Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer: The Identity of America's Most Notorious Serial Murderer--Revealed at Last [Mass Market Paperback]

Janice Knowlton (Author), Michael Newton (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

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...

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671880845
• ISBN-13: 978-0671880842
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #916,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars DISTURBING BUT NOT WELL FOUNDED, October 23, 1998

By 

J. Elattar "j101024" (NY,NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer: The Identity of America's Most Notorious Serial Murderer--Revealed at Last (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read the book based on the subject matter, the Black Dahlia murder, which I am very interested in since it was never solved. Although I do believe that Ms. Knowlton was defintely abused by her father, there is no proof that he has committed the Black Dahlia murder or any other. There is no direct evidence that would convince me that has committed the murders that are mentioned in the book. I do feel for Ms. Knowlton and her suffering, however, many of the things that she mentions about Beth Short (the Black Dahlia), do not meet the facts that are known about her. For example, Ms. Knowlton mentions that "Aunt Betty" had sex with her father (George Knowlton)and was a well known prostitute. Beth Short had a deformed sex organ that did not enable her to have intercourse with men. This was a fact that was kept out of the news papers in order to identify the true killer if they ever confessed. the picture that Ms. Knowlton paints of Beth Short is as sadistic babysitter and a tramp, as if to say in indirect words, that the Black Dahlia put herself in a position that caused her death and suffering. The abuse is too well described and I had to put the book down many a time because of its disturbing content. I am sorry to say that this book is not one that I would recommend to people who never heard of the murder of the Black Dahlia. It is full of rumors that could have been overheard over time and facts about the murder that could have been taken out of back issues of newspapers that were printed in January of 1947, when the murder took place. I hurt for Ms. Knowlton, but do not believe that her "facts" are well founded.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars WHAT A PIECE OF S@#T!, September 14, 2000

By 

Shane Tierney "Shane Tierney NYC" (NYC, NY - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer: The Identity of America's Most Notorious Serial Murderer--Revealed at Last (Mass Market Paperback)

SUMMARY OF DADDY WAS THE BLACK DAHILA KILLER:

1)Ms. Knowlton is a extremely disturbed lady, that had some really bad stuff happen to her in childhood.

2)Ms. Knowlton's father was, most probably, a card-carrying scumbag.

3)For whatever reason (your guess is as good as mine) Ms. Knowlton latches on to the classic case of the Black Dahila killing.

4)Ms. Knowlton has access to "repressed memories" that (through sickeningly graphic detail) "prove" her father was the killer.

5)As if providing absolutly ZERO evidence to back up her rediculious claim wasn't enough, there is massive character assination to Beth Short, the "black dahila".

CONCLUSION: Even though it's obvious Janice Knowlton needs large amounts of time in the horizontal position on a leather couch with a mental health professional nearby to comfort her, you should not help to offset this expense by buying gory, fictious trash dressed up to be a "true crime" non-fiction autobiography memoir of some kind. Let this nut find her own cash.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ghastly, ghoulish garbage, July 11, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer: The Identity of America's Most Notorious Serial Murderer--Revealed at Last (Mass Market Paperback)

This disturbing diatribe by an aspiring actress clearly indicates that she is credible as a victim of extreme child abuse. Her "memories" of the Black Dahlia murder, however, are highly dubious...if her case were as strong as she claims, she wouldn't be relegated to this kind of pulp work that is so over-the-top disgusting that it is impossible to read. I found myself having to skip portions of graphic torture too heinous to digest. I cannot imagine any psychological adviser supporting this kind of "purge" and it is best avoided by any reader. Hopefully the author will find some more productive way to exorcise her demons.