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Christopher T George
Detective Sergeant
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 93
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2003 - 3:46 am: | 
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It all sounds so familiar from when someone -- be they Patricia Cornwell or Bruce Robinson or whomever announces they have solved the Ripper case, could it actually be so that the Black Dahlia case has finally been solved, with the following news out of Los Angeles? The following was kindly provided to me by Avala (Stanoje). Thanks, Av!
Note that what you are about to read is labeled as an advertisement and is not a news article (for whatever a press piece might be worth).... and it occurs to me the upcoming book might be fiction not nonfiction, hmmmmm.....
A Startling Take on Black Dahlia Case
By Steve Lopez
April 11, 2003
One year ago, a retired LAPD homicide cop approached me and said in a whisper that he had a blockbuster story in the works, but he couldn't
divulge the details at the time.
Last week, he got in touch again to deliver the goods.
Steve Hodel, 61, said he had cracked the most notorious unsolved murder in Los Angeles history -- the case of the Black Dahlia.
But it gets even better. The killer, he said, was his father, a powerful and dashing doctor who threw racy parties at his exotic Lloyd Wright-designed home at Franklin and Normandie avenues in Los Feliz -- parties attended by the likes of photographer Man Ray and film giant John Huston.
Hodel's dark journey through postwar Los Angeles goes public with the release today of his book, "Black Dahlia Avenger." In it, Hodel convicts his father, the late physician George Hodel, of slicing Elizabeth Short's body in two in a fit of jealousy on Jan. 15, 1947, and then posing her mutilated corpse in a vacant lot near 39th Street and Norton Avenue in Leimert Park. It was a crime so savage, even hardened detectives were shaken.
Less than a month later, another nude corpse was discovered in West L.A., and Steve Hodel pins that one on his father, too. The bludgeoning murder of Jeanne French was called the Red Lipstick Murder, because the killer had used lipstick to scrawl "B.D." on the body, suggesting a link to the Black Dahlia.
But Steve Hodel doesn't stop there. The private investigator, whose colleagues say he was a respected detective during 17 years as a homicide
cop in the Hollywood Division, has more on his dad.
Father, as he calls him in the book, was a serial killer responsible for as many as 20 unsolved murders in the 1940s and 1950s, and his murders were covered up. The high and mighty of L.A., Hodel argues, were afraid of Dr. Hodel. The good doctor ran a downtown venereal disease clinic, where he kept dossiers on them.
Hodel says his father was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character enchanted with the Marquis de Sade, whose dark musings Dr. Hodel dissected with his sex-crazed coterie of Hollywood luminaries.
And should you think "Black Dahlia Avenger" is too improbable to be anything but a son's poison-tipped arrow, aimed at the heart of a father who
abandoned his family, consider this endorsement from the prosecutor who put the Manson family behind bars:
"He got his man," says Steve Kaye, who still works for the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Kaye, who teamed with Hodel years ago on other homicide cases, said if George Hodel were still alive, he would file two counts of murder against
him. One for the Black Dahlia case and one for the Red Lipstick Murder.
Kaye read the book manuscript before it was published, and stresses he's not speaking for the D.A.'s office. His summary of Hodel's investigation appears in the book, and begins:
"The most haunting murder mystery in Los Angeles County during the 20th century has finally been solved in the 21st century."
Has it been?
My search for answers began at the Lake Arrowhead cabin where Hodel lives with a girlfriend. He opened his book to a photo of himself sitting on his father's lap.
"That's the most ironic photo for me," he said. By his calculation, his father has just murdered the Black Dahlia, and the boy on his lap would
become the cop who finds him out.
Hodel, a man the size of Orson Welles, said he had no inkling until he looked through his father's belongings after the man died in 1999.
He came across two photos. They were vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place them at first. Then one day it hit him.
The Black Dahlia.
In both photos, the woman's eyes are closed, so it was hard to be sure. But after poring through dozens of published photographs of Betty Short, he was convinced.
Hodel dug up news accounts and found another surprise. The handwriting on a taunting note sent to a newspaper, allegedly from the Black Dahlia killer, was similar to his father's.
He also noticed a similarity in the message scrawled on the body of Jeanne French, and sent copies, along with notes by his father, to a handwriting analyst. She said it was "highly probable" that all the writing was done by
one person.
So what else did he have?
Steve Hodel's older brother, Duncan, recalled their father using red lipstick to write on a topless woman at a party.
Joe Barrett, now 75, rented a room at the Hodel house more than 50 years ago. He recalled Steve's mother telling him that George Hodel was a suspect, and Barrett also said he was called to the D.A.'s office and asked to spy on George Hodel.
