Excerpt from Black Dahlia Avenger II
Chapter 8 - The Huston Letters 
Pages 157-160

Chapter 8 

"Back again at George's after two weeks away. ... It is acutely dangerous for the children to be here. There is a growing threat of no control and physical violence..."

Excerpt from Letter No. 6 from Dorothy to John, mailed from Franklin house, 1950

The following highly personal letters were written by my mother, Dorothy Huston Hodel, to her ex-husband, film director John Huston.

The letters span nearly a decade of time, beginning in 1948 and continuing through 1957.

All are highly personal and accurately inform us in real time of the tremendous stresses, both psychological and financial, that our mother was under BEFORE and AFTER our father's arrest for incest.

The letters shine new light into a very dark period of Dorothy's life where we learn that she was attempting to be the sole family breadwinner, as well as a full-time mother, raising three young boys aged 6, 7, and 9.

I am going to let my mother's own words, written in confidence to John, recreate what can only be described as her personal horrors. Her letters capture the very real fear and terror she was experiencing when her ex-husband, our father, George Hodel, was about to harm both her and us!

The first letter to John [April 1948] began a little over a year after the Black Dahlia murder and the tension builds up to and through our father's 1949 LAPD arrest for child molestation and incest, where, according to Mother, he was becoming increasingly unhinged and dangerous. The peak of her personal terror came in the spring and summer of 1950, just after the DA Surveillance of the Franklin house and as George Hodel was preparing to leave the United States.

The source of my discovery of these letters was pure happenstance. I came across them while browsing through the John Huston Files at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California. Within those files, I found an index labeled, "Dorothy Huston." I requested that file and found it contained these original letters written by my mother to John.

 

Letter No. 1                                                                                     

 2313 Bushrod Lane

           Los Angeles 24
       April 7, 1948

             

Dear John,

This letter really should begin: "Stranger, you ask me why I am so sad..." Its precipitating cause is a check I didn't get. I wrote a radio script dealing with a romantic and lovely Russian princess, which was accepted with a perfunctory "Charming" and has remained in the producer's archives since November. When I timidly asked for a check, he recoiled in horror. In view of the Russian Situation and his job, the script can't be produced. No Russian, even one long dead, can be permitted on the air in a glamorous light. And so, so close is the margin on which the babes and I exist, no food, no rent paid, George hasn't given us any alimony for months, and in view of his mental difficulties, I don't want to be unpleasant. I'm really having a tough time, since both the boys and earning a living are a full time job. There aren't enough hours. So many things take time: like listening to a neighbor elucidate Technocracy, so he'll be won over and let Mike ride his pony. Something's always cropping up! We're very happy, and life is good; difficult, but good.

I've got eight radio scripts assigned, but I can't get them out fast enough, or get paid for them fast enough to meet this emergency. Listen...

Two boys in bed with fever and virus x.

Third slightly lacerated from aforementioned pony.

Mother out of hospital after major operation, with us,

Needing medicine and nursing.

No rent paid.

No electric bill paid.

No grocery bill paid.

No bills paid.

No bank balance.

I'll be forty two next week

STRANGER, YOU ASK ME WHY I AM SO SAD.

If you could loan me, and I mean loan, about five hundred dollars (or even five!) I could repay it within six months. This epidemic can't last forever. I finished a script by working all night last night, rushed it by messenger to the producer today, only to discover I can't get paid for it for at least three weeks. Gandhi could have weathered it, but not the boys! I did a washing this morning, cooked, cleaned, took three temperatures, all too high, placed a cool hand of three fevered brows in rapid succession, and ironed until eleven tonight. If this letter sounds flippant or gay, it's only because I'm frightened. I've done everything I could, and it isn't enough

If you're able to help, please do.

Dorothy

Author Notes-

Based on the return address, this letter indicates we are living in a rental several miles north of Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Glen Canyon. The home was called, "ROBBER'S ROOST." Immediately behind the house, there were some high caves set into the mountain. According to legend, these caves were used as a hideout for Banditos at the turn of the century. Situated as they were, literally, in our own backyard, we three brothers would climb up and into them to hangout and "make our plans."

George and Dorothy were separated in 1944 and formally divorced in 1945.

In this April 1948 letter, Mother made reference to our father's "mental difficulties," a full eighteen months in advance of his October 1949 arrest for incest and child molestation, which informs us that they were preexisting and ongoing.

"Mother" was Dorothy Harvey, our maternal grandmother, who in 1948 would have been in her late sixties.

...

