October 18, 2015
Los Angeles, California

REST IN PEACE

Two weeks ago today, my half-sister, Tamar Nais Hodel, passed away in her sleep. She was eighty years old.

She bore, five children.  Two daughters, Fauna and Fauna II (Deborah Elizabeth), and three sons, Peace, Love and Joy.  My heart felt condolences go out to each one of them.

I have written much about my half-sister’s life, and through my writings she has come to be known as, “the daughter of Dr. George Hill Hodel, the Black Dahlia serial killer, and the victim of his incest and sexual molestation.”

Sadly, from early childhood, Tamar suffered major physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of her (our) father. Sexualized at an early age,  her life  continued out of control (sex, drugs, etc.) for decades. The cycle continued. The abused, became the abuser, creating more pain and suffering for her own five children. Each child’s suffering unique to him or her.

Much could be said about Tamar. She had hoped to tell her own story, in her own words, but that was not to be.

I am not going to attempt to expand on her life, most of which I know little about.  I do know that she had a natural ability to accept all people of all races and will let her close friend, Singer Josh White, speak for her.

One of my favorite songs  exemplifies my sister’s spirit. The song made popular by Josh White in the Forties is “Free and Equal Blues.”  Listen carefully to the lyrics and you will better understand a part of Tamar that sought for Goodness and Fairness.

Click here to hear Josh White singing “Free and Equal Blues.”

The post Tamar Nais Hodel Dies at 80 in Honolulu, Hawaii appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Dr. George Hill Hodel “LA Lone Woman Murders” serial killer reenacted Cornell Woolrich’s “White Rose Murders” script “ by committing a real life “White Gardenia Murder” just twenty days after Miss O’Hara’s CBS performance.

Maureen O’Hara 1942

CBS “Suspense Theatre” Radio Show was the Inspiration for George Hodel’s murder of victim, Ora Murray,  labeled by the press in 1943 as:

 “The White Gardenia Murder” 

In 2010, sixty-seven years after the crime was committed, I believe I found a signature link to the brutal murder of Mrs. Ora Murray, one of the eight “Category I  (definites) “L.A. Lone Woman Murders”, which was  originally summarized in my 2003 publication of Black Dahlia Avenger:

Ora Murray, The White Gardenia Murder

Below is a brief summary of the crime M.O. (For those wanting a fuller description read BDA Chapter 23, pages 294-306)
On the evening of July 26, 1943,  Mrs.Ora Murray, age 42, accompanied by her sister, Latona Leinann, went out for a night of dancing at the Zenda Ballroom, located in downtown Los Angeles at 7th & Figueroa. (One block from Dr. Hodel’s medical office at 7th & Flower.) The victim, married to an Army sergeant stationed in Mississippi was temporarily visiting her sister in L.A. At the dancehall the two women met and danced with a man described as: “Paul.”  The sister would later describe “Paul” as being “tall and thin, very dapper and a very good dancer. He was wearing a dark double-breasted suit and a dark fedora.”  Paul claimed to be from San Francisco, “just down to L.A. for a few days.” Paul, after a number of dances, offered to drive Ora Murray to Hollywood and show her the sights. Mrs. Murray accepted and Paul after driving and dropping her sister, Latona off at her home,  then left with Ora to show her Hollywood.

Some eight hours later, Ora Murray’s partially nude body was found on the grass at the Fox Hill Golf Course in West Los Angeles. She had been severely beaten about the face and body and the cause of death was found to be, “constriction of the larynx by strangulation.” Ora’s killer had ceremoniously wrapped her dress around her body like a sarong and then carefully placed a white gardenia under her right shoulder. Based on this unusual M.O. the press dubbed the crime, THE WHITE GARDENIA MURDER. The investigation was handled by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Homicide as it was just outside of the city limits.

1943 Copycat Crime to CBS Suspense Theatre “White Rose Murders”
Radio Broadcast Goes Unnoticed

During my free time, one of my favorite pastimes is listening to OTR (Old Time Radio) programs. A few days ago, I was reviewing an on-line index of the old CBS Suspense Theatre dramatizations,   and one of the titles caught my eye. It was called, THE WHITE ROSE MURDERS. The show was broadcast from CBS’s then relatively new COLUMBIA SQUARE PLAYHOUSE STUDIO located at Sunset and Gower. (Just 1.5 miles and a five minute drive from George Hodel’s Franklin House.) The radio dramatization starred the beautiful 22-year-old actress,  Maureen O’Hara and was broadcast from Hollywood on- JULY 6, 1943, just twenty days before the commission of the “White Gardenia Murder” of Ora Murray.

The radio mystery-play, written by the then popular mystery novelist/screenwriter,  Cornell Woolrich runs 30 minutes. It tells the story of a “homicidal maniac” who frequents downtown dance halls in his city, where he meets, dances with and charms women and then lures them out into the night and beats and strangles them to death. As a signature to his kill, he leaves a carefully placed “white rose” next to the dead body. In the vernacular of the day, the police detective describes him as “a chain killer” and as the story opens the city is in terror as the unidentified suspect has just slain his 4th victim.

For your listening pleasure, here is a link to the complete WHITE ROSE MURDERS radio broadcast as it originally aired from the Columbia Square Playhouse, in July 1943.

Frankly, because of the huge popularity of the Suspense Theatre shows,  introduced by, “The Man In Black,”  I am surprised that neither the public nor apparently anyone in law enforcement made the obvious connection between the radio dramatization and the Ora Murray murder that followed, just three weeks later. Suspense Theatre’s,”The Man In Black” introduces the story as, “A study in homicidal mania.”  Click below to hear the full half-hour radio performance:

Those of you who have read my sequel,  Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel will have a fuller understanding of the importance of this newly discovered link to the 1940s. Why?  Because, in my father’s later serial killings it becomes an important and recurring theme that he uses as part of his murder-signature. In the crimes of the 1960s, he expands his Murder As A Fine Art from the surrealistic plagiarism of Man Ray’s photography as seen in his Black Dahlia Murder and places it on a much broader canvas. As detailed in Most Evil George Hodel expands his killings, his “masterpieces,”  beyond Modern Art and into the world of Music, Film and Literature. This is why this new discovery,  demonstrating another example of his early plagiarism of Cornell Woolrich’s short story, adapted to radio, is so important. It reinforces the theory that George Hodel in his 1940s killings was not just adapting Man Ray’s art to murder but shows he was adapting, copying and committing his murders within weeks after the public presentation as a macabre murder mystery. Within two weeks of the fictional White Rose Murders broadcast to the public, I submit, George Hill Hodel made it REAL.  By following the script and selecting as his dancehall partner, Ora Murray, whom he would dance with, charm and then beat and strangle to death on an isolated golf course as his own plagiarized- White Gardenia Murder.

In Most Evil we examine several different murders that I believe my father “adapted from film,” and used in his real life killings. Richard Connell’s,  The Most Dangerous Game was unquestioningly used by the Zodiac Killer as part of his signature M.O. and subsequently included in his letter writing campaign to the press and police.

The Most Dangerous Game is listed as being performed at the CBS Theatre. Starring Joseph Conrad, it aired on February 1, 1945. How many more of these “fictional” stories might George Hodel have adapted to real life and real death?
Elizabeth “Black Dahlia”  Short and George Hodel positively identified as attending CBS’ Columbia Square Playhouse in 1946-7. Retired BHPD Chief of Detectives identifies George Hodel as, “the dapper man who showed him a Chicago police officer’s badge.”

 In my 2009 sequel,  MOST EVIL, Jack Egger, a former DA investigator assigned to the Black Dahlia investigation, who later became a Beverly Hills Police Captain and then the Head of Security to a major Hollywood film studio, makes a positive ID of George Hodel as the man he saw with victim Elizabeth Short just days before her murder.

Jack Egger, as a young man, before entering law-enforcement originally worked as the head usher at CBS Columbia Square Radio Playhouse at Sunset & Gower. He worked there seven years, from 1941 to 1948. (With a break in employment when he joined the service in June 1945, returning to CBS in October 1946.) Bizarrely, this establishes that Jack Egger was working at the radio theater in July 1943 when Maureen O’Hara performed, “The White Rose Murders” broadcast.

On February 7, 1950, DA Lt. Frank Jemison and LAPD Sgt. Finis Brown interviewed Jack Egger at the L.A. DA’s Office, Hall of Justice, Los Angeles. (I am in possession of the complete interview as found in the DA Hodel-Black Dahlia Files.)

