January 29, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Arcade Publishing will be offering their updated print edition of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder, available in stores and on-line in mid-February, 2015. (Since 2012, this edition has previously only been available, in e-book format.)

Over the past decade there have been several reprintings and updates to the paperback edition to Black Dahlia Avenger  (HarperCollins 2004, 2006) so let me here clarify that this 2015 printing is the “go to book” for  the original publication in that it includes all previous updated chapters and revisions through January, 2015. (See “Author’s Note” to this edition below. As referenced there, a sequel, Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014) contains separate additional investigations from 2006-2014, that are not contained in this original BDA I publication.)

For those of you who have already purchased the Skyhorse/Arcade 2012 EBook, this is that same edition, only now made available in PRINT format.

ARCADE PUBLISHING (An Imprint, of Skyhorse Pub. Since 2010) in mid-February, will publish this 2015 print edition of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder.

Black Dahlia Avenger—Arcade 2015 Paperback Edition

Publication date- 19 February 2015

Format: Paperback / softback, 550 pages
Pub. Date: 19-Feb-2015
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
ISBN-10: 1628724390
ISBN-13: 9781628724394

Book Description:
“In 1947, the brutal, sadistic murder of a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Short led to the largest manhunt in LA history. The killer teased and taunted the police and public for weeks, but his identity stayed a mystery, and the murder remained the most tantalizing unsolved case of the last century, until this book revealed the bizarre solution. Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective who was a private investigator, took up the case, reviewing the original evidence and records as well as those of a separate grand jury investigation into a series of murders of single women in LA at the time. The prime suspect had in fact been identified, but never indicted. Why? And who was he? In an account that partakes both of LA Confidential and Zodiac, for the corruption it exposes and the insight it offers into a serial killer’s mind, Hodel demonstrates that there was a massive police cover-up. Even more shocking, he proves that the murderer, a true-life Jekyll and Hyde who was a highly respected member of society by day and a psychopathic killer by night, was his own father. This edition of the book includes new findings and photographs added after the original publication, together with a new postscript by the author. “–

“Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective who was a private investigator, takes up the case of the Black Dahlia murder. In an account that partakes both of LA Confidential and Zodiac, for the corruption it exposes and the insight it offers into a serial killer’s mind, Hodel reveals for the first time the true killer and the massive cover-up of the truth”____________________

Author’s Note to the Arcade 2015 Edition

This Arcade 2015 edition is an update to the original 2003 Arcade hardback edition. (Arcade is now an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing.)

The two updated chapters (Aftermath and New Investigation: Hard Evidence and Forensics) included in the July 2006 HarperCollins paper-back edition have been added here with some slight modifications and revisions. The main one being my location, identification, and elimination of Photo Number 2, “Maganda,” as not being Elizabeth Short.

In addition, to what has been included in the new chapters, more evidence has surfaced and new witnesses have come forward. New discoveries have been found inside the pages of the Los Angeles District Attorney 1950 transcripts, and new documents from the UCLA archives have established and confirmed my belief that my father’s Sowden/Franklin House was the actual “Black Dahlia” murder location.

Chief among this new evidence:

1. DA Files documenting that in 1950, Lt. Frank Jemison was actively investigating the possibility that bodies may have been buried in the basement of George Hodel’s residence as well as his reopening and reinterviewing of witnesses in the LAPD’s original 1945 investigation of George Hodel as the possible killer of his personal secretary, Ruth Spaulding.

2. Newly discovered DA file tape-recorded admissions by Dr. George Hodel confirming he performed abortions, “lots of them,” at his downtown First Street Clinic.

3. The most important and damning new evidence was discovered in 2008 and relates to letters and receipts found at UCLA archives in the Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. Papers. These original 1947 documents establish a direct link between fifty-pound cement sacks left at the Franklin House by workers (contracted by Lloyd Wright) on January 10, 1947, to identical paper cement sacks used by Elizabeth Short’s killer to transport her bisected body parts to the vacant lot at 39th & Norton just five days later. (LAPD confirmed at the 1947 Coroner’s Inquest that these fifty-pound paper cement sacks seen and photographed next to the body were used to bring the body to the scene.)

For a full discussion on all of the above and additional investigative findings, I refer my readers to my website: www.stevehodel.com.

May 2014—A sequel to this book entitled, Black Dahlia Avenger II: Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Further Evidence Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel to Los Angeles’s Black Dahlia and other 1940s-LONE WOMAN MURDERS (Thoughtprint Press, Los Angeles 2014) has just been published.

BDA II contains all of the above listed summaries and much more, including my entire follow-up investigation from 2006 to 2014.

