Like things that go bump in the night? Do spirits haunt certain buildings and homes?
Does Elizabeth “Black Dahlia’s” spirit walk the hallways of the hundred-year-old Biltmore Hotel in DTLA?
I’m planning on tuning in tomorrow night (Wednesday, September 27) to hear what researcher/hosts Hadley Mendelsohn and Alyssa Fiorentino of the popular podcast show Dark House-House Beautiful have discovered as relates to L.A.’s most infamous murder–THE BLACK DAHLIA. (Part II follows next Wednesday, October 4th, which happens to be my brother Kelvin (Kelly’s) 82nd birthday. We are Irish twins, so for one month a year, we get to be the same age. Happy early birthday, bro!)
I look forward to hearing what Dark House-House Beautiful will present us in just two days, this Wednesday, October 4th, as relates to my families former home, The Sowden/Franklin House, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood. The podcast will be Part II of their research. Part I explored the DTLA Biltmore Hotel and Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short’s biography up until the day of her murder on January 14, 1947.
DARK HOUSE-HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
PART II WED, OCTOBER 4, 2023
Explores the History and Mystery of The Sowden/Hodel House
Sowden House front Dr. George Hill Hodel at his desk circa 1950
Photo top/rt- Lt to Rt: Steve, Mike, Kelvin Hodel circa 1948
For those of you who missed it, here is a link to Part I, “The Biltmore.”
October 4, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington
Happy Birthday, brother Kelly!
I just finished listening to Part II of Dark House-House Beautiful. The podcast focuses on the history of the Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (Lloyd Wright), Sowden/George Hodel “Franklin House” at 5121 Franklin Ave. It provides the listeners with a sketchy overview/bio of my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, as well as Hadley Mendelsohn’s attempt to summarize much of the evidence and linkage of George Hodel to the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.
Hadley had a difficult (or, more correctly, an impossible task) trying to summarize my now twenty-three-years and eight books investigation into a 90-minute podcast.
To her credit, she gave it “the old Harvard try” and was able to include some of the linkage and get’s an “A” for effort.
That said, it was a bit of a bumpy ride as she had to try and select pieces (juicy morsels) from my investigation, which made the narrative a bit disjointed, and because of the time restraints, she wound up only telling half the story. (Consequently, creating occasional half-truths.)
I am not going to go into the omissions or attempt to make corrections to or explanations for some of the half-truths.
However, I will make one important addition here that, for some reason, the show omitted. That was the confirmation by law enforcement that “the case was solved,” and the killer was named by the top cops of that day and identified as Dr. George Hill Hodel.
For those unfamiliar with my books and investigation, I do recommend listening to Part II, Alyssa Fiorentino and Hadley Mendelsohn’s podcast which has just gone live today. See the link below.
BLACK DAHLIA PART 2: The John Sowden House (Los Angeles, CA)
Link to the 90-minute podcast HERE.
Thirty-three years ago today, my friend and partner, Detective III Russell Lee Kuster, was slain in a restaurant shooting by a psychopath while off duty and having drinks at a Hungarian Restaurant on Barham Blvd in the Hollywood Hills.
I was three years into retirement and living in Bellingham, Washington, when I received the 3 a.m. notification. I wrote the below eulogy the following morning and faxed it to Hollywood Detectives. It was read at Russ’s funeral services back in 1990. Below is a recording of me reading it at the 2010 police memorial services (20th Anniversary of Russ’ murder) held in front of Hollywood Station, honoring all the Hollywood Division officers killed in the line of duty.
In happier times.
Here are some photos of Russ, my Detective III supervisor, congratulating me at my own promotion party to Detective III, in 1983. After my promotion, I was transferred to Rampart Detectives for the last three years of my career before retirement in 1986. (Hence the headline, “Hodel Fools Rampart Lieutenant.”)
One of the promotional gifts was a personalized message of congratulations from “Dirty Harry” (Clint Eastwood).
“Congrats to Dirty Steve from Dirty Harry.”
Note the “Rubber Duckie” in the bottom right of the photograph.
It remains one of my prized gifts from that night. There were actually four Rubber Duckies on a board, three facing forward and the fourth facing backward. The message, “Detective Hodel doesn’t walk with the rest of the ducks.” Loved it!
Here is a Performance Evaluation Russ wrote on me way back in 1979, some four years before I was promoted to Detective III.
Russ Kuster, Ian Campbell (“The Onion Field”), Robert Cote, and other Hollywood officers killed in the line of duty were honored with their own star on Hollywood Blvd.
Party Night at the Sowden/Hodel House, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, California
I have to wonder how many of the “Hollywood Elite” partygoers Thursday night were aware that they were standing on the killing ground (center courtyard) of Los Angeles’ most infamous torture-murder victim, Elizabeth Short, better known to the world as, “The Black Dahlia.” See the full article from the Hollywood Reporter-HERE.