 

ALL NEW 2012 UPDATED INVESTIGATION 

 

 590 pages - 300 photo-exhibits

Includes never before published

 LADA Hodel-Black Dahlia Surveillance Transcripts

[146 pages] 

  

 

PURCHASE AT AMAZON

 

   

PURCHASE BARNES AND NOBLE 

 

 

INTRODUCTION BDA II.pdf

 

 

 

 Murray Rose - Remembering the Man

 

 

 

Two minute news video obit

 

"The mark of a great champion is not just how fast they swim in the pool, but it's how they handle everything else in their life. "

                                                                        Murray Rose

 

Murray and I were close friends for the past forty-seven years.

 

 We met in Los Angeles in 1965. Murray was twenty-six and the world's greatest long-distance swimmer. He had recently graduated from USC and was living in Hollywood doing sports television coverage and interviews and auditioning for movie parts. (A year later he got the role of a young Navy lieutenant in Ice Station Zebra, which required some heavy-duty swimming ability. He drowns in the first reel.) 

 

I was twenty-four, two-years his junior, and working LAPD uniform patrol having just finished a nightmare week in South Central which came to be known as the -The Watts Riots.

 

We quickly became best mates. An odd couple really. Murray was surrounded by international fame and had just come from an audience with the Queen of England while I was attending my first autopsies as a rookie homicide detective.

 

From the onset, our coming together had nothing to do with who we were, or where we had come from, but rather, our mutual desire To Know.

 

Our friendship was forged in a Desire for Self Knowledge. We were both asking the same questions: Quo Vadis? Whither goest thou? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?

 

I soon discovered that Murray applied the Olympic motto:  "Citius, Altius, Fortius; "Swifter, Higher, Stronger" not just as an athlete, but also to his personal life. He turned them inward and used them as an inspiration and guidance for his moral compass.

 

Murray's crowning achievement was not his success as one of the world's greatest swimmer's, (although he was that) but rather, as a man who lived his life in Light.

 

Murray, the man lived the Golden Rule, "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you."  His intelligence recognized the value and sameness of all world religions and he was equally comfortable recognizing the truth of the Eastern dictum, "I am Thou and Thou art I."

 

It is said that, "He who lives the life, will know the doctrine." Murray was one of those rare individuals who actually lived the life. 

 

Murray never judged others. He was a man who respected all peoples, all cultures. He possessed a strong, active mind which he regularly seasoned with three main spices; Humility, Wit and Humor.  His family ring bore the Rose inscription, "Constant and True" and he lived those words from the cradle to grave.

 

For those of us who were privileged to know him on a personal level, Murray was a true Mahatma--a Great Soul. He was one with the Light.

 

Murray was a true Torch Bearer. He carried the Light and never faultered, never wavered.

 

Rest in Peace my good friend, until the work shall be complete.

 

Love and Light

 

Steve (Sod)

 

Australia will honor Murray with a tribute on Monday, April 23, 2012. Services  to be held at Sydney's, St. Stephen's Uniting Church. His wife Jodi and son Trevor will be present.

 

 St. Stephen's gallery photos

 

John Konrad's tribute toMurray

 

http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/28964591

 

    

 

BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER II

2012

ALL NEW SIX-YEAR INVESTIGATIVE FOLLOW-UP

 [2006-2011]

590-pages of New Investigation

300-photographs and crime exhibits

146-page UNABRIDGED 1950 LADA Hodel-Black Dahlia

Bugging Transcripts

1950 DA HODEL- BLACK DAHLIA TRANSCRIPTS

 

 

  Falsely accused of being Chicago's 1945 "Lipstick Murderer"

 

             

 17-year-old Heirens Booking 1946      Heirens at Dixon Correctional Facility 2003       

 

 William Heirens, Prisoner C-06103 is dead at age 83-

 

A friend called me this morning to inform me of the sad news.

 

William Heirens, branded in 1946 by the Chicago Police and Press as "The Lipstick Killer" died two days ago, on March 5, 2012.

 

Bill was found unconscious and "non-responsive" in his prison cell and was rushed to a Chicago hospital where he later died.  An autopsy is pending, but will likely show his death was the result of complications arising from his long suffering diabetes.

 

See Washington Post article here.

 

 My response in the POST article comments section was as follows:

 

Eddiethekid did get it RIGHT.

 

Read Dolores Kennedy's book, William Heirens: His Day In Court if you want to learn the truth of it. Other than in her book, published decades after the crime, Bill never did have his day in court.

 

There was NO TRIAL. No evidence was ever presented. No testimony was ever provided as to his guilt. Bill was simply convicted by the tabloid press, who printed a made-up confession based on "official sources" which was totally false.

 

His attorneys told the teenager that he had one of two choices: 1) Confess and save your life or 2) Plead "not guilty" and the court will execute you in less than a year." Bill opted for #1- TO LIVE.

