Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

Next week, we'll continue with part two of our series, Ted Bundy for the Defense.

In this bonus episode, we'll revisit our last series, Broken, the Black Dahlia Murder,

and discuss an update on the case that has generated a bit of buzz online.

If you've been following recent headlines, you've likely seen the Los Angeles Times article

that reignited global attention on the Black Dahlia murder.

The piece centers on an amateur sleuths theory proposing a connection between the Black Dahlia case and the Zodiac killer. And it identifies Marvin Margolis as the prime suspect, quoting author William J. Mann in the process.

The Zodiac angle is provocative and has certainly captured the public imagination.

But what's been largely lost in the noise is this.

Marvin Margolis did not suddenly emerge as a suspect because of that article.

Margolis was identified as a strong credible suspect through years of original investigation

by William J. Mann, just revealed in his new book, Black Dahlia, Murder, Monsters, and Madness

in Mid-Century Hollywood, released today, January 26, 2026.

This matters because renewed media attention risks reducing a deeply researched body of

evidence to a single sensational theory. Man's book goes far beyond what has been reported so far,

drawing on documentary proof, government records, an exclusive material no other journalists had yet

accessed. In Black Dahlia,

Mannon reconstructs Margolis's life and psychology in unsettling detail, including a file the FBI has

refused to release on Margolis, even after a formal appeal, previously unexamined arrest and court

records in both Chicago and California, military records

confirming Margolis's anatomical and surgical proficiency, alongside documentation of severe mental

illness and academic records revealing intense psychological and situational stress in the

...