Los Angeles, California
October 9, 2016

Below article by journalist Brie Dyas, featuring the Sowden/Franklin appeared in Veranda Magazine’s October 7, 2016 edition.

Peek Inside The “Mayan” Home Where Old Hollywood Loved To Party
The unusual house also played a part in a real-life mystery.

Sowden/Hodel Franklin House, 5121 Franklin Ave., Hollywood, CA

“…The home’s later owner, Dr. George Hodel, became a prime suspect in the Black Dahlia murder. Though there was no proof to support the claim against the surgeon, the rumor was enough to lend the propriety an air of notoriety.”
Brie Dyas, Veranda Magazine
7 October 2016

Author Note to journalist and self-professed “Vintage Addict” Brie Dyas.  For a cursory documentation of “proofs,” which included Dr. Hodel’s own 1950 tape-recorded confession to the Black Dahlia Murder and other crimes as alleged by the DA and LAPD, see Dr. George Hill Hodel.  (For more extensive summary my website: www.stevehodel.com

 The Sowden/Franklin House is currently (October 2016) listed on the market with an asking price of $4,795.000.00 See link to listing agent for additional photos of residence. (George Hodel purchased the home in 1945 for the outlandish asking price of $37,500.)

Here is a “Then and Now” photo showing library area of the home.

      THEN (Dr. George Hill Hodel at his desk, 1950)   NOW (2016)

See link HERE for additional photographs provided by Real Estate Broker

The post Hollywood Black Dahlia Sowden House Featured In Veranda Magazine: Back on the Market For 4.8M appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles, California
October 29, 2016
(Updated from FAQ 42 originally published June 4, 2007)

Q: I recently saw the movie, WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART which is supposedly based on the life of the director, John Huston and the making of the film, AFRICAN QUEEN. Did you see the movie? What did you think of it?

I did see the film WHBH when it was released about fifteen years ago. Normally, I am a big fan of Clint Eastwood and his movies, but this one did not do it for me. In my opinion, the film gave a distorted view of Huston due to time constraints. Since you have seen the movie, my advice to you would be to read the book.”

Screenwriter/author, Peter Viertel wrote a gripping novel, which was originally published in 1954. A Roman a clef, Viertel simply changed a few names, calling John Huston, John Wilson and moved forward with a dramatic narrative. Viertel documents his close friendship with John during the early Fifties and the making of AFRICAN QUEEN, and gives us a full, and in my opinion fair view of the real Huston. We see and hear both sides; Huston’s shining genius along with his dark-sided views of life, which gained Huston the well-earned reputation of being both, “A Genius and a Monster.”

Having had a father of similar character, with tremendous strengths, and weaknesses, who was both generous and sadistic in nature, in recently re-reading the “novel” I felt I better understood Viertel’s expressed love and disgust for Huston. John was a serpent who hypnotized his prey with charm and humor, then struck quickly and sank his fangs deep into his victim’s flesh.

In rereading WHBH in the light of what is now known about George Hodel some quotes attributed by Viertel to John Wilson (Huston) take on much deeper meaning. As you read the first comments on Huston’s view and attitude on testing “friendship” keep two things in mind. First, George Hodel and John Huston were friends since high-school, and second, John’s observations are made circa 1951-1952, just after George Hodel was about to be arrested and decided to flee the country. As we now know, George was fleeing from being apprehended for the commission of a cold-blooded, premeditated murder. (Several actually.)

Here are Huston’s comments on “Real Friendship.”

White Hunter Black Heart, page 64: …

“No, it’s not. To try and find out who your real friends are is very important. “ “How would you propose to go about doing that, John? Randsome asked. ‘

“Well, I don’t know. It’s kind of difficult. I think the perfect test would be to go to your friends and tell them you’ve just committed a murder, a cold-blooded, premeditated murder, and that you want to escape. There are no extenuating circumstances. All you want is help. The people who’d stick to you and help you escape without asking any questions would, I believe qualify as real friends.”

The next comments related to my mother, Dorothy, John’s first wife. (They were married 7 years. The “I’d done something wrong” refers to mother walking in and catching him in bed with another woman fairly early on in their marriage.)

White Hunter Black Heart, page 214:

… “I believe in the signs, you know. I’ve met them too often in my life to doubt them. In everything I’ve ever done. Work, or women, or gambling. Everything.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, when I broke up with my first wife for instance. I knew I’d 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 good chance at everything in life, and that’s all.”

Finally, I believe the below comments are the most telling of all, and capture John’s true psychology. It is exactly the kind of thinking that differentiates many geniuses from us “mere mortals.” It is dangerous, over the edge, and guaranteed to fill one’s life with excitement, adventure, and in all likelihood misery and disappointment. I make no moral judgment here. Those, like John Huston and George Hodel, make a choice with eyes wide open. Their thinking compels and propels them forward into the Abyss.

White Hunter Black Heart, page 295-296:

(The below conversation is between Peter Viertel and John Huston. They are in Africa and far behind schedule on the filming of AFRICAN QUEEN. Screenwriter and close friend of Huston’s, Peter Viertel is attempting to dissuade Huston from going on an elephant hunt. )

Viertel’s says:

“Well, in order to kill one of them, you’re ready to forget the rest of us, and let the whole goddam show go down the drain. It’s not a passion this time that’s guiding you, that’s pulling you away from your responsibility. A passion would be an excuse. This time it’s a crime. Because it’s a crime to kill an elephant. And in order to commit this crime you’re willing to ruin everyone else. If you were running out on the picture because of a woman, or a better offer, or because you’d suddenly gotten bored with the whole thing, I’d go along. But this way, it’s even too rough for my taste.”

Wilson looked intensely serious for a minute. He drew reflectively on his cigarette. I knew something I had said had made an impression on him. Most of it, I realized, had gone past him into the warm African night, but something had struck him in the strange way it occasionally did, had pierced into his armor-plated process of thought. He was pausing now to give his answer weight. I knew him so well, I thought.

“Kid,” he said, after a long pause, “you’re wrong. It’s not a crime to kill an elephant. It’s bigger than that. A crime….what the hell, that isn’t much. And that isn’t it. It’s a sin to kill an elephant, you understand, a sin. As basic as that. The only sin you can buy a license for and then go out and commit. And that’s why I want to do it before I do anything else. You understand?”

Bottom Line: READ THE NOVEL.

SKH Note- Thirty years later, Viertel (by then long married to actress Deborah Kerr), wrote another book called, Dangerous Friends: At Large with Hemingway and Huston in the Fifties. Also a great read and adds further insight into these two remarkable men.

John Huston and Orson Welles

For those interested in learning more about the writings of Peter Viertel, I would recommend the excellent Fan Website just discovered by me at:

Peter Viertel Website

The post John Huston, Peter Viertel: White Hunter Black Heart (On Friendship and Cold Blooded, Premeditated Murder) appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 3, 2016
Los Angeles, California
(This blog originally posted 12.16.2009, but have updated with photos and more-1930s-films which was cut from Most Evil I. Click on link for that PDF.)

Murder As a Fine Art Continues….

(SKH Note- Below section was included in final draft of MOST EVIL , but edited out due to space limitations. However, to my mind, it remains an important part of “the big picture” (pun intended) providing increased weight to my theory that part of George Hodel’s bizarre signature -M.O. (Murder as a Fine Art) was to include and edit scenes from 1930s films into his real life serial killings.)  

1930s films as M.O.

We have examined two 1930s-period films, The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) and I have suggested that Zodiac, in his 1960s murders, was borrowing themes and characters from each film. Let us now examine two additional films from that period, which I believe buttress my theory.

In February, 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio distributed a U.K. made film, The Mystery of Mr. X. The film starred a young Robert Montgomery, as Sir Nicholas Revel. The story involved a mad serial killer, “Mr. X”, who uses a rapier-like sword to stab and slay unsuspecting uniformed policemen, walking their beats in different sections of London. Mr. X, after slaying his victims, then mails taunting cut-and-pasted notes to the press, and as the film rushes to its climax, our hero, Sir Nicholas, by plotting the locations of the murder victims on a city map, cleverly deduces that the killer is constructing a giant letter X, with only one killing more needed to complete his “project.” Sir Nicholas, disguised in the uniform of a Bobbie, decides to use himself as bait, and drives to the anticipated final location, where he confronts Mr. X  for a fight-to-the-finish finale.[1]

In the above film clips, we see: (a) Mr. X’s cut and pasted notes, mailed to the police, which read: “Tonight X”, and “With kindest Regards from X.” In (b) we see Mr. X slaying a downed policeman with his long sword,[2] and Sir. Nicholas, using a London town map to deduce the exact location where Mr. X is planning to slay his final victim.

Just 14-months prior to the release of The Mystery of Mr. X, the same studio (MGM) released another film. The name of this film was, Red Dust (1932). The film starred, Clark Cable and Jean Harlow, in a romantic drama which takes place on a rubber plantation in Indochina. The story line as best I can tell, is unimportant to our investigation. However, there is a scene in the film that I consider to be exactly–on point. Again, I believe Zodiac has plagiarized and incorporated a small scene from the film and incorporated it into his real life killing spree.

In Red Dust, a man-eating tiger has attacked some villagers, and the protagonist, Dennis Carson (Clark Gable) is determined to hunt it down. He solicits the help of a plantation visitor, Gary Willis (co-star, Gene Raymond) and together they set out into the jungle, to track and kill the beast.

They decide of a set trap by tying an animal to a tree in hopes that the tiger will attack the prey by night and they can shoot it. They stake-out the location by climbing the tree (a blind) and wait for nightfall. Because it would be a difficult shot in the dark of night, Gable shows his younger, inexperienced hunter an old trick. He attaches a flashlight to both of their rifle barrels, so they can simply point and shoot. The below clips from Red Dust, show their plan worked. In pitch dark, the tiger moves in for the kill, they turn on their flashlights and shoot it dead. The villagers are avenged and safe.

           Gable attaching the flashlight to his weapon for a night shot and the kill 

ZODIAC’S  DEBUT LETTER 

Let us reexamine some excerpts from Zodiac’s boastful handwritten, three-page letter to the San Francisco Examiner on 8/4/69:

… “Last Christmass

In that episode the police were wondering as to how I could shoot & hit my victoms in the dark…   What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun.  … When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike exactly in the center of the black dot in the light. All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights.”