Party at the Sowden/Hodel House Thursday, Oct 12, 2023
…”All around him (Daniel Roseberry, artistic director of Schiaparelli) at the event–held at the iconic Mayan-style John Sowden House in Los Feliz, designed in 1926 by Lloyd Wright–there were actresses aplenty wearing the label’s surrealist-infused looks. (emphasis mine)
…”Jennifer Lopez posed by the pool in a strapless corset dress with golden evil-eye details at the waist.”
…”waiters passed around cookies decorated to look like evil eyes symbols, one of the house’s signature design codes.”
One of George Hodel’s friends who was “in the know” (and apparently even more than that?) was photographer EDMUND TESKE. (His artwork is now prominently displayed in the Getty Museum)
Strange that Edmund Teske and my paths never crossed during the more than three decades we both spent living in the West Hollywood hills of Laurel Canyon and on the streets of Hollywood.
My attention was directed to the surrealist artist/photographer, Edmund Teske some six years after his death and more than a decade into my father’s serial murder investigations.
It was another”happenstance” meeting as documented in Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014).
On the spur of the moment, I decided to go to a luncheon in DTLA which announced the closing of the historic Clifton’s Restaurant, at 7th & Broadway. I went and met with a small group all of whom, like myself, wanted to honor the memory of the famous eatery that served so many servicemen during the WWII years.
I ordered the “Blue Plate Special”, turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes and while enjoying my meal, was approached by the organizer of the event, Steven Lamb, a residential architect from Altadena.
Steve informed me that he had read my published writings on my investigation and was confident that I had correctly identified the killer (my father) and went on to inform me of his independent confirmations and then related the story of Edmund Teske approaching him in front of the Sowden/Hodel residence back in 1978 while he (Lamb) was taking photographs of the structure. Astounded, I asked Steve Lamb if he could fully document the meeting with Teske in a letter, which he did and which I published in the updated 2014 edition of BDA II.
The only mention of the name Teske that I had ever heard came from the former tenant/roomer, Joe Barrett. In a conversation, I had shown the below set of childhood photos taken in the courtyard of our home, which I informed him I believed were taken by our family photographer, Man Ray. Joe immediately corrected me by saying, “No, those pictures were taken by a photographer named Teske, a friend of your dad’s and Man Ray. I know that because I was there when he took them.”
I never gave it another thought until the name resurfaced a decade later coming from the architect, Steve Lamb at the Clifton’s cafeteria luncheon.
Architect Steven Lamb letter received in 2011:
Edmund Teske was an acquaintance of Aline Barnsdall and resided in Studio B residence in Barnsdall Park just a half-mile and a two-minute drive from the Sowden/Hodel residence. Aline Barnsdall’s residence at the park was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, father of Lloyd Wright who designed the Sowden/Hodel residence at 5121 Franklin Avenue, the actual crime location of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and other L.A. Lone Woman murder victims.
Recently several Black Dahlia “theorists” and longtime naysayers raised the issue of my father’s financial and health conditions in the mid-1940s. They claimed that Dr. George Hill Hodel “was in financial straights and was not wealthy” and refer readers to my posted UNRRA application to document he had a “heart condition” that left him incapable of committing any serial assaults and crimes, thus eliminating him as the “Black Dahlia Avenger.”
These claims are false and once again, let me set the record straight.
First as to his financial condition in the mid-1940s. On his 1945 application he provides and claims his annual income from his private practice is-“$21,000.” That translates in 2023 dollars to an annual salary of approximately $340,000. (Hardly what one would consider “financial straights”) SKH Note- While it is true that George Hodel spent money as fast as he earned it, always living an upscale lifestyle, traveling First Class, staying at the finest hotels and eating at the best restaurants, however, his was never a lifestyle of “the rich and famous.”
As to his health and “heart condition.” Question 13 on his UNRRA application asks, “Have you any physical disabilities or defects?” GHH replies in section #31 below:
“…The condition is not incapacitating.”
“In the spring of 1943 I passed my physical examination for reserve commission in the U.S. Public Health Service.”
G. Hill Hodel M.D.
George Hodel was accepted into UNRRA and assigned to Hankow, China in February 1946. He was given the title of Chief Regional Medical Officer along with the honorary title of “Lt. General” and provided a jeep, a driver, a staff assistant and a personal cook. He describes his extremely active seven-month UNRRA tour-of-duty in “The China Letter.”
The truth of it as relates to my father’s physical health is that in the following years and decades he would go on to live the lifestyle of ten men. After leaving Los Angeles to avoid prosecution in 1950 to my knowledge my father was never hospitalized until late in life (in his late Eighties/early Nineties when his heart condition did eventually become severe.) From his UNRRA years he would go on to engage in multiple affairs with women, marry twice more and father four more children. He led an extremely active lifestyle and traveled the world (he became a “million miler” flight airline passenger thrice over, hardly an achievement for one who supposedly suffered from a “heart condition.” ) He opened and oversaw a dozen Market Research offices throughout Asia for the next forty-years. The fact is, few men could have kept up with the active life George Hodel lived for the first seventy-years of his life.
