The New York Times bestselling author of Zodiac now uncovers one of the most bizarre cases in the annals of American crime. San Francisco, 1926: A series of women are slashed to death and dismembered. Incredibly, eyewitness reports claim the perpetrator was a hulking brute with razor-claws for hands who lumbered on all fours and laughed maniacally before shredding the nude flesh of his female victims. The tabloid press called him the Laughing Gorilla and loved every sensational beat of the story. For Inspector Charles Dullea of the San Francisco Police, the last honest cop in one of the most notoriously corrupt departments in the country, the serial killings raised a haunting question: who could commit such crimes? Nothing prepared Dullea for the answer.