January 21, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington                           

75th Anniversary  “Black Dahlia” Special airs tonight on Steve Gregory’s UNSOLVED – KFI 640 AM- Sat Jan 22, 2022, 8-10 p.m.(pst)

Steve Gregory

STEVE GREGORY

Airs tonight SAT Jan 22, 2022, 8-10 PM KFI 640 radio

https://kfiam640.iheart.com/

The post KFI Star Investigative Reporter Steve Gregory Hosts a Two Hour Special on 75th Anniversary of the Black Dahlia Murder to Air Sat Jan 22, 2022 8-10 PM on KFI 640 AM appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 26, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

   
KFI Host Steve Gregory Interviews Steve Hodel

I want to take this opportunity to thank KFI Host Steve Gregory for his excellent interview on the 75th Anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.
The complete 67-minute interview which aired a week ago can be heard HERE

In the closing four minutes of the show, I was able to hammer home one important truth that most (all?) naysayers and critics never address, including my own LAPD.

That being the Third Black Dahlia MYTH which say’s: “The Black Dahlia Murder was never solved.”   – WRONG.  It was solved and all of the top brass SAID SO.
For those of you that were unable to listen to the full interview with Steve Gregory, here are the three closing minutes that make that point. (Hit Play below.)

The post Interview with KFI’s Host Crime Reporter Steve Gregory- A Final Point- “Black Dahlia Case is Solved but Not Cleared” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 28, 2021
Birch Bay, Washington

1950 Letter on display at LAPD Police Museum as part of the 2012 Black Dahlia Exhibit.

In Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughprint Press 2014) I published photographic copies of several letters shown on display at the LAPD Police Museum which were purported by LAPD to be “Crank Letters mailed in on the Black Dahlia investigation.”

LAPD informed the public that the exhibit, open to the public on March 19, 2012, “contains original, never before seen Black Dahlia documents and photographs.”

As documented in Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014) chapter 23, “LAPD Historical Society: The New Evidence”, pages 370-390, I presented my case that I believed the two letters on display were not crank letters, but legitimate and most probably written and mailed by my father.

Fast forward to yesterday, January 27, 2022.

I was contacted by Mr. Ron Rees, from Montgomery, Illinois.
Ron and I have had numerous contacts through the years and he provided valuable linkage as relates to a GHH (George Hill Hodel initials) hidden in the Zodiac cipher mailed to the press in the 1970 “Halloween Card.” His discovery was included in my earlier publication.
Yesterday’s call had to do with a new discovery and what he believed was the solving of a separate cipher, as presented in the above 1950 letter sent to “The Sheriff, Hall of Justice.”
Ron communicated his findings to me and I asked him if he was willing to communicate them to my good friend, author, and retired Dallas PD Officer Robert J. Sadler? As many of you know, Robert has served as my editor and graphic artist for more than a decade.

Ron agreed and Robert called him, reviewed how Ron came to his conclusions, and then prepared the below PDF showing Ron Rees SOLUTION.

Here then is that remarkable discovery and what I confidently believe is the actual decoding and solution in which the Black Dahlia Killer reveals his true identity.
Click on the below link to PDF.

THE REES KEY rjs 1.28.22

The post Breaking News-LAPD 1950 Black Dahlia Letter’s Cypher Solved appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 29, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Yesterday, we were presented with the Rees Key which suggested a possible name cipher solution to a letter sent to law enforcement on George Hodel’s birthday in 1950, claiming to identify by name the Black Dahlia Killer. (See blog link Breaking News…HERE. 

Could this taunt (hiding his real name as a clew) have been a crime signature used by George Hodel after he reinvented himself as “Zodiac” in the 1960s?  I believe it was. Here’s the evidence.

Exhibit No. 1
(Copied verbatim from the original reference in Most Evil I (2009 HB ed.) pg.183 which reads:

8. Bates confession paper and signature

The original crime summary of the Cheri Jo Bates investigation states that the suspect typed his “confession letter” on teletype paper cut from a roll of a “UP model 15 Teletype machine.” He also typed “THE CONFESSION” at the top using all capital letters and, according to some investigators, included a signature line comprised of spaces for 12 letters as shown below.

THE CONFESSION BY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Not having access to the original documents, I’m unable to confirm the accuracy of these statements.
Figure 15.16 shows three of my father’s legal signatures. They read: (1) G. Hill Hodel M.D;
(2) Dr. G. Hill Hodel (3) George H. Hodel. All three contain 12 letters. It is not a stretch to imagine Zodiac, due to his megalomaniacal ego, would not be able to resist using the actual number of letters in his name.

Figure 15.16

Figure 15.17

Figure 15.17 is a reproduction of a Telex teletype sent to me by my father in January 1978. I know for a fact that he had Telex machines (unknown models) installed in all of his fifteen branch market research offices throughout Asia, and received and sent dozens of teletypes a week.

Telex teletype paper would have been foreign and inaccessible to most people who were considered suspects (including past boyfriends and students) in the Bates murder. Yet it was a commonly used item, handled many times a day by business executive George Hill Hodel.

Exhibit No. 2
(Copied verbatim from the original reference in Most Evil I (2009 HB ed.) Page 159):

… Missive sixteen (a postcard sent on October 5, 1970) is of interest because of the use of cut-and-paste letters, a practice employed by the Black Dahlia Avenger in his letters to the press following the Elizabeth Short murder in LA.

13.8

At the time this postcard was received the police and press noted the thirteen holes punched in the paper and assumed this represented victims as suggested by Zodiac. However, it could well have been a double entendre which also corresponded with his earlier “signings” with the 13 punch holes representing his signature and real name as:

D R G E O R G E HODEL or G E O R G E H O D E L M D.

Exhibit No. 3

Once again we have the number thirteen connected with Zodiac’s message, “You ache to know my name and so I’ll clue you in.”  We know he included the cipher which when decrypted by Mssr. Yves Person, the Paris, France high school teacher, who  revealed the letters to be from the ancient Celtic language and spelled-H O D E L.

In addition to the actual cipher signing of his name did he include the 13 “Spellbound Eyes” again to represent each letter of his name? –

G E O R G E H O D E L M D  or D R G E O R G E H O D E L

Having walked around inside my father’s mind for several decades, (a very scary place to be) I believe he may well have conceived these to be his clever clews. Puzzle pieces to satisfy his taunting “catch me if you can” persona.

