May 28, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Ten days ago, on May 17, 2022, I reached the twenty-third anniversary of my investigation into the Black Dahlia and other serial crimes committed by my father, George Hill Hodel M.D.

As many of my readers know, my investigation began with my father’s death on May 17, 1999. A few days later I had the phone call with my half-sister, Tamar Hodel, in which in talking about our father’s passing and what a remarkable life he had, Tamar said, “Well, you know he was a suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder. I’m sure he didn’t do it, but the police thought he killed her.”

The results?

Eight books (which are really just one ongoing investigation) crime summary lectures at Pompidou Centre, Paris, France, FBI National Academy Association, LAPD Historical Society, Adventurers Club of Los Angeles, Pepperdine Law School, South Bay Bar Association, California Association of Licensed Investigators, Jonathan Club, California Association of Criminalists, and dozens of Public Library lectures throughout Southern California. In addition, my findings have been presented in about a dozen documentaries (48 Hours, Court TV, Dateline, The View, A&E Bill Kurtis-Cold Case Files, CNN-Anderson Cooper, Discovery ID Channel, NBC Universal,  NBC News-Patrick Healy, Univision, KMEX-Leon Krauze Special Investigation, The Travel Channel, U.K. Channel 5-“The Hollywood Files”, Buzzfeed “The Chilling Mystery of the BlackDahlia Murder”, etc.)

Through the decades my investigations as presented in my books have received scores of congratulations and commendations from my readers.  I am proud to say that my book has been reviewed by over 900 readers on Amazon with a current overall ranking of 4.5 stars:

Many of my readers as “armchair detectives” have contributed to major evidential linkage in various individual crimes. I have done my best to credit them individually, in the various chapters in BDA I, II, II, and Most Evil I and II.

I would also like to thank and credit those individuals who have weighed in and acknowledged my findings. Here are a few that I would like  to expressly thank for  their past reviews and professional comments. To name a few:

“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)
_____________________________________________

“Steve Hodel has a well-known track record of thorough investigation and relentless pursuit of the truth. I hold him in high esteem as a man of great skill, persistence and imagination, and honor. I would work with him anywhere any time. “

 LAPD Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker (a 32-year veteran)
(Former Chief of Police, Portland, Oregon)

______________________________________________

“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
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“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
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“Fascinating.”
—Johnny Depp
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“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, coauthor of the NYT Times bestseller
And the Sea Will Tell
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“[Hodel] gives us a fascinating family psychodrama; we watch his image of his father morph from flawed-but-lovable ladies’ man to monster.”

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

LIZ SMITH, New York Post

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“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
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“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
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“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
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…”Crime was as 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 loud enough to wake Norma Desmond herself. And it’s the age of film noir, which is often assessed as the result of German Expressionism being crossed with American B pictures. But noir went deeper than that; it was also the mood of idle, affluent, talented guys après orgy mulling over dreams of actes gratuits, and worse. 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,” the man who (thanks to the screenwriter, Robert Towne) warned us, “Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they’re capable of anything.” And what had Cross done? Raped his daughter, and his city, and lived into old age.

—David Thomson, New York Times Book Review

Again, my thanks to all of the above-named individuals as well as my thousands of readers who have taken the time to thank me via email and their letters.

While not actually “retiring” I have as many of you know, relocated from my hometown of Los Angeles to beautiful Birch Bay, Washington in the NW corner of the United States. (Only a 35minute drive to downtown Vancouver, B.C.)  This puts me close to my two sons and two grandchildren. Son Matt in Bellingham and Michael, his wife Joyce, and their children, Tucker and Ella in Seattle.

I am currently working with filmmakers and “in production” adapting some of my books into a docuseries which hopefully will be aired next year. So stay tuned for something exceptional, as it is in the extremely talented hands of the documentarian, Robb Bindler, who has been working with me for the past four years and totally “gets it.” With Robb’s vision and abilities, I expect his documentary will follow in the wake of his other award-winning productions.
But, don’t take my word for it, let’s hear from one of Robb’s own, filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino:

“Hands on a Hardbody (Bindler’s film) is the greatest documentary ever made.”
Quentin Tarantino on Jimmy Fallon Show
January 9, 2020
Click below for 30sec clip

Tarantino and Fallon 1.9.2020

So, STAY TUNED. LOT MORE TO COME.

Steve Hodel
Birch Bay, Washington

The post A Heartfelt Thank You for the Massive Support on this the 23rd Anniversary of my Ongoing Investigations into the Serial Crimes of Dr. George Hill Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 30, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
Memorial Day, 2022

A Big THANK YOU to all our servicemen and women and to those that gave their lives to keep our country free. We salute you!

Film Documentary- John Farrow-Hollywood’s Man In The Shadows
to air at Beverly Hills Film Festival on June 1st, 2022.
Is there a secret connection between serial killer Dr. George Hill Hodel and famed Hollywood Film Director-John Farrow? Did they know each other? Check out my filmed interview with documentarians Frans Vandenburg and Claude Gonzalez in their feature documentary.  Airs on June 1st-Block 2.  Highly recommended.

     ONE SCREENING BLOCK $15.00  JUNE 1st Block 2

Film Documentarians Frans Vandenburg and Claude Gonzalez

Documentarian Frans Vandenburg

John Farrow: Hollywood’s Man In The Shadows- Trailer

The post Is There a Secret Connection to 1940s Serial Killer Dr. George Hodel and Famed Film Director John Farrow? The Answer Revealed in the Upcoming Beverly Hills Film Festival Airing of “John Farrow: Hollywood Man In The Shadows” Airs June 1st. appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 7, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

One of my critics’ and naysayers loudest claims (those that have not read my investigation or any of my books) is, “The photographs are not Elizabeth Short, so Hodel’s theory completely falls apart-nothing more to discuss.”
At the risk of being redundant, the fact remains-I eliminated the woman in the standing photograph some SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, publicly on-air on Anderson Cooper’s CNN NEWS. Secondly, on my blog post (FAQ 20 published September 2006) and thirdly,  I included my complete investigation of that elimination in my follow-up book, “Black Dahlia Avenger II” detailing my elimination in a complete chapter.

Let me reemphasize that point.  I alone was and remain the sole person having eliminated the photograph. I identified, located, and personally interviewed the individual back in 2006. At that time, to protect her privacy, I gave her the name of “Maganda” (the word in Tagalog, her native Filipino language, means “Beautiful One.”)  No other person has ever spoken with her or discussed her connection to Dr. George Hill Hodel, and that remained so, until her death some six years later. At that time I revealed her true name, Marya Marco, an actress and friend of Dr. George Hill Hodel who initially helped her get into films in Hollywood.  In my 2006 in-person interview with Marya, her story basically independently confirmed Tamar’s allegations of sexual relations with her father back in the summer of 1949.

