March 7, 2020
Los Angeles, California

An Open Letter/Response to Oxygen-True Crime Buzz Writer/Editor Connor Mannion on his Article Regarding My “Outlandish & Crazy Zodiac and Black Dahlia Theories”
by Steve Hodel

Dear Mr. Mannion and the Reading Public:

Let me preface this response by first acknowledging that I am and always have been open to and welcome all constructive criticism as pertains to my now twenty-year ongoing investigations.

My only provision would be that the individual has based his or her critique on having read my books and familiarizing and backgrounding themselves with “the facts” as presented.

Clearly, this requirement has not been met by you, Connor Mannion, the author of the article, “So Who Actually Was The Zodiac Killer? Here Are Some Crazy Theories” (Oxygen-True Crime Buzz, March 6, 2020)

Let me begin by excerpting Mr. Mannion’s references to both my Black Dahlia and Zodiac investigations. After first discussing Zodiac suspects Ted Kaczynski and Bruce Davis, a member of the Charles Manson family, Mr. Mannion then addresses both my Black Dahlia and Zodiac investigations as follows:

(Excerpted references to my investigation begin below)

…

Retired police officer Steve Hodel already made waves in the true crime world by alleging his father, the physician George Hodel, was responsible for the 1947 murder of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short — more infamously known as the “Black Dahlia” — in his 2003 book “Black Dahlia Avenger.”

Hodel claimed that after years researching his theory that his father was Short’s murderer, a Los Angeles prosecutor agreed with him and told him Hodel would be prosecuted if he was still alive, according to a 2016 profile from The Guardian. But he soon claimed to see connections to his father in multiple unsolved murder cases across the world — including the Zodiac.

While Hodel received considerable interest in his first book linking his father to the Black Dahlia, a follow-up book – “Most Evil” – that claimed his father was also the Zodiac Killer received “middling” interest and “all of his investigations have produced precious little in the way of real results,” The Guardian reported.

“I was struck, in reading the book, by the fact that Hodel never sealed the deal,” Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez told The Guardian. “I thought he offered mostly circumstantial evidence, then acted as if the case was closed.”

Hodel’s theory that his father was the Zodiac Killer is also apparently only one node in a network of crimes he claims his father was responsible for. “Hodel also claims his father was the Black Dahlia murderer and the Lipstick Killer. Oh, and the Jigsaw Murderer in the Philippines,” The Atlantic wrote in 2014 of Hodel.

“For anyone who knows anything about historic crimes, this book is a joke. If ‘Black Dahlia Avenger’ was seeing the face of Jesus on a tortilla, then ‘Most Evil’ is the whole enchilada — with rice and beans,” The Los Angeles Times’ Daily Mirror blog wrote in 2009 about Hodel’s book arguing his father was also the Zodiac Killer.

“The book evidently relies heavily on handwriting analysis. Several of what ‘Most Evil’ claims are samples of George Hodel’s handwriting are actually the handwriting of Elizabeth Short. (Unless you think a grown man dots his “I’s” with little circles),” The Los Angeles Times’ Daily Mirror blog noted in a different post in 2009.

George Hodel died in 1999 at the age of 91 and Steve Hodel said he didn’t begin investigating his father’s past until after his death, he told The New York Post.

____________END OF ARTICLE ____________________________________

Oxygen’s writer/editor, Connor Mannion references long-retired copyeditor, Larry Harnisch, (who he quotes liberally in his criticism of my investigation) is apparently unaware that Harnisch bills HIMSELF as “the leading Black Dahlia Expert.”  And claims to be currently working diligently and is now into his eighteenth-year in writing and is about to present his own “I solved the Black Dahlia Murder book” and claims his own suspect, “Dr. Walter Bayley is the real Black Dahlia Killer.”

HARNISCH SOURCE QUOTATIONS FOR MANNION’S ARTICLE

“For anyone who knows anything about historic crimes, this book is a joke. If ‘Black Dahlia Avenger’ was seeing the face of Jesus on a tortilla, then ‘Most Evil’ is the whole enchilada — with rice and beans,”

And,

“Note: I already found one major error. The book evidently relies heavily on handwriting analysis. Several of what “Most Evil” claims are samples of George Hodel’s handwriting are actually the handwriting of Elizabeth Short. (Unless you think a grown man dots his “I’s” with little circles).”

                                                                   Larry Harnisch
(Retired copyeditor LA TIMES and self-professed, “Leading Expert on Black Dahlia Murder” and author of a pending true-crime book (now in its 18^th year of being written) that will claim, “Dr. Walter Bayley is the Real Black Dahlia Killer”)

 My responses are as follows:

Response No. 1 

The assertion that I rely heavily on HW analysis to confirm my findings and to link GHH to the numerous serial crimes.

The truth is, throughout my now five investigative books, I remain continually skeptical on the value of HW as a “standalone” to prove my case. I suggest at best it is only supportive and circumstantial. That said, the fact is that no court-certified QDE (Questioned Document Expert) in the past twenty-years has offered an opinion that either in the Dahlia, Lipstick, or Zodiac mailings that the author of the notes IS NOT GEORGE HODEL. Several have opined that their examination/comparison is “inconclusive,” and they are not able to determine one way or the other. But, the fact remains that no court-certified HW Expert has come forward and stated that either the Black Dahlia Avenger, Zodiac, or Chicago Lipstick Killer’s HW is not George Hodel’s.

In the case of the Zodiac HW comparison to Dr. George Hodel’s the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) Questioned Document Expert, after examining the Hodel HW stated, “I am unable to eliminate George Hodel as the author of the Zodiac Letters.”

In furthering my skepticism of HW analysis, I investigated and pointed out that in the case of the Gary Stewart QDE his HW expert actually misidentified the HW of the priest as being that of ZODIAC. (See my blog of six years ago below.)

My 2014 Blog revealing Gary Stewart’s HW Expert, Michael Wakshull, actually “positively identified” the HW of the Baptist Minister who married Stewart’s father as being ZODIAC.

Mr. Wakshull in his own companion book and in Stewart’s “The Most Dangerous Animal of All “(HarperCollins 2014) wrote, “I am virtually certain that the writer of the marriage certificate between Earl Van Best Jr. and Judith Chandler is the same writer as the writer of the Zodiac letters.

https://stevehodel.com/2014/05/26/one-week-purporting-zodiac-case-solved-handwriting-expert-appears-inadvertently-accused-baptist-minister-zodiac-killer/

Here was Gary Stewart’s email response to my HW discovery in May 2014, which he emailed to me in January 2015:

As to Harnisch’s sarcastic quote claiming the HW belonged to Elizabeth Short, …” unless you think a grown man dots his “I’s” with little circles.” As noted in my blog of November 8, 2009, “Fact-Checking the Leading Black Dahlia Expert” that is exactly what Dr. George Hill Hodel (a grown man) did in his own HW and in his letters to the police and press in his Avenger, Lipstick and Zodiac mailings.

Response No. 2

“I was struck, in reading the book, by the fact that Hodel never sealed the deal,” Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez told The Guardian. “I thought he offered mostly circumstantial evidence, then acted as if the case was closed.”
Steve Lopez
Los Angeles Times columnist

As to Mr. Mannion’s above quote from LA Times reporter, Steve Lopez I would refer readers to my blog crediting Steve with majorly advancing the investigation linking my father to the Black Dahlia and other LA murders back in 2003 by opening the door to the Secret DA Hodel/Black Dahlia Transcripts and Electronic Surveillance Recordings.

While I don’t believe Mr. Lopez has read any of the follow-up books/investigation (he’s a busy man writing for one of the world’s largest newspapers) I do believe that were he aware of them he would agree that following up with connected publications, each a complete book, in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 is hardly acting as if I considered the “case closed” back in 2003.

See my 2019 blog on Steve Lopez, “LA Times Investigative Reporter/Columnist Steve “Watchdog For The People” Lopez’s Investigative Persistence Pays Off-  Helps Confirm LAPD’s Earlier Suspicions Dr. George Hodel Killed His Personal Secretary and the ‘Black Dahlia’.

https://stevehodel.com/2019/03/18/l-a-times-investigative-reporter-columnist-stevewatchdog-for-the-people-lopezs-investigative-persistence-pays-off-helps-confirm-lapds-earlier-suspicions-dr-george-hodel-killed-his-personal/

Also, reproduced below is the link to the complete and lengthy GUARDIAN article from which Mr. Mannion took his Steve Lopez quote. That excellent article was written by Alexis Sobel Fitts in 2016, entitled, “I know who killed the Black Dahlia: my own father” and subtitled, “Former Los Angeles police department detective Steve Hodel has spent the last 15 years cataloguing evidence that his dad killed Elizabeth Short-and others.”

Click on photo or below for full article as it appeared in THE GUARDIAN publication on 26 May 2016.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/26/black-dahlia-murder-steve-hodel-elizabeth-short

Response No. 3

As to Mr. Mannion’s inclusion of my twenty-year-long investigations as part of the “crazy Zodiac theories” I would suggest before making such a claim and offering it to the public that he might at least take the time to read the investigation I present.

Had he done so, he would know that in MOST EVIL (Dutton 2009) I made no claim that Zodiac was in fact Dr. George Hill Hodel, but rather present a strong and compelling case that he might be Zodiac and suggested he be placed at the top of the suspect list and “let’s get some confirmed Zodiac DNA and compare it to my father’s full DNA profile, currently in my possession.

