October 27, 2017
Los Angeles, California

“For all its salacious content, Eatwell’s historical crime study is an expansive work that delves into the broader culture of postwar Los Angeles… Her zealous efforts to solve the case and name the killer are less than convincing, but her immersive style is filled with camera-ready period detail.”

          By  Marilyn Stasio NYT review
          OCT. 26, 2017  New York Times Book Review of “Black Dahlia, Red Rose” by Piu Eatwell

In the past several weeks I have received numerous inquiries from my readers asking, “Is it true? Has a new British author really solved the Black Dahlia Murder?

Short answer (pun intended) is NO.   But, I must give Ms. Eatwell’s London publishers total credit for their excellent choice of publishing dates–October 10th–which is the 110th Birthday of- Dr. George Hill Hodel.

As most of my readers know, I do not get into debates with other authors on “dueling theories.” I let my investigation speak for itself and for me. Also, I let the LA DA’s Office (Head DDA Steve Kay) and the LAPD (Deputy Chief of Detectives James McMurray) speak for me. Both of whom have independently, after a thorough review of my evidence along with the tape-recorded admissions and confessions from my father, concluded, “The Black Dahlia case is solved and Dr. George Hill Hodel committed the murder.”  (These modern day lawmen confirm the original top cops (Chief Bill Parker, Chief Thad Brown, Undersheriff James Downey and DA Lt. Frank Jemison’s) independent statements that they “identified the killer who was a doctor that lived on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood” and went on to name him in the secret DA Files as, Dr. George Hill Hodel.”

That said, I here refer you to my blog from September 24, 2017, “The Black Dahlia Leslie Dillon/Dr. Paul De River Fiasco-A Week of LAPD Fubar* (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition). 

Both of Ms. Eatwell’s “suspects”, Leslie Dillon and Mark Hansen were independently and separately investigated by both the LAPD and the LADA Bureau of Investigation and ELIMINATED.  Leslie Dillon could not have killed Elizabeth Short as detectives in their follow-up investigation went to San Francisco and personally verified his alibi that he was in that city on the date of the Dahlia murder. (Apparently, in her book, which I haven’t read, Ms. Eatwell claims that Dillon was “a pimp and killed Short under orders from her former acquaintance and Florentine Gardens  nightclub owner, Mark Hansen.”)

Fact is Dillon was never a “pimp” nor had he ever met Mark Hansen. (I assume that this is part of what the NYT reviewer refer’s to as “Ms. Eatwell’s salacious content”?) At the time of Short’s murder, Mark Hansen and his girlfriend, Ann Toth, came forward to LAPD to provide background information on Elizabeth Short who had been a sometime resident at the Hansen’s home in Hollywood. During her short stay with the couple Short had taken (stolen) a blank address book belonging to Hansen which had his name engraved on the leather binding, and was later found in her personal luggage, and contained names of many of her personal acquaintances.

SEE LINK FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE DILLION/DR. DERIVER’S FIASCO.

The post NYT Book Review Finds New British Author’s “Black Dahlia, Red Rose” Book “Salacious..and Less than Convincing,” but Contains “Camera Ready Period Detail” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 5, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Two original Man Ray artworks are currently on display at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum.

The first is a photograph taken by Man Ray of his good friend Dr. Hodel upon his return from China in September, 1946. Dr. Hodel is seen wearing his UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency) topcoat and while on billet to Hangkow, China had the honorary rank of “Lt. General.”

The second is a lithograph portrait of an unknown woman, drawn by Man Ray in 1970. The woman has a dark red Dahlia* flower in her hair and bears a striking resemblance to Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. As I have previously established Elizabeth Short was acquainted with and dated George Hodel and most probably knew and posed for Hodel’s Hollywood resident and artist/friend ManRay in 1943 for his L’Equivoque painting. Compare Man Ray’s portrait to the known photograph of Elizabeth Short from 1946 and decide for yourself?  (I also find it curious that Man Ray has posed the woman with her hands completely covering her mouth. Could this be a subtle reference, as the surrealists were prone to do in their artwork,  to hide the fact that Elizabeth Short’s mouth was savagely lacerated from ear to ear, therefore unshowable?) Man Ray was 80 years old in 1970 and would live another six years. I see it as a “he knew” public confession. Running out of time and wanted to make one more statement on a secret he and just a handful of fellow surrealist KNEW.

*”Black Dahlia flower does not exist. The closest to it is the dark red/maroon dahlia as shown above in the Man Ray portrait.

See links for complete background/details on Equivoque and later 1969 connection to Man Ray’s artwork Minotaure/Unsaleable.

George Hodel Man Ray Photo at Harvard’s Fogg Museum 2007 FAQ

The Timing

1943- Elizabeth Short poses for Man Ray’s L’Equivoque
1947- George Hodel surgically bisects Elizabeth Short’s body and poses it in homage to Man Ray’s Minotaur photograph
1961-  William Copley draws “It is Midnight Dr. ____ showing naked female and surgical tools in homage to George Hodel.
1969-  Man Ray draws Le Invendables (Minotaure showing naked female posed as Minotaur in homage to George Hodel.
1969-  Marcel Duchamp’s secret 20-year art project showing naked female posed in a vacant lot in homage of George Hodel first shown to the public at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Dr. George Hill Hodel homage to Man Ray’s Minotaure (1934 and Lover’s Lips (1934-5)
1947 Black Dahlia Crime Scene

William Copley homage to Dr.  Hodel    1961

 Man Ray homage to  Dr. Hodel

Duchamp homage to Dr. Hodel

The post Another Black Dahlia Portrait? Harvard’s Fogg Museum Displays Two Man Ray Artworks-George Hodel portrait and Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short Lookalike appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 7, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Thanks to the Eagle Eyes of my good friend, Robert “Dr. Watson” Sadler, retired Dallas 5-0 police officer, crime novelist, and all around good guy, our own mystery lithograph has possibly been identified– and it only took him two days!  Based on this information the previously unnamed “Portrait” appears to be that of Man Ray’s wife, Juliet. Ironically, Man Ray may have drawn it from a 1944 photo shoot of Juliet and Dorothy Hodel! (I say “appears” pending confirmation of the title, which is not visible anywhere on the lithograph.)

Here is Robert Sadler’s email from this morning:

Steve:

Good morning after your birthday!
As discussed I had not seen the ‘new’ litho, so went to Google this morning and found this, which I’m forwarding in case you have not seen it:

It turns out while the Man Ray lithograph was only listed as “Portrait” on the Fogg Art Museum entry, other copies were sold at auction and contained the further description, reportedly titled, “Julie”. (The lithograph above was “85/100 signed copies by Man Ray and was auctioned in June 2015)

Based on this new information and tentative name identification “JULIE”, if provenance can be verified, then  I would then be confident in saying “CASE SOLVED” and the “Portrait” is, in fact, Man Ray’s wife, Juliet, likely redrawn by him from their “Hollywood Years.”  The potential source of the 1970 could well have been the 1944  Juliet/Dorothy Hodel photo which shows her with a flower in her hair. (Or if not that exact photo, a similar one from the same time period.)

Once again, Mucho Gras to Robert Sadler for helping me keep the investigation on the straight and not so narrow path.

 Update: November 7 2017:

This received from a staff assistant, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museum. So, at this point the “Julie” title still remains unconfirmed.

Dear Mr. Hodel,

I wasn’t able to locate any additional information in our file. The only inscriptions on the print are the run number (37/100) and the artist’s signature, both of which are visible in the photograph on our web site. I find no mention of the word “Julie” on the object. I have no other information regarding the acquisition other than it was a gift of Reese and Marilyn Arnold Palley.
Sincerely,

32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
www.harvardartmuseums.org

The post Another Black Dahlia Portrait at Harvard’s Fogg Museum? Part II- Mystery Solved?- Lithograph Possibly Juliet “Julie” Man Ray appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 12, 2017
Los Angeles, California

I’ve heard of the FBI’s “Top Ten Most Wanted” and the “Top Twenty Most Watched Classic Films” even Forbes’s “Top Fifty U.S. Colleges” but the “Top Three Haunted Homes” was new to me.  I hadn’t seen this Los Angeles Times article, May 2, 2017 “Hot Properties” article. Had you?