Marya Marco IMDB Profile HERE. 

Below is a republication of my original FAQ 20 posted in 2006 along with Marya’s full interview detailing how, when, and where (the Sowden/Franklin House) the photograph of her was taken by George Hodel.

PDF Full Interview with “Maganda” – True Name Marya Marco Click Below:

FAQ20

As relates to the second photograph (below) I continue to maintain it IS ELIZABETH SHORT. Recent state-of-the-art Facial Recognition lab in Germany provided a “95-97% probability that it is Elizabeth Short after comparing known photographs to the questioned photo.”  (A 99.7% comparison is required to call it absolutely positive.) However, as I have pointed out in previous writings this is a moot point, since the LADA Secret Hodel/Black Dahlia Files confirm that “George Hodel knew and dated Elizabeth Short prior to the 1947 murder.”

George Hodel photo compared to victim photo

The post The George Hodel “Black Dahlia” Photograph Controversy: Standing Photo Eliminated By Me Sixteen Years Ago (2006) On Anderson Cooper CNN News appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 13, 2022

Birch Bay, Washington

Let me be perfectly clear that the following observations are speculative at best, but curious enough to merit discussion as a possible link from the distant past (1930s) to the more recent past. (1970s). A potential THOUGHTPRINT if you will.

Let’s take a look.

A large number of photographs of the George Hodel Jr. “Tea House” were on display on Zillow which showed the residence recently “sold” on 8/31/21 for $630,000. It described the home as “1bd 1ba 559sqft selling for $639,000.”  It displayed 27 photos of the exterior/interior.  Below are four of the twenty-seven shown on Zillow.

I would draw your attention to the above lower right photograph. That photo shows the underpinnings of my father’s deck and at the far end is seen an outdoor mural of turquoise tiles with white and black lines.  The design appears to be modernistic in style and I posit it was likely placed there sometime after the home was built (1922).  It is believed my grandfather sold the property (Main House and George Jr’s “Tea House”) sometime shortly after the death of his wife, Esther, who died in 1935 from tuberculosis.) It is entirely possible that my father, George Hodel Jr. created the tiles and affixed them to the wall sometime during his youth between the years 1923-1935. Below graphic shows enlargement.

Modernistic tile graphic enlargement courtesy of my good friend Robert Sadler

In seeing the tile design some days ago it reminded me of something I had seen before, but could not place. A few days passed, then it struck me. The strange lines were artistically reminiscent in nature to the 1974 Zodiac Exorcist Letter that bore strange signage at the bottom of the letter consisting of juxtaposed angular fat and thin lines. You might say, well fat and thin lines are not the same as black and white lines. Obviously, the strength of line is different vis a vis tile and paper. The difference could be that in the Zodiac letter the author/artist was using only ink of one color (blue) thus fat lines could substitute for white lines, or the reverse.

We do not know what the above strange linear tiles mean or signify? It is reasonable to assume the tile mural adorning the young genius’s private residence had meaning for George Hodel.

Similarly, we do not know what an older George Hodel as “Zodiac”, meant by including artistically reminiscent lines in his “Exorcist Letter” as they are yet to be deciphered.

Could the signage symbols be taken from his past?  Thoughtprints that contain some special significance to George Hodel?  Certainly, worth considering.

SKH Note- Some Zodiac researchers have speculated that the symbols when rearranged spell out “To Kill”. Personally, knowing my father’s mind as I do, I find that a bit simplistic and expect (as in the Ogham signage) that we may find a much more significant meaning yet to be revealed. See below:

The post Do The Newly Discovered Hodel Tea House Modern Art Tiles Have a Connection to Zodiac Letter? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 15, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

“It’s Midnight Dr. ____”

William Copley 1961

Original Tiled Master bathroom Sowden/Franklin House as it appeared in 1947

The photo below “It is Midnight Dr. ____” shows Dr. with a medical bag, surgical tools spelling HODEL MD, and a nude female who is either dead or unconscious at his feet.  The tiles in the background are identical to those shown above in the photo of Hodel’s master bathroom as it appeared in 1947.

An Explication of Surrealist’s Hidden Clues
in Wm Copley’s: “It’s Midnight Dr.___”

In Wm Copley’s 1961 painting: “It’s Midnight Dr. ____” the artist arranges a standing clothed male figure carrying a ‘medical bag’, a reclining nude female figure, and six (6) ‘medical instruments’ on a grid background that could represent square tiles. This grid is twelve (12) tiles across and fifteen (15) down for a total of 180 tiles. What Surrealistic Puzzle could this pose? One interpretation by Mr. John Scott from Australia suggests the answer could be found in the artist having created a grid that contains 12×15. spaces or tiles.

If you put those two dimensions side by side you have: 1215. To the Surrealist artist what could the numbers 180 (12×15) and 1215 mean? In finding your way with a compass, it has 360 degrees. Regardless of your direction of travel, if you want to go in the opposite direction you go 180 degrees the other way. If we speculate that the idea of a canvas with a grid containing 180 tiles is meant to represent the opposite and we see the grid is 12 by 15 then the opposite of 1215 (or one, two, one, five) is five, one, two, one or 5121.

If we combine this information with the previously ‘discovered surrealistic clues’ in the painting: a male figure holding a doctor’s bag, whose hatband spells: GEORGE HODEL; six instruments that spell: HODEL MD; all standing/arranged above a nude woman, what could this grid represent?

Mr. Scott suggests that the reverse/opposite of 1215 is 5121 which is the numerical address of the Sowden/Franklin house, e.g.: 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles CA.

This speculation and deduction confounds the concept of ‘coincidence’. If the grid is numerically representative of Dr. George Hodel, MD’s residence address and inside that residence is a bathroom floor and walls set with square ceramic tiles, then it is reasonable to deduce, (particularly if the woman is representative of Elizabeth Short before her bisection/hemicorporectomy), that the grid is representative of that residence’s bathroom floor, i.e. the Black Dahlia killing floor. (rjs 11.11.19)

Hodel residence at 5121 Franklin Ave., Hollywood

Copley painting reveals/identifies killer with five hidden “clews”:

1. Depicts a doctor as killer.

2. Depicts surgical tools spelling his name- HODEL MD

3. Depicts location of surgery as tiled bathroom identical to Hodel master bathroom.

4. Designs doctor’s hat to hide and spell HODEL

5. Conceals actual numerical address of murder in graph as-5121

6. In separate artwork Copley depicts himself lying supine in the Minotaur position (as was victim Elizabeth Short) with the initials G.H. on a wall above him depicted as Glove and Hat.
   (See blog here: https://stevehodel.com/2019/10/10/surrealist-artist-william-copleys-new-hat-trick-a-third-drawing-and-clue-to-black-dahlia-whodunit/)

Surrealist Artist William Copley’s New “Hat Trick” – A Third Drawing and Clue to Black Dahlia Whodunit?

