 On January 26th, 2001, 33-year-old Diane Whipple was mauled to death by her neighbors  dogs in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building. The brutal attack shocked residents of the city, and Whipple, young, prosperous and gay, quickly captured the public s sympathy. But what was first seen as a tragic accident soon took on a more sinister tone. The dogs  owners, Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, husband-and-wife attorneys, began making statements that seemed to suggest Whipple herself might have been to blame for the attack. And when information surfaced that the couple s dogs had a history of violent behavior, the public began clamoring for justice, culminating in criminal charges against Knoller and Noel.