 

To those who say there were no similar crimes after his arrest. NOT SO. In my own book, MOST EVIL, I present a summary of the Heirens investigation and make a strong compelling case that additional crimes occurred both BEFORE and AFTER his arrest.

 

In fact the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office contacted and requested info and conducted a formal investigation of the Lipstick Murders, believing they were connected to the LA "bathtub murder" of Georgette Bauerdorf in 1944. There is also strong evidence connecting the crimes to the 1947 "Lipstick Murder" of LA Lone Woman Murder victim, Jeanne French.

 

Based on Dolores Kennedy's investigation, along with attorney Steve Drizen's and my own follow-up, the facts leave little doubt that Heirens was in truth innocent. Experts in examining the so called "fingerprint linkage" discovered that the lifts were "rolled prints" of the type found from a booking procedure. The expert in his report stated that he had "never in the thousands of print examinations he had conducted, seen or found such a rolled print at a crime scene."

 

Incidentally, the arresting officer, Abner Cunningham and Sgt. Thomas Laffey, who discovered the fingerprint, split the sizeable reward money for Heirens arrest.

 

Heirens never gave up his belief that "one day, the truth would be known and he would establish his innocence." Sadly, that day never came.

 

Rest in Peace Bill.

Steve Hodel, LAPD Hollywood Homicide (ret.)

 

Judge Luther Swygert of the U.S. Court of Appeals had this to say about the Heirens Case in 1968:

 

"The case presents the picture of a public prosecutor and defense counsel, if not indeed the trial judge, buckling under the pressure of a hysterical and sensation-seeking press bent upon obtaining retribution for a horrendous act. The State's Attorney and defense counsel usurped the judicial function, complying with a community scheme inspired by the press to convict the defendant without his day in court."

 

Heirens when informed by prison officials that " if he would admit to his crimes he would very likely be paroled and set free"--had this to say:

 

"In 1946, I had to be guilty to live. I was seventeen and I wanted to live. Now they tell me I have to be guilty to be set free. I'm sixty years old now and I will never again admit to murders I did not commit."

 

 

Based on a decade of personal investigation into the facts surrounding William Heirens 1946 arrest, I have no doubt that Bill was wrongfully imprisoned for a series of murders - HE DID NOT COMMIT. 

 

Separate from my own investigation as laid out in my book, MOST EVIL (Dutton 2009) professional and independent investigations by attorney Steve Drizen's Team at Northwestern University's, Center on Wrongful Convictions, as well as Dolores Kennedy's investigation as documented in her book, William Heirens: His Day In Court (Bonus Books, Chicago 1991) as well as the dozens of forensic experts and legal investigators who all agree- HEIRENS WAS INNOCENT.

 

 The evidence is support of his wrongful conviction is overwhelming.

See just a partial summary  here.

 

In the end- JUSTICE WAS DENIED.

 

Bill Heirens did not commit the crime, but did the time.

 

Arrested when he was just a boy of 17, he served 66 years in prison.

 

Imagine being locked in a 6x6 foot cell and waking up every day knowing you ARE innocent and  counting as the clock ticks off the days, the months, and the years of your life.

 

Bill Heirens did just that. He counted each day until the clock and his heart stopped on the--23,979^th day.

 

Only now, in death is he FREE.

 

My heart felt  thanks and utmost respect to all of you who brought a little Hope and Light into Bill's life.

 

Especially to Dolores Kennedy his best and closest friend.  Dolores never gave up and  fought the good fight on behalf of Bill until the very end. 

 

Also, thanks to attorney Steve Drizen and his team at the Center on Wrongful Convictions, at Chicago's, Bluhm Legal Center, Northwestern University School of Law.

 

   

 

 

 

Left- Dolores Kennedy's excellent book- William Heirens: His Day In Court

 

Right- Heirens faking it to save his life seen demonstrating to police how he supposedly climbed out window and  down wood ladder to carry victim's body away. (Many argued, the act as described, would have been physically impossible)

 

Below- Witness George Subgrunski on front page of Chicago Tribune laughing while pointing to photo of Heirens. Subgrunski an "eye-witness" initially told police the suspect he saw on night of Degnan Murder was "Male approx 35-years, but he didn't see the man's face clear enough so was unable to ID anybody. Later he told police he couldn't ID Heirens as the suspect, then after newspaper printed a made-up Heirens "confession" Subgrunski changed his story to "That's the man" and became "star witness" and a hero to the press and public.

 

 

 

 

 

Author/Journalist Dolores Kennedy Bill Heirens Best Friend and Strongest Advocate

Photo from her book Bill Heirens: His Day in Court  1999

 

 

REST IN PEACE BILL HEIRENS

 

 

 

THE BAUERDORF NOTE- Update 2012

Photograph of actual Note typed by Bauerdorf Killer (Red spots were placed on paper by killer to mimic blood. Analysis by LA Sheriff's crime lab showed substance to be the medical antiseptic--IODINE.)