The post A Further Examination of William Copley’s “It’s Midnight Dr. ______”: Black Dahlia Crime Scene Address Concealed In Surrealist Painting appeared first on Steve Hodel.

June 27, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

UPDATE
Many Black Dahlia “theorists” and “self-appointed experts” claim that the Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” murder was a “one-off.” “None before-none after.”
They go on to claim their own suspect (which includes a drunken drifter, an abusive father, an allegedly senile mentally deranged WWI vet/M.D., and a possible A-List Hollywood actor) committed the one Black Dahlia crime and no others.

Not only do their separate theories go against all the evidence and logic, but they also misrepresent the known facts presented by LAPD detectives who were convinced that many of the LA Lone Woman murders were connected and committed by the same suspect. The press not only presented printed articles written by LAPD as to why they believed the crimes were connected but headlined detective’s suspicions that victim Jean Spangler was “the 10th victim in the series of mutilation murders.” (See above headline dated Oct 11, 1949.)

For those readers that may have missed it, I here repost my blog from January 2021 along with the excellent article by columnist, Maureen Lee Lenker, summarizing the Jean Spangler investigation. Click below to read her full article.

January 23, 2021
Los Angeles, California

Maureen Lee Lenker

EW columnist Maureen Lee Lenker examines Fact from Fiction in 1949 Actress Jean Spangler Murder

Here’s a link to a well-researched and well-written article by Entertainment Weekly  senior writer/columnist,  Maureen Lee Lenker updating the Jean Spangler murder investigation.

Kudos to Ms. Lenker on her accurate and objective research that goes a long way in helping dispel the many MYTHS that were initially generated in the 1940s and then continued to be sensationalized through the decades.

Click HERE to read the Ms. Lenker’s full article in EW. 

Actress Jean Spangler

Below graphic shows  my own Jean Spangler  timeline showing her movements on October 8, 1949 in the hours just prior to her kidnap/murder. See my earlier post HERE.

SKH Note:  Not included on the below timeline is the fact that prior to the sighting on Spangler at the Cheese Box Restaurant she was seen with possibly the same individual seen with her at the restaurant. Earlier description matched, “a tall dapper man seated in a car at the Hollywood Ranch Market” in the early evening hours.  The Hwd Ranch Market location was directly across the street from the VILLA ELAINE, 1245 N. Vine St, which on that date was the residence apartment of Dr. George Hodel’s good friend, MAN RAY and his wife, JULIET, who resided in Apt 10. Could they have just come from visiting them? Very possible. It is also worth noting that George Hodel had just been arrested for INCEST with his fourteen-year-old daughter, Tamar and had bailed out of jail on October 7, 1949, literally the day before the suspect met and kidnapped Jean Spangler. (See my earlier post for full details.) Was Jean Spangler silenced because she knew too much?  Again, very possible.

Man Ray’s Villa Elaine Apt directly across street from Hollywood
Ranch Mkt, 1245 N. Vine St., Hollywood

Dr. George Hill Hodel Posted Bail on Incest and Child Molestation Charges and Released Oct 6, 1949 just two days before Spangler date and disappearance.

Below photographs show court docket  and LA Times photo of release of Dr. Hodel to his attorney in hallway of DTLA criminal courthouse after booking and posting bail in amount of $5,000. (Equivalent to $55,000 in 2021 dollars.) LAT photo appeared the following day, Oct 7 1949 in morning edition.

 As presented in my Spangler investigation it is my belief that Dr. George Hill Hodel was Spangler’s “date” on the late afternoon/evening of Oct. 7th and the man seen arguing with her in the restaurant and just a short time later the same man abducting her in the vehicle (just two blocks from the restaurant) where Spangler yelled out to the gas station attendant, “Get the license plate of this car and call the police.”

GHH booking photo Oct 6, 1949
(Note he is wearing same coat and tie as in hallway w/attorney, indicating he was fully processed and released on same day.)

The post EW columnist Maureen Lee Lenker examines Fact from Fiction in 1949 Actress Jean Spangler Murder-Update 2022 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 2, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

UPDATE TO 2016 Blog Post

June 25, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Throughout my investigation, I have discussed at length my father’s “Murder as a Fine Art” crime-signature M.O. I have linked it to what I term, The Man Ray Nexus. (The Minotaur, The Lovers Lips, L’Equivoque, Juliet Stocking Mask,   adding to it the most recent 2015 discovery of Man Ray’s Alphabet for Adults book, published by his friend and fellow surrealist artist, William Copley in Los Angeles in 1948. That book contained the secret inclusion of a drawing of George Hodel “quarreling” (the letter “Q”) inside the courtyard of the  Sowden House. (Most Evil II, Chapter 9, Surrealist Enigmas–Riddles Wrapped in Mysteries.)

Below photo shows 1947 LAPD Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short crime scene photo compared to Man Ray’s 1947 photo Priere de toucher (Please Touch)  on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Coincidence or a Surrealist Tribute to George Hodel’s
Real Death Masterpiece?

In their book, Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder (Bulfinch Press 2006), authors Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss reference a 1947 artwork by Marcel Duchamp as follows:

In July of 1947, Duchamp collaborated with the artist Enrico Donati to create 999 handmade covers for the deluxe edition of “Le surrealisme en 1947,” the catalog accompanying the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme at Galerie Maeght in Paris. Alongside the words “priere de Toucher” (Please Touch) the covers featured a three-dimensional, foam rubber sculpture of a breast surrounded by black velvet. A more affordable edition of the catalog had a photograph of the same breast by the French photographer Remy Duval, reproducing the image from the deluxe version.
…

Photo of Marcel Duchamp’s “Please Touch” (1 of 999) which sold in New York in 2010  for $254,500. Clearly, this is the source of Man Ray’s 1947 photograph of the same name.

 

The artworks created by both Duchamp and Man Ray following just months after Dr. George Hill Hodel’s “Murder as a Fine Art” January 15, 1947, murder masterpiece and homage to Man Ray, begs the question:

Did Duchamp and Man Ray recognize and return the homage to Man Ray’s close friend, George Hodel with a wink and a nod as their joint creations of- priere de Toucher (Please Touch)?  Does their artwork literally represent a piece of the missing puzzle? Is it an exact copy of Elizabeth Short’s excised right breast as well as their insider’s knowledge of the crime? (We know the crime scene photographs were in possession of newspaper reporter Will Fowler, son of screenwriter, Gene Fowler, and we have established that they would have been readily available for distribution to George Hodel’s “inner circle.”)

