James Ellroy

It's LA on VJ day. Revelers pour down Hollywood Boulevard. Girls lean out of cars. Soldiers and sailors run up and grab kisses. There's a pretty dark haired girl caught in close up. It's Betty Short. She's young, she's vibrant, she lives. The crime scene looked like this. We'd covered lots north to south. The body on the west side, mid-block.

It's LA on VJ day. Revelers pour down Hollywood Boulevard. Girls lean out of cars. Soldiers and sailors run up and grab kisses. There's a pretty dark haired girl caught in close up. It's Betty Short. She's young, she's vibrant, she lives. The crime scene looked like this. We'd covered lots north to south. The body on the west side, mid-block.

It's LA on VJ day. Revelers pour down Hollywood Boulevard. Girls lean out of cars. Soldiers and sailors run up and grab kisses. There's a pretty dark haired girl caught in close up. It's Betty Short. She's young, she's vibrant, she lives. The crime scene looked like this. We'd covered lots north to south. The body on the west side, mid-block.

There are people out there who are only aroused when they're killing. She met someone like that.

There are people out there who are only aroused when they're killing. She met someone like that.

There are people out there who are only aroused when they're killing. She met someone like that.

Your father's got a lust for blood. You don't know anything about your father. And there's how we revise our own memory. I never dreamt that Dad could be an actual suspect of this crime. This is Steve O'Dell's journey through his most forbidding memories.

Your father's got a lust for blood. You don't know anything about your father. And there's how we revise our own memory. I never dreamt that Dad could be an actual suspect of this crime. This is Steve O'Dell's journey through his most forbidding memories.

Your father's got a lust for blood. You don't know anything about your father. And there's how we revise our own memory. I never dreamt that Dad could be an actual suspect of this crime. This is Steve O'Dell's journey through his most forbidding memories.

A roamer, a sweet kid. She's a ghost in a blank page to record our fears and desires.

A roamer, a sweet kid. She's a ghost in a blank page to record our fears and desires.

A roamer, a sweet kid. She's a ghost in a blank page to record our fears and desires.

A post-war Mona Lisa in L.A. quintessential.

A post-war Mona Lisa in L.A. quintessential.

A post-war Mona Lisa in L.A. quintessential.

A body in a vacant lot and an apparition called the Black Dahlia.

A body in a vacant lot and an apparition called the Black Dahlia.

A body in a vacant lot and an apparition called the Black Dahlia.

Nothing stays buried forever. Nothing. It's the great L.A. murder. And L.A. 's had some doozies.

Nothing stays buried forever. Nothing. It's the great L.A. murder. And L.A. 's had some doozies.