Steve Hodel October 2014

The post Skyhorse/Arcade Pub. Offers 2015 Updated Print Edition of NYT Bestseller, Black Dahlia Avenger appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 11, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Below is a link to Part I of a lengthy podcast interview I did with author, Tyler Braddy which he has just posted on his website.

Tyler did an excellent job of interviewing me and covering all aspects of BDA. Full podcast runs close to three hours, so he has broken it up into two ninety-minute segments. Part  I link below, and Part II should follow in a week.

Tyler published his first novel, Boogie House, in December, 2014, which he described to me as, “a soft-boiled detective story set in a small town.”  I’m looking forward to the read.

BDA Hodel Interview Part I

http://principleduncertainty.libsyn.com/ep201-the-black-dahlia-avenger-steve-hodel

BDA Hodel Interview Part II  (Feb 17, 2015)

The post Black Dahlia Avenger Hodel Podcast Interview with Author T. Blake Braddy–Part I appeared first on Steve Hodel.

13 February 2015
Los Angeles, California

DID GEORGE HODEL AS L.A.’S  “BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER” REINVENT HIMSELF AS SAN FRANCISCO’S “ZODIAC” TWENTY YEARS LATER?

Over the past year, I have received numerous requests asking me to clarify my position and state my reasons why I believe that my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, the 1940s, Lone Woman Serial Killer also known as, the “Black Dahlia Avenger” may have reinvented himself twenty years later as the San Francisco serial killer, known as, “Zodiac.”

For those interested in examining the specific linkage, I would suggest they read the material summarized in MOST EVIL (Dutton, 2009) and advise them to “stay tuned” as I anticipate releasing new information in the near future.

That said, I am here providing a link to a YouTube recorded PowerPoint summary of what I consider to be THIRTY SEPARATE AND UNIQUE  CRIME SIGNATURES AND MO’S used by both Black Dahlia Avenger and Zodiac. (Have also attached the summary at bottom of blog, as a condensed downloadable PDF.)

As I indicate in the summary, for a homicide investigator to find two or three unique signatures would generally be enough to demand they  “take a look” at any two separate crimes as possibly being connected to the same killer. However, to discover THIRTY, as rare and distinct as what we find in the BDA/LONE WOMAN MURDERS and ZODIAC signatures is unheard of and screams out for some forensic follow-up.  (To date none of the five separate law enforcement agencies have examined any of the linkage.  The California Department of Justice’s handwriting expert, at my request, has compared George Hodel’s handwriting to Zodiac’s and due to the lack of lowercase printing (he requested additional samples from me, which are non-existent)  claims he is unable to positively identify the samples, but goes on to state, “I am unable to eliminate George Hodel as the author of the Zodiac letters.”

I have obtained a full DNA profile on my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, that is available to law enforcement for testing. However, to date, no confirmed Zodiac DNA exists, and many of the potential evidence samples remain untested. (The best potential for confirmed Zodiac DNA remains the men’s size 7 gloves from the Paul Stine, San Francisco, taxi-cab murder. (In 2010,  DOJ informed me they “were looking for them to test, but apparently they were as then “lost” somewhere in the SFPD Evidence Lockers.”

(Video approximately 10 minutes)

MO Sigs blog pdf

The post Black Dahlia Avenger–Zodiac –Thirty Unique Crime Signature and M.O. Comparisons appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 17, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Here is Tyler Braddy’s Black Dahlia Podcast Part 2. (Runs about 90 mins)
Great job Tyler.  

http://principleduncertainty.libsyn.com/ep202-the-black-dahlia-avenger-pt-ii-steve-hodel

The post Black Dahlia Podcast by Tyler Braddy of Principled Uncertainty Part 2 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 10, 2015
Los Angeles, California

I have received several recent inquiries from readers requesting information on where they can acquire a copy of the original November 21, 2004,  L.A. Times Magazine article, “The Most Credible Story Ever Told?”, written by investigative journalist, Paul Teetor. (Paul is now a staff writer for L.A. Weekly.)

Below PDF file is a reproduction of that original article in its entirety.

SKH- Note- Two additional books (Black Dahlia Avenger II (2012-updated 2014) and Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel (Dutton 2009) have published since that original article was written. Those books provide a massive amount of new linkage along with forensics and physical evidence connecting my father to the Black Dahlia and other Lone Woman Murder crimes as well as out of county, state and country (Lucila Lalu, Manila, Philippines) crimes.

Click below link to read full article

Teetor LAT mag complete (1)

The post Los Angeles Times Magazine 2004 Feature Story “The Most Credible Story Ever Told?” Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

…”The highlight of the meal, at “Hope Street,” was the braised
beef short rib, sitting on top of a potato puree and blanketed with
a black mole demi-glace. A meal that had started with an all-white
egg yolk had gradually morphed into a nearly all-black entree.”

