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...