2006年VOA标准英语-Writer Offers New Explanation of 'Black Da

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
01 February 2006

A movie to be released later this year will highlight an unsolved murder that horrified¹ Los Angeles nearly 60 years ago. Numerous books have also examined the killing² known as the 'Black Dahlia' murder. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan spoke³ with Donald Wolfe, the author a new book called "The Black Dahlia Files," the latest work to try to solve the mystery.

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The upcoming film, called The Black Dahlia, will star Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, and Hilary Swank, and it is a fictional⁴ account of the murder. Donald Wolfe says his book, on the other hand, is fact.

The murder victim, Elizabeth Short, was called the Black Dahlia because she dressed in elegant black clothes and had wavy⁵ jet-black hair. Some say she graced it with a Dahlia flower. The name, bestowed⁶ by the press, recalled a 1946 movie called The Blue Dahlia. And writer Wolfe says the crime, like the movie, was a murder mystery that transfixed Los Angeles.

"The body was discovered on January 15th of 1947," he said. "It was the beginning of a whole series of headline news story about the murder and it was actually on the front page of all the L.A. newspapers for over a month."

The city had five newspapers. They were locked in a fierce circulation war, and issued extra editions that mixed fact, speculation⁷ and fiction.

The killing was gruesome, and readers were shocked to learn the grisly details. The young woman's body had been cut in two and her face was disfigured. Newspaper headlines asked what kind of fiend could commit such a crime.

Suspicion, over the years, has focused on many people, from Elizabeth Short's father, who had moved from Massachusetts to Los Angeles, to the many men that she dated.

Police questioned hundreds of suspects, extracting dozens of confessions⁸, but they later said that the murder remained unsolved.

In 2003, a retired⁹ Los Angeles police detective, Steve Hodel, published a book identifying his own father, a well-known Hollywood doctor, as the killer¹⁰. The writer Janice Knowlton had earlier argued that her father killed the woman. Neither book settled the question.

Don Wolfe  
  
Don Wolfe was the first writer to gain access to the newly opened files of the Los Angeles district attorney. He says his research shows the victim was pregnant, and that the evidence suggests she was a prostitute.

"There have been many stories and different versions of what happened, but when you read the district attorney's reports and interviews with suspects and witnesses, it becomes very clear that she was pregnant at the time," Wolfe said.

That, in Wolfe's view, is the key to the murder. He said Elizabeth Short, who had arrived in the city with dreams of Hollywood stardom, joined a prostitution ring tied to mobster Bugsy Siegel. He said Siegel committed the murder, furious that she refused to have an abortion¹¹ after becoming pregnant by a prominent publisher. Siegel himself was killed in his Beverly Hills mansion¹² in a notorious gangland slaying¹³ five months later.

The story seems fanciful, the stuff of which movies are made, and one reviewer called Wolfe's book "pure speculation." The same can be said of most other books on the subject. But corruption¹⁴ was rampant¹⁵ in Los Angeles in the 1930s and '40s, when some local officials were known to be on the mob payroll¹⁶. Gangster¹⁷ Siegel, best known for his connections to gambling¹⁸ in Las Vegas, was part of the Los Angeles underworld, and local police often ignored its illegal operations. Mr. Wolfe says his explanation fits the facts.

The author said many murders have been committed in the city, but the Black Dahlia killing captured the public imagination.

"She was a na?ve, young pretty girl that, like many people that went to Hollywood hoping to become a movie star, just ended up with the wrong crowd and fell through that Tinseltown trap that captured a lot of young pretty women back in those days, and probably still today to a certain degree," Wolfe said. "But it ended up very tragically¹⁹."

The late reporter Will Fowler, the first person to arrive at the murder scene, told Don Wolfe that the Black Dahlia case was best left a mystery.  Wolfe disagrees and said he has finally solved it, but his book is not likely to be the last word on the subject.

1 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

5 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

6 bestowed   

赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was a title bestowed upon him by the king. 那是国王赐给他的头衔。
• He considered himself unworthy of the honour they had bestowed on him. 他认为自己不配得到大家赋予他的荣誉。

7 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

8 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

10 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

11 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

12 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

13 slaying   

杀戮。

参考例句：

• The man mimed the slaying of an enemy. 此人比手划脚地表演砍死一个敌人的情况。
• He is suspected of having been an accomplice in the slaying,butthey can't pin it on him. 他有嫌疑曾参与该杀人案，但他们找不到证据来指控他。

14 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

15 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

16 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

17 gangster   

n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒

参考例句：

• The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
• He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。

18 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

19 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。