(SKH Note- One of the most interesting overlooked facts related to the crime scene and follow-up investigation the following day at the coroner’s autopsy is this.  Elizabeth Short’s excised right breast was never recovered.  While other cuttings were found placed inside the victim’s private parts, the breast was not and remains missing to this day. My opinion is that it was kept as “a trophy” after being surgically removed at the Hodel/Sowden House. Never left the home and possibly could have been the “something buried at the house” referenced by the unidentified LAPD police witness. This would also give extra emphasis and underscore the possibility that Duchamp and Man Ray in their follow-up artwork, were paying homage to the “missing piece of the puzzle.” )

Baudelaire  Love as the Surgeon/Victim 

Charles Baudelaire 
1821-1867

“Squibs. I believe I have already set down in my notes that Love greatly resembles an application of torture or a surgical operation. But this idea can be developed, and in the most ironic manner. For even when two lovers love passionately and are full of mutual desire, one of the two will always be cooler or less self-abandoned than the other. He or she is the surgeon or executioner; the other, the patient or victim.”
Charles Baudelaire

George Hodel worshiped and identified with Charles Baudelaire, whom he read and studied in the original French. It is likely that Father read these words from Baudelaire’s Journal, and took them to heart, and would later translate and apply them as part of his own surgical crime.

The following article, written by drama critic, Ted Le Berthon, appeared in his weekly column “The Merry-Go-Round” in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, on December 12, 1925.  The article describes my father, George Hodel, who had just turned eighteen, but was passing himself off as “twenty-one” so he could drive taxi in downtown Los Angeles. (Le Berthon changed his name from “Hodel” to “Morel” and dad’s self-published elitist magazine Fantasia to “Whirpools.”  I quote the article here in its entirety:

Los Angeles Evening Herald
December 12, 1925
The Merry-Go-Round
By Ted Le Berthon

The Clouded Past of a Poet

GEORGE MOREL is tall, olive-skinned with wavy Black hair and a strong bold nose. His eyes are large, brown, somnolent. A romantic, hawklike fellow, a pianist, a poet, and editor of Whirlpools, a bizarre, darkly poetical quarterly.

“George is a nice boy but…”
How often did one hear that!
What his friends hinted was that George, being young, was inclined to write of melancholy things.

Of course, George could have pointed to Keats, Rupert Brooke or Stephen Crane for precedent, but…”It’s not George’s gloom, his preference for Huysmans, De Gourmont, Poe, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Hecht that pains us,” these “friends” would parry, “but his stilted elegance, his meticulous speech!”

George drowned himself at times in an ocean of deep dreams. Only part of him seemed present. He would muse standing before one in a black, flowered dressing gown lined with scarlet silk, oblivious to one’s presence.

Suddenly, though, his eyes would flare up like signal lights and he would say, “The formless fastidiousness of perfumes in a seventeenth-century boudoir is comparable to my mind in the presence of twilight.”

One might have answered “What of it?”- but one just didn’t.

As one of George’s “friends” put it: “He’s young. He’ll get over it. What  he needs is contact with harsh realities. At present his writing is tenuous, dreamy, monotonous–and he is like his writing.”

A Future Realistic Novelist

I HADN’T seen George for about a year…
And last night, strolling up Spring street in a sort of Morelian reverie myself, I was startled by hearing a familiar voice. The next moment I saw a tall young fellow in a taxi driver’s uniform seize a burly, argumentative man by the coat lapels and growl menacingly:
“Come across with that taxi fare or I’ll smack you in the nose, right here and now!”
The speaker was GEORGE MOREL.

The Man Ray Nexus 

Update July 2, 2022

Just this morning I came across a link to an article written by Michael R. Taylor in 2009 entitled: “The Genesis, Construction, Installation, and Legacy of a Secret Masterwork- Chapter 2″. For those interested in a detailed description I would recommend reading the full article at the below-attached link. 

Below graphics are from that article:

http://www.golob-gm.si/41-landscape-backdrop-of-Etant-donnes-Martins-Duchamp-Kiesler.htm

The above photograph uses Duchamp’s excised breast to cover the nude’s vagina.

The above graphic shows Duchamp’s breasts flowing out from a box.

The above graphic shows Man Ray’s photo of Duchamp’s “Please Touch”

Man Ray’s 1947 photograph of  Duchamp’s, “Please Touch” would have been taken just 2-3 months after the torture-murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. As previously indicated, I suspect that the excised breast shown and exhibited by Duchamp at the Paris Surrealist Exhibit in 1947, was inspired by his viewing of crime scene photographs of the actual body shared by reporter Will Fowler.

Will Fowler, a reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner, and son of famed Hollywood screenwriter, Gene Fowler, claimed he and his photographer Felix Paegel, “were the first to arrive at the crime scene and after taking photographs of the mutilated body, he closed her eyes.” (Later, facts disproved his claims,  and it is known that he had a reputation for exaggerating the truth beyond all recognition. Fower himself in his biography admitted he was the one that created the false myth that the victim “couldn’t have sex because she had an infantile vagina.”)

As indicated in my writings, it is my belief that Will Fowler was likely the source of/for distributing the crime-scene photographs to his dad and his father’s inner circle of screenwriter friends that would include: Ben Hecht, and Steve Fisher, and Rowland Brown. (Hecht and Fisher both in public newspaper articles in the days following the murder, claimed: “they knew the name of her killer and police would soon have him in custody.” Their friend, Rowland Brown, was the sometime lover of Dorothy Hodel, who though divorced was living with her ex-husband, Dr. George Hill Hodel from 1945-1950. (Dorothy and we three sons were away from the residence, staying with our uncle Gene for several weeks in January 1947. (Documented by investigators  in the 1950 secret Hodel/DA/Black Dahlia Files.)

The post Were Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray’s 1947 "Priere de toucher" (Please Touch) Artworks Inspired by Dr. George Hodel’s Surrealist Crime Scene Masterpiece?- Update 2022 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 9, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Here is one of my favorite interviews, conducted by documentarian and host Chris Cella, going back to 2014. At that time I had only published three books (unbeknownst to me a massive amount of new evidence and another FIVE books in the series would follow.)

Documentarian Chris Cella interviews Steve Hodel, October 2014

(37-minute interview)

In October 2014, I was approached by photo-journalist, Chris Cella with a request to do a Podcast interview. In his e-mail, Chris provided me with the following impressive bio information, along with his thoughts on the Podcast medium:

“I am a Documentary Cinematographer and Photographer, who has worked on 5 Continents Producing stories about Social Values, Conflict, Conservation, and Desperate Situations. My stories have been used by National Geographic, The Huffington Post, and Outside Television. I feel liberated by the Podcast medium because it frees subjects from the imposing camera and allows people to speak free and at ease. My thinking as a content creator is that a shift is happening in media consumption. I see great potential in the Podcast medium. Our show will be Produced with the accompaniment of Music, Interviews, and Sound Bites to create an all-immersive listening experience. If you are familiar with shows such as RadioLab and This American Life, you may be able to imagine the effect.”

