September 26, 2016
Los Angeles, California
Yesterday I discovered a new “taunting clue” left by my father in his commission of the 1947 murder of former actress and aviatrix, Jeanne French.
Though it was in plain sight all along and readily discoverable, I had simply missed it for the past fifteen years.
Before revealing our newly discovered clue, let’s take a short refresher course of GHH’s crime-signature MOs as presented in Black Dahlia Avenger I & II. Specifically, let’s examine his unique “catch me if you can” MO of placing his victim’s bodies adjacent to streets that relate directly to his crimes.
Chicago Lipstick Murder
January 6, 1946, Chicago, Illinois
Suzanne Degnan age 6
In the horrific kidnap-murder of little Suzanne Degnan, the child was taken from her home and slain in the basement of a nearby apartment complex which detectives determined was “The Murder Room.” A surgical procedure known as a hemicorpectomy was performed (body bisected between the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae), and her body parts were then placed in sewers in the neighborhood.
Six weeks after the crime the victim’s arms, posed and “bent at the elbows” were discovered in a sewer one-half mile away from the murder room. As indicated in the below Chicago Daily Tribune article, they had been posed and placed in a sewer just off “HOLLYWOOD STREET.”
The gruesome discovery of Suzanne Degnan’s arms found in an alley off Hollywood Street.
Black Dahlia Murder
January 15, 1947, Los Angeles, California
Elizabeth Short, age 22
Elizabeth Short’s body was surgically bisected at George Hodel’s Hollywood residence. A surgical procedure known as a hemicorporectomy was performed (body bisected between the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae), and the body parts were then transported to a vacant lot in Liemert Park district of Los Angeles some seven miles south of Hollywood.
On January 15, 1947, her body “arms bent at the elbows” was found posed just off the sidewalk. Geoge Hodel as a taunting clue placed the body on what he thought was “DEGNAN BLVD,” (a subtle “catch me if you can” clue to his Chicago, Suzanne Degnan “Lipstick Murder.” Unbeknownst to GHH, the street transitions from Degnan Blvd to become Norton Ave, just south of where he posed the body.)
Elizabeth Short body parts shown posed on a vacant lot at Norton/Degnan Ave.
The Jigsaw Murder
May 28, 1967, Manila, Philippines
Lucila Lalu, age 28
Lucila Lalu was kidnapped from her place of business in Metropolitan Manila on May 28, 1967. Her body was surgically bisected by a skilled surgeon and her body parts placed on a vacant lot in the Makati district of Manila, adjacent to a street named Epifano De Los Santos immediately adjacent to a street named ZODIAC. (Six months earlier, Riverside, California murder victim, Cheri Jo Bates, (George Hodel’s first known Zodiac victim) was slain and in a typewritten note, sent one month later, he promised he would commit a kidnap/murder and “I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see.”
Circle in below graphic shows the approximate location of Lalu body part adjacent to ZODIAC ST.
The Red Lipstick Murder- The New Clue
(Discovered September 25, 2016)
Jeanne T. French, age 40
Actress/Aviatrix
Mrs. Jeanne French was last seen having dinner with “a dark-haired man with a mustache” at the Picadilly Restaurant, 3932 Sepulveda Blvd., in West Lost Angeles on February 10, 1947. Mrs. French left her vehicle, a 1928 Ford Roadster, in the restaurant parking lot and left with the suspect at 2:00 a.m. in what a restaurant witness described as a “1937 Black Sedan.” (GHH drove a 1937 Black Packard.)
The coroner estimated Mrs. French was slain at approximately 4:00 a.m. Her nude body was found posed in a vacant lot near the intersection of Indianapolis and Grand View. Written on her torso in red lipstick were the words, “FUCK YOU, B.D.” (Killer’s taunt meant to inform police and press he was the Black Dahlia Avenger, and the same man who had slain Elizabeth Short just three weeks earlier.)
The New Clue
Just two weeks before the Jeanne French “Red Lipstick Murder,” funeral services were held for Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short. The Short family decided to have her buried near one of her sister’s home in Oakland, California.
Below photos show the funeral, held on January 25, 1947. The Oakland Tribune article reads, “the victim was laid to rest in Oakland’s Mountain View cemetery.”
Two weeks after those services, Dr. George Hill Hodel kidnaped and brutally murdered Mrs. Jeanne French. The cause of death was “blunt force trauma to the head.” ( The coroner suspected a possible tire iron was used.) The victim was then dragged from the vehicle stripped of her clothing and stomped on causing her ribs to puncture her heart. The profane lipstick message was then written on her torso and her fur coat placed on top of her body.
As seen in the photo and map diagram below, in 1947, the location chosen to dump the body was another isolated vacant lot. The street directly adjacent to where the body was placed? MOUNTAIN VIEW AVE. Another, (his fourth) taunting street clue connecting himself to his crimes.
Victim Jeanne French body posed adjacent to MOUNTAIN VIEW AVE
The post Black Dahlia Update: New Clue Further Links Dr. George Hill Hodel to 1947 Jeanne French “Red Lipstick” LA Lone Woman Murder appeared first on Steve Hodel.