For those that claim George Hodel never held a job as a surgeon in his doctoring years prior to joining the Los Angeles Health Department. Here is a copy of Dr. George Hodel’s 1942 Public Health Service application which documents his service as the sole surgeon at a Arizona logging camp in 1936 and 1937, just two years before hiring on with L.A. County Health Department in 1939.
GHH applied for Public Health Service 3/10/42
Application per date stamp received April 14, 1942
which included on his resume under No. 12 “Statement of positions held” the following: “Camp Surgeon, CCC, New Mexico, Dec. 1936- June 1937.
…
Approved by the President of the United States and appointed PA Surgeon (R) U.S. Public Health Service
7/11/42
I came across some photographs from the long ago that made me smile in remembrance of a special night in my life.
It was in the spring of 1983. My good friend, Russell Lee Kuster, the Detective III Supervisor at Hollywood Homicide and I
were just about to go EOW (End of Watch) after a day’s work at Hollywood Homicide.
Russ walked over to my desk and said, “Steve, let me buy to a Scotch or three to celebrate your recent promotion to D3.
It’s been a long time coming.” My response, “Sure Russ. Meet at VJ’s?” (One of our local watering holes at Sunset and Gower St.)
Russ replied, “No, How about the Tam O Shanter on Los Feliz.” (Another of our favorite hangouts, built in 1922, and which last year celebrated its hundredth birthday.)
I responded, “See you there in twenty minutes.”
“The Tam” circa 1922 THEN and NOW
I beat Russ to the bar by about three minutes, just enough time to order my usual “Johnny Walker Black Label on the rocks.”
Russ ordered a beer and said, “Steve grab your drink, I want to show you something.” I did as ordered and followed Russ back to a closed door and he said, “After you.” I opened it and much to my surprise the room was filled with most of the guys from our homicide team as well as a few of my ex-partners from patrol division.
I was greeted with a big “Congratulations!” A surprise party for my recent promotion to Detective III.
A few more drinks and presents followed. Russ took charge and presented me with a few special gifts.
D3 Russ Kuster congratulating D3 Hodel Presented with a signed congrats from “Dirty Harry”
This was followed by a newspaper headline that read: “HODEL FOOLS RAMPART LIEUTENANT”
(Since Russ Kuster was the D3 at Hollywood Homicide and would be remaining I was on the
transfer list to my new position as supervisor of the Rampart Burglary Detail and also assigned to work unsolved Cold Case Homicides in that division for the last three years of my career, before retiring in 1986.)
After receiving a few plaques honoring my seventeen years at Hollywood, I was given what I considered my most special present. They can been seen on the corner table above and enlarged below.
A SET OF RUBBER DUCKIES!
Four ducks lined up in a row but with one major exception. Three of the ducks were all facing forward and the fourth duck, with a name tag of “HODEL” on its neck was facing the other direction.
The meaning- “Hodel doesn’t walk with the rest of the ducks.” (He marches to the beat of his own drum.)
I took/take great pride in this recognition. Following my own path and direction has served me well in both the past and present. It was an honor for my fellow detectives and partners some forty years ago to recognize and “say it out loud.”
On a sad note, D3 Russel Lee Kuster, seen here in a happy moment with his fellow detectives, was gunned down by a psychopath while off duty and in another restaurant/bar some seven years later, on October 9, 1990. Russ tried to talk the suspect down who was brandishing his weapon and in an exchange of gunfire both he and the suspect were killed. Below articles provide a summary to the tragic murder. The article “Where Predators Feed” was written by my good friend retired FBI agent and bestselling author, Jerry Petievich honoring Russ back in 1990.
Esotouric Bus Tour owners Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are shown “conjuring up Beth Short’s last night of freedom in Downtown Los Angeles.” Ms. Cooper writes:
“The tour takes us from the human hustle of Main Street to the serene lobby of the Biltmore (the second-to-last place she was seen alive), to the newspaper offices and the Greyhound station where she checked her bags, and concludes at the site where her bisected body was found in Leimert Park and with a little known suspect who lived nearby.”
SKH Note- This is an example of “perpetuating the myth.” The fact is fourteen (14) reliable witnesses saw the victim, Elizabeth Short during all six days of her so-called “Missing Week” and eight of them personally knew the victim, and could not have been mistaken. Elizabeth’s last sighting was in DTLA exiting a bar on the eve of her murder, January 14, 1947, with “two males and a female” as officially reported by LAPD footbeat officer, Meryl McBride in 1947, “who stopped and talked to her to verify she was alright.” (McBride and Short had had prior contact a few hours earlier on January 14th.) Officer McBride’s ID of the victim was reconfirmed by her in a personal interview with me in 2001. McBride informed me” The reason LAPD changed my ID back then to “possibly the victim” was because they felt it would look bad that I let her go. But, I was never in doubt it was Miss Short.”
As reported the four-hour “Black Dahlia” Bus Tour costs $85.00 and transports 56 passengers =$4,760.00 less the cost of the bus rental and driver. To be clear, my reaction has nothing to do with Esotouric’s business and their “making money” but has everything to do with their continuing to perpetuate the myth and providing the public with misinformation.