Throughout the 1930s, while attending medical school, George Hodel maintained close personal ties and connections to the Hollywood film studios.  His high school friend, John Huston was a screenwriter and in 1932 had just completed writing the script dialogue for Universal‘s, Murders in the Rue Morgue, released in February of that same year. At that time, my mother, still married to Huston, was also a screenwriter (uncredited) doing freelance writing for: Universal, MGM and RKO. By 1932, Dorothy and John, after a very rocky six-year marriage, were on the verge of divorce. By then, both had been long involved in multiple affairs. Dorothy was intimate with a number of celebrity actors, which, by her own account included: Johnny Weissmuller, Sam Jaffe, and noted screen writer/director, Rowland Brown.[3] In both the Dahlia and now the Zodiac investigation, I keep returning to a statement made by Joe Barrett, who was a roomer/tenant at the Franklin House from 1948-1950, and in a 1999 conversation with me, shortly after my father’s death, made, what I now consider an exceptionally astute observation. Joe in describing my father’s mental brilliance and genius– put it this way:  [Black Dahlia Avenger, pg. 211]

You know Steve, George was gifted with a perfect photographic memory, that permitted him to absorb ideas from other people, and make them sound as if they were his own. He was super intelligent, but not particularly original.

Joe’s description is exactly what has been presented to us. Zodiac’s mind is not original, but, rather it is a moviola.[4] Cursed with “a perfect photographic memory” he has extracted scenes and frames from this film and that one, and edited them into his own–noir horrors.

Zodiac’s 1960s serial killings are a diabolical remake of his past favorites, using real locations, real crimes, and real victims!

[1] In 1952, the film was remade for the big screen as, The Hour of 13, this time starring Peter Lawford as, Sir Nicholas. In the remake, the serial killer, renamed “The Terror” chose his victims locations throughout 1890 London town, to form the letter “T”.

[2]“By Knife”- I believe Zodiac used a sword to stab his victims in the Shepard-Hartnell crimes, because–the script called for it! Mr. X used a sword, and so too would Zodiac.

[3]Rowland Brown, though mostly unknown today, in the 1930s was a true rebel, and quite well known to the public. In the 20s he had been a Chicago sportswriter, and like his good friend, Ben Hecht, had come west to check out the birth of Hollywood and filmmaking. Like most of the “Front Page” pioneers, he was a hard drinking, pugnacious, iconoclast. Brown loved women, gangsters, (credited with discovering George Raft) and fast horses. He would fight to the death for “the little guy” which was oftentimes the theme in his films. Brown’s filmography included such greats as: Quick Million (1931)), States Attorney (1932), Oscar nominated, What Price Hollywood (1932, co-written with Gene Fowler), Blood Money (1933) and Angels with Dirty Faces (1938, co-written with Ben Hecht.) Brown and Huston would be regular attendees at my father’s Hollywood parties, at his Franklin House during the mid-to-late 1940ss, and in the spring of 1950, the DA surveillance tapes would capture my mother in conversation with Rowland Brown, just prior to Father fleeing the country. Shortly after the 1947 Black Dahlia murder, two of Hollywood’s top screenwriters, Ben Hecht and Steve Fisher, (Lady in the Lake, 1947, Song of the Thin Man, 1947) would both provide their “expert opinions” in separate newspaper articles. Both indicated they believed they knew the identity and actual name of the Dahlia killer, and reassured the public that the police were just about to arrest him. Steve Fisher, (also a good friend of Rowland Brown), in his article wrote, “…I think I know who the killer is. I’m sure the police do, too, and that in a very short time, they will have his name…..When the killer-suspect’s name is published, a lot of people who know him, and who do not now suspect he has anything to do with the case, are going to be surprised and terrified….The man will have to flee….he will never get out of the city.”

[4] Moviola – A special projection machine (used by film editors) that holds several reels of film simultaneously and can run at variable speeds, backward or forward, and stop at any frame.

The post More 1930s Films (The Mystery of Mr. X and Red Dust) As George Hodel’s Signature M.O.? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 13, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Author/Screenwriter David Kukoff will launch his Los Angeles in the 1970s anthology at the Standard Hotel, 8300 Sunset Blvd on November 18, 2016, at 7:00 PM. If you are an Angeleno history buff or just simply enjoy reading “the way things were” this book is for YOU. More than two dozen contributors have offered their unique insights into this fifty-year plus retrospective. A few of their subjects include 1970s LA in Art, Music, Sports, Theatre, Crime, and Politics. My own contribution to the book is a chapter entitled, “The Snake and Bake Murder,” a true-crime whodunit that I investigated in 1974 when I was assigned and working Hollywood Homicide. Hope to see you at the Standard Hotel (“on the Strip”) this Friday. Opens at 7:00 PM and Free to the Public.

The post “LOS ANGELES IN THE 1970S” Book Launch on “The Strip”, Friday, November 18th at the STANDARD HOTEL 8300 Sunset Blvd 7PM appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 19, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Click on the ink below to hear a forty-minute conversation with authors Chip Jacobs and Steve Hodel talking about their separate essay contributions to the just published book, Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (Rare Bird Books 2016). Edited by David Kukoff  (Book Launch Friday, November 18, 2016 at the Standard Hotel, “On the Strip”, 8300 Sunset Blvd 7:00 PM.)

RARE BIRD RADIO

Chip Jacobs           In Conversation with     Steve Hodel

The post Los Angeles in the 1970s Book Launch: A Conversation with Authors Chip Jacobs and Steve Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 30, 2016
Los Angeles

Big-time kudos to my twenty-eight fellow LA-contributors, and our editor, David Kukoff as Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine, (Rare Bird Books 2016) this week is ranked as the #1 bestseller at Hollywood’s Book Soup Books.

See named authors contributors and titles.

The anthology contains twenty-nine short stories and essays recalling each author’s reflections of that time. I chose to write on one of my early real-life murder investigations while working as a young homicide detective out of LAPDs Hollywood Division.

Great fun writing on something other than “my family’s history.” Nice change of pace. This “just the facts” murder was a prime example of why I loved and stayed working Hollywood cases. It involved a real life Femme Fatale, kidnapping out of state, swinging sex, and one very mean and pissed off rattlesnake.  I have attached an excerpt from the first few pages. (See below)

By the close of the 1970s the homicide rate in Hollywood had risen so dramatically that one local newspaper cartoonist offered this perspective.

The post Los Angeles in the 70s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine No.1 Bestseller at Book Soup Bookstore appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 2, 2016
Los Angeles

1983 Mike Hodel Hour 25 SFTV Video Promo Found

(click photo to view 2-minute video)

I was recently contacted by email from a reader “Gothling 1955” who provided me with a link to a promo video “Hour 25 SFTV” that was made back in 1983. It featured my brother KFPK radio host of the popular radio show- Hour 25.   Below is Gothling55’s description of how and when the promo came into being.

Gothling 1955
Published on Dec 1, 2016

Here’s a real Throwback Thursday item for your kind consideration… A vintage promo clip for a Sci-Fi oriented talk show (what amounted to a mini-series of sorts), entitled “Hour 25: SFTV”. The project featured quite an amazing progression of special guests (as you’ll no doubt notice), and was produced for and exhibited at EZTV — which was a West Hollywood Video Gallery, where a handful of us (once upon a time) entered into several highly intriguing creative projects together, circa 1983.

Clearly, it was a trail-blazing endeavor for its time, having been the shared brain-child of old friend and budding filmmaker, Mark Shepard, in an indispensable partnership with respected Los Angeles public radio personality, Mike Hodel (who had created and hosted the long-running KPFK radio program, likewise entitled “Hour 25”).
In the case of this project, I was asked to design several logos for the series, including a whimsical illustration of a peculiar little TV critter, which evolved into a series mascot, ultimately portrayed on-camera by a tiny “Walking TV” wind-up toy of a strikingly similar appearance to my two dimensional concept — as seen during the course of the trailer.

While I’m here, shamelessly blowing my own horn, I also designed a series of one-of-a-kind stained glass art pieces, formally rendered by my sweet / vastly talented artisan friends, Catherine Riley & Tina Burnight, predicated upon various Sci-Fi & Horror visual themes… Ray Bradbury’s episode featured a design (Catherine’s handywork) inspired by “The Martian Chronicles”, which showed a rocketship nearing the planet Mars… Robert Bloch’s episode featured a design (Tina’s handywork), inspired by Poe, which showed a raven standing proudly atop a skull — a piece which Mr. Bloch jokingly referred to as: “One of my old baby pictures!”, and so on. (Given the actual trajectory of Bloch’s own formative history, I now see that it should’ve been something inspired by Lovecraft. “Duh, Steve!” But back then, I was just a young fool.)

Production assistance (for “Hour 25” & “Beastie”) was provided by the eminently resourceful Patricia Miller, and the music was composed / performed by our fine friend (and resident Wagner fanatic), G.F. Watkins.

Please forgive the somewhat dodgy video quality, but it’s something of a miracle that this piece of ancient video still exists in any viable state.
https://www.youtube.com/user/gothling1955

The post KPFK Radio Host Mike Hodel’s 1983 Lost Video Promo for Hour 25 SFTV Found appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 12, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Most Evil II  “Introduction Chapter” read by Malcolm Hillgartner
(9 minutes)

Above is a YouTube link to a sample of Malcolm Hillgartner’s narration of the INTRODUCTION chapter to my latest publication, Most Evil II (Rare Bird Books 2015).

As most of you know, I am not one to use hyperbole in my descriptions. Keeping that in mind let me say that Malcolm Hillgartner is absolutely THE BEST audio book narrator available.  He is No. 1 in my book! (Pun intended.)

In 2009 I was most fortunate to have the fates (and a heads up suit at Brillance Audio) select Malcolm as narrator for Most Evil: The Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel . He was the perfect George Hodel.  With his beautiful and highly sophisticated speaking voice, along with an amazing ability to intone just the right intellectual qualities,  he was direct from Central Casting. I could not have been more pleased.

Then, when Most Evil II published in 2015, I went to my Rare Bird Books publisher, Tyson Cornell who had begun his search for a narrator for that audible book and I simply said, “Just listen to Malcolm’s read of Most Evil and we can discuss.” Tyson listened to the audible that very night and called me the following morning. “Steve, we have to get Hillgartner for Book II, he IS GEORGE.”

Tyson immediately approached Malcolm who agreed to do the sequel and here it is. 

