having some fringe dweller from the Cacophony Society lie down in the grass for a picture during a tour years ago (after we told people to behave themselves) confirmed my resolution to never tell anybody where it is.
