*Includes pictures *Profiles Spangler's life and looks at the theories and suspects regarding her disappearance *Includes online resources, footnotes, and a bibliography for further reading "Can't wait any longer, Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away," - An unfinished letter found in Spangler's purse after her disappearance The Hollywood culture of the 1940s served as a symbol of fantasy for a country at war. The American population, steeped in a dark global reality, lived vicariously through the film industry's fantasy offerings on the big screen, and eagerly embraced the advent of television in the latter part of the decade. On the stage, images of idealized feminine beauty thrived in the Ziegfeld Follies tradition, Radio City Music Hall, Las Vegas, and the fantastical world created by Earl Carroll in his Hollywood theater. The marketing of American fantasy made for a spectacular outward show, but the interior of Hollywood's entertainment industry was at the same time experiencing its most corrupt decade. Mob bosses vied for power over the drug, alcohol, prostitution, and "protection" markets interconnected with the larger Hollywood image, and for women trying to get ahead in the movie or stage business, the environment was a dangerous one. Beauties came from all over the country to take their chance with fame, but for several, being abducted and gruesomely murdered was the best they could do to attain name recognition. Beginning with the mid-decade murder of actress Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia, a series of murders thought to be the serial work of one perpetrator became emblematic of Hollywood's hidden dangers. The mysterious case of actress and dancer Jean Spangler remains one of the most enduring such riddles in the annals of Hollywood crime. The nature of the case itself still evokes a public fascination many decades after her disappearance. Spangler found herself in southern California as a beautiful actress and dancer trying to land movie roles, a common story among the many young women gravitating to American entertainment centers from more conservative towns and cities. As a high-profile celebrity event, Spangler's case does not match the sensationalism attributed to figures such as Amelia Earhart, who sought to circumnavigate the globe by air, the political importance of union boss Jimmy Hoffa, or the fate of Judge Crater, a likely victim of the New York underworld. However, the Spangler story differs in that it carries no dearth of rational possibilities or relevant clues with which to accommodate all of the leading theories. In fact, in the minds of investigators, the difficulty of finding the best path to pursue was that there were "too many good clues, pointing in different directions." Likewise, where Earhart, Hoffa, and Crater intentionally pursued goals with inherent hazards, Spangler was publicly perceived as a professional if not personal innocent, hoping to make a living and to be discovered for greater things. The Disappearance of Jean Spangler: The History of One of Hollywood's Most Enduring Unsolved Mysteries looks at the life of Jean Spangler and the mysterious events behind her disappearance. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Jean Spangler like never before, in no time at all.

A fictionalized account based on the mysterious 1949 disappearance of actress Jean Spangler, whose demise was linked to the Black Dahlia killings, is a darkly sensual tale that imagines what may have been her fate.

"The history of Hollywood's postwar transition is framed by two spectacular dead bodies: Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947 and Marilyn Monroe, the studio era's last real movie star, discovered dead at her home in August 1962. Short and Monroe are just two of the many left for dead after the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood's awkward adolescence during which the company town's many competing subcultures--celebrities, moguls, mobsters, gossip mongers, industry wannabes, and desperate transients--came into frequent contact and conflict. Hard-Boiled Hollywood focuses on the lives lost at the crossroads between a dreamed-of Los Angeles and the real thing after the Second World War, whose reality was anything but glamorous"--Provided by publisher.

For Viewers of the TNT Series I Am the Night and Fans of the Root of Evil Podcast, the Bestselling Book That Revealed the Shocking Identity of the Black Dahlia Killer and the Police Corruption That Concealed It for So Long A New York Times Bestseller An International Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book An Edgar Award Finalist In 1947, the brutal, sadistic murder of a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Short led to the largest manhunt in LA history. The killer teased and taunted the police and public for weeks, but his identity stayed a mystery, and the murder remained the most tantalizing unsolved case of the last century, until this book revealed the bizarre solution. Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective who was a private investigator, took up the case, reviewing the original evidence and records as well as those of a separate grand jury investigation into a series of murders of single women in LA at the time. The prime suspect had in fact been identified, but never indicted. Why? And who was he? In an account that partakes both of LA Confidential and Zodiac, for the corruption it exposes and the insight it offers into a serial killer’s mind, Hodel demonstrates that there was a massive police cover-up. Even more shocking, he proves that the murderer, a true-life Jekyll and Hyde who was a highly respected member of society by day and a psychopathic killer by night, was his own father. This edition of the book includes new findings and photographs added after the original publication, together with a new postscript by the author.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE . . . Who was Jack the Ripper? Where did the Nazis stash their gold? Who are the real Men in Black? Did aliens send the 'WOW' signal? And how will the world end? 100 Things They Don't Want You to Know sets out to uncover the truth behind the world's most mysterious cover-ups and unexplained events that have been shrouded in secrecy for generations. From suspicious deaths and disappearances to enigmatic identities, from Cold War cover-ups to puzzling paranormal phenomena and from ancient artefacts to coded documents, 100 Things They Don't Want You to Know takes you on a quest to solve the greatest mysteries, strange disappearances, suspicious cover-ups and conspiracy theories. Including: Black Dahlia, the Marfa Lights, the Turin Shroud, Spontaneous Combustion, Lost Literature of the Mayan Civilisation, Disappearance of Jean Spangler, Shakespeare's True Identity, the Turin Shroud, the Easter Island Glyphs, the Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Mothman, The Flying Dutchman, the Secret Mission of Ruldolph Hess, the 'WOW" signal, Lewis Carroll's Lost Diaries, the Man in the Iron Mask and the Beast of Bodmin Moor.

How would you treat a murderer? If you’re from Hollywood and he’s notorious, you might turn him into a folk hero. Separate the facts from the many legends and revisions that have blossomed around these killers in this frightening look at the bloody real lives of movie’s infamous antiheroes. You’ll find a blood-curdling assortment of the “criminal elite” in American Murder: Criminals, Crime and the Media, a rogue’s gallery of our most famous killings, killers and other scoundrels (and some that ought to be more famous than they are). A collection of high-profile murderers, gangsters, assassins, psychopaths, such as O.J., Amy Fisher, Robert Blake, Susan Smith, Claus Von Bulow, the Menendez brothers, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck, Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bugsy Siegel, Jesse James, John Dillinger, Charles Manson, Albert Fish, T. Cullen Davis, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., Edmund Kemper, Beulah Annan, Bonnie and Clyde, Billy the Kid, Charlie Starkweather, as well as an assortment of lesser known killers with some incredible tales! With numerous photos and illustrations, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. American Murderexplores the legends as depicted in movies, stories, and songs. You’d not want to meet any of them in person – either the real or Hollywood versions!

Los Angeles 1949. A city of big dreams and dark shadows... Lily Kessler, a former stenographer and spy for the OSS, comes to Los Angeles to find her late fiancé's sister Kitty, an actress who is missing from her Hollywood boardinghouse. The next day, Kitty's body is found in a ravine below the Hollywood sign. Unimpressed by the local police, Lily investigates on her own. As she delves into Kitty's life, she encounters fiercely competitive starlets, gangsters, an eccentric special-effects genius, exotic denizens of Hollywood's nightclubs, and a homicide detective who might distract her from her quest for justice. But the landscape in L.A. can shift kaleidoscopically, and Lily begins to see how easily a young woman can lose her balance and fall prey to the alluring city's dangers.... With vibrant characters and unerring insight into the desires and dark impulses that can flare between men and women, The Last Embrace showcases Denise Hamilton at the height of her storytelling powers as she transports readers to a fascinating, transitional time in one of America's most beguiling cities.