 

In my original investigation of the 1940s Lone Woman Murders, I presented evidence which I believe linked the 1944 Georgette Bauerdorf murder to other crimes which occurred both pre-and-post Black Dahlia. I won't here review all of that linkage, but want to just focus on and update one particular aspect of that investigation--The Bauerdorf Note.

First let me restate some points originally presented in 2003 in Black Dahlia Avenger- pages 306-308:

 

Nearly a year after the murder, an article appeared in the Examiner on September 21, 1945, that read almost like an epitaph. The story included a typed note from someone claiming to be her killer. Below the headline the paper ran Georgette's picture, along with the note, in which the killer taunted the police and promised to revisit the Hollywood Canteen within the month. The note, exactly as the self-proclaimed killer typed it, read:

 

To the Los Angeles police--

Almost a year ago Georgette

Bauerdorf, age 20, Hollywood

Canteen hostess was murdered

in her apartment in West Holly-

wood--

Between now and Oct. 11--a year

after her death--the one who

murdered her will appear at the

Hollywood Canteen. The murderer

will be in uniform. He has since

he committed the murder been in

action at Okinawa. The murder

of Georgette Bauerdorf was Divine

Retribution--

Let the Los Angeles police arrest

the murderer if they can--

 

            An eleven-year-old student named Marilyn Silk had found the note on her way home from school. Written on a sheet of personal notepaper and stuffed inside a dirty envelope, the missive was lying on a stone retaining wall near Fairfax High School in Hollywood. The newspaper also dropped a clue that had not been disclosed to the public at the time of the homicide a year earlier when it reported, "There was the suggestion by friends that she [Bauerdorf] was accompanied home by a man in uniform."

           

            What struck me in the Bauerdorf case was its obvious similarity to the later Dahlia killing, in which the suspect also taunted police via notes to the newspaper. The Bauerdorf suspect promised police that he would appear at the Hollywood Canteen in uniform by October 11. (Father's birthday was October 10.) The killer's "Let the Los Angeles police arrest the murderer if they can" echoes the words used two years later in the pasted message to the police in the Dahlia case: "We're going to Mexico City--catch us if you can." The killer's need to seek recognition and publicity for his crimes was a way to exert control both over the police and his victim. Announcing that Georgette's murder was not a crime but his dispensation of "Divine Retribution" also bears an eerie resemblance to what Elizabeth Short's killer would say two years later when he called himself the "Black Dahlia Avenger."

 

The Bauerdorf Note

            Other similarities in both the Elizabeth Short and Bauerdorf homicides are, in my opinion, striking enough to be considered thoughtprints linking the same suspect to the two crimes.

            In both cases, the notes the suspect wrote to the police suggest that he had some experience as a journalist. In the Bauerdorf murder note, the taunting letter opens with a lead paragraph similar in style to the lead paragraph of a morning newspaper in which the "what, when, where, and who" are all answered.

 

To the Los Angeles police--

 (when) (who)

Almost a year ago Georgette

Bauerdorf, age 20, Hollywood

     (What)

 Canteen hostess, was murdered

           (where)

in her apartment in West Holly-

wood--                                                             

The killer tells us the "why" in his next sentence, where he identifies the crime as an act of retribution, and in so doing identifies himself indirectly as an "avenger."

            In the pasted Dahlia notes, the killer again demonstrates journalistic knowledge, this time as a headline writer, in his two separate taunts to police:

'Go Slow'

Man Killer Says

Black Dahlia Case

 

Followed in a few days by:

Dahlia's Killer Cracking, Wants Terms

                These are not notes from a streetwise thug, but professional headlines. So professional, in fact, that true-crime author and commentator Joseph Wambaugh told television viewers in the Learning Channel's production Case Reopened: The Black Dahlia that:

"Obviously journalists sent the letter. Cutting and pasting newsprint as was done in a B-movie clichés of the era. The same cruel and unscrupulous reporters who elicited background information from Mrs. Short, the mother, by claiming her daughter had won a beauty contest. But, at the end of the day, they didn't prevent the case from being solved."

 

[Author Note- Wambaugh's observation above referencing his belief that "unscrupulous journalists sent the notes" was made on the television show in October, 1999, some four years before the publication of my book.]

                                     

There exists another clue to the identity of the letter writer in his unique method and manner of typing, seen in six different locations in the Bauerdorf note, in which he unconsciously leaves two separated dashes (--) at the end of some of his sentences. In the Bauerdorf note these double-dashes follow the words: "police--", "Hollywood--", "Oct. 11--", "death--", "Retribution--", and "can--".

