October 10, 2022
Birch Bay, WA.
(Dr. George Hill Hodel’s birthday.)
While I did not consciously intend this blog to be written on this, my father’s birthday, how fitting that the subject be explored and examined TODAY.
FACT-
Dr. George Hill Hodel was an international serial killer that evidence shows committed at least 8-12 Los Angeles Lone Woman Murders in the 1940s and was identified by LAPD and the LADA’s Office as the killer of victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.
FACT-
In 1950, LAPD and the LADA’s Office conducted a joint investigation and a six-week stakeout (Feb-Mar.) of Dr. Hodel’s private residence at 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, which resulted in his confessing to the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, the 1945 murder (forced overdose) of his personal secretary, Ruth Spaulding. Further tape-recorded confessions by Dr. Hodel included: “Personal payoffs to law enforcement, and performing abortions at his DTLA First Street Clinic.” Further, the tapes contained a police-recorded felony assault, or more probably an actual murder committed and recorded in the basement of the Hodel residence (in the company of Baron Ernst Harringa) at 8:00 p.m on the night of February 18, 1950, of an unknown female victim. (LAPD recorded the woman’s screams and assault with a pipe, but made no response from their stakeout position, just three miles away at Hollywood Police Station.) The crime or the victim was never publicly mentioned and the six weeks of tape recordings were given to LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown and “disappeared”, (think destroyed). A copy of the full transcripts of these recordings was secretly locked away in a DA vault by OIC DA Lt. Frank Jemison and discovered during my investigation in 2003.
FACT–
LADA OIC Lt. Frank Jemison suspected a body or bodies of multiple victims were buried in the Hodel residence basement and had his detectives interview a plumber who had recently been at the house and asked if “he saw any signs of digging?” See DA documentation found in Secret Hodel DA Black Dahlia Files below:
FACT-
On March 31, 1950 LADA Lt. Frank Jemison and his partner, DA Det. Walter Morgan had prepared their case against Dr. George Hill Hodel and were just days away from presenting it and obtaining “formal murder complaints” when they were suddenly and unexpectedly removed from the investigation at the orders of DA Simpson. Lt. Jemison was ordered to collect all his investigative reports, the tape recordings and personally hand them over to LAPD Chief of Detectives, Thad Brown. Both Lt. Jemison and Det. Morgan were immediately removed from the case and ordered to never discuss their findings.
FACT-
In 2013 a court-certified “Cadaver Dog”, BUSTER, conducted a search of the Hodel residence and “alerted” to human remains in multiple locations in the basement. Subsequently, soil samples were recovered and submitted to Dr. Arpad Vass (formerly of “The Body Farm” and the soil samples were “positive for human remains.” (Analysis submitted to LAPD Cold Case homicide detectives, who responded, “we are too busy with current cases to conduct any follow-up on the Black Dahlia case.”
Fact-
Dr. George Hill Hodel, tipped as to his pending arrest in 1950 fled Los Angeles and relocated to the Territory of Hawaii. There he would doctor to the criminally insane at the territorial prison after obtaining his degree in psychiatry, marry a Wealthy Filipina, move on to Manila, Philippines, and start a new family and life as a Market Researcher. Dr. Hodel would become the leading Market Research expert throughout Asia and regularly travel to the U.S. and Europe for nearly four decades (multiple trips to the U.S. each year). In 1990 Dr. Hodel relocated to San Francisco and resided with his new wife, June Hirano Hodel until his death in 1999 age the advanced age of 91.
Dr. George Hill Hodel in his San Francisco penthouse suite circa 1997
FACT-
In separate conversations in the years following the Black Dahlia Murder the top original law enforcement officers in charge of the investigation (LAPD Chief Parker, LAPD Chief of Detectives Thad Brown, DA OIC Lt. Frank Jemison and LA Undersheriff James Downey) all indicated that “they identified the killer and the case was solved and identified that individual as Dr. George Hill Hodel, 5121 Franklin Ave, Hollywood.” See their separate statements below:
FACT-
In 2003 active LA Head DDA Steve Kay reviewed my entire investigation and publicly declared “Case Solved” and that were witnesses and Dr. Hodel still alive he would have filed multiple counts of murder on him including that of victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short” and stated “he would have won the cases in a jury trial.”