And then there was Steve's sister, Tamar, and the scandal that drove George Hodel out of the country for 40 years. Tamar had accused her father of molesting her in front of guests when she was 14, and later sending her away for an abortion. George Hodel's lawyer ran an all-out smear campaign against Tamar, calling her a promiscuous, incorrigible, pathological liar, and the physician was acquitted.
"Everything in the book is true," Tamar, 68, told me by phone. George Hodel, she said, was pure evil.
In the end of his book, Hodel reveals the depth of his hatred of his father.
"I wanted him to suffer as greatly as his victims did," says the former cop, who retired in 1986. "I would inflict the same slow tortures on him as he had inflicted on others."
Wasn't this evidence, I asked Hodel, that his book is a vendetta in which he took great leaps to portray his father as a monster?
"I was hoping for reasons to omit him as a suspect," said Hodel, arguing he had reconciled with his father before his death.
I wasn't sold.
Like all mysteries, this one leads you down dark alleys and through a maze of fact, myth and distortions. Hodel draws sweeping conclusions, but when I began to investigate, all I found were shadows.
I talked to the handwriting analyst and felt as though I'd caught her in contradictions.
I called Joe Barrett, and he said the D.A.'s office never told him Dr. Hodel was a Black Dahlia suspect, as Steve Hodel had claimed.
Larry Harnisch, an editor at The Times whose years of research led him to believe another doctor killed the Black Dahlia, called Hodel's book the equivalent of seeing Jesus on a tortilla.
As for the photos in Dr. Hodel's album, Harnisch said they're not of Betty Short. Homicide Det. Brian Carr, assigned to baby-sit the four-drawer
cabinet that holds the LAPD's Black Dahlia files, studied the photos and finally said he couldn't tell one way or another.
Carr wouldn't let me into the Dahlia file, but if Hodel's theory is true, the files were sanitized half a century ago in an LAPD cover-up.
It was true that the D.A.'s office had believed the LAPD was dragging its feet and ordered a grand jury investigation that was headed up by D.A. Det. Frank Jemison. And so the trail led me to the office of the Los Angeles County district attorney.
Steve Cooley told me that Kaye had already laid out Hodel's theory in a dramatic, closed-door presentation, but Cooley wasn't close to being
convinced. Besides, he said, he's got enough to worry about without reopening a 56-year-old case.
"Am I gonna spend money" looking at this? Cooley asked. "Not a nickel."
No problem, I told him.
I'll do it for free.
Far as I knew, the grand jury file was a sealed document, and I couldn't get within six miles of it. But Cooley told me to go ahead and see what I could find.
Before reaching into the file, I'd already made one discovery. I found I was torn by conscience, duty and a sense that I was trespassing. It's as if Betty Short herself is asking you and everyone else to please get to the bottom of it, so she can finally be left alone.
I set up shop in an office with a photo of Cooley and James Ellroy. The L.A. crime writer's mother was murdered in an unsolved case, leading to Ellroy's fascination with the Black Dahlia. (Steve Hodel's book says Ellroy's mother might have been killed by an accomplice of George Hodel.)
With Ellroy looking over my shoulder, I opened a dusty old box, and it was like exhuming a body.
My stomach turned when I came to photos of the corpses of Elizabeth Short, who was 22, and Jeanne French, 45. You could almost hear their screams. Both had brief flirtations with Hollywood. But fame came in death, delivering
them finally to this cardboard coffin.
Flipping past those photos, a number of smaller mug shots slipped out of the stack, and looking up at me, his eyes dark and narrow, was Dr. George Hodel.
So he was a suspect.
OK, but so were a lot of people. Det. Jemison had compiled a list of 22 suspects, with Dr. George Hodel among them.
In his summary, Jemison said an acquaintance of Hodel had identified Elizabeth Short as one of his girlfriends. The detective also noted that Tamar's mother had told her that Dr. Hodel never came home the night Short was killed. Later, Dr. Hodel allegedly said, "They'll never be able to prove I did that murder."
And yet, Jemison says the transcripts from the electronic bugging of the Hodel house "tend to prove his innocence."
I looked at the transcripts.
It's February of 1950, two months after the incest trial has damaged Dr. Hodel's reputation, despite his acquittal.
He talks to visitors and callers about the D.A. being "out to get me." He makes arrangements to leave the country, and he cautions callers that his phone is tapped.
Interesting, but not enough.
Sandi Gibbons, a D.A. spokeswoman, had found a second George Hodel file and left it with me. In it, I found transcripts from the bugging of Hodel's house that were not in Jemison's file.
At 7:35 p.m. on Feb. 18, George Hodel was speaking to a man with a German accent.
"Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia," he said. "They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary because she's dead."
At 8:20 p.m., Hodel and his visitor sounded like they were heading down to a basement.
At 8:25, a woman screamed.
At 8:27, another scream.