In the long letter Father sent me on June 4, 1980, referred to here as The Parable of the Sparrows, which he typed himself rather than giving it to his secretary or wife to type, there are five separate instances where he used his unique double-dash endings:

Page 2

"plastic coating--"

 "mirror film-- "

Page 3

                "for Dorero--"

"to her--"

"Remember--"

The use of these double-spaced dashes is such a rarity that their appearances in the Bauerdorf note and in my father's letter to me set off a loud alarm.

Exhibit 56a shows how the original note appeared in the September 21, 1945, Examiner article along with Georgette's photograph. A separate Los Angeles Times article on the same date informed readers that detectives believe red iodine stains visible on the typed paper were placed there by the suspect to represent blood. Exhibit 56b is reproduced from my father's Franklin House sales brochure, prepared in 1949, and shows him seated atop his desk, which pictures an old Royal typewriter (enlarged as insert). This typewriter could well have been the instrument used to type the Bauerdorf note, and those of some of the later crimes.

Exhibit 56a and 56b

Mystery Writer Jon L. Breen-

In August, 2003, Jon L. Breen, the highly respected, veteran mystery-writer and two-time MWA Edgar Award winner, wrote an early critique of my book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder.

Breen's thoughtful critique entitled "Daddy Did It" was published in The Weekly Standard on August 18, 2003. His six-page review was well-balanced and pointed to what he then considered to be some of the strengths and weaknesses in my investigation.

One of the weaknesses highlighted by Jon Breen was from the section currently under review--the Bauerdorf Note. Here is the extract from  Mr. Breen's 2003 critique:

"Hodel obviously is not required to make an iron clad case...Still; reasoning that is far-fetched or obviously erroneous serves to cast further doubt on his main case. For example, Hodel compares one of his father's typewritten letters with one purportedly from the killer of Georgettle Bauerdorf, victim of a 1944 bathtub murder. Hodel assumes that using a double hyphen to represent a dash is somehow unusual. On the contrary, it is standard. Word processing programs do it automatically."

            Mr. Breen ended his 2003 review with the following:

"So what is 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, but he has some tidying up to do for the paperback edition."

Five years later, he included his original full review of Black Dahlia Avenger in his excellent book, A Shot Rang Out: Selected Mystery Criticism (Ramble House 2008) adding the below P.S.:

Postscript 2008: Hodel did in fact include additional material to strengthen his case...One writer who believes his solution is Orson Welles biographer, Simon Callow, who examines the evidence against Welles with some admiration in Orson Welles: Hello Americans (2006) before averring that Hodel's conclusion is definitive. [Emphasis mine--and 'thank you" Mr. Callow.]

 

An English Teacher/ Tech Editor Proofs the Bauerdorf Note

"The writer [Bauerdorf Note] had both masterful/arcane knowledge of English punctuation as well as of specialized typographic/printer (!) conventions."

A few years back I received this welcome and informative e-mail from a high-school English teacher and former tech-writer/editor.  "P.M." had this to say about the Bauerdorf Note, excerpted from his longer e-mail:

Dear Mr. Hodel:

...

I'm almost done with your fascinating & engaging book, which I bought
after finishing James Ellroy's "My Dark Places." I'm a retired (63)
tech writer/editor from Silicon Valley & Microsoft (Redmond WA) with a
Calif. Credential to teach H.S. English. So...
Those double dashes were more than a personal peculiarity: in
the age of typewriters, they were the accepted substitute for what's
called an "em" dash, a punctuation mark similar in use/meaning to a
semicolon but less formal (precedes amplification of meaning, etc.).
They weren't on typewriters, so people used 2 dashes instead. The
single/shorter dash ("en" dash) and hyphens have different usages &
meanings. So the writer using them (your Dad) had both
masterful/arcane knowledge of English punctuation as well as of
specialized typographic/printer (!) conventions. Hmmm...

 

                                                                                    P.M., South Carolina

            Thank you P.M. for setting the record straight on what I in 2003 ignorantly referred to as my father's seemingly, "unconscious characteristic of using double-dashes."

 

EM and EN --A Quick English Lesson for Dummies (like me)

em·dash or em dash ( m d sh ) n.

A symbol ( ) used in writing and printing to indicate a break in thought or sentence structure, to introduce a phrase added for emphasis, definition, or explanation, or to separate two clauses.(Its name derives from being the width of an m in printing.)

en·dash or en dash ( n d sh ) n.

A symbol (- ) used in writing or printing to connect continuing or inclusive numbers or to connect elements of a compound adjective when either of the elements is an open compound, as 1880-1945 or Princeton-New York trains.(Its name derives from being the width of an n in printing.) 