Chris and I met and did the interview, which was hosted by Chris and broadcast as the launch program for his INQUISITOR Podcast, and aired, on Friday, October 24, 2014.  Chris was very well prepared, and it was a very professional interview.

The post Journalist/Documentarian Chris Cella Interview with Retired LAPD Homicide Detective and Black Dahlia Avenger Author Steve Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 12, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
Happy Birthday, Mike!
(Today would have been my older brother Michael’s 83rd birthday)

Just a few days ago I made the discovery of a half-sister that neither I nor any other family member (to my knowledge) was aware of. A girl child born to my father and Emilia in San Francisco on November 12, 1929. Her name was Zoe Francesca Hodel,  and she died just three days after being born.
Having learned this has sparked me to explore and hopefully discover the truths of another unknown and unspoken of half-sister.

Today I have decided to reveal another name in hopes of learning more about another child’s name.  Information that I have kept secret for some twenty-five years.
I do this in hopes of discovering the true identity of this long-lost family relative. She would have been my half-sister and my father’s firstborn child-Folly.

Background:

Excerpt from Black Dahlia Avenger (2003) Epilogue Pgs 403-404:
…

Throughout my investigation, as the linkage was made from victim to
victim, I asked myself the same question—Why? What was the trigger?
Then I recalled the story of Folly.
For more than fifty years Folly’s existence had been a whispered family
rumor. Mother had told me bits and pieces of the story when I was in my
twenties: a vague reference to Father having had an early affair as a teenager, which resulted in the birth of a child; somewhere out there another
Hodel, a half-sister, predating Father’s acknowledged firstborn son Duncan born in 1928.
In the summer of 1997, Father and June visited me in Bellingham for
a three-day tour of the San Juan Islands. We had returned from our ferry
crossing, having filled our day with spectacular vistas, and an early dinner
on Orcas Island. The three of us sat in my bay-front apartment as the sun
began to set late in the evening. I had noticed that Father was especially
mellow and the three of us, sated with the beauty around us, felt close and
comfortable. He reminisced about how quickly time had passed, remarking that he was just months away from his ninetieth birthday!
It was then I broached the subject of the family rumor and Folly. “Was
it true, Father? Is there a Folly out there? A sister I’ve never met?” He
paused, and I could almost see him turn back the pages of time in his mind.
“The rumor is true,” he said. “I was very young, a boy of fifteen, and very
much in love.” As I listened intently, Father told the story of Folly.
In Los Angeles, while attending Cal Tech, he had had an affair with
a much older married woman. Her husband discovered the infidelity and
they separated. She moved to the East Coast and gave birth to the child,
a girl whom she christened Folly. “I followed her east,” Father continued,
“found where she was living in a small town, and told her I wanted to
marry her and raise the child. She wouldn’t have it. She laughed at me and
Black Dahlia Avenger.indd 403 2/10/15 12:07 PM
404 BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER
said, ‘You’re just a child yourself. Go away, George. This has all been a terrible mistake. Just go away from me. I never want to see you again.’” Father
said he remained in the East and tried to convince her that they should be
together, but to no avail. In the end, he left, returned to Los Angeles, and
never again attempted to make contact with mother or daughter.
As follow-up to his story, and by way of demonstrating the new computer software I had recently purchased for searching and locating witnesses and individuals nationwide, I suggested we check to see if Folly was “in the system.” He provided me with the mother’s last name, and the
name of the small town in the East where she was last known to be living, some seven decades past. I input the information and pressed “enter.”
Incredibly, there she was! First initial “F,” same last name, with her address
and telephone number. Gazing at the screen in disbelief, Father paled. I
suggested that maybe it was now time to make contact. Wouldn’t he like to
see and meet a daughter he had never met? For the third time in my life, I
saw him visibly shaken. In a firm voice that bordered on anger, he said to
me, “No! You must destroy this information. She must never know. There
must never be any contact. Do you understand?” I didn’t, but I said I did.
Those were the last words ever spoken about Father’s “Folly.

Here now, for the first time I am making this information public in hopes of discovering more hidden truths related to my father’s early years.

In 1997 as reported in BDA (above) the name my father gave me to search for was PULSIFER, the city, WORCESTER, MA. My search back then showed numerous listings under the last name Pulsifer.

So, it is believed my half-sister’s name was Folly Pulsifer residing in Worcester.
I am no longer sure, but I believe dad told me Folly’s mother’s name was Roberta.
However, Folly’s mother may have resumed using her maiden family name, which is unknown.

This introduces a new possibility into our investigation.
As stated it was my belief that Folly’s mother was “a professor’s wife at CalTech” and the pregnancy caused her divorce from her husband and her move to the East.

With the discovery of my father’s magazine, FANTASIA, it would appear that the truth may be slightly different than originally believed.

Note the names of the Editors- George Hill Hodel and G. Bishop Pulsifer.

Based on the timing this cannot be a coincidence.  The co-editor of FANTASIA very likely was the cuckold husband and his wife (possible first name-Roberta) became impregnated with George’s child.

Could G. Bishop Pulsifer also have attended CalTech? Possible, but regardless, I am confident that based on this connection and the year (1925) this would have been the husband of the woman dad had an affair with and who birthed his child.

A quick check of Ancestry.com shows George Bishop Pulsifer born in Maine, in 1901, making him just six years George Hodel’s senior. Could this be the same G. Bishop Pulsifer? Possible, but???

As I initially indicated in this post, today is my older brother’s birthday.
On his popular radio show, “HOUR-25” Mike used to talk about “The Group Mind” and how it could usually answer any question put to the audience within a half hour or so.

I am reminded of that concept and here offer a challenge to “The Group Mind.”
Who was Folly Pulsifer?  Can you identify her or her mother with the possible first name of Roberta? (not certain). Or, in the alternative can we identify mother and child through a link to G. Bishop Pulsifer, co-editor of the 1925 Fantasia Magazine

The first person to positively identify her will receive a free signed copy of the original hardback edition of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (Arcade Pub. 2003)

Email results to me at: steve@stevehodel.com

Good Hunting!

UPDATE  7.12.22 5:15pm

This just in from my good friend Dr. Luigi Warren- a first thoughtprint that seems to confirm we have identified the correct G. Bishop Pulsifer! Has to be him. See below article found by LW showing he like dad, he was a journalist for the LA RECORD newspaper. Pretty colorful bio. Also, like Fred Sexton, and John Huston he studied under artist S. MacDonald Wright. By 1932, below article shows him to be an award-winning landscape photographer in Maine.