The notation made by the listening officer is hard to follow, but he reports someone in the house said to call the hospital. Then the officer wrote something unintelligible about a dead secretary.
I called Steve Hodel to tell him what I found in the file. He said he believed his father's secretary knew about his crimes and so he had to
silence her.
But he didn't know her name, and there may be no way to find out what really happened.
Maybe nothing happened. Maybe George Hodel was just taunting the police, knowing his house was bugged. It's one more riddle, wrapped in a mystery.
Maybe the decent thing to do is to just walk away and let her be.
Sleep, Betty. Sleep.
*
Steve Lopez can be reached at Steve.Lopez@latimes.com.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at http://www.latimes.com/archives.
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times |
Maura
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2003 - 1:30 pm: |
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Detective Sergeant George,
Thank you for posting this..as you call it "advertisement". Black Dahlia is my second favorite unsolved murder and this made for fascinating reading. I may have to order this book [as long as Patricia Cornwell did not help on the forensics or identifying of skull similarities in the Hodel photos and those of the Black Dahlia].
Do you happen to know if the photographs that this Steve Hodel allegedly found in his father's belongings, that he imputes are Elizabeth Short, are actually in the book for comparison?
This sounds even more interesting than that book "Severed" or ones on the Cleveland Torso killer.
I bet old Red Manley is resting easier in his grave!
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Maura
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 28, 2003 - 11:01 am: |
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Greetings all!
I was perusing the True Crime area at a local bookstore and noticed that the "Black Dahlia Avenger" book was filed on the bottom shelf. This is the one mentioned earlier in this thread by Mr. Christopher George that is by the author named Steve Hodel.
I've read about one fourth of it so far, and while interesting the whole structure seems to be based on the fact of some photos found by the author after his father, George Hodel's death, in a photo album. Steve Hodel purports that two of the photos are of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. Now...if they are not, where does this leave his investigation.
I'm certainly not a forensics expert, or an anatomical specialist in cranial structure, but as a portrait artist, I do not see the features of the Black Dahlia in the two photos that Hodel says so defintively resemble her, in his book. These anonymous photos are to pics of Elizabeth Short.. what ones of Joan Collins might be to Elizabeth Taylor. Similar, but not of the same girl, in my jaded opinion.
Ironically, or not...there are no photos of the real Black Dahlia in the book and one wonders if comparisons are not wanted, or in this case are thought to be odious, as the old saying goes.
Lucie Arnaz looks more like the Black Dahlia, or Elizabeth McGovern so I hope no relatives of theirs decide to write a book, after finding some old photos in the attic!
I'm finding a few other minor mistakes, not exactly pertinent to the Black Dahlia issue directly, but indicative of not so great research in this tome or proofing, so I can't wait to finish it. The storyline involving Hodel's physician father and his connections to John Huston and Man Ray do make for revelatory reading though.
If this is available [hardcover $27.95] at my non-chain local bookstore, and I live in boring Dayton, Ohio then it should be available even in Podunk or the smallest burg off the beaten path. Look for it!
Happy Hunting...
M |
Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 9:45 am: |
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Hello All
I just plunked down my dough for the Avenger book The Dahlia is one of the most interesting unsolved cases to my mind.
The author states that one of the pictures purported to be of the Dahlia that were found in his father's picture book shows a nude or at least topless woman. The woman has an ample bosum from what I can tell. Beth Short was built like a boy.
I'm sorry I don't see Beth Short in these pictures.
Best Regards
Gary |
Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 9:06 pm: |
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Hello All
RE; THE DAHLIA AVENGER
If I were an attorney for the defense in this
case I would move for the judge to direct an aquital for Mr. Hodel at the end of the case for the prosecution. The evidence presented is simply not sufficient to allow for the finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus no defense should be required.
This is just my opinion.
Don't get me stated on the evidence presented in most of the JTR books.
Best Regards
Gary |
Randy Scholl
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 4:49 pm: |
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According to www.crimelibrary.com, the police had a very strong suspect at the time of the investigation, by the name of Jack Anderson Wilson aka Arnold Smith, but before they could get to him, he (apparently) accidentally burned himself to death by passing out in his hotel room with a cigarette burning.
To quote the DA:
"The case can not be officially closed due to the death of the individual considered a suspect. While the documentation appears to link this individual with the homicide of Elizabeth Short, his death, however, precludes the opportunity of an interview to obtain from him the corroborationTherefore, any conclusion as to his criminal involvement is circumstantial, and unfortunately, the suspect cannot be charged or tried, due to his demise. However, despite this inconclusiveness, the circumstantial evidence is of such a nature that were this suspect alive, an intensive inquiry would be recommended." |
Maura
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 5:05 pm: |
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Gary,
I can see I'm not the only one who wonders if author and former LAPD detective Steve Hodel, has an astigmatism or some other vision problem. I enjoyed your astute comments anatomically speaking.