In the below exhibit I have reproduced both the killer's original 1945 typed Bauerdorf Note and the LA Times retyped reproduction of it both of which were published in the newspaper.

Note that in the killer's typewriter written note on the right we see he was forced to use "double dashes" [highlighted with red arrows] since the EM dash was not available to him.

However, when the newspaper reproduced the killer's note, [left] they correctly replaced his intended EM dash, with actual ones, which were available to them on their linotype machines. [Also highlighted with red arrows. Note they missed reproducing two of his EM dashes which I have indicated as green arrows.]

 

Bauerdorf Note- "To The Los Angeles Police"

 

 

            In the below exhibit I have extracted the sections of my father's original 1980 Parable of the Sparrows Letter, wherein he demonstrates his continued  use of the typewritten "double dash" in place of the EM dash. The letter, also written on a typewriter, predated computers by just a few years. I believe the first commercial use, making the EM dash available on WordStar and DOS, was offered just two-years later, in 1982-1983.

 

 

 Author's Note

A  massive amount of circumstantial evidence linking George Hodel to the Georgette Bauerdorf Murder underscoring it as one of the "Lone Woman Murders" has surfaced since the original publication of BDA. That information/evidence has been presented elsewhere in my writings. This blog merely examines and updates the information pertaining to the Bauerdorf Note.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

I  originally published the below blog in September, 2010. I am republishing it now with important updated information,  which I believe adds great weight to my original premise that the 1947 Black Dahlia and 1968-9 Zodiac crimes are SIGNATURE LINKED.  

Two-page Zodiac Letter Mailed to  newspaper on Dec 16, 1969

Filed and Forgotten for Forty-Years.  Is It legitimate? 

 

Page 1  Zodiac Letter 

 

Based on my recent examination (I was unaware that this letter existed until one week ago) 

I believe this letter was most probably written by Zodiac.

Further, based on the contents and characteristics included in this letter, I believe it adds important additional corroboration to my investigation pointing to the possibility that my father, in addition to being L.A.'s 1947 "Black Dahlia Avenger" did in fact, reinvent himself two decades later as San Francisco Bay Area's, ZODIAC.

The following  new exhibits are offered in support of that conclusion.

If I am correct, then the importance of the San Francisco Examiner mailing is not simply to add one more letter to the pile of known Zodiac writings.

Rather, I believe this new lead justifies having a criminalist examine, swab and analyze the San Francisco Examiner letter flap and stamp (if one exists?) for potential saliva which could aid law enforcement in obtaining a full DNA profile on Zodiac.

 San Francisco Letter page 1 typed by author for easy readability:

 

   

  

Page 2

 

 

1947 Black Dahlia Avenger - Crude Knife Drawing Signature No. 1

Below is a scanned excerpt from my 2003 book, Black Dahlia Avenger, pages 196-197.It details a February 11, 1947 incident where the Black Dahlia killer leaves a message and crudely drawn picture of a knife and pistol inside the glove compartment of a taxi cab with the message to immediately deliver the demand and drawings to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. (To my knowledge, the actual drawing of the knife along with the handprinted text were never published in the newspaper. Only a verbatim quote of what the killer wrote as shown below.)

 

 

 Black Dahlia Avenger- Zodiac Signature No. 2- The Arrows, Exclamation Marks and "Ha! Ha!"

We know from our investigation that George Hodel as the Black Dahlia Avenger used the term "ha ha" coupled with exclamation marks on a  letter he sent  to the Los Angeles press. He also marked his messages with arrows. So did Zodiac. 

Below are several samples of the 1947 handprinted "BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER" messages he mailed to the press using similar wording and arrows as seen in the San Francisco Examiner Letter.

 

   

The below exhibit shows some additional ZODIAC mailings where he has used arrows in his messages.

The bottom photograph was taken of my father and some of his business associates in Manila, Philippines- circa 1986. Note that he has marked the photo referencing "Man Ray" using a red felt tip pen. (Note- My father's writing instrument of choice when not typing was very frequently a felt tipped pen) The arrow points to an object on the wall which is a Man Ray sculpture created and given to George Hodel by his artist friend in Hollywood in 1948. 

 

   

 Zodiac unique cursive style "looped" lower case "d"

Perhaps this unusual handwritten lowercase cursive looped "d" has been referenced elsewhere in the various Zodiac investigations and research, but if it has, I haven't seen it mentioned.

I find it particularly interesting because my sense is that it was a totally unconscious handwriting action. What makes it so unique is that Zodiac in the below handwriting samples has printed all of his letters with only  one exception- the LETTER "d"  which he writes as a cursive using a distinctive loop.  Its absence in his writings is not particularly meaningful, but its presence IS.