In that interview, Jack Egger informs the detectives that he had seen Elizabeth Short attend CBS radio show programs, “at least twenty times and she was usually alone.” He then goes on to describe the last time he saw Elizabeth Short, which he believes, was on a Wednesday, and was either, January 1st or January 8th, 1947. (Just days before her murder.) Egger informed detectives that Elizabeth  was with a man in his, “early Forties, 5-10, 180, penetrating eyes.” They came to the front of the line of people waiting to see the popular, Jack Carson Radio Show. The man presented a “Chicago police officer’s badge” and Egger, acknowledging that it was common practice to show courtesy to police officers, and assuming that the man was, in fact, a legitimate police detective, and then escorted both Elizabeth Short and the man to Studio A to see the show.

In December 2003, some eight months after the publication of BDA, I located and met with retired Beverly Hills Police Department Captain Jack Eggers.  Eggers positively identified George Hodel as the man he saw accompanying Elizabeth Short to the CBS radio show and as the same man who presented a police badge and identified himself as a Chicago, police officer. See MOST EVIL pages 46-50 for a complete summary of the Egger investigation.  (Attached below as PDF)

Also, contained in these same DA Files are the reports documenting Elizabeth Short’s travel to Chicago and her personal investigation into the Chicago Red Lipstick Murders in June 1946 while George Hodel was temporarily stationed as a UN doctor in China. Additional DA investigation and documents in my possession show that the LA DA was actively corresponding with Chicago PD and investigating and attempting to identify the “Unknown Chicago Police Officer” as a suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder. (Obviously, they were unaware that George Hodel was in possession of the Chicago police badge and representing himself as an officer in Hollywood.)

Maureen O’Hara Laist obituary

Black Dahlia Avenger Ora Murray Summary BDA Ch. 23

The post Maureen O’Hara Heroine of 1943 “White Rose Murders” CBS Radio Broadcast Dies at Age 95- Radio Drama Inspired Dr. George Hodel to Commit Real Life Murder appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Hope to see you at my author talk next week on Thursday, November 5th, 2015 at 7:00PM At the South Pasadena Library.  Will do a PowerPoint talk and signing on my just published book, Most Evil II.

The post Steve Hodel Author Talk, PowerPoint and Book Signing on Just Published “Most Evil II” at South Pasadena Library Nov 5th, 2015 at 7PM appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 6, 2015
Los Angeles, California

Pasadena Weekly Reporter Carl Kozlowski’s article “Surprising Signs”  introduced area residents to last night’s 7:00 PM PowerPoint presentation of MOST EVIL II, at one of my all time favorite venues, the South Pasadena Library.

The talk/signing was hosted by South Pasadena Librarian, Steve Fjelsted, Director of Library, Arts, and Culture, who the library is darn lucky to have as their promoter-in-chief. About 100 attended the talk which was followed by a lively Q&A.

Steve Fjeldsted

Pasadena Weekly Carl Kozlowski article November 5, 2015

The post Pasadena Weekly Magazine on George Hodel Zodiac Cipher Solution and South Pasadena Library Author Talk appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles, California

I will be presenting a PowerPoint discussion and Q&A on my just-published sequel, MOST EVIL II at the West Hollywood Sunset Strip BOOK SOUP BOOKSTORE, 8816 Sunset Blvd., on WED, November 18 2015 at 7:00 PM. Hope to see you there.

The post Author Talk at BOOK SOUP – Wed, November 18, 2015 7:00 PM MOST EVIL II PowerPoint, Q&A, Book Signing appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles, California
November 23, 2015
(Originally posted in 2010 and updated  November 2015)

I rarely read mystery novels, with one major exception- those written by bestselling author, Michael Connelly.

Michael Connelly

Prior to 2003, I had never heard of him.

My first awareness of Connelly’s writings came in 2003, post-publication of Black Dahlia Avenger,  when the two of us were scheduled to speak at the 2003 Bouchercon Convention in Las Vegas.

That same year,  Michael had been nominated as president of the Mystery Writers of America and would preside over the upcoming Edgar Awards in NYC. (My first book, Black Dahlia Avenger, was one of the six nominees in the running for an Edgar Award in the True Fact category.)

Based on those two imminent meetings with Connelly, I figured the least I could do was read one of his books. But, which one? I threw a dart and it landed on–The Last Coyote.

I picked up a copy and read it non-stop. I WAS HOOKED.

I went back and began reading his novels chronologically and as of this writing (2010) I am just completing his 14th novel,  The Brass Verdict and find myself a bit depressed at the prospect that there is only a handful remaining. Then what do I do? (It is now 2015 and I have real all of his novels, including his just published THE CROSSING.)

Harry Bosch- An Identity Crisis?

In my opinion, Michael Connelly is the best police procedural writer on the planet. He’s got it down to near perfection. His character Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is my hero. He’s an “out-of-the-box,” thinking detective, who plays it straight, has a high solve rate,  and gets it right most of the time, but occasionally screws up. What’s not to love?

But, I have to admit; Connelly has created a character whose biography so closely mimics my own on so many levels that I cannot help but IDENTIFY with Harry.

As you review the below comparisons, keep in mind while Connelly has publicly indicated that Harry Bosch “is a composite of several real-life individuals” (along with some fictional characteristics of his own) –I am not one of those individuals.

To my knowledge, Connelly, while giving my book one of my favorite “author blurbs” still, did not know me, and it is doubtful he had ever heard of me before the publication of my book in 2003.  I retired from LAPD in 1986 after nearly 24-years of service. Connelly didn’t publish his first novel,  The Black Echo,  until 1992.

Listed below are a few of the reasons why I have a bit of an identity crisis with my good friend–Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. Harry will tell you, “There are no coincidences.”

Steve would, for the most part, AGREE. So, for the moment, let’s just call these: “SYNCHRONICITIES.”

Michael Connelly’s review of my book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (2003)

My Amazon review of Michael’s just published (2015) Harry Bosch novel, THE CROSSING.

The post Author Michael Connelly’s Hieronymos “Harry” Bosch-An Identity Crisis? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 4, 2015
Los Angeles

Each of the three above named individuals contributed a major piece of evidence which helped solve the serial crimes now collectively known as the Black Dahlia Avenger: LA Lone Woman Murders and the San Francisco Zodiac Murders.

While each one has been previously recognized for their invaluable contributions in my past writings, I would like to take the opportunity to again identify the critical role each played in contributing to the overall investigation.

Working LAPD Hollywood Homicide in the 1970s and 80s our unit established what became known as the “Inspector Clouseau Award.” It was a prized honor, named after the bumbling detective, Jacques Clouseau, in the Pink Panther films played by actor Peter Sellers. The award was given out on occasion to  a detective(s) who had solved a particularly difficult “Hollywood Whodunit” that required a lot of legwork, and some special sleuthing skills.

I  am reinstating that forgotten honor and here announce the three winners of the 2015 Inspector Clouseau Award.

The envelope, please…

Inspector Clouseau Award No. 1 goes to:

Dan “The Man” Lackey

Dan Lackey is an electrical engineer from Mississippi nearing retirement, who enjoys internet research, history, and music.

Dan has been in touch with me by email for many years and had read and was very familiar with my investigations as presented in  BDA, Most Evil. And BDA II (2012).

In the summer of 2013 Dan forwarded to me a new discovery. He had located a 1943 Man Ray painting entitled, L’Equivoque, which he suspected could well be the source of the “crosshatch” surgical markings which the killer had carved into the right hip of victim Elizabeth Short. His initial findings and my follow-up investigation are summarized in BDA II (2014 ed.) in Chapter 26- Murder as a Fine Art: The Hodel/Man Ray Nexus

Dan’s discovery not only resulted in an additional proof that George Hodel used his close friend, Man Ray’s art as part of his crime signature but also helped establish the high probability that the victim actually personally posed for Man Ray as the model in his original L’Equivoque artwork in Hollywood in 1943.

For this and his other ongoing contributions Dan “The Man” Lackey is presented with the 2015 Inspector Clouseau Award.

Inspector Clouseau Award No. 2 goes to:

Ms. Susan Wilshire

Susan Wilshire resides in the United Kingdom.  She attended art school and was trained in designing, and is currently a Deputy Chief Inspector with the police force.

Ms. Wilshire had read and was thoroughly familiar with my first publication, Black Dahlia Avenger and at the time she contacted me, was just finishing reading the new evidence provided in its sequel, Black Dahlia Avenger II. She was aware of the Surrealists, Man Ray and William Copley and their connections to my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel and his “Murder as a Fine Art” crime signatures as identified in both books.

