Most Evil
Page 22
In the temple of Cybele curling
Dolorously
And in phantasmal wraiths writhing
Languorously
Then the night waned
Gloomily
And the thin spectral moon paled
Pallidly
And the lurid somber skies darkened
Dismally
And I was born
Image Acknowledgments
The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance he has received from the following individuals: Librarian Pamela Quon and Curator Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Public Library. Brett Sharlow, The Criterion Collection/Janus Films. Also, my thanks to the Man Ray Trust, The Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation and the Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society
Fig. 7.1 © 2009 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris Man
Ray, The Minotaur
Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation
Fig. 17.2 © 2009 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York, Salvador Dalí, Persistence of Memory
Time Magazine
Fig. 21.4 Cover edition, December 14, 1936
Criterion Collection/Janus Films
Fig. 21.2, 21.3, 21.6 Film stills, The Most Dangerous Game, RKO, 1932
Los Angeles Public Library
All LAPL images courtesy of the Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public
Library
Fig. 2.5 Photograph of note “Want Terms”
Fig. 2.8 Photograph of note “Go Slow”
Fig. 2.9 Photograph of postcard from Avenger
Fig. 2.10 Photograph of two postcards from Avenger
Fig. 2.11 Photograph of envelope addressed to Herald
Fig. 2.12 Photograph of pasted envelope to Herald
Fig. 2.13 Photograph “Yes or No” letter to Herald
Fig. 2.14 Photograph pasted letters on sheet “a friend”
Fig. 2.15 Photograph of letter from Avenger
Fig. 15.14 Photograph of note “Werewolf Killer”
Fig. 25.1 Photograph of note “Black Dahlia”
Fig. 25.2 Photograph of note “Werewolf Killer”
Google Maps
Fig. 2.21, 4.4, 7.2, 8.4, 16.12, 18.7, 18.9
Author’s Collection
Fig. 1.1-1.8, 2.1-2.4, 2.6, 2.7, 2.16-2.20, 2.22, 3.1-3.2, 4.1-4.3, 4.5-4.8, 5.1-5.3, 6.1-
6.12, 7.1 (crime scene image), 7.3-7.5, 8.1-8.3, 9.1-9.7, 10.1-10.5, 11.1-11.8, 12.1- 12.11, 13.1-13.10, 14.1-14.8, 15.1-15.13, 15.15-15.20, 16.1-16.11, 17.1, 17.3-17.5, 18.1-18.6, 18.8, 20.1, 21.1, 21.5, 22.1, 22.2, 23.1-23.8, 24.1, 24.2, 25.3, 25.4, 26.1- 26.5
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the author would be happy to hear from them.
Bibliography
Borchard, Edwin M. Convicting the Innocent. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Company, 1932.
Caen, Herb. Herb Caen’s Guide to San Francisco. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1957.
_____. Hills of San Francisco. San Francisco: Chronicle Publishing Company, 1959. Connell, Richard. The Most Dangerous Game. New York: Berkley Highland Books, 1957. Conrad, Barnaby. The World of Herb Caen. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.
Davis, Howard. The Zodiac Manson Connection. Costa Mesa: Pen Power Publications, 1997. deFord, Miriam Allen. Murders Sane & Mad. New York: Avon Books, 1965.
De Quincey, Thomas. Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. New York and London: 18__ (no date) (Nickerbocker Nuggets).
Dickensheet, Dean W. Great Crimes of San Francisco. New York: Ballantine Books, 1974. Freeman, Lucy. Before I Kill More . . . New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1955.
Graysmith, Robert. Zodiac. New York: Berkeley Books, 1987. _____. Zodiac Unmasked. New York: Berkeley Books, 2002.
Hodel, George Hill. The New Far East: Seven Nations of Asia. Hong Kong: Reader’s Digest Far East, 1966.
Hodel, Steve. Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder. New York: Arcade Publishers, 2003; HarperCollins 2004, 2006 rev.
Kelleher, Michael D. and David Van Nuys. “This Is the Zodiac Speaking.” Westport, CT: Praeger Publisher, 2002.
Kennedy, Dolores. William Heirens: His Day in Court. Chicago: Bonus Books, 1999.
Krupp, Dr. E. C. In Search of Ancient Astronomies. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978.
Penn, Gareth. TIMES 17. unknown city: Foxglove Press, 1987.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe Reader. Philadelphia, IL: Running Press, 1993.
Reinhardt, Richard. Treasure Island: San Francisco’s Exposition Years. San Francisco: Scrim-shaw Press, 1973.
Richardson, James H. For the Life of Me: Memoirs of a City Editor. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954.
Storm, Hyemeyohsts. Seven Arrows. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.
Turvey, Brent. Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. San Diego: Academic Press, 1999.
Williamson, Ray A. Living the Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
Miscellaneous:
Department of Justice, Zodiac Investigation: Case No. 1-15-311-F9-5861, 35 pages.
Department of Justice, Special Report: “Zodiac Homicides: Napa Co., San Francisco, Solano Co. Vallejo, Riverside,” 10 pages.
