October 22, 2019
Los Angeles, California

BACKGROUND:

1948 Gift from Man Ray to Dr. George Hodel

Man Ray sculpture, “Objet de mon affection- L’oculiste” 13 ¼ x 8 x1 ½” created in 1944 and gifted to his good friend Dr. George Hill Hodel in 1948 just after the publication of Alphabet For Adults (Copley Galleries, Beverly Hills 1948) and just months after the 1947 Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short murder in Los Angeles.

Object of my affection – L’oculiste  Man Ray 1944. This sculpture was gifted by Man Ray to his good friend Dr. George Hill Hodel in 1948.

(Above) Dr. George Hodel seen with his Man Ray sculpture on wall in his Manila penthouse/office c. 1985. (Photo from Steve Hodel collection) Page from Exquistie Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder by Mark Nelson and Sarah Bayliss.

Page from Butterfield & Butterfield 2000 Auction Estimating value of George Hodel owned Man Ray sculpture “L’oculiste” at $30,000-$50,000.

PROFESSOR X – The Discovery of a Major Thoughtprint 

Several weeks back, I was contacted by email by a reader of my works who was quite familiar with my several investigations, and we engaged and exchanged several Q&A emails. The man has a strong intellect, and I was impressed with his thoroughness and knowledge in many areas of the investigation.

He is a highly educated professor, and I am aware of his identity as well as his educational background. He has requested that his name remain confidential, which of course, I will honor, and for the present, let’s just refer to him as- PROFESSOR X.

 In an email to me dated October 21, 2019, Professor X wrote:

Scotomization, inclusive or exclusive, aside: Does not “querelle” depict- not, merely present for interpretation but clearly depict-not just two profiles but woman’s hourglass figure formed by foreheads and balustrade with L’Oculiste as vagina intersecting with jagged phallic-spearpoint walkway?
What say say you, sir?

My initial reading of the Professor’s email left me confused. What the hell is he talking about? Where is this coming from? And then, after a few minutes of studying the Man Ray drawing- I SAW IT. Plain as day. ( And now I can no longer, not see it.)

That is exactly how the mind works- ambiguous and bi-stable.

Rubin’s Vase

                                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubin_vase

Man Ray’s 1948 Drawing “Q for Quarrel”

What are we seeing?

Above graphic prepared by my good friend and partner, Robert J. Sadler, author/artist/retired officer, Dallas Police Department.

First Look:

In my earlier investigations, I covered this territory and came up with a number of bullet points which I documented in my writings:

• Yes, it is the interior courtyard of the Hodel/Sowden House c. 1947
• A man and a woman are seen in profile, facing each other ostensibly “quarreling.”
• Man Ray’s L’oculiste eye is seen looking down as a silent witness to the couple’s quarrel.
  I saw nothing more.

  The below graphic (again, courtesy of Robert Sadler) provides us with a much better understanding of the “multi lite window” which served as an entrance from the living room into the courtyard, which figures prominently in Man Ray’s original drawing.

 A Second Look using Professor X’s eyes:

Man Ray’s 1948  Alphabet For Adults “Quarrel” drawing with his Object of my Affection-L’oculiste ” included. In the above graphic (enlarged) I have removed the cursive “quarrel” writing.

What do we now see?

• A woman’s lower torso. (Bisected at the waist?)

• Man Ray’s L’oculiste sculpture inserted to represent her vagina. (It has now become both witness to and a part of her body.)

• The woman’s legs are spread open

• Her vagina is being penetrated (sexually assaulted) by a sphere-shaped object. (In the Professor X’s words, “a phallic spearpoint.”)

SKH Note: What Professor X terms a “walkway” I see/believe is actually the floor to ceiling multi lite windows at the south end of the courtyard, which slide open to the interior of the living room. My vision sees the body elevated to the roof line with the windows projecting upward and piercing her vagina. But, it matters not since either view, reveals Man Ray’s surreal artwork drawing to depict the following:

A man and a woman (George and Dorothy “Dorero” Hodel?) arguing in the courtyard of the Hollywood Franklin/Sowden home. (The roofline and architecture leave no doubt it is our 1947  Hodel residence.)

Present during the argument and seen at the south end of the courtyard is the naked body of a third woman.  Alive or dead?  Her legs are spread open and her vagina, is being sexually penetrated inside the very same courtyard as where the known torture/murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short, occurred on January 15, 1947.

Further, this drawing was created only months AFTER the crime and published by Man Ray and fellow artist, William Copley in their self-published book Alphabet for Adults in 1948.

At the same time of the book’s publication, Man Ray presented Dr. George Hill Hodel with his gift of L’oculiste,  the actual sculpture shown in the drawing which Man Ray represented as both an all-seeing eye-witness to “The Quarrel” (murder?) and as the physical, sexual part, the vagina, of the unknown woman.

In this drawing Man Ray’s,  Object of my affection”-L’oculiste is made to become both “witness to and victim of” a terrible secret hidden inside the courtyard of Dr. Hodel’s Mayan Temple.

In effect, Man Ray, by gifting the sculpture, was saying, “Here George take and keep them both.”

In closing, let me sincerely thank Professor X for his detecting and sharing of a seventy-year-old Man Ray/William Copley secret. Another outstanding example of the “team effort” involved in helping solve this “noirest of  the noir” murder mystery.

The post “Professor X” Discovers a Seventy-Year-Old Major “Thoughtprint”- Man Ray 1948 Drawing Depicts A Couple Witnessing a Nude Woman Being Sexually Assaulted in the Courtyard of Dr. George Hodel’s Sowden/Franklin Residence (1947 Black Dahlia Crime Scene) appeared first on Steve Hodel.

October 31, 2019
(Halloween)
Los Angeles, California

Actor Jack Webb in the role of LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday

Click on graphic for Dragnet Introduction (1 minute)

This is the city. Los Angeles, California. Population four million.
It was a brisk Holloween Eve and I was working the night watch out of my home office when the Email message came in.  It was from a citizen. He wanted to help.  Here is his story.

The Backstory

The below Raul Moreno interview was conducted and published in Black Dahlia Avenger in the AFTERMATH chapter included in the updated paperback edition in 2004.

Page 452:

Raul Moreno with Sgt Friday’s Badge 714  Raul child actor in Adam 12 scene.

Lt. Thad Brown with murder suspect (1932)  Chief Thad Brown with Steve Hodel (1966)

JTD’s Story- A 2019 Confirmation/Corroboration

“JTD” is a highly educated man (BS and MA)- and his identity is known to me but for the purpose of this blog, I will keep his name private. The conversation between his father and JTD took place in 1975 (approximate year) while he was attending college.  JTD further informed me that the conversation between Jack Webb and his father he believes occurred in 1960, as his father left Cadillac Company in 1963.  (Coincidentally, I joined LAPD that same year.)
Here is JTD’s email:

JTD’s recall of his father’s description of both the suspect and the residence once again, independently confirm that LAPD and the DA investigations “had their man” back then.