Her initial e-mail contact came on 5 September 2014 where I was provided with information and photographs she had found in a rare art book that had been authored by Man Ray and published in 1948 in Beverly Hills by his close friend and gallerist, William Copley.  The book, Alphabet for Adults, was an Abecedaire and contained whimsical alphabet letters drawn by Man Ray.

Abecedaire-

ABC Book, a primer (after the first four letters of the Latin alphabet: A, B, C, D) is a visual medium (paper, poster, embroidery) with all the symbols of the alphabet, almost always listed in the alphabetical order.) The primers were a medium of instruction for children.

French Wikipedia

Man Ray’s Alphabet for Adults (1948)

In the below photograph we see three samples from Man Ray’s adult alphabet: A for anchor, E for Elephant and K for kimono, with each drawing containing the shape of the letter concealed within the object; the anchor, the elephant, and the kimono. He is whimsically playing with the letters as words.

Our earlier review and analysis of the separate artwork contributions of Man Ray, William Copley, and Marcel Duchamp (post-Black Dahlia) were without benefit of this new information.

As we add this new knowledge to the former, let us consider the fact that Alphabet for Adults was a 1948, Man Ray /William Copley collaboration.  Created and published by the two surrealists in Hollywood, less than one year after the Black Dahlia murder (January 15, 1947).  The book was first offered for sale at the Copley Gallery in Beverly Hills in a limited edition of 500 copies.

Was this collaborative book of whimsical anagrams and word play the inspiration for William Copley’s 1961 drawing, “It is Midnight Dr. ____.”? Did Copley, as we have previously speculated, disguise the letters: H O D E L, as surgical tools, and place them in his drawing, as a variation on the theme that he and Man Ray presented some thirteen years earlier?

Another word play?

Alphabet for Adult lettering compared to Copley’s 1961 “It is Midnight Dr. _____.”

Ms. Wilshire’s e-mail communication included the additional comment:

…

More interestingly if you seek out the image he has drawn which relates to the letter Q which he denotes as “quarrel” the drawing albeit simple, depicts two people face to face and looks like a view of courtyard looking South toward living room of Sowden House. Some other images I also think are interesting.

Man Ray’s Letter “Q” for querelle (quarrel)

Man Ray’s Alphabet for Adults, contains the above drawing of the interior of the Sowden/Hodel residence showing a man and woman “quarreling” as represented by the letter “Q” for quarrel. At the time of publication Man Ray was Dr. George Hodel’s family photographer and was close friends with George and his wife, Dorothy. (Dorero) The eye-shaped object included in the drawing is a Man Ray sculpture entitled “Le Occuliste” gifted by Man Ray to George Hodel in 1948, the same year it appeared in his art book.

A more complete detailing of her remarkable discoveries can be found in Chapter 9 of Most Evil II.

For these and other ongoing contributions, Ms. Susan Wilshire is here presented with the 2015 Inspector Clouseau Award.

Inspector Clouseau Award No. 3 goes to

Yves Person

Yves Person is a high school teacher who works and resides in France. He teaches literature in a Paris suburb.  Yves is also an artist and is extremely familiar with my previous Black Dahlia and Zodiac investigations as presented in my three previous books.

On 2 July 2014 Yves contacted me by e-mail with the following message:

Dear Sir,

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

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

Best regards from France.
Y.P.

I had never heard of the Ogham language or its alphabet and after a quick review of its origins I immediately contacted Yves and within two days discovered that he had in fact solved the authenticated Zodiac cipher signed by Zodiac in 1970.

This mysterious cipher had been written by Zodiac on both the “return address” portion of the envelope and then reproduced as a signatory on the inside, “You Ache to know my name” Halloween Card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Yves Person’s solution (along with additional connecting evidence as provided in Chapter 10 of Most Evil II) leaves no doubt that the serial killer known as Zodiac, who taunted the press and police claiming he was “crackproof,” actually signed his real name, disguising it as an obscure 4^th century Ogham anagram.

OGHAM-The Key

Ogham /ˈɒɡəm/^[1] (Modern Irish [ˈoːm] or[ˈoːəm]; Old Irish: ogam [ˈɔɣam]) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the so-called “orthodox” inscriptions, 4^th to 6^th centuries), and later the Old Irish language (so-called scholastic ogham, 6^th to 9^th centuries).
…
In Scotland, a number of inscriptions using the Ogham writing system are known, but their language is still the subject of debate. It has been argued by Richard Cox in The Language of Ogham Inscriptions in Scotland (1999) that the language of these is Old Norse… [Emphasis mine.]
Wikipedia

Ogham writing on standing stone (Photo courtesy of Jessica Spengler)

1970 Zodiac Card

cipher zodiac solution avi

Yves Person Zodiac Cipher Solution

Yves Person’s cracking of the Zodiac cipher is what I describe in Chapter 10 of Most Evil II as, the Rosetta Stone.

(Rosetta Stone (noun) A key to some previously undecipherable mystery or unattainable knowledge. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

His discovery and revealing of the five concealed Ogham letters that spell out the killer’s signature as H O D E L is irrefutable. There is no other logical alternative explanation.

 For this and other ongoing contributions, M. Yves Person is here presented with the 2015 Inspector Clouseau Award.

The post Black Dahlia Avenger/Zodiac: Unexpected Help from Home and Abroad- Announcing the 2015 Inspector Clouseau Award Honorees appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Santa Monica Library Talk (Free Admission)
Thursday, January 21, 2015, 7:00 pm
601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica

http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=19224

The post MOST EVIL II (Black Dahlia/LA Lone Woman Murders, Zodiac) Author Talk & Signing Santa Monica Public Library Thursday Jan 21 2016 7:00 pm appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles
January 14, 2016

Tomorrow marks the 69th anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.  Rest in Peace, Elizabeth.

Below photo sent to me this afternoon (1.15.16) by a Los Feliz District resident who received it in his email. Unknown person posted a large photograph of victim on front entrance wall of Sowden/Franklin House, obviously in memory of Elizabeth Short.

Photo posted by unknown person(s)on front entrance to Sowden House on 69th anniversary of murder.

Received an email this morning from Kenneth Green, who in watching the 1947 noir film, “The Unfaithful” caught screenwriter David Goodis’ direct and real time reference to the then frequent serial killings in Los Angeles. Thanks and good job Ken!

Kenneth Green writes:

“Hi, Steve. I was watching an old film on TCM, The Unfaithful (1947), starring Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden. I saw it back in the early 90s at a revival house. It’s very post-War and has many L.A. location shots including the Angel’s Flight railway. Eve Arden has a line where she says, “Every day you open the papers, and there’s a dead body in a weed-covered lot.”

In my 2014 NOIRCON powerpoint presentation in Philadelphia, knowing the love the attendees have for their native-born son, David Goodis,  I included the below slide referencing the quote in the film.

Noir novelist/screenwriter, David Goodis adapted the movie as a remake from The Letter (1940) starring Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall. The 1940 film directed by William Wyler was based on the original 1927 play written by W. Somerset Maugham.

Below is actress Eve Arden’s 1947 voice clip from The Unfaithful that captures in real time (film released on June 5, 1947, just three months after the Black Dahlia and Red Lipstick murders) the fact that Angelenos are then terrified because of the newspaper accounts of finding so many bodies on a  “weed-covered lot.” Eve Arden concludes her monologue (as only “Our Miss Brooks” can)  the fact that the mean streets of Los Angeles are so dangerous  that “parents are going to start buying their daughters brass knuckles instead of a wrist-watch for graduation.”

Eve Arden voice clip from “The Unfaithful”

The post Screenwriter/Noir Novelist David Goodis Film “The Unfaithful” References Real Time 1940s L.A. Lone Woman Murders appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 6, 2016
Los Angeles, California

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

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

                                              CLICK HERE

From Zack’s Amazon Author Page:

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

Zack’s  2015 book review of Most Evil (Dutton 2009)

SKH Note to Zack:

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

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February 20, 2016
Los Angeles, California

                  A BIRDIE AND A BOGIE 

This month’s Vanity Fair magazine’s lead article, The Mystery of the Maltese Falcon: One of the Most Valuable Movie Props in History, by Bryan Burrough is an excellent read.

Burrough provides a history on “The Black Bird” and the efforts of Mr. Hank Risan, a wealthy collector, to establish provenance on his own “bird in the hand.”