The girl who Hodel purports to be Elizabeth Short, does not bear much resemblance to her..fer shure!
I have now finished the book. I will say that I will have to take everything in it with a grain of salt, considering that I am not much impressed with Hodel's dissertation on pinning the Dahlia murder on his father. Especially with something as faulty as the photos Hodel tried to definitively say are Short, which fall way short...of looking much like her at all.
But...I actually found this book interesting for two reasons: 1] the historical background that Hodel paints of his father's relationship with famed folks like John Huston, Man Ray and others and 2] why a man like Hodel would want to smear his own father's reputation, unless he had absolute proof that he was a maniacal killer.
If it were the photo of Miss Short alone which convinced him [and it REALLY looked like Beth Short] I could maybe understand, but the mind makes strange bedfellows sometimes if revenge of some sort is indicated. I don't know what happened between this father and son [even though the book is a bit of a tell all] but it must have been a doozy to dig this deep into lalaland to indict the dad publically in print.
This makes "Mommie Dearest" look like a tribute.
I'd like to be fair and say that I personally did not like the way that Hodel, played that game of implying something was already proven...when he only had some sparse facts, but would not let that influence me if there was more of substance in facts. As in...just because let's say, John Wayne was in LA the day the Dahlia was killed, does not prove that he was the killer, as Hodel likes to make assumptions on the viability of his theories.
On the other hand, if the Hodel photo of the Dahlia impersonator, was not such a poor exhibit, I would admit that Hodel's father did seem to be a bit of a roue and a tad sadistic, with some rather odd leanings, but it's really all moot conjecture based on whether Hodel the policeman is not stacking the deck.
This book is no "Fatal Vision" though. Get "The Black Dahlia Avneger" when it comes to paperback prices, is my advice unless you are a hard core Dahlia fanatic. |
Christopher T George
Detective Sergeant
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 145
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 11:16 am: |
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Hi, Maura and Gary:
I agree absolutely that the photographs that Hodel purports show Elizabeth Short do not, to me, resemble her. I have studied the available photographs of Ms. Short, and if one of Steve Hodel's main bases for suspecting his father, Dr. George Hodel, of the Black Dahlia murder, is these photographs, then his theory appears to be a nonstarter to begin with. I will grant that they appear to be photographs of a woman of the right age in the 1940's but Dr. George Hodel seems to have had a lot of relationships and apparently a lot of photographs of women so these only appear to be photographs of some other woman that he knew.
In terms of Steve Hodel fingering his father, that is strange, although I will say that as an LAPD detective the case may have prayed on his brain and he might have convinced himself that his father was the killer, or else he is simply out to make a mint on the notoriety of the case. Sometimes the lure of the dollar sign is thicker than blood.  
Best regards
Chris George |
Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 12:44 pm: |
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Randy, Maura and Chris
Fisrstly, it is true that Jack Anderson Wilson is a very strong suspect and I agree with Randy completely.
Maura, that was my first thought upon finishing the book-it is Daddy Dearest all over again with murder thrown into the mix. The tone of the book was upsetting to me. I was very turned off by the attitude of Mr. Hodel that he had solved the crime from the very start and was just letting the reader in on the true story. I get worried when I detect this same thing in JTR books. I like to see a case built upon a firm foundation and then see conclusions drawn from facts. Rather than facts made to fit the story as I see in so many books.I'm not naming names but a recent book by a Patricia something or other comes to mind.
I will say one thing about the book that interested me greatly, Hodel does give details about the missing days between January 9 through
to the time when the body was found on January 15th. Other books mention witnesses during the missing week but do not elaborate to the extent that Mr. Hodel does. He appears to have access to information that was kept quiet by the police. This is only logical as he was a member of the force. She was killed shortly before her body was found on the 15th and I find it hard to believe that she was held by her killer(s) for that entire period of time.
I had never heard mention of the killer performing a hysterectomy before. I know that other writers have stated that she had an underdeveloped vagina which would have made intercourse impossible. Is this Mr. Hodel's way of explaining this possibility? To the best of my knowlege the killer only made an incision on her pubic region.
Another point is that MR. Hodel SR. does not seem to have a motive for the crime. I could understand this if he was a true serial killer; but I don't buy the evidence that he was.
Chris-I believe Mr. Hodel may have believed his father was the killer or perhaps wanted to believe it to be true.
The dollar sign eh, hmmmm....
Best Regards
Gary
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Maura
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 11:34 am: |
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Dear Gary, Chris and Randy,
I too regard Jack as a suspect and the Gilmore book was purchased by moi the moment it came out. It is a well written book and I enjoyed it very much.
