The life story of Fauna Hodel (1951-2017) previously inspired the unreleased feature film Pretty Hattie's Baby (1991).
At the Happening in Episode 4, Corinna Hodel performs an art piece where people use scissors to gradually cut off her clothes while she sits there passively. This is actually a 1965 Yoko Ono performance art piece called "Cut Piece."
Loose fictionalization of the same real events at the core of Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia (2006), True Confessions (1981), Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975), that were also fundamental for the development of The Devil's Muse (2007), The Black Dahlia (1988), influenced Black Dahlia (2006), Pretty Hattie's Baby (1991), portrayed in documentaries like The Black Dahlia (1998), The Black Dahlia (1999), The Black Dahlia (2006) and inspired the name of the band The Black Dahlia Murder.
Director Patty Jenkins previously worked with actor Chris Pine in "Wonder Woman" (2017).