Included in the attempts to solve the falcon’s mysterious past are threads that lead us to: my book, Black Dahlia Avenger, John Huston, George Hodel, Fred Sexton (the artist/sculptor hired by his good friend John Huston to create the Maltese Falcon used in the 1941 film.  SKH Note:  In 1941, Fred Sexton was reportedly paid $75.00 for his creation, which sold at a 2013 Bonham Madison Avenue showroom auction for 4.1 million.)

As documented in BDA George Hodel, John Huston and Fred Sexton were close friends from their teen years through adulthood. (My mother, Dorothy Harvey, was married to Huston for seven years (1926-1933) then divorced him and married George Hodel. Gives new meaning to “out of the frying pan into the fire.”)

Photo above shows John Huston and Fred Sexton reunited in Mexico, where Sexton lived out the final decades of his life after molesting his 11-year-old stepdaughter at their Palos Verdes, California residence in 1968. Sexton fled to Mexico and in 1971, at age 63, married a teenager. Sexton died twenty-four years later in Guadalajara, Mexico  at the age of 88..

See Fred Sexton Full Bio/Timeline link below:

FAQ 47 Sexton update 2010

The Steve Hodel/Hank Risan Connection

In March 2011, I located and purchased a Fred Sexton modernist painting from an art dealer in Europe, which I referenced and displayed in a blog on my website.

In 2013,  I was contacted by Mr. Hank Risan (referenced in the Vanity Fair article as “the protagonist of this noir thriller”) who expressed a desire to purchase the Sexton modern artwork, then in my possession  and we came to an agreement.

At the time of his purchase, he also requested that I provide him with a “To Whom It May Concern” letter backgrounding and summarizing my knowledge of Fred Sexton and his connections and friendship to both John Huston and my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, as presented in my bestselling book, Black Dahlia Avenger.  

I would later discover that his purchase and interest in the Sexton painting related to his desire to establish the provenance of his “Black Bird” sculpture, which he believed was/is one of the several originals created by Sexton back in 1940/41.  My signed Sexton painting would be one of those used by Risan in his attempt to validate the initials, “F.S” as described in the article.

75th Anniversary Nationwide Theatre Screening of John Huston’s THE MALTESE FALCON to screen this weekend. The 1941 film will be shown across the nation, tomorrow,  Sunday, February 21st and again on Wednesday, February 24th. Though I’ve viewed it probably a dozen times on television, I’m catching it on the big screen, for the first time, tomorrow with a friend, here in Los Angeles. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend you do the same. There just ain’t a classier classic than this one. (Well, maybe a few. *s*)

Vanity Fair: The Mystery of the Maltese Falcon: One of the Most Valuable Movie Props in History

The post February 2016 Vanity Fair Article Explores — John Huston, Fred Sexton and The Black Dahlia Avenger Investigation: The Stuff That Surrealist Dreams are Made Of appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 23, 2016
Los Angeles, California

My friend, J.R. Neumiller, when hearing in my earlier blog that I was off to catch the 75th-anniversary screening of The Maltese Falcon left a comment on my earlier blog as follows, “Why do I get the impression you’ll cine away with a clew?”

Well, J.R., I saw the film on Sunday, and while not exactly discovering a clew, I did come away with one thought/observation regarding the “Black Bird” dueling dingus controversy and a second previously undiscovered highly ironic coincidence. Here they are:

Bird in the Hand Forty Seven Pounds?

In watching the original 1941 film it became apparent (at least to me) that the “Black Bird” being handled fairly spritely by Sam Spade (Bogart) and others clearly did not weigh the “forty-seven pounds” attributed in the Gary Milan/Hank Risan controversy and as later reported as the weight of a separate lead falcon owned by actor, William Conrad, purportedly given to him by studio chief, Jack Warner.

However, the Falcon in the film could easily be one of the six “plaster falcons” mentioned as being made and possibly used in the original film.

Here are two back-to-back clips from the original, both showing different views of the falcon(s) used in the film. You can weigh-in (pun intended) and judge for yourself. See which you think they might be. Are they a five-pound plaster or a forty-five-pound lead sculpture?

Snapshot of my own “Black Bird” which I bought a few years ago.  Fortunately, I got my replica for under the stated, “4.1 Million” paying about $40.00 as I recall. Mine is made of Plaster of Paris and weighs approximately 4 pounds.

Murderer & Murdered Meet on Downtown San Francisco’s Bush Street

Here’s the second discovery I came away with in watching Sunday’s screening of the Maltese Falcon. And, I am forced to say that it is an exception to Harry Bosch’s “In murder investigations there are no coincidences.” Well, here’s one:

View the below short fifteen-second clip which shows the actual San Francisco murder location of Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer’s.

Miles Archer Murder Clip (15secs)

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Here are some stills of the murder location shown in the film.

Maltese Falcon Filming Locations

Got it?  Archer was gunned down in downtown San Francisco at Bush Street and Stockton.  A brass plaque has since been set in cement nearby to immortalize the fictional crime location.

In 1990, Dr. George Hill Hodel and his wife, June relocated from Asia and moved into their penthouse suite in downtown San Francisco. The address?  333 Bush Street West, just 995’ East of from where Huston filmed the Archer murder.

Coincidence, certainly. But, how bizarre that Los Angeles’ (Black Dahlia Avenger) and San Francisco’s (Zodiac) who was one and the same man and both cities most infamous serial killer, would, in his old age, relocate and live for a decade not only in the same city, but on the same street, just a block away.

The brass plaque embedded in the cement at Stockton and Bush Streets reads, “On approximately this spot Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade was done in by Brigid O’Shaughnnessy.”

Photos below depict George and June Hodels residence at 333 Bush St. West
They lived here for nine years until my father committed suicide by taking an overdose of pills (Seconal) at age 91 in his 39th-floor suite.

Related photographs:

My mother, John Huston and my father and I, all circa the mid-1940s just a few years after the making of  The Maltese Falcon in 1941.

Fred Sexton circa 1947

John Huston and Edward G. Robinson owned Fred Sexton artwork on display at Los Angeles’ Perls Galleries, just months prior to the release of The Maltese Falcon.

The post Maltese Falcon- Revisiting the 1941 Crime Scene – The Black Bird, Huston, Hodel, Sexton Part II appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 27, 2916
Los Angeles, California

Buster and Sgt. Paul Dostie on a MIA search in Normandy, France

I received some extremely sad news this morning from my good friend, Paul Dostie, retired Mammoth Lakes PD police sergeant. Here is his email:

Hello Friends,

Tonight at about 5:30 P.M. I had just finished cleaning the horse pens.  Buster was waiting in front of our cabin to play with his tire that was in his mouth.  I threw the tire for him, and he took off running to fetch the tire.  About 15 feet away from the tire his legs went out from under him and he collapsed on his right side.  His tongue was hanging out his mouth into the dirt, and he was barely breathing.  I was petting him as a cry of anguish came out from deep inside, and he died.  It was over in less than 60 seconds.  Buster died doing what he loved.

What an incredible effect that Buster has had on my life.  We have gone all over the world together, and it was all because of him and his love of searching.  His alerts on Tarawa are still resulting in recoveries.

Tomorrow I will bury Buster on a hill that overlooks the ranch.  I will bury him with his blue bone and the blanket that Nancy Ekelund made for him.  The blanket and bone have traveled all over the world with Buster.

I wanted to get this Email out to you all while I am still in a state of shock and disbelief and before the grieving process overwhelms me which is starting now.

Feel free to forward to anyone I forgot.

Thanks,

 Paul

_____________________________

Buster, who was 12-years old (85 in human years)  was a court-certified HRDC expert witness.  His official title, being a Human Remains Detection Canine, more commonly known in police  jargon as, a “Cadaver Dog.” Buster, known as, “The Wonder Dog” did not have just your average nose for his work, but was truly one of the Top Dog’s in his field.

A world traveler Buster’s search assignments included detecting human remains and locating lost gravesites of  WWII MIA’s in Europe (Normandy, France,) as well as Belgium (Battle of the Bulge 1944). Buster has made numerous trips to the Pacific to the small atoll of Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands, where he has been credited with finding dozens of MIA remains.

Buster also conducted follow-up investigative searches in the Charles Manson Case at Barker Ranch and in my own Black Dahlia investigation in 2012 and 2013. His most recent work involved locating and “alerting” to human remains in a Northern California unsolved murder investigation.

Black Dahlia Investigation Soil Sample Analysis Confirm Buster’s “Smell of Death.”

 Buster first alerted to the presence of human remains in November 2012, during a search of both the exterior and interior basement of the Sowden House. This search was documented on videotape as well as reported in 2013 by NBC newsman, Patrick Healy on the nightly news.