Everything the father told his son in 1975 matches and corroborates exactly with what Jack Webb told his friend and fellow actor, Raul Moreno, in 1982.

Thank you JTD for forwarding the information and sharing it with myself and other readers.  Much appreciated.

Have to wonder who else Sgt. Joe “Just The Facts” Friday told?

A secret like that would be hard to keep. Especially, decades after the crime occurred and knowing or believing that the killer was “long gone” and outside the country.

The post LAPD’s Sgt. Joe “Just The Facts” Friday of Dragnet Fame (Actor Jack Webb) Provides Second Account Corroborating That Black Dahlia Killer was Dr. George Hill Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 5, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Rebekah Sebastian Intro (1 min.)

Die Alogue Link 

The post Rebekah Sebastian True Crime Expert Podcast: DIE ALOGUE with Author Steve Hodel – Black Dahlia 2019 Airs November 6th appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 7, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Thanks to the “heads up” from Bill S. in the below comment section. I had always thought that the 1950 classic film “Sunset Boulevard” reference to the Dahlia murder was the first on the Big Screen, but NOT SO.  As Bill S. points out, here is a much earlier reference in the 1947 film, “Heartaches” released just five months after the murder.

Click on above for thirty-second reference to Black Dahlia murder.

Film released June 1947 just five months after Elizabeth Short, “Black Dahlia” Murder.

The post First “Black Dahlia Murder” Reference Found in Big Screen Film Release of “Heartaches” (1947) Just Five Months After Crime Occurred appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 9, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Roland Andrew Giolli  PhD
1934-2019

Professor Roland Giolli at his microscope (Photo courtesy of and taken by his son, Mark)

This morning I received an email notification from Mark Giolli, the son of Professor Roland Giolli, informing me that his father passed away some five months ago.

Sad news.

Here is Mark’s original email to me:

My response to Mark:

Hi Mark:

Of course, I remember your father.  Though we never met in person, I have always considered him a friend and was very appreciative of his ongoing support and important contribution to my ongoing investigation “early on.”

As I’m sure you know, your father contacted and provided me with the details of the important conversation that his father (your grandfather) had with former LAPD Chief William H. Parker as documented in Black Dahlia Avenger under the section, “A Doctor Did It” on pages  468-469.

My sincere condolences to you and the rest of your family at the passing of your father, Roland. May he Rest in Peace.  I could tell immediately that he was a good and honest man who was dedicated to serving others.

If you would like to send me a photograph of him I would be happy to publicly thank and mention his contribution in my website/blog page. (www.stevehodel.com/blog) And, if a short bio is available, I could include that too.

Or, if you prefer he remain anonymous as “Dr. G” I will honor that too.

My Very Best,

Steve Hodel
Los Angeles, California

And Mark’s response back:

While I never actually met Professor Giolli in person, we communicated over the past fifteen years after he originally contacted me in 2004 and provided important confirmation that LAPD Chief William H. Parker had identified the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia” killer and that “he was a doctor.”  (See below original information told to him by his father, who was Chief Parker’s personal physician.)

Black Dahlia Avenger (2004)

Obit on Professor Roland Giolli from his peers at UCI School of Medicine, June 2019

UCI School of Medicine  “Remembering Professor Roland Giolli” (2019)

PROFESSOR ROLAND

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DECADES OF SERVICE TO OTHERS AND MAY YOU REST IN PEACE

The post Professor Roland Giolli Dies At 85: Respected Neurobiologist Provided Key Information Corroborating LAPD Chief Parker’s Knowledge That Dr. George Hodel Was The Black Dahlia Killer appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 20, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Time for a little levity.

Levity No. 1

First, as some readers may know, the great American folk singer/songwriter, Woody Guthrie was (like many other celebrities of his day) whispered to be, “a suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder.”

The “Guthrie investigation” lasted about ten minutes. Just about as long as it took the lead LAPD detective, Sgt. Finis Brown (brother of the Chief of Detectives Thad Brown) to determine and confirm that at the time of the Elizabeth Short murder on January 14/15, 1947,  Woody Guthrie was at his home in the East Coast, some three thousand miles away.  Here is a copy of Detective Finis Brown’s “15.7 Memorandum” dated November 10, 1949.*

• As a point of interest on the very day that Detective Finis Brown wrote the below memorandum clearing Guthrie of any involvement, the actual killer, Dr. George Hill Hodel had been bound over for trial in DTLA at the Hall of Justice, charging him with two felony counts: Incest and Child Molestation.

Levity No. 2

Steve Hodel (age 21)

Thirteen years after Detective Finis Brown wrote his Memo clearing Guthrie a twenty-one-year-old ex-Navy Corpsman, posed for his “LAPD employee applicant photograph.”  This photo was taken of me to be used during my “background investigation” and provided for use by the assigned detectives in LAPDs Personnel Division.

As I’ve said many times, “The Gods just keep on laughing.”

The post A Little Levity: GuthrieGate and Author’s LAPD Pre Employment Mug Shot appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 6, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Mike Hodel and Ray Bradbury on “Hour 25 SFTV” (1982) photo by Steve Moore

 Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept, first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related.

Bradbury Event No. 1-  1947-8

SUMMER NIGHT

In 1947, just months after the sensational newspaper reportage
of the January 15, Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia Murder” followed three weeks later and linked to a second crime, the February 10, Jeanne French, “Red Lipstick Murder”–Ray Bradbury wrote his mystery-fiction short story- Summer Night.

At the time of the murders, Ray Bradbury had been living and
writing in Los Angeles, for over a decade and had decided to make it his permanent residence for the rest of his long and distinguished career.

In Bradbury’s Summer Night, a city is being terrorized by a serial-killer who within a two-week period has slain two women and left their bodies in public view.  In his tale of terror, Bradbury calls his suspect, “The Lipstick Killer” who has left his unique mark on both of his female victims’ bodies by writing using Orange Lipstick.  

Shortly after the publication of Bradbury’s short story, it was adapted to radio and aired the following year (1948) as a Suspense radio dramatization starring actress Ida Lupino.

SUMMER NIGHT (Adaptation from Bradbury short story 1948-click below)

Bradbury Event No. 2- 1953

  Ray Bradbury is contacted by legendary film director John Huston (A life long and close friend to Dr. George Hill Hodel and formerly married for seven years to George’s ex-wife, Dorothy “Dorero” Huston Hodel and mother to my two brothers Mike and Kelvin and myself.) Huston hires Bradbury to come to Ireland and write the screenplay for his next film, MOBY DICK. Bradbury agrees and in addition to the script writes his own book, Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury’s Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland.

                                                                                                          John Huston         Dorothy Huston Hodel

Excerpt from Wikipedia on Bradbury book, Green Shadows White Whale:

Bradbury Event No. 3- 1982

Mike Hodel interviews Ray Bradbury for new TV show SF Hour 25

KPFK Radio Host Mike Hodel’s 1983 Lost Video Promo for Hour 25 SFTV Found (originally posted on my blog 12/2/16 courtesy of a reader “Gothling55”. Click below for 3 min promo.