It was not until six years later after receiving additional powerful linkage from Mssr.Yves Person, a Paris, France high school teacher who “cracked a Zodiac Cipher” revealing that Zodiac in place of his signature in his mailings to the press he wrote, “You Ache To Know My Name” and signed his name using ancient Celtic alphabet (known as Ogham) that spelled out, H O D E L. that with additional compelling evidence received from Deputy Chief Inspector Sue Wilshire (London Police Department) related to the use of and additional connections to Surrealism and the “Alphabet For Adults” by George Hodel’s close friend, Man Ray, along with thirty-one additional Unique Crime Signature MO’s used by Zodiac that I then in 2015 published MOST EVIL II (Rare Bird Books) and made the claim that Dr. George Hill Hodel was Zodiac and again challenged Law Enforcement to obtain confirmed Zodiac DNA and make the comparison. (According to LE no confirmed Zodiac DNA has yet to be found.)

Response No. 4

As to Mr. Mannion’s selective quotes from Black Dahlia Theorist Harnisch’s references that my book, “Black Dahlia Avenger is seeing Jesus’ face in a pizza” and in my sequel, Zodiac, Most Evil, “is seeing the whole enchilada, including rice and beans.”

I will simply let a few of my readers and reviewers and the original LAPD and DA detectives assigned to the investigation, speak for me:

Excerpt from my 70th Anniversary Black Dahlia Retrospective: Summary of New Evidence 2004-2017 Further Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel as Her Killer (blog published January 15, 2017)

…

About 90% of my readers agree with then-Deputy Chief of Detectives McMurray and Head Deputy DA Steve Kay’s opinions that the “case was solved, and Dr. George Hill Hodel did it.”

Let me add a few additional names to that list of those who have publicly and privately stated that Dr. George Hodel killed Elizabeth Short and the “Case Is Solved”.

Stephen Kay, LADA Head Deputy District Attorney (Prosecuted Charles Manson and all remaining Manson family members)

James McMurray, LAPD Assistant Chief and Chief of Detective Bureau.

LAPD Chief of Police, William “Bill” Parker (top cop on the original 1947 investigation)

LAPD Chief of Detectives, “Thad” Brown (the senior detective in charge of the original 1947  ‘Black Dahlia’ investigation.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, Commander, Tom Vetter (Also a retired USMC Lt. Coronel.)

LADA Detective Bureau Lt. Frank B. Jemison (DA detective in charge of reinvestigation and obtained bugging confession)

LADA Detective Sergeant Walter Morgan (DA detective and partner of Jemison, conducted original bugging at residence)

Beverly Hills PD Chief of Detectives, Jack Egger  (Later Chief of Security at Warner Brothers Studios. Identified GHH as being man showing him a “Chicago Police badge” with Elizabeth Short at CBS radio shows days before her murder.)

Michael Connelly, former LA Times crime reporter, and current bestselling mystery writer.  (His LAPD “Bosch” television miniseries, based on the fictional detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is now in its 3^rd season.)

Gerald Petievich, Bestselling mystery writer, and author of The Sentinel and To Live and Die in LA.

Jon L. Breen, Edgar Award-winning and bestselling mystery writer.

T-Bone Burnett, Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning musician-songwriter; Music Director for True Detective miniseries.

David Thomson, Film Critic, bestselling author, New York Times Book Reviewer

Ms. Madi Comfort, actress, top 1947 DA Dahlia witness, part-time lover of Dr. George Hodel.

Ms. Lillian Lenorak, actress. Top 1947 DA Dahlia witness, close acquaintance and trial witness for Dr. George Hodel.

In closing, I’m not really one to “toot my own horn” but as a rebuttal to Mr. Mannion’s source quotations from Black Dahlia Theorist, Larry Harnisch, here are a few press reviews/source quotes of my own, collected over the past twenty years referencing and supporting both my Black Dahlia and Zodiac books and Investigations:

“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.”

T BONE BURNETT, Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe Award-winning musician-songwriter; Music Director, True Detective

“The most haunting murder mystery in Los Angeles country during the 20th century has finally been solved in the 21st century.”

—Stephen R. Kay, L.A. County Head Deputy District Attorney (July 2001)

“Los Angeles is the construct of its mythologies good and bad, fact and fiction. The legend of Elizabeth Short is one of the most enduring. But now Steve Hodel has come to put the Black Dahlia painfully to rest. With the tenacity and patience of the veteran homicide detective he once was, Hodel goes from odd coincidence to rock-solid conclusion. Taking us on the intriguing and unsettling journey every step of the way. Hodel’s investigation is thoroughly and completely convincing. So too is this book. As far as I am concerned, this case is closed. Elizabeth Short’s legend is now shared with a killer who has been pulled from the shadows of time and into the light. Everybody counts or nobody counts, and that includes the people shrouded in our myths. Steve Hodel knows this. And now we do, too.”

Michael Connelly, —New York Times Bestselling author of The Harry Bosch Series

“Fascinating.” —Johnny Depp

“Steve Hodel’s hunt for the Black Dahlia murderer and the Zodiac killer is the grand cinemascope version of every unsolved serial murder case. Now, in his new nonfiction thriller, he delves into codes and ciphers, the world of the kinky avant-garde, and new and shocking secrets about the investigation of the Zodiac killer. Most Evil II is as compelling as his other books and adds to the body of work that is, without a doubt, both the strangest and the most compelling investigation of our day.”

GERALD PETIEVICH, author of The Sentinel and To Live and Die in L.A.

“A whodunit masterpiece that solves one of the most infamous series of murders of the last century. Shockingly, but sans a shadow of doubt, former Hollywood homicide detective Steve Hodel fingers a man he well knew: his own father. For fans of true crime and police procedurals, Most Evil II is a must read.”

BRUCE HENDERSON, Author of the New York Times bestseller, Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazi and Returned with the U.S. Army to Fight Hitler.

“Crime was rampant as musicals in Los Angeles in the postwar years—this is the age of Bugsy Siegel, the founding of Las Vegas, Mickey Cohen and gun battles on Sunset Boulevard…and it’s the age of film noir…George Hodel, I think is fit company for some of noir’s most civilized villains—like Waldo Lydecker in Laura, Harry Lime in The Third Man, or even Noah Cross in Chinatown.”

DAVID THOMSON, New York Times Book Review

“[Hodel] gives us a fascinating family psychodrama; we watch his image of his father morph from flawed-but-lovable ladies’ man to monster.”

NEWSWEEK

“Black Dahlia Avenger is the best nonfiction book about L.A. crime I have ever read. Former LAPD detective Steve Hodel’s journey into the heart of a brutal crime and into the dark places of his soul stayed with me after I read it. Black Dahlia Avenger has it all: suspense, intrigue, bizarre sex, moral ambiguity, all set against a backdrop of the L.A. of Mickey Cohen, Bill Parker, and Tony Cornero. the words ‘compelling’ and ‘riveting,’ though accurate, do not do justice to this nonfiction tour de force.”

—Gerald Petievich, author of The Sentinel and To Live and Die in L.A.

“BLACK DAHLIA” BOOK A MUST-READ . . . A BLOCKBUSTER.”

LIZ SMITH, New York Post

“The gruesome slaying transfixed postwar Los Angeles the way the double homicides of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman did a generation later. It was film noir come to life, a glimpse into a shadow world of macabre kink and psychosis and corruption that ripped up the sunny postcards of suburban idylls and Hollywood dreams. It was the Manson murders before the invention of television.”

—Washington Post

“It’s a story that’s fascinated crime buffs for decades. There have been almost as many potential murderers put forward as fictionalized versions of the long-unsolved case. Now, a onetime Van Nuys cop has penned a book that names the latest suspect in 1947’s grisly “Black Dahlia” mutilation slaying — his own father.”

—Los Angeles Daily News

“The Black Dahlia mystery is to Los Angeles what the Jack the Ripper saga is to the East End. Fictionalised in a novel of the same name by James Ellroy, the story boasts all the glamour and sinister mystique of film noir.”

—The Daily Telegraph (London)

“What makes Steve Hodel’s new book, Black Dahlia Avenger,a little different is that the man he believes responsible for slicing the aspiring actress Betty Short, 22, in half and dumping her in a vacant lot is his father.”

—Independent (London)

“Hodel goes not for the splashy confession, but builds evidence painstakingly into what is an extremely plausible case. . . .This unsparing, chilling account of the actions of a perfect psychopath grips to the end.”

—Toronto Globe and Mail

“Hodel tells the story well and with incredible objectivity. . . .a real-life tale of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder is stuffed with every kind of sensation you could ask for: sex, serial murder, star power, evil genius, corruption, family betrayal, and even some perversely arousing avant-garde art.”

—East Bay Express, East Bay Express

“Former Los Angeles police detective Steve Hodel has written one of the most compelling true-crime books of all time in Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story….the most noir of noir stories.”

—Seattle Weekly, Seattle Weekly

“Steve Hodel, a private investigator who served in the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years, reveals the chilling discovery in his gripping new book Black Dahlia Avenger.“

—Rob Gibson, Florida Globe

“The book, a fascinating read regardless of which side you take, has been the subject of passionate debate in American newspapers from the New York Times to the L.A. Times, and on television programs like Dateline NBC.”

—Nick Miliokas, Leader-Post

“This remarkable book will keep readers riveted from the first page to the very last.” —Tuscon Citizen

“Black Dahlia Avenger” is a fascinating and horrifying tale of 1940s Los Angeles—as Steve Hodel says, a real-life “L.A. Confidential.”

