Eli Frankel researched the murders of two women in-depth. In this book he presents his conclusion: one person was responsible for the murders of both Elizabeth Short and Leila Welsh.
Evidence
There is no DNA so the ultimate questions remain: can we tie that person of interest to the crime scenes? Where was this person on March 8-9, 1941 when Leila Welsh was murdered in Kansas City? Where was this person on January 15, 1947 when Elizabeth Short was murdered in Los Angeles?
The Two Women
On March 9, 1941, Leila Welsh’s remains were found in her bedroom, Prairie Township, Kansas City, Missouri. She was twenty-four years old.
In her case, a family member was almost wrongly convicted. It is a haunting episode in which conclusions were drawn to fit the need to close this case fast. Internal struggles at the police department caused the investigation to slow down too and it led to a loss of leads.
On January 15, 1947, Elizabeth Short’s remains are found near Leimert Park, South Central Los Angeles, California. Her case became known as the Black Dahlia. The book explains where that name comes from. She was twenty-three at the time of her murder.
There is enough information on the web to get a good overview of both these cases so I am going to skip that. What is more interesting is to highlight the following issues.
Deeply personal
In both cases, the killer’s choice of murder weapon was a knife.
A gun, a bomb, even poisons can be used from a distance or with a time delay. They are often used as contactless murder weapons. In contrast, knives require close proximity to the victim. That choice matters.
Killing with a knife is an extremely personal act. Not only are you physically close to the victim but you can hear, see, feel, and smell the murder. To torture and then murder your victim means that your recoil instincts are overruled by your intense desire to see this person in pain and then die. In both these cases, this happened. In other words, this does not just point to his motivation, level of anger, rage, and hatred, it also shows he had a certain stamina to fight that recoil.
I will not describe the torture Leila and Elizabeth were subjected to by their killer. You can read that in the book. Some may want to skip over those parts of the book.
Frankel
Frankel retraces both women’s lives from their parental home to when they ventured out on their own. We meet the people they met, the friends they made, the places where they lived and worked, and we experience the connections with men that went deeper. Of course, we get a feel for why these women popped up on their killer’s radar.
What I appreciate is that Frankel treats both women with respect. Yes, he describes their torture, their murder, the crime scene, and more. However, he does not do this to make them into a spectacle.
His choice of words in those scenes is simple. He just details what happened, what was different, what is similar. He avoids the images sketched of Leila and Elizabeth by the media.
Crucial in the Short Case
Frankel points out at the beginning of the book that the team investigating the Short case held back information. It appears that there are still details unknown to the public to help the authorities filter tips. They concern “the condition, appearance, or attitude of Elizabeth Short’s body at the time it was discovered.”
In the case of Elizabeth Short, a lot was made of the way her remains were found. Frankel explains in the introduction what really happened. It is a must read for anyone interested in true crime. It immediately puts the Short case in a different light.
The assumption had always been that Elizabeth’s remains were posed to shock, to deliver a message, in other words, a staged crime scene. This led to different theories and people of interest who have dominated the discussion. Tip: always talk to the first officers on the scene.
The staging theory drew attention away from the one person who should have been in the spotlight.
It would be interesting to get a reaction to this book from Steve Hodel who in several books made the case that his father was involved in Elizabeth Short’s murder.
Critique
The author uses too many details in the text. At times this is needed to set the stage so the reader can visualize all the characters, where they walked, dined, and worked. However, there are parts where those details slow down the pace.
I read an uncorrected proof so I do not know if some of those passages will be taken out and placed in footnotes. However, I genuinely believe that some sections should be placed in appendices. It would tighten up the story, improve the pace, and help keep the reader’s attention.
The last third of the book answers many questions in both cases. However, the author then continues to summarize both cases and not for the first time in the book. An editor should have caught this redundancy. It weakens the story’s impact.
Warning for graphic content
The crime scenes and the women’s remains are described in-depth so this book is not for everyone. The author does not use graphic language and there is no sensationalizing of the way each woman was tortured and murdered in the edition I read. However, the way they were killed is crucial. I made the decision not to describe their deaths in this book review.
Note
Sisters in Death, the Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and their Hunter will be on sale October 28, 2025.
Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in true crime.
I read an advance uncorrected proof from Kensington Publishing Corporation in exchange for an honest review. I do not know what the final version of the book looks like. In other words, I do not know whether any pictures are included and if so, how graphic they might be.
My other book reviews are here.