THE TRUTH OF IT
A few days ago, by chance, I came across some Facebook postings suggesting that the owners of Esotouric Tours should contact me as in their opinion, after reading my books and investigation, they believed I had solved the case.
Here is my verbatim response to those readers’ comments:
“They (Esotouric Tours) are not interested in my investigation. Long ago they put all their eggs in another basket. They are not interested in the truth of it, rather just making money off trying to keep the legendary myths alive.”
Ms. Kim Cooper, the owner of Esotouric Tours responded to my response to the readers as follows:
“Gosh, Steve it’s rather rude for you to come to our thread in a group we manage and defame the ethical, victim-centered work that we have done for the past 19 years to keep the memory of Beth Short alive …in Los Angeles—a city we are devoted to, and where you don’t even live.”
Not realizing that the FB thread I was responding to was managed by Esotouric I then wrote a public apology for writing it on their thread. The apology was for inadvertently commenting on their personal FB page, and not for the response to the readers suggesting I inform Esotouric of my investigation.
Normally, I don’t get involved in “pissing contests” with other “theorists” and basically ignore their attacks on my investigations as presented in my nine published books, which are really just one ongoing progress report. Often these ‘attacks’ are simply a presentation of someone’s theory and not based on having read my books and the facts discovered by diligent investigation.
As far as Kim Cooper and her “Black Dahlia” Esotouric Bus Tour which she promotes and conducts “four times a year” I stand by my comment and belief that she not only is perpetuating the myth that the Black Dahlia Murder will never be solved and follows that up with informing passengers that the most compelling theory out there and most likely suspect is Dr. Walter Bayley, who she readily defames since he is long dead.
I’ll let Ms. Cooper’s public printed words speak for themselves in this regard.
Here are some excerpts from “The Black Dahlia of Leimert Park” written by Kim Cooper on October 31, 2013:
“But we’re still left with the problem of Leimert Park, and the real Beth Short’s incongruous presence on this suburban avenue, miles from her real-life haunts. How satisfying then to find L.A. historian Larry Harnisch’s theory implicating Walter Alonzo Bayley, a mentally unstable surgeon who owned a home a block south of the body dump site on Norton Avenue, whose daughter Barbara served as the witness at the wedding of Beth’s sister Virginia, and who at the time of Beth’s murder was enmeshed in a complicated extramarital affair with an Austrian physician who would, after Dr. Bayley’s 1948 death, threaten his widow with the exposure of terrible secrets.”
“Although the case is open, and the LAPD still regularly reviews the evidence, we will almost certainly never know who killed Beth Short. The trail is cold and all the players dead. But four times each year, when we gather up our passengers and leave the little patch of grass that grows now where once were weeds and a terrible flower, and I tell the story of Dr. Bayley’s life on Norton Avenue, his traumas and his mysteries, the bus becomes very quiet, and filled with a frightening and very convincing vision of brutality and horror.
I could care less what the Kim Cooper’s of the world individually think or don’t think about my investigation.
What I do care about is the fact that they fill a busload with L.A. locals and tourists and then inform them that “we will almost certainly never know who killed Beth Short” and then take them to the body dump site and compound that by suggesting that the most compelling theory, has been presented by a personal acquaintance and retired copy-editor –that the killer was a local physician, Dr. Walter Bayley, “a mentally unstable surgeon who lived nearby.”
Then Ms. Cooper ends her article with, “…I tell the story of Dr. Bayley’s life on Norton Avenue, his traumas and his mysteries, the bus becomes very quiet, and filled with a frightening and very convincing vision of brutality and horror.”
And so it goes. Busload after busload of passengers four times a year go away from the tour believing 1) the Black Dahlia Murder will never be solved and 2) the most compelling killer was Dr. Walter Bayley, who lived a block away on South Norton.
And Ms. Cooper in her response to me has the audacity to claim:
“We (Esotouric Bus Tours) don’t focus on any theories of who might have killed Beth Short.”
She then concludes with:
“…while Esotouric is a business, we don’t do this for the money.”
I will conclude with three additional fact-checks.
Walter Bayley’s name never came up in any official police report or investigation. His name only surfaced in a 1997 article written by the copyeditor for the 50th Anniversary of the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia” murder. There is no evidence that Dr. Bayley was ever “mentally unstable” and to believe the copyeditor’s “theory” one would have to believe that Elizabeth Short’s murder was a standalone, and not related to the Jeanne French murder three weeks later, which defies all logic and goes against the findings and investigation by LAPD and the LADA’s office. Further, the fact that Dr. Bayley’s daughter was a witness at the victim’s sister’s wedding years before the crime is no indication she knew or was a friend of the sister–Virginia. It is meaningless and without merit. (The witness to my marriage (husband of the Justice of the Peace in Twin Falls, Idaho) to my first wife Kiyo was and remains totally unknown to me. But, his signature remains on the license for all to see.) There has never been any indication that Dr. Bayley’s daughter ever knew or met, Elizbeth Short in life.
