Dr. George Hodel - Black Dahlia Murderer? Part II

My friend Akbar arrived at 11am promptly, and we immediately took off to the scene of THE crime. The Black Dahlia murder scene !!  I would like to point out at this juncture, that while I do not endorse or refute Steve Hodel's theory about his father, I must admit, the more I see of this case and the evidence linked to it, the more I believe him, with regard to the Black Dahlia murder.  Before I delve into our whole day and the events and photographs, here is a picture of "Sowden House" (Dr. Hodel's House) in circa 1971. (picture from the Library of Congress)

Compare this to my prior picture from yesterday.

We drove the 1.2 miles from my house on W. 30th Street to the scene where the gruesome discovery of Elizabeth Short's blood-drained and dismembered body was made.  Namely, 3815 S. Norton Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90008.  Below is the graphic scene which met the Los Angeles Police Department on January 15, 1947.  (Photographs from LAPD)

Here is what 3815 S. Norton looks like today:

The "Norton" street sign, only a little more than a mile from my house

Close-up of the house number. Doesn't it look different? Who would have known it was the same place?

As a brief aside, Steve Hodel maintains that his father was involved in the "Cleveland Torso Murders".  Why? He believes that his father was involved in the January 7, 1946 kidnapping and murder of  six-year-old Suzanne Degnan, who was kidnapped from her parent's Chicago apartment, strangled and expertly dismembered.  (Her blood was expertly drained from her body, as was Elizabeth Short's).  WHY the connection.  Check out the name of the NEXT street to S. Norton Avenue, a picture I took today.

Back to the Black Dahlia Murder:  A very interesting point to note here is that at this gruesome crime scene, not just a body was found.  Can you believe that architect Frank Lloyd Wright has some (unrelated-to-the-murder) involvement here?  The Crime Scene shows that around the scene of the dismembered torso, lay numerous cement bags.  Below are Los Angeles Police Department Crime Scene Evidence Photographs from the LAPDshowing the bags, one of the bags with bloodstains.

Here is another bag, shown more closely, with bloodstains.

The connection with Frank Lloyd Wright? Intriguing isn't it?  Here is what we know for sure.  On January 22, 1947, there was an inquest into Elizabeth "Black Dahlia" Short's death.  It was concluded from witness, including the Deputy Coroner, that the victim died from "blunt force trauma to the head".  One of the witnesses was a Lieutenant Jesse Haskins, from the LAPD University Division, who testified to jurors, that the murder has been committed in a different location to where the body had been found.  He also testified that at the scene of the crime, the body had been placed on large 50lb (empty) cement bags, which he surmised the body had been placed on in order to prevent spillage of blood in the car which he believed the body had been transported to Norton Avenue to be dumped.   Here is the intriguing connection.  From 1945 to 1947, Frank Lloyd Wright had been hired by Dr. George Hodel to oversee the repair and some construction and renovation work at the Sowden House (Dr. Hodel was working in China at the time).  The House had been designed and built by Lloyd-Wright in 1926 for a Mr. John Sowden, but later purchased by Dr. Hodel in 1945.  In April 1946, Dr. Hodel wrote to Lloyd-Wright about completing some work in China.  The letter itself is not of huge importance, but WITHIN the paperwork, a receipt was found.  A receipt that showed that CEMENT WORK and repair was completed at Sowden House, that required ten, 50lb bags of cement.  The cement work was completed at Dr. Hodel's House (The Sowden House) in January 1947.  Below is a copy of the receipt from Steve Hodel's website:

This now leads us on to the "Red Lipstick Murder".  Connection? Interesting.  Dr. Hodel mailed the aforementioned letter to Frank Lloyd-Wright in April 1946.  Although he typed the address, he printed the word "Registered" on the envelope.  Here is the envelope (photograph courtesy of Steve Hodel's website).

As Steve Hodel points out on his website, Dr. Hodel has a unique way of printing the letter "D".  Now compare the letter "D" written in lipstick on the body of "Red Lipstick Murder" victim, Ms. Jeanne French, who was found murdered in 1947, at Grandview Avenue.

Here is the newspaper article regarding the Jeanne French crime scene, located at (approximately) 3200 Grandview Avenue Bld, Los Angeles, 90066.  French was 40 years old and believed murdered on February 10, 1947. The words "Fuck you, B.D." were found written on her body, in red lipstick.

Here is the 3200 Grandview Blvd address today

There is no EXACT house address with the number 3200. However, on the way to the address, Akbar and I noticed a lot of waste-land to one side of the street (mentioned in the police report).  Either one of these houses is the area where poor Jeanne French was found.  I photographed the street sign so that you can see we are pretty accurate in our hunt.

It is in the area of ONE of these two houses that Jeanne was found. Akbar and I are at odds as to the EXACT location of her body, but I suspect, given Akbar's brain-power (and his tom-tom) that he is probably right...LOL

And so we move on to the "White Gardenia Murder". Mrs. Ora Murray was 42 years old and her semi-nude body was found on July 26, 1943.  She was found, bludgeoned to death at the entrance to the parking lot of the Fox Hills country Golf Club Parking lot at around 7am, a white Gardenia flower placed below her right shoulder.  See below the screaming headlines from 1943.

The Country Club is no longer there, but the entrance to the park is, and we found it.

Ora Murray's murder is interesting.  Ora had been repeatedly struck with a blunt instrument, breaking her wrist-watch, which broken during the attack had stopped at approximately 1:50am.  At the scene, detectives evidently found a torn credit card, which they said they would investigate (but never did).  A man by the name of Roger Lewis Gardner was extradited to California from New York and formally arraigned for her murder. Ora's sister, Latona, claimed that she had seen Mr. Gardner at the Zenda Ballroom (where they had all been dancing that night).  He was acquitted due to lack of evidence. The interesting thing here is that Ora Murray had been wearing a Native American bracelet, given to her by a mystery man named "Paul".  An identical bracelet was given to Mrs. George Hodel by her husband when they were married!!  Coincidence? You decide. As I said before, I don't endorse or refute Steve Hodel's findings, but the coincidences with George Hodel to all of these situations are very hard to ignore.  Here is another photo of the entrance to the park.

As I ventured a little further into the park, I took this shot, which is where I am certain, was the original parking lot.

At the top of the entrance, is a serene little seating area. It gave me chills to think that a poor woman was bludgeoned to death here.

I took some additional pictures today of various places in the Downtown Los Angeles area where Dr. Hodel had various offices.  Some of them, I still have to research the EXACT address, but the following photograph I know FOR SURE to be one of his former offices, when it was his office at the Los Angeles County Health Department.  The exact location is 808 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012:

How ironic that such a filthy looking building was once part of the Health Department !

Shot from across the street:

The office is right in the heart of China Town

Here is a shot down Spring Street with all the Asian-inspired wares you can buy !

The Los Angeles Times has followed this case closely. Here is a shot of the Times from the Freeway

Here is another shot of the Times Building

And here is yours truly, working hard to bring you these stories....