—San Jose Mercury News

“A fascinating and horrifying tale of 1940s Los Angeles.” —The State, Columbia, SC

“A noteworthy work . . . a certified page-turner. Hodel is quite the writer, as well.” —Lake Arrowhead Mountain News

“Fascinating for reasons the author never intended, “Black Dahlia Avenger” offers the opportunity to follow the extraordinary obsessions of a son who believes “nothing more than a hair-trigger separates the heaven of Dr. Schweitzer from the hell of a Dr. Hodel.”

—Santa Barbara News-Press

“This is an amazing story. . . . Readers that appreciate the mind and style of presentation of a seasoned professional will really enjoy this book. . .This book is worth the read just for the incredible facts presented, the descriptions of L.A. in that era and the startling conclusion reached. . .  Perhaps Black Dahlia Avenger is most important for its psychological profiles of defiant behavior.”

—St. Augustine Record

“This remarkable book solves one of California’s most baffling murder cases. . .  It is must reading, especially for those who appreciate true-crime writing.”

—Tucson Citizen

My apologies for this lengthy response, but as most of you who have actually read my books and investigations know, it is extremely important that  the Truth Be Known and I thank you for indulging me and taking the time to read this response.

Most Sincerely,

Steve Hodel,
Los Angeles, California

The post An Open Letter/Response to Oxygen-True Crime Buzz Writer/Editor Connor Mannion on his Article Regarding My “Outlandish & Crazy Zodiac and Black Dahlia Theories” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

 March 9, 2020
Los Angeles, California

This morning I received the below email from a friend, Australian filmmaker,  Frans Vandenburg.

I met Frans several years ago when he and his partner-producer, Claude Gonzalez were in Los Angeles and had just begun making their upcoming documentary, on the life of Australian film director, John Farrow.  (See article, “New Documentary To Reveal the Forgotten Life of Australian Filmmaker John Farrow” in the Sydney Morning Herald from 2017. 

Frans and Claude met me at my residence apartment back in September 2018 and conducted an interview related to the John Farrow/Lillian Lenorak “connections” as revealed in my books, Black Dahlia Avenger I and II. 

 Here is Frans email from this morning:

Hi Steve,

I’m in process of getting those Rowland Brown* films together as well as a bunch of others including your own Lawrence Tierney Film Festival.
Also, another film I’m sending you is a copy of this film – The Accused. William Dieterle, I think another terrific director and I see his nickname was The Iron Stove!
I think a really interesting film, sort of noir but more thriller but you decide? It ticks many boxes.
Really interesting Writing credits, check them out plus a heap of uncredited ones including our oft Farrow collaborator Jonathan Latimer and another one Barre Lyndon.
Loretta Young, I forget often what a beauty she was and too easily dismissed because of it…and the men are good too, the always reliable Robert Cummings and Wendell Corey and a brief but as usual good showing from Sam Jaffe.**
Steve, I’ve hopefully attached a very small section of the film that features a BD mention! AND before Sunset Blvd.
I filmed it off my SONY monitor on the wall in my studio which explains the somewhat “roomy” etc appearance. ok? But hopefully, it will give you some idea.
It’s actually even better BD wise, as though the official release date was 1949, The Accused was actually shot in a few weeks in 1948  but for some reason not released till 1949…..!
Anyway, hope all well with you and I’ll let you know when the discs are ready to go and in the meantime Very Very Bests…
Frans

SKH notes on email:  * Film Director Rowland Brown as mentioned in BDA was having a long term affair with my mother, and when our father was arrested and the Incest scandal broke in  Oct 1949 would assist our mother in moving her and we three boys to a rental near his own residence in Rancho Mirage,  then just a tumbleweed town near Palm Springs where we lived for a year or so. (As also mentioned in BDA, Rowland Brown was my personal hero during those “Gypsy Years” and actually saved my life by rushing me to the hospital after I fell through a glass window and cut an artery in my left wrist. (He wrapped it and rushed me to a hospital some twenty miles away in Palm Springs.)

** Frans mention of Sam Jaffe having a role in the film “The Accused” is interesting as Jaffe had a long ongoing “crush” on my mother, Dorothy Huston Hodel, going back to her marriage to John Huston. And, in addition to his Hollywood acting role in “The Accused” Sam, at the same time, had a major role in John Huston’s  1950 THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (See trailer click here) In fact, Jaffe won “Best Actor” in his role at the Venice Film Festival. Huston was producing the film at exactly the same time his good friend, George Hodel was being arrested and tried for Incest (Oct-Dec 1949) and then released the film at the same time George Hodel fled the U.S. in the summer of 1950. And, who can forget Marilyn Monroe’s early role in the film as “Angela Phinlay” (pronounced FineLay?) the young mistress/girlfriend of the rich aging banker,  Alonzo d. Emmerich (pronounced I’mRich?)

And, here is Frans clip from “The Accused” with the “Black Dahlia” mention from the 1948 filming of that movie. Click the below link.

THE ACCUSED BLACK DAHLIA MENTION 1948 (1 minute)

OK, Now let’s once again prepare to reenter the 1940s Twilight Zone that is the Black Dahlia investigation. Cue to music below:

Twilight Zone Intro

THE ACCUSED – THE MOVIE (1949)

I took Frans advice to “check it out” and here’s what I found. The film was in fact made at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California between 12 April and 28 May 1948.  As seen in the map below this is 2.6 miles from the actual murder location, the Sowden/Hodel/Franklin House as 5121 Franklin Avenue.

Above we see that the film was released in the U.S. on January 14, 1949, coincidentally this was two years to the day that Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short was murdered inside the walls of the Hodel Franklin House, a Mayan Temple in the heart of Hollywood.

The next door that opened in our Twilight Zone hallway was the one behind which we discover that actor Robert Cummings, had a starring role in The Accused.  Remarkable in itself in that we know from our earlier investigation, as documented in BDA, Robert Cummings was personally interviewed by LAPD Homicide Detectives, in connection with the 1949 murder of actress Jean Spangler. (Spangler, who had a bit part (as a night club patron) in the movie The Pretty Girl, starring Robert Cummings, was also slain by Dr. George Hill Hodel while he was still residing at the Sowden/Franklin House in October 1949). The Pretty Girl was in production from Sept 6-Oct 15 1949 and Spangler was slain on Oct 7, 1949, the day after George Hodel’s arrest and release on bail after being charged with Incest and child molestation with his 14-year-old daughter and my half-sister, Tamar Hodel.  In regards to the Spangler murder investigation, actor Cummings informed detectives that “He had spoken with Jean in the previous weeks and she was “all excited about dating and meeting a new boyfriend, but never told me his name.”  (See full details in BDA.)

Beyond BIZARRO-I saved the most bizarre “thoughtprint” for the last-

SUSAN DALBERT 

In the above list of cast members in “The Accused” see that the beautiful French actress, Suzanne Dalbert starred in a supporting role as “Susan Duval”.

Unknown to me prior to Frans Vandenburg’s “heads up” today was the fact that Ms. Dalbert acted in this film. What I did know and had previously documented in BDA II was that Suzanne Dalbert was an actress and in 1948 was a tenant/roomer at our home in Hollywood at 5121 Franklin Ave.
Incredibly, at the very time, Suzanne was acting in the film THE ACCUSED which referenced the sadistic and recently committed Black Dahlia Murder,  the actress was at the same time renting a room and living at the actual crime scene with the Black Dahlia Avenger, the victim’s killer.

Here are previously published photographs showing Ms. Dalbert inside our home with fellow roomers as described in Black Dahlia Avenger II. I am also attaching that section as published back in 2014:

Huge thanks to my good friend, Frans Vandenburg for sending me this amazing “thoughtprint” today. Also, really looking forward to the release of Fran’s John Farrow Documentary which should be a fascinating and well-told look and one of Hollywood’s great film directors.

Filmmaker Frans Vandenburg’s upcoming documentary is entitled:

John Farrow-Hollywood’s Man In The Shadows

See John Farrow’s incredible filmography HERE.

The post Film Noir Meets Dahlia Noir- Fiction and Fact Collide in 1940s Hollywood Twilight Zone: New George Hodel “Thoughtprints” Courtesy of DownUnder Film Documentarian Frans Vandenburg appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 15, 2020
Los Angeles, California

My compliments to Reader’s Digest writers Bill Hangley Jr., Andy Simmons, and Marc Peyser for their cover story on UNSOLVED MURDERS That Still Shock the Nation (April 2020). It is a pleasure to read an article that presents most of the facts correctly sans hype and hyperbole. Well done!  I am excerpting their article below to include their reportage of my investigation and recommend you obtain a copy of this month’s Readers Digest and read their additional four murders that cover:

Here is their reportage on the Black Dahlia Murder:

The post Recommended Reading: Reader’s Digest April 2020 Cover Story “UNSOLVED MURDERS That Still Shock the Nation” ‘Black Dahlia’ + Four appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 18, 2020
Los Angeles, California

NPR radio “Watching America”  interview with Dr. Alan Campbell on my Black Dahlia investigation. (1 hour)

Link to and listen to Interview HERE.

“Dr. Campbell holds 5 degrees, with his Ph.D. in Communication Studies and has taught Broadcasting Production and Journalism at the undergraduate level for years and Film Production and Film Theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels on both American coasts. He’s lectured on five continents and teaches a course on the BBC and British Media and their methods in both the US and the UK annually. He currently teaches at ODU, in the Communication & Theater Arts program.”

