Hodel George - Black Dahlia avenger: a genius for murder: the true story

Praise for Black Dahlia Avenger

The most haunting murder mystery in Los Angeles County during the twentieth century has finally been solved in the twenty-first century.

L.A. County Head Deputy District Attorney Stephen R. Kay

Crime was rampant as musicals in Los Angeles in the postwar yearsthis is the age of Bugsy Siegel, the founding of Las Vegas, Mickey Cohen and gun battles on Sunset Boulevard... and its the age of film noir.... George Hodel, I think, is fit company for some of noirs most civilized villainslike Waldo Lydecker in Laura , Harry Lime in The Third Man , or even Noah Cross in Chinatown .

David Thomson, New York Times Book Review

[Hodel] has written an intensely readable account.... So whats the final verdict on Black Dahlia Avenger ? Its accounts of cover-ups and civic corruption are all too believable, and much of the circumstantial evidence it presents against George Hodel is persuasive.... Has Steve Hodel solved the case? I think so.

Jon L. Breen, The Weekly Standard

A must-read.

New York Post

The book has been described as Hannibal Lecter meets L.A. Confidential meets Chinatown , but even that Hollywood characterization doesnt do it justice. Former Los Angeles police detective Steve Hodel has written one of the most compelling true-crime books of all time.

Seattle Weekly

An ex-L.A. cop uncovers a painful answer to the notorious 1947 Black Dahlia slaying. Hodel appears to have solved one of the most sensational murders in the history of Los Angeles.

People

[Hodel] makes a strong case that the Black Dahlia was part of a larger series of ritual murders that went on for years. This unsparing, chilling account of the actions of a perfect psychopath grips to the end.

Toronto Globe and Mail

Hodel tells the story well and with incredible objectivity. A real-life tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

This remarkable book will keep readers riveted from the first page to the very last.

Tucson Citizen

In this 2003 case study, Hodel declares the case is solved. He offers irrefutable evidence piled fact upon fact as only the mind of a professional detective can present. Black Dahlia Avenger is packaged as neatly as a court deposition.

St. Augustine Record

Black Dahlia Avenger is a fascinating and horrifying tale of 1940s Los Angelesas Steve Hodel says, a real-life L.A. Confidential .

San Jose Mercury News

The story boasts all the glamour and sinister mystique of film noir.

The Daily Telegraph (London)

Readers must hang on tightly as Hodel hurtles along on his compelling parallel journeys of discoverya return to the melodramatic days of old Hollywood and a simultaneous plunge into the dark roots of his own family tree.

London Free Press

The best nonfiction book about L.A. crime I have ever read.

Gerald Petievich, author of The Sentinel and To Live and Die in L.A.

Los Angeles is a construct of its mythologies good and bad, fact and fiction. The legend of Elizabeth Short is one of the most enduring. Hodels investigation is thoroughly and completely convincing. So too is this book. As far as I am concerned, this case is closed.

Michael Connelly, author of the New York Times bestseller The Narrows

Copyright 2003, 2012 by Steve Hodel

First Arcade paperback edition 2015

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hodel, Steve, 1941

Black Dahlia avenger : a genius for murder : the true story / Steve Hodel.

pages cm

Originally published in 2003.

Summary: Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective who was a private investigator, takes up the case of the Black Dahlia murder. In an account that partakes both of LA Confidential and Zodiac, for the corruption it exposes and the insight it offers into a serial killers mind, Hodel reveals for the first time the true killer and the massive cover-up of the truthProvided by publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-62872-439-4 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-62872-596-4 (ebook)

1. Short, Elizabeth, 1924-1947. 2. Hodel, George. 3. MurderCaliforniaLos AngelesCase studies. 4. MurderInvestigationCaliforniaLos AngelesCase studies. I. Title.

HV6534.L7H63 2015

364.152'32092dc23

2014043344

Printed in the United States of America

For the victims, living and dead

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of Truth and Love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.

Mahatma Gandhi

Contents

Illustration Acknowledgments

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance he has received from the UCLA Special Collections Department, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Man Ray Trust, and Artists Rights Society.

UCLA Special Collections files:

All UCLA images courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young

Research Library, UCLA

Photograph of Grant Terry/Roger Gardner

Photograph of Jeanette Walser

Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society:

All Man Ray images copyright 2003 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris

Man Ray, Portrait of Dorothy Hodel, 1944

Man Ray, George Hodel, 1946

Man Ray, Self-Portrait

Man Ray, The Minotaur

Man Ray, Les Amoureux

Man Ray, Juliet

Man Ray, The Riddle , or The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse

Man Ray, George Hodel and Yamantaka

Man Ray, Dorothy Hodel, Hollywood, 1944

Los Angeles Public Library:

All LAPL images courtesy of the Herald Examiner Collection / Los Angeles Public Library

Photograph of Beth Short telegram

Photograph of envelope mailed to District Attorney

Photograph of note sent to Herald Express

Photograph of note sent to Herald Express

Photograph of note sent to Herald Express

Photographs of post cards sent to Herald Express

Photograph of Armand Robles

Photographs of notes sent to Herald Express

Photograph of note sent to Herald Express

Photograph of envelope addressed to Herald Express

Photograph of LAPD Chiefs Thad Brown and William Parker

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the author would be happy to hear from them.

Introduction

F OR ALMOST TWENTY-FOUR years, from 1963 to 1986, I was a police officer, and later a detective-supervisor, with the Los Angeles Police Department, a period generally considered to be LAPDs golden years. I was one of Chief William H. Parkers new breed, part of his thin blue line.