I just had a fascinating conversation with a doctor friend of mine, in which we were discussing Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, and he regaled me with the facts of that condition, which he said produced a female who is conceived with male [XY] chromosomes, but due to a rare inability to use the androgens the fetus develops along female lines. All AIS babies are reared as female, but as as they mature it becomes apparent that they can never conceive, and a foreshortened vagina, known as a blind ending one, is a common occurrence. In this day and age, surgery can be performed to amend this problem.
After he informed me of these anomalies of nature, I mentioned the Black Dahlia case, and asked his opinion as to Short possibly being AIS. According to him, women with this syndrome appear to the general public quite feminine, and if anything have been categorized as quite beautiful in many cases. In previous times, he stated that a girl like Elizabeth Short might have not been aware of her condition [if this is something she might have had?] due to it being rare and not as talked about in the 1920's to 1940's.
Well this topic certainly presents food for thought, as pertains to Elizabeth Short, and I for one found it very interesting.
I agree with everything you've all said, Gary, Randy and Chris and thanks for responding. I too did find things worthwhile to read in the Hodel book, like about the missing days, even though I reject his proposition that the photo is Elizabeth Short, even though that alone does not negate that his father "could" have known the Dahlia I guess. More proof is needed obviously to prove that supposition. |
Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 3:34 am: |
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Maura, and all
Thanks for the response. I have heard of the condition you describe. Hitler's mistress/wife, Eva Braun appears to have had it and an operation was performed so that the blind vagina
was corrected.
Like Beth, Eva was very simple minded.
No-one has ever come forward who claims to have had intercourse with Beth Short and her killer
would have been one of the only people alive who knew of her condition.
Thanks again.
Best Regards
Gary
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Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, May 23, 2003 - 3:40 am: |
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Maura
P.S. I posted something for you under Victims/MJK/The Second Photograph.
Gary |
Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 - 10:37 am: |
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I am glad to see new developments in this case. This murder cries out to be solved, not only because of its brutality, but because it seems so eminently “solvable”—I think the killer told a great deal about himself through his crime.
Some comments about current suspects: First, although I admire the detailed research done by John Gilmore in “Severed,” Gilmore’s proposed “solution” to the crime is just hogwash. Jack Anderson Wilson is a terrible suspect. First off, he was NEVER a suspect at the time of the murder. Second, right after the murder, investigators began immediately concentrating on a killer with some kind of medical knowledge or background. The FBI agreed that the killer HAD to have this type of knowledge. Wilson was an uneducated drifter with a record of petty crime. He not only didn’t have the requisite knowledge, he didn’t have a car to transport the victim.
And how likely is it that after committing one of the worst sex crimes of the century, Wilson just stopped killing for a period of 20-plus years? Anyone with those kinds of deep-seated perversions either (1) continued killing, (2) was imprisoned for a long period, or (3) committed suicide or died of natural causes.
I think Steve Hodel’s suspect is much more plausible. I always suspected that the killer had not only a medical background but some kind of journalism background as well. The killer made a call to an L.A. newspaper where he evidenced a keen professional interest in the journalistic coverage of the case. Hodel’s father did indeed work as a crime reporter before attending med school.
However, Hodel’s case is rather thin in terms of hard evidence. The photos he claims are of the victim, simply do not resemble her in the slightest. Beth Short had a heart-shaped face, not perfectly oval like the girl in Hodel’s father’s album.
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Maura
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2003 - 12:42 pm: |
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Gary,
Thanks so much for your thoughts on Eva Braun and AIS, and I'm going to find what you kindly posted for me at Victims/MJK next!
Hi Eliza! Though I enjoyed Gilmore's book, my pleasure was based more on his admirable research and actual knowledge and connection to the Black Dahlia events and the LA scene historically, not the presupposition that Gilmore's solution is accurate.
I will say though, that till something is truly solved, with a plenitude of facts, I neither accept nor dismiss any suspect offhand including Wilson or even Hodel, but more facts are needed to cement either theory.
Truth can be stranger and more farfetched than fiction, and tends to make me be open to any possibility, no matter how silly it may seem at first, yet on the other hand, suspects that are definitively named as the solution by authors looking to make a buck [or quid] are not impressive to me without hard facts.
As Jack Webb once said..."Just the facts, Ma'am." Self-serving hypotheses that up book sales are not my cup of tea.
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Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 - 2:10 pm: |
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Hello Eliza
Recall that Randy and I stated Jack Anderson Wilson is a strong suspect-not necessarily the killer. He is more plausible than Hodel. The 'solution' is still open to debate.
Firstly it is immaterial as to whether a given individual was a contemporary suspect. Whomever killed Short got away with murder. We do not know whether the true killer was suspected at the time or not. The same is true of Jack The Ripper.