        Excerpt from …Dahlia Murder Into An Edible Art Experience

April 15, 2015
(Happy Birthday Mother–Rest in Peace)
Los Angeles, California

Only in my hometown would they throw a “Last Supper” party and wonder what the murder victim ate in the hours just before she was kidnapped, sadistically tortured, raped, surgically bisected and her naked body then posed on the city street.

Here’s the article Paul Teetor (LA Weekly) wrote on the dinner held last week. I was invited but, as you can guess,  I passed.

Though native-born, not exactly my cup of tea.

See LA Weekly full article here.

The post TO LIVE AND DINE IN L.A. ANGELENOS HOLD ELEGANT DINNER AND DRINK FINE WINE WHILE VIEWING BLACK DAHLIA HORRORS appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 28, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Roberta 2005

Hero (noun) – Somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of character.

Roberta circa 2001

I want to take time to give a special blog-out and public recognition to my good friend and Black Dahlia researcher extraordinaire, Roberta McCreary.

Roberta and I have been together for more than twenty years and not only did she do most of the initial historical research on the Black Dahlia investigation by spending months on end at UCLA’s Charles E. Young Library, in their newspaper archives (L.A. had six major newspapers in the 1940s) but, also she was the wind beneath my wings when it came to the much needed emotional support.

Since my investigation was completely sub-rosa (including my family) in those early months and years before publication, there was no one else, and from Day One–Roberta was there for me and has remained constant and true at my side, through the thick of it.

Roberta met my father (and June) in the final decade of his life.  She was able to share a number of short vacations with me to San Francisco for visits, during which the four of us would take day-trips around the Bay Area, and then enjoy some fine dining with dad regaling us with endless stories of his and June’s life abroad–and their adventures while working and traveling throughout Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Europe.

Photo of George Hodel taken by Roberta at lunch in San Francisco in 1997.
She took this picture just a few weeks short of his 90^th Birthday.
(Father died in May, 1999 at age 91)

During those visits, Roberta saw in my father, exactly what I saw.  A brilliant and sophisticated bon vivant. A man who had lived an exceptional life. Then, in his late-Eighties, had chosen to come full circle, and return to the city he loved, to spend and close out his final years with the woman he loved–June.

Neither Roberta nor I had the slightest hint of what was to unfold in just a few short years. No dark premonitions. No sense of foreboding. With George and June during that time we shared only fair weather and fun.

The dark clouds that were forming in 1996 were still far out to sea and would not pass over the Golden Gate and into the harbor for another three years.

Thank you Roberta for always BEING THERE. You are my true HERO.

The post Roberta McCreary- My Hero and Black Dahlia Avenger Researcher Extraordinaire appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 7, 2015
Los Angeles, California

In November, 2009, journalist Michael Lenehan wrote an extensive review of my book, MOST EVIL: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel (Dutton) 

I found it to be not only exceedingly well written, but it was one of the most accurate, intelligent and concise summaries of my overall investigation ever published. After reviewing his background I can see why:

Clearly, we need more old-school five-W journalists like Mike who actually read the material, and conduct extensive background investigations and in-person interviews before presenting their material to the public.
Kudos to you Mike.

Click on below link to read Lenehan’s complete article as it appeared in the CHICAGO READER on November 5, 2009.

MostEvil book review by Michael Lenehan

Michael Lenehan

The post Chicago Journalist Michael Lenehan’s 2009 Book Review of MOST EVIL: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 20, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Multiple Grammy winner Bob Belden  dead at 58

Bob’s death in a Manhattan hospital was reported as a heat attack at the young age of 58.

In the Acknowledgments Section of my  original Black Dahlia Avenger (Arcade 2003) publication I thanked Bob Belden for his beautiful Black Dahlia Suite composition as follows:

“My appreciation to jazz arranger/composer Bob Belden for his haunting and inspirational Black Dahlia suite. Belden’s musical epitaph to Elizabeth, with its high-and-low notes, transported me back to the blue shadow-world of the 1940s, and helped me feel myself into her life, as I searched for answers.”

Click below to

Listen to a portion of Bob’s haunting Black Dahlia arrangement on YouTube

Thank You Bob for your beautiful composition in tribute to Elizabeth Short.  My condolences to all the Belden family and friends. Our loss is heaven’s gain.

May you REST IN PEACE.

Photo by Robert J. Sadler

The post Bob Belden, Jazz Musician/Composer of Grammy winning “Black Dahlia Suite” Dies at Age 58 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 30, 2015
Los Angeles, California

JUNE, 2015
“Solving Hollywood’s Greatest Mystery”

Author/Journalist Sheila Weller’s excellent article, THE SINS OF THE FATHER,  appeared today in the, June, 2015 edition of DUJOUR MAGAZINE.