The Lewiston Daily 2.1.32
(Found by Dr. Luigi Warren)

The post “What’s In A Name?” – A Search for the Identity of Black Dahlia Serial Killer George Hodel’s First Born Child appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 21, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

I received the below email from Steven Skrabak informing me of the passing of George Parkington, former partner of Mattie (Mady) Comfort. Mady was a star witness in the Black Dahlia investigation and former 1940s paramour of both George and Dorothy Hodel.

It was Parkinton who first revealed to me Mady’s involvement with my parents and her knowledge that George Hodel had murdered Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short as documented in the LADA Secret Hodel Black Dahlia Files.

Steve Skrabak’s email of 7/19/22:

Late Whittier woman connected to Black Dahlia murder

Here’s a summary of Parkington’s role in the unfolding of Mady’s secrets as presented in BDA II in 2014.

Excerpt from Black Dahlia Avenger II
Chapter 1- Madi Comfort, Duke Ellington’s Original “Satin Doll”: (2014) Pages 17-19
…

Upon reading the Jemison/Dorothy Hodel transcript for the first
time, I knew my mother was lying and stonewalling. I knew that
Mattie Comfort was my mother’s close friend. One night in the 1970s,
my mother called to ask if I could give her a ride out to the Sunset
Strip, where she wanted to attend a party being thrown by some
friends. So I accompanied her to an apartment house. At the door,
Mother briefly introduced me to a beautiful woman, simply saying,
“Steven, this is Mattie, a good friend from the old days. Mattie, meet
Steven.” The beautiful “Satin Doll” smiled at me. We shook hands, and
I left.
But Mattie Comfort’s face is not a face one forgets.

THE WHITTIER MEETING

I asked Lynelle Lujan and Myra Hilliard to contact Madi’s
boyfriend, “George” to see if he was available to meet with us at their
BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER II|18
office at the Whittier Historical Museum on September 11 2010 at 10
a.m. He was.
“George” is George Parkington, a gentle, intelligent carpenter
with the look and manner of an artist.
George had met Madi in1997. The two of them became very close
and spent the last six years together before her death in 2003.
As the four of us sat down to talk, George spoke first:
I want to say something to you right away. When your book came
out, there was a big article and photos of you in People Magazine.
Madi always read People. And as soon as she read the piece, she
called me. She was so excited. I couldn’t believe it. Madi said,
“George, you’ve got to come home right now.” I drove home
immediately, and she was ecstatic…thrilled because this [the Black
Dahlia connection] was a secret she’d always held inside her. And
now it was in the open.
In the week after my book published, People Magazine
interviewed me and on June 2, 2003, ran a feature story complete
with photos. It was entitled, “Accusing His Father: An ex-L.A. cop
uncovers a painful answer to the notorious 1947 Black Dahlia
slaying.” Madi Comfort never got to read my book as she died from a
sudden heart attack eighteen days later, on June 20, 2003.

My first question to George was the obvious one. “Did Madi ever
discuss with you what she knew about the Black Dahlia murder? Did
she ever provide any specifics?”
George responded:
Here’s what I will tell you. Madi told me that she and everybody
else were sure that it was your father that killed the Black Dahlia.
They had no doubt. She told me, “We all knew that he had done it.”
Now, who the “we” was I’m not sure, but there are some people still
around from way back then. I’ll try and dig on that a little bit and
see if there is someone you can speak with. Most of the people I
know were more like from the fifties, so I’m not sure there is
anybody I can locate from that exact era.
As we listened to George share his memories of Madi, it was
obvious that the man had been deeply devoted to her. When he spoke
her name, his words were filled with a deep love and a great sense of
loss.
A half-hour into our talk, George reached into his briefcase and
removed a stack of papers. Handing them to me he explained:
Madi has written a book. It’s in rough form and unpublished and
runs about twelve hundred pages. It’s her autobiography. The title
is Madi Comfort: The Original Satin Doll. I think Madi started
writing it sometime in the seventies or maybe later. In it, she
mentions and writes about both your father and mother. What
Madi writes about them is explicit, but I thought you would want to
have everything about them. There may be other references
because her writings are scattered, and she jumps back and forth in
time. But, for now, I wanted you to have these pages that talk about
your parents.
I reached for the papers and asked, “Had Madi mentioned
Elizabeth Short in her book?”
George replied:
I don’t think so. I don’t think, even all of these years later, that she
wrote about that. That is why she was so excited when your book
came out. My sense of it was that she was still protecting people she
cared about even though they were dead. She would have been like
your mother. She would have protected anybody she cared about.
She would have protected even somebody that she didn’t care
about.
Our meeting lasted nearly two hours. It ended with a handshake
and the assurance that the four of us would keep in touch. George and
I exchanged phone numbers with the hope and promise to together try
and search deeper into the mystery of Madi and how she was further
connected to my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, now known and
identified as the “Black Dahlia Avenger.”

THANK YOU GEORGE PARKINGTON. Thank you for your service to the truth and may you truly Rest In Peace knowing you provided a large missing piece to the mystery of who killed Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.

The post A Post Humus Thank You to George Parkington – A Star Witness Who Came Forward with Important Confirmations in Identifying Dr. George Hodel as the “Black Dahlia Avenger” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

July 22, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Author Douglas Laux

ReplyForwad

The post Laux Blows-Fact Checking Ex-CIA Author’s Black Dahlia Misinformation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Update 7/28/22   to original post (7/12/22)

Original post at below link.

“What’s In a Name? A Search for the Identity of Serial Killer Dr. George Hodel’s First Born Child. 

The post A Search for Serial Killer George Hodel’s First Born Child Update – Possible Identification of Mother appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 2, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

I thought I would revisit the below article published in The Bellingham Herald back in April, 2003. Hard to believe it has been just a few months short of twenty years since it was published. Three of my good friends from Bellingham (attorneys all) were interviewed for the piece. In the article, I expressed a hope that someday I would be able to return. Well that “someday” has come as of November 2021 and I’m happy to say I have resumed my friendship with all three of them: Jill Bernstein, Starck Follis, and Dennis Murphy. Great to be back!

The Bellingham Herald, April 11, 2003

The post 2003 Bellingham Herald “Black Dahlia Solved?” Article Revisited appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 4, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Here’s one of my favorite interviews with Dr. Alan Campbell from 2013. Enjoy!

    
Click Here for the full 53 min Interview

The post Revisit with Dr. Alan Campbell and his Black Dahlia-Murder As a Fine Art Interview with Author Steve Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 8, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

I have written and spoken numerous times in the past that the three greatest myths in the Black Dahlia Investigation are:

Let’s take a reexamination of Myth No. 2- “A Standalone Murder. None before, none after.”

You will hear and read from some of the self-professed “experts” who like to perpetuate this myth.  They will tell you that “LAPD, and specifically assigned Det. Harry Hansen,  said, ” It was an isolated murder and not connected to any others.” NOT TRUE.  (They push this myth because their own “theory and suspect” could not have committed the other serial crimes, so they need the Black Dahlia Murder to be a standalone murder.) These are flat-out lies. LAPD and other agencies always believed there existed the possibility of a serial killer and SAID SO.