(Brother Mike, is narrating this video, sadly died in 1986, at the young age of 47, from brain cancer, just three short years after this video was made.)

Bradbury Event No. 4- 2004

La Quinta Roundtable West, Palm Desert, with Ray Bradbury and Steve Hodel 2004

In 2004, a year after the publication of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder, I was honored to co-host a talk at a La Quinta Roundtable West luncheon in Palm Desert, California with novelist Ray Bradbury. We each spoke on our separate writings followed by and audience Q&A.

Bradbury/Hodel- A Sixty Year Synchronicity

What I find fascinating is how three separate “Hodel connections” and four totally separate events, (let’s call them “meaningless coincidences”) seemingly disconnected from each other would interweave and all connect to the personage of this respected novelist.

1948- Bradbury writes a short story likely based on the 1946 Chicago Lipstick serial killer and or the  1947 Jeanne French Lipstick Murder (both committed by Dr. George Hodel) and his story is aired as a radio drama in 1948.

1953- Bradbury is hired by John Huston (a close friend of Dr. George Hodel) and formerly married to the doctor’s wife to write the Moby Dick screenplay and goes on to write a expose on Huston as a separte book.

1982- Bradbury meets and does an extensive SciFi television interview with Mike Hodel (son of Dr. George Hodel).

2004- Bradbury meets and does co-hosts a literary luncheon with fellow writer Steve Hodel (son of Dr. George Hodel).

Below Ray Bradbury receives the National Medal of Arts Award from President George Bush and his wife Laura Bush.

South Pasadena Library Honors 90th Birthday (Bradbury died in 2012 at age 91)

The post Author Ray Bradbury and a Hodel Quartet of Synchronicities- 1948-1953-1982-2004 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 8, 2019
Los Angeles

I recently received this “heads up” email from an astute reader, “Bill S.”

              Here’s an oddity, Steve:
A long-forgotten 1947 PRC murder mystery, “Heartaches” from 1947.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S64CkQUryMc
Take a look beginning at around 13:38 in.
Is this the first movie reference to the Dahlia killing?

I checked it out and Bill S. is absolutely correct. My response to Bill:

Here is a clip from the film mentioning the murder that occurred just five months prior to “Heartaches” release in June 1947:

Heartaches clip 1947FNL

KUDOS to Bill S. for identifying this source, which to my knowledge is the first public identification of the reference in 72-years!

File the following under “More Weird Synchronicities”:

Below is a partial listing for the cast of the above referenced 1947 film “Heartaches”:

Note that one of the actors in the film is “Lash La Rue” who plays the part of Delong, aka Trigger Malone.  “Lash”  was better known for his many cowboy roles in Westerns of that day, wearing all black he was credited as being “the fastest whip in the West.” Lash reportedly would later teach actor Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip for his role as “Indiana Jones” in the 1980s franchise.

As happenstance would have it, some sixteen years later, my new bride, Kiyo Hodel and I would buy Lash LaRue’s Laurel Canyon home, a mansion on Utica Drive, for the then astonishing price of $37,500.  (How was I ever going to manage the $184.00 monthly mortgage payment on a cop’s salary?)

Hodel Laurel Canyon Residence

The Utica Drive residence was originally built by famed film screenwriter/director Tay Garnett.

Tay Garnett circa 1937

Garnett was one of Hollywood’s best and most viewers would agree with Wikipedia’s assessment that he “…had  some big hits with two Greer Garson films, Mrs. Parkington (1944), The Valley of Decision (1945), then made The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), starring John Garfield and Lana Turner, which is probably his best-known film.”

Here’s an aerial and street view of the Garnett/LaRue/Hodel residence estate.

The property had several rental units on it that my ex-wife, KIYO, an “Astrologer to the stars”, after our divorce, then rented out in the 1960s to a few struggling singers and their bands. Kiyo’s tenants on the property included a then-unknown singer by the name of Jim Morrison and his band, “The Doors” who rented the streetside property.

The upper cabin rental on the property she rented out to another struggling musician by the name of Neil Young and his new band, Buffalo Springfield.

Kiyo and a young Young photo for Time Magazine taken at Utica Dr. property 1969

See related blog, Kiyo Hodel, Laurel Canyon Astrologer to the Stars and the Black Dahlia investigation.  HERE.

The post 1947 “Heartaches” First Big Screen Film (PRC Pictures) To Reference Black Dahlia Murder Just Five Months After Crime Occurred appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 22, 2019
Los Angeles, California

(Updated from an earlier FAQ 69 posted on 3/29/2008)

 Mrs. X’s—1945 Letters from the Grave

On the back of the thick brown envelope, the handwritten note read, “NOT TO BE TAMPERED WITH OR OPENED BY ANYONE EXCEPT ——-.”

The writer, a young married woman, distraught with hands shaking, had sealed the packet in March 1945. She left instructions that it was not to be opened until after her death. Sixty years later, the personal and highly confidential contents of this package would find its way to me to help establish, at least in part, the probable motive for my father’s murder of his personal secretary, Ruth Spaulding.

We recall the specifics.  Ruth Spaulding was George Hodel’s secretary at the First Street Clinic. She died of an overdose of barbiturates on May 9, 1945. The facts were suspicious and, LAPD investigated George Hodel as her possible killer. LAPD learned that they were having an affair and that George had recently broken up with Ruth. As a woman scorned, Ruth had written detailed information about George Hodel’s activities and was about to reveal them. My father, in a late-night telephone call from Ruth’s apartment, summoned my mother to the residence and gave her Ruth’s writings, ordering her “to burn them.”  LAPD investigated, but the evidence was insufficient to charge him with the crime. Five years later [Feb.1950] in a confidential conversation with “Baron Herringer”, captured on the DA surveillance recordings, George Hodel would admit the Spaulding murder. “They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary…”

Part of the Spaulding puzzle has been previously examined and discussed. We know that had Ruth survived the forced overdose, she could and in 1950, would have linked George Hodel to dating and possibly treating Elizabeth Short as his patient, at the First Street Clinic.  Hence his 1950 surveillance recorded statement, “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia, they couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my Secretary (Ruth Spaulding) anymore, because she’s dead.” But, those statements, made by my father, were long after the fact. They did not provide the motive for Ruth’s 1945 murder. We know that my father killed Ruth to keep her silent, but about what?

Based on the recent receipt of copies of these sixty-year-old, private letters and documents—I believe we may now have at least part of the answer!

It appears that one of the pieces of information that Ruth Spaulding was about to expose and make public was the fact that Dr. George Hill Hodel, Head Venereal Disease Control Officer for the Los Angeles County Health Department, and Chief-of-Staff, of his privately-owned, First Street Clinic—-was fraudulently and intentionally misdiagnosing patients, then billing them for unwarranted laboratory tests, prescriptions, and medical treatment!