The article’s cover page (shown above) contains a photo of my half-sister Tamar Hodel and reads:

THE SINS OF THE FATHER

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER HORRIFIED HOLLYWOOD AND NEVER LOST ITS GRIP ON OUR IMAGINATION. HERE, THE STORY OF THE SUSPECT WHO GOT AWAY, THE POLICEMAN SON WHO PROVED HIS GUILT AND THE HIDDEN LEGACY OF HIS DAUGHTER, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

                  WRITTEN BY SHEILA WELLER

To read complete article click below.

Dujour Mag article June 2015 (1)

Ms. Weller’s, excellent article in Dujour Magazine primarily focuses on the personal devastation of a family, the root cause of which was the father’s incest and sexual molestation of his 11-year-old daughter.
I found Sheila Weller’s piece well balanced and that it gave a fair and even-handed look at what was a very dysfunctional family. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

I was especially pleased to see how she did not sugar-coat what is most common in generational incest. That being that the victim, having been sexualized by the parent, then frequently inflicts the same or similar crimes upon their own children. (I strongly believe that our father, George Hill Hodel, was also a victim of incest, either from his mother, Esther, or another close family member.)

Many thanks to Sheila Weller for helping to “tell the story” and underscoring just how historically important it is to  the public in general and particularly to us hardcore–Angelenos.

(SKH Note- Sheila Weller grew-up in Hollywood and her uncle was the owner of the famous Hollywood Strip restaurant, CIRO’s.  She wrote an excellent book, a family memoir,  telling that story, Dancing at Ciro’s. Recommended reading. 

Sheila Weller is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning magazine journalist. She is the author of five previous books, most recently her 2003 family memoir, Dancing at Ciro’s, which The Washington Post called “a substantial contribution to American social history.” She is the senior contributing editor at Glamour, a contributor to Vanity Fair, and a former contributing editor of New York.

Author Sheila Weller’s NYT Bestseller
GIRLS LIKE US: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation 

The post Author/Journalist Sheila Weller’s “SINS OF THE FATHER” article published in DUJOUR Magazine appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Dr. Carlos Vasquez CIRCLE OF INSIGHT

Dr. Carlos and author

June 29, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Below is a link to a one-hour interview I did with Dr. Carlos Vasquez on, “Who Killed the Black Dahlia” for his podcast video show, Circle of Insight. 

As you will see, we really just began to get into the investigation when our time ran out, but it does provide an introduction to the crime along with a full background/bio on my father, George Hill Hodel M.D.

Click here for one-hour video, WHO KILLED THE BLACK DAHLIA?

The post Dr. Carlos Vasquez Interviews Author Steve Hodel on Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 10, 2015
Los Angeles, California

File in the WHO KNEW catagory.

One of my all time favorite classic films is ANATOMY OF A MURDER starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara and George C. Scott. I’ve probably watched it a dozen or so times through the years. One of my favorite actors in the film was the man who played the eccentric, “Judge Weaver” Didn’t know his name until I looked him up last week. Judge Weaver was played by actor, JOSEPH NYE WELCH.

Turns out “Judge Weaver” was a real life attorney and counsel for the Army during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings.

Here’s Joseph Welch’s famous response to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings:

“Fred Fisher is a young man who is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.
Little did I dream that you could be so reckless, and so cruel, as to do an injury to that lad.
Have you no sense of decency, sir; at long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

(I’M A BIG FAN OF THE DEMAGOGUE BITCH-SLAP, AND WELCH’S TO MCCARTHY IN ’54 IS ONE OF THE BEST.)

Click to view the video of Joseph Welch’s famous indictment of Joseph McCarthy at Army Congressional Hearing in June, 1954

The post Some Hollywood Trivia –Anatomy of a Murder Judge Weaver (Joseph Welch) a real life HERO appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 29, 2015
Los Angeles, California

In an ironic twist of fate both the murder victim and the prime detective assigned to investigate and solve her murder were born the same day–July 29th. 

Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 29, 1924 and slain in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947 at the age of just 22.

LAPD Detective Finis Brown, was born just 18 years before her birth on July 29, 1906. Detective Brown was the primary detective assigned to the Black Dahlia investigation and after retirement relocated to West, Texas, where he died in 1990 at the age of 84. (In another irony, the actual killer, Dr. George Hill Hodel,  returned to the United States in 1990, after residing in Asia for forty-years. The killer’s relocation to San Francisco occurred just weeks prior to Finis Brown’s death. Dr. Hodel would live for another decade, and ultimately take his own life (pills) in May, 1999 in his penthouse suite in San Francisco.

