Friday, January 21, 2011

Stay off the Grass, ya Black Dahlia Sillies!

"Please stay off the lawn," the tour guides said. "In fact, stay off the sidewalk. And please don't do what someone did, the first time we gave this tour, and lie on the grass.
We stood in a nice suburban neighborhood. You'd never guess anything ugly  had occurred 64 years earlier.
I was on Esotouric's  The Real Black Dahlia  tour, visiting  locations associated  with  one of the one of Los Angeles's most infamous unsolved murders. 
The guides tactfully steered us just south of the where the body (which was cut in two) was found in 1947.  I think they wanted to point out the location without having us stomp all over someone's property, as it lies on what is now someone's front lawn, right next to the sidewalk.
Later I did some Google searching and discovered some visitors (and there are plenty) aren't so thoughtful.  The case has a cult following and some people have spread out on the grass and posed for pictures.  What the hell!?
I wonder how often it happens?  What's it like to live there*?  Do the residents get mail addressed to the victim?  Do people leave flowers and plush toys?  Do crazy people knock on the door and ramble on about the case?
Does the scene below ever happen?:
If this were my lawn, it would happen.
Or maybe I'd just charge each weirdo five bucks per photo.

*The house was built about nine years after the body was found.   Rumor has it that the builder (or original owner) was obsessed with the case, if not personally involved, which I find hard to believe.  Looks like a regular tract house to me. 

6 comments:

Pile Girl said...

Sounds like a good spot for a kid to have a lemonade stand.

Linda Davick said...

Namo, you kill me.

Uniblogger said...

Pile Girl, selling Bloody Marys would be better...

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Pile girl,
Heh heh. I'm actually surprised there's not a souvenir truck nearby, for everyone's Black Dahlia tchotchke needs.

Linda,
Glad to be of service.

Uniblogger,
Well, the bar at the Biltmore (the last place the victim was seen alive), does have a drink named "The Black Dahlia".

p.s.
One of the nice things about having a limited readership is I don't get stupid "So you all think it's funny that someone got killed," comments by people who completely miss my point.

GhostBuild said...

The word verification prompted by Blogspot to me today was:

butsking

Maybe that should be the name for this idea, of trespassing by plopping one's butt down on a spot where something gruesome happened, and getting a picture taken.


I suppose the house owner could use PetBeGone-type stuff to keep people from getting ideas... or maybe get into the hobby of raising fireants? ;-D

Nah, charge'em money for it, then give a cut to the tour guide.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Ghostbuild,
Ha! "Those butskiers are at it again. I'll get the bat..."

Actually I briefly considered sending a letter to that address asking how the owner thought about all this, but it seemed too weird and nosey for me. Besides, he/she/they probably get weird mail anyway.

To give my tour guides credit, they made sure everyone stayed off the property.