July 12, 2022
Birch Bay, Washington
Happy Birthday, Mike!
(Today would have been my older brother Michael’s 83rd birthday)
Just a few days ago I made the discovery of a half-sister that neither I nor any other family member (to my knowledge) was aware of. A girl child born to my father and Emilia in San Francisco on November 12, 1929. Her name was Zoe Francesca Hodel, and she died just three days after being born.
Having learned this has sparked me to explore and hopefully discover the truths of another unknown and unspoken of half-sister.
Today I have decided to reveal another name in hopes of learning more about another child’s name. Information that I have kept secret for some twenty-five years.
I do this in hopes of discovering the true identity of this long-lost family relative. She would have been my half-sister and my father’s firstborn child-Folly.
Background:
Excerpt from Black Dahlia Avenger (2003) Epilogue Pgs 403-404:
…
Throughout my investigation, as the linkage was made from victim to
victim, I asked myself the same question—Why? What was the trigger?
Then I recalled the story of Folly.
For more than fifty years Folly’s existence had been a whispered family
rumor. Mother had told me bits and pieces of the story when I was in my
twenties: a vague reference to Father having had an early affair as a teenager, which resulted in the birth of a child; somewhere out there another
Hodel, a half-sister, predating Father’s acknowledged firstborn son Duncan born in 1928.
In the summer of 1997, Father and June visited me in Bellingham for
a three-day tour of the San Juan Islands. We had returned from our ferry
crossing, having filled our day with spectacular vistas, and an early dinner
on Orcas Island. The three of us sat in my bay-front apartment as the sun
began to set late in the evening. I had noticed that Father was especially
mellow and the three of us, sated with the beauty around us, felt close and
comfortable. He reminisced about how quickly time had passed, remarking that he was just months away from his ninetieth birthday!
It was then I broached the subject of the family rumor and Folly. “Was
it true, Father? Is there a Folly out there? A sister I’ve never met?” He
paused, and I could almost see him turn back the pages of time in his mind.
“The rumor is true,” he said. “I was very young, a boy of fifteen, and very
much in love.” As I listened intently, Father told the story of Folly.
In Los Angeles, while attending Cal Tech, he had had an affair with
a much older married woman. Her husband discovered the infidelity and
they separated. She moved to the East Coast and gave birth to the child,
a girl whom she christened Folly. “I followed her east,” Father continued,
“found where she was living in a small town, and told her I wanted to
marry her and raise the child. She wouldn’t have it. She laughed at me and
Black Dahlia Avenger.indd 403 2/10/15 12:07 PM
404 BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER
said, ‘You’re just a child yourself. Go away, George. This has all been a terrible mistake. Just go away from me. I never want to see you again.’” Father
said he remained in the East and tried to convince her that they should be
together, but to no avail. In the end, he left, returned to Los Angeles, and
never again attempted to make contact with mother or daughter.
As follow-up to his story, and by way of demonstrating the new computer software I had recently purchased for searching and locating witnesses and individuals nationwide, I suggested we check to see if Folly was “in the system.” He provided me with the mother’s last name, and the
name of the small town in the East where she was last known to be living, some seven decades past. I input the information and pressed “enter.”
Incredibly, there she was! First initial “F,” same last name, with her address
and telephone number. Gazing at the screen in disbelief, Father paled. I
suggested that maybe it was now time to make contact. Wouldn’t he like to
see and meet a daughter he had never met? For the third time in my life, I
saw him visibly shaken. In a firm voice that bordered on anger, he said to
me, “No! You must destroy this information. She must never know. There
must never be any contact. Do you understand?” I didn’t, but I said I did.
Those were the last words ever spoken about Father’s “Folly.
Here now, for the first time I am making this information public in hopes of discovering more hidden truths related to my father’s early years.
In 1997 as reported in BDA (above) the name my father gave me to search for was PULSIFER, the city, WORCESTER, MA. My search back then showed numerous listings under the last name Pulsifer.
So, it is believed my half-sister’s name was Folly Pulsifer residing in Worcester.
I am no longer sure, but I believe dad told me Folly’s mother’s name was Roberta.
However, Folly’s mother may have resumed using her maiden family name, which is unknown.
This introduces a new possibility into our investigation.
As stated it was my belief that Folly’s mother was “a professor’s wife at CalTech” and the pregnancy caused her divorce from her husband and her move to the East.
With the discovery of my father’s magazine, FANTASIA, it would appear that the truth may be slightly different than originally believed.
Note the names of the Editors- George Hill Hodel and G. Bishop Pulsifer.
Based on the timing this cannot be a coincidence. The co-editor of FANTASIA very likely was the cuckold husband and his wife (possible first name-Roberta) became impregnated with George’s child.
Could G. Bishop Pulsifer also have attended CalTech? Possible, but regardless, I am confident that based on this connection and the year (1925) this would have been the husband of the woman dad had an affair with and who birthed his child.
A quick check of Ancestry.com shows George Bishop Pulsifer born in Maine, in 1901, making him just six years George Hodel’s senior. Could this be the same G. Bishop Pulsifer? Possible, but???
As I initially indicated in this post, today is my older brother’s birthday.
On his popular radio show, “HOUR-25” Mike used to talk about “The Group Mind” and how it could usually answer any question put to the audience within a half hour or so.
I am reminded of that concept and here offer a challenge to “The Group Mind.”
Who was Folly Pulsifer? Can you identify her or her mother with the possible first name of Roberta? (not certain). Or, in the alternative can we identify mother and child through a link to G. Bishop Pulsifer, co-editor of the 1925 Fantasia Magazine
The first person to positively identify her will receive a free signed copy of the original hardback edition of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (Arcade Pub. 2003)
Email results to me at: steve@stevehodel.com
Good Hunting!
UPDATE 7.12.22 5:15pm
This just in from my good friend Dr. Luigi Warren- a first thoughtprint that seems to confirm we have identified the correct G. Bishop Pulsifer! Has to be him. See below article found by LW showing he like dad, he was a journalist for the LA RECORD newspaper. Pretty colorful bio. Also, like Fred Sexton, and John Huston he studied under artist S. MacDonald Wright. By 1932, below article shows him to be an award-winning landscape photographer in Maine.
The Lewiston Daily 2.1.32
(Found by Dr. Luigi Warren)
The post “What’s In A Name?” – A Search for the Identity of Black Dahlia Serial Killer George Hodel’s First Born Child appeared first on Steve Hodel.