The post The Significance of Zodiac’s References to the “Number 13”-A Literal Crime Signature? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 8, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

“If the true-crime genre is your cup of tea, any of Hodel’s several books offers a bracing repast. But these two most recent volumes are the kind where you start out thinking, as you read, “No, no…this can’t be true…it just can’t be…” and you end up thinking, “How in the hell did George Hodel avoid detection all of those years? How did he get away with these things?”

Excerpt from Alan Bisbort’s Book Review
Republican-American newspaper, Feb.1 2022

I received the below book review from Alan Bisbort, author, writer, and editor for the REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN newspaper. Alan’s true-crime book, When You Read This They Will Have Killed Me: The Life and Redemption of Caryl Chessman, Whose Execution Shook America  (Da Capo Press, August 24, 2007) is a meticulously and exceptionally well written documentation of the facts surrounding the arrest and prosecution of the infamous convict, Caryl Chessman.

Here is Alan’s February 1, 2022 review of my just-published two-book set:  The Early Years: The Further Serial Crimes of  George Hill Hodel M.D. (Thoughtprint Press Nov.6, 2021

Thanks Alan, much appreciated. 

The post Author Alan Bisbort’s Book Review of “The Early Years: The Further Serial Crimes of George Hill Hodel M.D.” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 12, 2022  (updated from June 9, 2021)
Los Angeles, California

“Among the anonymous notes sent to police in the ‘Black Dahlia’ case,” said Donahoe, “there was one which was obviously prepared in a print shop. At the time we discounted its importance. Now, however, it may take on new significance.”

                                                                                 Captain Jack Donahoe, LAPD Homicide
Los Angeles Times, Feb 17, 1947           

In January 1947, the “Black Dahlia Avenger” mailed notes to the police and newspapers using “proof sheet paper” an unusual stock of paper-primarily found in print shops.  

Sample of unique “proof sheet paper” used by “Black Dahlia Avenger”

A Printer/Killer?

One month after the “Black Dahlia and Red Lipstick Murders” a printer/linotype operator, Otto Parzyjegia, was arrested in Los Angeles for assaulting and killing his employer.

Based on his physical description and the fact that he had slain and dismembered his employer and was connected to “proof sheet papers” as a linotype operator at a print shop, LAPD Captain Jack Donahoe ordered a live-show-up be conducted on Feb. 19, 1947.

Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1947 (Capt. Donahoe quote)

Attending this show-up were witnesses from the Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia murder, the Jeanne French, Red Lipstick Murder, and additional females victim’s who had been kidnapped, assaulted, and raped by the “Avenger”, but had survived. (Several of these witnesses were named in BDA::Sylvia Horan, Ica M’Grew, Christine Studnicka, and Toni Manalatos. All witnesses attending the Otto Parzyjeglia show-up eliminated him as being the man they saw connected to the separate crimes.

LAPD forensic criminalist, Ray Pinker compared samples of the proof sheet paper mailed in by the Black Dahlia Avenger to samples obtained from the printing shop where  Otto Parzyjeglia worked and found they were from different proof sheet stocks.

 Dr. George Hill Hodel- The Printer

1920s printing press of type owned and used by George Hodel to print his own literary magazine, “Fantasia.” This same press was stored in the basement of the Sowden/Franklin House in the 1940s and used by George Hodel to print the labels on his “Five Dynasty Tea” as well as the sales pamphlet for the sale of his home in 1950, “For Sale Shangri-LA in Los Angeles.”  (All three shown below)

Samples of printed materials created by George Hodel on his home printing press

The Proof Sheet Paper

From 1945-1950 this printing press along with reams of “proof sheet paper” was set up in the basement of the Franklin House. In the late 1940s, this same printing press along with the proof sheet paper was used to reproduce George Hodel’s sales brochure in marketing the sale of the Franklin House. The proof sheet paper was frequently used by my brothers and me to make our childhood drawings. My father kept several of my original drawings (I was then 7-years-old) and after saving them for over 45-years, returned them to me circa 1995, after his permanent relocation to San Francisco.

In 2001, after two years of full time investigation, I came to realize that these original proof sheet papers could well be important forensic evidence, potentially directly linking the stock proof sheet papers mailed in by the Dahlia killer to these original papers now in my possession. I was confident that a spectrographic comparison of the size, texture, and fiber content, could establish and link them as coming from the same unusual stock. (In my 2003 post-publication briefing to LAPD “brass” this was one of the first forensic comparisons I suggested be made. (Both I and the senior staff officers were unaware at that time that “all the Dahlia evidence including all the original Avenger mailings had disappeared from the locked evidence room.”)

Below are my original child drawings on proof sheet paper from the basement of the Franklin House. All of the hand printing on the drawings, including: “Chinese Chicken and “Little Me” were written by my father, George Hodel and would become an important forensic exhibit in linking his 1949 handwriting to that of the 1947 samples from the, “Black Dahlia Avenger.

Author drawings on “proof sheet paper” from the basement (printing room) of our residence, the Sowden/Franklin House. Drawn in 1948-1949 at age 7 years. This unique paper stock was identical to that used in taunting mailings sent to newspapers and police in 1947 by the “Black Dahlia Avenger.”

Update 2/12/22

Below are photographs of the original drawings I made at age seven.  The notations are in both my father’s and mother’s handwriting as identified below. As previously noted, the paper used was “proof sheet paper” identical to the type described by LAPD Homicide Captain Jack Donahoe as “very unique, and used by the killer to mail in his taunting notes to the police and press.”

SKH Drawing No. 1

(Father) GHH handwriting (Feb.1949)

Drawing No. 2

(Mother) Dorothy “Dorero” handwriting February 1949

Drawing No.3

(Father) GHH handwriting April 1949

Drawing No.4

(Mother) Dorothy “Dorero” handwriting May 1949
(“Joe” referenced by me is residence roomer/Joe Barrett)

Drawing No. 5

(Father) GHH handwriting June 1949

*This drawing was made by me in the days just preceding or following  my father’s kidnap-torture-murder of victim Louise Springer on June 13, 1949.)

.

.