My sincere gratitude to actor, author, and narrator Malcolm Hillgartner for his masterful renditions of Most Evil and Most Evil II.  In my opinion, Malcolm is the most accomplished professional in his field and it was a major coup to have him on board for both books.

Malcolm’s personal Homepage here.

The post Most Evil II Audible Book “Introduction” Read by Actor, Screenwriter and Master Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 16, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Another Family Anecdote 

“Know all things to be like this: As a magician makes illusions of horses, oxen, carts and other things, nothing is as it appears.” ~The Buddha, from the Samadhirajasutra

As I recall, it was sometime in the summer of 1995.  I had traveled south from my home in Bellingham, Washington to spend several days visiting with my father and his wife, June in San Francisco.

Dad wanted the three of us to make some day trips. Day 1 included an afternoon visit to the beautiful Muir Woods. The following morning we made an early visit to the car museum across the Oakland Bay Bridge, then back for a leisurely ocean view brunch at the Point Lobos Cliff House.

We returned to their 39th-floor penthouse suite on Bush Street, by mid afternoon.  A kiss on the cheek to June, a hug to dad, and I was off to the airport to catch my return flight to Bellingham.

As I turned to leave father raised his hand. “Oh, just one second. I have a small gift for you.” He walked the few steps to his home office removed a paper sack from his desktop and returned to the door. “Here, a little present for you.”

I opened the bag and removed the contents (shown below). It was a pair of large silver scissors sheathed in a black leather case. They were of a modern attractive design accompanied by a silver ruler which fit neatly inside the leather casing.

“Thank you, father. Very nice.” I smiled at June, who’s eyes were averted downward. They walked me to the elevator, thanked me for the short visit and I headed home.

Other than initially thinking that my father’s gift of a pair of scissors was a bit odd, I never really gave it another thought. I threw them in a desk drawer and forgot about them.

Fast forward to May 1999. My father had just suffered his heart attack, collapsed and died in their apartment.  I was down helping June deal with her loss and all that is required with the passing of one’s father.

We had just returned from shopping at a street market, and June was in the kitchen, preparing a salad.  I had purchased a newly baked loaf of San Francisco sourdough bread. “June, do you have a bread knife so that I can slice this loaf?

She looked at me and shook her head, indicating, “No.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be a bread knife. Any large knife will do.”
Again, June shook her head. I wasn’t comprehending her. “You don’t have a knife to cut the bread June?”
“No, I only have a small paring knife. I have a phobia of knives and your father did not allow any in the house.”

At that moment I thought to myself– “How strange.” But, I accepted it at face value and like the gifted scissors, gave it no further thought.

That was then.

But, today, some seventeen years later, we now know that my father was responsible for the serial murders of at least twenty-five victims. We also know that at least five of those female victims were savagely stabbed to death by his using a long bladed knife and a sixth with a smaller pocket knife.

In a mad, uncontrolled rage George Hodel as “Avenger” stabbed Los Angeles victim Gladys Kern multiple times in the back. Los Angeles teenage victim Lillian Dominguez was stabbed to death with one thrust to the heart using a “long thin-bladed stiletto type knife.”  In Chicago, he stabbed victim  Frances Brown through the neck with her own bread knife and slew Josephine Ross by severing her jugular vein.  Victim Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside was stabbed a dozen times and had her throat cut, nearly decapitating her. As Zodiac in his 1969 Lake Berryessa attack, he tied up his victims, Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell then used a long bladed knife to stab both of them. (Cecelia died from her wounds, Bryan survived.)

Are the gifted scissors a George Hodel “Thoughtprint”?

Yes, I believe they are.

I can no longer take my stepmother, June’s words, “I have a phobia for knives” at face value, as I did back in 1999. I now believe the reason there were no large knives in my father’s home was because there likely had been “an incident.” Either something happened, or was about to happen. I suspect my father feared he might “lose control” and by gifting me the 9″ scissors was taking preemptive-preventive measures.

Let us recall what George Hodel as “Zodiac” said in the plea for help letter he mailed to famed criminal defense attorney, Melvin Belli. (Shown in its entirety below)

…I am finding it extremely difficult to hold it [the monster inside him] in check. I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth & posibly tenth victom. …Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer.

The post Another George Hodel “Thoughtprint”: Seeing Things As they Are, Not As They Appear to Be appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 20, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Below is a follow-up to my earlier post, “Another George Hodel “Thoughtprint”: Seeing Things As they Are, Not As They Appear to Be.”

LW (Luigi Warren) and Ryan’s posted comments:

Steve: Those appear to be vintage, German-made Kismet Art Deco scissors. FWIW, “Kismet” means “fate” or “destiny,” so perhaps they are a visual pun on your father’s part. In Kenneth Branagh’s 1991 whodunnit “Dead Again,” partly set in 40s Hollywood and featuring nods to Man Ray and Hitchcock’s “Spellbound,” a pair of vintage German scissors is a key clue to the identity of the murderer. Make of that what you will. -LW

________________________

Hi Steve,

I find it odd that GHH simply didn’t get rid of the scissors the same way he did the knives, and instead gave it to you. Do you think he was purposely giving you a thoughtprint–in the same way he took you on a hot air balloon ride over San Francisco–as if to say “it’s right under your nose but you still can’t see it”? Ryan

I had seen “DEAD AGAIN” shortly after its release in 1991, and enjoyed it, as a noir thriller. However, since all things suggesting the possibility that my father, George Hodel might be connected to murder(s) would not enter my consciousness, until after his death some eight years later, of course, no connections could or would be made. Moreover, by that time, even unto the present, I had forgotten the details and storyline in DEAD AGAIN.

Last week, thanks to LW’s references to Kenneth Branagh’s film, …”Dead Again, partly set in 40s Hollywood and featuring nods to Man Ray and Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” and a pair of vintage German scissors being a key clue to the killer” and his admonition to “Make of it what you will” I wasted no time. I rented and rewatched the film that very night.

Before I continue, please take two minutes and watch the original 1991 Dead Again trailer here.

Dead Again (Paramount Pictures 1991) has an exceptionally strong cast: Kenneth Branagh (stars and directs)  Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson, and Robin Williams.

From IMDB:

 Storyline

Mike Church is a Los Angeles private detective who specializes in finding missing persons. He takes on the case of a mystery woman whom he calls Grace. She is suffering from amnesia and has no memories of her own. She keeps having nightmares involving the murder of a pianist, Margaret, by her husband Roman Strauss in the late 1940s. In an attempt to solve the mystery about these nightmares, Church seeks the help of Madson who is an antiques dealer with the gift of hypnosis. The hypnosis sessions will soon begin to reveal some surprises.Written by Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com>

As I began the film, I decided to attempt to watch it through my father’s eyes.  View it using his thoughts, his experiences, his mind.  For the next 107 minutes I imagined I was George Hodel, the cinephile, having returned to San Francisco after living abroad for four decades. (Dead Again was released in August, 1991, just ten months after GHH’s return and leasing of his penthouse apartment in downtown San Francisco.)

Rather than presenting a lengthy narrative attempting to describe the many “connections” and not wanting to present spoilers, (as I highly recommend this film to all my readers), here are a few bullet point connections:

• Location set in Hollywood literally blocks away from George Hodel’s1940s Franklin House. (One of the scenes is shot on Shakespeare Bridge on Franklin Avenue, just 12 blocks east of our Sowden/Franklin House.)

• Period bounces back and forth from Los Angeles of the present (1991) filmed in color to LA of the 1940s, filmed in black and white.

• Involves a December 1949 murder trial in downtown Hall of Justice. (George Hodel was on trial for incest in the same courthouse in December, 1949.)

Newspaper clips from Dead Again trial summary as shown in the opening credits of the film.

• The prime suspect is a musical prodigy pianist/composer who is convicted of murdering his wife during a jealous rage, by stabbing her with a large pair of German made scissors.

• As pointed out by LW in his comment, the film pays homage to GHH’s favorite film, “Spellbound” and to winks and nods to surrealists Dali and Man Ray by reproducing some of their major artworks as graphics and paintings in various scenes, and slightly modifying the artists originals with a “scissors motif.”

Scissors as shown in Dali Dream Sequence scene in Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945)

Scene in Dead Again Man Ray’s original photo with violin F-Holes replaced with scissors

Scene in Dead Again Dali’s original Melting Watches replaced with scissors

My reaction? Two words. BLOWN AWAY.

Based on the subject matter and how it was presented I have no doubt that George Hodel in watching this film, must have lit up like a pinball machine. Lights and bells had to be going off every few minutes as he watched it. (They did in my mind and I was only pretending to be thinking as my father would.) How much more real for him!

So, back to Ryan’s original question and LW’s admonition to “Make of it what you will.”

Do I now think that his giving me the pair of German scissors was a thoughtprint, much like the taunting balloon ride he gave me (the then unsuspecting big city homicide detective/son) over his Bay Area killing fields as Zodiac?

I DO.  As Ryan pointed out, why not just throw the scissors away, as he had purportedly had June do with all their household large knives?

We have seen his need in all of his many crimes to provide so many twisted “clews” as “catch me if you can” taunts.

This one was another. This was not the loving gift from father to son. It was not personal. Rather, it was another mock from serial killer to homicide detective. A very subtle and private joke, saying and proving to himself, that in his words, “I AM CRACKPROOF.”

The post George Hodel Thoughtprint: Part II, Was the “Dead Again” 1940s Noir Thriller Used as a Taunt by a Real Life Killer? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles, California
December 29, 2016

1969 MAN RAY MINOTAUR HOMAGE TO HIS GOOD FRIEND, DR. GEORGE HILL HODEL

(Left) Man Ray 1969 Lithograph depicting posed female body, her face covered with blood and blood flowing out of her upper torso to form the body and legs of the Minotaur. (The Minotaur, was the mythological, half-man-half-bull creature imprisoned in the Labyrinth, on the island of Crete who prayed and fed upon young maidens. Man Ray and the other surrealists adopted The Minotaur as their pet symbol and even named their magazine after him.
(Right) Shows original 1947 crime scene photo of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short with head and upper torso superimposed into Man Ray lithograph. The 1969 poster created some twenty-two years after the crime, is Man Ray’s recognition of his crime and a return homage to his good friend of decades earlier, Dr. George Hill Hodel, aka, The Minotaur. (Man Ray and Hodel’s friendship lasted a full decade in Hollywood from 1940-1950)

1947 DR. GEORGE HODEL MINOTAUR HOMAGE TO HIS GOOD FRIEND, MAN RAY

Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short’s body seen posed at the crime scene by George Hodel. The surgical trauma to her face and body was meant to mimic Man Ray’s two most famous artworks: MINOTAUR & LES AMOUREUX (THE LOVERS LIPS) (trauma/cuttings to body airbrushed over)

A few days ago, while conducting some research on the Internet, I chanced upon a Man Ray lithograph, that I had never seen.It was a poster announcing an upcoming Man Ray Exhibition, “Les Invendables” (The Unsaleables) to be held at the Galerie Alphonse Chave, in Vence, France. The exhibit ran for two months,  in April and May 1969.