2. In Kim Cooper’s blog of 2017, she writes:
“LLOYD WRIGHT’S SOWDEN HOUSE, 1920S HOLLYWOOD LANDMARK & BLACK DAHLIA SUSPECT’S LAIR-
“Now when we offer our Real Black Dahlia tour, as we will again on, October 7, we’ll be able to direct interested parties to virtually explore the house where George Hodel danced a delicate duet with the cops he knew were bugging him. Maybe they’ll spot a clue, or one of the pussycats who are getting settled in to their new home. Certainly, they’ll be ensorcelled by this marvelous place!”
The fact is Dr. George Hodel had no clue he was being bugged by the LADA and LAPD who had secretly entered the residence and planted microphones in the walls. Dr. Hodel only suspected the phones might be tapped and he goes on to tell a caller to wait and he will call from an outside telephone. He then goes on to make multiple admissions to murders, payoffs to police and to performing illegal abortions with no knowledge that 120 pages and five weeks of 24/7 recordings have been obtained.
3. As to Ms. Cooper’s comment she is “an advocate for the preservation of historic places that evoke civic memory in Los Angeles—a city we are devoted to, and where you don’t even live.”
For the Record:
I was born in Los Angeles at Queen of Angels Hospital, midway between Hollywood and DTLA.
As an infant and through years 1-4 I lived in the Echo Park District.
Ages 5-10 I lived in the historic Sowden/Franklin House at 5121 Franklin Avenue, in Hollywood.
At ages 10-17 we moved around during “The Gypsy Years” but with the exception of a short time in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs we lived in Pasadena, Santa Monica, Glendale and Van Nuys. I attended three high schools in Los Angeles: Santa Monica HS, Glendale HS, and Van Nuys HS.
At age 17, I joined the Navy and served four years.
At age 21, I was discharged, married, bought a home in Laurel Canyon (a mountain area in Hollywood), and joined the LAPD.
For the next 23 years, I worked for the Department and served in WLA, Wilshire (division just south of Hollywood), and Van Nuys Patrol. I returned and worked in Hollywood for the next 17 years and investigated over 300 Hollywood Division murders.
At age 45 I retired from LAPD obtained my P.I. license and became a defense investigator for local Los Angeles criminal attorneys for three years.
At age 48, in 1989 I moved my wife and our two sons to Washington State where I served as a defense investigator for the Public Defender’s Office as well as working as a P.I. for private attorneys until my father’s death in 1999.
At age 59, I returned to California in 2000 and resided in Hollywood, then Studio Cityand for the next twenty-one years (ages 60-81) I investigated my father’s serial crimes and wrote and published eight books on those investigations.)
Last year at age 81, I moved to Birch Bay, WA to be close to my sons and grandchildren.
I am an ANGELENO through-and-through—born and raised in that city and have devoted my life to solving its crimes and advocating for its victims.
Happy to compare those personal “Los Angeles city devotions” to those of Ms. Cooper or any other individual who wants to claim it’s a “city where you don’t even live.”
In closing, let’s not forget what Stephen Kay, then active L.A. County Head Deputy District Attorney said in 2004 of my investigation, my case against Dr. George Hill Hodel… and I quote:
“The most haunting murder mystery in Los Angeles County during the 20th Century has finally been solved in the 21st Century. I have no doubt in my mind that George Hodel murdered Elizabeth Short and Jeanne French. And were he alive today, and were the witnesses alive, I would have no problem in filing two counts of murder, against Dr. Hodel and, I believe if I took this case in front of a jury, that I would convict him.”
I am excited and proud to present my just published Black Dahlia Avenger IV, historical fiction as an audiobook available NOW.
Master storyteller Malcolm Hillgartner’s reading of the novel is a tour de force. Malcolm takes us back to the mood and the feel of 1940s Los Angeles in the trial of the century. A ghostly modern-day trial by the Quick and the Dead whose voices and testimony echo through L.A.’s Historic Hall of Justice–demanding justice for the victims long denied.
Even in death my half-sister, Tamar Hodel’s documented statements of sexual abuse continue not to be believed. And not just by “outsiders,” but by her own family members.
First, there was her own mother, Dorothy Anthony who in 1946 after Tamar (then just age 11) informed her of having oral sex with her father, George Hodel, her mother confronted him about their daughter’s allegation and George responded, “She made the same allegations about you and your mother (Tamar’s grandmother) having had sex with her. She’s a disturbed child.”
Three years later, in 1949, Tamar (age 14) tafter being picked up as a “runaway”, told the juvenile detectives about having sex with her father and some of his. adult friends. George was arrested and an incest trial occurred. During the trial, three of George’s adult friends were both witnesses to and testified to having participated in these sex acts.
In spite of Tamar’s and the participating witnesses’ testimony Tamar was labeled “a pathological liar” by defense attorneys. The defaming characterization of Tamar was supported by her mother, Dorothy Anthony, who claimed on the stand that Tamar “is not to be believed”. Tamar’s half-brother, Duncan, claimed she “made up stories”. This character assassination was continued by her father when George Hodel took the stand in his own defense and testified that Tamar “is a pathological liar and needs mental health”.