REST IN PEACE ELIZABETH AND FINIS

Dahlia photo by crime author/photographer, Robert Sadler

The post Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and Primary Detective Assigned to Solve Her Murder Share Birthday- July 29th appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Host Tony Brueski

Real Ghost Stories Online

Listen to eight minute excerpt from RealGhostStoriesOnline podcast then continue reading

August 15, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Below is a slightly extended/revised letter from an email inquiry that I sent to Tony Brueski, Host of Real Ghost Stories Online, that I will share with you.  I will update this blog when and if I get any feedback. Full Black Dahlia Ghost Story podcast here.

________________________________

To:         Tony Brueski, Host, “Real Ghost Stories Online.”
From:    Steve Hodel, author Black Dahlia Avenger
Subj:      GHOST OF THE BLACK DAHLIA (Aired on May 14, 2014) http://www.realghoststoriesonline.com/ghost-of-the-black-dahlia/
Date:  August 15, 2015

Dear Tony:

First, let me say, I am not a believer in psychic/phenomena and tend to be highly skeptical of things that go “bump in the night.” It is my belief that most of the reporting’s are unfounded or are, in my opinion, psychologically projected from the person(s) involved in the event or séance. That said, I do believe there are “more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies.” But, I’m coming from a scientific explanation for them that simply goes beyond our current knowledge. So, bottom line, I guess I am actually, more of an agnostic when it comes to all things paranormal, and try to keep an open mind.

I am a retired LAPD Homicide detective and have authored four books on my investigation into the infamous Black Dahlia Murder. The first, Black Dahlia Avenger, was a NYT bestseller and has been featured on 48 Hours, Dateline, Court TV, Bill Kurtis, Cold Case Files and others. My author website is: stevehodel.com

The reason I am writing is I chanced upon your podcast and your reading of the Ghost Story on the Black Dahlia, in which you detailed the events experienced by the letter writer at a seance at a woman’s home in Beverly Hills.

I found nothing of particular interest in the overall story which was pretty basic and included information commonly known to the public. General, until you got close to the end of the story where the letter writer mentions that one of the men present was reading cards and experienced something very unusual. He indicated witnessing that the man turned the cards over and that the same numbers, “5121” kept recurring again and again. I believe he said, it occurred, “Twenty out of the thirty-two times.” Highly unusual and certainly odds-defying in the extreme.

What surprised me was there was no mention or follow-up of how this connects directly to the original Black Dahlia murder?  (I can only assume that he and you were/are unaware of the fact at the time this story was told? Possibly still are to this day?)

My now fifteen year investigation into the Black Dahlia has solved the case, and both the LAPD Chief of Detectives (James McMurray) and the then active Head Deputy DA Steve Kay (of Manson prosecution fame) agree. (As do most of my readers and viewers of the investigation as told in the media/television summaries.)

Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short’s killer as proven in my investigation and in secret LA DA Black Dahlia Transcripts and tapes discovered and released only after the publication of my book– name and identify my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel as her killer.

My follow-up investigation and subsequent books have established the actual crime scene where the murder occurred was inside our 1947 Hollywood residence, the Sowden/Hodel House. The home, a Mayan temple in the heart of Hollywood, is well known to Angelenos and has been used as a set in numerous films and television shows.  In my follow-up book, Black Dahlia Avenger II, I was able to link hard physical evidence from the residence to items found next to the bisected body, which had been posed on a vacant lot at 39th and Norton.

The home is located on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.

It’s physical address?

5121 Franklin Avenue.

I would be very interested in hearing if in fact there exist any documented recording or footage establishing and verifying that, as your letter writer indicated, the numbers 5121 kept appearing over and over. If corroboration exists, sans any hoaxing or “sleight of hand”, that would be very impressive.

You can reach me by email at steve@stevehodel.com

Best Regards,

Steve Hodel

P.S.  Feel free to pass this on to your “letter-writer” and advise him if he is so inclined, he or his director friend, can contact me at my email of steve@stevehodel.com

SKH Note- What I find of particular interest in the letter writer’s telling of his personal experience and the unfolding of events is the fact that there is NO MENTION of the connection to the actual crime-scene location. Unless this link was made and acknowledged by him and intentionally omitted on the podcast, the story comes across as if he is unaware that the repeating card numbers, 5 1 2 1 have any direct connection to the Black Dahlia murder. If one is trying to hype or promote a story, it makes no sense to deliberately leave off the punch line. On face value, I can only assume he was unaware that the numbers were the actual address where the Dahlia Murder was committed. Otherwise, why not include that astounding fact it in his letter?  (Unless of course you are a chess master and would like someone else to make that move for you, which does not seem to be what’s at play in this particular scenario.)