In 2004 after I and Head DA Kay presented the case to high-ranking LAPD officers, then active LAPD Chief of Detectives, James McMurray, (Chief Thad Brown’s modern-day counterpart) ordered his men as follows, “unless you find some major holes in Hodel’s investigation, go ahead and clear the Black Dahlia case.” (Homicide detectives, knowing Chief McMurray was going to retire in six months, ignored his order and did nothing.
FACT-
In the following two decades (2003-2023) despite a massive amount of additional new findings and linkage (including hard physical evidence connecting the Hodel residence (the original crime scene) to physical evidence found next to the body of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short at the vacant lot where her nude, tortured body was posed. LAPD Chiefs (Brattan, Beck, Moore) knowing they can’t defeat the evidence have maintained “LAPD is too busy with current cases to take time to look at the cold case.”
All of the forgoing (backgrounding) brings me now to the real reason for this blog.
To ask WHY? Why does LAPD continue to refuse to even look at the evidence? Why do they continue to ignore the statements “Case was Solved” coming from the mouths of their most respected commanders who actually were in charge of the 1947 investigation?
For decades my answer was along the lines of “LAPD doesn’t want to throw dirt on the reputations of its two greatest heroes: Chief William H. Parker and Chief of Detectives Thad Brown.” Also, I factored in the obvious coverup of the tape-recorded murder at Dr. Hodel’s residence, and his confessions to “other crimes and payoffs.”
For twenty-three years I have been thinking as a criminal homicide detective-strictly criminal.
Not until TODAY (which happens to be my father’s birthday) did it dawn on me that maybe I’m completely off base about the WHY of the cover-up. Maybe it’s not the criminal, the obvious documented corruption, and damaged reputations LAPD fears, revealing. But rather maybe it’s the CIVIL? Civil Litigations-and the consequential Reparations for Wrongdoing and Obstruction of Justice?
FACT-
The LAPD and LADA coverup can be pinpointed to almost the exact month and day. That would be April, 1950. The date LADA Lt. Jemison and Det. Morgan were stopped from seeking the indictment on Dr. George Hodel and ordered to return all evidence to LAPD Chief of Detectives, Thad Brown. That was the effective date of the coverup.
On that date, the powers within both Departments decided to lock away the evidence and allow Dr. Hodel to flee the country rather than expose themselves to corruption. Dr. Hodel, as Head of the LA County Health Department, was untouchable. He knew and had files on all the top brass and power brokers in LA and had performed many abortions for the rich and famous in Hollywood filmdom. “He’s gone. Lock away the files. Let’s clean up Dodge and come back to it in the future.”
FACT-
By their actions, these corrupt lawmen and prosecutors allowed a serial killer to remain free and permitted him to kill and kill again and again for the next twenty years. Here is a list of his victims, ALL believed committed AFTER LAPD, and LADA brass let him escape with no follow-up or obtaining an arrest warrant. By THEIR ACTIONS, it is my belief that all of the following victims were slain by Dr. Hodel. Had they done their duty, all of these victims would very likely have lived full and productive lives. (The evidence connecting him to their crimes found in my follow-up investigations is: BDA II, BDA III, Most Evil I, and Most Evil II.
The Victims post-1950:
Additionally, many of the surviving relatives and families of the victims of the L.A. Lone Woman Murder victims killed by Dr. Hodel after the Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” murder, but before he fled the country in April 1950, could well have a right to civil claims due to the ongoing cover-up and obstructions of justice. (Also, to include the relatives of Elizabeth Short.) Here are the names of those victims:
I’m no civil lawyer, but could this ongoing refusal by LAPD to look at the evidence and admit the case was solved actually be an ongoing cover-up out of fear of potential civil suits coming from the many victims living relatives?
We have statutes of limitations on criminal acts (though not for murder.) Are there statutes of limitations for civil wrongdoing by government officials? If so, when does the clock start running? When the wrongdoings are discovered? I’ll leave the legality to the trained lawyers out there, but though slow in coming to this possibility, it is certainly something to consider. If the two Departments were found civilly liable, imagine what the restitutions might be to the wronged family members of the many victims?
What price do you put on official city employees LE officers all intentionally covering up a serial killer’s crimes and allowing him to remain free to kill again and again? What do you say to the grieving relatives and families?
The post A Reexamination of the question, “Why Did LAPD and LADA High Ranking Officers in 1950 Cover-Up the Solution to the Black Dahlia and Other L.A. Lone Woman Murders? appeared first on Steve Hodel.