Once again Tamar was not believed by the jury who then found her father, Dr. George Hodel not guilty.
Today, even in death, despite Tamar’s decades-old documented revelations of her sexual assaults, she is again, disbelieved, once again- BY HER OWN GRANDCHILDREN.
A little Hodel history:
Tamar in 2001- age 66
Tamar ages 15 and 21
In 2004 Tamar Hodel provided me with both a videotaped interview as well as her own typewritten statements. In recounting the story of the birth of her first child, whom she named Fauna Hodel and whom her mother gave away at birth, Tamar related the following. (Tamar typed and emailed the letter to me on January 12, 2004, nearly twenty years ago.) Pertinent extracts below:
*Author Note- In a separate interview Tamar described the “friend of David that raped me was an Italian American, Male, White Mid-Twenteis.”
2023 Tamar’s granddaughters, Rasha and Yvette, (born to Fauna Hodel by separate fathers) reveal true paternity.
In a two-part interview with producer Zak Levitt, the award-winning creator of Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia, Tamar’s granddaughters revealed that through DNA linkage they had identified their mother, Fauna’s biological father. Those DNA results contradicted what Rasha, Yvette, and Fauna claimed they had always believed. They said they believed that my father, George Hill Hodel was indeed Fauna’s biological father. Unfortunately, this was also what viewers of the fictional television series, I Am The Night were led to believe.
It should be understood that I made public, in April 2019 the results of DNA testing that proved George HillHodel was not the father of Fauna Hodel.
The DNA evidence was known as early as 2019, but the TNT producers, Patty Jenkins and Sam Sheridan ordered Zak Levitt to not disclose it (as he had planned in his separate podcast, Root of Evil.)
Zak argued against this intentional omission and insisted that the truth should be told. In the end, he complied with the TNT producer’s demands. Sadly, the viewers/listeners were led to believe falsely that George Hodel was likely Fauna’s father. (In the view of TNT producers of I Am The Night, the decision to not disclose Fauna’s true paternity, “made for better theatre.”
What is new? Rasha and Yvette have known for more than a year now that DNA had subsequently identified their mother’s (Fauna) actual biological father which they kept from the public until June of this year.
In Part II of their “Root of Evil Update” June 11, 2023, podcast interview with Zak Levitt, the granddaughters name their biological grandfather and confirm that he lived and had sex with Tamar in San Francisco in 1950.
Further, Tamar’s description of the rapist, as an “Italian in his mid-twenties” was accurate as to age and his last name while sounding Italian is apparently, as the granddaughters describe him, “he is South American/Ecuadorian.”
I won’t reveal the man’s last name here, but it could easily be mistaken for being Italian.
In the Zak Levitt interview Rasha and Yvette go on to discuss how excited they are “to tell the world” that they have discovered and identified their grandfather (the 23-year-old man who raped their then 15-year-old grandmother) and that they “have spoken with his relatives who live in Canada, and report, “how happy they are to discover what a wonderful, kind, and loving man he was.”
But, they don’t stop there. I quote from their interview with Zak.
Rasha and Yvette:
“So, now we know who he is (grandfather/rapist) and we have real closure. We have passports, census, and photos we can share.
We had a video talk with Aunt Judy, their grandfather’s daughter, “Aunt Judy was talking about the Dr. Phil show where she saw that Uncle Steve (I’m thier great half-uncle) was trying to say our dad raped your grandmother. Judy says, “No way.
One of the girls responds with this incredible reply to the public:
“I just want to put out there that this was a one-night encounter. None of us know what really happened. We are sorry about the Dr. Phil.
That’s what she told us. That was the information we had at the time. Now we have new information.”
Tamar, a fifteen-year-old teen had gone to meet a teen friend “David” and waited for his return at an adult male’s residence. This ” adult male Italian in his mid-twenties” gave her fruit drinks, laced with sloe-gin, got her drunk until she passed out, and then forcibly raped her. …and from this one-time encounter, Tamar got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Fauna. This is what occurred according to Tamar’s own statements.
(But, according to Tamar’s granddaughters, “None of us know what really happened.” (Inference, she could be lying.)
And so it goes, in death as in life. The stigma of a “lying Tamar”, comes once again from her own family, this time her granddaughters: “Yes, she (Tamar) said she was raped, but none of us know what really happened.”
We can now add two more family members who question Tamar’s being sexually assaulted. (This time no one can deny the sex occurred since a child was conceived, born, and linked by DNA. They can only question consent, which is immaterial since even if she had given consent, in California then and now a fifteen-year-old is legally incapable of giving consent to intercourse. Such an act, forced or voluntary, is statutory rape. One further exacerbation, she was also impaired by alcohol.