The post 1947 Unique Printer’s “Proof Sheet Paper” Used By “Black Dahlia Avenger” Identical To “Proof Paper” Owned and Used by Dr. George Hill Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 14, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
Valentine’s Day

                    Kiyo with Neil Young Time Magazine 1969

(Left) Author’s ex-wife, Kiyo circa 1942
the photo was taken by my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel

Below is an email I received from “Anonymous” back in September 2021.
In rereading it, I thought it would be appropriate to publish it today, Valentines Day 2022, as in many ways it reads like a Valentine Card to my ex-wife, KIYO.

Judge for yourself.  (SKH Note- “Anonymous'” email is offered as received without edits or changes of any kind.)

The post Kiyo Hodel, “The most unforgettable person I have ever met.” By “Anonymous” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

2.22.22
Hollywood, California

Here’s a short clip from the nightly news reporting the arrest of a burglar who broke into the former residence (Sowden/Franklin house) of Dr. George Hill Hodel at 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood.

ABC NEWS (Click below to view)

Man arrested for burglary at historic Sowden House in Los Feliz

The post LAPD Arrests Burglar Caught Breaking Into Sowden/Franklin House–Original Crime Scene where Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short was Murdered appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 14, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

I have had numerous requests from readers asking for a full list of all my authored books.
Happy to comply. The graphic below created by my good friend, author, and retired Dallas police officer Robert J. Sadler lists all ten published books.

As I’ve indicated in prior blogs, the books can be read chronologically (as I investigated and wrote them) or in the order of their related crime/victim investigations.  Dr. George Hill Hodel’s known and suspected crimes span forty-eight years (48) from 1921 to 1969 and include forty-nine (49) victims.  I will list the books in both chronological and subject/victims order.

Chronological: 

BDA I (2003), Most Evil I (2009), A Genius For Murder (2013), BDA II (2014), Most Evil II (2015), BDA III (2018), In The Mesquite (2019), The Snake and Bake Murder (2020), The Early Years-Part I (2021), The Early Years-Part II (2021)

Victim/Subject: (As shown in the above graphic)

BDA I, II, II; Most Evil I, II; A Genius For Murder, In The Mesquite, The Snake and Bake Murder, The Early Years Part I, The Early Years Part II.  

Author Note/ Update:
I recently received notification from the Production Company that filming is expected to resume in mid-April on the television miniseries adaptation of five of the above books. Stay tuned and advise when I obtain further information.

The post The Serial Crimes of Dr. George Hill Hodel: Ten True Crime Books by author Steve Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 19, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

I will be doing a live online “Off the Shelf”  interview with Dawn Richardson Gepfer and the Atlanta Chapter of Sisters In Crime next Saturday morning, March 26, 2022 at 7 AM PST -10AM EST. The talk will be open to ALL. Register at below link. 

The post Upcoming Sisters In Crime Atlanta Chapter “Off the Shelf” Black Dahlia Author Steve Hodel Interview Sat March 26th 7AM PST 10AM EST appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 26, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Here’s a short article published in CalTech University’s campus paper, “The California Tech.”

“He is the only known serial killer to have attended Caltech.”
The California Tech, April 28, 2003

And here’s another interesting article from the 1940s where gangster Mickey Cohen and George Hodel share the same page in the Daily News, October 17, 1949:

     Micky Cohen                                                                                                         George Hodel

“In today’s hearing, Police Officer R.H. Morrisey testified
Smith admitted to him he and Dr. Ballard had performed the abortion
on the girl.”  (Tamar Hodel age 14)

File under “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Both of these cases were heard on the same day in the same court by the same prosecutor and judge.  Tamar Hodel testified on the circumstances of her abortion and both Dr. Francis Ballard were “held to answer” and bound over to Superior Court. Then the Cohen case was heard and his attorneys argued before the same prosecutor and same judge (Ambrose) fighting to get Cohen’s $50,000 bail money which he put up for his friend, “missing pal” and fellow gangster, Frank Niccoli.
SKH Note- Niccoli never showed for court on this day because he was kidnapped and murdered. (See below link.)

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Jimmy_Fratianno

The post A First for California Institute of Technology-“Just Fingered” ‘Dahlia’ Killer A CIT Dropout appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 27, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Big thanks to Dawn and all the members of the Sisters In Crime, Atlanta Chapter for yesterday’s talk and Q&A regarding my Black Dahlia investigation. Good talking with you and thanks for the great questions. Below is the link to the entire video interview which runs about 110mins.

The post Sisters In Crime-Atlanta Chapter Video Interview and Q&A on Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 29, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

As a follow-up to the recently posted blog with Micky Cohen sharing the same newspaper page with George Hodel in the same court with the same prosecutor and same judge, here’s another connection. Again same page connecting separate crime stories Hodel and Cohen, but this time the headlines involve George Hodel’s former mistress and star Black Dahlia witness, Mattie (Mady) Comfort.

(As background I suggest you read the below article on Mady Comfort “Lover of Dr. George Hill Hodel” which I posted several years ago, before reading the new article to follow.)

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 – Steve Hodel

So, Mady Comfort goes from attractive waitress serving drinks to celebs in the nightclubs on the Sunset Strip to sometime “lover and good friend with George and Dorothy Hodel” * to secret DA Black Dahlia witness (“We all knew that George had killed her.” (Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short) to high-class call girl for a celebrity Madam in the early 1950s.

* I quote from BDA II in which I include a section of Mady’s private journal written in the Seventies and given to me by George Parkington, her 2003 boyfriend shortly after her death that same year.

                        Page 29   …” George and Dorero (Dorothy Hodel) lived in this tremendous mansion in Pasadena. Once entering the driveway one would wind, in this case, I would wind with George and Dorero in their [in their car up the driveway]…Round and round up and down for what seemed like blocks to this four-story mansion. The top floor was a ballroom; the third floor was a nursery for their three gorgeous children. The second was their bedroom quarters. I guess I should say playground because that’s where we played. They were both completely sensuous. George a very handsome, polished tall lean born rich man indulged and adored by his father. George had beautiful black hair with a sophisticated wave in front, a classic nose with a perfectly trimmed mustache, and very nice lips.
George would smile at a person with such charm and sweetness as well as elegance in his perfect clothes with such sincerity. George could turn around and be cold as ice, yet complete composure in his superior authoritative voice, become this strange distant in charge person. He was a doctor.