Newsman Healy reported a follow-up segment in 2014 with forensic anthropologist and expert witness, Dr. Arpad Vass, who after analyzing the soil samples recovered from the property confirmed Buster’s findings that the soil sample  “contained and was specific for human remains.”

Buster was one of the sweetest and most intelligent dog’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.  I know one thing for certain.  As I type my condolences to his friend and partner, Paul Dostie, Buster is happily chewing on his favorite “blue bone” in Dog Heaven.

My deepest condolences to Paul in this time of loss. I know that in the immediate time words are of little solace, but as time passes, the fond and loving memories of the past years that the two of you partners shared will slowly remove and replace the present heartache and pain.  

REST IN PEACE BUSTER

Paul, Steve and Buster at Sowden/Hodel Residence 2012

Buster at Sowden/Hodel House 2012 with favorite blue bone toy

Links to original 2013 articles reporting Buster/Sowden House Search which indicated soil analysis results were pending.

NBC News – Patrick Healy

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Search-Dog-Finds-Potential-Evidence-in-Black-Dahlia-Murder-189481711.html

Pasadena Star News- Frank Girardot

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/general-news/20130202/author-cadaver-dog-discovered-black-dahlia-death-scene-at-hollywood-home

Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272640/Black-Dahlia-case-solved-Cadaver-dog-discovers-death-scent-Hollywood-home-suspect.html

Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/03/can-this-dog-solve-the-black-dahlia-homicide.html

Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/black-dahlia-murder-case_n_2615347.html

Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/04/author-claims-cadaver-dog-detected-scent-black-dahlia-at-father-hollywood-home/

Radar Online

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/02/black-dahlia-murder-solved-dog-buster-who-did-it/

The post “Buster” World Famous Police Cadaver Dog Dies from Sudden Heart Attack – Praised for Locating WWII MIA Gravesites and Helping Crack “Black Dahlia” Murder appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Chinese Sacrificial Tablet
HAN DYNASTY (206 B.C. – A.D. 220
10″x6″x1″

Photo from THE MET museum believed similar in appearance to stone tablet taken in 1947 burglary from Sowden/Hodel residence described as being: “11”x6″x31/2″ bearing about 50 Chinese characters carved on a dark gray stone.”

March 2, 2016
Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Times headline on November 20, 1947, read:

CHINESE TABLET VALUED AT $25,000 TAKEN BY BURGLAR

Below is the full article in which my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel reported that an art-object he owned, a 1400-hundred-year-old Chinese tablet originally used in human sacrifice and valued at $25,000 ($275,000 in today’s dollars) was stolen in a daytime burglary from his Sowden House residence.

Los Angeles Times
November 20, 1947

Chinese human sacrificial tablet stolen from George Hodel residence, 5121 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. (Residence in photo left.)

Too bad the fictional downtown Los Angeles insurance investigator Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) wasn’t assigned to Dr. HodeL’s– THE CASE OF THE STOLEN SACRIFICIAL TABLET, back in 1947. (At year’s end, 1944, Ace investigator Keyes had just completed figuring out whodunit in the film noir classic–DOUBLE INDEMNITY, a murder-for-hire scheme involving Mrs. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and her lover, Keyes fellow insurance agent, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray). 

After that convoluted caper, I’m sure Investigator Keyes would have found the challenge of solving my father’s 1947 insurance rip-off as easy as—shooting fish in a barrel.

Keyes and Neff, two LA insurance claims investigators (seen above) trying to “crack the case” in the 1944 whodunit,  “Double Indemnity.”  The screenplay was written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, based on a novel by famed mystery writer, James M. Cain.  (Cain’s novel, Mildred Pierce was also made into a film the following year, starring actress Joan Crawford. That 1945 film was nominated for six Academy Awards, and Ms. Crawford won for Best Actress.)

Barbara Stanwyck wearing a “bad wig to give her extra sleaze” plays, Phyllis,  the unfaithful wife and  Femme Fatale seen here in a scene from Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray.

Based on the Los Angeles Times article, we know that the Chinese human sacrificial stone tablet was removed from the residence less than a year after the victim Elizabeth Short was abducted and taken to the Hodel home where she was bound, beaten, tortured and slain.

Due to the fact that this murder stands out in the annals of crime as one of the most fiendishly sadistic Lust murders ever committed, and we have documentation that her killer, Dr. George Hodel, less than a year later, publicly confirmed that the stolen sacrificial stone tablet was at his residence at the time of the crime: we cannot ignore the very real possibility that the “art object” was used for its original intent.  This time in a modern-day human sacrifice during the actual commission of the Black Dahlia lust torture murder.

(SKH Note- Because of the smallness of the tablet (not any bigger than a very small cutting board) it would be barely large enough to support the size of a human head. Therefore,  likely it’s function should be considered more along the lines of ritualistic and ceremonial, rather than “practical”.

Further, based on the recovery of the later, 1950 DA Hodel Black Dahlia Files, we have tape-recorded evidence that Dr. George Hodel committed insurance and tax fraud by submitting false claims to the government and or his insurance company.

Fast forward to February 26, 1950. The DA and LAPD have the electronic surveillance well in place and are beginning their second week of what will be a six-week bugging stakeout at the Franklin House. The officers are recording the conversations and capture the following on the wire recording. (See below copy of original DA transcription) Hodel in conversation admits to fraudulently insuring an item “a trinket worth $750.00 for $104,000.”

DA Hodel Black Dahlia File Bugging Transcript Page 54 
February 26, 1950, 10:20 AM (Day 10 of electronic stakeout)

…

10:30 pm- Talking about insuring something, value- $76,000.

If you want to sell it, you would get $750.00 Trinkets. Hodel had it insured for $104,000

As relates to the stolen “sacrificial tablet” what we do not know is whether George Hodel was reimbursed for this in real dollars, or claimed it as a loss on his taxes. Either way, it is fraud and grand theft.

Below is a photograph of one of the many Chinese art objects that my father smuggled home from China in 1946 using his United Nations “Diplomatic Immunity” status. He shipped home hundreds of Chinese statues and art objects in multiple crates. The below large tapestry (40″ W and 9′ T) purchased by GHH in China in June 1946, was given as a wedding present to his father who remarried Alice Hodel, a lab technician at the First Street Clinic in 1949. 

Next to the tapestry photo below is a document prepared by my father entitled, “TWO WORLDS FOUNDATION, Collection of Dr. George Hill Hodel.”  He goes on to list the “Division” as Oriental Art and Antiquities, Category: Chinese Tapestries, and claims the item is from “The Ming Dynasty [1369-1644] The appraisal in 1948 is for “$300.” He further identifies it as  a “Gift to George and Alice Hodel, 5, February 1949.”

After my grandfather’s passing Alice gave the tapestry to me in the late 1970s and I had it appraised ($600.00) and insured.

Author circa 1979 with Chinese tapestry gifted to him from Alice Hodel.

Below, a 1950 photograph showing GHH in living room at the desk and partial display (approximately fifty items) of his Chinese art collection seen on the shelves on the north wall.

Again, we learn from the 1950 DA Hodel/Black Dahlia Transcripts that most if not all of these art objects were sold by GHH in the days just before his fleeing the country.

The post The Case of the Stolen 1400-Year-Old Chinese Sacrificial Tablet – Did George Hodel Use the Item During the Sowden House Torture Murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 26, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Original 1970 Zodiac Halloween “You Ache To Know My Name” Card
Mailed to San Francisco Chronicle

This video presents the decryption and solving of the mysterious cipher included in the authenticated mailing by the serial killer known as “Zodiac” to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1970. The cipher was deciphered in 2015 by M. Yves Person, an educator, who teaches Literature at a high school in the suburbs of Paris, France. Complete details of the investigation and findings are presented in my sequel, Most Evil II: Presenting the Follow-up Investigation and Decryption of the 1970 Zodiac Cipher in which the San Francisco Serial Killer Reveals His True Identity (Rare Bird Books) published in 2015.