Photo of Alphonse Chave Gallery (Coincidentally and ironically the art gallery was founded in 1947, the same year as the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.)

1969 MAN RAY – Les Invendables catalog 

Further searches led me to the discovery of an on-line original 1969 brochure/catalog featuring the exhibit, which included an introduction by Man Ray written in French.

Mssr. Yves Person, Paris, France 2015

On December 27, 2016, I sent the below short email to my good friend, Yves Person in Paris, asking if he might translate Man Ray’s words. (Yves is the high school teacher who “cracked the Zodiac cipher” after discovering that George Hodel used the ancient Celtic “tree alphabet” OGHAM to sign his name (“HODEL”) in an authenticated cipher he mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1970.  (See Most Evil (Rare Bird Books 2015) Chapter 10 for complete details of Mssr. Person’s decryption and solving of the Zodiac cipher.)

My Email to YP:

Yves:

Between gradings could you take a peek at the attached text which Man Ray wrote for the 1969 catalog Les Invendables.  Anything there of interest?  How do you interpret the name he uses?  The unsellables?  Meaning works that he would not or could not sell?  Or works that did not sell?  Any clue in his written text? (attached)
Best,  Steve

YP’s response with translation:

Steve,

As I translated it in a previous message, “les invendables” means : “things that couldn’t be sold”. One says : “C’est invendable !” to speak of something too ugly or too damaged for someone to sell it.

Yves then provided the translation of Man Ray’s words:

“The unsalable // Why ? Because the name is the only thing which is for sale. Without a signature, the picture is worthless. You must buy (take) them both (away) (at the same time). Some people turn the painting backward to see if it’s made out of a good and fine linen canvas. / The painter handle his hairy stick as the barber does with his shaving brush, as the musician does with his bow, and as the soldier does with his machine gun ; and so they handle. their sex to pee or to make love. / Truth ? Nothing more subversive than truth. ”
MAN RAY

Now, deal with that…
Best,   Y.

We now know that Man Ray, William Copley and Marcel Duchamp, each created their own separate artwork to acknowledge and pay homage (post-crime) to Dr. George Hill Hodel’s “Surreal Masterpiece.”

Seen below, Juliet Man Ray with her “Three Amigos” Man Ray, William Copley, and Marcel Duchamp.Photo taken on board the S.S. De Grasse, prior to its departure for Paris, March 12, 1951

The Homage Puzzle- Fitting the Pieces

  Homage Piece No. 1- William Copley, 1961 “It is Midnight Dr. ______.”

Homage Piece No. 2- Man Ray  “Les Invendables”  April, 1969

Man Ray’s homage “Les Invendables” presented in April, 1969 fits perfectly into the timeline.  How?

Marcel Duchamp died at his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France on 2 October 1968.
Duchamp, age 81,  had just retired after dining with his good friends, Man Ray and the art critic, Robert Lebel.  Unexpectedly, he collapsed and died of heart failure in his studio at 1:05 AM.
Marcel Duchamp’s Etant Donnes homage to the Black Dahlia Murder (shown below), was a twenty-year work in progress (1947-1967), which the artist had created in secret.  Under Duchamp’s specific written instructions, the work could
not be shown to the public until after his death.  Further, it was to be assembled (using detailed instructions from Duchamp) by his good friend, William Copley. Copley had purchased and was gifting the piece to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After Duchamp’s passing in October, 1968, arrangements were made to assemble the piece at the museum with a public opening set for July 7, 1969.

So, the timing becomes obvious. Man Ray’s homage to the Dahlia Murder and George Hodel came only after the death of his close friend, Marcel Duchamp who had been working on his own homage to the crime for twenty years.
Further, Man Ray chose to reveal his own homage just two months in advance of the Etant Donnes opening, and included it as an “unsaleable” in his own one man show/exhibit at the Gallery Alphone Chave in April/May 1969.

Homage Piece No. 3 Marcel Duchamp  “Etant Donnes”  July 7, 1969

SKH Note- Of course there are numerous other connections and linkages showing that these “three surrealist amigos” all had knowledge that George Hodel was the killer. All have been extensively documented in my previous investigation, but the focus here is on the newly discovered Man Ray “Les Invendables.”

Inarguably, this Man Ray lithograph is a visual confirmation, (along with the Copley and Duchamp artworks) that Man Ray recognized the posing of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short’s body was a  signature work, a masterpiece,  by the artist, George Hodel, the living embodiment of, The Minotaur.  

The post Newly Discovered Man Ray 1969 Lithograph “Les Invendables” (The Unsaleables) Includes the Surrealist’s Minotaur Homage to His Personal Friend and Black Dahlia Killer, Dr. George Hill Hodel appeared first on Steve Hodel.

Los Angeles, California
January 4, 2017

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE

Historian, author and tour guide, Ms. Hadley Meares in today’s L.A. WEEKLY, writes a retrospective on LA’s 1947 “Red Lipstick Murder.”  This is the L.A. Lone Woman Murder, in which a court certified Questioned Document Examiner identified Dr. George Hill Hodel as the killer from handwriting written on the victim’s body. In 2002, after reviewing the evidence, LA Head Deputy DA Steve Kay provided a legal review and stated he would file it as a companion case to the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia” Murder and stated he believed, “I could convince a jury that Dr. Hodel committed both of these crimes.”

See Ms. Meares excellent reportage here.

Historian/Author Hadley Meares

As a follow-up to this article read the “new evidence” only recently discovered and blogged by me which further links Dr. George Hodel to the Jeanne French “Red Lipstick Murder.”

New Clue Further Links Dr. George Hodel to Jeanne French “Red Lipstick” Murder.

The post LA Weekly Newspaper Author/Historian Hadley Meares Feature Article: “In 1947, a Month After the Black Dahlia, the “Lipstick Murder” Shocked L.A.” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 13, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Here’s an interview I did with author/true-crime writer Michael Fleeman for the upcoming 70th Anniversary of the Black Dahlia Murder.

Michael Fleeman is a Los Angeles-based author, journalist, instructor and television commentator. His new book, “Crazy for You,” about the Rusty Sneiderman murder case in Atlanta, is now available. He lives in Los Angeles with wife Barbara.

Link to full Michael’s full interview  HERE

Black Dahlia Murder 70th Anniversary: The Steve Hodel Interview

The post Black Dahlia 70th Anniversary Interview with Journalist/True Crime Author Michael Fleeman appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 15, 2017
Los Angeles, California

New Evidence Timeline (Graphic prepared by, Robert “Dr. Watson” Sadler (Click below to open and enlarge)

Black Dahlia Murder Inv Timeline 1.13.17 [2] merged w sig

Dr. George Hill Hodel and Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short

According to secret DA and police reports now made public, George Hodel and Elizabeth Short were acquainted and dating in the 1940s.  Photos on the right show Dr. Hodel 1949 booking photo for his arrest for incest and child molestation. Booking photo of Elizabeth Short is from her 1943 juvenile arrest for “Minor Possession” in Santa Barbara. (Underage minor, 19, she was present in a bar with some soldiers.)

Today,  is January 15, 2017.  I expect several of our Los Angeles newspapers and others across the nation will make note that it marks the 70th anniversary of the Black Dahlia Murder.

  We will likely hear the usual anniversary reportage, that goes something along these lines:

“Hundreds of suspects were arrested, and fifty or more confessed to the crime, numerous books have been written, movies produced and theories presented, but to this day it remains ‘officially unsolved’ and one of LA’s most mysterious whodunits.”

TOP COPS AND MYSTERY WRITER’S AGREE–“CASE SOLVED, GEORGE DID IT”

               LAPD’s 2004 position as voiced by their highest ranking and then active Assistant Chief of Police, James McMurray (then Commander of LAPDs Detective Bureau) after being briefed in person (along with his top brass and senior Robbery/Homicide detectives) by myself and then active Head Deputy DA Steve Kay, gave the following order to his detectives:

“Unless you can find some major holes in Steve Hodel’s investigation, go ahead and clear the Black Dahlia murder investigation. There is enough evidence to show Dr. George Hill Hodel was the killer.”

Chief McMurray’s detectives, aware that he was planning to retire within a year, took no action, and upon his retirement, knowing that they could not defeat the evidence and queried by the press, responded:

“We are too busy currently with unsolved murder cases and are unable to take the time to examine and prove or disprove Hodel’s findings.”

That has been and remains the department’s “official position” for the past eleven years.  Their version of “Don’t Look, Don’t Tell.”

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

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

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

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

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

LAPD Chief of Detectives, “Thad” Brown (senior detective in charge of the original 1947 investigation)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Chronology of New Evidence (2004-2017) Further Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel to the Black Dahlia Murder (As presented in BDA and BDA II)

For those who have not read my follow-up investigations as updated in BDA I & II, here, on the 70th anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s  torture-murder, I present a chronological photo exhibit, highlighting some of the major new evidence links, (2004-2017) further connecting Dr. George Hill Hodel to her murder.  (For complete details as relates to each exhibit, see Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014) and updated Black Dahlia Avenger (Skyhorse/Arcade 2015) edition.

(SKH Note-For the purposes of this 70th Anniversary blog I will only here address those evidence exhibits that relate directly to the 1947 murder of  Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. All of the following findings were discovered AFTER publication of my original Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (Arcade 2003) and presented in updated versions of that book and its sequel, Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2012 and 2014).

Many are unaware of my ongoing investigation post publication of Black Dahlia Avenger (Arcade 2003), the NYT bestseller and MWA nominee for Best Fact Book the published in 2003.
All of the following linkage of Dr. George Hill Hodel to the Black Dahlia Murder was obtained and presented in subsequent books and publication.

