The awful true story of Diana Jean Heaney, and the "hitchhike slaying"

Burbank librarian Sarah McKinley Oakes (proprietor of the excellent Remains of LA blog, which reviews all of LA's surviving grand old restaurants and dives) uses her excellent librarian skills to take a deep dive into the tragic tale of Diana Jean Heaney, whose first mention in print was in a 1947 article on the notorious "Black Dahlia" murder, but only to mention that Heaney was definitely not a victim of the same murderer.

From there, Oakes traces Heaney's -- frankly awful -- life story: seduced at 15 by a 26-year-old WWII Air Force veteran, eloped with him, pimped out, then witness to his murder of one of the men he trafficked her to, only to have her name smeared in the national press as a slut who cheated on her innocent husband, driving him into a killing rage.

It's a terrible story, but made all the more so by the way the press handled it at the time, focusing blame on a child bride who had been victimized by an adult who was exonerated by the media and treated as the wronged party. Oakes's writeup is part historical sleuthing, part media/gender studies investigation.

But the crux of his story was that Diana had cheated on him, so naturally he was compelled to kill the man.

The prosecution argued that the motive was theft; the couple took the car and a great deal of cash from Texs wallet. Its hard to say whether they suggested that Tex had paid Evald in order to have sex with Diana.