George and Dorero led me gracefully and pleasurably, into sharing their joys in many exciting ways of the art of making love. It was all done so tastefully and made us very close friends. We liked very much bringing such joy and pleasures to one another’s life, yet we all maintained our dignity and self-respect.
…

And now we discover Mady Comfort’s reappearance sharing the headlines with Cohen. Once again, on the same page, this time it is Mady Comfort making news with Sam Farkas, Mickey Cohen’s former bodyguard, both of whom were arrested along with nine others, including, “Mrs. Barrie Benson, 29-year-old brunette “dressed in a slinky silk negligee, and was termed by the arresting officers as the madame of the house.”

Citizen News April 6, 1951
Headline right- “INDICT COHEN, WIFE ON TAX CHARGES”

Citizen News April 6, 1951
Headline left- 11 Arrested In Raid On Strip Bordello

An accompanying article from the LA Mirror on same date further details Mattie Comfort’s arrest. 

Author Note:  Big thank you to LW (Luigi Warren) for the heads-up on this article from 1951.

The post Star Black Dahlia Witness Mattie (Mady) Comfort Former Lover to George and Dorothy Hodel Arrested with Mickey Cohen’s Former Bodyguard for Prostitution appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 2, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Subsequent to my recent hour interview with Dawn Gepfer and the Atlanta Branch of Sisters In Crime several critics raised the question of my father’s “heart condition” after I presented his full UNRRA application and published it in BDA. One critic, who never knew or met or had known George Hodel in life speculates on his 1945 health condition as,  “incapabilities as a ‘murder’ because “he could barely walk from one room to the next without gasping.”

This speculation by an individual who never knew GHH in life is totally false and in truth, my father NEVER exhibited any physical impairments of any kind during the sixty years that I knew him. The first signs of any “heart conditions and impairment” came circa 1997 at age 89. At that point in his advanced age, he did begin to show a dramatic health change and his physical health quickly deteriorated and he became wheelchair-bound in late 1998, and after several attempts to correct the fibrillation, he decided to take his own life by suicide (Seconal overdose) in May 1999. (This was not out of remorse, but rather, because he feared a stroke and paralysis that would inflict heavy health costs with no real results. He worried about the financial impact on his surviving wife, June, who was forty years younger, and decided euthanasia was the best way out. )

My father did have Rheumatic Fever as a young boy and it is my understanding that this created a heart murmur throughout his long life, but was in no way a physical impairment. Consequently as shown and published on his August 1945 UNRRA application the condition (“angina pectoris”) did prevent him, at age 38, from being accepted in both the active Army and Navy.   In addressing that point on his application (scanned response from actual application below) Dr. Hodel wrote:

…”Upon applying for active duty in the Army, I was examined, reexamined, and asked to sign a waiver, because of a history of Angina Pectoris. This waiver I signed, but was presently informed that because of this condition I could not be accepted for either general or limited duty, even though the condition is not incapacitating.”

GHH’s classification of “IV-B” had nothing to do with his physical health and was a Federal classification for “a deferment due to his being an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. ”  Dr. Hodel resigned his public health officer status, passed his physical for UNRRA and after preliminary service in WA D.C. was sent to China in February 1946 and given an honorary appointment as a Lt.General. After nearly one year of service, he returned and resumed his medical practice in Los Angeles.

“Lt.General” George Hill Hodel M.D. on active duty assignment in China 1946.

Dr. Hodel with his counterpart Chinese generals in China 1946.

Post-1945, George Hodel maintained an active and strenuous lifestyle, with no physical impairments for the next fifty-three years, and traveled the world managing twenty offices through Asia, Australia and Europe.  From 1940 forward he also had three separate wives and fathered seven additional children.

Finally, here is an Email sent to me a few days ago from my father’s close business partner, Leo Murray, who worked with him for more than three decades from 1964-1990s. I wrote asking ” if he was aware of any heart problems or physical impairments?”

Leo Murray’s response below:

Hi Steve,
During all the years I knew him, starting in 1964 and for the next three decades, George Hodel was an individual of indefatigable energy.
Morning, noon, and night George seemed always to be at work. I don’t know how he did it. Though considerably younger, I sure couldn’t keep up with him in the ‘work’ department. In addition, George never seemed to take a vacation. What boundless vigour.
The photos you referred to are attached.

All the best,
Leo

Leo Murray GHH’s V.P. INRA-ASIA Hong Kong seen transporting GHH during his regular visits to Hong Kong. The photo was taken circa 1974. In addition to his full-time employment running the INRA ASIA office, Leo was also a flight instructor in the HK Auxiliary Air Force.

The post Leo Murray, V.P INRA-ASIA Hong Kong Office Confirms Dr. George Hodel’s Health “An Individual of Indefatigable energy.” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 8, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

In June 2021, I again documented my father’s extensive training as a surgeon providing his medical transcripts which showed 766  hours of surgical training, his performing 53 separate surgical operations and 12 autopsies, followed by a full year of internship at SF General Hospital where he would be performing surgery on a daily/weekly basis. This was followed by his employment as the sole surgeon at a logging camp in New Mexico for seven months. (See below link to that original article.)

SKH Note- There remains no question and all medical authorities that have examined both the Suzanne Degnan and Elizabeth Short bodies and or photographs of the autopsies, are in agreement that the bisections had to have been performed by a skilled surgeon.”  Further, both the Degnan and the Short bisections were an identical procedure known as a hemicorporectomy, where the body is divided by using a scalpel and cutting through the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebra.

“A Skilled Surgeon Did It” (Murders and Bisections of Suzanne Degnan Lipstick Murder 1946 and Elizabeth Short Black Dahlia Murder 1947 )

GHH Application for Appointment in Public Health Service 
March 10, 1942
pg.2

Dr. George Hill Hodel Presidential Appointment 
PA Surgeon U.S. Public Health Service
July 11, 1942

As I have indicated in previous writings, I here again make a clarification and distinction on the “hemicorporectomies” performed on the 1946 Chicago Lipstick murder victim, Suzanne Degnan, age 6,  followed by the same surgical procedure performed on Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short in January 1947.

Critics argue that “it was impossible for George Hodel to be taught a hemicorporectomy at his medical school in 1936, since it was not performed until the mid-1940s.”

That is only true in the sense of it being used as a “last resort” attempt as a life-saving procedure. 

Prior to 1946, in 1936, it was performed as a surgical procedure in autopsies to divide the body by cutting through the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebra thus avoiding having to saw through bone.

