Gary Indiana hates it: "meretricious, revolting twaddle." In the book retired LAPD homicide cop Steve Hodel fingers his father as the 1947 Black Dahlia killer, using reasoning I doubt the LAPD would approve. Indiana dismisses it as of a piece with an earlier book by an author who concluded it was her dad who did the vicious deed. I could read more on Hodel's dad though. He's one of those shadowy characters who populates L.A.'s past -- a venereal disease doctor for the downtown elite and the stars with a taste for de Sade.