December 7, 2021
81st Wedding Anniversary of George and Dorothy “Dorero” Huston Hodel
(Married, December 7, 1940, one year to the day before the bombing of Pearl Harbor)
I wanted to share a reader, Larry Stevens Email received today where he comments on various aspects of the “Early Years” investigations related to crimes committed in both the 1920s and 1930s. I here include my answers and the Q&A between us needs no further explanation. As mentioned in my response to Larry S. as an author/investigator I find it exceptionally rewarding to see how exceptionally well versed he (and many others) are with “the facts” spread throughout the eight separate books, which I’ve stated many times are really one ongoing investigation.
Author’s Note- For those of you who have not yet read the two “Early Years” editions, be warned there are “spoilers” as relates to several of the early crimes and you may want to first read the books before reading the below commentaries.
Email from Larry Stevens:
Finished “The Early Years”—thanks again!
Hi Steve,
Thanks for these two final works, and for your email signup list! I just finished them last week and this time, I was not 15 years late! Thanks for operating the BDA reader email list!
I procrastinated on this email after reading the final books, but then I realized that it’s December 7th again, the 81st wedding anniversary of your parents. And my wife’s 73rd birthday, too. [And I have to add, GHH died on my 51st birthday.]
So I figured I would write today.
It’s nearly 3 years since your sleepover at the GHH 1944 home, and there was one thing I kept forgetting to mention: Mattie Comfort described the house as having a ballroom on the top floor, and the only other time I heard of such a thing was in Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. That was one of the things that added to my curiosity about this house.
Some other thoughts from these two books:
1921 Father Heslin—I wonder if the young GHH was seeing himself as the ultimate true follower of Satan by going after someone he regarded as a servant of God. And this might apply to the death of Aimee Semple McPherson, too. And yet I wonder if the 1921 case looks like somebody’s very first murder. How can one ever tell?
Tracing the 1930 Ensenada beach murders back to South Pasadena High School really connected the dots. Wow. Being an astronomer/science kinda guy, I checked that night and it was definitely dark, being 2 days after a new moon, a tiny sliver that probably set not long after the sky became dark.
Just Speculation:
One thing I wondered about throughout all the books, was the amount of time GHH spent following or prepping some of the murders. That is, how much time did GHH spend walking the streets of Santa Monica or wherever, before his perfect moment arrived, and he did his split-second action in the Lillian Dominguez case? 1 hour? 3 weeks of nightly wanderings?
As part of that question, there was the evidence that GHH could follow a chosen victim—even with their knowledge—such as in the Mesquite and the New Orleans murders.
And was Ensenada just a chance meeting or another example of stalking of his prey? The victim was not random, for sure. It looks like the “love tangle” guess from the newspapers at that time was correct.
In the first group of books, the Lillian Dominguez case was the saddest one for me, as she was so young and innocent, just 15 years old. But then in the latest books, there are the murders of the young children.
Finally, your Mother. She was away from the Franklin house at the time of the Short murder, yet there is that strong possibility she was with GHH and possibly Fred Sexton when the police officer McBride saw Elizabeth Short downtown, with the two men and one woman. She was with the group that included Miss Short in her final hours.
Yes, I had always wondered who that woman was and the man, too. Although Mr. Sexton came to mind for sure as being the man, the identity of the woman always had drawn a total blank for me—even as the list of possibilities was so very small.
But from my first reading, she appeared to have been decisive in the timing of the GHH escape from arrest. He fled from the Franklin house shortly after your Mother provided him with information after the Jemison interview. That much was apparent from the first. She actively helped GHH avoid arrest, apparently.
Best wishes and thanks again for all your work.
God bless,
Larry Stevens
Email response to Larry Stevens from Author:
Hi Larry:
Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.
It is very personally rewarding to hear observations from a reader that really has followed all the facts over so many years and so many books. As you recognize, it is really just one ongoing investigation and now with TEYs Parts I and II in place we can go from Point A to Point Z and following all of his crimes in chronological order.
What I found most rewarding was to see how his “Early Years” prove his “Later Years” and how his “Later Years” prove his “Early Years.” He was so consistent in his need for headlines and to hold cities hostage in terror, that they made his crimes readily identifiable. Even the ones where another man or teen was convicted. Also, most revealing is what we now know from the Early Years of what he had on then Lt. Thad Brown (the responsibility for the conviction and execution of an innocent mentally challenged young man). No question that 1947 Chief of Detectives Thad Brown could allow this to become public and he knew GHH would certainly make that information public if he was arrested.
As to your questions, I can take an educated guess.
1. I don’t think the Lillian Dominguez stabbing murder was planned in advance. Likely random just revenge on a high school teenager, any teenager, for having been rejected by girls in his own HS years.
2. Re. Father Heslin and ASM I don’t think the comments he made in letters were something real. They both sounded stilted and made up. As if he wanted the press/public to believe he hated the Church and possibly a Satanist or ??? but again, I think it was to throw LE off the scent?
3. I also think, no stalking, and that both the In The Mesquite Frome murders and the Ensenada double murders were chance meetings. Happenstance, drinking in a bar, and he seized the opportunity to “get revenge” for the victim’s long ago rejections of him.
4. The New Orleans murder, if it was GHH, on the other hand, could not have been happenstance and very likely was a pursuit. We can base this on what the victim told his girlfriend with it originating in San Diego and he was “fleeing and being pursued.” This was a strange one, but just too much there to ignore it. Especially with the “He Knew Too Much, too bad” coupled with the Zodiac (HODEL) sigil pinned to his back. Most curious.
Best to you and yours,
Steve
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