The post Los Angeles Times Lists 2017 Top Three Haunted “Murder Homes”: “Black Dahlia Sowden House,” “Menendez Brothers Home” and Phil Spectors “‘Pyrenees Castle” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 14, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Kelvin, Michael, Steven Hodel circa 1944                       Dorothy Huston Hodel (Man Ray 1944)

One of my strongest childhood memory’s remains a song that our mother sang to us at bedtime. Not exactly your traditional lullaby, it was a love story, complete with Cowboys and Indians. I expect very few today are familiar with or have ever heard it sung. Even back then in the 1940s, it had almost become a lost ballad.  It was called–BILLY VENERO.

Several versions can be found on YouTube, with changing lyrics, but the rendition that is most true to what I remember of mother’s song is performed by “Yodeling Slim Clark.”    Without exaggeration, I would estimate that mother sang this ballad to us on an average of once a week during our “formative years.”  I loved it so much that in her final days at age 75, I had mother write the song out from memory so that I could preserve it and pass it on to my children. (Sadly, I never learned to sing and was constantly reminded by my more talented brothers, Mike and Kelvin,  “Steve, you couldn’t carry a tune in a wheelbarrow.”)  Here’s the ballad of Billy Venero with the lyrics almost exactly as mom sang it to us at five, six, and seven years of age.  Check it out.

         The Ballad of Billy Venero

Yodeling Slim Clark  sings  Billy Venero 

Here’s a link to his website which contains his autobiography. 

BILLY VENERO LYRICS mom

Memory No. 2  (A close second to Billy Venero)

Last night I exchanged emails with a writer friend who had mentioned he had recently completed a project which included his using some of Robert W. Service’s stylistic rhythm in his own original verse.

I wrote back telling him how much I enjoyed Service’s poems, in particular, his The Cremation of Sam McGee, which our mother would read to my brothers and me upon our frequent request. “Mom read about the man and the Midnight Sun.”  How we loved it.

Do yourself a favor and take nine minutes out of your life to listen to this YouTube rendition of it as read by Hal Jeayes–

The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service read by Hal Jeayes.

The post “Waking the Echos of the Spot” Dorothy Huston Hodel and Two Childhood Memories appeared first on Steve Hodel.

November 19, 2017
Los Angeles

It was the second to the last day of April, 1949, a Friday.  A light rain was falling on the streets of Hollywood, as the  Gentleman, the Cowboy and the Bracero each readied himself for the picture taking.  It was mid-morning when each gathered with their separate classmates at Los Feliz Elementary School. Michael, The Gentleman, pulled his top hat down hard on his head, Kelvin, The Cowboy,  pulled his scarf away from his chin, and Steven, The Bracero, cocked his sombrero way back on his head.

It had stopped raining. The sun was shining. Life was GOOD.

What the three boys didn’t know was their father just two months earlier had brutally beaten and stabbed to death a Los Feliz real estate woman who was showing him a vacant “For Sale” residence just a mile from their school.  And, what they couldn’t know was that in just six months forward, their father would be arrested for incest and sexual molestation of his 14-year-old daughter, their half-sister.

No.   For the Gentleman, the Cowboy and the Bracero in school that day in April 1949, with their mates in Hollywood –LIFE WAS GOOD.

The post The Gentleman, The Cowboy and The Bracero: Los Feliz Elementary School 1949 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 5, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Steve Hodel, age 9, In the desert

In my sequel, Black Dahlia Avenger II (2014) Chapter 8, I included fourteen separate typewritten letters written by my mother, Dorothy Hodel to her former husband, famed film director, John Huston.  These letters spanned the years from 1948-1957.

Author Note:  My discovery of these letters was pure happenstance. I came across them while browsing through the John Huston Files at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California. There, I found an index labeled, “Dorothy Huston.” It contained these original letters written by my mother to John.

Let’s take a look at Letter No. 6 which my mother wrote on August 27, 1950. Clearly, it is Desperation City again. I’ll let the letter speak for itself.

From Black Dahlia Avenger II, page 133:  (click below link to read)

LETTER NO 6

 We now know that John came through with the money, and as I had written in BDA back in 2003, a friend and sometime lover of my mother’s, film director Rowland Brown, packed our belongings into a truck and moved us out near his home and family in Rancho Mirage, which was then just a tumbleweed town eight miles outside of Palm Springs.

Rancho Mirage 8 miles east of Palm Springs

Mother’s plea to John for help and money to get us out and away from dad’s “growing threat of no control and physical violence” was answered.

Thanks to several newspaper articles mentioning both Rowland and mother’s move to Rancho Mirage I can now pinpoint our walkabout to the desert. Mother wrote John in late August and we moved within a month. (Likely, sooner).

Two separate articles in the local newspaper, The Desert Sun on October 31st and  November 3, 1950, announced our arrival and later participation in the local Halloween School Parade help document our arrival.

Desert Sun, November  3, 1950

“A lighter, but no less important subject is the Halloween doin’s of the small fry of Rancho Mirage. Michael, Kelvin and Steven Hodel, sons of screewriter, Dorothy Hodel, packed their Halloween costumes with their lunches Tuesday in honor of the big school parade at Cathedral City. They were disguised as bat, the Indian chief Cochise, and Gorgeous George, the wrestler. Steven Brown, son of motion picture director and writer, Rowland Brown was a Schmoo. …”

Desert Sun, October 31, 1950

… “Rowland Brown and his beautiful ballet-dancer wife Karen moved in carrying their two babies Steven, 7, and Daphne, 2., papoose fashion on their backs. Rowland is a brilliant director and writer who has made motion picture history–too long to go into his successes. He is coming down, he told us, to roll up his sleeves, take off long pants and dash off two new one for Paramount: an original for Ann Sheridan, and the Wayward Bus of Steinbeck’s.
Dorothy Harvey Hodel, script and radio writer, and her three sons are established opposite the Desert Air Hotel and swimming pool on Del Sol Road.”

The post John Huston Letter No. 6-Rancho Mirage and Halloween 1949 -“A Bat, Cochise, Gorgeous George and a Schmoo”-” Trick or Treat? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 14, 2017
Los Angeles, California

                        “After comparing his handwriting to the original documents, we 
are unable to eliminate Dr. George Hill Hodel as the author of the Zodiac letters.
We would like you to provide us with additional samples of his lowercase cursive handwriting. “

Qualified Handwriting Expert
California Department of Justice

I originally published the below blog in September 2010. I am republishing it now with important updated information, which I believe adds great weight to my original premise that the 1947 Black Dahlia and 1968-9 Zodiac crimes are SIGNATURE LINKED. 

Two-page Zodiac Letter Mailed to newspaper on Dec 16, 1969
Filed and Forgotten for Forty-Years.  Is It Legitimate?

Page 1 Zodiac Letter

Based on my recent examination (I was unaware that this letter existed until one week ago. (2012)
I believe this letter was written by Zodiac.

Further, based on the contents and characteristics included in this letter, I believe it adds important additional corroboration to my investigation pointing to the possibility that my father, in addition to being L.A.’s 1947 “Black Dahlia Avenger” did in fact, reinvent himself two decades later as San Francisco Bay Area’s, ZODIAC.

The following new exhibits are offered in support of that conclusion.

If I am correct, then the importance of the San Francisco Examiner mailing is not simply to add one more letter to the pile of known Zodiac writings.

Rather, I believe this new lead justifies having a criminalist examine, swab and analyze the San Francisco Examiner letter flap and stamp (if one exists?) for potential saliva which could aid law enforcement in obtaining a full DNA profile on Zodiac.

 San Francisco Letter page 1 typed by author for easier readability:

Page 2

1947 Black Dahlia Avenger – Crude Knife Drawing Signature No. 1

Below is a scanned excerpt from my 2003 book, Black Dahlia Avenger, pages 196-197.It details a February 11, 1947 incident where the Black Dahlia killer leaves a message and crudely drawn picture of a knife and pistol inside the glove compartment of a taxi cab with the message to immediately deliver the demand and drawings to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. (To my knowledge, the actual drawing of the knife along with the handprinted text were never published in the newspaper. Only a verbatim quote of what the killer wrote as shown below.)

Black Dahlia Avenger- Zodiac Signature No. 2- The Arrows, Exclamation Marks and “Ha! Ha!”

We know from our investigation that George Hodel as the Black Dahlia Avenger used the term “ha ha” coupled with exclamation marks on a  letter he sent  to the Los Angeles press. He also marked his messages with arrows. So did Zodiac.

Below are several samples of the 1947 handprinted “BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER” messages he mailed to the press using similar wording and arrows as seen in the San Francisco Examiner Letter.

The below exhibit shows some additional ZODIAC mailings where he has used arrows in his messages.