The post Dr. George Hill Hodel’s 1942 Presidential Appointment as PA Surgeon to U.S. Public Health Service appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 9, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

My mother, Dorothy Huston Hodel, was, in my mind, the personification of The Good, The Beautiful, and The True. She was self-educated, and a voracious reader whose lifelong passions were Art and love for Nature.
Mother was a writer. Her dream was to follow in the footsteps of her literary heroes and write “the great American novel.” Though she did not realize that dream, she did write scripts for radio programs and was a screenplay doctor in the Forties and early Fifties.

For example, just prior to the release of the classic film “Treasure of Sierra Madre” her former husband, director John Huston, came to her and said, “Dorothy, I can’t get this scene right with Bogie and the Mexican boy (played by a very young, Robert Blake). You have three boys that age, can you help me?”
Dorothy rewrote the dialogue, and it is one of the great scenes in a great film.
The following essay was written by Dorothy circa 1944, about the same time the below photograph was taken by our family photographer Man Ray.
I hope you see the elegant mind she possessed and her genuine love for all that was true and noble which she demonstrated to her three sons, Michael, Kelvin, and I.
We shared in this love while she lived. Now through her words written nearly eighty years ago, you can share in what we experienced, her light, brilliance, and her gentleness.
Steve Hodel
St. Patrick’s Day, 2022
AMERICA IS – By Dorothy Huston Hodel (Kindle 22-page essay- $1.99 )

CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON LINE Available Instantly

Dorothy Huston Hodel
1906-1983

Author’s Note: HUGE KUDOS to my good friend, Robert J. Sadler for the cover design and layout of my mother’s AMERICA IS essay.

The post AMERICA IS- An essay by Dorothy Huston Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 15, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
(Today would be my mother’s 106th Birthday)

Friends and readers have asked me to respond to a recent four-hour YouTube video tirade coming from a long-time self-appointed critic and wannabe writer who has been promising to write and reveal his own “solving of the Black Dahlia murder.” He has made numerous claims over the past 25-years (since 1997) that he is writing this book with “hopes to complete it in the near future.”

For those not familiar with my original March 26, 2022, Sisters In Crime “Off The Shelf” interview with Dawn Gepfer and chapter members, see the link-  HERE.

My usual response over the past two-plus decades has been to ignore his libelous, slanderous actions. As he goes totally “off the cliff” in this most recent “critique”, I will reluctantly respond to some (11 of many) of his false claims/allegations (his words in red quotes) as presented in his two-part video.

The eleven (11)  quotes in red below are from: “Black Dahlia: Larry Harnisch Reviews Steve Hodel on ‘Black Dahlia Avenger” as posted in his blog dated March 30, 2022, on his website, “The Daily Mirror” with its link to his video “FACT CHECK” which appears on YouTube. My responses are in black.

So let’s begin:

 1) “Steve says his father was a child musical prodigy. Total lie and B.S. He only played an interlude during speeches.”

BOY OF NINE CHIEF SOLOIST AT SHRINE HOLIDAY EXERCISES

As the headline (from Los Angeles Evening Herald) states, George Hodel was “Chief Soloist.”

In the article below, I see no mention of “speeches” or “interludes”. In fact: …… this is what was really reported:

2) “I.Q. didn’t exist when George Hodel was a child. Total BS and lie.”

As the above article states twice, the word “genius” was used to describe George. When was George Hodel a “child”? Legally a person is a child until the age of 18. George was born on October 10, 1907, thus he would have been considered a child until his eighteenth birthday, October 10, 1925. Clearly, the term I.Q. did exist during the entirety of George’s ‘childhood’.

The first modern intelligence test in I.Q. History was developed in 1904 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon.

Dr. Lewis Terman is best known for initiating his Genetic Studies of Genius and his revising of the Binet-Simon I.Q. Scale in 1916–the first I.Q. Testing was done with 1.7 million soldiers during WW I. George Hodel “achieved the highest test scores in public schools in his day” and was one of “Terman’s Termites” and initially participated in Terman’s testing in 1921. (Hodel continued sending in the Terman follow-up questionnaires, as requested by the researchers, every ten years, well into his Eighties.)

(Re. George Hodel’s working as a crime reporter for the LA Record and covering vice and homicide crime scenes.
3) “L.A. Record was a dying, little nothing newspaper. They would hire anybody. All baloney.”

Not true. The Los Angeles Record was a robust, respected, and competitive Los Angeles newspaper in the 1920s. Additionally, why would a “dying, little nothing newspaper,” as a matter of routine, in addition to their ‘regular’ edition feel compelled to keep their reading public abreast of current events by printing “EXTRA” editions, much less “SECOND EXTRA SECOND” editions?

4) “George Hodel graduated from medical school with the minimum surgical skill. Hemicorporectomy was not taught at that time.”

According to his medical school transcripts “George had 766 hours of surgical training, performed fifty-three (53) separate surgical operations, and conducted twelve (12) autopsies.”

This was followed by at least a one-year medical internship—to gain more practical skill.

George Hodel was an Intern at San Francisco General/County Hospital, 1935-36 where he would be performing surgery on a daily/weekly basis and became Camp Surgeon, CCC, New Mexico, Dec. 1936 – June 1937. And he received a Presidential Appointment as PA Surgeon, U.S. Public Health Service, July 11, 1942.

The below-scanned excerpt is from Dr. George Hodel’s 1942 application to the U.S. Public Health Service listing his prior employment positions, including sole surgeon at the logging camp. The second document shows his acceptance and presidential appointment by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 as a PA Surgeon.

5) “Hemicorporectomy was not taught at that time.”

One must assume that this quote “at that time” is referring to the time George was in medical school.

This procedure (dividing the body by cutting between the 2^nd and 3^rd lumbar vertebra) was known and used during the 1930s—used not as life-saving surgery, but rather in performing autopsies. It allowed the surgeon to avoid having to saw through bone.

The procedure’s use as an attempt to save lives was not developed until the 1950s and 60s.

According to Wikipedia: “…Frederick E. Kredel first proposed the operation in February 1951 while discussing a paper on pelvic exenteration The first hemicorporectomy was attempted in Detroit, Michigan, by Charles S. Kennedy in 1960, but the patient died eleven days later. Surgeons J. Bradley Aust (1926–2010) and Karel B. Absolon (1926–2009) conducted the first successful hemicorporectomy in Minnesota in 1961.