Read for yourself this sad excerpt from my half-sister, Tamar’s videotaped interview in 2004, where she relates how she was literally crying out for help to her own mother when just a teen:
“Even when I was eleven and he (father, George Hodel) gave me the erotica, and he attempted to teach me how to give him oral sex. I failed miserably on this adventure. I was embarrassed because I failed HIM. So, I told my mother about it when I went back to visit, and I said what had happened, and she said, “I will have to talk with your father.” I never heard anything from her. …When I was eighteen, I said to her, “Why didn’t you help me? Why didn’t you speak up for me? Why? Why?” She said she had gone to him and said what had happened, what I said, and he told her that I was a pathological liar and that I had said the same thing about her and her mother.” That so turned her off and frightened her that she assumed he was telling the truth.”
In closing, I will make one additional point that has become totally misinterpreted through the decades.
Let me set the record straight. as relates to my half-sister, Tamar Hodel’s testimony at the 1949 incest trial.
For The record:
Tamar never claimed, “Our father was the Black Dahlia Killer and he was insane and was going to kill all of the family members”. That was a claim made and invented by Defense Attorney Robert Neeb during his cross-examination of Tamar…his words not Tamar’s.
In front of the jury, Neeb states:
“Isn’t it true Tamar that you told Joe Barrett that your father was the Black Dahlia killer……..etc.”
Tamar’s response: “No, I never said that.”
Neeb’s words, not hers. (As we now know, it was the LAPD and DA detectives who told Tamar when taking her to court from Juvenile Hall detention, “We believe your father, George Hodel is the Black Dahlia killer and killed other women too.”
Bottom Line- Tamar never testified to or made such a comment to anyone during the court trial in 1949–it only came from the defense attorneys to shock and influence the jury.
November 23, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington
Thanksgiving Day Wishes
I want to take time this Thanksgiving Day, 2023 to express my sincere THANKS to you, my readers.
To all of you who have assisted, supported, and encouraged me through the past two-plus decades.
This coming May 2024, just six months from today, will mark the 25th year of my ongoing criminal investigations into the serial crimes of my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel.
My investigation began with his death in 1999 and my half-sister, Tamar’s startling revelation, “You know Steve, our father was a suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder. The LAPD detectives that transported me to court during the incest trial in 1950, told me they thought he killed her.”
As most of you know, my investigation back then began with my determination to show that our father had nothing to do with the crime and to prove his innocence, and to remove any suspicion.
The above nine books are all really just one ongoing Homicide Progress Report summarizing my findings.
They document his serial crimes starting as a teen in 1921 and present the linkage and evidence connecting him to fifty horrific crimes in fifty years. While most were committed in California I did discover and present strong evidence connecting him to murders I believe he committed in Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Mexico, and Manila, Philippines.
It has been an exceptionally long investigation in which I have passed from middle to old age.
In my previous publications, I have personally acknowledged and thanked the many individuals who have helped me as my very real “partners” along the way. They have collectively, added critical missing puzzle pieces to the now massive amount of evidence that has taken us way beyond the “reasonable doubt” criteria required to find George Hill Hodel guilty.
With the latest publication of Black Dahlia Avenger IV this month, in print, ebook, and audiobook, I believe I can personally acknowledge to myself-“CASE CLOSED.” This final book, while classified as “historical fiction” is really a hybrid. In a Midnight Trial by the Quick and the Dead, it presents most of the factual evidence that existed and was found and presented piecemeal in the eight previous books relating to the Black Dahlia and L.A. Lone Woman Murders, along with new evidence and the testimony and voices of many of the original 1947 -1950 witnesses and victims.
BDA IV, as a work of “fiction” is really my way of removing the “Justice Denied” and presenting it as “Justice Delayed.” It is the criminal trial that should have been but never was.
I will close by once again, giving THANKS to all of you on this Thanksgiving Day, 2023.
May each of you and your family members enjoy this holiday and recognize the personal thankfulness that reaches us on this special day.
Steve Hodel Author BDA IV End Notes (3.5 minutes, read by Malcolm Hillgartner)
I wanted to reblog it as further independent corroboration of George Hodel’s criminality while living abroad.
Bess Robison
1922-2009
ANOTHER SAD AND TRAGIC STORY
Los Angeles, California
I recently received an e-mail from Alan Robison, who informed me he is the son of one of Dr. George Hill Hodel’s former victims. The crime reportedly occurred in Manila, Philippines circa 1958.
Alan’s telling of the crime, in his, and his mother’s own words. (I have omitted certain parts of his narrative, which are not directly related to the actual crime, and which I believe should remain private and confidential.)
Dear Mr. Hodel,
My name is Alan Robison. I am 61 years old. My mother’s name was Bess Robison. She died in 2009. My father died in 2012. I had been caring for him for fifteen months, and he was suffering from five separate diseases.
In 1989 I was staying with my mother in her home in Tyler, Texas. At that time, she disclosed to me that she had been raped in Manila in 1958 while working as a radio missionary with my father. At that time my parents were living in Manila and broadcasting a radio show across the Iron Curtain.
Mother told me that she was having “female problems” and had asked my father to find her an American doctor in Manila. He found her one, and during my mother’s telling me the story she also told me his name, which was “HODEL.”