The post Seance 91210 – A Beverly Hills Black Dahlia Ghost Story – Real or Imagined? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

“Speaking as a veteran homicide detective with forty-six years experience, it is now my considered professional opinion that Dr. George Hill Hodel was, in fact, the San Francisco serial killer known as ZODIAC.  Further, the solving of the known 1970 Zodiac cipher,  as presented here for the first time, is George Hodel’s  signed admission and confession to having committed those crimes.”

Steve Hodel
Excerpt from Open Letter to Readers
September 15, 2015

Open Letter to my Readers

September 15, 2015

Dear Friends and Readers:

Today I present the latest evidence of what has now become a sixteen-year investigation into the life and crimes of my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel.

               Most Evil II is my fourth book.  Four books, but one investigation and one suspect.

               To date, I have examined and linked my father to twenty-five separate serial crimes spanning twenty-six years (1943-1969.)

As the LADA secret police files and the hard evidence and forensics continued to build over the years, most have become convinced, “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  Most recognize what law enforcement knew back then–that George Hodel was in truth the “Black Dahlia Avenger.”  That he was LA’s 1940s “Lone Woman Murderer,” and had sadistically slain a dozen women and taunted the police with his “catch me if you can” crime scene notes and mailings.

With the discovery of the LADA secret Hodel Black Dahlia Files, I was led into, darker deeper waters.  As I continued to examine those original 1940s secret police files, I discovered that not only did they confirm, that Elizabeth Short, the “Black Dahlia,” had  known and been a girlfriend of George Hodel, but, more.   They revealed that in 1946 (while George Hodel was temporarily doctoring for the United Nations in China) Elizabeth had traveled to Chicago. Why?  Official reports suggest her reason had been to obtain information on the recently headlined, “Lipstick Murders”; three horrific, sadistic killings that had been committed in Chicago in the months  immediately prior to George Hodel leaving the country.

As I followed the evidence, it led me first to Chicago, then, out of the U.S. to Asia, to Manila, Philippines where a copy-cat Black Dahlia murder occurred in 1967. A surgical/torture murder where the young woman’s body was posed in a vacant lot,  just one mile from my father’s then residence.  Information discovered in that crime directed me back stateside and pointed me north to the San Francisco Bay Area and to an examination of the serial crimes committed by a suspect calling himself, “Zodiac.”

All of that linkage was presented in Most Evil: The Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel.(Dutton, 2009)

While I believe  I had made a “compelling case” that George Hodel could very well have committed the San Francisco crimes and reinvented himself from “Avenger” in the 1940s to “Zodiac” in the 1960s,  I also knew, unlike the LA serial killings, I had not “made my case.” The known evidence while compelling still remained–circumstantial.

Unlike my BDA investigation, I could not make the claim, “Case Solved.”  In my closing chapter of Most Evil, I made a plea for law enforcement to obtain a confirmed sample of Zodiac’s DNA (still not done) and to make a comparison to my father’s DNA. (I am now in possession of his full DNA profile.)

I ended MOST EVIL by informing my readers that, “The Investigation Continues.”

Now, six years later, I present that follow-up Investigation to that book, along with a new claim.

Based on my new findings as revealed in Most Evil II,  supported by the  evidence, M.O., and crime signatures found in my previous three books, I offer the following:

Speaking as a veteran homicide detective with forty-six years experience, it is now my considered professional opinion that Dr. George Hill Hodel was, in fact, the San Francisco serial killer known as ZODIAC.  Further, the solving of the known 1970 Zodiac cipher,  as presented here for the first time, is George Hodel’s  signed admission and confession to having committed those crimes.

Throughout these many years, you, my readers, have always remained the triers of fact–my jury.  I ask you once again to resume that role and dispassionately review the new evidence and judge for yourself.

Most Respectfully Yours,

Steve Hodel
Los Angeles, California
September 15, 2015

See Rare Bird Books  MOST EVIL II Publication Announcement and currently scheduled Author Talks – HERE.

French High School Teacher Solves 1970 Zodiac Halloween Card Cipher- Identifies Killer

Excerpts from Most Evil II – Chapter 10

…

Just as I was closing down my computer, it happened.
The sound of an incoming email. I glanced at my inbox and noted it was from France. I clicked on the new message:

 Dear Sir,

 Have you ever noticed that Zodiac’s signature was acompound of two ogham “letters”? The letter on the leftside is for “H” and the letter on the right side is for “L.” The Irish name of the first “letter” is “beithe,” that means “flash,” “flame,” and the other is called “uath,” the old-Irish word for “scare.” The dots remain mysterious.

I read your first book shortly after it was published, and it deeply changed my mind upon the real meaning of XXth century (namely, in the fields of ideology and culture).

Best regards from France.
—Y. P.