Imagine the headlines and scandal that would have resulted from Ruth Spaulding’s revelations:

 “HEAD OF COUNTY HEALTH CHARGED WITH MALPRACTICE”

Here is the back-story and documentation.  (For the purposes of this reportage, I am keeping the woman’s true identity and address CONFIDENTIAL. I will here simply refer to her as “Mrs. X.”

In 1945, Mrs. X, a married woman, met and fell in love with a dashing young Naval officer. They had a brief affair. Mrs. X became concerned she may have contracted a venereal disease and, her lover to reassure her, suggested she go to see Dr. George Hodel at his First Street Clinic.

Dr. Hodel examined the young woman and ordered lab tests. *

Shortly thereafter, she was informed by Dr. Hodel that “she has contracted Gonorrhea,” and he treated her accordingly. Mrs. X was billed and paid $75.00 in services. (Approximately $750.00 in today’s dollars.) Upon returning to her home state, the distraught woman obtained a second opinion and was advised she never had a Gonorrhea infection. Mrs. X contacted Dr. Hodel’s clinic secretary, Ruth Spaulding and, verified the lab reports “were negative,” and she had never contracted a venereal disease.

Ruth Spaulding sent Mrs. X the laboratory reports signing the letter with, “cordial personal regards”. [NB: This is hardly a business salutation and to my thinking is suggestive that the two women could well have had additional correspondence or personal contacts of which we are unaware.] My father’s secretary further personalizes her letter by adding an apologetic, “P.S., I am required to send the enclosed bill.”

*Dr. Hodel owned and supervised his own private serology laboratory for blood work and also likely had his own in-house technicians perform the slide analysis for detecting Gonorrhea.

Exhibit A

SCANNED COPY OF MRS. X 1945 TYPED/SIGNED LETTER WITH INSTRUCTIONS
TO BE OPENED ONLY AFTER HER DEATH

(I have redacted personal names and identifying information)

Exhibit B

COPY OF 1945 LETTER RUTH SPAULDING MAILED TO MRS. X

(Dated and signed just sixty-days prior to her death by “barbiturate overdose”)

Exhibit C

Mrs. X’s  1945 First Street Clinic, billing receipt

Exhibit D

Mrs. X’s Public Health V.D. prevention pamphlet provided by George Hodel

In addition to Ruth Spaulding’s knowledge of the above malpractice, I can now add a second, equally compelling reason, why my father would have wanted his personal secretary–dead.

In her secret writings and intended expose of my father, it is likely that Ruth had also included her direct first-hand knowledge of the fact that her boyfriend/employer was regularly performing illegal abortions at his downtown—First Street Clinic.

  How do we know this? It comes directly from my father’s own mouth. His own recorded statements and admissions. Overlooked in 2005, I found them during a careful review of the District Attorney’s –1950 Hodel Surveillance Transcripts.  

The date is March 19, 1950. (The thirty-first day of electronic surveillance at the Franklin House.) As we know, the detectives were recording and monitoring the conversations two-miles away, in the basement of LAPD’s Hollywood Police Station.  Below is a scanned copy of page 133 (my numbering). Between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m., George Hodel and “a colored woman” are at the Franklin House, discussing the possibility of the woman being provided a room in exchange for her maid service. Father tells her he is a doctor. They discuss medicine, and she mentioned having had a “currettement” * (abortion) in 1944. Father informs her that he owns the First Street Clinic, located downtown, at First and Central, and incredibly, goes on to tell her, “He has done lots of them.” (Abortions)

* The transcript shows the word as “currettement” This is the shortened term for a 1940s abortion procedure known as a D&C, or Dilation and Curettage. The patient was first administered an anesthetic and then the physician performed a surgical abortion where after dilating the cervix, used a curette (sharp metal instrument) to scrape the uterus. In modern times this scraping has been replaced with a suction technique to reduce the chances of heavy bleeding and infection. Tamar’s 1949 abortion by Dr. Ballard was a “D&C,” and according to my sister, “resulted in a large amount of blood loss.”

Exhibit E

Dr. Hodel 1950 Electronic Surveillance Transcript page 133

Prior to the discovery of these statements, I had speculated that at least part of my father’s source of power and influence came from the information he had locked in his First Street Clinic V.D. files. Highly sensitive medical charts, listing the identity and specific medical treatment of connected police and politicians documenting their sexual and moral indiscretions. Now, with absolute certainty, we can add to it, their criminal actions. In 1950, abortion was a felony, punishable by state imprisonment. Anyone (including a police officer or deputy mayor, or film director) that brought his pregnant girlfriend or mistress in for a quick cure was guilty as an accessory or accomplice. Once the procedure had been performed, that person would be beholden to and at the mercy of the man he had entrusted. From 1938 through March 1950, at least at the First Street Clinic—that go-to man was—Dr. George Hill Hodel.

In 2003, post-publication of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger, LAPD reluctantly confirmed that George Hodel was a suspect in his secretary’s overdose.

In 1949 the LAPD detectives interviewing my sister Tamar at Juvenile Detention confirmed what she had been told previous by my mother which caused her to runaway. Detectives after her arrest and placement in “protective custody”  informed Tamar of their suspicions:

“We found her death [Ruth Spaulding] suspicious, and  suspected your father, George Hodel was involved in her death, but we  couldn’t prove anything.”

In May, 1945, secretary/girlfriend, Ruth Spaulding’s  secret writings, about to reveal George Hodel’s malpractice and criminality—cost her, her life.

Five years later, in January 1950, Lillian Lenorak made similar threats to George Hodel. She was “going to the DA and inform him of her 1949 perjured testimony and that, “she witnessed Tamar’s abortion performed by Dr. Ballard and his assistant, Charles Smith.”

This almost cost Lillian her life. She “got off lucky” and escaped George Hodel’s wrath with only an assault, drugging, and his staged “attempted suicide” [using a scalpel to inflict superficial cuts to her wrists while she lay unconscious.] Father’s actions were apparently effective enough to at least temporarily discredit her as “a mental case.”

These latest posthumous revelations from Mrs. X, supported by her original 1945 letters, along with my father’s admissions that he “had done lots of abortions at his V.D. clinic,” establish powerful motives for the Spaulding overdose-murder and reinforce what my investigation has demonstrated time and time again—in 1950 Los Angeles– Dr. George Hill  Hodel was- UNTOUCHABLE.

The post Mrs. X’s 1945 Letters from the Grave- George Hodel’s Motive for Murder of His Clinic Secretary- Ruth Spaulding appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 25, 2019
Christmas Day
Los Angeles, California

Drove out to Pasadena this morning to meet and have Xmas Brunch with two of my longtime friends, Carole and Ron.  I arrived at the Mexican Restaurant El Torito a few minutes late, parked my car, and met them inside.  Great buffet and conversation and after almost two hours of feasting (I always overdo it with buffets), we walked out the front door to the parking lot.

Standing just outside the door was a 6-4 homeless man I’d guess to be about 30. He looked at me and said, “Is your name Steven?” Surprised that he knew my name, I answered, “Yes it is.” The man reached into his pocket and handed me an object. I reached for it and realized–it was my wallet!

