Esotouric to offer Black Dahlia Murder bus tour

Black Dahlia Murder Bus Tour Now Departs From Downtown's Historic Biltmore Hotel

WHAT: Esotouric's Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour
WHEN: Saturday June 21, 12pm-4pm (repeats August 16)
WHERE: Departing from The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 5th & Olive, L.A.
FYI: Despite the myths, the Biltmore was the actually second-to-last place Beth Short was seen alive; this tour goes to the real last spot as well.
COST: $55/person (15% off for KCRW members)
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767

Since January 1947, one iconic murder mystery has lingered unsolved at the forefront of the American imagination, with dozens of books, films and websites dedicated to solving the slaying of Beth Short, the Massachusetts girl who came to Hollywood hoping to make it, and ended up cut in two in a vacant lot. Suspects in the Black Dahlia murder have included L.A. Times publisher Norman Chandler and Orson Welles, crazed lesbians, twisted drifters and more than one writer's father, but still the mystery abides.

When Esotouric launched their offbeat L.A. crime tours in spring 2007, The Real Black Dahlia was an immediate hit, and has remained their most popular tour. Esotouric recently reinvented the tour, and in June it gets a new starting point: the historic Biltmore Hotel lobby where Beth Short spent some of last moments before vanishing. The original Real Black Dahlia offered a comparison of the various whodunnit theories that swirl around this notorious unsolved mutilation murder, but the victim sometimes got lost in all the theorizing.

Now The Real Black Dahlia Mach 2 dedicates itself to revealing who victim Elizabeth Short really was by exploring her life in Los Angeles from mid 1946 to her January 1947 murder through examination of the police investigation and news coverage. The various theories are up for discussion during the onboard Q&A sections, and the hosts share their idea of who the killer might have been, but the focus is firmly on the 22-year-old woman whose death continues to fascinate. Along the way, passengers will explore the social history of postwar Los Angeles and its lively downtown scene and learn the role the city played in Short's mysterious death.

The tour begins at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where Beth Short went after checking her bags at the Greyhound Station. Many people mistakenly believe this was the last place she was seen alive. Passengers will tour the beautifully restored hotel before heading south, to the low rent Olive Street bar where she met her murderer. The Downtown portion of the tour includes the Examiner newspaper offices, where the crime became myth, and the Figueroa Hotel, where Short stayed in happier times.

The bus then heads west towards Leimert Park and the formerly vacant lot where Short's bisected body was discovered on January 15, 1947. Also in thi neighborhood, passengers visit the site of another unsolved 1947 kidnap-murder and the home of Dr. Walter Bayley, who has emerged in recent years as the most compelling suspect, with his personal ties to Beth Short's family and the crime scene, and the surgical skill needed to bisect the body. The tour includes a cop-approved snack stop for Krispy Kreme donuts near the body dump site.

Also featured: a special presentation from cosmetics historian Joan Renner exploring Beth Short's unusual proto-goth make up, so different from the popular girl next store look of 1947, and a key to understanding her psychology.

Passengers on this eye-opening and informative tour will leave with a new understanding of the Black Dahlia case and what it was like to be a single woman in 1940s Los Angeles. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule (new tours starred):
Sat May 31 ­ Esotouric & City Lights Books present Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowki's LA (BookExpo edition)
*Sat June 7- Visionary Hollywood hosted by author Erik Davis
Sat June 14- Vroman's - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's SoCal Nightmare
Sat June 21 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat June 28 ­ Amoeba Music - Where the Action Was rock history tour with guest star Ruthann Friedman (composer of "Windy")
Tues July 1 ­ American Library Association Edition: Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
*Sat July 12 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat July 26 - Pasadena Confidential
Sat Aug.2 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Aug 9- Vroman's Bookstore ­ Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowki's LA
Sat Aug 16 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat Aug 23 ­ John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sun Sept 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Sat Sept 20 ­ Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Many Downtowns / Main Street Vice
Sat Oct 11- Vroman's Bookstore - Raymond Chandler's LA
Sat Oct 18- Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 25 ­ Halloween Horrors

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
For more on the Dr. Walter Bayley theory, visit Larry Harnisch's "Heaven is Here" website http://www.lmharnisch.com/