“His former employers and clients have included NBC, Orion Pictures, Post-Newsweek, Viacom and CBS. He has written, directed and produced, but is just as comfortable performing before the camera or microphone and as an impassioned musician and composer fronting for various bands.”
https://mediaplayer.whro.org/person/alancampbell

Photo credit South Pasadena News

The post Dr. Alan Campbell NPR Host of “Watching America” Radio Interviews Steve Hodel on Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 24, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Last Sunday’s LA TIMES Calendar Section presented an article

For obvious reasons, (see quote below) I particularly liked artist Edward Ruscha’s response to “hunkering down.” In reading his bio (below) I can see with his love affair for Los Angeles through the decades as depicted in his art and writing why BDA and the history it presents would appeal to the artist. (Not to mention that he most likely came in personal contact with some/many(?) of the surrealist artists named in its pages? (Duchamp, Man Ray, Copley, possibly Sexton, Teske, etc.)

Full LAT article  “…What celebs are doing in quarantine?”  HERE.

See Edward Ruscha’s remarkable biography HERE. 

Ruscha discusses his artwork. Click below on photo. (3 mins)

The post Edward Ruscha- “…What celebs are doing in quarantine?” LA TIMES Sunday, March 18, 2020 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 3, 2020
Los Angeles, California

The last few months have been a tough time for all of us.

I thought I’d try and bring a little light from the past to try and brighten the present and remind myself and others of the joy and glory of BEING.

I wrote this poem some forty-three years ago this month, in April 1977.

My then-wife, Marsha was six-months pregnant with our firstborn.  Son or daughter? We knew not which, but we’re counting the days of the arrival of the Seed of Light.

In late July of that year, we were blessed with the birth of a healthy and beautiful son.

Twice blessed, our second son would follow two years later, in April 1979.

The poem was written and the end of the second trimester, when the baby is nearly fully formed.

The post The Gift of Being; A Seed of Light in all this Darkness appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April  6, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Just finished listening to this morning’s “Crime Junkie” podcast in which Ashley Flowers with her co-host Brit Prawat present their examination into the investigation and arrest of 17-year-old, William Heiren’s as the purported 1945-6, Chicago “Lipstick Killer.”

Kudos to their 48-minute podcast which I highly recommend as it gives an excellent summary of the overall investigation and a quick look at many of the fabricated pieces of evidence that forced the teenager to “confess” to save his life, (under threat of execution) only to recant it immediately after being transferred to prison. It is important to note that prior to William Heiren’s being sent to prison for life that there was never any evidence presented.  No witnesses. No testimony. No evidence introduced. No trial.  Just his “OK, I did it.” and off to prison where on March 5, 2012, in his sixty-sixth year of incarceration, he died while still in custody.

Crime Junkie Podcast on Lipstick Murder  HERE

*Double kudos for Ashley’s documenting her research on her website with links to articles substantiating her findings. (Scroll down under photos to find more than two dozen links to various articles referenced in the podcast.

For those interested in a deeper dive into the William Heiren’s Lipstick Killer Investigation,  here are some previous blogs I have presented over the years. (Also, my main summary of my Heiren’s investigation can be found in “Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel (Dutton 2009). 

1947 Top U.S. & British Journalists Condemn Chicago Newspapers Reportage In Heirens "Lipstick Killer" Case

Black Dahlia Update: New Clue Further Links Dr. George Hill Hodel to 1947 Jeanne French "Red Lipstick" LA Lone Woman Murder

CHICAGO NEWSPAPER REVIEWS "MOST EVIL" – CHALLENGES LAW ENFORCEMENT TO TEST DNA HAIR-FOLLICLES IN 1946 DEGNAN "LIPSTICK KILLER" INVESTIGATION

JUSTICE DENIED- William Heirens Dies in Prison While Serving 66th Year for Crimes HE DID NOT COMMIT

The post Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat of Crime Junkie Podcast Take a Dive into the Troubled Waters of William Heiren’s Lipstick Killer Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 12, 2020
Los Angeles, California
Easter Sunday

 DA Lt. Frank Jemison, senior detective appointed by the 1949 Grand Jury to reinvestigate the unsolved “Black Dahlia” murder, on February 1, 1950, accompanied by LADA detective Frank McGrath and LAPD detective-sergeant Finis Brown and a court reporter,  Ms. Florence Weber, drove from DTLA Hall of Justice to the residence of Robert “Red” Manley and his wife, Harriette.

Though Robert Manley had been a prime witness and had been extensively interviewed by LAPD in January 1947 as being the person who had driven Elizabeth Short from San Diego and upon arrival in LA had at Elizabeth’s request driven her to the DTLA Greyhound bus station, where she secured her personal suitcase in a locker.   Manley had then driven and dropped her at the Biltmore Hotel  at 5th Street and Olive, where Elizabeth informed him she “was going to meet her sister.”  Further, Manley in 1947 was given an LAPD polygraph exam which showed he had no knowledge or involvement in the crime and he was eliminated as a suspect.

 The purpose of Lt. Jemison’s 1950 reinterview was in hopes of obtaining additional information or possible leads on the three-year-old murder (1947) of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.

Photo of pages of the LADA verbatim transcripts of Lt. Jemison’s 1950 reinterview.
(To my knowledge, this is the first public release of these never before seen documents.)

“STATEMENT OF ROBERT M. MANLEY, TAKEN AT MR. MANLEY’S HOME, 9459 EAST LOCK LOMOND DRIVE, PICO, BY INVESTIGATOR FRANK B. JEMISON, AT 3:30 P.M. FEBRUARY 1, 1950. ”
PRESENT:  Mrs. Robert M. Manley
Sgt. Finas (sp.)Brown, LAPD
James F. McGrath, D.A. Inv.
Questions by: Frank B. Jemison
Reported by: Florence Weber

Click below to read the complete verbatim interview as PDF document.

DA Interv Robt Manley Feb 1 1950

A reading of the Robert Manley interview really raises many more questions than it answers.

The most striking information, to my mind,  is when the detectives are asking Manley “if he recalls any of the following names being mentioned by Elizabeth Short during the entire time they were together?”  DA investigator McGrath then goes on to ask if Elizabeth Short ever mentioned any of the following names:

“Dr. Morris, De Gaston, Dr. Abrams, Dr. Scott, Dr. Brooks, Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Brix, Glenn Wolf, Mark Hanson, Carl Balsings, Dr. Wark, Cite Premere (sp?) and Harry Long? A girlfriend, Trudy?”

Manley’s response to each individual name as it is asked, is- “NO.”  “Elizabeth Short during the entire time she spent with Manley never mentioned any of the aforementioned names.”

What IS SUPRISING is that the name, “Dr. Hodel” is omitted from the list. Manley is never asked if she mentioned a Dr. Hodel.  WHY NOT?

Consider the timing. Yes, it is two weeks before Lt. Jemison has his men pick up Dr. Hodel and bring him in for questioning and while he is being detained at the Hall of Justice orders his Sound Experts break into and place concealed microphones in the walls of the Hodel Franklin House.

But, in the months preceding this Robert Manley interview Dr. George Hill Hodel is known and named before the 1949 Grand Jury by Lt. Jemison as THE PRIME SUSPECT.

LT. FRANK JEMISON’S  WRITTEN (15-PAGE) INVESTIGATIVE SUMMARY TO THE 1949 GRAND JURY  WAS SUBMITTED TO THEM ON OCTOBER 29, 1949. (Three months BEFORE this in-person interview with Robert Manley.)

Here is a copy of page 3-4 of that summary:

I quote in part from page 4:

…There have been three hundred and sixteen suspects fifty of whom have been arrested, (Not always charged with murder.) and later released. On the date of this report there are one hundred and seven remaining possible suspects after a definite elimination of two hundred and nine suspects. There have been nineteen suspects who have confessed to the murder of Elizabeth Short.

After examination of the files and evidence it appears that the investigative efforts should be continued and concentrated on the following suspects:

Leslie Dillon–Mark Hanson–Carl Balsiger–Glen Wolf–
Hubert Hoffman–Dr. George Hodel

Below is Page 4 (top)  Lt. Jemison apparently does not realize that “Elizabeth Short’s unknown doctor” is one and the same as Dr. George Hodel:

And here is the signature page showing date completed and submitted by  Lt. Jemison as  October 29,1949.

Prior to this February 1, 1950 interview with Robert “Red” Manley Lt. Jemison has:

• Named Dr. George Hill Hodel in secret to the Grand Jury as one of the five top suspects and of those five he is the only doctor and the only one of those named that possessed the surgical skill capable of performing the hemicorporectomy bisection.

• Lt. Jemison is aware (or should have been unless LAPD concealed this vital information from him?) that an LAPD paid police informant and acquaintance of Dr. Hodel has named and identified him as killing both Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and victim Louise Springer and that LAPD has investigated Dr. Hodel and brought him and others in for questioning that previous summer.

• That George Hodel was tried for Incest, the victim being his own fourteen-year-old daughter, Tamar Hodel, in November/December 1949 and “beat the case” and that during the trial defense attorneys Jerry Giesler and Robert Neeb in an effort to discredit the victim claimed “she had accused her father of being “The Black Dahlia killer.” (In fact, Tamar had made no such claim, but rather the accusations were made in secret and told to her by Lt. Jemison’s own DA detectives transporting her to the court trial.)

• Lt. Jemison’s office has received the “Unkefer Letter” describing the “staged suicide” of victim Lillian Lenorak from Santa Barbara police officer, Mary Unkefer describing the drugging and assault of Lenorak at the Hodel Franklin House and her  (Unkefer’s) rescue of the victim and transporting her to the Ventura County Hospital and statements made by roomer Joe Barrett confirming Lenorak’s description of the assault.