An article in the Los Angeles Examiner of March 14, 1947, headlined “Dahlia Case Similarities Checked in Fourth Brutal Death Mystery,” offered an eleven-point list of similarities provided by LAPD that detectives believed strongly supported the theory that the murders of Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French, and Evelyn Winters were all related.

The article notes:
“Checking similarities between the death of Miss Winters and the Short and French killings, police listed the following:
1) All three girls frequented cocktail bars and sometimes picked up men
in them.
2) All three were slugged on the head (although Mrs. French was trampled to death and Miss Short tortured and cut in two.)
3) All three were killed elsewhere and taken in cars to the spots where
the bodies were found.
4) All three were displayed nude or nearly so.
5) In no case was an attempt made to conceal the body. On the contrary
bodies were left where they were sure to be found.
6) Each had been dragged a short distance.
7) Each killing was a pathological case, apparently motiveless.
8) In each case the killer appears to have taken care not to be seen in
company with the victim.
9) All three women had good family backgrounds.
10) Each was identified by her fingerprints, other evidence of identity
having been removed.
11) Miss Short and Miss Winters were last seen in the same Hill Street area.

On June 17, 1949 the Daily News published an article, “Nine unsolved L.A. murders baffle police.” 

…”Homicide detectives say they are not sure that one man is responsible for all the killings–but they are wondering and investigating the possibilities.”

Citizen News, 1949: ” 9 ‘Dahlia’ Murders Unsolved”

…”Police are not overlooking the possibility that a single slayer committed all of Los Angeles’ horror murders.” 

Louise Springer Murder  June 13, 1949

LAPD Paid Police Informant G. Glenn Martin personally KNEW and was friends with both victim Louise Springer and George Hodel and identifies him as her killer as well as Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. 

Glenn Martin 1954

Steve Hodel examines 1949 Glenn Martin’s “In Case of Death” letters

Paid LAPD informant Glenn Martin identifies George Hodel as an acquaintance and indicates both he and “GH” knew Louise Springer and that “GH” killed both Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and Louise Springer and that “GH” was taken into custody and questioned about both murders, but his LAPD detective “friends” let him go and tried to blame the murder on Martin. Martin wrote the above three-page letter to be opened only in case of the death of one of his two daughters, “Margaret Ellen or Glenna Jean” which never occurred. The letter was found by his granddaughter, Sandi Nichols,  in July 2018, nearly seventy years after it was written by her grandfather in 1949.  (Letter written and dated October 25, 1949, while “GH” was on trial in Los Angeles and expected to be sent to prison for committing sexual assault and incest against his fourteen-year-old daughter, Tamar Hodel.)

The post Black Dahlia “A Standalone Murder” Myth Denied By LAPD Det. Harry Hansen Who Suspected Many of Lone Woman Crimes “Might Be Connected” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 17, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Greetings from Birch Bay!

I woke up this morning with three thoughts on my mind that I want to clarify and communicate to you, my readers.

NO. 1-

Some naysayers and critics of my investigation claim that my books are “Daddy issues.” That, Steve, was mad because his father left him and his mother and brothers and this is his way of striking back at him.”
Absolutely FALSE. I loved my father and we were never closer than in the final decade of his life when I spoke and visited him in San Francisco on a regular basis. As I’ve often stated in my writings–THIS INVESTIGATION CAME TO ME.
I was long retired (14 years) with no thought or knowledge that there existed any linkage of my father to the 1947 Black Dahlia Murder until my phone conversation with my half-sister, Tamar after our father’s death. It was then that she for the first time in her life said to me, “You know our father was a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder. The police officers who took me to court in the incest trial told me that believed he killed her.”

NO. 2-

This point generally comes  from the print or television media and goes something like this: “Steve Hodel say’s his father killed Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short, or “Steve Hodel’s theory is that his father is…” or “According to Steve Hodel he solved the Black Dahlia murder…”
NO!  The reality, the truth of my investigation as related to the Black Dahlia is that I DISCOVERED THAT THE DA AND LAPD IDENTIFIED DR. GEORGE HILL HODEL AS HER KILLER AND SOLVED THE CASE BACK IN 1950. Steve Hodel didn’t solve it–Law Enforcement DID. All Steve Hodel did was DISCOVER AND UNCOVER THEIR SOLUTION and add more meat to the bone.

No. 3-

I would like to take this opportunity to PERSONALLY THANK all my readers for their long-standing support of my investigations as reflected in the hundreds of positive reviews they have given my books by taking the time to write their thoughts on AMAZON. I am proud to say that Black Dahlia Avenger series has over nine hundred separate reviews with a total rating of 4.5 out of 5.0 stars. And my follow-up Most Evil two-book series also are rated 4.5 out of 5.0 stars.

My sincere gratitude to each one of you that has taken the time to offer your kind words and thoughts in the reviews as well as the dozens of “armchair detectives” who have contributed and continue to provide additional important linkage here on my blog site.

The post Twenty-Three Years Into the Ongoing Investigation: Three Personal Thoughts on the Black Dahlia Investigation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 23, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

One of the few “White Hats” in the 1947-1950 Black Dahlia investigation was Los Angeles DA Lt. Frank Jemison. In truth, we have Lt. Jemison to THANK for preserving the secret LADA Hodel Black Dahlia Files that revealed that a joint task force of LAPD and LADA officers actually identified Dr. George Hill Hodel as the killer and solved the case. Lt. Jemison was just days away from arresting Dr. Hodel when two of the top Law Enforcement officials (DA William Simpson and LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown*) ordered Lt. Jemison to discontinue his investigation and return all files and the taped Hodel confession to LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown.

 * As revealed in my latest publication, The Early Years: The Further Serial Crimes of George Hill Hodel, M.D., Part II – Chapter 4-The Inglewood Babes-(pages 153-235) a then (1937) Lt. Thad Brown and prosecutor DDA-William Simpson worked together on the three victims kidnap/rape/child murders of the “Inglewood Babes”: Victims Madeline Everett, age 7, her sister Melba age 9 and their friend, Jeanette Stephens, age 8.

Albert Dyer, age 32, crossing guard with an IQ of 65, and a mental age of 8, was wrongfully arrested based on a “hunch” by LAPD Lt. Thad Brown.  Dyer was then prosecuted and convicted, by then DDA William Simpson for a 1937 crime believed committed by Dr. George Hill Hodel and his longtime accomplice, Fred Sexton. (In addition to the 1950 tape-recorded assault and likely murder of an unknown victim at the Hodel residence, and its “coverup”; this was the newly discovered additional “secret” possessed by George Hodel that prompted Brown and Simpson to allow Hodel to leave the country.  The real reason why both men had  to “close down” any further investigation. The revelation that these two men were the cause of an innocent man being executed was not something they could permit to be disclosed to the public. It was George Hodel’s trump card, his “ace in the hole.”