The bottom photograph was taken of my father and some of his business associates in Manila, Philippines- circa 1986. Note that he has marked the photo referencing “Man Ray” using a red felt tip pen. (Note- My father’s writing instrument of choice when not typing was very frequently a felt-tipped pen) The arrow points to an object on the wall which is a Man Ray sculpture created and given to George Hodel by his artist friend in Hollywood in 1948.

Zodiac unique cursive style “looped” lower case “d”

Perhaps this unusual handwritten lowercase cursive looped “d” has been referenced elsewhere in the various Zodiac investigations and research, but if it has, I haven’t seen it mentioned.

I find it particularly interesting because my sense is that it was a totally unconscious handwriting action. What makes it so unique is that Zodiac in the below handwriting samples has printed all of his letters with only one exception- the LETTER “d”  which he writes as a cursive using a distinctive loop.  Its absence in his writings is not particularly meaningful, but its presence IS.

Take a look at the two KNOWN and VERIFIED Zodiac handwriting samples below. Many of his letters contain BOTH types of lowercase “d”. He seems to use both styles with equal frequency but is consistent about not mixing both types in the same letter. (Due to the massive amount of Zodiac samples, I may have missed an example of this? Please correct me if I’m wrong on this point.)

Below we see this unique letter “d” used in Zodiac’s 1971 mailing to the L.A. Times:

And, in the below exhibit the unique characteristic appears again. This time on the April 30, 1967, Bates mailing to the Riverside Police Department. I know the Zodiac community is divided on whether this crime is an actual Zodiac murder, but those of you who have read my book know that I believe the evidence supports the probability that IT IS A ZODIAC CRIME. I think finding this distinctive cursive lower-case “d” increases that probability.

Below we see an enlargement of the December 16, 1969, San Francisco Examiner Letter showing what appear to be identically written cursive style looped “d’s.” Keep in mind that this letter was mailed two months after the Stine mailing.

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER 12.16.69 LETTER LOOPED CURSIVE “d”

Sample of Dr. George Hodel’s handwritten cursive looped letter d

As I have indicated previously, very few samples of my father’s cursive writing exist. He normally either typed or wrote using upper case block letters. Below is a rare example of his cursive. Due to space limitations in his typed 1980 letter to me, which he mailed from the Philippines, he was forced to write using small cursives. Take a look at his lower case letter “d” which I have enlarged for easier viewability.

FBI Handwriting Analysis Receipt for separate Possible Zodiac Letters

In their official report, the FBI cannot eliminate the San Francisco Examiner Letter as being authentic and written by ZODIAC.

Based on all of the above exhibits it is my belief that this San Francisco Examiner Letter of 12.16.69 is genuine and was written by ZODIAC. Further, I believe that there exists a strong likelihood that if the envelope still exists and is tested it could well yield ZODIAC’s full profile DNA which could then be entered into the CODIS system and potentially SOLVE THE CASE.

I would like to acknowledge the following A&E Community Link which first brought to my attention the new information related to the Zodiac/San Francisco Examiner Letter. Added thanks to TV and Seagull for sending me their separate hi-res copies of materials.

UPDATE FEB 20, 2010-  Black Dahlia Avenger “Bleeding Knife Drawing”

In my original summary as detailed above I referenced the February 11, 1947 Los Angeles incident where the Black Dahlia Avenger left “a crude drawing of a knife and pistol” inside the taxi and ordered the cab driver to “take it to the Examiner” newspaper informing the driver “I’ve got the number of your cab.”

The fact that both George Hodel as the Black Dahlia Avenger, a serial killer and urban terrorist and Zodiac, a serial killer and urban terrorist both left crudely drawn “childlike “notes of knives is by itself highly unusual and certainly qualifies as a unique crime signatures.

In recent days, I have discovered that the linkage is much stronger than I originally reported. Here’s why:

The February 11, 1947, newspaper account of the Avenger Note was reported as containing a “crudely drawn knife and pistol.” But, without seeing the actual drawing (not published by the newspaper) it still remained a bit generic.as relates to the Zodiac drawing some two decades later.

In reviewing my investigation I discovered an earlier Avenger note, which I had forgotten about, which also was not published in the newspapers. .This one was mailed by the Black Dahlia Avenger to the Los Angeles Examiner on January 28, 1947. While the press speculated it could have been a possible “child’s crank” the homicide detective who received it, forwarded the note to the LAPD crime-lab for analysis.

Here is the original LA Times article:

Compare to Zodiac’s 1969 drawing of a crude drawing of a dagger dripping blood:

When it comes to signature linkage in criminal investigations– 

“THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES”

Why a crude drawing of a knife dripping blood

I expect this was just another example (among many) of George Hodel, the Ripperologist, first as the Black Dahlia Avenger, then as Zodiac, wanting to demonstrate his erudite knowledge of Jack the Ripper by copying that serial killer’s MO.

Jack the Ripper 1888 Boss Letter with bleeding knife compared to Zodiac 1969 Letter with the bleeding knife.

SKH Note- JtR used red ink to simulate blood in his taunting letters to the police and press and frequently used misspelled words and the term “Ha Ha.” George Hodel as the Black Dahlia Avenger used red colored medical Mercurochrome to simulate blood in his taunting letters to the police and press, and though highly educated feigned being illiterate and used the term “Ha Ha” in his taunts.

The post Black Dahlia Avenger/Zodiac New Handwriting Linkage/ George Hodel Uses Jack the Ripper’s “Bleeding Knife Drawing” As One of His Black Dahlia Avenger-Zodiac Crime Signatures appeared first on Steve Hodel.

December 31, 2017
Los Angeles, California

Zodiac’s 340Z Code (Mailed to San Francisco Chronicle 11.9.69

• Spoiler Alert- For any readers that plan to watch the History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer” be advised that the following critique contains numerous disclosures and addresses many of the show’s findings.

As many of you know, I have been reluctant to watch the recently aired episodic miniseries, “Hunt for Zodiac.”
These programs, while billing themselves as “a search for the truth” almost always do just the opposite.

A fog of sensationalism is created to promote the myth and legend in overly dramatic “recreations” as the show’s producers play fast and loose with the facts in an attempt to present “new truths,” as “alternative facts.”  Each episode promising the solution is at hand so “stay tuned.”

In what should be a serious and objective search for the truth of whodunit by following the evidence almost always becomes a three-ring circus. The ringmasters are usually presented as a team of world-renowned investigators, experts all, who are determined to ferret out and solve these Cold Case crimes on-screen, regardless of how many television seasons it might take.

And so it goes.

So, here is my generalized critique specific to the History Channel’s five-part series, “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer.”

THE BAD

Quickly into Episode 1, it becomes apparent that neither of the two-man team of detectives “working the case” has any serious background knowledge of the real facts. They have not done their homework, and that mistake will undermine and play a major negative role throughout the entire series.

Regardless, they quickly focus on two old Zodiac suspects and rather than following where the evidence leads them (Basic Homicide 101) they decide to see if they can make the evidence fit their preconceived “Prime suspects.” Unfortunately, they stick with this plan throughout the entire series.

The show would have us believe the detectives are discovering new evidence and making “new linkage” from crime to crime.  They bounce from the known San Francisco Zodiac crimes to the Riverside Cheri Jo Bates crime, to a possible Santa Barbara double homicide, to the South Lake Tahoe, Donna Lass suspected Zodiac murder.  Of course, to anyone even slightly familiar with the serial crimes, they know that all of these have been linked and looked at decades ago. Nothing new here.

Bomb-sniffing dogs are taken up to Mt. Diablo and cadaver dogs taken to a suspected location provided as an anonymous mail-in clue at “Donner Pass for Donna Lass.” (Though I have to admit that particular observation does have a very GHH ring to it.) Despite an “alert” by all three dogs in a generalized area, and the calling in of a forensic anthropologist for a dig. Alas, no body. No victim.

Despite the two detectives constant repetitive claims of “This is big. This is groundbreaking. This is huge.”  By the end of the series, no evidence was presented to offer forth a viable suspect, and the show ended with their still hoping they might be able to identify one of their two “prime suspects” as Zodiac.

THE BETTER

 A lot of money was spent on producing this series. The producers were able to open doors in the LE community that had been locked tight with a big “Do Not Enter” sign for the past forty-eight years. Thanks to “The Media” those doors, at least in a few police and sheriff’s departments were unlocked and they were able to gain access to and permitted to have potential DNA evidence analyzed.