Again, with this new public revelation of the February 1st, 1950, Robert Manley re-interview (and with Lt. Jemison just two weeks away from beginning his electronic stakeout of Dr. George Hill Hodel as his prime suspect), I again ask–Why did detectives after naming eight other doctors, omit from asking Manley if Elizabeth Short ever mentioned the name of “Dr. Hodel”?

Prior posted/related blogs:

SBPD Officer Mary Unkefer 1943 Rescuer of Elizabeth "Black Dahlia" Short Removes New Victim from Hollywood Residence and Reports Dr. Hodel "Staged Suicide and Threats to Kill Witness" to DA Office

Press Release-Historic 70-Year-Old Black Dahlia “In Case of Death” Letter Written in 1949 by LAPD Undercover Informant Identifies “GH” (George Hodel) As Killer New Discovery Reveals George Hodel “Grilled” By LAPD as the Suspect in Three Separate LA Murders

Josh Mankiewicz 2004 Court TV Clip with Joe Barrett wherein He Describes Disarming of Witness Waiting to Shoot Dr. Hodel for Killing Black Dahlia

The post Never Before Published Robert “Red” Manley DA and LAPD Interview/Transcript Provides More “Black Dahlia” Questions Than Answers appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 18, 2020
Los Angeles, California

“Had LAPD Sgt. Audrey Fletcher been born an Aubrey with a single X chromosome and one Y chromosome instead of the two XX chromosomes then one letter in her name would have been changed from a D to a B (from Audrey to Aubrey) being born a man, she likely would have become one of LAPD’s greatest  Police Chiefs.

Detective III Steve Hodel 11304
LAPD Hollywood Homicide (ret.)

REMEMBERING AUDREY

In 1969, as a new rookie detective, my first assignment at LAPD’s Hollywood Division Detectives was to the Juvenile Unit.  My first partner was Sgt. Audrey Fletcher, a veteran with twenty plus years on the job.

Right out of the gate, Audrey taught me the two most important keys to becoming a successful and productive police detective. They were: 1) How to show respect and compassion for all the victims of crimes and 2) How to have a three-martini on-the-job lunch, and not show it.

I’ll never forget my first “three-martini” lunch with Audrey. IT WAS A DOOZY.

Audrey always reminded me of the actress, Eve Arden, not just physically, but she also had that same of humor, INTELLIGENT, and DRY as her vodka martinis.

We were at “The Jolly Roger” restaurant a half block from the police station just finishing a salad. Audrey reached into her purse and handed me a Sen-Sen. (A candy, used in the old days to cover up the smell of alcohol. The only problem is if you had Sen-Sen on your breath, everyone knew you had taken it to cover-up the smell of booze? Never did figure that one out.)

Eve Arden, 1950  “Our Miss Brooks”  “Sen-Sen” breath candy

Audrey smiled at me, handed me the breath candy, and said, “Want something to take your breath away?”
I reached for the package, thanked her, and she kept staring at me. “No, I mean, want to HEAR something that will?”
I nodded.
She then began her story.
“Steven, I’ve been to your home when you were quite small. Maybe six or seven?”
I was stunned.  “My home? How? Where?

Audrey then proceeded to tell me that in 1949  she was a brand new uniformed patrol officer and had received a radio call to go to 5121 Franklin Ave in Hollywood. She responded to the call and entered a Mayan Temple structure and was ordered to “stand by” while detectives conducted a search of the premise.  She saw my mother and a maid at the house but we three boys were not present.

“They were searching for evidence connected to the arrest of your father, Dr. Hodel, who also was not present, but had been arrested sometime previous. Maybe a few days or a week?
She continued.
“I was there maybe an hour.

A larger smile filled her face, “I recall one of the brass, I think it might have been the Captain of Hollywood, was standing in the large living room He looked at a bronze sculpture on the table, picked it up and said, “Oh now this is a nice Centaur piece.”
I laughed, but the other officers in the room didn’t get it.
It was a Centaur frolicking, or maybe fucking a Forrest nymph.
The detectives seized it as evidence along with some other items. I think some photographs and  I don’t recall what else?
That was my only connection. Just to “stand by” while the detectives did there thing.
I wouldn’t become a detective for another eight years or so?

I was stunned and amazed by what she said. My current partner and drinking companion was present some twenty-years earlier, after the arrest of my father, for incest and child molestation of my teenage sister when I was eight-years-old.

I looked at her in disbelief. “What happened?  What do you know about all that?  What did the detectives tell you?
Audrey’s still smiling said, “Nothing, other than your father was a bigtime doctor and had been arrested with some others adults for having sex with his teenage daughter.”

That was the first and last time Audrey ever made any reference to my father. She knew nothing other than the fact that she was just a rookie cop standing by at the scene inside a very cool house.

Hodel Franklin/Sowden House 5121  Franklin Ave, Hollywood

Working Juvenile, we handled and did all the follow-up on the “runaways,” teenagers from Small Town, USA that flooded the streets of Hollywood during the Peace and Love area of the late Sixties. We also handled juvenile victims of major crimes like sexual assaults, and attempted murders, which were rare, but came along every few months.

My first major case once partnered with Audrey was the Rodney Alcala investigation.  For those interested in a video summary and my role in the investigation.

The crime a kidnap-rape/attempt murder of the victim, Tali Shapiro, an eight-year-old child, had occurred some ten months before my assignment to detectives, while I was working uniform patrol, morning watch.

It had been a daytime crime and I was not at the original crime scene and did not know the facts until partnering with Audrey in May 1969. (By then the crime was almost one year old, and Alcala was “in-the-wind,” and a felony warrant for his arrest was outstanding and despite Audrey’s Herculean efforts, his whereabouts, remained unknown.)

As Sgt. Fletcher’s “new partner,” she had me do some investigative follow-up on the Alcala case, and I recall an interview I did with one of Alcala’s professors at UCLA, and his response was, “You must have the wrong man. Rod Alcala wouldn’t hurt anyone. He was a brilliant student and a very nice young man.”

Audrey took me along, and we went to the LA FBI’s downtown office, where she pushed hard to get Alcala on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” List.  A next to impossible task because they had so many crimes and so few openings for the “Most Wanted.”. If  Audrey could be able to convince the supervising agent, it would mean every police and sheriff’s office across the nation would have the FBI Bulletin, and the chances of his being apprehended would increase a thousandfold.

Well,  Audrey talked hard and fast, and SHE GOT IT.

FBI Most Wanted Poster

In 1971, the office phone rang in and BINGO, Alcala was in custody in New Hampshire where he had been an instructor at a teenage girl’s camp.

It turned out that a couple of the young girl’s on a cold and rainy New Hampshire morning went to the Post Office and looked at the wall and said, “Hey, there’s our instructor.”

They saw his picture and within hours the local FBI made the arrest.

Alcala waved extradition and I I flew to New Hampshire and brought him back to California.

He pled guilty to some of the charges and was sent to prison for 1-99 years based on the “indeterminate sentencing” guidelines that were then in place. We were confident that he would be away for several decades based on the nature and violence of his crime.   Incredibly the prison psychiatrist pronounced him “all well” and he was released in just over two years.

Rodney James Alcala, also known as “The Dating Game Killer” would go on to become one of the nation’s worst serial killers.  Below are some of Alcala’s post-prison release murdered victims. (Tali Shapiro survived.)

CLICK HERE FOR CBS NEWS VIDEO INTERVIEW

Audrey Fights for Woman’s Rights  1972

Here is a February 1972 article in the Los Angeles Times showing my partner fighting for “Equal Rights for Women.”

Audrey was one of the most respected and senior detectives at Hollywood, and simply because she was a woman, was not allowed to even file for Detective III rank testing because women were barred from promotion beyond Sergeant. (Detective III was equivalent to lieutenant’s pay, so it was, “Sorry, Ladies, that door is closed.”)

It would be more than a decade later before LAPD would lift the ban and allow policewoman to promote to the higher ranks. Today’s LAPD has a good number of Lieutenants, Captains, and several female Deputy Chiefs.

In my short story, The Snake and Bake Murder, I mention Audrey working with me on one of my Hollywood murder investigations.  Not wanting to spoil the story, I’ll quote from one section.

A Short Story (40 pages)

Page 20:

…

Brandy was now in her full detective mode, “I think it was like ten minutes from the store to where they drove off the road. I could feel it changed from cement to driving on sand, and I could feel the wheels spin a little.”

                I checked my watch and drove for another eight minutes.

                Brandy pointed to a small dirt road leading off the highway, “Maybe down there?”

We tried it, but after twenty minutes, we returned and renewed our search from Highway 8. The next hour was frustrating. We had tried three more dirt roads and nothing.  All the sand dunes looked alike. It was getting hot, and the uniform Yuma PD officers gave up and headed back to town.

                Brandy started yelling, “There over there that’s it.”

I looked at the side road, which was identical to all the others we had tried.

“How do you know? It’s the same as all the others?”

“No, no it isn’t. Look, I remember cause when I saw that cactus it reminded me of David.”

Audrey was the first to get it. She started laughing hysterically; it literally brought her to tears.

Standing tall and fully erect at the entrance to the turnoff was a giant saguaro cactus. At its base, one on each side were two large round barrel cacti.  The image was unmistakable. It was David, the “Johnny Wadd” look-a-like calling out from the grave, his giant penis pointing the way, saying, “Over here. Over here.”

We located the gravesite in ten minutes.  Once it was confirmed, I had Sgt. Fletcher take our city car and drive Brandy back to the motel. I didn’t want her there for the recovery.  I would catch a ride back to the motel in the Coroner’s truck.

…

Audrey retired from Hollywood Detectives and the LAPD sometime in the mid to late Seventies having “protected and served” the citizens of Los Angeles with a long and distinguished career.