As seen in the above original Zodiac card “You Ache To Know My Name, And So I’ll Clue You In.. ” the serial killer promises a clue to his name. Law Enforcement at the time speculated that “the clue” might be the writing on the back of the card which read: “By Fire, By Gun, By Knife, By Rope…” They guessed it might be written in the shape of  a possible monogram for his name in the form of the letter “H”.  (Ultimately, they would be proven correct. H as in HODEL, but ironically, it would also serve as a red-herring. They had no idea, that the real clue and solution to the crimes could be found on both the envelopes return address and at the bottom of the card as Zodiac’s signatory and a signed confession using his real name signed in an ancient 4th Century Ogham “Tree Alphabet.” )

Zodiac’s signatures at bottom of 1970 “You Ache To Know My Name” Halloween Card

Links to related earlier blogs:

15 September 2015 “Open Letter to my Readers”

15 December Black Dahlia Avenger/Zodiac Inspector Clouseau Awards

The post Zodiac Uses His Real Name To Sign 1970 Cipher Message- Animation Reveals Killer’s True Identity M. Yves Person, a Paris High School Teacher Cracks Ancient Celtic Ogham “Tree Alphabet” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles
April 1, 2016

“I have a reserved place in constellation Aquila”

Included in George Hill Hodel intended 1998 Suicide Note to wife June

“It’s another manifestation of his enormous ego, an immortal mocking of humanity fixed and registered in the Zodiac’s constellation, Aquila.Even after its namesake’s death, star “George Hill Hodel” shines its sardonic, dark light on us, and will forever.”

Full Excerpt from Most Evil (Dutton 2009) Chapter 23 pgs 257-8:

A Star Called “Dr. George Hill Hodel”

In our many talks during the final decade of his life (1990-1999), my father dismissed astrology as quackery. In his opinion its only useful purpose was to pick the pockets of the gullible. The field that interested him was astronomy, especially as it related to Zuni and Hopi cultures.

In October 1998, seven months before his death, he diagnosed his own congestive heart disease. Shortly after his ninety-first birthday, knowing that his health was failing and fearing the real possibility of a major stroke that could leave him an invalid, he prepared to take his own life.

Still in possession of a valid medical license, he wrote out several prescriptions in his wife, June’s, name for sleeping pills (barbiturates). After he’d accumulated enough pills to ensure a lethal dose, he wrote (in his block printing) “June Hodel conference notes.” which were to be his final instructions.

But over the next several months, his strength rebounded. So he stashed the notes away in his desk, where they were found by June after his death.

Fig. 23.7

Figure 23.7 is a copy of that note. Several of his cryptic notations are relevant to this investigation. For example, the eighth line from the bottom reads:

LAST ACT OF LV DISP. ALL EFFECTS

Here my father is reminding himself to tell June that as a last act of love he wants her to dispose of all his personal effects. In what can be considered the most fateful ironies of all, she didn’t carry this out. June didn’t find my father’s note until after she had given me his photo album of loved ones that contained the photograph of Elizabeth Short, which was one of the catalysts for my Black Dahia Avenger investigation. What other “personal effects” did June also find and not show me?
The third line from the bottom reads:

L=CONC. ON EXCRETA

In a previous entry, my father had used “L” as an abbreviation for the word “life.” In light of that, the phrase can be translated as, “Life is nothing but a concentration of excreta” Or, to be more profane, “Life is shit.”

The most relevant notation is ten lines from the bottom:

RSRVD PL. IN CNST AQUILA

After my father’s death, June explained that shortly after deciding to permanently relocate from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1990, he had purchased a permanent memorial to himself in the heavens located in the 8-degree belt on the ecliptic known as Zodiac. In other words, he had bought a star and had it registered in his name.

The star- known as Dr. George Hill Hodel- can be found by pointing a telescope at the Zodiacal constellation Aquila (the eagle) and aligning the sight to RA (right ascension) 19hrs 56mins 53secs at declination 8’16mins. The registration is placed in a vault in Switzerland and “is recorded in a book which will be registered in the copyright office of the United States of America.” This practice is not recognized in the scientific community, but is more like buying a plot of land on the moon. Nevertheless, my father must have chuckled to himself at his private, heavenly memorial to his crimes.

It’s another manifestation of his enormous ego, an immortal mocking of humanity fixed and registerd in the Zodiac’s constellation, Aquila.
Even after its namesake’s death, star George Hill Hodel shines its sardonic, dark light on us, and will forever.

Below is an article written for Failure Magazine by Jason Zasky shortly after the publication of Most Evil in 2009.

 Failure Magazine Article on George Hill Hodel

Zodiac killer named a star for himself in Zodiacal constellation Aquila?

Written by Jason Zasky as part of Failure Analysis

Published 12/17/09

I trust you’ve heard of the International Star Registry, which offers customers the chance to name a star after someone for as little as $54? Never mind that the registrations aren’t recognized by the scientific community. That’s irrelevant for the purposes of this column, as is the fact that the founders of International Star Registry (est. 1979) have created an enviable business, selling an inexhaustible supply of real estate that no one can visit—or complain about.

I mention the Star Registry because one of the most curious tidbits revealed in Steve Hodel’s new book “Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac, and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel” (Dutton), is that in 1990 the author’s father, George Hill, registered a star in his own name in the Zodiacal constellation Aquila [pictured above]. What makes this notable is that in the book, Steve alleges that his father was the Zodiac killer, which would make the registration a “heavenly memorial to his crimes,” about which “my father must have chuckled to himself,” writes his son.

In comparison to all the other evidence that Steve presents supporting his argument, the star registration is a mere footnote—more symbolic than anything else. But if George Hill was in fact Zodiac, the star—known as Dr. George Hill Hodel, and found by pointing a telescope at constellation Aquila and aligning the sight to RA 19hrs 56mins 53secs at delineation 8’16 mins—serves as “an immortal mocking of humanity” … “shining its sardonic, dark light on us” forever, writes Steve.

As to whether George Hill was Zodiac—as well as the Lipstick Killer (Chicago) and the Jigsaw Murderer (Manila), not to mention the Black Dahlia Killer—as his son asserts, that’s for the reader to decide. At the very least, “Most Evil” is a “bizarre … and surreal story,” teases the author in the introduction, “one that if true, would alter criminal history, exonerate the innocent, and change the way we think about the motives and signatures of serial killers.”

Link to Failure Magazine Website and article by Jason Zasky
Read more: http://failuremag.com/index.php/failure_analysis/article/zodiac_killer_named_a_star_for_himself_in_zodiacal_constellation_aquila/#ixzz44UbLlJOs

About Us

Failure magazine is the online publication full of humankind’s boldest missteps. Covering stories large and small, historical and current, Failure and its nationally recognized writers – culled from the halls of academia and the pages of your favorite magazines – explore the world of arts & entertainment, science & technology, business, history and sports from a bold perspective that is insightful, informative and entertaining. It’s a useful and interesting resource for anyone trying to succeed. And anyone who wants to talk to them.

Read more: http://failuremag.com/help/beyond/#ixzz44Ucn5jEo

The post In a Mocking Taunt to Humanity Zodiac Killer Names and Registers a Star After Himself in Constellation Aquila appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Below BuzzFeed video with “Ryan and Brent” went live yesterday and has had nearly 500K viewers just overnight. Wow! Light hearted, tongue in cheek, but also fairly factual, with a few errors, but that’s showbiz.
See 8-minute video at below link.

The post BuzzFeed “The Chilling Mystery of the Black Dahlia” 8-Minute Video appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 6, 2016
Los Angeles, California

I will be signing my new book Most Evil II at the Rare Bird Book booth 64 on Saturday, April 9, 2016, at 2:30 PM.  Come on
by and say “hi.”

The post Most Evil II Author Book-signing @ LA Times Festival of Books USC Rare Bird Books Booth 64 Sat, April 9, 2016 2:30 PM appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 15, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Many readers have asked for more information regarding my mother, Dorothy Huston Hodel, or “Dorero”. “What was she like?” “Was she cruel and abusive?” “What were the “Gypsy years” like with her?”

Unfortunately, much of the biographical description of my mother was edited out of my original manuscript due to space restraints. This gave a very soft focus of her as a woman and a mother.

Quite simply, she was the most remarkable woman I have ever known. Possessed of a powerful intellect with the soul of a poet, she loved Nature and all things of Beauty. When I think of my mother, I think of the song, Vincent, and the line, “This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.” To me, mother was like, Rima, the other-worldly jungle-girl in Hudson’s romantic-novel, Green Mansions. A bird-woman, not really born or prepared for the harsh realities of, “civilization.”

