Knowlton experiences a flood of repressed childhood memories, and realizes that her father was L.A.'s notorious Black Dahlia Killer. Carefully documenting her claims, she exposes George Knowlton's 30-year rampage of rape and murder. Even more shocking is the evidence she provides revealing that the police always knew the killer's identity.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger Former LAPD detective Steve Hodel compiles never-before-seen evidence that reveals his father as a serial killer who may have been responsible for some of the most infamous murders of the last century- including the Zodiac killings.

It is one of the most enduringly fascinating crimes in American history. On January 15, 1947, passersby made a grisly discovery in a vacant lot in Los Angeles: the body of a naked young woman, cut in two, and savagely mutilated. The victim was identified as Elizabeth Short, a struggling Hollywood actress. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia by a headline-hungry press, her lurid demise sparked a desperate manhunt. But the mystery of the Black Dahlia murder remained unsolved for nearly half a century -- until now. A victim of incest and brutality from infancy, Janice Knowlton was an old hand at repressing hideous memories by age ten, when she watched her father, George Frederick Knowlton, torture, kill, and dismember Elizabeth Short in the detached garage of their California home. It was not the first of Daddy's murders Jon had witnessed, and it would not be the last -- but she had been so traumatized that it took over four decades for fragments of her memory to resurface. Aided by a family counselor specializing in child abuse, Jan experienced a nightmare flood of childhood memories -- and realized that she had witnessed her father commit up to nine savage and sadistic murders, including that of her own infant son, a child of incest. Using census records, maps, family interviews, police reports, and clippings from a dozen newspapers to document her searing memories, Janice exposes her father's thirty-year rampage of rope and murder in this astonishing survivor's testament -- and provides persuasive evidence that Los Angeles low enforcement authorities always knew the shocking truth...

On January 15, 1947, the body of beautiful 22-year-old Elizabeth Short--dubbed the Black Dahlia because of her black clothing and the dahlia she wore--was discovered in a lot in downtown Los Angeles. More than 50 years after what has been called the most notorious unsolved murder of the 20th century, the case has finally been solved. 8-page photo insert.

In 1946, Elizabeth Short traveled to Hollywood to become famous and see her name up in lights. Instead, the dark-haired beauty became immortalized in the headlines as the "Black Dahlia" when her nude and bisected body was discovered in the weeds of a vacant lot. Despite the efforts of more than four hundred police officers and homicide investigators, the heinous crime was never solved. Now, after endless speculation and false claims, bestselling author Donald H. Wolfe discovers startling new evidence—buried in the files of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for more than half a century. With the aid of archival photos, news clippings, and investigative reports, Wolfe documents the riveting untold story that names the brutal murderer—the notorious Mafia leader, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel—and the motive—an unwanted pregnancy resulting from Short's involvement with the most powerful figure in Los Angeles, Norman Chandler. But Wolfe goes even further to unravel the large-scale cover-up behind the case. Wolfe's extensive research, based on the evidence he discovered in the recently opened LADA files, makes The Black Dahlia Files the authoritative work on the murder that has drawn endless scrutiny but remained unsolved—until now.

This new edition of the L.A. noir classic is released just in time to accompany the Brian De Palma film.

Originally published: 2011. With new addendum.