Esotouric Presents “Black Dahlia Days: Sleuthing out Beth Short’s Southern California” Webinar

Join Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic sightseeing tour company, as we take a time travel trip in the footsteps of Beth Short, the victim in the still unsolved 1947 Black Dahlia murder.

Your hosts Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, and special guest Joan Renner, are the hosts of the long-running The Real Black Dahlia tour, acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “an L.A. classic.” Since it’s not currently possible to offer group tours, we’re taking the storytelling online, with a different take on Beth Short’s fluid and fascinating life story.

In this webinar, you’ll tag along with three veteran true crime historians as they dig into the case that haunts them. We’ll introduce you to the basic beats of Beth Short’s narrative, dispel some myths about the murder investigation and highlight the heartbreaking confluence of character and history that sealed the 22 year old drifter’s fate and ensured her immortality as a crime victim.

We’ll explore some of the time capsule locations that aren’t on the usual Real Black Dahlia tour route and share fascinating details from the investigation and archives. You’ll learn about Joan Renner’s curatorial work on the groundbreaking 2012 Los Angeles Police Museum exhibition, “James Ellroy Presents ‘Elizabeth,’” and see rare material from John Gilmore’s research files in UCLA Special Collections. Plus, Joan will put on her cosmetics historian hat to provide rare insights into the psychology of Beth Short’s unusual make up choices.

This webinar is an illustrated lecture packed with original research, photographs and archival material that will bring the Black Dahlia investigation and Beth Short’s story to life on your digital device. And you'll find the look of an Esotouric webinar is a little different than your standard dry Zoom session, with lively interactive graphics courtesy of the mmhmm app.

After the presentation, Kim, Richard and Joan will answer your questions about the case and their work telling the stories of Los Angeles through the lens of true crime and historic preservation, so get ready to be a part of the show.

Can't join in when the webinar is happening? You'll have access to the full replay for one week.

So, tune in and discover the incredible history of Los Angeles, with the couple whose passion for the city is infectious.

FYI: Immediately upon registering, you will receive a separate, automated email containing the link to join the webinar. The webinar is reliable on all devices, Mac, PC, iOS and Android.

About Esotouric: As undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz, Kim Cooper and Richard Schave inexplicably hated one other on sight. (Perhaps less inexplicably, their academic advisor believed they were soul mates). A chance meeting 18 years later proved much more agreeable. Richard wooed Kim with high level library database access, with which she launched the 1947project true crime blog, highlighting a crime a day from the year of The Black Dahlia and Bugsy Siegel slayings. The popular blog’s readers demanded a tour, and then another. The tour was magical, a hothouse inspiring new ways for the by-then-newlyweds to tell the story of Los Angeles. Esotouric was born in 2007 with a calendar packed with true crime, literary, architecture and rock and roll tours. Ever since, it has provided a platform for promoting historic preservation issues (like the Save the 76 Ball campaign and the landmarking of Charles Bukowski’s bungalow), building a community of urban explorers (including dozens of free talks and tours under the umbrella of LAVA) and digging ever deeper into the secret heart of the city they love.

About Joan Renner: Joan is a writer, lecturer, and a social historian with an expertise in historic Los Angeles crime. Follow her antics at https://derangedlacrimes.com/

Rights and permissions: By attending an Esotouric webinar, you acknowledge that the entirety of the presentation is copyrighted, and no portion of the video or text may be reproduced in any fashion.