Sure ain't no accounting for taste
The publisher, Serious Publishing , 03/26/97:
The story of 101 Uses...
We had a surprising response to this book. Except for perhaps
30 copies,
it's completely sold out.
Most of the people who bought it seemed to fit an older
demographic -- say
age 55+, and about
65% were women. It seems that the older you become, the less
upset you are
about sexual
innuendo. We also sold many copies -- in quantity -- to
doctors and other
professionals. We
imagined that maybe they were urologists who intended to
place copies in
their waiting rooms as
some sort of cautionary measure. Whatever. We also had a lot
of desperate
notes from people who
needed a copy for someone turning 50, leaving the company,
taking a trip to
Norway, celebrating a
25th wedding anniversary. Most people who ordered by mail
sent us funny
notes. Of the nearly
5000 copies we sold in the first year, four individuals were
offended and
wrote Dan angry letters
denouncing him as a degenerate or traitor or some such
creature (he's a very
nice man, by the way,
with a lovely wife and a sweet daughter). So four people were
miffed and
about 4,996 were not.
YOU decide. We had lots of press on the book and Dan did many
interviews.
He'll still talk to radio
shows (e-mail me at agarber@pacpress.southam.ca and I'll ask
him -- we work
at the same
newspaper). And we may bring out a line of greeting cards. If
we do, we'll
be sure to let the folks at
Amazon.com know.
David Yorkin wrote:
> This "Dahlia" thread proves that the case still
continues to fascinate.
> One of the books mentioned was "Severed," written I
believe, by John
> Gilmore. It was published by a small press in Santa
Barbara. I find it
> amazing that people don't know about it, because it
is the only book
> that actually SOLVES THE CASE! And it isn't bullshit,
or a rip-off book,
> either.
>
> Gilmore's father was a cop, and he had access to the
files. Gilmore
> writes about the last days of Betty Short, in the
present tense, using
> the files and interviews available. All the
characters Ellroy used are
> in there, plus others, like Mark Hellinger, the
Hollywood producer.
>
> There were three questions that were asked to the
numerous confessors,
> to weed out the frauds. In 1960, a man made a
"hearsay" confession to
> the cops, which is inadmissible, about the death of
Betty Short. The
> transcription of the confession, which was recorded,
is in the book, and
> there is no doubt in my mind that this man was the
actual killer,
> because he's the only one who could answer the three
questions. However,
> he died before the police got to him.
>
> I won't spoil the details for everybody, but I'm
convinced this is the
> real deal. The specifics are chilling and haunting,
and when you read
> about Betty's death, it's a more of a horrendous
event than even Ellroy
> could concoct. It's one hell of an intense read, and
I heartily
> recommend it for all you Dahlia freaks out
there!
>
> David
>
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-- Dick Tartow
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