Lesley tells Madeline all about the demon dog of literature, crime novelist James Ellroy! We're drinking Black Dahlia cocktails created by the Gallery Bar in Los Angeles. 

Sources include: 

JamesEllroy.net which lead to several interviews

Britannica profile written by David Calhoun

New York Times interview “James Ellroy on his life in crime, his imaginary dog and the need to provoke” by David Marchese Countless YouTube interviews with James Ellroy

And of course, his own autobiographies, My Dark Places and The Hilliker Curse