The Black Stiletto Read Free

pinup model Bettie Page, who had posed for underground nude photographs and films in the fifties and then dropped out of sight. In the eighties and nineties, pop culture had “rediscovered” Page and her images sprouted everywhere—even though the woman herself was nowhere to be found. The media exploited Page’s likeness without her permission through movies, comics, and magazines—and then she finally made herself known. The elderly former model had been living quietly in seclusion, completely unaware of the attention she’d been getting until a friend pointed it out to her. Only in the last years of her life did Page see any profit from the use of her youthful image.
    The same thing had happened to the Black Stiletto.
    She was active in the very late Eisenhower years and some of the sixties, an underground heroine who made a name for herself as a vigilante. Although she was wanted by the law and would have been arrested had she been caught or her secret identity been revealed, the Black Stiletto was a competent and successful crime fighter. She battled common crooks, Communist infiltrators, the Mafia—and was responsible for their capture and, in some cases, their deaths. The Stiletto first operated in New York City, but when the police came too close to catching her, she moved to Los Angeles.
    Where I was born .
    And then she’d inexplicably disappeared and was never heard from again. No one came forward with knowledge of who she really was and most people thought she’d probably died. Why not? She was involved in dangerous, high-risk situations. It made sense that she’d been fatally injured or even arrested and sent to prison without the authorities knowing who they’d really locked up. For a while it was one of those big mysteries like “who shotJFK?” What happened to the Black Stiletto? Where is she? Is she alive or dead? WHO was she?
    A decade passed and people tended to forget about her until the mid-eighties, when a fledgling independent comic-book publisher began a fictional series about the costumed crusader. They proved to be extremely popular and sold all over the world. The History Channel did a documentary biopic in the early nineties that consisted mostly of speculation, as I remember. There was at least one biography published, but of course it contained nothing about the Stiletto’s personal life. It was simply an account of everything that had been documented about her in the newspapers. Then came the toys and other merchandise—action figures, videogames, board games, Halloween costumes, you name it. A lot of manufacturers were making millions off the Black Stiletto and there was no one to defend her interests.
    A feature film starring Angelina Jolie came out in the late nineties, before the actress had become a huge star. The picture was a hit but had very little to do with the real Black Stiletto. It was all fantasy with lots of gunplay, explosions, and unbelievable stunts. The real Black Stiletto was much more low-tech than what was portrayed in the movie. Still, it captured audiences’ imaginations. There was talk of a television series, but it never came to pass.
    Like most people, I, too, was fascinated by the Black Stiletto. If I’d been younger when the comics came out, I probably would have bought and read them.
    Apparently, Mom was well aware of what was going on, seeing there was a little collection of ephemera in the closet. She never said a word. She could have capitalized on her past and made a fortune. But instead she lived quietly and in obscurity here in the Chicago suburbs until the onset of her illness.
    I couldn’t wait any longer. I opened the first diary and started to read.

2
Judy’s Diary
1958
    July 4, 1958
    Dear diary, I thought maybe I should start writing all this stuff down. When I was a little girl I kept a diary. I wrote in it for about three years, I think. I don’t know what happened to it. I guess it’s still back in Odessa, sitting in a drawer in