Good on them. I have been asking that this be done for the past ten-years, with not even so much as a  response from any of the involved departments.

In three of my four books, (Most Evil 2009, BDA II 2012 and 2014, and in Most Evil II 2015) I have repeatedly asked that Law Enforcement retest and obtain confirmed Zodiac DNA.

Thanks to the efforts of the History Channel, it appears they may have accomplished what I could not. (New DNA samples obtained are pending comparison between cases.  Zodiac Stine to Riverside Bates)

In addition to the DNA results, some apparent advancements (pending further confirmations) were made by the shows Geek Team of cryptologists and Artificial Intelligence experts using what they call their “supercomputer” named, CARMEL.

Carmel’s first contribution centered on the question of whether the 1966 Riverside PD Cheri Jo Bates murder was a legitimate Zodiac murder?

The 1966 Bates note included the words “twich and squirm” with twich misspelled. This was identical to the 1969 Mikado Zodiac letter which also included “twich and squirm” also twich misspelled.

Carmel agreed this must have been the same writer in both crimes pronouncing that the odds of it happening are “one in 1.5 million.”

The shows ace detectives agreed, declaring, “Our most amazing discovery to date. These matching words are like a fingerprint. They can’t be a coincidence.”

(Author’s Note to History Channel and detectives:  While I didn’t have the benefit of a “supercomputer” I did present this evidence in my original publication of Most Evil (Dutton 2009). Here is a scan of the pages from my Chapter 15:

Super Computer Carmel’s Second Revelation:

“HERE IT IS”

Cryptologist Team member Craig Bauer working with leads from Carmel claims he has at least partially “cracked the 340Z Code.”

In his opinion, the opening line reads, “Here it is” and in his research, he presents a handwritten letter from the 1947 Black Dahlia Murder investigation, and makes the following on-air statement, “I found the same wording made by the Black Dahlia Avenger.” I think Black Dahlia killer could have been the source of inspiration for Zodiac.” (The on-screen leader under the BDA note reads, “Zodiac may have copycatted Black Dahlia Avenger.”

Seemingly unaware of my investigation and four books written on the subject that present Dr. George Hill Hodel as the same killer, along with QDE testimony (and my own identification)  that the handwriting is George Hodel’s.  Bauer goes on to speculate to his team members that “maybe Zodiac was copying the 1947 Black Dahlia Avenger.”

Below is my graphic included in BDA in 2003, showing the original HERE IT IS note as originally sent to police on January 26, 1947.

Carmel’s and Craig Bauer’s next deciphered claim is that a name is found in the middle of the coded text, followed by what Bauer believes is “gibberish.”  (Other outside experts question that claim indicating that “ perhaps there is a second cipher concealed within the present cipher that will further illuminate Zodiac’s hidden message.” I tend to agree with them on that point.)

Bauer claims that inside the Z340 Code known to be mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle (George Hodel’s former employer) on November 9, 1969, the hidden signature reads:

                 RICHERD M NIKSON

If Craig Bauer is correct, why would Zodiac use the name of president Richard M. Nixon in his 340Z letter to the press?

(Richard M. Nixon was elected President of the United States one year prior on November 5, 1968.)

Would Zodiac in 1969 have any reason to have President Nixon’s name in his consciousness?  Why include it in his cryptogram? Is there anything that would suggest a connection?

I answer with a most assured YES. And, forgive the pun (must be genetic) but HERE IT IS.

This front page headline from the November 9, 1968 Manila newspaper may explain why Zodiac/Hodel after conducting and spearheading an extensive survey likely lasting a year or more involving seven countries could well have had NIXON ON HIS MIND, even one year later.

THE BEST

Here is where the History Channel program, in my opinion, rolled first a seven then an eleven—The DNA.

The 7.

Riverside Chief of Police Sergio Diaz greenlit his Homicide detective Jim Simons to allow access to Cheri Jo Bates property for DNA retesting. (Last tested in 2000) The sealed Riverside Property was transported to the AISOCC DNA  lab in San Diego.

AISOCC Serologist Suzanna Ryan (seen in above photos) tested the pants worn by Cheri Jo Bates at the time of her murder for human blood. The result was “positive.” She then used an MVAC  (micro vacuum) in an attempt to recover a new DNA sample.

The results indicated that “A male DNA sample mixture was obtained from the victim’s pants and is enough to compare.” 

The show’s producers stated that the Bates new sample “is being sent to a respected DNA lab in Virginia in an attempt to develop a DNA profile.”

The 11.

Ms. Pam Hofsass, reveals the existence of stranger DNA previously obtained from inside SFPD Stine gloves.

Ms. Pam Hofsass, Director, Forensic Services Division, Contra Costa County was contacted and interviewed. She formerly worked for SFPD assigned to the Zodiac case from 1989-2015. She had never previously spoken publicly regarding her findings.

Ms. Hofsass advised that in 2002 saliva from a stamp was found on one of the Zodiac letters, but it “showed weak and incomplete DNA.”

In a subsequent attempt to obtain DNA Ms. Hofsass tested the men’s size seven gloves found in the rear seat of the Stine cab. (Unclear exactly when this test was conducted by her but apparently post 2002?)

Her results, “Paul Stine’s blood was found on the outside of the gloves and there is an unknown male profile on the inside.”

The show closed with the statement that “they are going to compare the Bates DNA to the Stine gloves DNA.” (Analysis pending)

Bottom Line

As far as I am concerned despite the History Channel’s tendency to sensationalize, overdramatize and to get on their horses and ride off in all directions, still they were able to get LE to cooperate.

This resulted in one new DNA sample and the disclosure that a second previously unknown DNA sample exists and more importantly it was obtained from what I have always maintained was the best potential source- THE STINE GLOVES.

This is good news going into 2018. I remain optimistic that this case will be “officially solved” through confirmed DNA.

Investigation Continued and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 Jan 2 2018 Update:  For those who missed it, here is a link to a PDF of my previously published Avenger/Zodiac identical crime signatures as published in Most Evil II.  

http://stevehodel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Avenger-Zodiac-Crime-MOs-update-2014-Copy.pdf

The post Critiquing History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer” and their Discovery that “Zodiac May Be Copycatting the Black Dahlia Murder from 1947?” appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 7, 2018
Los Angeles, California

“Steve: The Photoelectric Effect thing kind of blows me away. If there were a Nobel Prize for Murder, your dad would have gotten it “

LW (Luigi Warren)

I want to share this recent on-line contribution, which to paraphrase both Zodiac and LW will “positivly ventalate” (sic) one’s mind.

I would agree with LW that the source of Zodiac’s bomb diagram was very likely inspired and can be traced back to George Hodel’s schooldays (1923) at CalTech.

The following “comment” comes from LW (Luigi Warren) one of the regular readers/contributors to the blog site.  LW originally posted the below observations in response to my December 31, 2017, blog: “Critiquing History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer” and their Discovery that “Zodiac May Be Copycatting the Black Dahlia Murder from 1947?”

LW post-January 6, 2018. He writes:

Steve:

Just noticed another striking coincidence…

The 1924 Caltech “Big T” annual and 1923 Caltech Bulletin, which cover the academic year GHH spent at the Institute before he was expelled after impregnating a faculty members’ wife, contain several items of potential relevance to his future criminal exploits, e.g.:

1). One-year course in Military Science & Tactics and classes in technical drawing and shop. (Bulletin, p. 86)

2). Work as a reporter and as an editorial assistant, editor “ALFRED A NEWTON.” (“T,” p. 92, p. 94)

3). Scrap-book humor featuring white, hand-drawn lettering & cut-out photographic faces. (“T,” p. 214, p. 219)

4). Possible familiarity with the Riverside area through intercollegiate activities involving Redlands University (e.g., “T,” p. 68)

5). Razzing tradition (“Bookstore is razzed by scientific methods,” “Dorm phone is razzed,” “Assembly cards and Dorm phone are razzed,” etc. (“T,” p. 204-207)

6). Scarlet RIVET “razz sheet.” (“T,” p. 124, see also “T” for 1922, p. 62)

But it gets better. Zodiac’s 1970 “Bus Bomb” diagram is nerd humor — it’s obviously a wind-up. At one level, it’s a classic Rube Goldberg contraption. An example of such can be found on p. 200 of the 1924 “T” (“Automatic spanker for initiates.”) But the diagram also looks like a very Caltech-ish cartoon parody of a physics experiment. Any experiment in particular? Throop College had only very recently been re-invented as Caltech, a world-class scientific institution, at the time your father was admitted as a freshman. In November 1923 the head of the Institute, experimental physicist Robert A. Millikan, was awarded the Nobel Prize for two achievements: his work measuring the charge on an electron, and his experiments verifying Einstein’s theories regarding the Photoelectric Effect. GHH might have covered the attendant celebrations as a reporter for the weekly “Tech.” A comparison of the “Bus Bomb” diagram and a diagram of the apparatus Millikan used to verify the Photoelectric Effect reveals striking parallels: the apparatus comprises an electric circuit including a battery and two plates, with incoming light rays striking one of the plates and controlling the flow of current. The Millikan Memorial library, which today towers over the Caltech campus, was opened in 1967. Perhaps GHH saw it on one of his return trips to Los Angeles, and it brought back memories and thoughts of what might have been.