(Re. my eight books on the ongoing investigations and specifically the first published book, Black Dahlia Avenger.)

6)”I call it a franchise of garbage. DDA Steve Kay says, “no coverup.”

No, Head Deputy DA Kay, in reviewing my investigation (in 2003) did not say “no coverup.”

Regarding the murder of the Black Dahlia, here is what HDDA Steve Kay did say, “I have no doubt in my mind that George Hodel murdered both Elizabeth Short and Jeanne French, and was he alive today and were the witnesses alive, I would have no problem in filing two counts of murder against Dr. George Hodel. And I believe if I took that case in front of a jury that I would convict him.” Further, he said, when asked, he was not going to address the allegations of (an LAPD) coverup and was just providing his opinion regarding the murders.

7) “Jeanne French was not posed. No relationship to Dahlia murder.”

Not posed? Really?

Reportage of the crime indicated that her killer beat her to death and dragged her body a short distance across the isolated vacant lot. He repositioned her body by splaying her legs apart and spreading her arms away from her body so they formed an arrow. He then carefully placed her shoes on each side of the body. Next, he wrote “Fuck You B.D.” on her naked torso in lipstick (even this was written left to right from the left side of her body toward her head) and then draped her naked body with her dress and fur coat. That is ritual posing.

Also, note the detective ‘holding her fur coat’ which had been on top of her body prior to police removing it to photograph the “Fuck You” written in red lipstick. Again, ritual posing.

“No relationship to Dahlia murder.”

Not true. Back as early Feb. 1947, the LAPD did believe there was a connection, and that the same suspect killed both Elizabeth Short and Jeanne French.

Feb 12, 1947

Mansfield News-Journal
Police Work on Theory Same Person
Committed Two Los Angeles Murders

LAPD Capt. Donahoe discloses “police are pursuing the theory that the captivating brunette’s murder (Jeanne French) may have been the work of the Black Dahlia slayer.”

In support of this belief after the arrest of one possible suspect (Otto Parzyjegla, Male, Caucasian, 36, arrested on February 12, 1947 for bludgeoning his employer to death) Capt. Donahoe conducted a live show-up at LAPD’s Wilshire police station. Detectives had witnesses from both the Short and French, as well as several kidnap/rape victims abducted from DTLA, who survived their kidnappings, all attend the show up in an attempt to identify the suspect. (All eliminated Parzyjegla and he was charged with the single crime of murdering his employer.)

LAPD Capt. Donahoe, in charge of detectives at that time, was convinced that it was the same killer who kidnapped and tortured, and slew Elizabeth Short just sixteen days earlier and posed her body on a vacant lot in Leimert Park district. Capt. Donahoe was extremely vocal with the press on this linkage and said so. Further, the LAPD in 1947 published in the newspaper “Eleven Points” as to why they believed at least four of the LA “Lone Woman Murders” were likely connected to the same killer.

8) LAPD Det. Brian Carr (assigned in 2003 as the gatekeeper on the Black Dahlia case) didn’t show Steve Hodel the George Hodel file because Hodel was a pariah within LAPD.”

Not true!
Det. Brian Carr did not know that a George Hodel file existed! 

Neither Det. Carr nor did anybody on the then current-day(2003) LAPD know that George Hodel was a prime suspect or was even named in the Dahlia investigation.  All the ‘known’ Hodel/Black Dahlia Files had been destroyed decades prior, and NONE EXISTED AT LAPD. The first time today’s LAPD became aware of George Hodel’s name was when I published my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger, containing the first revelation of the DA Secret Hodel/Black Dahlia files.

However, after I and Head DDA Steve Kay personally briefed the LAPD brass and detectives in April 2003, on the findings of my investigation, it still took a highly reluctant Det. Carr six months before he, obtained and reviewed (copies) of the Hodel files from the DA’s office. And that was only because he was ordered by Dep. Chief of Detectives James McMurray. (Chief McMurray also ordered Det. Carr to “Clear the Black Dahlia case based on Hodel’s investigation, unless you can find major holes in his findings.” Det. Carr ignored the order claiming he “was too busy with other cases to take time to determine if George Hodel committed the crime or not.”

9) “Hodel said, Jeanne French’s body was posed off Mountain View. No, the street name was Grandview, not Mountain View.”

No, the street name I was drawing readers’ attention to was, in fact, MOUNTAIN VIEW.

Granted police pulled up to and used the 3200 Block of Grandview Blvd. as the call’s arrival address, they could have just as easily used the 3200 Block of Mountain View, or the cross street, Stanwood.

Jeanne French’s body posed on a vacant lot between  Grand View and Mountain View

Why? Because the vacant lot upon which Jeanne French’s body was found was bounded on the west by Grandview and on the east by Mountain View. The crime scene photographs show a body some distance from the street. It was posed like an arrow with the tip of the arrow, her battered head, pointing north to Mountain View and her feet toward Grandview.

That said, given George Hodel’s penchant for posing his victim’s bodies near streets with names significant to other victims and crime scene locations, it would therefore be consistent that George was posing his victim, Jeanne French, near MOUNTAIN VIEW as a mind game “clew” and a “catch me if you can” taunt referencing Elizabeth Short’s burial, just days sixteen days earlier at “Mountain View Cemetery.”

Elizabeth Short’s family at the gravesite at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California
The victim’s body was laid to rest on January 25, 1947, just sixteen days before the brutal murder of Jeanne French.

Further GHH/BDA/BD-French Connections:

The following article appeared in Los Angeles area newspapers the day after the body of Jeanne French was discovered with the obscene note written in lipstick on her body that read, “Fuck You B.D.”

The Whittier News
February 11, 1947

Further details revealed taxicab driver Charles Schneider discovered the note in the glove compartment of his cab after returning from eating at a restaurant in the 500 Block of Columbia St. in DTLA. Addressed to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, but not released to the public, the note, with a crude illustration of a knife* and a pistol on it was turned over to LAPD.
*George Hodel mailed a note in the Black Dahlia murder to the Los Angeles Times, on January 28, 1947, with a crude drawing of a knife dripping blood. (Just 13 days before the French murder with this second note and knife.)

One More Connection:

The cab containing the February 11,1947 note left in the cab was just one mile (5mins) from Dr. Hodel’s medical office in the Roosevelt Building at 7th and Flower St in DTLA.