Because of her skill and high intelligence, she went on to become a Juvenile Court Commissioner hearing cases and I lost track of her after I retired in 1986 and moved north to Washington State.

A VERY SAD ENDING

Some years into my own retirement I got a phone call from an old friend who knew how much I respected and honored Audrey, “my first detective partner”.

He opened the call with, “Steve, I’ve got some bad news for you. “

He then went on to tell me that he didn’t have all the details, but that Audrey had become quite depressed through the years and that one dark evening she drove to the beach, walked out on the sand, put her police service revolver to her head, and pulled the trigger.

So sad.  Many long-serving officers do suffer extensive PTSD. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Most power through it and go on with their lives.  Audrey, despite her many talents and exceptional people skills, was a heavy drinker, and I expect that may have contributed to her depression.

Thank you, Audrey, for those hundreds of young lives you saved and impacted both as a great cop and Juvenile Court Commissioner.  YOU ARE MISSED.

Audrey recovering stolen property with fellow detectives in 1957

Audrey and fellow LAPD detectives recovering stolen property in June 1957

The post Remembering One of LAPD’s Finest- Sgt. Audrey Fletcher: A Woman Who Would Be Chief appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 21, 2020
Los Angeles, California

I was going through some boxes from storage yesterday and came across a box of  LAPD Retirement goodies.  Hard to believe its been thirty-four years, but there you have it.

Back then, and I assume it continues through this day, most officers had a “retirement party” gathered for food and drink with their former partners and to say “goodbye.”

I was no exception and mine was held on  August 1st, 1986.   The Department artist usually prepared a “retirement poster” announcing the time and place.

First out of the storage box was that announcement:

Retirement party held at Griffith Park Ranger’s Station August 1, 1986

A beautiful summer evening.  Good food, dancing, old “war stories” shared and the usual goodbye gifts and plaques handed out.  Here are a few of them:

The coolest of all of the retirement gifts was the traditional “Shadow Box” made up of the officer’s personal on-the-job gear. His or her handcuffs, handcuff keys, uniform buttons, nameplate, cap piece, call box key, whistle, dates of years of service, and in my case a prized “Detective Gold Card” which is only given to officers who had served a minimum of ten-years in the Detective Bureau. (I easily qualified after serving six-years in uniform patrol, I spent the next 17-years as a detective.)

LAPD Detective Gold Card

A Quick Contest

OK, here’s the deal for all you armchair detectives hip to all the details related to my Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia Investigation, through the decades.

Somewhere above hidden in plain sight is a “clew” that synchronistically links directly to my investigation.  The first one to find and identify it and emails me the answer  (steve@stevehodel.com) wins the “Inspector Clouseau Award, and a free/personalized book of their choosing. (BDA I, II, III, Most Evil I or II, In The Mesquite, or The China Years.)

Good Hunting!

The post Synchronicity or Happenstance? A Quick Contest for All My “Black Dahlia Armchair Detectives” Out There-Winner Gets a Free Book of Their Choice appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 24, 2020
Los Angeles, California

The following article was just posted on the Film Daily website. I responded to the author, Ms. Brynley Louise at the site, with a rather lengthy “comment” fact-checking her piece, but sometimes the comments take a long time to publish and or get “lost in the ether.” I expect it will post there, but just in case, I want my readers to have my corrections to her piece.  I suggest you read her article and then check out my corrections below.

Stay SAFE wear a MASK.

Steve

“Black Dahlia Elizabeth Short: One of the Saddest LA Stories Ever?”

My “comments/response” to the reportage here:

Hi Brynley Louise.

Overall mostly correct info, but, do need to provide some factual corrections on this piece some are historical myths and some directly relate to the information you provided readers. So here goes:
1) “The so-called, “Missing Week” has always been a “myth” created by hack writers and “theorists.” LAPD put out a heavily circulated “Police Bulletin” requesting information on anyone who has seen the victim during the week of Jan 9-15, 1947. Fourteen witnesses came forward giving statements of having seen her every day of that week. Seven of the fourteen knew her personally, and could not have been mistaken.
2)My years of service were from 1963-1986. I never admitted “I believed my father was the killer. I and no one else ever knew he was even “a suspect.” All those records were hidden in a police vault until after my book, Black Dahlia Avenger came out in 2003. Only then did the DA and current LAPD discover he was “the prime suspect.” I was retired thirteen years and only at my father’s death in 1999 did I receive information that he was a suspect, along with the photo of the woman seen in the album. At that point, I began a three-year investigation and was confident my father had no connection to the crime and I would be able to prove and exonerate him of any suspicions.
3) The statement, “nobody knows for sure why the police seemed reluctant to investigate him more.” Actually, we know the WHY that the LAPD and the DA’s Office stopped the investigation. It was revealed in the 2003 secret DA Electronic Tape transcripts. The reason was because Dr. Hodel, about to be arrested by the DA investigators, fled the country while they were staked out at his/our home in their sixth week of surveillance. He was “in the wind” and earlier on the stakeout they listened while a woman was savagely beaten and probably murdered in the basement of the home. The two officers took no action. Made no rescue. When the powers that be learned this and that Dr. Hodel was gone from the country, they decided to lock it all away in the vault, and come back to it after they “cleaned up Dodge, and got rid of the current 1940s corruption.” Of course, they never did return to it as Dr. Hodel remained out of the country and did not return until they were all retired or dead. He returned in 1990. Further, in the decades following the Black Dahlia murder, four of LAPDs top brass involved in the original investigation acknowledge separately that, “We solved the case and it was a Dr. living on Franklin Ave in Hollywood.” From the DA secret Hodel/Black Dahlia File we know that doctor was Dr. George Hodel.

Regards,

Detective III Steve Hodel 11394 LAPD Hollywood Homicide Division (ret.)

April 24, 2020

Leave A Comment

The post Film Daily Black Dahlia Article “One of the Saddest LA Stories Ever?”: A Few Fact Checks appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 1, 2020
Los Angeles, California
Happy May Day!

LAPD Detective III’s Harry Bosch and Steve Hodel: Some Synchronicities,
or “How I Learned To Do the Boschanova”

I had some fun making this one.
This is a fifteen-minute video comparing the life of Michael Connelly’s fictional Detective III Harry Bosch with my own real-life story. Since neither Harry nor I believe in “coincidences” I’ve called these “synchronicities.”  Enjoy!

The post LAPD Detective III’s Harry Bosch and Steve Hodel: Some Synchronicities, or “How I Learned To Do the Boschanova” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 7, 2020
Los Angeles, California

RON CHEPESIUK    with   STEVE HODEL    “Black Dahlia 2020”

Interview  May 7, 2020

Ron is the radio host of the CRIME BEAT Radio Show.  The Crime Beat show has been on the air since January 2011 and has listeners in 130 plus countries. Guests have included Henry Hill, Noam Chomsky, George Jung, Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco), and Chris Kyle, American Sniper, among others.

As a journalist, Ron has reported from more than thirty-five countries, including Cuba, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Kenya, Hong Kong, and Nepal, and his 16,000 plus interviews include such luminaries as Gerry Adams, Yasser Arafat, John Kerry, Jimmy Carter, Abbie Hoffman, a former president of Nicaragua, and three former presidents and two vice presidents of Colombia, South America.

A native of Thunder Bay, Canada, Ron is a full-time freelance journalist, screenwriter, film producer, and radio host based in Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. He has a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) degree from Minnesota State University in Moorhead, Minnesota, a Master’s degree in library science (M.L.S) from Atlanta Clark University, and a post-graduate diploma in archival administration from the National University of Dublin in Ireland. Before freelancing full-time, he was a professor of library service for twenty-five years at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Ron has also taught online courses in the journalism program of UCLA’s Extension Division.

Ron Chepesiuk is an optioned screenwriter and the award-winning author of numerous books – three of them optioned for movies. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Indonesia and Bangladesh and a former instructor in UCLA’s Extension Journalism Department. His articles, which number in the thousands, have appeared in such publications as FHM, USA Today, Black Enterprise, Woman’s World, Modern Maturity, New York Times Syndicate, Toronto Star, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, among others. As an expert in crime history, he is a consultant to the Gangland TV series and has been interviewed on numerous TV programs, including Discovery, NBC Dateline, Biography, ID, Black Entertainment Television, Starz, and TV 1.

Ron Chepesiuk interviews Steve Hodel Black Dahlia 2020

Click to play interview BELOW

http://www.ronchepesiuk.com/radio%20show.htm
http://www.ronchepesiuk.com/

The post Author Interview with CRIME BEAT’s Ron Chepesiuk on the Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 16, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Just finished reading author/historian David Kulczyk’s book, “California Flakes Fruits and Nuts: True Tales of California Crazies, Crackpots and Creeps and it’s pure California Gold.  See my short Amazon review below.  A lot of fun and very well written.

The post Author Review of Historian David Kulczyk’s book on Little Known and Long Forgotten Crimes–It’s Pure California Gold- appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 1, 2020
Los Angeles, California

“Connie (Starr) stated that she was invited to dinner at Mark Hansen’s by Ann Toth on Saturday, January 11, 1947. That the three of them (Hansen, Toth and Starr) had dinner together and shortly after dinner about 9 PM, Beth Short, and her boyfriend, a young kid with brown hair, arrived. ”
Lt. Frank Jemison Memo
(Excerpt Connie Starr interview Jan 26, 1950)

Included in the LADA Lt. Jemison secret Black Dahlia files is a Memo documenting an interview conducted by Lt. Frank Jemison with Connie Starr, an actress/friend of victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. (Reproduced below in full from secret files.)