I looked at him and he pointed as he responded, “I found it over there on the ground.”

I opened it and quickly checking the contents I saw it still contained my driver’s license, social security card, credit cards and $150.00 in cash.

I thanked him, shook his hand, gave him an unsolicited “finder’s fee” to reward his honesty and walked to my car.

One of the best Xmas presents I’ve ever received–a renewal of my faith that there are honest people in this world. I asked myself, “How long had he been standing there?  Two hours or ten minutes?  Clearly, a man in serious need who probably didn’t have more than a few dollars in his pocket?  How easy it would have been to just take out the cash, leave the wallet on the ground and move on?  No one would know.

But, no. This was an honest man, a proud man; who despite the hardships he was experiencing in life would not give in to temptation and would do what was right. He would be true to himself and to a complete stranger.

Yes, Virginia, there is a real Santa Claus and he’s homeless and walking the streets of Pasadena with his head held high.

The post “Is Your Name Steven?”-Yes, Virginia There Is A Santa Claus -2019 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 28, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Entertainment Weekly’s current (January 2020) edition picks Zak Levitt’s production of ROOT OF EVIL: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia Murder as one the three  2019’s podcasts, “WE COULDN’T TURN DOWN.” Congrats to Zak and his team at Cadence 13.

“…this haunting docuseries is a chilling example of truth being stranger than fiction. …Root of Evil takes listeners down a winding path exploring Hodel’s surreal life … as one of Old Hollywood’s most sinister figures.” 

          Patrick Gomez
Entertainment Weekly 2020

The post Entertainment Weekly Magazine (January 2020 edition) Names “Root Of Evil” Podcast as Top Pick For 2019 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 10, 2020
Los Angeles, California
(Jan 15th is the 74th Anniversary of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short Murder)

   THE CHINA LETTER by Dr. George Hill Hodel    Click Photo to Enlarge   (Intro/Afterword by Steve Hodel)

UNRRA Lieutenant General George Hill Hodel, M.D. was, (during his time in Hankow and the nearby
provinces), the senior UN medical arbiter whose diagnosis literally placed the power of life and
death in his hands.

Those who have read my blogs and my books know of my father’s many crimes and may rightly
wonder how he handled this ‘life and death’ power in 1946 China.

In striking contrast to what you already know about Dr. Hodel, his CHINA LETTER was written
by the other half of my father’s JEKYLL AND HYDE personality—The “Good Dr. Jekyll,” the
physician and healer who followed his Hippocratic Oath.

Is that what Lt. Gen. Hodel did? Read his CHINA LETTER and find out.

 SKH Note-

The CHINA LETTER is non-fiction and is categorized as WWII- Military History. It is Dr. George Hill Hodel’s first-person journal describing his “boots on the ground” look at events and conditions during his UNRRA service in Hankow and the nearby provinces in the months following the end of WWII.
This book does not present any new crimes or examine any additional evidence linking my father to old or new serial murders.

The China Letter by Dr. George Hill Hodel  print edition available at Amazon  for $14.99

Click on photo to order a copy 

The China Letter by Dr. George Hill Hodel 

The post UNRRA “Lieutenant General” Dr. George Hill Hodel’s 1946 Post-WWII Personal Journal “THE CHINA LETTER” Publishes on the 74th Anniversary of his 1947 LA Kidnap/Torture Murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 15, 2020
Los Angeles, California

73rd Anniversary of the Elizabeth Short, “BLACK DAHLIA” MURDER

Photo Credit Robert J. Sadler, true crime author/photographer

BLACK DAHLIA MURDER LOCATION

George Hill Hodel inside his residence office—January 15, 1947, Black Dahlia Crime Scene Location

DA/LAPD transcripts of secret tape recorded electronic surveillance of Dr. George Hill Hodel in a bugging stakeout conducted by eighteen (18) detectives in a joint DA/LAPD task force that worked in three shifts 24/7. Surveillance last six weeks (Feb 15-Mar 27, 1950) Dr. Hodel tipped off and fled residence leaving LE with their microphones in the walls.

 Below are some of Dr. Hodel’s incriminating/confessions and admissions obtained and recorded at the Sowden/Hodel house, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood by DA Chief investigator and taskforce during the six-week surveillance.

TOP LAPD, LASD, LADA BRASS CONFIRM “BLACK DAHLIA INVESTIGATION WAS SOLVED”

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR FIVE MINUTE “CASE SOLVED” VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28bfj6XqeY&t=153s

Black Dahlia and serially connected additional murders committed by Dr. George Hill Hodel summarized in below series of six true crime books. The updated editions and suggested series reading order are shown below.

Recommended Reading Order for Series

1. 1. 1. Black Dahlia Avenger (updated ed.) (Skyhorse/Arcade 2015)
      2. Most Evil (Dutton 2008)
      3. Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014)
      4. Most Evil II (Rare Bird Books 2015)
      5. Black Dahlia Avenger III (Rare Bird Books (2019)
      6. In The Mesquite (Thoughtprint Press 2019)
      7. The China Letter (Thoughtprint Press 2020)

 Dr. George Hill Hodel wrote a journal (“The China Letter”) describing his year (1946) of UNRRA service in post-war China just months before returning to the U.S. and committing the Black Dahlia Murder. That murder was followed by nine additional LA Lone Woman Murders (1947-1950) and his arrest for Incest and Child Molestation in 1949 by LAPD.  

(Click on photo to purchase)

THE CHINA LETTER
My Journal Chief Regional Medical Officer Assigned to UNRRA-HANKOW 1946

PUBLISHED TODAY JANUARY 15. 2020 on the 73rd Anniversary of his murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short

______________________________________ 

The evidence compiled in my six-book series collected over the past twenty-years confirms LAPD, LASD, and LADA police commanders assertions that they “solved the Black Dahlia Murder and her killer was Dr. George Hill Hodel, the former L.A. County Chief Medical Officer for the Social Hygiene Division.”

 Here is a partial list of some of the evidence and findings as presented in the six-book, twenty-year investigation that supports Law Enforcement’s claims “to have solved the murder in 1950.”

• Copies of law enforcement reports documenting that Dr. George Hodel was acquainted with and dating victim Elizabeth Short prior to her murder.

• Interviews with both civilian and police witnesses confirm “George Hodel killed her.”

• Official Coroner’s report show crime committed by a skilled surgeon and documentation that George Hodel was the sole surgeon at a logging camp and medical records and transcripts showing he performed in excess of 750 hours of surgery in medical school along with numerous autopsies during his internship.

• Handwriting analysis of known “Black Dahlia Avenger” notes sent to police and press to known handwriting of Dr. George Hodel confirming he authored Dahlia notes. Analysis performed by a Court Certified Expert. (No handwriting expert in past twenty-years as contradicted the expert by saying, “George Hodel was not the author of the Black Dahlia notes.”)

• Physical Evidence (Cement and Fertilizer sacks) found next to body at dumpsite connected as being at the Hodel residence just days prior to the body being discovered. UCLA Library’s original receipts link items to work done at the residence three days prior to the crime.