-LW

Thank You, LW for what appears to be another major thoughtprint by way of a “blast from the past.”

Click below link for full handwritten and typed Zodiac bomb letter mailed to San Francisco Chronicle on November 9, 1969.

zodiac bomb ltr pdf

November 14, 1923, Los Angeles Times article announcing Dr. Millikan’s Nobel Prize win.

The post A Blast from the Past? Did Zodiac in his 1969 “Bomb Letter Threat” Leave Us a 46-Year-Old Thoughtprint from His Caltech Student Days? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 15, 2018
Los Angeles, California

THROUGH THE DECADES “Black Dahlia” Anniversary interview will be airing on Monday, January 15^th.  The segment airs at about 32 minutes after the hour.

This link shows the markets and channels in around the country.

 http://decades.com/wheretowatch/ .

The program airs daily at 7a, 7p, 10p ET.

In Los Angeles, the show airs on channel 2.2 Charter/Spectrum 201, Cox 820, and Frontier 483.

http://decades.com/

Steve Hodel Through The Decades Interview

Below photo and  card, courtesy of my friend retired Dallas P.D. officer and author, Robert J. Sadler 

The post THROUGH THE DECADES January 15, 2018 Features 71st Anniversary of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short Murder appeared first on Steve Hodel.

January 19, 2018
Los Angeles, California

“Scorpion’s” Remember Me?” threatening letters and Cryptograms mailed to America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh in 1990

In Black Dahlia Avenger II (2012 & 2014) Chapter 22, “Touch DNA” I called for the analysis of numerous items currently booked as evidence in various law enforcement agencies, that I believed might contain ZODIAC DNA.  This included the confirmed 1978 Zodiac Envelope Letter (stamps) sent to KHJ-TV which remains untested in LAPD Property Division.  (Shown below)

Also referenced in that chapter were several threatening letters and cryptograms mailed to John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted television show which he received back in 1990. (The same year George Hodel permanently relocated to the United States.)

July 22, 2011 CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviews John Walsh on “Notorious Crimes” the “Black Dahlia” and “Zodiac”

“When I first profiled the Zodiac killer, I got a letter sent exactly like his code. Sent to me in exactly the same kind of envelope that he sent others. I had to give it to the FBI. It was signed in blood. In human blood. He said, “I will kill you. You will be the ultimate victory. I got away with it. I’ve committed mayhem since I murdered those other people. You will be my ultimate prize. I still have the ability to kill people.”

 Walsh went to to say, “ It’s fascinating. We don’t know if it was the Zodiac killer? Nobody knows.”

I now again, in 2018,  submit that these “Scorpion Letters”, currently in FBI evidence, need to be tested for Touch DNA.  If DNA is obtained it can easily be compared to the new DNA samples in possession of SFPD (Stine gloves).

If the DNA matches and Zodiac DNA is confirmed, then I will provide my father’s full DNA profile for comparison.

DID GEORGE HODEL CHOOSE THE 1990 PSEUDONYM, “SCORPION” AS A TAUNT FROM A VINTAGE COMIC BOOK, JUST AS HE HAD AS “ZODIAC”  BORROWING  “TIM HOLT/RED MASK” COMIC FOR HIS “ BY ROPE, BY GUN, BY KNIFE, BY FIRE, BY WATER”?

The linkage of George Hodel to his personal acquaintances, actors Tim Holt and Carol Forman (a resident in his home in 1948-9) have been documented in BDA II and need not be represented here.

But, the use of these comic book connections by George Hodel as Zodiac, raises the obvious question:

Was he also for a second time, using a 1940s comic book source for his letter writing threats against John Walsh in 1990? (As I have indicated many times, the key to understanding George Hodel’s M.O. and Crime Signatures is found in HIS PAST.)

Why the name “SCORPION”?

1)It could simply be because that was similar to the name used by the suspect in the copycat Zodiac-like serial killings in the 1971 film, DIRTY HARRY. ( In the film he called himself, “SCORPIO” not “SCORPION”.)

2)Or, perhaps the killer was much more erudite, and decided to go for a double-entendre?

How so?

Did GHH plagiarize and was Zodiac’s Costume inspired by the “Scorpion” Character in the 1941 Capt. Marvel comic book?

Reasons for FBI Crime Lab to test the John Walsh AMW “Scorpion Letters” for DNA comparison to current and new unidentified Stine gloves DNA and other samples in LE possession:

• Handwriting and cryptograms highly suggestive of being written by Zodiac (Despite an FBI QDE opinion they are not same)

• Wording and taunts in letters identical to Zodiac’s “voice” (Read attached letters in full as PDF)

• Walsh’s statement that envelopes used to mail Scorpion Letters IDENTICAL to those used by Zodiac twenty years prior

• According to John Walsh the letters were “signed in human blood” which may yield further DNA linkage

• Requires no additional manpower investigation, and minimal expense. Just a phone call to lab saying, “Test it”.

 Typed reproduction of “Scorpion” Letter threats to John Walsh- Click below link.

Scorpion Message to John Walsh

Reproduction of letters/cryptograms mailed to AMW John Walsh in 1990 by “Scorpion”

The post Can DNA Testing of John Walsh America’s Most Wanted 1990 “Remember Me? Letters” Link “SCORPION” to San Francisco’s “ZODIAC”? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

“I am 100% certain that the book-cover sketch (Great Crimes of San Francisco) I drew back then [1974] was based on material that was directly related to the crime. ”
Neal Adams
Comic-Con, San Diego
July 23, 2014

Cover art by Neal Adams 1974

I have received numerous requests to explain the variations of “Police Composite Sketches” as relates to the Zodiac suspect.  I presented this back in 2014 and will here simply republish that original blog.  Most of the public remains in the dark on Zodiac’s actual appearance due to the fact that the media in the main keep reposting the earliest composite in which he appears younger than eye-witness SFPD officer Foukes stated age of “35-45 and more on the high end of that age range.”  See republished blog detailing the information below.

Los Angeles, California
August 11, 2014

Thanks to the above statement from artist/illustrator Neal Adams and some further digging, we now have the answers to the several questions I originally raised in my book back in 2009, relating to the then unidentified sketch, which appeared to be a dead-ringer, to my father’s likeness. I quote from Most Evil, Chapter 16, page 191:

…Because of the sketch’s striking similarity to my father (including his black horn-rimmed glasses) I was determined to find its source. Was I looking at an artist’s imaginary rendition of a reproduction or an actual police drawing from official files? If the Zodiac composite was simply the publisher’s decision to take “creative license,” then why place it on an official SFPD Police Bulletin connected to an otherwise completely factual true-crime story? On the other hand, if the composite was an official police drawing, why had it not surfaced earlier?

Five years later, we now have a definitive answer to those questions!
And, those answers come directly from the original source—Neal Adams, the man that drew the original Zodiac book-cover sketch!

George Hodel 1974. Zodiac as represented on paper-back cover of 1974 Great Crimes of San Francisco (Ballantine Books, New York) (SKH Note-The cover-artist, Neal Adams remained unknown and was not identified until post-publication of Most Evil.)

A Chance Meeting Provides the Answer

On Wednesday, July 23, 2014; I received a telephone call from a personal friend, artist/illustrator, Scott Gandell. Scott informed me he was at his booth at the 2014 Comic-Con Festival, in San Diego, California. He was participating in the four-day convention, and had chanced to meet, and was able to talk with a fellow artist/illustrator, Neal Adams, who as discussed here, was the artist that drew the illustrated Zodiac face for the cover of the 1974 true-crime book, Great Crimes of San Francisco. (Ballantine Books, New York)

Scott, being familiar with the facts and history of the sketch, as presented in Most Evil, seized the moment to take Neal Adams aside and question him as to what he remembered about his 1974 book-cover Zodiac sketch.