Further, we cannot state for certain that Hodel was suspected at the time. This is a conclusion that his son draws based on his own deductions which he feels indicate a conspiracy. He does not convince me that the material he presents proves a police coverup. Most certainly the evidence does not prove a coverup beyond a reasonable doubt.
I can't argue that a car was needed to transport the body. How can we say for sure that Wilson didn't have access to a car either on his own or through an associate? Since the body was drained of blood (exanguinated) the car would not show much in the way of evidence that it transported a dead body. Of course the car would carry trace evidence such as hair samples and possibly fibers if the body was wrapped at some time in order to facilitate transfer.
Regarding the medical abilities of the killer, I agree that the authorities suspected a medical man and the killing did show evidence of medical knowledge. However, as to Hodel, he was a gynecologist and not a surgeon. This places him in a better position than Wilson and many others to bisect the body but this does not make him the killer.
Note that Wilson appears to have known that Beth Short had a blind vagina. He stated "You couldn't F**k her' this is something only the killer would have known. Hodel attempts to explain this away by saying his father performed a hysterectomy on her. This is not in the autopsy. It appears that the killer only made a rough incision along her pubic area and placed pieces of her flesh inside the cavity.
As for the killer not killing again. this is impossible to say. John Douglas states that 'Three days after Short's body was found Mary Tate was savagely attacked and then strangled with a silk stocking. A month later, Jeanne French was found mutilated, with obscenities written on her corpse in lipstick. Another woman was mutilated, then throughout the summer three more suffered gruesome deaths through beating and/or strangulation. All bore some features that seemed to link them to Short's death-...' THE CASES THAT HAUNT US (PG.239) Obviously, if one goes looking hard enough one will find plenty of unsolved murders of young women in the wake of the Dahlia killing. Are they the work of one man or copycat killings? We simply do not know the answer.
As for a journalism background many killers with no background in journalism send the police taunting letters. The son of Sam did this as well as the Zodiac killer. others who may be more cautious do not send such letters.
We are in agreement as to the photographs. They were not pictures of Beth Short.
Thanks for raising some interesting points. I also believe the case can still be solved. Sorry for any spelling errors as I did this in a bit of a rush.
Best Regards
Gary
P.s. Hodel's book doesn not have an index and that drives me crazy. |
Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2003 - 1:13 pm: |
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Hi, Gary and Maura--
There is so much to discuss here, but for now, let me focus in on something I raised in my previous post--my idea that the killer may have had a background in journalism.
I based this idea not on the taunting notes sent to police, but on a telephone call, almost certainly from the actual killer, which was made to a city editor (Jim Richardson) a week after the murder. In that phone call, the killer "talked shop" with Richardson, complimenting him on coverage of the case, noting that his newspaper seemed to be running out of good material, etc. The killer then said, "To help you out I'm going to send you a few of her belongings--I'll be interested to see what you can do with them."
Two days later, Richardson's office received the famous package of the victim's belongings.
It is unusual for a serial killer to contact public figures and talk about his crimes. The killer had an unusual interest in the journalistic aspects of the case--perhaps this can be explained by his having a journalism background.
With regards to Jack Wilson: there is simply no evidence linking Wilson to the crime. The only "evidence" against him is his "confession," which Gilmore obtained by giving money to Wilson and plying him with drinks. Wilson's confession is curiously incomplete: he omits several important facts about the murder.
Further, police interviewed so many of Beth Short's friends and acquaintances, but the name of Wilson never came up.
Another thing that bothers me about Gilmore is that he was never able to produce the audiotapes he claims he made of Wilson's confession. He only has the transcripts. Gilmore claims he "lost" the tapes. Think about it--if you had a guy on tape admitting to one of the crimes of the century, would you just "lose" the evidence??
Something is fishy about the whole thing. |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Police Constable
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 5
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 2:09 pm: |
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Hi Eliza and All
Eliza, you raise some interesting points. It appears to be true that Wilson gave his "confession" while fortified with a drop or two his favorite beverage. It is possible that Mr. Wilson could have had knowlegde of Beth Short's anatomy through leading questions supplied by Mr. Gilmore.
I am not pleased to hear that Mr. Gilmore's primary source material, namely the tapes, have been lost. I wasn't aware of this or if I did read it I had forgotten the information.
As I said in an earlier post I firmly believe the solution is still open to debate. I do not believe either Hodel or Wilson to be the killer.
Nevertheless, I still believe the case can be solved. Someone out there who may still be living knows the truth. In looking over Hodel's interesting information on the 'missing days' between January 9th and January 15th, Short was sighted with at least two and perhaps three people. One of these individuals seems to have been a woman. In my opinion, I would not rule out the fact that more than one person was involved.
What is needed is for someone to research the facts and let the evidence lead where it may. I agree with others that establishing a suspect and then to try and have the facts suit the suspect is the wrong way to go about solving these cases. This is true of the Ripper as well and is the reason that books like Sugden's are so well received.