…

Zodiac Halloween Card Deciphered (See decryption details in Chapter 10)

 Fig. 10.8

The credit for this remarkable discovery must go to “Y. P.” in Paris, France. I recently wrote and asked him if I might have permission to credit and use his real name, which he has just granted. “Y. P.” is M. Yves Person, and to add a further ironic twist to our ongoing investigation, he teaches literature at a high school in the suburbs of Paris.*

 Yves Person, Paris, France 2015 

 Fig 10.9

Note- *Many readers will recall that after the US military and intelligence experts were unable to solve Zodiac’s original 1969 three-part cryptogram, a married couple, Donald and Bettye Harden,“cracked the code” after studying it for just one weekend. Their solution was confirmed by the Vallejo Police Department and published in the San Francisco newspapers. Donald Harden, like Yves Person, was also a high school teacher. Harden taught history and economics at North Salinas High School in Salinas, California.

Most Evil II presents two major headlines

Most Evil II headlines

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My publisher, Rare Bird Books, is offering a special bundled price ($15.95) which includes: 1) A signed trade-paperback copy of Most Evil II and  2) Immediate delivery at time of order of the E-Book version and 3) Free mailing in the U.S.
Click on link below to take advantage of special order:Rare Bird Book Bundled Price HERE.

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INTRODUCTION TO MOST EVIL II 

The Introduction Chapter to MOST EVIL II is included in its entirety below.

Click on cover to read here.
Click below to download.

INTRODUCTION rtf

Rare Bird Books is offering a special bundled price for $16.00
See their website offer HERE.
By ordering this bundle, you will receive—immediately on completion of your order—the official e-book version of Most Evil II by Steve Hodel, then a signed paperback copy of the book will be mailed to you at your specified shipping address. Shipping for this signed physical edition is free in the United States. All other territories will experience a follow-up email and invoice for additional international freight.

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Surrealist artists Salvador Dali and Man Ray

I Wanted to share some early comments from my “Man in the Street”, J.R. Neumiller.

“J.R.” has followed my investigation and made regular personal comments and observations since the original publication of Black Dahlia Avenger back in April 2003.  Here is his latest e-mail sent to me after his reading of my just published, Most Evil II:

From: J.R. Neumiller
To: Steve Hodel
September 19, 2015

Well, you did it. You genuinely cracked the case. When I read the jacket and saw this ancient letter-form language being referenced, I thought, “Oh, George has been into some real esoteric stuff. “

Yes, he surely had been, but your tracking down of the real source of his ogham involvement brought everything full circle. He was a frustrated ARTIST, and could never come up with anything original on his own. Like the Salieri character from Amadeus, his gift was one of appreciation rather than genuine creativity.

Ah, but he could kill. And lend some style into that. Amazing his Dada crew was so spiritually attuned to that same sentiment – no wonder he was probably held in awe by many in those circles.

Yes, you have really run this much further to ground than probably even you imagined. The whole “murder as fine art” angle, which you developed right from the start, is definitively the linking element that turns up in everything GHH does. He was a “patron” of the finest order, and truly appreciated all things eclectic and deviant. (I wonder if anyone will take the time and expose these people for who they really are. And, as Salvador Dali is the most well known Surrealist, why is he so little connected with the GHH crew? Rival camps?)

It’s undeniable, Steve. You really solved this. I’ve been rolling this around, trying to find flaws or faults, but it totally fits. The entire purpose of the Halloween card was to reveal his identity. He used that symbol twice in it’s contents, meaning he was very deliberate in his intention. Whether anyone can account for all the symbology in all the elements in that card is beside the point. You cracked your father’s Dada code that he felt so clever and connected in using.

(Your father would be very impressed right now, if he weren’t in so much current pain.)

Amazing job, my friend, and congrats on FINALLY nailing this to the wall. If you had not developed this artists angle so thoroughly in all your previous books, it simply would not have stood out so starkly. With it, it’s not, “Yeah, maybe it happened that way,” but “Of course it happened that way! It totally fits.”

I’ve tried around a few of the boards this morning and several of them are actually closed and are not posting anything new——(website name redacted by skh)  had the usual childish banter, but no seeming awareness that all their pet fantasies are now come to a complete end.

Post some fallout as you find it on your blog. (Still wish it had an auto-notification feature so you wouldn’t have to manually alert users of new content.) I’ll keep searching on my own, but it seems hard to find an open board where I can leave comments and push this in their face.

Many kudos again, Steve, for your dogged and committed efforts to find the truth. Thank God for all His undeniable mercies.

J.R. Neumiller

___________________________________________________

In his e-mail, J.R. asks:

“Salvador Dali is the most well-known Surrealist, why is he so little connected with the GHH crew? Rival camps?

Good question J.R.  I am not an expert as relates to the Surrealist Movement. However, my investigation has given me a cursory introduction to some of the main players and their interactions with each other both in the U.S. and abroad, mainly in Paris.