While, Adams could not recall the specific original source (more than forty years had passed,) he did say, “I am 100% certain that the sketch I drew back then was based on material that was directly related and somehow connected to the crime.”

Adams told Gandell, that under no circumstances would he have simply created his own imaginary suspect, but rather, his drawing of the Zodiac suspect, as rendered on the true-crime book-cover, Great Crimes of San Francisco, definitely was inspired by some outside source material, directly related to the official police investigation.

Based on Scott’s conversation with Neal Adams we have now established: 1) The drawing, was in fact drawn by Neal Adams and 2) Adams did not simply create the likeness from his own imagination, but based it on an official Zodiac investigation source, available and seen by him, between 1969 and 1973.

NEAL ADAMS SOURCE MATERIAL- “Sonoma Composite” Misnamed
In Most Evil, in addition to the known SFPD Police Bulletin of Zodiac, I included a second supposed, “Sonoma Police Composite” which had surfaced with little documentation other than it was referenced on a respected Zodiac website, “This is the Zodiac Speaking” run by, Jake Wark. Jake included the composite with a limited comment which simply stated, “It is unknown why Sonoma County would issue a Zodiac sketch, as no Zodiac crimes are acknowledged in that area.”

I included the “Sonoma Composite” because of the physical likeness it shared to both the SFPD and the Great Crimes of San Francisco composites.

Based on Neal Adams recent clarifications, I decided to conduct further research into the “Sonoma Composite” which has now resulted in its proper identification and revealed that this drawing was never from Sonoma, but rather its source was—the San Francisco Police Department’s 1969, Police Composite.

Denver Post Staff Artist/Illustrator Joe Barros
In Most Evil, I asked a second question. “Why would the artist who drew the book-cover composite place it on an official San Francisco Police Bulletin?” I believe we now have the answer, which is: Because the 1969 SFPD Zodiac suspect composite drawing was the source for his (Neal Adams) original drawing.

Thanks to a forty-three-year -old article from the Vallejo Sunday Times-Herald, written by then staff reporter, Dave Peterson, we have our answer.

Reporter Peterson’s original article (see attached PDF) appeared in the Sunday Times Herald, “Solano and Napa County’s Morning Newspapers” on February 28, 1971, with the headline: “NEW ‘ZODIAC’ ART WORK IS CRITICIZED.”

SFPD POLICE COMPOSITE SKETCH REDRAWN BY DENVER POST ARTIST JOE BARROS

The article included both the original SFPD composite and a revision (see above) drawn by JOE BARROS, staff artist for the Denver Post.

SFPD Homicide Bureau Chief Inspector, Lt. Charles Ellis, commenting on artist Joe Barros’ revision of the original SFPD police artist’s composite, indicated he believed that his department’s police artist rendition was, “more accurate.”

Following is an excerpt from an on-line eBay art sale bio on Joe Barros:
…
“Joseph “Joe” Barros (1921-2011) was an American artist, painter and illustrator who, for more than thirty (30) years, was the chief illustrator for the Denver Post newspaper. In addition to his newspaper work, Barros illustrated numerous books, many featuring western settings, including Place Names of the Medicine Bow National Forest (by Mel Duncan) and Prairielands of My Heart (by Clyde Brundy). Barros achieved some notoriety in the early 1970s when he created police-type composite sketches of the Zodiac Killer based upon descriptions and the sketches in the San Francisco police files. His sketches were published across the country by the AP Wire Services.[Emphasis mine]

EVOLUTION OF THE SFPD COMPOSITE SKETCH

         GOOD?           BETTER?                BEST?
(1969)               (1971)                   (1973)

Armed with this new information, it is my current belief that the “official source” for Neal Adams Zodiac drawing originates from this 1971 Sunday Times-Herald article and possibly additional AP circulated Barros articles showing his 1971 composite. It appears that Adams used both the SFPD and Barros composites and combined the two resulting in his own Zodiac likeness which appeared as the cover of the Great Crimes of San Francisco, true-crime book, just three-years later. This also answers why Adams placed his cover drawing on a SFPD Bulletin! Why? Because the police-drawing was its original SOURCE.

Above we see comparisons of Dr. George Hill Hodel to the Barros and Adams Zodiac and the 1969 SFPD composites. All three artist renditions show Zodiac as he appeared in 1969, so in the Hodel photo on the left one must subtract or “youthen” Hodel by five years and in the photo on the right, one must add, or age him, some seven years.

The evidence, as it now stands, is undeniable—Neal Adams likeness of Zodiac, based on his review of the official SFPD composite drawing and a merging of it with the follow-up composite by illustrator, Joe Barros, is a near a picture-perfect likeness to Dr. George Hill Hodel’s physical appearance in 1969.

Sunday Times-Herald “New Zodiac Art Work Is Criticized” click below for full article.

Joe Barros 1971 article

1969 SFPD Zodiac Composite Bulletin on Paul Stine Murder

Duffy Jennings Correction—For the Record
In my 2009 publication of Most Evil (Chapter 16, page 191) in addressing the then unknown source of the Great Crimes of San Francisco composite I wrote the following:

…If the composite was an official police drawing, why had it not surfaced earlier?
I found the answer with the help of a confidential source who contacted the author of the essay on Zodiac in Great Crimes of San Francisco, Duffy Jennings. Jennings, a former San Francisco Chronicle crime-reporter, confirmed that, “the composite originated from law-enforcement,” but couldn’t recall the specific agency. Since the sketch includes the correct date (October 18) and number (90-69) of a known San Francisco Police Department Bulletin, it would appear that this composite originated from the files of the SFPD.*

I then footnoted the above paragraph as follows:

*Despite Jennings acknowledgement and the fact that it is an almost picture-perfect likeness to George Hodel, I still have some doubts about this third composite. When I attempted to locate editor Dean W. Dickensheet, I discovered that he died in the 1990s. Further attempts to confirm recollection that this was an official police composite are being made through Dickensheet’s original publisher.

A year later, with the publication of the Most Evil paperback edition (Berkley 2010) I added the below “Author’s Note” identifying the true-crime book cover artist as Neal Adams, and indicating that Duffy Jennings was apparently mistaken in his recollection that it came from law enforcement.

Let me—For the Record—correct that statement. Mr. Duffy Jennings, former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, was NOT MISTAKEN in his belief that the “composite originated from law-enforcement.” He is in fact-correct. While, it was not drawn by law-enforcement, it did “originate from law-enforcement” as it is a rendition of the original SFPD police bulletin composite.

SKH Note– Several readers have emailed me inquiring as to why I used a “confidential source” to check with Mr. Jennings, as opposed to contacting him direct? The answer is: In 2007-8, I was conducting a sub-rosa investigation and, 1) did not want a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter to know that the author of the Black Dahlia Avenger was actively investigating Zodiac and 2) I was under contract with Dutton Publishing and had signed a confidentiality agreement and the book and its contents were embargoed.

As published in MOST EVIL (Berkley 2010) paperback edition:

Click HERE for Link to blog showing GHH Photo from 1979 without a moustache. 

The post Artist/Illustrator Neal Adams 1974 Zodiac Book Cover Sketch Original Source Traced To SFPD Police Composite Drawing Update 2018 appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 7, 2018
Los Angeles, California

“Je me souviens des jours ancients, et je pleure.”   “I remember the old days, and I cry.”

George Hodel in his letter to Juliet Man Ray dated 27 July 1983

Prior to this article, the last public documented communication between the Man Ray’s and George Hodel occurred in the early 1950s and was the postcard response to George from their home in Paris.  (Shown below)  A copy  of which was published in my original investigation, Black Dahlia Avenger (Arcade 2003)

Man Ray photo of Juliet and Dorothy “Dorero” Hodel taken in Hollywood in 1944

DR. GEORGE HILL HODEL’S JULIET MAN RAY LETTERS  (First Public Publication)

In November 1976, Man Ray died in Paris at the age of 86.  His wife, and muse, Juliet then 65, survived him by fifteen years dying in Paris in 1991.

 In October 1980 some four years after Man Ray’s death, Dr. George Hill Hodel, who had been a close personal friend to both  during their “Hollywood Years” (1940-1951) wrote the following letter to Juliet at her home in Paris.

Letter 1-  Request for authentication of Man Ray Gift to GHH  (August 7, 1980)

Copy of authentication which accompanied letter and was signed by Juliet and returned to GHH in 1980.