(10) “In the Dahlia murder, Degnan Street is three blocks away.”

Degnan Street becomes Norton and changes its name mid-block. I’ve explained this numerous times in my writings, and he knows it.

Based on my research and investigation, I contend that in the pre-dawn hours of January 15, 1947,  George Hodel drove north on DEGNAN, just before daybreak from Santa Barbara Blvd and bearing left (at the Y)  toward the vacant lot ahead, assuming he was still on Degnan.

Again, why?

Because the Street Signs/Street Names were part of George Hodel’s crime signature taunts.

George Hodel posed Suzanne Degnan’s body off “Hollywood St.”
George Hodel posed Elizabeth Short’s body off “Degnan St.”
George Hodel posed Jeanne French’s body off “Mountain View St.”
George Hodel posed Manila Lucila Lalu’s body off “Zodiac

George Hodel, in one of his “Chicago Lipstick Murders” just one year earlier on January 6, 1945, had performed a hemicorporectomy on little Suzanne Degnan (verified by the Chicago Coroner who performed the autopsy saying it was done by “a skilled surgeon who cut the body between the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebra.”)

11) “Tamar handed her daughter (Fauna ) off to a washroom attendant in Las Vegas, correction I meant to say in Reno.”

No. Tamar Hodel, a sixteen-year-old teenager, had nothing to do with handing off her daughter Fauna to the adopting parents. Tamar was in San Francisco. Instead, her mother, Dorothy Anthony, made all the arrangements and negotiations and went to Reno and gave the child away.

I have written six books regarding the serial crimes of my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, which includes the murder of Elizabeth Short.

It is fair to assume that not many of my critics have read, word-for-word, all of my books nor have they studied my investigation and the results carefully and in-depth. Instead, some individuals rely on other ‘so-called’ experts, such as a copy editor who has never been a law enforcement officer, or assigned to a crime scene to investigate a single homicide, follow the clues left by the killer, track down the killer, arrest him or her, put them in jail, testified before a Grand Jury and at trial, and obtained a guilty verdict convicting the killer.

I on the other hand have conducted over 300 homicide investigations.

As for being a “pariah” [#8)] “within LAPD and his peers informing me he was just average with a drinking problem”

My clearance rates and personnel ratings speak for themselves.  Out of a sincere sense of modesty, I have not posted them previously in my writings. But, will here do so in rebuttal.  Here are random examples of my consistently high ratings (always upper 10%) received from my superiors.

Click on the link below:

LAPD Steve Hodel Personnel Ratings

Most police officers will receive on average one or two “formal citizen complaints” a year. (Some “founded” and many or most “not sustained”, regardless, they remain in the officer’s personnel file.) It comes with the territory. That said, In my nearly twenty-four years of police service in uniform and as a detective, I never received even one citizen complaint.

A number of readers through the decades have asked me, “Why does that retired LA Times copy editor hate you so much? Why is he so venomous towards you?

Setting aside the obvious of his losing his throne as the self-professed “leading expert on the Black Dahlia investigation” and revealing that he had falsely and wrongfully accused an innocent man (Dr. Walter Bayley) bringing irreparable harm to the man’s reputation and that of his family.  There exists another potential reason that I have never revealed.  Maybe it’s time, as it could shed light on the question.

In the AFTERMATH section of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger (pages 454-457) I relate the story of how I came to obtain the four original Black Dahlia photos owned by Elizabeth Short.

These four photographs came up for auction on eBay in February 2003, just two months before my book was published.

I expected the bidding might go as high as $1,000.00. Not even close. In the last hours it went from $1,000 to $4,000, then to five, then six.  It was obvious that there was one bidder that wanted them as badly as I did. In the closing moments, it came down to this unknown anonymous bidder and me.  The last few seconds were frantic and as the computer dust settled, I looked at the screen and saw my bid just barely topped my opponents by $100.00. My final bid won at a whopping- $7, 611.11.

A short time later I would learn the name of the anonymous bidder from a knowledgeable and highly reliable source. That source identified the other bidder by name and indicated “he was extremely angry and upset with you because he did not get the photographs.”

Who was that bidder?
You guessed it. Los Angeles Times copyeditor- Larry Harnisch.

SKH NOTE TO READERS:

I am aware of the difference between opinion and untrue statements. You can be sure that I will not allow untruths to go unanswered.

Slander ; is the action or crime of making a false statement damaging to a person’s reputation.

Libel; is a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt.

Defamation; is the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel.

P.S.  A huge thank you to my good friend and editor, retired Dallas Police Officer and mystery author, Robert J. Sadler for helping create the graphics.

 Best Regards,

Det. III Steve Hodel LAPD Hollywood Homicide (ret.)

The post Response to a 4-Hour Video Rant Claiming to “critique” My Interview with the Sisters In Crime-Atlanta Chapter appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 26, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

“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

DEGREES OF SEPARATION
(Graphic by Robert J. Sadler)

The above graphic shows Madi Comfort was at most only 2′ of separation from all individuals pictured. The inner-circle shows she was in direct contact and personally associated with: Dr. George Hill Hodel and his wife, Dorothy “Dorero” Hodel. (The three were sexual partners per Madi’s written diary.) Madi was a call girl for Madam Berrie Lazes Benson and friend of fellow call girl, Shelia McDonald.  She was also acquainted with Sam Lazes, the former bodyguard to Mickey Cohen, and ex-husband of Madam Berrie Lazes Benson. The outer circle (dotted line) shows that Madi was just 2′ of separation from Mob Boss Mickey Cohen and admitted gunman and killer, James “The Weasel” Fratianno.

SKH Note: These degrees of separation are what we KNOWand can PROVE.  Obviously, there exists a high probability that all of these individuals were friendly and associated directly with one another (1′ of separation) during and in Los Angeles in the 1940s. 

We learn from my earlier post (Purple Palace Raid link below) that Madi Comfort, Sam Lazes, Shelia McDonald, and “Madam” Barrie Lazes Benson were all arrested in the raid.

April 6, 1951, Purple Palace Raid

Typical of the times Sam Lazes (aka Sam Farkas) Mickey Cohen’s bodyguard got a slap on the wrist and a $25.00 fine. His ex-wife Barrie and her stable girl, Shelia were charged with seven counts of pandering and would later that year both be convicted as “Hollywood Vice Queens” and sent to prison for 1-10 years. I was unable to locate a fine or sentence on Madi Comfort.