F.B.I. FOIA Files on “Zodiac.”
Los Angeles District Attorney, Bureau of Investigation: “Black Dahlia & Dr. George Hodel Files”; Electronic Surveillance Files on George Hodel.
Newspaper sources:
San Francisco Chronicle: 1969-1978
San Francisco Examiner: 1969-1970
Vallejo Times-Herald: 1969
Riverside Press-Enterprise: 1966-1971
Los Angeles Times: 1947-1972
Los Angeles Mirror: 1947
Los Angeles Herald-Express: 1947
Los Angeles Examiner: 1947
Chicago Daily Tribune: 1946-1947
The Manila Times: 1967
Magazine articles:
Front Page Detective, September 1975: “He Wants Slave Girls Waiting for Him in Paradise.” Detective Cases, April 1974: “Are They Closing In on Zodiac?”
Coronet, October 1973: “Is The Zodiac Killer Still at Large?”
True Detective, August 1971: “The Zodiac Killings—California’s No. 1 Murder Mystery.” Argosy, September 1970: “Zodiac—California’s Blood-Thirsty Phantom.”
Startling Detective, March 1970: “Zodiac Casts a Stranger’s Shadow.”
Front Page Detective, February 1970: “Has the Zodiac Killer Trapped Himself?”
Inside Detective, January 1969: “Your Daughter May Be Next.”
Real-Life Crimes, 1994, Vol. 5, Part 64: “The Zodiac Killer.”
Real-Life Crimes, 1993, Vol. 3, Part 43: “Savage Rage of the ‘Lipstick Killer.’”
National Geographic, January 1997, Vol. 151, No. 1: “Mystery of the Medicine Wheels.” Life Magazine, July 29, 1946: “The Case of William Heirens,” page 30.
California Magazine, November 1981, “Portrait of the Artist as a Mass Murderer.”
Film and video sources:
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, 20th Century Fox, 1939
The Most Dangerous Game, RKO Pictures, 1932
American Justice: Who Is the Lipstick Killer?
Music sources:
The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan
Web sites:
Tom Voigt’s www.Zodiackiller.com
Michael Butterfield’s www.Zodiackillerfacts.com
Dr. Howard Davis’s www.thezodiacmansonconnection.com
Acknowledgments
The investigation and writing of this second book has introduced me to many new friends. These individuals have enriched my life both personally and professionally, and a special few need to be acknowledged and thanked for their individual inspirations.
In Los Angeles
:
First and foremost to be acknowledged is my friend and companion Roberta McCreary, who provided much of the vital field work and library research by day, and the encouragement, emotional support, and measured sanity by night.
Second is my good friend and collaborator, Ralph Pezzullo, who, fortunate for me, speaks fluent policese and knows how to translate “cop talk” into real English. Ralph’s ability to restructure and organize my many scattered chapters into a coherent whole has been an absolute blessing.
Special thanks go to: my younger brother Kelvin and his wife, Sue, along with our Saturday morning breakfast moderator, Bob Alschuler. Also kudos to David Browning, Howard and Linda Sheldon, and my fellow cinephile, Steven Robinson Brigati, who passed over in 2005, may his soul R.I.P.
In Chicago, a true heroine and very special woman, author Dolores Kennedy (William Heirens: His Day in Court, Bonus Books Inc., 1991), who for decades has fought the good fight in her ongoing and untiring attempts to establish Bill Heirens’s innocence. Also, Heirens’s defense team, including Northwestern University professor and legal counselor Steve Drizen, and to all the unnamed heroes associated with the Innocence Project and their decades-old, against-all-odds, quixotic fight to try to help “Free Heirens.”
In Bellingham, Washington, again my deep appreciation for the sound counsel, encouragement, and support from my friends and crack legal-eagles Dennis P. Murphy and Jill Bernstein.
In cyberspace, I would like to thank what I am calling the collective-detectives. A group-mind of “armchair detectives” from around the world that each individually contributed their time and focused thinking in an effort to try to help solve the Zodiac murders. Anonymous and known only by chat names like: Vallejo Dave, Johnny5, Greygost, Nachtsider, Dahlia, Vindog, and dozens more, their joint contributions as separate “message board” deductions, were critical in helping to piece together many of the splintered facts and mythstakes. Chief among those are Jake Wark and Tom Voigt, who maintain separate Zodiac Web sites. Tom’s Web site (www.zodiackiller.com), which I refer to as Zodiac Central, has been the source for much of my investigative research, and his Zodiac online archive literally saved me hundreds of hours of what would have been old-fashioned gumshoeing.
Sincere thanks to my agent, Scott Miller at Trident Group, for finding the perfect fit with senior editor Ben Sevier at Dutton Books. Ben, a fellow Angeleno, with an impressive knowledge of true crime and an uncanny ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, made the harvesting process a pure delight.
Finally, my love to my two sons—Michael and Matthew. Know that you are my most cherished blessings.