Lt. Jemison/Connie Starr Interview
(Connie Starr apartment 4 miles from DA office at Hall of Justice.)

Below is scanned copy of original in DA File

Below map shows location of then 1947 residence of Mark Hansen (at the rear of Florentine Gardens which was partially owned by Hansen) where Elizabeth Short and unknown “young date” stopped to visit and spoke with Hansen, Toth and Starr on January 11, 1947 at approximately 9 PM.

Mark Hansen residence, 6024 Carlos Ave, Hollywood. (Behind his club, Florentine Gardens)

JANUARY 11, 1947  9 PM

Connie Starr                      Elizabeth Short            Mark Hansen                    Ann Toth                 “young kid brown hair”?

Miss Connie Starr was a working actress and personal friend of actress Ann Toth who was living at the Mark Hansen residence. Both knew Elizabeth Short who also resided at the same location for several months in late 1946.

This documented 13th sighting is now added to the previous 12  separate sightings of Short during her so-called “Missing Week” and is the thirteenth independent witness confirming Elizabeth Short was alive on 1-11-1947  is further proof that THERE WAS NO MISSING WEEK.  (See excerpt from BDA II (2014) for additional witness statements and sightings during the week of January 9-14, 1947.)

The only credited IMDB entry I have found so far for Connie Starr was as a “waitress” in
Anchor’s Away (1945). 

SKH Note updated 6/2/2020:  

Here is the original reference excerpted from BDA II (2014) where I mention the Connie Starr interview, however, it was inadvertently omitted by me in the  “Chronological Witness Sightings of Elizabeth Short’s so-called, “Missing Week” (BDA II page 206).  (Note in my original reportage I mention a link of Connie Starr to Ann Toth and Marion Herwood Keyes (George Hodel’s personal secretary) in the filming of, Arch of Triumph (1948).

BDA II (2014) page 41:

In the secret DA files, I discovered that Lt. Frank Jemison had interviewed two of Elizabeth Short’s personal acquaintances, Ann Toth and Connie Star, both would-be starlets who frequently played bit parts in Hollywood. Ann Toth, a part-time actress, was the girlfriend of Mark Hansen, owner of the Florentine Gardens, a popular restaurant and nightclub with a popular nude revue. I am quite certain that my father both knew and frequented Mark Hansen’s nightclub on a regular basis because (1) he loved burlesque and nude shows [on the DA Bugging Tapes, he bragged about taking some visiting dignitaries from China to a local burlesque house] and (2) Hansen’s Florentine Gardens Club was just one mile from the Franklin house.

In her interview with Lt. Jemison, Connie Star recalled seeing Elizabeth Short with a young boyfriend at Mark Hansen’s home on Carlos Avenue, at the rear of his club, on January 11, 1947, just four days before Short’s body was discovered.

Lt. Jemison determined that both Connie Starr and Ann Toth worked together as studio extras for the film Arch of Triumph. Marion Herwood Keyes, George Hodel’s former personal secretary, was the costume designer on that film, so the three women most certainly would have come in contact with each other during the shoot. Just another example of the seemingly unending one-degrees-of separation.

Updated Witness Sightings of Elizabeth Short:

The post LADA Secret Hodel Black Dahlia Files Reveal 13th Witness Busting the Myth of a “Missing Week” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 5, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Just two days after interviewing witness Connie Starr regarding her sighting of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short, DA Lt. Frank Jemison and LAPD homicide detective-sergeant Finis Brown obtained a second interview substantiating Connie’s statements.

As a follow-up to the Starr interview, of January 26, 1950, both detectives met and interviewed actress Ann Toth at her home residence, just two days later, on January 28, 1950. A court reporter, Lily Derderian was present and took down Ms. Toth’s verbatim statement to detectives.  (This recollection by Ann Toth occurred more than three years after the actual meeting with Hansen, Starr, and Short on January 11, 1947.)

Excerpted confirmation of the sighting:

 Lt. Jemison:
Do you recall a time when at Mark Hanson’s house there, when Betty came in after you had had dinner with some young fellow, you had company there and she was dressed in a pink dress and she was cold–it was rather cool and chilly –and Mark got a blanket to put around her and heavy socks for her to put on?

Ann Toth:
I do remember that.

Lt. Jemison:
Do you recall the fellow that was with her?

Ann Toth:
No, I don’t.
…
Lt. Jemison:
You remember the occasion was there a girlfriend of yours coming over to dinner?

ANN Toth:
Yes.   (Confirms it was Connie Starr.)  Connie Starr yes. As a matter of fact, Mark and I left and drove Connie home.

(SKH Note:  Interview continues for another fifteen pages on unrelated subject matter.)

Below are the first two pages of transcript confirming Betty Short sighting on January 11, 1947 at Hansen residence.

DA Transcript of January 28, 1950 interview of Miss Ann Toth

Updated Witness List of fourteen (14) witnesses establishing the fact
there was NO MISSING WEEK

SKH NOTE:

At the same time, DA Lt. Frank Jemison and LAPD Detective Finis Brown are conducting this interview Jemison’s task force of eighteen detectives is surreptitiously conducting the electronic stakeout of Dr. George Hill Hodel.  Jemison/Brown are conducting this Toth interview on February 28, 1950, at 2 PM, which is the thirteenth day of their six week Hodel stakeout.  At the very moment, they are talking to Ann Toth, they have already received Hodel’s on-tape (wire recording) confession to committing two murders: Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and the forcible overdose of his personal secretary, Ruth Spaulding and have recorded the probable on-scene murder of the “Jane Doe” victim assaulted and beaten by Dr. Hodel and Baron Harringa in the basement of the Hodel residence, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood. That assault occurred on February 18, 1950, on just the third day of the electronic stakeout.

ANN TOTH  FILMOGRAPHY

The post Update- 14th Witness Ann Toth Interview found in DA Secret Black Dahlia Files Confirming No “Missing Week” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 16, 2020
Los Angeles, California

A number of readers have asked what were my years of service at LAPD and what was my rank when I retired.  Here’s a short history of my career assignments during my nearly twenty-four-years with LAPD.

I joined the Department in February 1963 and after graduating from the academy worked four separate patrol divisions: WLA, Wilshire, Van Nuys and Hollywood.  In August 1965, I along with the rest of the LAPD was assigned to, “The Watts Riots” in South Central Los Angeles.

After six-years in uniform patrol, I promoted and was assigned to Hollywood Detectives where I worked all of the “tables” which included Juvenile, Auto-Theft, Sex Crimes, Robbery, Burglary, and then eventually was assigned to the Hollywood Homicide detail, where I remained and investigated over three hundred murders over the next fourteen years. I promoted from officer to Detective I, II, and then achieved the highest rank (Detective III, me and Harry Bosch) in 1983.

( Gift (autographed photo)  from “Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) to Dirty Steve” received by me at my Detective III promotion party celebration at a local bar.

In the summer of 1983, I was assigned to Rampart Detectives where I coordinated the Burglary Detail and worked on unsolved homicides until my retirement in July 1986. (The reason for my retirement was basically due to the unexpected death of my brother, Mike Hodel at the young age of 47 from lung cancer. I was planning to remain until my twenty-fifth year, which grants extra retirement benefits, but Mike’s unexpected and sudden death made me realize, “life is short” and I “pulled the pin.”As fates would have it, my retirement date, totally random, was on July 29, 1986, which, unbeknownst to me was the shared birthday of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short as well as, Finis Brown, the lead investigator on her unsolved murder. I would not have any awareness of any connections to that crime and my father until his death in 1999, some fourteen-years into my retirement.)

The post A Brief Summary of My LAPD Career and Promotion to Detective III at LAPD Hollywood Detectives appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 25, 2020
Los Angeles

A scene from “Once Upon A Time..in Hollywood” (2019)
“Sharon Tate” (actor Margot Robbie) embraces the Maltese Falcon sculpture in Beverly Hills store as Tarantino pay’s homage to the classic 1941 classic John Huston film. The original “Black Bird” was designed by George Hodel and John Huston’s long time friend Fred Sexton. Sexton was arrested as an accomplice in the 1949 George Hodel Incest/Sex Scandal and testified for the prosecution as a participant in the sex acts between George Hodel and his fourteen-year-old daughter, Tamar.

February 2016 Vanity Fair Article Explores — John Huston, Fred Sexton, and The Black Dahlia Avenger Investigation: The Stuff That Surrealist Dreams are Made Of
See original Fred Sexton/John Huston blog and article HERE.

The post Fred Sexton’s Maltese Falcon Sculpture Paid Homage in Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019) appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles
July 12, 2020
(Happy Birthday Brother Mike! Many of you knew him from his KPFK “Hour 25” radio show in the Seventies/Eighties. He would have been 81 years old today, but sadly he died at age 47 in 1986.)

Below FAQ was originally published ten years ago, but I am updating and republishing it due to the important role Mattie (Mady) Comfort played in the original Black Dahlia investigation and the new confirmations she provided posthumously in her secret manuscripts.

FAQ 4.3
(Originally published in 2010)

Q:  I read in the 1950 DA reports prepared by Captain Jemison that he interviewed a model by the name of Mattie Comfort and they had a nude photo of her with your father. Did she say that she also knew Elizabeth Short?

A: Frank Jemison was a lieutenant, not a captain, but since he did such a remarkable job, let’s give him the posthumous promotion to Captain.