While additional connections have been made to other crimes out of state, out of country and to the San Francisco Bay Area Zodiac crimes, that linkage is not presented here. For the purposes of this 70th Anniversary Retrospective only the “New Evidence” connecting him to the murder of “Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short is offered.

2004

Secret DA “George Hodel/Black Dahlia File”  Electronic Bugging Transcripts Discovered

Secret DA Hodel/Black Dahlia Files unlocked after fifty-five years. Law Enforcement names Dr. George Hill Hodel as “prime suspect” and shows LE secretly bugged his private residence for 42 days and obtained confessions to Dahlia murder as well as the 1945 murder of his private secretary, Ruth Spaulding. Additional confessions to “police payoffs, and performing abortions. Over 1000 hours of electronic stakeout resulted in a 146-page police transcript with Dr. Hodel admitting to the two murders and other crimes.

Felony Assault and or Actual Murder Committed on Unidentified Female as Police “Listen In”

DA reports also revealed the probable reason for the cover-up and locking away of their investigation was due to a law enforcement’s tape-recorded (actually it was a wire recording) murder at the Hodel residence on Day 3 of the electronic stakeout. Incredibly, detectives listening in from Hollywood Police Station to the assault-in-progress were only five minutes away and took no action to rescue the unidentified woman, while Hodel and his accomplice (Baron Harringa) continued to beat and assault the victim in the basement of the home. The powers that be immediately realized that this gross negligence and inaction by LE must never become public. They were aided in their decision by the fact that Dr. Hodel– just six weeks after this assault and probable murder, and about to be arrested by the DA’s investigators--fled the country.  These Hodel/Black Dahlia Files and tapes were locked away in the vault where they remained hidden for the next fifty-five years.

Police Reports Show Dr. Hodel Made $1000+ Cash Payoff to Abortionist/Accomplice Charles Smith

DA Secret Files reveal Dr. Hodel made a large cash payment to known abortionist/friend Charles Smith just one week after he was acquitted of the incest charges.  This witness, Mildred Bray Colby, was the girlfriend of Smith and waited out front of the Hodel residence in his car while Smith received a cash payment, returned and counted the money in the car in her presence.

Assault, Drugging and Staged Suicide of Witness Lillian Lenorak- Officer Unkefer Letter

Above letter found in the DA secret files. Santa Barbara policewoman, Mary Unkefer wrote this letter to LADA Lt. Sullivan (partner to Lt. Jemison) describing an incident in late January 1950, in which she was called to the home of Dr. George Hill Hodel to pick up and transport a witness/acquaintance of his, Lillian Lenorak to Santa Barbara.  The Letter went on to reveal  Ms. Lenorak in the presence of her three-year-old son, John had been assaulted and knocked to the ground. Lenorak advised she had been drugged, and while unconscious Dr. Hodel made superficial cuts to both her wrists, bandaged them up and informed officer Unkefer that Lenorak had “attempted suicide.” Lenorak who had been a “defense witness” for Hodel, was now admitting she had  perjured herself at his trial and had informed the doctor she was going to the police to “tell the truth.”  The Unkefer Letter revealed that  Lenorak was “set up” by Dr. Hodel to appear mentally unstable.  His intention was to discredit Lenorak so that her claim of witnessing his daughter’s abortion would not be believed. (See Unkefer letter for full details and threats made against Lenorak and her son, John should she “inform” on George Hodel.) Incredibly, this officer was the same Santa Barbara policewoman that arrested Elizabeth Short in 1943 for being present as a minor inside a bar. Short stayed with officer Unkefer, at her home, for a few days then was sent home to Massachusetts. Short later wrote Unkefer a letter “thanking her for rescuing her from a dangerous situation.”

2006

 “A Doctor Did It”  CBS Expert Opines Only a Skilled Surgeon Could Have Performed Dahlia Bisection

CBS, in their 2006 television episode, “Black Dahlia Confidential”, hired their own independent expert to examine the 1947 Elizabeth Short bisection photographs and provide an opinion. Dr. Mark Wallack, Chief of Surgery at St. Vincent Hospital in New York stated, “You don’t get this kind of training where you can invade a human body unless you’ve had some sort of medical training. Yes, in my opinion, a doctor did it.” George Hodel had performed surgical operations for years prior to his position as head of L.A. County V.D. Control Officer. Above is a scan from George Hodel’s employment records showing he was “Camp Surgeon in the CCC in New Mexico in 1936-1937.” Over the past decade no less than five separate board certified surgeons have examined the photographs and all agree, the bisection, a hemicorpectomy, had to have been performed by a skilled surgeon.

Myth of Elizabeth Short’s “Missing Week”

The DA Files added new information and  several new witnesses to the list confirming the fact that there was no “Missing Week.” My investigation showed Elizabeth Short was seen by twelve (12) reliable witnesses, separately, on each day of the week of January 9-15, 1947. Six (6) of those witnesses knew Elizabeth personally and could not have been mistaken.  The LAPD Police Bulletin was the source which created the myth. Rather than claiming she was missing, the bulletin was simply asking for information from citizen witnesses who may have seen her during that time period (Jan 9-15, 1947) to please contact LAPD. Many did, and their statements were reported in the newspapers of that day.
Note the above wording on the LAPD Bulletin Heading: “WANTED INFORMATION ON ELIZABETH SHORT Between Dates January 9 and 15, 1947.”

Jane Doe No.1  Photo in George Hodel Photo Album Publicly Eliminated on CNN News

In September 2006, I appeared on CNN News, Anderson Cooper 360 and along with presenting updated information made public that I had identified, interviewed and eliminated one of the two Jane Doe photographs (the two women photographed by George Hodel with their eyes closed) in my father’s photo album. Jane Doe No.1 (album photo seen above on left)  was not Elizabeth Short, but rather, Marya Marco, an actress/friend of my father’s. In an exclusive interview, Marya provided me with information that corroborated Tamar’s allegations of sexual misconduct by our father. (See Marya Marco chapter in BDA II for full details.) SKH Note- Naysayers to my investigation frequently tell the public “Oh, the photo was eliminated and it was proven she was not Elizabeth Short.” What they don’t do is name their source on that, which is me. To this day, I am the only individual that has ever spoken to Marya Marco, on the subject, hence I am the sole source of the elimination of the album  photo on the left.

Surrealist Bill Copley “It is Midnight Dr. _____.” — A 1961 Homage to Dr. George Hodel

(

Above) Copley/Man Ray letters made into objects in their joint 1948 Hollywood publication “Alphabet for Adults.”
Was this earlier artwork Copley’s inspiration to conceal the letters HODEL as surgical tools in his “It is Midnight Dr. ___”?

William Copley, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp were the closest of friends. All three were surrealists and Man Ray and Copley worked and lived in Hollywood from 1940 to 1950. In addition, Man Ray was Dr. Hodel’s personal family photographer and a regular party-goer and visitor to the Hodel Sowden/Franklin House. In their book, “Alphabet for Adults”, published in Hollywood in 1948, Copley and Man Ray included a drawing of the interior courtyard of the Hodel residence, with a man and a woman facing each other representing the letter Q for “quarrel.”  Included in the “Q for quarrel” drawing was a graphic representation of Man Ray’s sculpture, “l’Occuliste” which Man Ray gifted to George Hodel later that same year.  Fourteen years after the Black Dahlia murder, Copley created this painting, “It’s Midnight Dr. ___, along with the surgical tools positioned to secretly name the doctor (HODEL). This was his creative wink and nod acknowledging that he knew the name of her killer. Both of his close surrealist friends, Man Ray and Duchamp would likewise create their own separate artworks in 1969, also revealing their knowledge of “whodunit” as well as paying personal homage to their mutual friend, Dr. George Hill Hodel. (See BDA II for details. The actual “Alphabet for Adults” linkage was not found until 2014. The credit for this amazing discovery goes to UK Detective Chief Inspector Susan Wilshire and is reported in detail in Most Evil II (Rare Bird Books 2014)

2008

The “Cement Bags”: Hard Physical Evidence Connecting Hodel Home to Dahlia Crime Scene

In October 2008, I learned that Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (Lloyd Wright) had a personal file of papers at UCLA’s Special Collections Library. In examining those files, I discovered a separate file labeled  “Hodel Papers”.  That led to one of the most important findings of my entire investigation.  Contained within those papers were original receipts for 50lb cement sacks used to conduct repair work at the Hodel house dated and billed just days (Jan 8-10, 1947) before identical 50lb bags cement bags were used to transport the bisected body of Elizabeth Short to the vacant lot. (LAPD confirmed these bags, seen in the original crime scene photos next to the body, were in fact used.) Additionally, a bag of “Bandini Fertilite Steer Manure” was also used to transport the body parts and is likely the source of the “feces and green granular substance”  reported by the autopsy surgeon as being found inside the victim’s stomach. This would have been force fed to her by her killer prior to her death. (See “Scene of the Crime” chapter in BDA II for complete details.)

The Huston Letters-  Dorothy Huston Hodel to Ex-husband John Huston (1948-1957)

In 2008 I discovered fourteen (14) original letters from my mother, Dorothy Huston Hodel, written to her former husband, director John Huston. Most were typewritten. They were the originals on file in the Huston Papers at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, in Beverly Hills. Most of her letters were written in desperation and fear. (“Back at George’s again after two weeks away. …acutely dangerous for the children to be here. …George is a growing threat of no control and physical violence…)  (See The Huston Letters chapter in BDA for all fourteen letters reproduced in their entirety.)

Above 1950 Telegram also found in the library was sent from Dorothy to John Huston at MGM reads:

“YOUR HUNCH ABOUT GEORGE TRUE CAN YOU HELP CHILDREN AND ME GET
OUT OF HIS HOUSE TODAY IF POSSIBLE OLYMPIA 3476
DOROTHY”

 2010

 George Parkington -The Unpublished Madi Comfort Manuscripts-

“There was no doubt.
We all knew that he [Dr. George Hodel] had done it.” [Black Dahlia Murder]
Madi Comfort, June 2003

Above: Madi Comfort actress in film noir, “Kiss Me Deadly” and section of Secret DA Files showing later penciled in attempt by unknown person (detective?) to alter her original statement made to Lt. Jemison confirming George and Elizabeth Short were acquainted. In her original 1950 interview with detectives,  Madi withheld her knowledge that she and others “had no doubt that George Hodel had murdered Elizabeth Short” which she would not reveal for another fifty-three years.