Take a look at the two KNOWN and VERIFIED Zodiac handwriting samples below. Many of his letters contain BOTH types of lowercase "d". He seems to use both styles with equal frequency, but is consistent about not mixing both types in the same letter. (Due to the massive amount of Zodiac samples, I may have missed an example of this? Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point.)

 

 

  Below we see this unique letter "d" used in Zodiac's 1971 mailing to the L.A. Times:

 

And, in the below exhibit the unique characteristic appears again. This time on the April 30, 1967  Bates mailing to the Riverside Police Department. I know the Zodiac community is divided on whether this crime is an actual Zodiac murder, but those of you who have read my book know that I believe the evidence supports the probability that IT IS A ZODIAC CRIME. I think finding this distinctive cursive lower-case "d" increases that probability.

 

Below we see an enlargement of the December 16, 1969 San Francisco Examiner Letter showing what appear to be identically written cursive style looped "d's." Keep in mind that this letter was mailed two months after the Stine mailing.

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER 12.16.69 LETTER LOOPED CURSIVE "d"

   

    

Sample of Dr. George Hodel's handwritten cursive looped letter d

As I have indicated previously, very few samples of my father's cursive writing exist. He normally either typed or wrote using upper case block letters. Below is a rare example of his cursive. Due to space limitations in his typed 1980 letter to me, which he mailed from the Philippines, he was forced to write using small cursives. Take a look at his lower case letter "d" which I have enlarged for easier viewability.

 

 FBI Handwriting Analysis Receipt for separate Possible Zodiac Letters

 In their official report the FBI cannot eliminate the San Francisco Examiner Letter as being authentic and written by ZODIAC.

  

 

Based on all of the above exhibits it is my belief that this San Francisco Examiner Letter of 12.16.69 may well be genuine and was most probably written by ZODIAC. Further, I believe that there exists a strong likelihood that if the envelope still exists and is tested it could well yield ZODIAC's full profile DNA which could then be entered into the CODIS system and potentially SOLVE THE CASE.

 I would like to acknowledge the following A&E Community Link which first brought to my attention the new information related to the Zodiac/San Francisco Examiner Letter. Added thanks to TV and Seagull for sending me their separate hi-res copies of materials. 

 

UPDATE FEB 20, 2010-  Black Dahlia Avenger "Bleeding Knife Drawing"

In my original summary as detailed above I referenced the February 11, 1947 Los Angeles incident where the Black Dahlia Avenger left "a crude drawing of a knife and pistol" inside the taxi and ordered the cabdriver to "take it to the Examiner" newspaper informing the driver "I've got the number of your cab."   

 

The fact that both George Hodel as the Black Dahlia Avenger, a serial killer and urban terroist and Zodiac, a serial killer and urban terrorist  both left crudely drawn "childlike"notes of knives is  highly unusual and certainly both qualify as unique signatures.

In recent days, I have discovered that the linkage is much stronger than I originally resported. Here's why:

The February 11, 1947 newspaper account of the Avenger Note was reported as containing a "crudely drawn knife and pistol." But, without seeing the actual drawing (not published by the newspaper) it still remained a bit generic.as relates to the Zodiac drawing some two decades later. 

In reviewing my investigation I discovered an earlier Avenger note, which I had forgotten about, and which also had  not been published in the newspapers. .This one was mailed by the Black Dahlia Avenger to the Los Angeles Examiner  on January 28, 1947. While the press speculated it could have been a possible "child's crank" the homicide detective who received it, forwarded the note to the LAPD crime-lab for analysis.

Here is the original LA TIMES article:

 

 

 

 

Compare to Zodiac's 1969 drawing of a crude drawing of a dagger dripping blood:

 

When it comes to signature linkage in criminal investigations-- 

"THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES"

 

THE FACT THAT LA'S 1947 AVENGER AND SF'S 1969 ZODIAC BOTH SENT CRUDELY DRAWN "CHILDLIKE BLEEDING DAGGERS" TO THE PRESS COUPLED WITH ALL THE ADDITIONAL LINKAGE GREATLY ENHANCES THE PROBABILITY THAT THEY WERE WRITTEN BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

(Below information originally reported by me in my FAQ 45) 

 

  

 A signed/original Man Ray portrait photograph of Dr. George Hodel, taken more than sixty-years ago, has recently been identified. (May 2007)

 

The Hodel photograph, a Gelatin silver print measuring 35.4cm x 27.3 cm, a gift from Susan and Neal Yanofsky, was originally donated to the prestigious museum in 2001.

