Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ex-Cop Claims His Father Was 'Black Dahlia' Killer
NBC4 - TV, Los Angeles ^ | April 11, 2003 | AP

Posted on 04/11/2003 7:04:51 PM PDT by concentric circles

A retired homicide detective believes that his father committed the notorious "Black Dahlia" murder that has been unsolved for half a century.

In a new book, Steve Hodel states that late physician George Hodel killed 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short in a fit of jealousy.

Her body, severed at the waist, nearly drained of blood and posed with arms and legs spread-eagle, was found in a vacant lot in 1947. Authorities said her face and body had been slashed, apparently while she was alive.

Short was nicknamed the "Black Dahlia" by acquaintances because of the black clothing and the flower she wore in her hair.

In "Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story," the former Los Angeles police detective also claims that his father killed another woman, Jeanne French, less than month later. That killing was dubbed the "Red Lipstick Murder" because the cosmetic was used to scrawl "B.D." on the body -- a possible reference to the Black Dahlia case.

"The man responsible for these terrible murders, that of the Black Dahlia and the Red Lipstick Murder, and most probably many others, is my own father, Dr. George Hill Hodel," Steve Hodel told a press conference Friday.

"I'm asking the press and the detectives to now take up that responsibility and reopen the murder books and continue the investigations so that all of us may know the truth," he said.

He believes his father was a serial killer who may have committed 20 unsolved murders in the 1940s and 1950s.

There have been many other claims by authors to have discovered the Black Dahlia's killer. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office was aware of Steve Hodel's claims but noted that even if they were true, his father's death leaves no one to prosecute.

Steve Hodel said he began his investigation of his own father by chance. He said he looked through his belongings after the man died in 1999 and found two photographs of a woman that he now believes is Short.

"I've been to hell for the last three years," the son said.

However, Detective Brian Carr, who oversees the Police Department files of the Black Dahlia case, said he was unable to determine whether they were photographs of the victim.

Hodel also alleged similarities in notes written by his father and one the killer supposedly sent to a newspaper after the murder.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: blackdahlia; california; crime; elizabethshort; georgehodel; losangeles; murdermystery; raymondchandler
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last
To: Tall_Texan
Rumors have abounded that she was sexually deformed and the killer was probably disappointed to find out that this great looking beauty wasn't someone he could take to bed. That makes things ironic, doesn't it, when you consider for years she had been portrayed as a prostitute. Fact is, Elizabeth had been living in squalor just prior to her death, as it had been found during her autopsy she had been in poor physical health due to lack of hygiene and malnutrition (her childhood friend Mary Pacios told me this, and John Gilmore's book Severed confirmed it).

Look at how many people have come forward claiming their family member was the gunman on the Grassy Knoll. I honestly don't know if some of these fakers are looking for fame, money or revenge.

In the years immediately following her murder, a lot of people had come in and confessed. During the last decade, however, the exact opposite is true.

I could name for you a half-dozen people right now who have their own designs on the identity of Elizabeth's killer. And in all honesty, I do not believe even one of them has come close to what really happened in the hours before her body was found on the morning of January 15, 1947.

21 posted on 04/11/2003 9:24:29 PM PDT by Houmatt (Call Ashcroft and demand he enforce the laws on treason, sedition and sabotage!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: concentric circles
Calling for Hercule Poirot!
22 posted on 04/11/2003 10:22:06 PM PDT by lilylangtree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: concentric circles
There is a good CD-Rom adventure game about this incident called Black Dahlia.
23 posted on 04/11/2003 10:26:23 PM PDT by gcruse (If they truly are God's laws, he can enforce them himself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Houmatt
Ellroy's mother was also murdered, I believe in the early 1950s. The crime was never solved. At a reading of LA Confidential in 1998, James Ellroy said that he has always wondered if the same person could have killed his mother and Short. He admitted this was unlikely, as there was no similarity between the two crimes. Clearly the parallels between his mother and Short fascinate him.
24 posted on 04/11/2003 10:35:32 PM PDT by motexva (Cool site I saw today - antiwarcelebwatch.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: onedoug
Is this the physician the two principal cops working the case had in custody...

That's the one. The twists and turns in this case and it's aftermath are almost too numerous to follow.

25 posted on 04/11/2003 11:16:56 PM PDT by concentric circles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Houmatt
I do not believe even one of them has come close to what really happened...

Gilmore's story of Arnold Smith; aka Jack Anderson Wilson, the tall man with a limp; seems to have substance. But then there's Smith's bizarre death before the final tale could be told and the fact that Gilmore had a book to sell.

Interesting story by Russell Miller along this line here.

26 posted on 04/11/2003 11:34:21 PM PDT by concentric circles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: onedoug
"Is this the physician the two principal cops working the case had in custody, and who they strongly supected, but just couldn't turn enough evidence on?"

No...he caught the one-armed man and Tommy Lee let him go!

Ed
27 posted on 04/12/2003 1:38:16 AM PDT by Sir_Ed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: UnklGene
At least he isn't claiming that his dad was one of the Little Rascals (there have been a whole lot of frauds who made that claim).
28 posted on 04/12/2003 2:21:40 AM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: gcruse
There is a good CD-Rom adventure game about this incident called Black Dahlia.

The difference is, while the game does indeed pay reference to the crime, the "Black Dahlia" in this case is a diamond.

29 posted on 04/12/2003 7:17:57 AM PDT by Houmatt (Call Ashcroft and demand he enforce the laws on treason, sedition and sabotage!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: concentric circles
That's the one. The twists and turns in this case and it's aftermath are almost too numerous to follow.

Pardon?

I have been studying the case for years, and that is the first time I have heard that name.

Exactly when did Harry Hansen and Finis Brown pick up and question Hodel?

According to various news reports from around that time, the only person who was ever considered a suspect was Red Manley (who was cleared after polygraphs and alibi witnesses).

Since then, there have been many false confessors, crackpots (e.g., Janice Knowlton), wild guesses and good possibilities.

30 posted on 04/12/2003 7:47:36 AM PDT by Houmatt (Call Ashcroft and demand he enforce the laws on treason, sedition and sabotage!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Houmatt
You said it! I came to that conclusion after reading half of her book, which I regret paying good money for.
31 posted on 05/19/2003 10:14:13 PM PDT by Devil_Anse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

Could the infamous Black Dahlia case be about to be solved? Cadaver dog discovers death scent at Hollywood home of suspect 66 years after the horrific murder

Could the infamous Black Dahlia case be about to be solved? Cadaver dog discovers death scent at Hollywood home of suspect 66 years after the horrific murder

32 posted on 01/18/2015 12:30:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson