From Thomas De Quincey's- Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1842):
"People begin to see that something more goes to the composition of a fine murder than two blockheads to kill and be killed--a knife--a purse--and a dark lane. Design, gentlemen, grouping, light and shade, poetry, sentiment, are now deemed indispensable to attempts of this nature...
Like Aeschylus or Milton in poetry, like Michael Angelo in painting, he has carried his art to a point of colossal sublimity; and, as Mr. Wordsworth observes, has in a manner "created the taste by which he is to be enjoyed." To sketch the history of the art, and to examine its principles critically, now remains as a duty for the connoisseur...."
The Society of Connoisseurs in Murder
From Thomas De Quincey's--Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1842)
Man Ray Hollywood sketch- November 1940
This 1940 sketch by MAN RAY was one of the first drawings completed during his "Hollywood Years" shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles in the fall of 1940. Man Ray would remain in Hollywood as a close friend and family photographer to George and Dorero (Dorothy) Hodel for more than a decade before temporarily returning to Paris, France in the summer of 1947 and then permanently relocating in 1951.
The key to understanding the serial crimes of Dr. George Hill Hodel has been found in his love for and homage to - SURREALISM.
As both nihilist and misanthrope this wannabe Dadaist used that art-movement's "Manifesto" in part as his personal guide to and justification for his serial killings.
His unique M.O. and Signature was to commit his murders by plagiarizing from: Art, Literature, Film and Music. This was the method of his madness.
During the 1940s through the 1960s he held whole cities hostage by way of his serial crimes in: Los Angeles, Chicago, Manila, Philippines and very possibly the San Francisco Bay area.
As a "marketing genius" George Hodel played and taunted both the press and the police by sending dozens of taunting letters threatening to "Kill More" knowing full well his megalomaniacal actions would guarantee him page-one, above-the-fold headlines.
Below link is a PDF to the complete Black Dahlia Avenger Chapter 19 in which I first identified more than a half-dozen surrealist connections to the Black Dahlia Murder.
Chapter 19 Surrealism Connections BDA 2002.pdf
See link below for separate articles and BDA FAQs under Surrealism Connections
http://stevehodel.com/hodel-faq.htm#Man Ray Surrealism Connections
For the Record--
From the beginning and continuing throughout my ongoing investigation I continue to believe that neither Man Ray nor any of his fellow surrealists were ever active, knowing participants or accomplices to my father's crimes(s). [With the two exceptions of artist, Fred Sexton and abortionist, Charles Smith.]
It has always been and remains my position that I believe his surrealist friends knew or suspicioned HIS CRIME(S) only AFTER they occurred. The only finger that has ever been pointed at Man Ray by any witness that could even be considered a "crime" came from my half-sister, Tamar and related to his taking nude photographs of her when she was age-11. But, she underscored this revelation with the fact that he never did anything or had any physical contact with her.
As I follow the evidence after a decade of investigation, these facts remain unchanged. That said, the evidence continues to build that George Hodel's crimes were INSPIRED by a twisted mind that admired and perhaps even worshipped the works of his surrealist friends and the evidence is strong that his crimes were in HOMAGE to MAN RAY, and others George Hodel considered to be HIS fellow Dadaists. George Hodel "exhibited" Elizabeth Short as a human sculpture posed for all to see and "admire." His surgeon's scalpel was his paintbrush and her bisected body was his canvas. Her murder and posing was HIS MASTERPIECE.
Black Dahlia Crime Scene- A surgeon and wannabe Dadaist's homage to his friend Man Ray's two greastest works: THE MINOTAURE & LES AMOUREUX, THE LOVER'S LIPS
In this photo I have compared Man Ray's 1933 Lovers Lips photograph in which HE COMBINED the two themes of the lips and a woman's bisected body. Compare this to George Hodel's combining of the surgically carved lips [not slashed as the myth would have you believe] with the bisection and posing in imitation of Man Ray's 1934 Minotaure photograph depicting a woman's surgically bisected body with hands posed overhead.
Below is a POST BLACK DAHLIA MURDER photo taken many years later in France. Here we see Man Ray standing in front of his painting of a bisected body holding a pair of lips and he is giving us a wink and a nod. Compare the Man Ray lips he is holding to the lips in George Hodel's photograph of the nude woman. [Possibly Elizabeth Short, or another Lone Woman Murder victim, as no positive identification has yet been made.]
The Man Ray-Hodel Family Connections throughout the 1940s:
Below is a 1944 Man Ray sculpture given to his friend George Hodel in 1948
My father placed this artwork in a 1999 Butterfield & Butterfield auction but kept his identity anonymous. The piece was identified only as, "The Property of a Gentleman." George Hodel died just weeks before the auction date and sale
Man Ray sculpture on display in George Hodel's Manila Penthouse office circa 1989.
"Modesto Lovers" commissioned by George Hodel in Manila and hand delivered and given as a gift to Juliet Man Ray by George in 1986, some ten years after the death of Man Ray. Note the comparison to Man Ray's original. I quote from my original reference in BDA Chapter 19 in describing George Hodel's Modesto Lovers:
BDA Chapter 19:
...
"Did George Hodel specifically commission this drawing and provide the artist with all of the details to be included, or did Modesto merely use his own creative energies and imagination, independent of his patron? The answer may be hidden in the work itself and what it appears to represent. First, the work is a form of flattery: it's an imitation of Man Ray's "lovers' lips" that extend across the horizon. However, unlike the Man Ray work, the lips in the Modesto are not full red, and the bottom lip is only partially covered. Also, the irregularity of the bottom line in the Modesto suggests dripping blood rather than lipstick. And directly above the lips are three human phalluses. To the left of the lips is a blue canal the shape of a vagina, above which a squadron of nine yellow and ten blue oval-shaped objects seems to be flying, each with its own trailing sperm-like tail."
George & Dorero photo gift from Man Ray 1946 as Butterfield 1999 auction cover photo
Recently discovered Man Ray book inscription to George Hodel 1949 sold in acution for- $5,000
This coming Saturday night, January 21st 2012,* at 8pm PST I will be doing a Black Dahlia related podcast interview on STRANGE FREQUENCIES RADIO.
Recent Comments