George Parkington, Madi’s boyfriend 2003     Young Madi Comfort with Comedian Bob Hope

Ms. Madi Comfort was a 1950 prime DA witness in the Black Dahlia investigation and identified by detectives as being the nude woman with George Hodel in personal photographs obtained during their investigation. Interviewed back then, Madi confirmed that George Hodel knew Elizabeth Short prior to her murder, but denied any further knowledge.
In 2010, Madi’s former boyfriend, George Parkington contacted and met and shared her “unpublished manuscripts” with me which revealed in the 1940s, she had been a lover of both George and Dorothy Hodel. Further, that she and many other of her mutual friends knew that George Hodel had killed Elizabeth Short, but she kept it a secret for the next fifty-five years until learning of the publication of my book, Black Dahlia Avenger in May 2003. Madi then made the “disclosure” to her boyfriend, George Parkington, and just weeks later, in  June 2003 she had an unexpected heart attack and died. (See BDA II Chapter 1, “Madi Comfort: Duke Ellington’s Original “Satin Doll” for excerpts from her manuscript and complete details.)

2011

Steve Lamb/Surrealist photographer Edmund Teske 1978 Conversation

“It [Sowden/Hodel House] is an evil place! Artist’s, Philosophers, accountants and politicians we all played and paid there. Women were tortured for sport there. Murders happened there. It’s an E V I L place.”
EDMUND TESKE
(In 1978 conversation with architect Steve Lamb who was photographing the exterior of the residence.)

Photos left and center taken by renowned LA surreal photographer, Edmund Teske inside the courtyard of our Frankin House circa 1947.  Photo right shows Teske  (arrow) as an actor with Kirk Douglas in a scene from the 1956 “Lust for Life” the biopic on the life of the artist, Vincent Van Gogh.

Edmund Teske was a personal friend of both Man Ray and George Hodel and a regular visitor to the Franklin Hodel residence. He lived just a mile away (in Studio B at the Hollyhock residence) and is famous for his many photographs of Doors singer/musician Jim Morrison. Teske’s photographs currently are displayed in top art museums throughout the world including our own Los Angeles Getty Museum. (See BDA II Chapter 10, “Hollywood Roomers” for the complete narrative.)

2012-13

 Cadaver Dog Buster – Hodel/Sowden House Soil Samples 

“These markers (soil samples) were human specific and indicated that human remains were, or are, present in the vicinity of where the soil was collected.”  [Hodel Residence, 5121 Franklin Ave.]

                                                                                                     Dr. Arpad Vass, Research Scientist

In 2012 the very first ever forensic examination of the Black Dahlia murder location was conducted. (In 1950, evidence that came forth from the Hodel Black Dahlia Tapes revealed that DA detectives suspected bodies might be buried in the basement of Dr. Hodel’s residence, but no physical examination or follow-up was ever conducted.) In 2012 and 2013 headline news was made after “Buster” a court certified cadaver dog “alerted” to the scent of human remains both in the basement of the Hodel house and in the back rear alley. Soil samples were recovered and in 2013 their analysis by Forensic Anthropologist, Dr. Arpad Vass (the same expert witness used by the prosecution in the Casey Anthony murder trial)  established that the collected soil from the home was “positive and specific for human remains.” Results presented to the LAPD who again advised they were “too busy with current investigations to conduct any follow-up.” See BDA II Chapter 24, “Odor Mortis: The Smell of Death.”

Nightly news television video of Buster’s search of Hodel/Sowden house.

 Biometrics:  Facial Recognition Analysis of George Hodel Photo No. 2

BioID CTO, Dr. Robert Frischholz
“International Scientist of the Year” (2001)

Above: Facial comparisons of known photos of Elizabeth Short and Jean Spangler compared to George Hodel album photo No. 2.

One of the world’s leading biometric laboratories, BioID is located in, Nurenberg, Germany.  Their chief technology officer is Dr. Robert Frischholz, who in 2001. was named “International Scientist of the Year.” After discussing my ongoing investigation with him, Dr. Frischholz agreed to conduct facial recognition analysis of known photographs of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and of a suspected second victim, actress Jean Spanger, and compare them to the Jane Doe No. 2 photo in my father’s album.  The results? Spangler comparison showed low numbers and she was basically eliminated. However, the comparison of Elizabeth Short showed remarkably high findings. The analysis showed a “90-95% probability that the George Hodel album photo No.2 was Elizabeth Short.” However, a 99.9% probability is required to determine a “positive match.” Still, the comparison results were extremely high and it adds great circumstantial weight to the probability that the Hodel photo, is in fact, the victim, Elizabeth Short. Again, this is a moot point, since we now know from DA police files that Elizabeth Short knew and dated George Hodel prior to her murder.(See BDA II Chapter 27, “Biometrics: New Photo Forensics” for complete details.)

Man Ray’s L’Equivoque (1943) – Another ‘Murder as a Fine Art’ Link

Elizabeth Short was the probable 1943 model for Man Ray painting “L’Equivoque”

In July 2013, one of my BDA readers and armchair detective Dan Lackey forwarded me a copy of Man Ray’s 1943 painting, L’Equivoque, which was completely new to me. Info revealed that not only was Elizabeth Short the probable model for his painting but that my father had very likely used the strange geometrical object that Man Ray had painted on her face as his “inspiration” for the crisscross scalpel markings carved into her right hip just four years later. (See BDA II Chapter 26, “Murder as a Fine Art: The Hodel/Man Ray Nexus” for full linkage.)

“Murder as a Fine Art” Man Ray Nexus

LAPD Police Museum- Black Dahlia Exhibit & New DNA Evidence

“…I must respectfully decline your request [for a two-hour meeting] …Given the fiscal restraints facing the city, and the impact on investigations assigned to my command, I do not believe it prudent that we pursue the Black Dahlia investigation at this time. …I believe the Robbery-Homicide Division Detectives should expend their valuable skills on more contemporary investigations.”
Charlie Beck
Chief of Police

Above items (actual witness and or crank letters mailed to LAPD three years following the murder) were discovered and put on display in an LAPD Police Historical Society Museum “Black Dahlia” exhibit that opened to the public in March 2012. I viewed the material and to my surprise noted that at least one or possibly two of the letters (including stamped envelopes) were probably written by my father and very possibly could contain DNA. (All original 1947 Black Dahlia mailings had gone missing from police files.) In a letter to LAPD directed to Chief Beck and Robbery Homicide Division, I requested a two-hour meeting with detectives, that I might present the how and why these lost letters related to the original crime and could very possibly possess DNA that would link the mailing to George Hodel.   Above quotation is an excerpted response (rejection to meet for two hours) from Chief Beck mailed to me six months later. (See BDA II Chapter 23, “LAPD Historical Society: The New Evidence” for complete details.)

2016

George Hodel’s Crime Signature Posing Bodies on Streets as Clue to his Crime -This is the 4th Street Name (New Discovery) Further Linking George Hodel to the Dahlia Murder 

Elizabeth Short Funeral Mountain View Cemetery       Jeanne French Body Posed off Mountain View Ave

 Elizabeth Short’s funeral was held in Oakland, California at Mountain View Cemetery on January 26, 1947. Just two weeks later George Hodel  committed the Jeanne French “Red Lipstick Murder” and posed her body off a street in Los Angeles named, “Mountain View Ave.” This was his fourth “street clue”. Victim Suzanne Degan posed off “Hollywood St”; victim Elizabeth Short posed off “Degnan Ave”; victim Jeanne French off “Mountain View Ave” and in his Manila, Philippines murder, victim Lucila Lalu’s body posed off “Zodiac St.”

   Elizabeth Short                         Jeanne French                Suzanne Degnan                               Lucila Lalu

   (Degnan St)       (Mountain View Ave)   (Hollywood St)                (Zodiac St)

1969 Man Ray Minotaur Lithograph “Les Invendables” Linked as Homage to George Hodel

Man Ray is recognizing and paying homage to both of his own earlier works which George Hodel included as crime signatures in his macabre “Murder as a Fine Art”  posing and cutting of Elizabeth Short’s body. 

The three amigos surrealists were: Man Ray, William Copley,  and Marcel Duchamp. In my previous investigations I was able to discover and document that in 1961 Copley created his painting, “It is Midnight Dr. ___” as an after the fact homage to his friend, George Hodel. Then Marcel Duchamp followed with his twenty-year (1947-1967) secret homage, Etant Donnes, which he forbade being made public until his death. (Duchamp died in 1968)  But, that was only two out of three? Why no Man Ray homage to his patron/friend?  Well, he had created it, I just hadn’t discovered it until just a few weeks ago. Man Ray’s homage to his longtime friend George Hodel was his “Les Invendables” (The Unsaleable) and it was a wink and nod to both of Man Ray’s former works: The Minotaur photograph and L’Equivoque, in which we now believe that Elizabeth Short was the actual living model, as discussed in a previous summary. (See link below for full details.) This discovery as well as the preceding “Mountain View” street connection are both too new for book publication and are revealed here for the first time as blog posts.

Click Here for full details on newly discovered Man Ray Minotaur Homage to Hodel

To summarize: All of the exhibits and evidence links presented above are NEW and added after my original book Black Dahlia Avenger was published in 2003. I have not here included any of the pre-2003 evidence originally presented in that book, which in then [2003] active Head Deputy DA Steve Kay’s legal opinion was enough to clear the case and for him to file two felony counts of murder. Count 1 charging Dr. George Hill Hodel for the murder of Elizabeth  Short (Black Dahlia). Count 2 charging him with the murder of Jeanne French (Red Lipstick Murder).

To those readers not familiar with my ongoing updates and book sequels that may have found the original 2003 evidence somehow lacking or insufficient as proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”, on this 70th Anniversary of the murder, I offer this “New Evidence” for your added consideration.

Here is a link to a 70th Anniversary Interview I did a few days ago with journalist/mystery writer Michael Fleeman

Respectfully,

Steve Hodel
15 January 2017
12:01 a.m.

