Hodel's unique perspective on adoption, race relations, and her family history led her to write the unreleased 1991 film Pretty Hattie's Baby, directed by Ivan Passer and starring Alfre Woodard.

[8] Her memoir One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel [1] (written with J. R. Briamonte) was published by Outskirts Press in 2008.

The book inspired I Am the Night, a 2019 six-episode limited television series starring Chris Pine and India Eisley, directed by Patty Jenkins.

[5] In February 2019, it was announced that Gentile and Pecoraro were producing a podcast, Root of Evil, which delves further into the book, the miniseries adaptation, and their family history.

[10][11] In February 2019, the eight-episode podcast, Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia, produced by Cadence 13 in conjunction with TNT, premiered.