Woman Believes Her Father Could Have Killed Black Dahlia

Horrifying memories, surfacing now after being repressed for more than 40 years, have convinced Janice Knowlton that her father was a killer, possibly even the infamous Black Dahlia murderer.

Knowlton’s apparent recollections have impressed Westminister police detectives enough that today they will dig up the site of her former residence, now a vacant lot, in search of evidence of a crime--possibly the Black Dahlia victim’s belongings or the body of another woman.

“Repressed memories like these do check out. It’s not unusual,” said Westminster Police Lt. Larry Woessner, although he remained skeptical that evidence from the Black Dahlia case will be uncovered.

The Black Dahlia murder, which remains unsolved, was one of the most horrifying homicides ever committed in the Southland. On Jan. 15, 1947, Elizabeth Ann Short--an aspiring actress and Hollywood groupie--was found dead in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles.

Knowlton, now 54, says she believes her father killed a woman and buried her remains in the now-vacant lot in the 7300 block of Texas Street. Her father, George A. Knowlton, died in a car accident in 1962.

“She seems to think that we may find a purse or some other belongings of Elizabeth Short,” Woessner said. “If we do, great.”

The Black Dahlia case drew headlines because of the gruesomeness of the crime: The victim was tortured and her body was severed at the waistline. Her internal organs had been removed and she had been drained of blood. In a final act of cruelty, the killer carved an ear-to-ear grin on her face.

Part of the fascination of the murder had to do with Short herself, an aspiring actress who lived on the fringes of Hollywood with dreams of stardom and a reputation for an array of sexual encounters. The 22-year-old woman was called Black Dahlia because of her fondness for tight-fitting black dresses.

Los Angeles Police Detective John P. St. John, one of the investigators assigned to the case, is skeptical about the connection between Knowlton’s father and the Black Dahlia murder.

“We have a lot of people offering up their fathers and various relatives as the Black Dahlia killer,” said St. John, better known as Jigsaw John. “The things that she is saying are not consistent with the facts of the case.”

About a year ago, shortly after her mother died, Knowlton began to recall during therapy sessions haunting images of hiding in the family’s garage while her father sexually and physically tortured a woman, whom she called Aunt Betty. The father later cut the woman’s limp body in two with a power saw, Knowlton said she recalls.

Finally, she said, she recalls her father driving to Los Angeles and ditching the body somewhere downtown.

To support her belief that the victim in her apparent memories was the Black Dahlia, Knowlton points to factual similarities between her family history and newspaper accounts of the crime. For instance, she said, Short once lived in Medford, Mass., at the same time her family lived in nearby Lynn, Mass.

Knowlton cited some newspaper clippings that stated Short had talked of marrying a man named George, and that a tan sedan often had been seen near Short’s residence. George Knowlton owned a tan LaSalle, she said.

Knowlton said she has also recalled two other murders committed by her father, and she believes one of the victims was mutilated and buried in the family’s yard in Westminster. She believes the other occurred in Massachusetts.

Woessner said the police will be assisted in their search by volunteers headed by Cal State Fullerton forensic anthropology professor Judy Suchey.