I do not know if my father ever met Salvador Dali, but there were clearly opportunities for them to meet during Dali’s several visits to Los Angeles and Hollywood in the mid-and-late 1940s.  We do have photographs of Man Ray and Dali together during the filming of Hitchcock’s Spellbound in 1945.

As you know, in BDA II I make what I believe are my father’s connections and references to Dali’s “Dream Sequence” which George plagiarized from Hitchcock’s 1945 film, Spellbound. I believe both the Juliet Stocking Mask (1945) and the “eyes” from the Spellbound set design, which as Zodiac George reproduced on his 1970 Halloween Card, mailed to Paul Avery (“Averly”) at the San Francisco Chronicle.(This is the same card that he signed his real name to in a coded cipher and is just now “cracked” and revealed in Most Evil II.)

Dali eyes from Spellbound set compared to eyes drawn on Halloween card by Zodiac

When I was originally researching Man Ray and the other Dadaists, I recall references that most of the Man Ray followers had a falling out with Dali. Sounded like it was over jealousy of his success and popularity and the fact he was receiving huge sums of money for his artwork, while they remained “struggling artists.”

In fact, they created an anagram out of his name—“AVIDA DOLLARS” (below)

Here is a link to an excellent 2005 article on Salvador Dali- Avida Dollars by artist Mark Vallen, that lays out Dali’s history and relationship with Surrealism and his expulsion from the movement in 1939.

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/content/essays/dali.htm

In closing, let me again communicate to J.R. my deepest gratitude for his loyalty and support and objective analysis that now spans: a decade of time, four books, over 800 photo exhibits, and the review of more than 2000 pages of ongoing investigation.

Steve Hodel
Los Angeles

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October 4, 2015

Los Angeles, California

The below article, “The Zodiac murders: Part 2” appeared in this morning’s London Sunday Times in the senior writer, Matt Rudd’s, “Crime Scenes” column.  (Part 1, backgrounding the Zodiac crimes published the previous Sunday, September 27, 2015.)

Matt asks:

“Could it be that the Zodiac killer of the 1960s and the Black Dahlia Killer of the 1940s were one and the same person? And could that one and the same person have been George Hill Hodel, a Californian doctor…?”

Matt Rudd’s
Crime Scenes
Case No. 8

The Zodiac murders: Part 2

Last week on Crime Scene…

Could it be that the Zodiac killer of the 1960s and the Black Dahlia Killer of the 1940s were one and the same person? And could that one and the same person have been George Hill Hodel, a Californian doctor who was always in the right-ish place at the right-ish time?

Steve Hodel, son of our potential prime suspect, has linked his father to 25 serial crimes between 1943 and 1969, but the evidence has always been circumstantial. Now he thinks an email he received from a Frenchman might be the final piece of the jigsaw.

“Dear Sir,” wrote the Frenchman. “Have you ever noticed that Zodiac’s signature was a compound of two Ogham letters”? The letter on the left side is for ‘H’ and the letter on the right side is for ‘L’.

Hodel had never noticed.
On October 27, 1970, the Zodiac sent a Halloween card to Paul Avery, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. “You ache to know my name and so I’ll clue you in,” he wrote, before finishing with his cryptic signature.

Hodel Junior used the ancient Ogham alphabet to crack the Zodiac’s signature. The upside-down L on the left is Ogham for H. The two dots in the middle represent O, the F on the right is D, the four dots together spell E, and the F on the right again, but backwards, is an L.

“The decryption is perfect,” says Hodel in his new book, Most Evil II. “No letters have been added or omitted. Convinced that his high genius insulated him from detection, George Hill Hodel signed his real name.”
Convinced?

Well, it’s not slam dunk. Why can’t they just test the DNA?
“It’s problematic,” says Hodel. “Law enforcement say that they do not have any confirmed Zodiac DNA. I do not want them comparing and eliminating George Hodel’s DNA to a sample that may or may not belong to Zodiac. That’s police procedure 101.”

_____________________________________________________________________

P.S.
Happy October 4^th birthday to my brother, Kelvin. (Kelly) For one month a year, as “Irish Twins” we get to be the same age. Then, I fall back into my position as the older.  But, “wiser”?—highly doubtful.

The post U.K. Sunday Times Matt Rudd’s “Crimes Scenes” – The Zodiac Murders Part 2- Columnist Asks, “Could the 1940s Black Dahlia Avenger and the 1960s Zodiac be the same person–Dr. George Hill Hodel? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

THE LAST BOOKSTORE
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH 7:00 PM
453 S. SPRING ST,  LOS ANGELES

   New York Times Bestselling Author of BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER

STEVE HODEL SIGNS AND PRESENTS MOST EVIL II

For more information click HERE.

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