Mother was born, Dorothy Jean Harvey, in New York (Central Park West), on April 15, 1906. Her parents moved west around 1913 and bought an orange grove , not far from Los Angeles, in Riverside, California. My grandparents then moved to Los Angeles where my mother attended high school. Still a teenager, she met and fell in love with John Huston. In 1925, the two teenagers ran off to New York, married and lived in Greenwich Village. They then returned to Los Angeles, and both began writing screenplays for the Hollywood studios. Their marriage lasted seven years, from 1926 to 1933. An article in the Los Angeles Times dated August 19, 1933, announced their separation and Huston’s desire to seek a divorce from Dorothy on the following grounds:

“being extravagant, and of keeping him in debt continually. He also accuses her of making no effort to become a good housekeeper.”

In author Martha Harris’ biography, Angelica Huston: The Lady and Her Legacy, (St. Martin’s Press, N.Y. 1989) the following quote was attributed to John regarding his first wife, Dorothy. In my mother’s later years she made it clear that John was “her one true love”. If the below quote is accurate, apparently Huston’s feelings coincided with her own.

Angelica Huston: The Lady and Her Legacy, page 49:

Peter Viertel, a writer who worked with Huston on various projects over the years including The African Queen, wrote a novel titled White Hunter, Black Heart that is reputed to be a very thinly veiled portrait of John Huston. Not at all flattering, the novel shows a lot of warts that the Huston aura usually managed to conceal. But there is a paragraph in it that might serve as a kind of epitaph for John and Dorothy’s marriage:

“I knew I had lost the best dame I was ever likely to meet, and I’d lost her because I’d acted like a horse’s ass. And it turned out that way. I’d done something wrong and I had to pay for it, and so every time I fell in love again after that, I knew the disenchantment would ultimately turn up. And it did. Never failed. Because you get one chance at everything in life, and that’s all.”Walter Huston greeting Dorothy and John at the train station on arriving for their honeymoon in LA circa 1926

Mother’s typed private “reminiscence” of John
found in her personal papers after her death

Mother married my father, George Hill Hodel, in Sonora, Mexico in 1940. She bore him four sons, Michael, John (my twin, died two weeks after birth due to “failure to thrive”) Steven and Kelvin. We lived in the Franklin House from 1945-1950. After dad left the country, mother though ill-equipped and unprepared to be the sole breadwinner in the family, obtained secretarial type jobs in real estate and rental offices and would spend the next fifteen years, raising her three sons. Though alcoholic in the extreme, she managed to clothe and feed her sons and instruct us in what was truly important in life. She taught us to be tolerant and compassionate of others, to fight against bigotry and prejudice, encouraged us to read books and to love the beauty of Nature and strive for what is Good. What more could any son ask from a mother?

Dorothy Hodel with two sons, Steven (standing) and Kelvin newborn, Oct. 1942

Dorothy posing for our family photographer Man Ray in 1944

Photo of mother taken by our father George Hodel in 1946

Mother with older brother, Mike Hodel who had just one a LA county-wide public school essay contest circa 1951.

Here is a letter my mother sent me on my 33^rd birthday, in 1974. Despite her life-long struggles with “Demon Rum” there was never ever any doubt, at any time, that she loved her three sons. See how beautifully she communicates it here, with poetic elegance.

Birthday 1974

Dearest Steven:

How does one write to a son one loves, admires, venerates so completely that the only thing that sums it up would be to say: I dreamed a perfect son and you turned out to be that son in every way- and even more? Words are tired things and through reiteration seem to lose force and meaning- Fortunately, the emotion behind the words does not. Perhaps I should devote my remaining years to creating a new language which would convey strong emotions freshly and effectively. Or perhaps like birds and animals we should go back to chirps and growls and grunts. Or perhaps-lovely thought! we could develop a coloration process, like some mating animals, so that looking at you and saying ‘love’ I should glow in a rainbow of colors. So, fortunately, since my pigmentation isn’t up to it, see me now, in your mind’s eye with a glowing purple beak, bright green hair and red blue and orange arranged in a gorgeous chromatic pattern saying ‘Love” in a way as fresh and new as a rainbow.

Spectroscopically,
Mother

Dorothy Jean Hodel died in late March, 1982, just a few weeks before her 75^th birthday. I have no doubt that she KNEW that our father was a serial killer and was responsible for the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. Ever protective of her three sons, she took the knowledge of this secret horror, with her to her grave. I suspect her heavy drinking was her own way to try and drown the knowledge of the many horrors that she hid and held inside. Can one really blame her? I say NO! (Note the sadness that is reflected in almost every photograph ever taken of her.)

Here is a private poem written by my mother sometime in her 67^th year, some seven years before she would find her wished for– “oblivion”. It was found by me, after her death, hidden away in her papers. I pray she now– Rests In Peace.

To grow old
To lose the magic of lover’s nights
Not to wish to recall them even-
How many! How bitter sweet!
To wince away from old scars
Refusing even memory of sensation
Re-kindling of ancient pain-sweet fires
Wanting peace now –
No feeling to ruffle precarious peace
So hard won- so easily overthrown
Not to remember-
Refuse the nights-
Refuse now the sight of lover’s faces
In evening dark-
The swift knife in the dark of lover’s kissing
Awakening what I want forgotten
As I search my way to oblivion
In this my 67^th year
Trying to ease the threshold
Between life and not-life
Easing, the cowards way-
And How I welcome cowardice!
Close eyes-close ears-close memory-
Think only of the dark bridge ahead
Think only it is easier to die
If living is forgotten-

Dorothy Jean Hodel- 1975

March, 1982- Los Angeles

At her request, our mother’s body was cremated and her ashes recycled back to Nature. (Buried under a flowering Japanese Magnolia tree) A small group of close friends and loved ones attended the “service” and her three sons: Michael, Steven and Kelvin each delivered a few words in eulogy to their mother. In remembering this most remarkable woman, I had this to say:

DEAREST MOTHER:

EULOGIES FOR THE MOST PART ARE WELL INTENDED DISTORTIONS WHICH GLORIFY A PART WHILE IGNORING THE WHOLENESS OF OUR EXISTENCE.

EACH OF US HERE PRESENT POSSESS OUR INDIVIDUAL AND PRIVATE THOUGHTS WHICH COMPRISE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU WERE IN LIFE. THIS IS PRIVATE AND PERSONAL AND SHOULD REMAIN SO.

WHAT CAN BE RECOGNIZED AND SHARED ARE THE INFLUENCES WHICH YOU GAVE TO YOUR SONS AND FRIENDS.

INDEPENDENCE, ORIGINALITY, AND ROMANTIC INTELLECTUALISM PERVADED YOUR LIFE AND WERE YOUR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE.

WHITMAN, JOYCE, RACHMANINOFF—ALWAYS THE THINKER-OUTSIDE, THE LOVER-INSIDE. (EXCEPT WHEN YOU REVERSED THE TWO.)

YOUR LOVE OF NATURE WAS MOST PRONOUNCED. YOU LIVED LIFE PASSIONATELY AND POETICALLY. YOU SAW AND LOOKED FOR THE NATURAL BEAUTY IN MAN AND HIS UNIVERSE. LIFE WAS A DANCE, A POEM, A SONNET OF THE SEXES—A MATING RITE BETWEEN PAIN AND PLEASURE, GOOD AND EVIL.

YOU WERE NEVER RELIGIOUS IN THE TRADITIONAL SENSE, BUT EVER CONSCIOUS OF THE PERFECT ORDER HIDDEN IN ROCK, RIVER, STAR AND FLOWER. THESE WERE YOUR ANGELS AND YOUR HEAVEN.

YOUR STATED WISH, AT YOUR PASSING WAS THAT WE WHO LOVE YOU, REUNITE YOUR ELEMENTS WITH THOSE OF NATURE.

THAT YOU MAY CONTINUE TO ADD BEAUTY AND BE OF INFLUENCE TO OTHERS, LET THIS TREE, A JAPANESE MAGNOLIA WHICH BEARS FLOWERS ANNUALLY, BE A SYMBOL OF YOUR IMMORTALITY.

YOUR LIFE SHALL CONTINUE THROUGH THE FORM AND FLOWERING OF THIS TREE. MAY THE LIFE YOU GAVE US BE RETURNED TO YOU THROUGH THE SAP, TRUNK, BRANCHES, LEAVES, AND BLOSSOMS OF THIS TREE.

The post Dorothy Huston Hodel (1906-1983) A Remembrance on her 110th Birthday appeared first on Steve Hodel.

 April 19, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Kiyo

Q:  Is your ex-wife KIYO still alive?  Do you think she knew about your father and Elizabeth Short?  Why was Kiyo’s picture still in your father’s photo album with Elizabeth Short and other family members?

No, Kiyo died from cancer, in 1978, some thirteen years after our divorce in 1965.