• LAPD/LADA six-week electronic stakeout of Hodel residence in 1950 as summarized in 146-page transcripts provide verbatim confessions and admissions by Dr. Hodel as to “murdering Elizabeth Short and his personal secretary, Ruth Spaulding as well as performing abortions “lots of them” and admissions to police payoffs, and tax evasion and insurance fraud.

• Tape recorded assault/probable murder at Hodel residence on February 18, 1950 (third day of electronic stakeout)  Police record woman being assaulted and beaten with a pipe in the basement and though only five minutes away they TAKE NO ACTION to respond and rescue.  Stakeout continues for five more weeks and Dr. Hodel tipped off to stakeout flees the country prior to arrest by DA Lt. Jemison for Dahlia murder.

• More than ten “Murder as a Fine Art” crime signatures discovered connecting trauma and cuttings to victim Elizabeth Short’s body to known surrealist photographs and painting/artworks. In decades following crime famed surrealists Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Bill Copley and GHH’s accomplice/artist Fred Sexton acknowledge Hodel as the killer of Black Dahlia crime and represent and pay homage to him in their separate artworks.

• 2019 discovery of original “In Case of Death Declaration” letter written in 1949.  Author, Glenn Martin was an LAPD paid undercover informant and acquaintance of Dr. George Hodel names Hodel as killer of Black Dahlia and second Lone Woman Murder victim, Louise Springer. (1949 murder) Letter secreted for 78 years found by Martin’s granddaughter, Sandi Nichol.

• Original LAPD, LASD, LADA top Law Enforcement officials involved in original 1947-1950 Black Dahlia and LA Lone Woman Murder investigations INDEPENDENTLY confirm “Case Solved and serial killer identified as former L.A. County Chief of Hygiene Divison, Dr. George Hill Hodel.

The post 73rd Anniversary of LA’s Black Dahlia Murder- LAPD Original Police Chief, LAPD Chief of Detectives, LASD UnderSheriff and DA Chief Investigator Confirm “Case Solved” In 1950 and Name Dr. George Hill Hodel Former LA County Chief of Social Hygiene As Her Killer appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 16, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Can you identify this painting and its artist?

This photograph of Dr. George Hill Hodel was believed taken circa 1950, just prior to the sale of his Sowden/Franklin home and his departure to Hawaii to avoid arrest by LADA Lt. Frank Jemison.

I am attempting to identify the painting and its artist seen hanging on the wall behind him.  (Enlarged on the left.) Any help from a reader/viewer would be much appreciated.

In early talks with former Franklin House tenant Joe Barrett, he indicated he “thought the painting could possibly have been drawn and gifted to my father,  by former artist and his longtime friend,  Fred Sexton.” (See Sexton bio/artwork below.)  However, I have no solid confirmation on this and am requesting any information from readers who might know or have an answer as to who actually painted it?  Painting likely created in the 1940s or earlier?

Anyone with knowledge or information as to the actual artist can contact me by email

at:   steve@stevehodel.com

Fred Sexton bio on Wikipedia

Below are known 1940s artworks by Fred Sexton

Fred Sexton’s  “Death of Monalita” (1955)

Fred Sexton blog from 2011

Fred Sexton “Death of Monalita” blog from 2019

The post Can You Identify Artist in Dr. George Hill Hodel Owned Modernist Painting? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 18, 2020
Los Angeles, California

For those that may have missed it I wanted to update and republish the below blog which was originally blogged by me some four years ago, on Feb 6, 2016.  Zack Kopp is a highly respected author/journalist and below is his articulate review of Most Evil II shortly after it published.

Again, my thanks, well wishes  and a shout out to Zack in Denver, Colorado.

February 6, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Denver, Colorado-based author/journalist Zack Kopp has written a follow-up review to my recently published, Most Evil II: Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Decryption of the 1970 Zodiac Cipher in Which the San Francisco Serial Killer Reveals His True Identity (Rare Bird Books 2015)

ZACK’s Feb 4, 2016, Book Review of Most Evil II

From Zack’s Amazon Author Page:

Living by his wits in the blown out shell bottom of a ruined, crowded world, freelance writer ZACK KOPP has recently published four books with Magic Trash Press and more are coming soon, including a collection of essays called Where’s Kopp? and a revised edition of his first novel, Camp Elasticity. A creative artist of one kind or another from ever since, Kopp has served time as a freelance writer, citizen journalist, webzine editor and musician since 2009, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in January of 2008, that magic year. He lives currently in Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado.

A Decisive Step, February 5, 2016 By Zachary St.John Kopp This review is from: Most Evil II: Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Decryption of the 1970 Zodiac Cipher in which the San Francisco Serial Killer Reveals his True Identity (Paperback) Author and subject of a life replete with synchronicity, former LAPD detective Steve Hodel may well have been the intended discoverer of his eccentric father George Hill Hodel’s secret of decades of surrealist serial murdering after following a series of influences deliberately planted by the father which would inevitably lead his son to unmask him. This theory has it that the author’s father, imitative artist George Hodel’s aim was to perpetrate a series of murders which would confound the public just as had the Surrealists’ art, believing fully that murder can be an art, and in this way do something no other had yet done with the Surrealist impulse. As author Steve Hodel has made clear in previous efforts, “The Black Dahlia Avenger” I and II and “MOST EVIL,” his father’s signature as a murderer lay in the deliberate inclusion of nods to writers, painters and thinkers of that genre, in particular Man Ray, a close friend, in details of his various killings. Not to say that Man Ray was complicit in the killer’s corruptions, but surrealism explicitly endorsed the violation of revered tropes, semantic, moral, and ethical, so he could hardly disapprove. A strong surrealist aspect links the Black Dahlia slaying to the Lipstick Killings in 1945 Chicago and the California Zodiac slayings in 1969. The killer also included phrasing and motifs from popular films of the time, such as “Sniper,” or “The Most Dangerous Game,” in the letters he sent to police. Hodel’s identification of this and other “thoughtprints” linking his father to all of these and still further brutally artful slayings, such as the “Jigsaw Killings” in Manila, where his father kept an office for 15 years, has gained the support of notable personalities, including retired Los Angeles DA Stephen Kay of Manson Trial fame, and Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe Award-winning singer/songwriter T-Bone Burnett of “Zombieland” fame, who says, “From this distance, there is no doubt that George Hodel committed/performed theatrical murders in several cities over several decades. That a mad doctor’s son grew up to be a detective and solved a master criminal’s surrealist crimes—and it was his father—is mind-blowing. But, there it is. My deepest and sincerest respect for [Steve’s] fearless and brilliant investigation into a profound darkness that [he has] brought into a penetrating light.” This reporter is also humbled by the bittersweet magnitude of the younger Hodel’s life mission and legacy, involving not only unmasking his father but redeeming the formerly benighted victims, devoting himself to transmuting that unsavory history.