Letter No. 2-  Mailed to Juliet in Paris on October 6, 1980. (Request for appraisal of Man Ray sculpture)

Letter No. 3   (Two-page letter mailed to Juliet on July 27, 1983 from GHH Penthouse Suite on Manila Bay)

“Je me souviens des jours ancients, et je pleure.”  “I remember the old days, and I cry.”
Translation of GHH French statement to Juliet in Letter No.3

Letter No. 4  (February 25, 1984, Mailed to Juliet in Paris from GHH Manila penthouse)

Letter No. 5  (March 25, 1984, mailed to Juliet from Hotel Intercontinental Paris)

In these letters to Juliet GHH states his belief that Filipino artist, Fernando Modesto is destined to become “The Picasso of the East” and has gifted her more than three dozen of his works, clearly hoping for a personal endorsement from Juliet and hopes for a blessing from her artist and gallerist friends in Paris.

(By 1984, GHH had acquired more than 1500 separate drawings and sketches from Modesto, which he had collected through the years.  Many of the works were erotica. I describe “Modesto’s Lovers” in detail in Black Dahlia Avenger which is clearly a macabre reproduction/imitation of Man Ray’s Les Amoureux, The Lovers.  As reported in BDA, June Hodel informed me that George and she hand delivered copies of the Modesto drawings to Juliet when they met in Paris.

This conflicts with my original investigation in BDA where I mention the George/June’s visit to Juliet but believed it occurred after the Modesto Lovers was created which I incorrectly read and  dated as “1986.”

This contradiction in dates has caused me to reexamine the low-resolution photograph I took at June’s apartment back in 1999, a month after my father’s death when I was assisting her to try and catalog the massive Modesto collection.

 In reviewing the drawing, I now see I apparently misread the date which appears to be 1982, just two years BEFORE George and June’s visit with Juliet in Paris. 

Either way, it does not affect what the Modesto Lovers drawing depicts, which, to my eye, is an alternate and highly violent and erotic and macabre version of Man Ray’s original.

In Modesto’s replication, we are shown a much darker theme.  Man Ray’s “Lovers” now have become violent in the extreme.

The woman’s lipstick now appears to be dripping blood, with three erect male phalluses overhead backgrounded with a woman’s vagina and ejaculations. (Male spermatozoa.)  The drawing has been transformed into Sexual Violence and Rape.

 Modesto Lover’s drawing (now believed signed in 1982) compared to Man Ray’s original Les Amoureux (Lovers) 1932

SKH Note:

The  1948 sculpture that GHH refers to in his letters to Juliet which he states was gifted to him from that Man Ray , who called it ” The Eye of the I” was originally exhibited in 1944 as “L’Oculiste”.  The sculpture was put up for auction (Butterfield and Butterfield)  by GHH and June just prior to his death in 1999. Asking price, “$30,000 to $50,000.”  See Butterfield’s full description below:

February 9, 2018, Update to post:

Received below observation/sourcing from my good friend Mssr. Yves Person in Paris just now. Yves, of course, was the high school teacher that “cracked the code” on the Ogham cipher as published in Most Evil II. (Rare Bird Books 2015)

The post George Hodel and Juliet Man Ray Letters: 1980s Correspondence and a Meeting in Paris appeared first on Steve Hodel.

February 18, 2018
Los Angeles, California

“…I must respectfully decline that request. (one hour meet with detectives to discuss new DNA evidence)
Given the fiscal constraints 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 that
Robbery-Homicide Division Detectives should expend their valuable skills on more contemporary investigations.”

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck
(Excerpt from response letter to author dated July 26, 2012)

There have been some recent website comments related to the “Dahlia Killer Letter” which was discussed in detail in Black Dahlia Avenger II (2014 ed.)

Since many of my blog site readers may be unaware of this important “new evidence” (well new as of 2014) I will here present a short review as well as attach the complete Chapter 23 summary as a PDF for those who are interested in a more in-depth look.

In a 2012 “Black Dahlia Exhibit” the LA Police Museum put on display some never before shown photos and letters from the original Black Dahlia investigation.  The display contained two never previously publicly shown letters that the Department assumed were “crank Dahlia letters” mailed to the police and sheriff’s departments in 1950.

In my opinion,  these letters were/are legitimate “Black Dahlia Avenger” mailings sent by George Hill Hodel as additional “clews” just as he prepared to permanently leave the U.S. in the fall of 1950. “Goodbye taunts” if you will.

It is my belief that not only is the handwriting on the letters that of my father, Dr. George Hodel, but that were the flaps and stamps on both letters tested and DNA obtained from them, it would likely match that of a full DNA profile of George Hodel, which I have in my possession.

See PDF summary attached for a full description of GHH’s unique handwriting above. Note the letter C in the word OFFIeE which appears to be a letter e.
This same unique and rare characteristic is seen in his 1946 Chicago Lipstick Murder message, “eatch Me Before I Kill More. I eannot eontrol myself.” And, is seen in his handprinting on my “echinese chicken, mountains, Sun” drawing in 1948.  Also of special interest in the postmark date the suspect mailed the letter to “The Office of the Sheriff” which is October 10, 1950, just days before GHH left the country and more importantly is GEORGE HODEL’S BIRTHDAY, another “eatch me if you ean elue.”

My 2012 letter to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and his response are fully included in the attached chapter.

My request back then was to simply meet with Robbery-Homicides detectives for one hour so that I might present and detail the “new evidence” and why and how it strongly relates again to George Hill Hodel and the likelihood that his DNA would be found on one or both letters in their custody.  After more than a month I received Chief Beck’s response that his detectives were unable to meet for an hour to discuss as stated below.

 GHH Unique Letter C  Handwriting Samples

HERE IS THE COMPLETE CHAPTER FROM BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER II (2014)

BDA II Chap 23 New Evid 2014ed.

SkH NOTE:

April 2013 KMEX “La Dahlia Noir” Interview Hodel/Roberts

 l actually agree with you, I think he [Hodel] has made a very compelling theory. I think there’s a lot of things that looks like it and his dad could actually be responsible for the murder of the Black Dahlia.”

LAPD Detective II Mitzi Roberts
KMEX, La Dahlia Negra interview, April 2013

The currently assigned “Black Dahlia detective” from LAPD Cold Case Unit is Detective Mitzi Roberts. In a 2013 television interview she conducted with KMEX on the Black Dahlia investigation she made minor reference to the “department making some attempt to analyze DNA evidence, in her words, “just recently and also years ago, but none was obtained” and that “Steve Hodel was aware of this, or should have been.”  This is inaccurate as no member of the LAPD has had any contact with me for any reason related to the Black Dahlia investigation or any DNA testing, since my original briefing to the Department with Head DDA Steve Kay back in 2004. Further, since the department passed on meeting and discussing potential evidence, they would not know which items/letters I was referring to unless they conducted follow-up after the book was updated with Chapter 23 in 2014.

Chapter Handwriting Exhibits:

The post LAPD Police Museum “New Evidence” May Hold Key to DNA Solution to Black Dahlia Murder: Chief Charlie Beck Declines Request for One-Hour Meet with Detectives to Discuss New Findings appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 5, 2018
Los Angeles, California

Actor Richard Herd seen below in his 2017 role as patriarch Roman Armitage in GET OUT (2017). The film received four nominations for Oscars in the following categories at last night’s 90th Academy Awards:  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay (won)) GET OUT made film history with Director Jordan Peele’s first win ever for an African-American screenwriter.

Richard Herd was married to my ex-wife Kiyo in 1954-5.  At age 22, Herd was Kiyo’s third husband and their marriage lasted just one year.
For a complete summary of Kiyo’s bio and marriages see link HERE. 

The post Actor Richard Herd (One of Six Ex-Husbands of Kiyo Hodel ) Still Going Strong at 86: His Latest Role, as Patriarch Roman Armitage in GET OUT- Film Nominated for Four Oscars Wins “Best Original Screenplay” at Last Night’s 90th Academy Awards appeared first on Steve Hodel.

March 18 2018
Los Angeles, California

I have received numerous requests from readers asking me to clarify, “Which are the latest editions for both BDA and Most Evil?”
Below are the four most recent updated versions which are:  1. Black Dahlia Avenger (Skyhorse 2015) 2. Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014) 3. Most Evil (Dutton 2009) and 4. Most Evil II (Rare Bird Books 2015).

All four books are available in either print or ebook and three (BDA, Most Evil and Most Evil II)  are available as audible books.

