Vengeance Is Marty’s

“Dahlia” authors Mary Pacios and John Gilmore will read from their books, which present divergent, but equally unsubstantiated, theories on the death of Elizabeth “Bette” Short, whose severed torso was found in a Crenshaw-area field in 1947. Short’s jet-black hair and monochromatic clothing — and, some would say, her vamping at Hollywood watering holes — earned her the “Black Dahlia” moniker and an enduring place in the annals of L.A. crime.

Pacios, who as a child knew Short in their hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, posits in Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder that the late actor/director Orson Welles killed Short. In a phone interview, Pacios said eerie similarities between the crime scene and a publicity still from Welles’ film The Lady From Shanghaiconvinced her that Welles is “a viable suspect.” (“I’m not saying he killed her but that he should be considered a viable suspect,” she says.)

Gilmore, on the other hand, says Arnold Smith (a.k.a. Jack Anderson Wilson) divulged details of the crime to him — and him alone — before perishing in a downtown hotel fire in 1982. Gilmore’s Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder is best-known for its gruesome autopsy photos and claims about Short’s supposed anatomic anomaly, underdeveloped sex organs.

Pacios helped Gilmore research Severed, but the two authors prefer not to share the spotlight, which is why their readings are set for successive evenings. (Pacios is slated for Saturday, July 29, which would have been Short’s 76th birthday; Gilmore is scheduled the following evening.)

Asked if she would attend the pageant, Pacios said that she would love to be there “to see if anyone captures Bette. She had a special walk and a signature curl over her forehead. I will be bringing photographs of her, including the signature page of my brother’s yearbook.”

Although reluctant to discuss her differences with Gilmore, Pacios said she was more qualified than he to judge the contest. “I would judge from knowing her,” she added. Contestants will compete for best all-around look-alike, best crime pose and best reading from a “Black Dahlia” novel. Application forms, available now at the museum, allocate one and a half lines for thoughts on why entrants “feel connected to the ‘Black Dahlia’ case.”

Other “Dahlia” authors are not expected for the fete, including fiction writer James Ellroy and Janice Knowlton, who claims to have discovered through repressed-memory therapy that Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer. Pacios dismisses this “Daddy Dearest” theory, sniffing, “These were ‘recovered fantasies,’ not ‘recovered memories.’” —Sandra Ross