The post 70th Anniversary Black Dahlia Retrospective: Summary of New Evidence 2004-2017 Further Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel as Her Killer appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 3, 2007
Los Angeles, California

Last week I received the following email/comment from a regular contributor to this blog site, Mr. Luigi Warren. He writes:

Steve: Found a couple more possible thoughtprints. These are from Zodiac’s last missive, the 1990 “Secret Pal”/”Gonna Keep You Guessin” Christmas card mailed to the SF Chronicle a few months after GHH repatriated to the US, leasing a penthouse just minutes from the paper’s office (“always needs to feel superior”). One is that the included photocopy of the mailbox keys is quite reminiscent of Man Ray’s celebrated “rayographs” of the 1920s. Then there’s the postmark of Eureka, CA, a logging/Gold Rush town located almost 300 miles north of San Francisco. Apart from the obvious connotations, “Eureka” is the name of Edgar Allan Poe’s last book, in which he purports to solve the riddle of existence. Poorly received on publication, some Poe researchers believe it contains hidden messages. Birds of a feather! LW

For those readers, not familiar with LW’s reference, in my second book, MOST EVIL (Dutton 2009) in Chapter 14, pages 168-173, I included new information on a “Secret Pal Christmas Card” believed mailed by Zodiac in 1990. (The same year George Hodel relocated from the Far East to his penthouse suite in downtown San Francisco.) The card, mailed in December from Eureka, California (240 miles north of San Francisco) like Zodiac’s previous mailings, was addressed, “Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94103.”

Included in the card was a Xeroxed paper showing a key chain and keys. See below photographs.

Zodiac’s 1990 Christmas Card read:

FROM YOUR SECRET PAL. CAN’T GUESS WHO I AM YET?
WELL, LOOK INSIDE AND YOU’LL FIND OUT…
(Interior of card)
…THAT I’M GONNA KEEP YOU GUESSIN’!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ANYWAY

Not only was the handwriting/printing identical to my father’s, but even more remarkable was the fact that the “new” Secret Pal Christmas Card” was not “new” and was manufactured and printed by the same company as a companion card to the 1970 “Halloween Secret Pal” mailed by Zodiac to the SF Chronicle in 1970. The same card that contained the Ogham cipher in which George Hodel as Zodiac signed his real name, HODEL.

Ogham Cipher seen as return address on envelope and as signatory to card spells- HODEL

The above 1970 Halloween Card, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle contained the identical taunting theme promising that the sender would name himself. (In the above card he actually followed through but as a coded cipher.)

1970 Zodiac card reads:

I FEEL IT IN MY BONES. YOU ACHE TO KNOW MY NAME.
AND SO, I’LL CLUE YOU IN…
(Interior of card)
…BUT, THEN, WHY SPOIL THE GAME!  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yves Person’s solving of the cipher signature as published in MOST EVIL II (Rare Bird Books 2014)

George Hodel’s unique “Saddle M” from personal correspondence shown in comparison to “M” on 1990 Christmas Card.

George Hodel’s 1990 Christmas Card hand printing compared to letters from Gladys Kern (1948 LA Lone Woman Murder) and Cheri Jo Bates(1966 Zodiac Murder) mailed to police by their killer. How many identical letters to you count? (I count 22.)

These revelations with the latest publication of MOST EVIL II in 2014 presenting M. Yves Person’s cracking of the Ogham Cipher leave no doubt that both cards, printed in the 1970s, by the same company, offering the same message (promising, then withholding the name of the “Secret Pal” (one for Halloween and the other for Christmas) were authored and mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, by Dr. George Hill Hodel. Clearly, based on our new evidence, that is now a given.

As seen above, in his updated 1990 Secret Pal Christmas message, George Hodel included a Xerox photo of a keychain and keys. (Believed belonging to an unknown Post Office Box.)

Was this, as our friend, Luigi Warren has questioned–a Rayograph? Another indirect homage by George Hodel to his fellow surrealist and longtime friend, Man Ray?

I think Luigi has very likely provided us with new keys (pun intended) to George Hodel’s unique method of taunting and announcing his 1990 return to the Bay Area as Zodiac by way of yet another homage to his good friend Man Ray’s art. (I’ve lost count, but this would be about the 12th “Murder as a Fine Art Clew” from GHH specific to Man Ray’s artworks.)

MAN RAY and his RAYOGRAPH aka PHOTOGRAM

Rayograph: noun

Photograms were used in the 20th century by a number of photographers, particularly Man Ray, who called them “rayographs”. His style capitalized on the stark and unexpected effects of negative imaging, unusual juxtapositions of identifiable objects (such as spoons and pearl necklaces). …made by placing leaves and pieces of material onto sensitized paper, then left outdoors on a sunny day to expose. This produced a dark background with a white silhouette of the object used.
Wikipedia

Man Ray early rayograph, “THE KISS” (1922)

Keys and key chains (shown above) were one of Man Ray’s favorite objects for use in his Rayographs.

From his 39th-floor penthouse George Hodel for the last decade of his life (1990-1999) was literally looking down on the San Francisco Chronicle’s office just one-half mile away.

Many thanks to Luigi Warren and the rest of my readers for their ongoing commentaries and email contributions.

As my brother Mike regularly reminded his KPFK HOUR 25 radio listeners:

“There is no question out there that the “Group Mind” cannot answer.”

The post Was Zodiac’s 1990 “Secret Pal Christmas Card” a Rayograph? Another Coded Message from Dr. George Hodel Announcing His Return to the U.S. and the SF Bay Area by Way of Another Taunting Man Ray “Clew”? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 10, 2017
Los Angeles, California

“LOOKING BACK”

Rookie LAPD Detective Steve Hodel circa 1969 

Sleepless in Seattle?  How about Clewless in LA.

A friend of mine just sent me a fifty-year-old photograph his brother took of me driving us on a day trip somewhere in LA.

The irony of the photo is the fact that when it was taken, I had just transferred from LAPD uniform patrol to detectives. A new “Big City Detective” soon to be handling my first homicide investigations.

At about the same time this photo was taken, our Department was attempting to solve two horrific crimes with multiple victims, which would soon become known as “The Manson Murders.”  At the same time, up north in the San Francisco Bay Area, that community was being terrorized with serial murders committed by an urban terrorist calling himself, “ZODIAC.”

I often indicate in my writings that “I can hear the gods laughing” and it is not without good reason. This photo is Exhibit No. 1:

My father having just killed at least five victims as “Zodiac” and wounded two more, within months of when this photo was taken, will be “passing through” LA on his way to New York.  On this quick visit, his big city detective son will take him to lunch at the LAPD Police Academy, then give him an hour tour through “Parker Center” and show him the SID (Scientific Investigation Division) laborotory, Communications Division and proudly inform him “I’m now working homicide dad.”

The post Looking Back Fifty-Years-1968-69 Rookie Big City Detective Clewless In LA appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 28, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Former Met Opera Singer Paul Veglia, age 84 describes to me his connections and personal contact with Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short when he was a young farm boy of twelve in 1943. (Photo taken at Art’s Deli, Studio City, 2017)

 Investigative “tips” come to me these days, usually as an email or phone call.  This time it was the latter.  A late afternoon call from my brother, Kelly and his wife, Angel.
“Hi Bro. Had a strange thing happen the other day. I was doing one of my harmonica gigs for some Seniors and this guy walks up to me, looks at the name printed on my fatigues. (Kelly was a Navy Corpsman, like me).  And he says, ‘Hodel’ that’s strange I was just reading this book last night by a guy named Steve Hodel.’

Kelly responded, “Yes, that’s my brother.  He’s written several books about the Black Dahlia.”

Kelly went on to inform me that the man claimed to have met and spent time with Elizabeth Short back during the war years.

I explained to my brother that I get a lot of those kinds of claims. Most are psychos who are obsessed with the Dahlia story who email me and want to give me clues and tell me what she was really like.

My brother backed up by his wife, Angel, persisted.

“I don’t think that is the case with this guy Steve. I think he’s the real deal. He gave me his name and phone number. Maybe just call and talk to him. See what you think. Guy’s name is Paul Veglia. His phone is 310-936—-. He lives in Santa Monica.”

Angel, backed him up, “I also got the impression he was telling the truth, Steve.”

I thanked my brother and Angel for the call, took the name and phone number and threw it into the “To Do” box on my desk.

An hour later, my curiosity got the best of me. Though confident this was just another delusional crank, I knew that I would be able to ferret out the truth within five or ten minutes of conversation. I made the call.

“Yes, this is Paul Veglia. Oh, hello Mr. Hodel, yes thank you for calling.

He talked, I listened.  Twenty minutes later, convinced that he and his story claiming personal contact with Elizabeth Short was as my brother had said, “the real deal” we agreed to meet at Art’s Delicatessen, in Studio City, the following morning.

The Interview

Paul Veglia is a handsome, gregarious man of eighty-four. Physically fit, Intelligent, and extroverted. He is a man who knows the world and its streets. He opened our conversation by saying,

“Now please bear with me. I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). It has affected my life since I was a boy, so if I lose my train of thought or repeat myself, just understand it’s the ADD. However, it doesn’t “add” it subtracts and has been the cause of missed opportunities for most of my life.”

SKH Note- Here is the Merriam Webster Medical definition of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

1. A developmental disorder that is marked especially by persistent symptoms of inattention (such as distractibility, forgetfulness, or disorganization) or by symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity (such as fidgeting, speaking out of turn, or restlessness) or by symptoms of all three, and that is not caused by any serious underlying physical or mental disorder.

My interview with Paul at Art’s Deli in Studio City lasted three hours.  He talked about his remarkable life, his career as an opera singer (he performed twice at the NY Met) and performed in national tours in KISMET (1962) and CANDIDE (1971) and ‘La Boheme’ at the Santa Monica Civic Opera. Paul performed the role of “Elder Hayes”, in  “Susannah” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1966.  Paul was married to Monika Henreid, the daughter of famed actor, Paul Henreid. (Played “Victor Lazlo” in Casa Blanca)

Paul Henreid Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casa Blanca (1941)

While it was fascinating to hear about Paul’s life and personal anecdotes, for the purpose of this blog I am going to focus and present his verbatim memories of a two-month time period in the Summer of 1943, when he was a farm boy of twelve.

During those two months, he came into daily contact with then nineteen-year-old, Elizabeth Short, who four years later would become Los Angeles’ most infamous murder victim, known as “The Black Dahlia.”

 (SKH Note-  In 1947, the victim, Elizabeth Short (initially a “Jane Doe No. 1) was identified through fingerprints from an arrest for “Minor Possession” (being present in a bar in Santa Barbara under age.)  Work records showed in 1943 Elizabeth was employed at Camp Cook (Vandenberg Air Force Base) in the PX as a salesgirl just 8 miles north of Casmalia. This narrative takes place during those months in 1943.

