The Black Dahlia
Characters in The Black Dahlia
9 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Bucky Bleichert
A reserved, guilt-ridden LAPD detective and former boxer whose growing obsession with the murder pulls him into corruption and moral compromise.
Supporting characters
Elizabeth Short
The real-life murder victim whose horrific 1947 killing, and the mystery of who she really was, drives the entire investigation.
Lee Blanchard
Bucky's charismatic partner, celebrated for capturing a bank robber, who is hiding secrets about his own criminal past and his bond with Kay Lake.
Kay Lake
A sharp, independent woman living platonically with Lee Blanchard after her abusive ex-boyfriend was imprisoned; she is drawn into a love triangle with both detectives.
Madeleine Sprague
A spoiled, sexually forward socialite who bears an eerie resemblance to Elizabeth Short and pulls Bucky into her wealthy family's secrets.
Emmett Sprague
Madeleine's domineering, corrupt property-developer father, a Scottish immigrant whose violent past becomes entangled in the case.
Minor characters
Bobby De Witt
Kay Lake's abusive ex-boyfriend, a bank robber whose arrest set the surviving trio's entangled history in motion.