James Ellroy - 1948
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
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John Wade and Eric Carpenter.Her body was found by the side of the road when some little
leaguers discovered it as they passed by. She had been strangled and then dumped into the ivy that crawled along the side of the block. Her death came at the age of 43 and she left
behind a ten-year-old son. Her killer was never found and the case went unsolved. Her death was not an excerpt from one of James Ellroy's dark L.A. crime novels. The
episode described was a painful excerpt from Ellroy's life; the unsolved murder of his mother that sparked the fire for his obsessions that became the inspirations for his novels of crime, lust, and booze. I. Biography
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in the year 1948. During an interview with CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason, Ellory told of his parents' divorce in 1954, after
which he began living with his mother. Ellroy, who never felt close to his mother, said in the interview that she, "majored in booze and minored in men." It was this kind of living
that apparently lead to her mysterious end. After leaving their home in El Monte, CA at around 8:00PM on the night of June 21st, 1958, she was last seen alive at a nearby bar
dancing the night away. The next time anyone saw Geneva Hilliker Ellroy was when her body was found in the bushes at King's Row and Tyler Avenue in El Monte on June 22, 1958. James was only ten years old.
In his interview on CBS James told of how his mind became filled with crimes and murder and he soon became obsessed with them. He fell into a life of crime, breaking into the
houses of the school girls that he had become obsessed with to go through their undergarments and steal things out of their medicine cabinets. He dropped out of high
school and the army and was arrested from everything from drunk driving to burglary. When it seemed as though Ellroy was destined to descend an endless downward spiral he
decided to turn his life around. He took all his obsessions of crime and the unsolved cases of murdered women, added them to his own personal experiences and decided to use that as the basis for writing.
Over the past several years he has received honor for several of his novels including The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, and American Tabloid,
which were all international bestsellers. Last year his book L.A. Confidential became an Oscar winning movie. Currently, Ellroy lives with his wife in a town near Kansas City, Missouri where he does
most of his writing though he often travels to back to L.A. to research his stories. II. Literary Works The Black Dahlia
has its origins in a true story of the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short. This novel explores the discovery and ensuing case that revolved around the discovery of
Beth Short's bisected, mutilated body that was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. In the novel, Officer Bucky Bleichert and his partner Lee Blanchard become caught in the abyss
of the Black Dahlia mystery. Both Bucky and Lee find that their lives revolve around the case and they become insanely driven to find her killer.
Ellroy exposes the corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department during the post World War II age as well as showing the dark and twisted side of Hollywood. Ellroy's own
obsessive personality comes out in his characters who like Ellroy himself become totally consumed by the mystery of this murder. The Black Dahlia did very well with critics and was an international bestseller.
The Big Nowhere also takes place in Los Angeles in the years shortly after World War II. This book follows how the lives of two lawmen become interwoven through their investigations of, as The Publisher's Weekly
put it, "social outcasts." Deputy Danny Upshaw investigates a series of homosexual murders while the DA's investigator Mal
Considine uses the "Red Scare" in America to push his career forward. Considine learns of Upshaw's intensity in his investigation and decides to use him as "a decoy to seduce a powerful woman nicknamed the 'Red Queen'." L.A. Confidential begins in 1950s Los Angeles right around Christmas time. On Christmas Day, a large precinct house riot between drunken cops and Mexican criminals from which
three cops emerge and become submerged in a sea of prostitution, dope, and police department corruption. American Tabloid travels through the American underworld from the 1950s to the JFK
administration. This story examines a complex web of conspiracies that causes the rise and fall of John Kennedy. In this novel Ellroy explores three characters, one former L.A. cop
and two FBI agents, that are somehow connected to events such as the Bay of Pigs and the assassination of JFK, as well as a whole slew of other corrupt activities. White Jazz
is set in L.A., 1958. In this story the reader follows corrupt cop, Dave Klein, in his effort to keep himself from being set up by his superiors. Klein, as said by the Publisher's Weekly,
"traces a genealogy of double-dealing that includes incest, institutionalized bribery and police corruption, all going back for decades." III. Ellroy and L.A. Coliseum and Norton Ave. -
Shortly after Bucky and Lee become partners they are investigating the whereabouts of a career criminal, Douglas "Junior" Nash. Lee gets a tip
that Nash has been staying at an apartment on Coliseum and Norton. The area that Nash lives is where Norton runs north and south between Rodeo Rd. and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Blvd. It is in the Leimert Park area. It is from Nash's apartment that Bucky and Lee see the police lights that draw them to 39th and Norton, where the Black Dahlia lies. 39th and Norton Ave -
About one block south of Nash's apartment, Bucky and Lee come to find a great deal of police activity. They eventually discover what all the commotion is
about. A young woman's tortured, mutilated body has been tossed into an empty lot on the street and hordes of policemen are there to investigate. Sunset Strip
- Lee's house is located about a quarter mile north of the Sunset Strip which is a portion of Sunset Blvd. that runs through Hollywood. The Strip consists of mostly theater and restaurants. Victory Blvd. -
During Bucky's search for suspect in the Black Dahlia case, he receives word that one of his key suspect, has disappeared to this point, was sighted at a bar on
Victory Blvd. The part of Victory Blvd. that the bar is located is about two miles from the Van Nuys Airport in Southern California's valley area. The street runs east and west.
IV. Works by James Ellroy American Tabloid (1995) Many of Ellroy's Books Are Available in Audio To order his books on audiotape go to
The Big Nowhere (1988)
The Black Dahlia (1998)
Brown's Requiem (1988)
Cladestine (1999)
Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction from the Underside of L.A. (1999)
Fallen Angels: Six Noir Tales Told for Television (1993)
Heed The Thunder (1994)
Killer on the Road (1999) [Formerly Silent Terror (1993)]
L.A. Confidential (1997)
L.A. Noir (1998)
My Dark Places: An L.A. Crime Memoir (1996)
White Jazz (1993)
Suicide Hill (1993)
Because the Night
Blood on the Moon
Dick Contino's Blues and Other Stories
Murder and Mayhem: More than 75 Case Histories of Heinous Crimes
V. Sources
http://www.barnesandnoble.com
http://www.CBS.com
http://www.APBNews.com
This essay was submitted by a student of Grant Farley, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.