 

At the time it was gifted to Harvard, the identity of George Hodel was either withheld or unknown, and the museum curators catalogued the Man Ray rare silver print simply as:

 

 "Unidentified (portrait of man in front of Chinese wall Hanging)"

 

Since last month's identification of the portrait, Fogg Art Museum curators have now renamed the photograph:

 

Dr. George Hill Hodel (1907-1999)

 

(See below Fogg Art Museum catalogue photographs)

 

 

I contacted the art museum in an effort to obtain additional information on the provenance (ownership history) of my father's photograph and received the following information in response:

 

Our print originated on the West Coast in an (unknown) private collection. The transfer to our donor was mediated by a broker. It came to the Fogg in 2001, but I don't know when it left the private collection, although presumably around the same time.

 

The signature in the lower left hand corner is in black ink. There are no other inscriptions.

                                   

I will post additional information on this fascinating discovery when it becomes known and available.

 

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY --THE FOGG ART MUSEUM

  

The Fogg Art Museum, which opened to the public in 1895, is Harvard's oldest art museum. Around its Italian Renaissance courtyard, based on a sixteenth-century façade in Montepulciano, Italy, are galleries illustrating the history of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular strengths in Italian early Renaissance, British pre-Raphaelite, and nineteenth-century French art.

The Wertheim Collection, housed on the second floor of the Fogg, is one of America's finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist work, and contains many famous masterworks. The Boston area's most important collection of Picasso's work is also found at the Fogg, as well as outstanding collections of photographs, prints, and drawings.

 

Any reader fluent in Chinese that can translate below characters it would be much appreciated:

Email translation to: Steve@stevehodel.com

 

 

 

 

ghh Chinese characters enlarged.tif 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAST LIVING PHOTOGRAPH- OCT 1946

 

 

 

Today marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth Short.

Above is one of a series of  last known photos taken of Elizabeth Short prior to her murder. Elizabeth is seen sitting on the steps off John Marshall High School,in Hollywood. Photo was taken in October, 1946.

John Marshall High School is located in the Los Feliz District of Hollywood, just 1.5 miles east of Dr. Hodel's 1946 Franklin House (A).

REST IN PEACE ELIZABETH

  

This coming Saturday night, January 21st 2012,*  at 8pm PST I will  be doing a Black Dahlia related podcast  interview on STRANGE FREQUENCIES RADIO.

 The show will be hosted by Jason Korbus and Bobby Nelson.  Hopefully, between the three of us, we can make it both interesting and informative. See you there.

Steve Hodel

Here's the link to their podcast.

http://www.strangefrequenciesradio.net

 

 * On January 21st, 1947, LAPD distributed the below WANTED INFORMATION BULLETIN on the victim, Elizabeth "Black Dahlia" Short. The bulletin was distributed in bars, restaurants, hotels in the downtown and Hollywood areas.

Despite the MYTH OF THE MISSING WEEK, fourteen witnesses were located and interviewed (seven of whom actually personally knew the victim). These witnesses actually accounted for Elizabeth's whereabouts in both the downtown and Hollywood area every day of the missing week up and through January 14, 1947. The body was found the following day, January 15, 1947 posed on a vacant lot, some five miles south of Hollywood.

 

 January 21, 1947

 

Chicago, Illinois

January 17, 2012

 

"The Innocence project is calling on Cook County to conduct a review of all cases involving juvenile confessions."

 

Let's hope that this will include a review of William Heiren's 1946 false confession as a teenager for three "Lipstick Murders" crimes that he falsely confessed to to save himself from being executed.

Bill, as summarized in my book, MOST EVIL, is currently serving his 66th year in Illinois State Prison for three murders HE DID NOT COMMIT. Physical Evidence containing the real killer's potential DNA was booked into evidence at the FBI laboratory. Does it still exist? Will they test it?

 

 

Innocence Blog

Four Chicago Men Cleared After 17 Years

Posted: January 17, 2012 5:00 pm

Michael Saunders, Terrill Swift, Harold Richardson and Vincent Thames were officially exonerated today when prosecutors decided to drop the charges against them for a 1994 murder in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. The so-called "Englewood Four" were wrongfully convicted as teenagers based on their false confessions although DNA evidence always demonstrated that they could not have been the perpetrators.
 
Today's decision comes after months of resistance from the State's Attorney's Office. DNA testing results implicating the real perpetrator, a convicted murderer, were released nearly a year ago. In spite of this overwhelming evidence of innocence, the prosecution stood by the convictions. Saunders and Richardson were released in November 2011 when a Chicago judge threw out the convictions. Swift and Thames were already released and living under strict regulation as registered sex offenders. 
 
Read more about the case here.
 
Help prevent future injustice. Join the Innocence Project's online community to receive regular updates and action alerts.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/Blog.php