SKH Note to Zack:

Thanks Zack for an intelligent and studied review of both my books. Very rewarding to read and discover someone really “Gets It” and then follows-up with a highly articulate rendering of the facts and evidence. Greatly appreciate your communication of the “Murder as a Fine Art” crime signatures and surrealist linkage. Hope to meet you in person in Denver this year.

The post Denver Colorado Author/Journalist Zack Kopp Reviews "Most Evil II" appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 29, 2020
Los Angeles, California

John Huston’s 1930 “Frankie and Johnny” Play
Illustrations by Covarrubias Published by Albert and Boni – More Synchronicities at the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair

Huston dedicated this 1930 play to his wife Dorothy (my future mother.)

After seven years of marriage (1926-1933) John and Dorothy divorced in 1933 and seven years after that in 1940, Dorothy married John’s high-school friend, Dr. George Hill Hodel.

My older brother Michael was born in 1939, I and my twin John followed and were born in 1941 and younger brother and my “Irish Twin” Kelvin would arrive eleven months later, in October 1942.

 “FOR DOROTHY”

(Below) Newlyweds John and Dorothy greet John’s father famed actor Walter Huston and train station in
Los Angeles, California in 1926- three years prior to publication of “Frankie and Johnny.”

Dr. George Hill Hodel-  1939-1940 Hired as on-duty physician assigned to treat patients for medical needs at Terminal Island World Fair

Miguel Covarrubias – The Illustrator

Illustrations by Covarrubias in John Huston’s “Frankie and Johnny”  (1930)

Covarrubias Mural at 1939-40 San Francisco Exposition

Covarrubias Mural “Fauna and Flora” at 1939-40 San Francisco Golden Gate World Fair

Franz Bergmann- The Illustrator/Surrealist Artist/Muralist at 1939-40 SF Golden Gate Exposition

“This Way to the Circus” pub. The Junior Literary Guild Corp (1930)
by Emilia Hodel, Illustrations by Franz Bergmann

Artist Franz Bergmann circa 1955 

(Married to Emilia Hodel, George Hodel’s former wife)

Franz Bergmann painted a mural of Christ at 1939-40 San Francisco Golden Gate World’s Fair

“Mr. Bergmann your mural’s conception of Christ is too stern and foreboding. It lacks spirituality and compassion. Please fix it.” (See above article)

                                                         Dr. Julian McPheeters, Pastor
Head of Glide Memorial Church Committee

“Politicians”

By Franz Bergmann

Originally exhibited at Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco May 25-September 29, 1940
“Exhibition of Works by California Artists”

https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/182/Bergmann/Franz

Fred Sexton  – Artist/ WPA Muralist

(Probable artist/exhibitor at 1939-40 Golden Gate “California Artist’s Exhibit”)

Below artwork (painting of his wife, Gwain) one of several on display at San Francisco Courvoisier Gallery in 1940

Diego Rivera – The Muralist   Created below Mural at the 1930-40 San Francisco Golden Gate World Fair

SKH Note- My half-sister, Tamar Hodel (the victim of the 1949 incest/child molestation with our father, Dr. George Hodel ) provided a  list of names of individuals she was planning to include in a book she was planning to write on her own biography. (See Black Dahlia Avenger III pages 139-142) Included in the long list of names of prominent individuals that she met was the artist/muralist Diego Rivera and his wife, Frida Kahlo whom she met and interacted with in Mexico in 1950 post incest trial. Unfortunately for us, she was never able to write that book. I quote from a portion of Tamar’s email to me in January 2004.

Tamar writes:

…”In Mexico City in 1951…I met a dazzling array of Artists including Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo…had bit parts in two films with Jorge Mistral “La Bestia Magnifica” and “La Mujer Que Tu Quieres”…met and married (divorcing two years later) a handsome Negro-Art Student when I was 16…During that time I traveled to New York City and met and fell in love with the man I would love allllll the days of my life…(to this very day even though sadly he left the body in 1969) the beautiful and noble Josh White…Folk Singer and Story Teller and Civil Rights spokesman par Excellence. I returned to Mexico City…divorced my first husband and moved back to San Francisco at age 18.”

Synchronistically speaking, I find it fascinating that, Dr. George Hill Hodel, Fred Sexton, Covarrubias, Franz Bergmann, and Diego Rivera would all find themselves working/involved in and at the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1939-1940.

The post John Huston’s 1930 Play “Frankie and Johnny” Dedicated to Dorothy Huston Hodel and A Surreal Synchronicity at the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 3, 2020
Los Angeles

Cover Design by Robert J. Sadler

“The Snake & Bake Murder—a TrueCrime story that will have you singing 1972s chart-topper “Brandy, You’re a Fine Girl” and reliving (even if you were never there) the swinging ‘free love’ sex scene in Tinseltown’s Hollywood Hills where a greedy, gruesome murder begins involving an absolute Beauty and several Beasts. Read, retired LAPD Homicide Detective III, Steve Hodel’s first-hand account of his Snake & Bake Murder investigation.”

“…For the next two hours, intermittently between tears and laughter, and four refills of coffee, Brandy Dawson told me her story. Working Hollyweird for the previous eight years, I thought I had heard it all. I was wrong! “

Det.III Steve Hodel
LAPD Hollywood Homicide (ret.)
(Excerpt from The Snake & Bake Murder)

BRANDY (You’re a Fine Girl)
by Looking Glass  (1972)

The song reached No.1 on both Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts

NOW AVAILABLE AS A STANDALONE TRUE CRIME SHORT STORY 

Amazon Ebook Order HERE

SKH Note:

My “Snake and Bake Murder” short story, (an edited and abridged version) was originally published in Rare Bird Books (2016) paperback ed. an anthology of happenings in Los Angeles in the 1970s.: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine.

The post The Snake & Bake Murder- My 1974 Hollywood Homicide Division Murder Investigation now available as Ebook Standalone Short Story appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 8, 2020
Los Angeles, California

A big thank you to one of my readers, Max Martin from Jacksonville, Florida.  His email yesterday reads:

Mr. Hodel,

I want to start off by saying that I am a huge fan of all of your novels and I enjoy keeping up with your blog posts.

Inspired by Black Dahlia Avenger, I made a point to seek out locations Elizabeth Short had visited and see what they looked like in modern-day.

I was recently in Jacksonville, FL and managed to find the exact spot where the “JAX FL” picture was taken (I think the B in Beth is definitive proof that your father’s handwriting is on the photo!) and I was amazed at how little things had changed in the decades since Beth Short was standing near these pillars.

Thought you would find this interesting! Enjoy and keep up the excellent work!

Thank you.

Attached to his email were the following photographs:

    Max Martin photo 2020                 Beth Short photo circa 1945

No, Max, THANK YOU!

I agree with Max’s assessment that the “B” in the handwriting on the photo closely matches my father’s known handwriting and will here include additional linkage for those who are not familiar with my earlier findings in Most Evil (Dutton 2009) which greatly underscore Max’s belief in the authorship of that photo.

A Little Background 

Excerpt from updated Black Dahlia Avenger (Skyhorse 2015 ed.):

Here is the handwriting on the four photographs originally obtained from Elizabeth Short’s personal photo album:

Finally, I here attached the complete Chapter 15 from Most Evil (Dutton 2009) which provides additional handwriting linkage/analysis.

(Attached below as PDF and JPEG versions)

Most Evil Chap 15 (click for PDF version)

Again, my thanks to Max Martin for sending the updated Jacksonville, Florida photo.

(Click on JPEG to enlarge)

2/9/2020 Update:

One of my readers familiar with Jacksonville, FL asked, “Is the Elizabeth Short photo taken at the entrance to Riverside Park?”

I queried Max Martin and here is his reply and marking of location on map.

The post Elizabeth”Black Dahlia” Short Jacksonville, Florida Photos and Handwriting Revisited- More “Thoughtprints” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 17, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Thanks to J. Anon for the “heads up” on two separate pieces of information sent to me in his email from yesterday. Excerpt from it reads:

Dear Mr. Hodel
…

I would like to draw your attention to, and ask if you are aware of, two things:
…
First is a listing on eBay of a June 1924 Caltech yearbook which lists George H. Hodel as part of a Freshman Debating Squad:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEORGE-HODEL-BLACK-DAHLIA-1924-CALTECH-CIT-CALIFORNIA-INST-OF-TECH-YEARBOOK/383166520807

Second is a 1969 artwork by Man Ray titled “Tirelire” (French for piggy bank). It is a drawing of a female figure with arms raised with the body cut off at the waist by an Italian “Biglietto di Stato- Vale Dieci (10) Lire” bill from 1944. One leg emerges from the center of the bill and the other from bottom. Not sure if you have seen it before but I noticed it when clicking about this Man Ray website after reading your books:
http://www.manray-photo.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=2069&osCsid=e5256f02cf23a73a58562b8d0faed08c

Best regards, J

In checking out his links, we find the first to be the 1924 Cal Tech Year Book on eBay (Seller asking $160.00).

The annual lists the twelve Freshman members of the Debating Team showing GHH as one of them, but only 10 student photos are depicted. Appears that my father and a second member were omitted from the photoshoot.

SKH Note- While there is some resemblance to the student 2nd row/2nd from the right, I do not believe that is GHH.  See the known photos of GHH from that time period below:

        GHH HS photo 1923                        GHH young father photo circa 1929

 His second link is to a Man Ray photo which I had never seen before as he describes it “Tirelire” which as he points out does indeed translate as “Piggybank” and we see the woman arms upheld in the “Minotaur” position.

Thanks again to J. Anon for providing the links and information,

The post 1924 California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) Annual Shows Freshman Student George Hodel as Member of College Debate Team appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 4, 2020
Los Angeles

Six years ago in March 2014 I published, 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. (Revised/Updates from the 2012 edition)

Amazon Link to book HERE

Author Note-
This post is an update to earlier investigations which provides additional information regarding a telegram  included in the items the  killer mailed to press and police as part of his telephone promise to “Send you some of her belongings.”  (This act was part of his “cat and mouse game” and taken to establish he was the real killer.) The updated telegram information is included at the bottom of this blog, but first I wanted to provide some background excerpts as originally presented in BDA II Chapter 17 to provide context.

BDA II (2014 ed.) CHAP 17- Captain Jack Donahoe

…pages 261-264

ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1947, the below cut-and-paste note was sent to the Los Angeles Examiner, along with a package containing Elizabeth Short’s personal effects—her birth certificate, social security card, personal papers, address book with seventy-five names in it, and six personal photographs of the victim which showed her in the company of various ex-boyfriends. This first note and the victim’s personal property were sent by the killer a day after making a taunting phone call and speaking with the Los Angeles Examiner’s city editor James Richardson. In closing his brief conversation, the killer told Richardson:

I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll send you some of the things she had with her when she, shall we say disappeared? See how far you can get with them. And now I must say goodbye. You may be trying to trace this call.

The package with Elizabeth Short’s personal effects and the note arrived a day later with the killer promising, “Letter to follow.”

“Here is Dahlia’s belongings. Letter to Follow” Avenger posted this note to Examiner in a mailbox located just three blocks from George Hodel’s downtown medical office.

On Monday, January 26, 1947, the promise was kept. The L.A. Examiner received a postcard. Like the first message, it had been mailed just a few blocks from Dr. Hodel’s private medical practice.

George Hill Hodel’s undisguised handwriting on a postcard promising to “turn himself in” in two days.

Capt. Jack Donahoe, commander of LAPD’s Homicide Unit, told reporters:

“We believe this postcard is from the killer and is legitimate and is the ‘letter to follow.’ The fact that the postcard was printed rather than lettered with words cut out of newspapers also supports the theory that the killer intends to turn himself in to the police, and no longer needs to take pains to conceal his identity.”
—Captain Jack Donahoe, LAPD Homicide Division

LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division analyzed the note and handwriting and determined it had been written with a ballpoint pen with blue ink. In 1947, ballpoint pens had only been on the market for one year and were both rare and expensive. They sold for around $12.50—equal to $125 today—so were primarily used by lawyers, physicians, business executives, and military officers. Capt. Donahoe responded with a public message aimed directly at the killer, printed in all of the L.A. dailies:

“If you want to surrender as indicated by the postcard now in our hands, I will meet you at any public location at any time or at the homicide detail office in the City Hall. Communicate immediately by telephoning MI 5211 extension 2521, or by mail.”

The Black Dahlia Avenger taunted police with several more notes, one of which demonstrated his journalistic skill in writing headlines. Some detectives voiced their suspicions that it might have been written by reporters hoping to keep the story alive. (What no one suspected was the bizarre truth of it—that the killer had actually been a journalist! George Hodel, as we know, was a crime reporter covering the police beat and had written his own headlines in the 1920s for one of L.A.’s largest newspapers, The L.A. Record):

“Dahlia Killer Cracking, Wants Terms”

In another cut-and-paste the next day, he wrote:

“I Will Give up in Dahlia Killing If I get 10 Years
Don’t try to find me”

On the morning of January 29, Capt. Donahoe, confident that the killer would actually turn himself in, positioned his detectives at all the local police stations. But by evening, it became obvious that the killer was a no-show. The next morning, January 30, the Avenger’s message addressed to Capt. Donahoe came in the mail:

“Have changed my mind. You would not give me a SQUARE deal. Dahlia killing was justified.”

UPDATE 2020 Re. Property (TELEGRAM) Included as part of victim’s “Belongings” sent to Police by Black Dahlia Avenger

 While I was aware of the existence of this telegram and that it was sent to Elizabeth Short this is the first time I have seen an actual photograph of it that was readable in its entirety. (This telegram was what led detectives to the discovery of Elizabeth Short’s additional personal property (suitcase etc.) that was recovered by LAPD detectives found at the Railway Express Office.) 

The post Update Regarding Telegram Included In Items Sent To Police by Black Dahlia Killer After His 1947 Kidnap/Torture Murder of Victim Elizabeth Short appeared first on Steve Hodel.