December 1, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington
With the completion of my just published Black Dahlia Avenger IV, I would like to take this opportunity to personally call out and thank three of the world’s top mystery writers; Michael Connelly, Jerry Petievich, and Jon Breen. Each author independently reviewed the investigation as presented in my original publication, Black Dahlia Avenger (2003), and based on the evidence publically proclaimed — “CASE SOLVED.” (See their reviews below.)
In the two decades following that publication, a massive amount of additional linkage to the Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia, and other L.A. Lone Woman Murders followed and was presented in BDA II, III, and IV.
Based on readers’ written reviews of the series, which now total 1400 with an overall 4.5-star rating on AMAZON, Through the years the public has spoken loud and clear, and most agree with Connelly, Petievich, and Breen that the evidence is convincing and the case is solved.
Despite the order from then LAPD Chief of Detectives James McMurray to his Cold Case Detectives to “Go ahead and clear the Black Dahlia Murder, based on Hodel’s investigation” the detectives, knowing that their commander McMurray was about to retire in six months, claimed, “they were too busy, but would get to it later.” That “get to it” has now been put off for twenty years and those detectives are all long retired.
With the publication of BDA IV on November 6, 2023 (my 82nd birthday) and the court trial with testimony from “The Quick and the Dead,” I consider my investigation into the Black Dahlia Murder completed. The prosecution has called all its witnesses and victims, living and dead, and presented its case. The prosecution has “rested” and my work as the primary investigator For the People is done.
For a detailed presentation of the WHY of the ongoing LAPD coverup by high-ranking officers see the prior blog HERE.
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