Excellent question! As more and more pieces of the puzzle fall into place, Mattie Comfort, aka, Mady Comfort, has become an increasingly important witness and it appears she could well have been the femme fatale that was the cause of George Hodel’s sudden departure from L.A. (We know he was about to leave, but the Mattie Comfort factor could well have caused him to make an even faster start out of the gate. As we shall see, she became Mattie DISCOMFORT.

Based on DA investigator Jemison’s interviews and written reports, along with separate supporting facts, here is how I believe it played out:

1. We know that sometime in January or early February 1950, Joe Barrett (a roomer/tenant at the Franklin House) was picked up at his workplace by lieutenants Sullivan and Jemison and taken to the DA’s office for interrogation. They informed him of their suspicions that George Hodel was the Black Dahlia killer and got Barrett to agree to help them. He was to be their “mole”, their eyes and ears at the Franklin House. They told Barrett to bring them some photos of Dr. Hodel from the house, which he agreed to do, and in fact, did do. Below is an actual scan of the relevant portion of Lt. Jemison’s report dated, 2/29/51:
   Note that the original 1951 typewritten note by Lt. Jemison reads, “She (Mattie Comfort) said that she was with Doctor Hodel sometime prior to the murder and that she knew about his being associated with the victim (Elizabeth Short).”
   It appears obvious that some unknown writer, on an unknown date and time (possibly even decades later) inserted the word “nothing” (written in pencil) into this report, in what looks like an attempt to try and reverse the meaning of what Mattie Comfort told the original investigators.
   Her statement that Elizabeth knew George Hodel is too important and too damning not to have been originally and immediately corrected in the typed version by Lt. Jemison, before submitting it to his bureau captain. Since it was in the file and not changed, it appears that Jemison’s statement was altered by another, possibly at a much later period in time. (We have Jemison’s unrelated statement in another document (below) confirming that there were multiple witnesses (not just Lillian Lenorak) connecting Hodel and Short and placing her at the Franklin House before the murder.)

2. On March 22, 1950, Lt. Jemison, accompanied by a stenographer, goes to Dorothy Hodel’s residence on  Santa Monica pier and conducts an interview. Dorothy stonewalls him, basically denying she made statements to Tamar, connecting George Hodel to Elizabeth Short, and a statement where George, intoxicated and coming home several days after the Black Dahlia murder, said to Dorothy, “They will never be able to prove I committed that murder.” Dorothy tells Jemison she never said that to Tamar.
   Below is the actual scanned section of the transcript which relates to Jemison’s attempts to identify the black nude model with George Hodel. (Apparently, in March 1950, they had not yet identified her as Mattie Comfort, and again, Dorothy stonewalls and frustrates their efforts. (SKH Note- I know for a fact my mother was lying to investigators as to not knowing Mattie Comfort, as circa 1972, she had me drive her to Mattie’s apartment on Sunset Boulevard, and then introduced her to me as, “my old friend Mattie.” That was the first and last time I met Mattie Comfort, who some twenty years later, remained an exceptionally beautiful woman. A face you don’t forget!)

   Lt. Jemison’s interview of Dorothy Hodel on 3/22/50, excerpt page 5:
   3.  Obviously, sometime after this interview with Dorothy Hodel, and before the report was written a year later, the DA investigators identified  Mattie Comfort and interviewed her regarding the intimate nude photographs of her with Dr. Hodel, along with, what appears to be her identification of Elizabeth Short “being acquainted with George Hodel prior to the murder.” (Investigators already had the identification of Elizabeth Short as being a girlfriend of Hodel from “informant” Lillian Lenorak. On the bottom of page 5 of the Dorothy Hodel interview Lt. Jemison tells my mother, …”Let me advise you that we do have information that he (George Hodel) did associate with Beth Short…”

   4. From the DA bugging transcriptions timeline, we know that Dorothy Hodel met with George Hodel that very day, and obviously informed him of Lt. Jemison’s questions and the fact that he (Jemison) had the photos of Mattie Comfort and if they didn’t already have the connection, they were likely to soon make it. George Hodel, just three days later is recorded talking to “Baron Herringer” (LAPD had his name wrong and I would later identify his real name as “Baron Harringa”) at the Franklin House. The conversation is jumbled and investigators record only parts, but it is enough. Hodel says:

                        “They are probably watching me. Do you think we should hire some girls to find out what they are doing?” …I’m in trouble.” …”Black Dahlia”…”passport”…”F.B.I.” …”police have a picture of me and…I thought I had destroyed all of them.”…

   The following day George Hodel is gone, in the wind, and the DA investigators stakeout comes to an unexpected and abrupt halt. All they can do is collect their equipment and close down the surveillance, now in its sixth week.

   Whatever happened to Mattie (Mady) Comfort?
   She went on to become a singer and actress and I recently discovered her playing a bit-part as a nightclub singer in the 1955 film-noir classic- KISS ME DEADLY. She must have done a lot more work than the one film, as I also found the below publicity photographs of her with some very well-known actors of her day.

   
   

   
   
   
   
   Mattie Comfort was “The Satin Doll” for whom Duke Ellington wrote his 1956 hit song. (Lyrics below)

   SATIN DOLL

   by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Johnny Mercer
   

   I found the following Obit with her picture, posted on the Web. Ironically, she died in June 2003, just eight weeks after the publishing of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder revealing my father as the killer of Elizabeth Short.

   As I indicated earlier, the above FAQ was written in 2010, and with the death of pretty Mady Comfort, I assumed any further secrets that might have known were buried with her. I WAS WRONG.
   I never dreamt that sweet Mady would leave behind a manuscript detailing her intimate relationship with both my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, and my mother, Dorothy “Dorero” Hodel.

   For those of you that want the full story of Ms. Mady Comfort, I am attaching the complete Chapter 3 from Black Dahlia Avenger II which originally published in 2012 and was updated with new material in 2014.

   “We all knew that he (Dr. George Hill Hodel) had done it. (Killed Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia). There was no doubt.”

   Mady Comfort, June 2003

3. 
   Click below to read full Mattie Comfort updated chapter

   Chapter 1
   BDA II (2014) Chap 1 Mattie Comfort BDA II

4. 
   

   Related 2011 Article, “Black Dahlia” Murder Examined in The Chanteuse and the Devil’s Muse”  on David J’s staged production and Mady Comfort full article HERE.

The post Mady Comfort, Duke Ellington’s original “Satin Doll”, Former Lover of Dr. George Hill Hodel and her status as Prime Witness in 1947 Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 16, 2020
Los Angeles, California

Below is a short story that was written by my mother, Dorothy Harvey, (just a few years before marrying her first husband, John Huston) and published in her high school yearbook (Benjamin Franklin HS, Los Angeles, California) in 1921, when she was just sixteen. She would also star in the HS play the following year, which if I recall correctly was MEDEA by Euripides. (Hmmm)

Dorothy Harvey yearbook story age 16       Dorothy Jeanne Harvey age 19

Benjamin Franklin HS, Los Angeles CA

Star Dust and Rent Money

By Dorothy Harvey

(As printed in her 1921 Franklin High School Year Book)

               To him who is blessed with an imagination, surroundings are immaterial, things to be considered only in the most extreme cases.

               One of these cases presented itself to Rose, one morning, in the form of an irate landlady.

               The landlady was a cautious soul, whom long acquaintance with park-bench, unsalaried humanity had made distrustful. “A week’s salary in advance” was the slogan with which she greeted all boarders, particularly the hopeful paupers who expected tremendous sums of money next week, and whom she regarded with unbounded suspicion.

               Rose was out of this hope-to-get-rich-quick type. In fact, she never thought of money except for its convenience, now and then, in disposing of certain troublesome, unenlightened people who persisted in thinking that money really counted and that sunsets, and singing birds, and all beautiful things did not matter.

               But then, Rose had had her Dream, and the creditors and landlady had not. The Dream was the most wonderful thing in Rose’s life. It had come to her one evening as she lay on the worn sofa in a little two by four attic room, looking up through the skylight at the myriads of stars above. She watched them as they whispered mysteriously among themselves, and as they arranged themselves, under the orders of the Brightest Star, in a glorious Idea; an Idea so beautiful and unearthly, that it had blinded her eyes with tears.

               To say that she wrote it down would be an absurdity. She felt it down. And she guarded the paper containing the Idea, jealously; a secret too precious to be shared.

               But stardust is not the stuff that rent is paid from; which brings us back to our starting point—the irate landlady.

               The landlady, upon being admitted to the room, stated the reason for her visit without mincing matters in the least or troubling herself to be diplomatic.

               She had, contrary to her usual policy of business, not only not insisted on Rose’s paying in advance but had actually let her rent run for two whole weeks without putting her out. But matters had reached a climax. She could no longer bear the thought of having a boarder whose rent was not paid.

               She delivered her ultimatum to Rose, who listened with a sinking heart. Two days’ grace were given her. If at the end of two days she failed to pay her rent, she would be without lodgings.

               After the thunder and lightning left the sky, the rain came in torrents. Rose wept; not the tears of despair, but the tears of a mother who is compelled to sell her child as a slave. For Rose knew, even before the landlady left the room, that the idea would have to be sold.

               You recall the poem, no doubt, for it caused a tremendous upheaval in American literature and became universally known. You doubtlessly envied the author of the poem her fame, as well as the fortune she made from it. But you didn’t picture her in a little attic room weeping tears of sorrow and repentance as the stars gazed reproachfully at her through the skylight, now, did you? For, for her, they had been shattered, “the glory and the dream.”

The post Dorothy Harvey (Huston/Hodel) Short Story Published in Her 1921 LA Franklin HS Yearbook appeared first on Steve Hodel.