I welcome your question, as it affords me the opportunity to clarify the dynamics of what some readers perceive to have been a Wife-Father-Son “triangle.”  In fact, it was nothing of the sort.

Strange and mysterious—yes.  Adulterous- not really.  It was more like something out of a Greek Tragedy, where the gods needed to have a good laugh. Here is how it unfolded.

In 1941, shortly after the start of the war, Dr. George Hodel approached a beautiful young Eurasian woman on a street corner in Hollywood. She was waiting for a bus. It was Kiyo, age 20. He informed her he was a physician and a photographer and would love to photograph her and naturally pay her well for her modeling. Kiyo an art student happily agreed. George worked his charm and Kiyo fell in love with him and they had an affair. I was one-year-old at the time the affair ended, Kiyo married another man (Brook Cuddy, a photographer.) After the war was over, from 1946-1950, both Brook and Kiyo regularly attended parties at the Franklin House. I have no memory or knowledge of ever meeting her at that time.

In the 1950s, Kiyo became an actress doing bit parts in Hollywood films, including Cecil B. De Mille’s, The Ten Commandments (1956). She divorced Brook Cuddy, and remarried, then divorced her second husband after a few years.

Kiyo clip from Cecil B. DeMille’s – THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)

Kiyo as Priestess ,Yul Brynner as Pharaoh    Charlton Heston as Moses

In 1961, still in my teens (19) and in the Navy, I met Kiyo at a “Hollywood Party.”  Always attracted to older, intelligent women, I was totally captivated by her exoticness and sophistication. By then, Kiyo was an “astrologer to the stars”, and was teaching both astrology and piano out of her home in Laurel Canyon, in the Hollywood Hills. (She had been an art/music student at Julliard) When we first met, Kiyo told me she was “28” and looked it.  I knew nothing of her “history” other than, “she knew my parents as a young girl.”  I had no reason to question her, and very much liked the fact that she was “ten years my senior.” I would not learn her real age (she was actually 20-years older than I) until after our three-year marriage ended in 1965. The full story of my life with Kiyo is told in Chapter 10 of BDA.

George Hodel’s private album of loved ones

Photos of Kiyo taken by George Hodel sometime in the 1940s

As to the 1999 discovery of Kiyo’s photo in my father’s private album of loved ones, the “surprise” came not from the fact that they had been lovers, which I learned from my mother, shortly after separating from Kiyo in 1965.

That fact while bizarre in itself had been known by me for 35 years and was no “revelation.” The shock came in discovering that her photo was included in my father’s book of “loved ones.” This indicated that what I had always assumed was his “short fling with a beautiful young woman” was in fact– something much more. To me this indicated- he loved her. Why else would he keep her picture for over fifty years? Like I said, this is the stuff that Greek tragedy is made of.

                                                    March 21, 1969

Below is an excerpted quote by Kiyo in TIME MAGAZINE article of 3/21/69, some four years after our divorce.   Described in the article as “a young half-Japanese astrologer” one can see that she certainly looked much younger than her actual age of 48.

…

 (Kiyo photographed in Time Magazine with a man identified only as her “client” is  Neil Young who had just broken up with Buffalo Springfield (1966-68) and was just beginning his springboard to fame.

Kiyo in Books

When I wrote my Chapter entitled “Kiyo” in Black Dahlia Avenger in 2003, I had assumed that would be her first public introduction. I was wrong.

Come to find out that unbeknownst to me, her “fame” was already talked about in print, all of which I had been unaware and were forwarded from individuals to me post-publication. Let’s examine a few of them.

David St. Clair, in his book, The Psychic World of California (Double Day & Co. 1972) pages 181- 186, describes Kiyo as, “an Astrologer to the stars … small, fair-skinned and incredibly sexy.”  He then presents a four-page interview on her thoughts and feelings about astrology and metaphysics.

These Came Back by Richard Webb

Film and television actor/author Richard Webb aka “Captain Midnight” was interested in metaphysics, reincarnation, and psychic phenomena and wrote a number of books on the subjects.

In his book, These Came Back (Hawthorne Books 1974) Webb wrote a full  biographical chapter describing Kiyo, and her, “sloe eyes, long, dark brown hair, beautiful smile and confident manner.”

In that chapter the author interviews and provides readers with Kiyo’s personal detailed description of what she believed were several of her past lives. (These Came Back Kiyo)

In keeping with Kiyo’s dual personality which was comprised of equal measures of both the Spiritual and the Salacious (she was unquestionably half-priestess and half-pagan)  I happened upon another “Kiyo Chapter.” This one found in the book, Queer Stories for Boys: True Stories from the Gay men’s Storytelling Workshop, (Thunder Mountain Press, Avalon 2004) edited by Douglas McKeown, Kiyo chapter authored by, George Pfiffner.

The chapter, again simply entitled, “Kiyo” describes the young author’s 1952 chance meeting and introduction to Kiyo, a then co-worker’s ( he uses the pseudonym, “Hunt Carter”, but we know it was Brook Cuddy) wife, due to his interest in astrology.

George Pfiffner describes in detail his infatuation with this “stunning Eurasian” and his hot and heavy, however, short-lived romance. Despite George’s admissions to being homosexual, Kiyo is confident that, with her powers of sexual persuasion she can and will be able to “turn him straight.”  George goes on to describe an initial sexual encounter in his car parked off-road in Malibu, followed by some apparently greenlit rendezvous in the bedroom, with tacit permission from Kiyo’s then husband, “Hunt” (Brook).  After a number of dalliances, the couple’s passionate romance sputtered and apparently was just “not in the stars.”

George closes the chapter by describing a highly emotional, out-of-control breakup with Kiyo, (who he claims had become hysterical and suicidal ) which required several hours of intense effort on his part to calm her down. George was finally able to send her home in a cab and out of his life.

He closes the Kiyo chapter with the following:

Kiyo was the first person I had been true to for any length of time. The first time I picked up a guy afterward, he was someone I didn’t particularly like, who I didn’t find very attractive, and who wasn’t very good in bed. But, it was as though I hadn’t had sex in six months and he was the young Marlon Brando.

Amilda KiyokoTachibana Doe Cuddy Herd Roth Hodel Aurness

While much remains secret and hidden about Kiyo’s personal life, based on some updated public records we do know that during the period from 1943-1973 she was married to at least six separate young men. They included:

John Doe, 1943, Alleged to have married a guard (name unknown) at Manzanar the Japanese Internment Camp in 1942, to gain her freedom from detention.

Brook Cuddy, photographer, cameraman, circa 1948. Became CBS Lighting Director for Game Shows.

Richard T. Herd, 1954. One year marriage. Herd became a leading character actor in film and television with over 147 acting credits.

John Mickey Roth, 1955, a child film star from 1945-1955, including acting in the film, Rhapsody in Blue, where he played George Gershwin as a Boy. Likely met Kiyo on the set of  C.B. Demille’s, The Ten Commandments, as both Mickey and Kiyo had bit parts in the film. (Mickey a Roman soldier and Kiyo was Pharoah’s priestess.)

Steve Hodel,  Married from 1962 -1965.

Rolf C. Aurness, 1973 ( True to her MO of collecting boy-toys, in 1973, wound up marrying Rolf Aurness, 1970 World Surfing Champion.  Rolf is son of actor James Aurness, Gunsmoke’s, “Marshall Matt Dillon.”)  On their marriage certificate Kiyo lists her age as “27” (she was actually 53) and Rolf’s stated age was “21.”

Kiyo (Amilda Kiyoko Aurness) died from cancer in Los Angeles at age, 57, on June 30, 1978. While her death certificate lists her birthdate as “Aug 2, 1935,” her actual birthdate was August 2, 1920.

How many of her other husbands were aware of her real age? You would have to ask each one of them. As for myself, as indicated in BDA, I had no reason to question her stated age of “28” and would not discover her actual age until separating and divorcing her in 1965 after finding her astrological chart which showed her to be, 42 at the time we married.

Kiyo the Leo with a Cougar MO  

Below is a list of the “recorded” marriage certificates ages vs. Kiyo’s real age.

1. John Doe circa 1942   Kiyo unknown. Likely her real age of 21.
2. Brook Cuddy  (Unknown, not found file)
3. Richard Herd 22  Kiyo “25”           (actual age 34)
4. John Mickey Roth 23, Kiyo “25”    (actual age 35)
5. Steve Hodel 20, Kiyo “28”             (actual age 42)
6. Rolf Aurness 21, Kiyo “27”            (actual age 52)

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