From Sex Play to  Gangland Slayings in just three months:

The “Two Tonys” gunned down in Hollywood

August 6, 1951

Brancato and Trombino murders
Herald-Examiner Collection August 7, 1951

Photograph caption dated August 7, 1951 reads “This was the grim scene in front of 1648 North Ogden drive following the rub-out of Tony Brancato (left), 26 and Tony Trombino, 31 (right) whose bodies are shown upright in front of their sedan. Three slugs, apparently from a .38 pistol, had pierced the windshield (arrows) of the car, which carried Missouri license plates. The car radio was still playing when the police arrived. At left, Deputy Chief Thad Brown and Detective Lieut. George Stoner point in the direction which the killer is believed to have fled.”

SKH Note- Deputy Chief Thad Brown* (as detailed in my twenty years of ongoing investigations) was the primary LAPD law enforcement official responsible along with DA for the

Historical Data:

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Tony Brancato moved to Los Angeles and became involved in the organized crime scene, including illegal gambling, narcotics, and bootlegging. He was a suspect in many mob murders, including that of New York mobster Bugsy Siegel, and in a botched attempt to kill Mickey Cohen. Anthony Trombino, also from Kansas City, became Brancato’s partner in crime and they became known as “the two Tonys.” After robbing the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, the men became wanted by the mob and the FBI. Jimmy “the weasel” Fratianno set up a meeting with the two to discuss a bank robbery. On August 6, 1951, Brancato and Trombino were found shot to death in the front seat of a car on Ogden Drive near Hollywood Boulevard. Though many mobsters were arrested, phony alibis allowed all of them to escape punishment. Over 25 years later, after entering the federal Witness Protection Program, Fratianno confessed to murdering the pair.

August 8, 1951

Jimmy (The Weasel) Fratianno and Sam Lazes were two of the four men arrested the day after the execution-style double gangland homicide. All four were ultimately released in 1951 due to “insufficient evidence” after they each provided an alibi. Frantianno twenty-five years later admitted to committing the murder after being placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

*Officer Steve Hodel and Dep.Chief Thad Brown in 1966. The photo was taken after Chief Brown had his photographer call me over for a photo after the Chief’s swearing-in ceremony to replace the recently deceased Chief William H. Parker.
While I was “clueless” apparently Chief Brown knowing
my father was the killer of Elizabeth”Black Dahlia” Short,
simply could not resist the “photo op.”

“THAD BROWN NEW POLICE CHIEF”
July 21, 1966

The post Black Dahlia Star Secret Witness & Hodel Paramour Madi Comfort – Degrees of Separation to Madams and Mobsters appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 5, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
Cinco De Mayo

Former Steve and Kiyo Hodel Residence 8451 Utica Dr. Laurel Canyon

I married Amilda Kiyoko Tachibana (“Kiyo”) in the summer of 1962 and for a short time we lived at her home on Kirkwood Drive just a block up from the “Country Store.” It was a secret marriage. I was just 20 and Kiyo informed me she was “28” and looked it. (I would later discover that she was in fact, 41.)

Ours was a whirlwind romance. She was fire and I was water. It lasted just three years. Shortly after getting married we bought the large estate on Utica Drive with the rental properties. We moved into the large main house and rented out a small cabin on the property as well as the small apartment above the garage at street level. (Both the main residence and garage apt can be seen in the above photograph. The small cabin which was about 100′ east of the steps is not visible.)
For a complete description of that time period of my life see Chapter 10 “Kiyo” in Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (Skyhorse Pub.2015)

In the winter of ’65 after coming home unexpectedly early from my studies at Los Angeles City College (I had decided to drink instead of think that night) and finding Kiyo in flagrante delicto with a young actor I quickly ended my marriage and moved on.

I wanted nothing more than my freedom and in the divorce proceedings gave Kiyo the four separate properties that we had purchased during our marriage.

Fast forward a few years to the late 1960s.  Kiyo continued teaching her astrology classes and was known in Hollywood as the “Astrologer to the Stars” with the likes of Jane Russell (a very cool and friendly woman) continuing to attend them at our Utica Drive residence.

Kiyo after my leaving rented out the separate cabins to young musicians just starting their careers. But, let’s let one of them, Neil Young, tell the story.

Here is a recent interview Young did with Rick Rubin. The original interview is an hour, but this four-minute clip focuses on Neil’s description of his Laurel Canyon reflections.

Laurel Canyonites circa 1968
John Densmore rented our garage apt and Neil Young the small cabin

John Densmore             Neil Young                Michelle Phillips                Danny Hutton

Kiyo circa 1944                  Kiyo with Neil Young        “Astrologer to the Stars” ’69 Time article

Link to full-hour interview with Rick Rubin and Neil Young HERE. 

As presented in BDA Chapter 15 my half-sister Tamar Hodel and Michelle Phillips were very close and remained friends throughout Tamar’s life. Here’s a scanned excerpt in Michelle’s own words as written in Michelle’s book, California Dreaming: The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas, describing their friendship:

And here’s a related blog I did some time ago on the Utica Drive property.

A Blast to the Past: Some Stephen Stills stills and Laurel Canyon Lore

The post Neil Young Reminisces About His Laurel Canyon Days- Renting and Writing His Early Songs in the Kiyo Hodel Cabin in the Late Sixties appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Det.III Steve Hodel
LAPD Hollywood Homicide (ret.)

May 20, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Today I am presenting a two-part podcast recorded in 2021 entitled “Medical Murders.” The source material for the podcast has been taken pretty much chapter and verse, from my book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder. The podcast was produced and recorded by Alastair Murden assisted by David Kipper M.D., a Beverly Hills Internist who provides his medical expertise when appropriate as pertains to Dr. George Hodel’s medical and academic abilities as they relate to the crimes. (Each of the “Medical Murders” podcasts runs just under one hour.)

Alastair Murden and Dr. David Kipper, Internist Beverly Hills, CA.

PART I  (54mins) CLICK HERE

PART II (52mins) CLICK HERE

The post Medical Murders-A two-part Podcast Presented by Alastair Murden and Dr. David Kipper M.D. summarizing the biographical and criminal life of Dr. George Hill Hodel Focusing on The 1947 Black Dahlia Murder appeared first on Steve Hodel.