Black Dahlia Avenger II (2014ed.)
Excerpt from Chapter 9- DA Lt. Frank Jemison

Click Here to Read 4 page summary on Lt Frank Jemison

LADA Lt. Frank Jemison

The post The Additional WHY of the LAPD/DA Coverup of the Black Dahlia Murder: DA William Simpson and LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown appeared first on Steve Hodel.

August 29, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Here is a follow-up to the previous August 23rd post, “The Additional WHY of the LAPD/DA Coverup of the Black Dahlia Murder: DA William Simpson and LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown”.

The amount of irony in this discovery equals that of about a 100 lb barbell.  I came across this 1949 article just yesterday:

Daily News, December 6, 1949

It clearly was a motion by Dr. Hodel’s defense attorneys to have his felony charges of incest and child molestation delayed requesting a continuance of the trial into 1950. The presiding Superior Court Judge, Thomas Ambrose denied the request, and the trial was set for the following week.
Defense attorney Neeb in presenting his request argued, “It would be impossible for his client (Hodel) to get an impartial verdict from any 12 jurors during this time due to the public clamor and hysteria over sex offenses.” Further arguing that “it was unsafe for a man to simply pat a child on the head.”

Judge Thomas Ambrose

Judge Ambrose, while denying the motion to delay the trial stated, “he tended to sympathize with attorney Neeb and “he recalled an incident after the sensational DYER CASE (1937) in which a man who did pat a child was taken to trial on a morals offense charge.”

IRONY- 1. the humorous or mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean ·

THE IRONY:

In my 2021 publications, The Early Years: The Further Serial Crimes of George Hill Hodel M.D.  Part I (the 1920s) and Part II (the 1930s) I present twenty-three crimes that I believe were likely committed by my father during those two decades.

One of those crimes was the horrific 1937 Los Angeles kidnap/murder of three children. The crime became to be known as, “The Inglewood Babes.” (Briefly summarized in last week’s blog. See link above.)

The “Dyer” referred to by Judge Ambrose was Albert Dyer. Judge Ambrose presided over the 1937 Dyer trial.

The arresting officer who “played a hunch” was then LAPD Lt. Thad Brown.
The prosecuting attorney who wrongfully convicted Dyer was then DDA William Simpson.

The “hysteria” referenced by Judge Ambrose during that trial can be seen in the below headlines and yellow journalism from 1937 that caused and followed Dyer’s arrest.

Albert Dyer, a crossing guard with an IQ of 65 and a “mental age of 8 years” while being held in custody at the Inglewood station was told by LAPD Lt. Thad Brown, “if he didn’t tell the truth and confess to murdering the three children that he (Lt. Brown) would release him to the mob outside who were clamoring “to hang him.” The childlike Dyer, fearful for his life-“confessed.” (He was unable to provide any details, just nodded yes when asked questions related to how the crime occurred.)

The “Trial” was a farce and as can be seen below Dyer was convicted in the newspapers before any jury verdict was received.

The Daily News

Author’s Note-

The complete Dyer case and my investigation showing his wrongful conviction and execution and linking Dr. George Hodel and Fred Sexton as the probable actual killers of the three “Inglewood Babes” can be found in The Early Years-Part II (the 1930s)- Chapter 4 “The Inglewood Babes.”

The post 1949 Incest Trial Court Judge Thomas Ambrose Unwittingly (?) Makes Reference to 1937 Murder Believed Committed by George Hodel and Fred Sexton appeared first on Steve Hodel.

September 11, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

Looking forward to the upcoming First Annual Pacific Northwest True Crime Fest to be held at the Green River College, 12401 SE 320th St., in Auburn, Washington on October 8-9, 2022.  I will be presenting a PowerPoint presentation on my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius For Murder.  Great to be back doing live talks as opposed to virtual, as for me the best part is always the audience Q&A.

Order tickets for PNW True Crime Fest  HERE.

Also, glad to see my good friends, Dr. Shiloh and Dr. Scott (both law enforcement psychologists) from LA Not So Confidential on the program. They are making the trip north from sunny (oh, let’s be honest, HOT, HOT) Los Angeles, CA. They make a great team and their talks are always very entertaining and informative.

The post Live 1st Annual Pacific Northwest Crime Fest Presentation at Green River College Oct 8-9, 2022 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

September 1, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington

December 22, 1925

Self-portraits of GHH

 Photo by George Hodel believed to be Kent Kane Parrot, early Los Angeles Crime Boss who “owned half of the LAPD as well as then Los Angeles mayor, George Cryer, who was known as, “Parrot’s Puppet.”

LA’s top crime boss 1920s-1940s.

From “The Early Years-Part I (1920s)-Chapter 7

Below photo believed to be Fred Sexton age 18
(Sexton a close friend and “fellow artist” believed to be George Hodel’s serial killer accomplice and assisted in many of the crimes from 1920s-1950. (Sexton fled to Mexico after sexually molesting his second wife’s child in the 1960s. He would then marry a teenager in Mexico and die in Guadalajara at age 88, in 1995. George Hodel outlived his murder accomplice by some four years and died in San Francisco at age 91, in 1999.

Fred Sexton circa 1925

Unknown individuals are possible henchmen to Kent Kane Parrot circa 1925. Photo far right believed to be Tom Evans, a known drug smuggler and convicted felon who in 1949 would be questioned in relation to possible association with one of the LA Lone Woman Murder victims. (Mimi Boomhower).

Sample of GHH art photos as referenced in above article 1925. (For all twenty-seven (27) photographs, with a detailed analysis of each photo by Dallas-based photographer/art historian Bill Crump.   See The Early Years-Part I (the 1920s): The Further Serial Crimes of George Hill Hodel M.D.

GHH photo circa 1933 taken in medical school

In 1925 George Hodel photographs were on exhibit at The Gamut Club 

(https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/11/gamut-auditorium.html)

“Opened: 1904 as an exclusively male musical society by L.E. Behymer and other L.A. musicians. Soon the Gamut Club broadened its focus to other types of artists as well as local people of “artistic tastes.” This 1926 view of the Gamut Club is from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

Behymer was also involved in the production of opera at Hazard’s Pavilion and became the head of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, presenting at the later building on the site at 5th and Olive, the Philharmonic Auditorium.

Seating: 668 in the auditorium plus various other meeting, banquet rooms and music studios. The club was the scene of a great variety of musical performances.

Status: The building has been demolished. It’s unknown when the club ceased to be active. Late 20s perhaps? It’s listed in the 1923 city directory under “theatres.”

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