Here is Paul’s verbatim recounting of those two months.

“In 1943, I was twelve years old.  I was a farm boy growing up in Casmalia, California.

Casmalia is a small town about seven miles north of Camp Cook. (Vandenberg Air Force Base.)

I met Elizabeth Short, is it OK if I call her Beth, it’s shorter to say? I met Beth when she was staying at a cabin at the Ranch House in Casmalia. Dave Thompkins was a twenty-four-year-old farm boy and he had met Beth somewhere and he said to her (I’m assuming this) said, “Why don’t you stay at the Guest House at my ranch?

That cabin where Beth stayed was about a quarter mile from my bedroom. At that time I was living in the back of the Hitching Post, which is now a world famous restaurant. Back then it was a ten-room hotel.  Later, in 1948, after the war, Boyd Wyse came and offered my dad, Mario, a deal and they became partners and opened it up as a restaurant. It became famous and still is for “The Best Bar B Que in the world.”

For two months in the summer of ’43 I saw Beth every day. We never really spoke other than for her to say, “Good morning Paulie.” I was just a kid of twelve and she was about nineteen or so.

Physically, she had black hair. It was almost touching her shoulders. She usually wore black slacks and a white short sleeved blouse. She would come out from her cabin when I was sweeping her porch.  She would come out and say to me, “Good morning” or I would say it to her too. Then she would thank me for sweeping off her porch and she would walk barefoot across the pasture and through a clump of Willow trees to the Post Office and store. The water would collect on the ground and she was barefoot and would walk through the water to the Post Office.

September 1943 Santa Barbara PD   Booking Photo of Elizabeth Short.Arrested for being a minor and present in a bar. This photo would have been taken just a few months after Paul Veglia saw her on a daily basis at her residence in Casmalia.

Paul continued his narrative:

Beth had Post Office Box 66, which was right next to our box which was 65. My mother later told me, or somebody told me that Beth would come to pick up her letters every day.

During school vacation I would get up during school vacation sometimes at 4:00 a.m. and Johnny Tyler, my schoolmate would drive and come and pick me up in his car. We would drive back to Camp Cook and we’d sell a hundred newspapers each for five cents apiece. I’d make two cents per paper, so I made $2.00 every morning during the summer.

I’d be back home at 7:00 a.m., go to the ranch, pick up my shovel, feed the cows some hay, the horses alfalfa, and the chickens some grain. Then I’d sweep Beth’s porch and sweep all the chicken manure off it.

My father owned the Hitching Post and I am one of three sons. I started working for my dad peeling potatoes when I was seven. My mother was the bartender at the Hitching Post. I remember one time when I saw Beth with David Tompkins there at the bar. My mother served them drinks. I think I remember that Beth had a cherry in her drink. Beth was pretty, but she wasn’t Elizabeth Taylor beauty.

I was born in Santa Maria, California about eight miles from Casmalia. My mother gave birth to me at sixteen. I was the first born, named after my grandfather who was a Deputy Sheriff up there.

Beth and I really had no conversations, just, “Good morning Paulie.” No, I never saw her with guys. We never even shook hands.

In 1952 or 1953 I came in to California for 4-5 days, in uniform on furlough. I was in the Air Force. My mother came up to me and said, “Paulie, remember Elizabeth?” I said, Elizabeth? Oh, you mean Dave Tompkins girlfriend?” That’s when my mom said, “She was murdered.” My mom didn’t even know about the body being divided, just that she had been murdered. Oh, I thought she was murdered in ’52 or so? 1947? I was still in high school in Santa Maria then. My mother didn’t hear about it until 1953.

Beth went to Camp Cook AFB every day, just like me. I have no idea how she got there? Maybe her boyfriend, David Tompkins took her? He was six or seven years older than me.

(Paul draws a map on restaurant paper.)

Beth’s guest house was here. A corral was here. Dave Tompkins lived here with his brothers and sisters.  Here’s the store, where I worked. I stacked vegetables for twenty-five cents for Boyd Wyse, who became partners with my dad and later on, they opened the Hitching Post Bar B Que.

Photos of the Hitching Post Bar B Que restaurant in Casmalia, California

My three-hour interview with Paul came to an end. I thanked him for sharing his memories of Elizabeth Short and the stories of his life with its trials, tribulations, and successes.

It wasn’t’ until I returned home and transcribed the taped interview that I became aware of how powerful an impression Paul’s story and description of Elizabeth had made on me.

It was not Paul’s conversation with her that had impressed me. In truth, there were no conversations between them, just a regular morning “Hello” and “Thank You Paulie.”

But, the picture, Paul his shared with us, as seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old farm boy,  is very real and very powerful.

 After hearing his story, I find myself haunted by his personal description of Elizabeth Short more than any other “witness” I have interviewed over the past fifteen years. Why?

Because he confirms and has made real what I have always felt and suspected was the essence of Elizabeth Short—Her Loneliness.

A young woman alone, with few or no real friends. Living in a rural broken down cabin with a porch covered with chicken manure that needs to be swept away each morning.

She walks barefoot out her front door, through the wet pastureland, passing through the clump of standing Willow trees, walking the quarter mile to the Post Office. On her slow walk, she has hope in her heart. Hope that someone has written her to say, “I love you”. Come join me.”  But, it was not to be.

Thank You, Paul, Veglia for lending us your twelve-year-old eyes that saw more of the truth in those two short months than all that have come forward since to claim “they knew her well.”

SKH Note:  In a follow-up call to me last night Paul wanted to thank me for meeting and talking with him. I asked him had he been interviewed by anyone or the media over the years on his meeting with Elizabeth Short?  He told me that he had been interviewed “ten or fifteen years ago, by a man from the LA Times who was doing research on the Black Dahlia, possibly for a book?”  They too had met at a restaurant and talked for about “ninety minutes.” While he could not recall his name, I am sure this must have been the retired LA Times copy-editor, Larry Harnisch. Harnisch who for the past twenty years has been “ in the process of writing his Black Dahlia book” and to this day still claims to be, “the leading expert on the Black Dahlia murder.”  In 2001, two years before my publication of BDA  made some public claims that he suspected the Black Dahlia killer to be a “Dr. Walter Bayley who lived in the neighborhood and was a surgeon with L.A. County Health Department.  The first witness to the crime, Mrs. Betty Bersinger, had run south after discovering the body in the vacant lot and used the Bayley’s telephone to call the police to the scene. In a radio interview, Harnisch when asked what Dr. Bayley’s motive for the crime might be, speculated that it might have been “pent up rage because his young son was killed in an unrelated car accident some twenty-five years earlier.”

Paul Veglia singing at 3:22 on the video.

VIDEO: BROCK ON YOUR BLOCK: SANTA MONICA’S SENIOR TALENT SHOW

The post Former Metropolitan Opera Singer Paul Veglia Details His Two Month Personal Contact With LA’s Most Infamous Murder Victim, Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 20, 2017
Los Angeles, California

  GEOGRAPHIC PROFILING

“In conclusion, Dragnet (Geographic profiling software) successfully identified both the Hodel residence and the Hodel medical practice as being in areas considered highest probability for the base of the killer(s).

Dr. Evan R. Harrington
Professor of Psychology
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
August 2003

                                                                  Red areas on street map (below) mark location of Dr. Hodel home and medical practice which Geographic Profiling showed to be as locations of “highest probability” for the base of the killer(s).

J. Mori in my “Comments” Section writes:

“I read Black Dahlia Avenger.  Very compelling evidence.  Have not read Most Evil yet, but I have no doubt it is equally compelling.   I grew up with one of the 1977 Hillside Strangler victims.  The LAPD during this case tried to do some geographic mapping of the both where the victims were abducted and where the bodies were dumped.   I am wondering if you have had someone like Dr Kim Rossmo run any geographical analysis of both the Dahlia evidence and Zodiac – and anything else your father may have been suspected to be involved with.   There has been a lot of work lately on geographical profiling and the visualization of crime patterns.”

JM:   Thank you for your kind words and question regarding whether I had thought to use Geographic Profiling?
The answer is Yes, I was fortunate to be contacted early on (2003) by Professor Evan Harrington then working and teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York.
Dr. Harrington after receiving and verifying all of the “LA Lone Woman Murder” crime locations used “Dragnet” software to analyze and attempt to predict where the suspect might work or reside.

His dramatic results were then published in my updated edition of BDA in “The Aftermath” chapter, in 2004.

Here is that section on Geographic Profiling as originally published in BDA.

geographic profiling_pdf

The post Using 21st Century Geographic Profiling Software To Investigate the Black Dahlia and Other 1940s “LA Lone Woman Murders” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 31, 2017
Los Angeles

This month marks the 38th anniversary of the murder of veteran actor, Charles Wagenheim, who was beaten to death in his Hollywood apartment on March 6, 1979.

Here is the “fact stranger than fiction” Wagenheim story that begins in 1952 and ends with my investigation and solving of his murder in 1979. From Most Evil II, Chapter 6:

The Murder of Veteran Actor, Victor Kilian Just Five Days Later

Just five days after the murder of Charles Wagenheim, a second elderly well-known actor was murdered less than three miles away.  Victor Kilian, who resided in the legendary Lido Apartments (Pictured in The Eagles album cover for “Hotel California”), was also bludgeoned to death in his apartment. Here’s an LA Times article from back then, in which I informed the public “the two crimes were not connected”.

The post 38th Anniversary of Veteran Actor Charles Wagenheim Hollywood Murder: A Bizarre “Zodiac” Connection That Spanned 27 Years appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 6, 2017
Los Angeles, California

In recent weeks I have received numerous inquiries asking if the film footage that aired back in 2003 on Dateline and again in 2005 on 48 Hours CBS “Black Dahlia Confidential” (an hour show covering my investigation) was in fact that of the victim, Elizabeth  Short?

YouTube Elizabeth Short VJ Day Footage HERE.

Based on past and updated investigative findings since that show originally aired, my short answer is- YES.  I do believe that the woman filmed and seen riding in the open convertible on Hollywood Blvd on VJ Day, August 6, 1945 is in fact, the only known motion picture footage of Elizabeth Short in existence.

Judge for yourself?

Here’s the original FAQ as a PDF and a link to the YouTube summary as well.

FAQ53 as a PDF

The post Rare WWII VJ Day Film Footage Believed To Be Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short on Hollywood Blvd appeared first on Steve Hodel.