A New edition, Black Dahlia Avenger III (Rare Bird Books 2018) is expected to publish in next few months details to be announced shortly. That edition will provide new linkage (2014-2018) and investigative findings discovered post publication of BDA II.

Click on below link for short promo video

BDA I &II promos

Click on below link for short promo video

Most Evil I & II promos

The post Most Recent Editions of Black Dahlia Avenger I & II and Most Evil I & II: BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER III Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You appeared first on Steve Hodel.

April 8, 2018
Los Angeles, California

Actor Jay Allen ( Upper left) portrays serial killer Rodney Alcala (Upper right) in Reelz TV “Murder Made Me Famous” Season 3, Episode 9 “The Dating Game Killer.”

Author and former LAPD Homicide Detective Steve Hodel (Lower right) was interviewed for the show regarding the circumstances of his original 1971 arrest of  Alcala for the Hollywood attempt murder/child molestation of 8-year-old victim Tali Shapiro.  After a three-year-search, Detective Hodel arrested and extradited Rodney Alcala from New Hampshire where he was employed as a school counselor at a teenage girls school and extradited him back to Los Angeles. Alcala was convicted on the Hollywood crimes and received a “1-99 year prison sentence” but was released after only two-years after a prison psychiatrist deemed him “cured and fit to reenter society.”

Here is a previous interview I did for CBS News back in 2010 that provides an overview of my original investigation and arrest of Alcala for the 1968 Tali Shapiro attempt murder/assault.

(4 mins)

Alcala would go on to commit more than a dozen murders across the nation and some estimates believe his count could be much higher, possibly over a hundred?  Most of his convictions were the result of a positive DNA match found at the various crime scenes.

Alcala has been incarcerated and has been serving a prison sentence on Death Row for past thirty-nine years.

Rodney Alcala complete victim list and biography 

Alcala has been featured in numerous documentaries.

The latest is REELZ “The Dating Game Killer” Season 3, Episode 9 of “Murder Made Me Famous”.

The post Reelz TV “Murder Made Me Famous” Features Serial Killer Rodney Alcala –Author and Former LAPD Homicide Detective Steve Hodel Interviewed Regarding his 1971 Arrest and Conviction of Alcala for Attempt Murder and Child Molestation appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 11, 2018
Los Angeles, California

Enterprise-Journal headline announcing the Sacramento, California arrest of ex-cop Joseph DeAngelo Jr. for eight serial murders that occurred in the 1970s and 80s.

After more than four decades of eluding police, DeAngelo was identified and arrested after police were able to trace DNA to some of his relatives, which then led to the former cop.

The DNA links were not done using the FBI’s CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database.

Rather, LE utilized civilian DNA databank open to the public known as GEDmatch.

Here is an excerpt from a 4/27/18 article from the online magazine, arsTECHNICA describing the DNA “hit” and arrest of ex-cop, Joseph James DeAngelo:

SACRAMENTO, CA – APRIL 25: Sacramento sheriff Scott Jones speaks about the arrest of accused rapist and killer Joseph James DeAngelo during a news conference on April 25, 2018 in Sacramento, California. Sacramento district attorney Anne Marie Schubert was joined by law enforcement officials from across California to announce the arrest of 72 year-old Joseph James DeAngelo who is believed to be the the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, who killed at least 12, raped over 45 people and burglarized hundreds of homes throughout California in the 1970s and 1980s. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

…

According to the East Bay Times, which first reported the connection to GEDmatch late Thursday           evening, California investigators caught a huge break in the case when they matched DNA from some of the original crime scenes with genetic data that had already been uploaded to GEDmatch. This familial link eventually led authorities to Joseph James DeAngelo, the man authorities have named the chief suspect in the case. To confirm the genetic match, Citrus Heights police physically surveilled him and captured DNA off of something that he had discarded.

The former police officer was arrested Tuesday at his home in suburban Sacramento, having eluded law enforcement for decades. DeAngelo is expected to be arraigned Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The Yolo County District Attorney said Thursday that DeAngelo “is suspected of committing over 50 rapes and a dozen murders across 10 different Northern, Central, and Southern California counties between 1976 and 1986.

Can Familial Genetic DNA Lead to the Identification of Zodiac?

The below article in the Huffington Post indicates that Bay Area detectives are going to attempt to springboard off the success of the capture of DeAngelo and at least one San Francisco Bay Area Department (Vallejo P.D.) is attempting to retest and obtain confirmed Zodiac DNA, with the hopes of then searching civilian genetic databases.

Here is an excerpt from a May 7, 2018 article in the Huffington Post, “Police Hope To Use DNA To Catch The Zodiac Killer, by David Lohr.

“We could finally have answers to one of the greatest whodunits of all time,” a criminologist said.

            …

Now, with advancements in DNA testing and a multitude of databases available, police might have a chance of determining the identity of Zodiac. While it’s unlikely he’s still alive, a positive identification would allow authorities to close the book on an infamous serial killer who once terrorized citizens of California.

“And regardless of the outcome, in this case, these new avenues of investigation have great potential,” Bonn said. “Think of how useful these ancestry DNA databases could be in solving other unsolved cases.”

For the past nine years, I have been calling for LE to attempt to obtain “confirmed DNA” and have written extensively in Most Evil, BDA II, and Most Evil II on their need to “pool their evidence.”

My fear is that the separate agencies desire to independently “crack the case” may prevent them from joining forces to enhance the chances of obtaining Zodiac DNA.

By example, I would bet you even money that the legitimate Zodiac envelope mailed to KHJ TV Studios and booked in evidence by the Los Angeles Police Department on 5/4/78 is long forgotten and has never been tested. (Note to LAPD Cold Case detectives- Want to solve the Zodiac serial crimes? TEST IT.)

This letter contains a stamp and the inside of the envelope flap that could well contain Zodiac’s DNA and could be the very evidence, currently in police custody that when analyzed could yield the suspect’s DNA.

Photo of 1978 Untested Zodiac Letter and Stamp currently booked in Evidence at  LAPD Property

Ms. Pam Hofsass and Stine Gloves Stranger DNA

Pam Hofsass, Director of Forensic Services Division, Contra Costa County

Finally, there is the STINE GLOVES, which I have always asserted was likely the “best evidence” potential for obtaining Zodiac DNA.

In 2009 after I met with two California DOJ agents and provided the details their follow-up to me was “apparently the gloves are lost but we will keep searching for them and would get back to me.”

Crickets for nine years.

Consequently, I assumed the Stine gloves were lost.

However, with the airing in 2017 of the History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer” a surprise witness provided some startling and hitherto unknown information.

Ms. Pam Hofsass, currently Contra Costa County’s, Director of Forensic Services Division was interviewed on the show and revealed that she “had formerly worked for San Francisco Police Department and had been assigned to the Zodiac case from 1989-2015.”

Ms. Hofsass, speaking for the first time publicly about the Zodiac case informed the listening audience that “in 2002 saliva from a stamp was found on one of the Zodiac letters, but it showed weak and incomplete DNA.”

Ms. Hofsass went on to say that “in a subsequent attempt by me to obtain additional DNA I tested the size seven gloves found in the rear seat of the Stine cab.” 

The results of her testing, “Paul Stine’s blood was found on the outside of the gloves, and there is an unknown male profile on the inside.”

This is truly encouraging information and dramatically advances the possibility that the size seven gloves were owned and worn by Zodiac and when he executed Paul Stine, likely from the rear seat of the cab, he was wearing the gloves (Stine’s blood on the outside) and left them in the cab upon fleeing.

(Lt) Size seven gloves from Stine taxi (Rt) George Hodel wearing similar probable size seven gloves circa 1996

Note to SFPD- Compare Stine “Stranger DNA” to other agencies analysis and to civilian DNA databanks such as GEDmatch and Ancestry.com

The post Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo Identified Through GEDmatch Public DNA Database- Can Familial DNA Identify Zodiac? appeared first on Steve Hodel.

May 19, 2018
Los Angeles, California

Following just three weeks after the Sacramento arrest of Golden State Killer/Rapist  Joseph DeAngelo another thirty-year-old cold case has been solved by the use of civilian DNA databanks. See full story by Seattle Times reporter, Sara Jean Green published May 18, 2018. 

William Earl Talbott II, 55, of SeaTac, was arrested as he was leaving his Seattle workplace. According to investigators, he is suspected of raping and killing a 19-year-old British Columbia woman in 1987, and detectives are working to tie him to the death of the woman’s boyfriend.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/investigators-use-dna-genealogy-database-to-id-suspect-in-1987-double-homicide/

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