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
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.
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.
That's the one. The twists and turns in this case and it's aftermath are almost too numerous to follow.
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.
The difference is, while the game does indeed pay reference to the crime, the "Black Dahlia" in this case is a diamond.
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.
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