Best Regards
Gary
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Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 1:41 pm: |
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Thoughtful post, Gary.
Yes, Gilmore himself admitted he "lost" the tapes when he appeared on an American show, Entertainment Tonight, back in the late '90s. I didn't see the show but I read a partial transcript of it in Mary Pacios' book "Childhood Shadows." I think was Gilmore consciously or subconsciously leading on the suspect, prompting him in subtle ways to say things Gilmore wanted to hear.
This kind of thing goes on in journalism more often than the average person might think. I used to work in that field, so Gilmore's account raised some red flags with me.
I am aware of the flaws of Hodel's book but I still think George Hodel is a credible suspect. The idea that he would say something like "supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia--they couldn't prove it now" is highly suspicious. I can't think why an innocent man would make that kind of statement. |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Sergeant
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 14
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 9:19 pm: |
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Eliza
Sounds like you are well aware of the problem of leading questions and subtle prompts by the interviewer.
Regarding Hodel's statement "Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia-they couldn't prove it now", It sounds to me like the boasting of a supreme egotist. The type who makes statements calculated to get a reaction from the listener regardless of the validity of the statement-
but then again who knows?
Best Regards
Gary |
Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 2:57 pm: |
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Hodel's father certainly was a supreme egotist, but then so was the Black Dahlia killer IMO.
Hodel's father's statement is certainly not conclusive proof that he is the killer. However, when you look at the statement in context it sounds like there is more going on than mere boasting. He also says to his unknown male friend (accomplice?), "Don't confess--ever." "We are just a couple of smart boys, aren't we?" And "maybe I killed my secretary too." It sounds to me like the two are sharing some kind of secret.
I think the DA in Los Angeles ought to release the entire transcript so that we can get a clearer picture of what was going on with Hodel and the man he was talking to. |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Sergeant
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 28
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 12:10 pm: |
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Hi Eliza
In a previous post you mentioned The Pacios' book. I have tried to find it and I can't. Could I please get the publisher from you or another reader.
I understand it implicates a famous individual and I dread that possibility.
Best
Gary |
Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 1:57 pm: |
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The only way I know to get Pacios' book is to order it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
It is a touching book in many ways, as it was written by a woman who was close friends with the victim. It features recollections from family and friends who knew Elizabeth. It also provides a good overview of the murder and subsequent investigation.
The author's own suspect is not very convincing --if the suspect was still alive he would have a good case for libel in my opinion. But it is still well worth reading. |
ERey
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2003 - 1:05 pm: |
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It’s interesting to see that the denizens of Casebook have taken an interest in the latest twist in the Black Dahlia case. Since the online contributions of Ripperologists helped warn me off the much-publicized Patricia Cornwell book (it seemed so convincing on “Primetime Thursday”!), maybe I can return the favor.
Steve Hodel’s book has a number of things in common with the Cornwell book. Like that book, it’s partly a case of murder investigation via art interpretation. It also seeks to link its suspect to the crime by way of letters that most experts believe are hoaxes, not from the killer. And both books have benefited from savvy publicity and indulgent treatment in the media.
Some posters on this thread have been intrigued by the revelations about John Huston and Man Ray in the Hodel book. Well, they may be intriguing, but that doesn’t mean they’re true.
I can’t speak at length about John Huston, as I know much less about him than I do about Man Ray. (Incidentally, there’s no indication, outside Hodel’s claims, that these two ever met.) Here, at least, Hodel does have one concrete connection to show: his mother was indeed Huston’s first wife, back when Huston was a struggling writer (directing came later). As for the rest, well, let’s just say you can’t get sued for libeling the dead. While Huston was no saint – he had some brushes with the law, though none involved any kind of sexual misdeeds – somehow I really, really doubt he ever attempted forcible rape on an 11-year-old. I mean, come on.
I can, however, state with assurance that the lurid stuff about Man Ray is provably false. Hodel’s sources claim that Man Ray left LA to move back to Paris just after George Hodel’s incest trial, for fear of being somehow implicated himself. Actually, Man Ray continued to live in LA for more than a year after that time. Similarly, Hodel writes, insinuatingly, that Man Ray took a trip to France at the height the Black Dahlia investigation. In fact, this trip took place in August of 1947, months after the case had cooled.
This is hardly arcane knowledge. It’s available, among other places, in the standard Man Ray biography, “Man Ray: American Artist” by Neil Baldwin. Baldwin’s book is highly readable and carefully annotated with primary sources, such as correspondence. That Hodel could somehow miss these basic facts, yet dig up obscure works by the artist to prove his points, seriously undermines his credibility.
Similarly, Hodel’s depiction of Man Ray as some unabashed sadistic misogynist is completely groundless. For this, Hodel seems to have taken the overheated language of academic art criticism, out of context and literally, and then hype it some more. In fact, I think I can tell you exactly what page of which essay in what book he was cribbing from. All other indications – including some referred to in that same essay – are that Man Ray liked women a lot, and not just sexually. They liked him, too.
Moreover, Hodel never shows that Man Ray had any involvement with Hodel’s parents beyond a cordial relationship between a portrait photographer and his clients. Outside this book, there’s nothing to indicate Man Ray even knew these people.
Hodel’s conviction-via-art of his father doesn’t hold up any better. Most of the connections Hodel tries to make between the murder and Man Ray’s art are too silly to mention, but he does seem to have something, maybe, when comparing the position of the victim’s body to the photograph “Minotaur”. Anyone can see that the correlation is by no means “precise”, as Hodel claims, but at least there’s a vague resemblance. Unfortunately for Hodel, there’s almost no chance that his father ever saw this photograph, and Hodel doesn’t even attempt to show that he did.
When Man Ray fled Nazi-occupied Paris, he only took a handful of his photographs with him, and “Minotaur” was not one of them. He didn’t get his belongings back from Paris until late 1947, hence that trip in August of that year. If this rather obscure 1933 photo appeared in print anywhere prior to 1947, it was probably in a somewhat ephemeral periodical circulated in Paris, with at most a few thousand copies printed. Now, what do you think are the odds that one of those copies ended up in the hands of one Dr. George Hodel of Los Angeles, California?
As you can see, Steve Hodel’s investigation-by-art-criticism is about as good as Patricia Cornwell’s.
The only other thing I’d like to point out, since nobody else has, is that the “discovery” that George Hodel actually was a suspect in the Black Dahlia case in 1949 and 1950 is a double-edged sword for Steve Hodel. On the one hand, it was great publicity for the book just as it was being launched. But on the other hand, by making it clear that Hodel’s father, mother, and half-sister were well aware that Hodel’s father was being investigated for the crime, it casts serious doubt onto Hodel’s claim that he had no inkling of this until he looked at his late fathers photo album and found those curious photos… that don’t actually look anything like the Black Dahlia.
Anyway, here are a few links that may be of interest to those interested (float your cursor over the text to find the links; they don’t seem to be showing up):
Kyle J Wood gives a concise overview of the various theories about the case, including Hodel’s. (Please be aware that some of the links imbedded in Wood’s text lead to crime-scene and autopsy photos.)
LA Times reporter Larry Harnisch has his own site. Although it’s kind of disorganized, there’s a lot of good stuff there. (Interestingly, Harnisch is critical of John Gilmore’s book “Severed”, saying one of Gilmore’s key sources does not appear to exist.) For one, he says that Steve Hodel paid a large amount of money, on Ebay, for some snapshots believed to be of Elizabeth Short, in February of this year. Very curious.
And here’s writer Gary Indiana’s scathing review of Hodel’s book in the LA Times. Although I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Indiana’s writing in general, his kind of bitchy wit does have its uses. |
Eliza Cline
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 2:39 pm: |
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I had never heard of Man Ray until Hodel's book came out, but the more I read about him, the more I realize he has been sadly maligned in Hodel's book. Ray was no "practicing sadist," and I doubt any artwork of his inspired the Black Dahlia killer.
Hodel's son may have issues with his dad and he is really reaching in some parts of the book. However, I continue to think that George Hodel is a more plausible suspect than most. I have tried to summarize the evidence against him, as follows:
George Hodel's handwriting is very similar to that of the "Black Dahlia Avenger" letters.
Some of the Avenger letters were written on printing-sheet paper--Hodel had such paper in his home.
Hodel owned a watch similar to one that was found in the vicinity of the Dahlia crime scene.
An unidentified witness claimed to have seen Hodel and Beth Short at a party (from Grand Jury files).
Hodel was familiar and comfortable with the Biltmore--he apparently dined there often and lodged there while apartment-hunting. (Short was last seen at the Biltmore). (The first Avenger letter was deposited in a box in front of the Biltmore).
Hodel had the requisite medical knowledge to commit the crime.
Hodel is caught on tape saying, "Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now." He also said, "Don't confess--ever." "Imperfections with have to be made perfect."
Beth Short talked about a man named "George" during the last month of her life.
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Detective Sergeant
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 103
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 3:32 pm: |
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Hello
I read Mary Pacios' book while I was away on vacation a week and a half ago. It was an interesting perspective but I must admit I skimmed the portions on the alleged 'famous killer'
I believe serious attention should be paid to the two men and one woman who upset Beth so much while she was staying in San Diego. In the missing days between the night of January 9th through January 15th when her body was found.
she was seen in rather unkempt appearance a number of times during these days in the company of two men and a woman
Best Regards
Gary |
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