For a shockingly reasonable fee, Crimebo the Crime Clown will come to your party and read from his Big Book of Terrible Crimes about all the ghastly things that happened on your special day. Click the contact link for more info.

Gorgeously lurid... with an introduction from James Ellroy.

Collection of photos from the tabloid Herald-Express.

A deft fictional imagining of the dark circumstances behind starlet Jean Spangler's unsolved 1949 disappearance.

Widely recognized as the best non-fiction book written about Southern California for the period 1920s through the 1940s... packed with fascinating material on the region and its galaxy of personalities.

an exceptionally well-done resource, and a welcome addition to the shelves of any Los Angelaphile, scholar, or visitor who seeks a self-guided tour.

An elegant, A to Z compendium of Marlowe's ever-more-relevant observations about crime, women, work, sex, good, evil, and life in the big city.

In 1949, photographer Don Normark walked up into the hills of Los Angeles, looking for a good view. Instead, he found Chavez Ravine, a ramshackle Mexican-American neighborhood tucked away in Elysian Park like a "poor man's Shangri-la." Enchanted, he stayed for a year amidst the wild roses, tin roofs, and wandering goats of this uniquely intact rural community on the city's outskirts. Accepted by the residents, Normark was able to photograph a life that, though bowed down by poverty, was lived fully, openly, and joyfully.

"Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles"

Jim Heimann is the man to see in Hollywood if you are making a movie that is set in Southern California in bygone times--he combines the skills of an archivist, a cultural anthropologist, a designer and a historian, and he knows where to look for a dusty photographic relic that shows what any corner of byway of Los Angeles looked like on a particular day in the past. Heimann's remarkable skill set is put to good use in this beguiling collection of black-and-white photographs that depict the demimonde of Los Angeles from the '20s to the '50s. What the photographer Weegee did for New York in his classic "Naked City," Heimann now does for Los Angeles.

True Crime Blogroll

August 2006: Los Angeles Magazine proclaims the Crime Bus Tours among the best of L.A.!

"[One] of the best true crime sites on the Net." -Rolling Stone

CourtTV: The Bus Ride To Hell, And Back

Video: G4's Blair Butler on the Crime Bus

Wheels of misfortune: Bus tours Dahlia haunts

Pasadena Weekly cover story: Killer Ride

Pasadena Star-News: Sunny streets, deadly pasts

L.A. Times: Perfect Year For A Slay Ride

L.A. Times' Steve Harvey's Only In L.A.

The Downtown News Rides the Crime Bus

CBS.com rides along on the Crime Bus

Michael Linder of KNX Newsradio visits 1947project

Click for THE CASE OF THE WALING WRISTWATCH: As heard on KPCC radio's Pacific Drift LA noir episode

RAVIN' NATHAN ALERT: Hear the Podcast of the 1947project radio feature by Chris Vallance for BBC5

L.A. Times interview

The L.A. Blogging Tinderbox

The LAist interview

The 8763 Wonderland interview

"Brilliantly, unhealthily obsessed... We can't imagine our daily routine without it." -LAist..."Imaginative and ambitious." -Rodger Jacobs... "L.A.'s best blog-noir." -LAVoice... "1947project is much more than just a blog. It is fantastic literature which just happens to be presented in the blog format. If you're a fan of noir, or just a proud Angeleno, you're going to love it." -Wil Weaton

photo: Mark Edward Harris

Buy 1947project T-Shirts
Until we migrate all the old posts to the new site, visit the 1947project archives here
Kim edits Scram, a journal of unpopular culture
Nathan's book, "Los Angeles Neon"
Larry has a pretty good idea who killed the Black Dahlia... and an even better idea of who didn't
Joan has a nicer collection of vintage cosmetics than you'll ever find, so don't even try.

Kim and Nathan with the Crime Bus

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Cemetery Guidebook "The Stars of Hollywood Forever"
Karie Bible's Cemetery Tour and Film Radar
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Based on the Erwin "Machine Gun" Walker case, a favorite at 1947project








Shot on Bunker Hill + Yvonne DeCarlo, mmmm....







Anthony Mann Film Noir Double Feature [DVD] DVD

The Best Of Film Noir [DVD] DVD

The Hitch-Hiker [DVD](1953) DVD

Railroaded [DVD](1947) DVD

The Big Combo [DVD](1955) DVD

D.O.A. [DVD](1950) DVD

The Blue Gardenia [DVD](1953) DVD

Detour [DVD](1945) DVD

Strange Illusion [DVD](1945) DVD

The Big Heat [DVD](1953) DVD

Raw Deal [DVD](1948) DVD

Slightly Scarlet [DVD](1955) DVD

T-Men [DVD](1947) DVD

Gunman In The Streets [DVD](1950) DVD

The Chase [DVD](1946) DVD

Laura [DVD](1944) DVD

He Walked By Night [DVD](1948) DVD

Odds Against Tomorrow [DVD](1959) DVD

D.O.A. (1950)/The Hitch-Hiker (1953) [DVD] DVD

Too Late For Tears [DVD](1949) DVD

Gun Crazy [DVD](1949) DVD

Film Noir Classic Collection [DVD] DVD

The Big Clock [DVD](1948) DVD

Black Angel [DVD](1946) DVD

The Scar [DVD](1948) DVD

Strange Illusion [DVD](1945) DVD

Night And The City [DVD](1950) DVD

Port Of New York [DVD](1949) DVD

Born To Kill [DVD](1947) DVD

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 2 [DVD] DVD

House By The River [DVD](1950) DVD

The Dark Corner [DVD](1946) DVD

Kiss Of Death [DVD](1947) DVD

Where The Sidewalk Ends [DVD](1950) DVD

Boomerang [DVD](1947) DVD

I Wake Up Screaming [DVD](1942) DVD

Portland Expose (1957)/They Were So Young [DVD](1954) DVD

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 [DVD] DVD

The Scar (1948)/The Limping Man (1953) [DVD] DVD

Too Late For Tears [DVD](1949) DVD

Classic Film Noir Double Feature [DVD] DVD

Whispering City [DVD](1947) DVD

The Street With No Name [DVD](1948) DVD

Without Warning [DVD](1952) DVD

Somewhere In The Night [DVD](1946) DVD

Whirlpool [DVD](1949) DVD

Panic In The Streets [DVD](1950) DVD

Classic Film Noir Gift Set (10-DVD Set) [DVD] DVD

Film Noir Classics Collection (4-DVD Set) [DVD] DVD

Fallen Angel [DVD](1945) DVD

House On Telegraph Hill [DVD](1951) DVD