Ralph Pezzullo would like to thank Steve; Scott Miller at Trident Media Group; Ben Sevier and Melissa Miller at Dutton; his wife, Jessica; and his children, John, Michael, Francesca, and Alessandra.
Index
NOTE: References in bold denote victims. These references relate to both the person and the case surrounding the crime. The generic use of “Hodel” refers to George Hill Hodel. Page numbers in italics denote photographs and illustrations.
abortions
“Abroad in San Francisco” column
accomplice theories
Ades, Dawn
Aitken, Andrew W.
Alexander’s Weekly Messenger
Amazing Rhadini
American Psychiatric Association (APA)
Anthony, Dorothy
Aquila (constellation)
Ariadne
Armstrong, William “Bill”
Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP)
Arnaz, Lucie
“As Some Day It May Happen” (Gilbert and Sullivan)
asphyxiation. See also strangulation
Associated Press
astronomy
audio surveillance
“The Avenger” (De Quincey)
Avery, Paul
Badlands (1973)
ballistics evidence. See also firearms
Banks, Leslie
Barrett, Joe
Bates, Cheri Jo
case description
and dates of crimes
and film connection
and handwriting analysis
and killer’s MO
and killer’s motive
and Los Angeles Times letter
portrait
and shoe evidence
and street name connections
and wristwatch
Bauerdorf, Georgette
case description
and dates of crimes
and iodine letter
and Jack-the-Ripper connection
and killer’s motive
and location of crime
bayonet knife
Belafonte, Harry
Belli, Melvin
Berkeley, Busby
Berkowitz, David (Son of Sam)
Bessop’s Castle
Black Dahlia Avenger. See also Short, Elizabeth (The Black Dahlia)
and codes
and cut-and-paste lettering
and forensic evidence
and handwriting analysis
and hemicorpectomy
and Jack-the-Ripper connection
and MO comparisons
motives
and psychological profiles
and serial killer concept
and the Short murder
and staged suicide
and street name connections
and surgical procedures on victims
and witness descriptions
Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (Hodel)
on audio surveillance
and evidence against Hodel
and extortion claims
and media coverage
and ongoing investigation
origin of
on psychological profile of Hodel
public response to
on Short’s burial site
blackmail and extortion
Blackwood’s magazine
blood evidence. See DNA evidence
“Blue Meanies” reference
Blue Rock Springs Park . See also Ferrin, Darlene; Mageau, Michael
Bogart, Humphrey
bomb threat
Boomhower, Mimi (Merry Widow murder)
Boone, Stephanie
Breitling Navigator wristwatch
Breton, André
Brown, Frances (Lipstick murder)
case description
and the Degnan murder
and handwriting analysis
and lipstick notes
and MO comparisons
Brown, Jerry
Bruce, Lenny
brutality of murders. See also sadism
and the Degnan murder
and the French murder
and the Lake Berryessa attacks
and MO comparisons
and the Ross murder
and the Short murder
BTK Strangler
Bundy, Ted
Byron, George Gordon
Caen, Herb
California Department of Justice
California magazine
California State Bureau of Criminal
Identification and Information
(CII)
Carson, Jack
Chan, Charlie
Chaplin, Charles
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
Chernau, Jack
Chicago, Illinois. See Degnan, Suzanne
Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily Times
Chicago Daily Tribune
Chicago Herald-American
Chicago Police Department
Chicago Tribune
child molestation charges. See also incest
childhood of Hodel
chloroform
Christenson. E.
chronology of crimes
circle-and-cross symbol
and bomb threat
and ciphers
and “crackproof” letter
and INTRI
and Lake Berryessa attacks
and Landgrowth Corporation
and the Mt. Diablo code
and psychological profile
and public awareness
and the Stine murder
and surrender offers
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Clark Air Force Base
clothesline cord
clothing of suspect
and film connection
gloves
and military garb
clothing of victims
and the Brown murder
and the Degnan murder
and the French murder
and MO comparisons
and the Murray murder
and the Ross murder
and the Stine murder
“The Clouded Past of a Poet” (Le Berthon)
codes. See also cryptograms and ciphers
and the Degnan murder
and “The Gold Bug” (Poe)
and MO comparisons
Mount Diablo code
Coghlan, John
Cold Case Homicides: Practical
Investigative Techniques
(Walton)
Columbia Broadcasting Studios
composite drawings. See suspect descriptions
confessions
and the Bates murder
and Blue Rock Springs shootings
false confessions
and MO comparisons
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (De Quincey)
Connell, Richard
Constant, Tiffin
Cooley, Stephen
Coroners’ reports
Court of Appeals (Philippines)
Craig, Georgiana
Cross, Irwin
Crowley, Wilbert
cryptograms and ciphers
and bomb threat
deciphered
defined
and the Ferrin murder
and film connection
and geographic connections
and “The Gold Bug”
and mathematical symbols
and MO comparisons
and Mt. Diablo code
and ongoing Zodiac letters
San Francisco Chronicle
cultural symbolism
dedication of
dream catchers
and Hodel’s education
medicine wheels
Minotaur
and psychological profile