My mother took me with her to the first appointment to see Dr. Hodel. I was seven ½ years old. I recall the office, the nurse, her desk, the arrangement of furniture in the waiting room and remember seeing Dr. Hodel. He never spoke to me, but he made eye contact once, and it was icy to me.
In her conversation with Dr. Hodel, my mother informed me that she mentioned that she was a musical prodigy and could play five different instruments at the age of twelve.
Dr. Hodel brought up the fact of his piano expertise after my mother described, in her interview with him, her job of playing the piano on the radio.
I sat in a chair from which I could see his desk, him, and the window behind the desk, which showed a view of Manila harbor and the bay. I recall what he wore, his mustache, and his offhand, cool manner. He was not friendly or relaxed, but he was polite.
After the first visit when I went with her, I assume she returned alone to Hodel’s office for treatment. Perhaps he told her to leave me at home?
My mother told me that Dr. Hodel raped her at his office (I assume she was sedated), and she immediately afterwards wept when she reported it to my father.
Mother never told me what Dr. Hodel was treating her for; she indicated that he told her he must do a “pelvic exam” as part of the general physical exam.
My father then did the wrong thing. He refused to get involved and believed she had “led him [Hodel] on.” My mother told me that father “was shocked, but was afraid involvement would ruin his
reputation.”
Mother went on to tell me that she and my father were “having sexual problems”, and in a conversation with Dr. Hodel he had asked her, “How often do you and your husband have sex?”
She told him, “Once a month.” Hodel replied lasciviously to her, “But you, you are a WOMAN!” as if to alert her to his appreciation of her.
The relationship between my parents quickly degraded after my mother telling father about the incident and his decision to not believe her.
Within a week or two after that mother decided to leave her husband and return to the U.S. with my brother and me.
Soon after our return to the U.S. mother contracted a serious illness, peritonitis, and she had to be operated on.
To this day, I believe that her contact with Dr. Hodel caused this peritonitis, but I can’t prove it. She almost died.
Both my parents suffered illnesses from living in the tropics.
Thanks for reading all of this, Steve. Bless you. If there is anything else I can try to provide, I will. But
as of now, these details are the most relevant. All else is another story. You are deeply appreciated by so many for your valiant career and sincere investigations.
Ken Alan Robison
SKH Note- Alan Robison provided some personal information in his Email, which I am including since it addresses his motivation in contacting me:
…
I am poor and dying of heart disease, severe aortic stenosis. I do not have cable or computer of my own. I use public computers at the local library, where I walk to, since I don’t have a car–walking, however, is good for me. The Veteran’s Association pays for my meds. I want the world to know she[mother] was attacked.
To both Bess Robison, may she Rest in Peace, and to her son Alan, and to the rest of your surviving relatives, let me offer my most sincere apologies for my father’s terrible crime.
Alan, I know the aftereffects of that sexual assault brought much pain into both your mother’s and your own life, and surely contributed to ongoing emotional pain and traumas in the decades that followed. For this, I am truly sorry and hope that you may find some peace in publicly speaking out and informing us of the Truth of your mother’s victimization. The Truth, in many ways, does help “set us free.”
With the completion of my just published Black Dahlia Avenger IV, I would like to take this opportunity to personally call out and thank three of the world’s top mystery writers; Michael Connelly, Jerry Petievich, and Jon Breen. Each author independently reviewed the investigation as presented in my original publication, Black Dahlia Avenger (2003), and based on the evidence publically proclaimed — “CASE SOLVED.” (See their reviews below.)
In the two decades following that publication, a massive amount of additional linkage to the Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia, and other L.A. Lone Woman Murders followed and was presented in BDA II, III, and IV. Based on readers’ written reviews of the series, which now total 1400 with an overall 4.5-star rating on AMAZON, Through the years the public has spoken loud and clear, and most agree with Connelly, Petievich, and Breen that the evidence is convincing and the case is solved.
Despite the order from then LAPD Chief of Detectives James McMurray to his Cold Case Detectives to “Go ahead and clear the Black Dahlia Murder, based on Hodel’s investigation” the detectives, knowing that their commander McMurray was about to retire in six months, claimed, “they were too busy, but would get to it later.” That “get to it” has now been put off for twenty years and those detectives are all long retired.
With the publication of BDA IV on November 6, 2023 (my 82nd birthday) and the court trial with testimony from “The Quick and the Dead,” I consider my investigation into the Black Dahlia Murder completed. The prosecution has called all its witnesses and victims, living and dead, and presented its case. The prosecution has “rested” and my work as the primary investigator For the People is done.
For a detailed presentation of the WHY of the ongoing LAPD coverup by high-ranking officers see the prior blog HERE.
Greetings and Happy Holidays 2023.
Here’s a five-minute video I prepared some years ago quoting the original top cops on the Black Dahlia murder and confirming they had solved the case back in 1950.
Like things that go bump in the night? Do spirits haunt certain buildings and homes?
Approved by the President of the United States and appointed PA Surgeon (R) U.S. Public Health Service
Esotouric Bus Tour owners Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are shown “conjuring up Beth Short’s last night of freedom in Downtown Los Angeles.” Ms. Cooper writes:
