James Ellroy is an American crime writer with a sordid past. He is the child of a nurse mother and an alcoholic accountant father. His parents divorced in 1954 and Ellroy moved with his mother to a low-income area of Los Angeles. Just four short years later his mother was brutally murdered there. Her murder remains unsolved.
Following his expulsion from Fairfax High School for "ranting about Nazism" and his father's death, Ellroy was caught attempting to shoplift a steak from a local store and he wound up in juvenile hall.
At age eighteen Ellroy somehow ended up living on the streets. There he struggled with his own personal demons: alcoholism, drug abuse, and possible mental health issues.
After getting arrested for squatting in an abandoned building, Ellroy somehow procured a job at an adult bookstore. Despite his new steady employment, Ellroy continued to battle alcoholism and drug use. He eventually joined AA and was able to kick his bad habits.
Spurred by his mother's own unsolved murder and a childhood love of The Hardy Boys, Ellroy began writing dark crime novels. He penned his first book, a mystery called Brown's Requiem which he sold at age 30. Ellroy is perhaps most well known for his book L.A. Confidential which inspired the 1997 film of the same name.
It is this man, a man with a dark and twisted past, who narrates Investigation Discovery's newest show: James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons. The premiere episode, "Dead Women Own Me," highlights the gruesome murders of a 16 year old girl, a kidnapped woman, and the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia.
Later episodes will explore Los Angeles' seedy underside: mob crime and the city's famous nightclub scene. He will also discuss 1950's tabloids, dead celebrities, and serial killers.
Ellroy's narration is reminiscent of the stereotypical 1930s detective: dark and gritty. He explores these cases in grave detail and with a large dose of gallows' humor.
James Ellroy's LA: City of Demons premiers tonight, January 19th, at 10 PM ET on Investigation Discovery.
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