Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

by Steve Hodel

  On November 11,1944, the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked," with half of them convinced that it was a case of mistaken identity. Gardner, some of the members of the jury believed, while a self-confessed con man, lothario, and thief, was nevertheless not the same sophisticated, well-dressed "Paul" who drove Ora Murray away from her sister's house to see Hollywood and later bludgeoned and strangled her to death at the nearby Fox Hills golf course.

  The Walser photograph of "Grant Terry" that appeared in the newspaper and was later determined to be Roger Lewis Gardner was of poor quality. In checking records, I found that the photographic negative from the Los Angeles Times article of August 5, 1943, still remained in the file at UCLA. An eight-by-ten print from that negative (shown below as exhibit 53) was a snapshot taken by Walser during her "whirlwind ten-day courtship" with Gardner in July 1943. While the image was slightly out of focus, it revealed, despite the wire-rimmed glasses, a striking similarity between Roger Lewis Gardner and George Hodel and how easy it would have been for witnesses to mistake one for the other.

  Exhibit 53

  Roger Gardner George Hodel

  Both of the above photographs were taken in the same year, 1943. The photo of Father, where I am seated on his knee, was taken in November 1943, just three months after the Ora Murray murder.

  At the Ora Murray crime scene, police also discovered a Native American bracelet on her wrist, the kind of bracelet my father collected when he was working for the Public Health Service on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. My father had given just such a bracelet to my mother (exhibit 54a), which she was wearing in the photograph taken by Man Ray in Hollywood in 1944. Man Ray's photograph clearly shows the Indian bracelets and Thunder God ring my father had given her at the time of their marriage three years before this photograph was taken. The sheriff's department detectives never released a photograph or a complete description of the Native American jewelry that "Paul" gave Ora Murray on the night they met and danced together; the actual bracelet, or photographs of it, may still be in the unsolved-case file.

  Exhibit 54

  Dorothy Hodel

  Jeanette Walser

  Photograph B shows a Southwest Native American bracelet given to witness Jeanette Walser by con man Roger Gardner, which is also similar to my mother's, and is identical to the type given to the murder victim, Ora Murray, by the suspect.

  Some of the available information pertaining to the Ora Murray murder investigation remains confusing and unclear. Without access to the actual case files a number of questions remain unanswered. For example, to whom did the torn credit card found next to the body belong? And did the detectives ever check out this easily traceable evidence, as they told the press they would? Certainly the card did not belong to their suspect Roger Gardner, because the information was never introduced at his trial. Could the credit card have been exculpatory evidence and thus, the way things were done in 1944, held back from the defense?

  From researching the investigation and trial testimony prior to Gardner's release from custody, I found that on the night of the murder Gardner had borrowed Jeanette Walser's blue convertible, which he claimed he drove to the Ambassador Hotel and parked overnight. Upon preparing to return it the following morning, Gardner discovered that it had a flat tire. Gardner also had given Walser an Indian bracelet, similar in appearance to the one found on victim Ora Murray's wrist. Gardner, having completed his con and theft of her jewelry, then told his fiancee — who at this point had become his victim — that something unexpected had come up and "he had to go to San Diego with a man named George, to try a case." Was the mysterious "George" actually George Hodel?

  While all of these facts may be an accumulation of coincidences, the very real possibility exists that Gardner and Hodel knew each other and that George Hodel, either with or without Gardner's knowledge, may have "borrowed" the convertible from where Gardner had parked it at the Ambassador Hotel. The cocktail lounge at the Ambassador was one of Father's favorite hangouts. It is possible that after taking the car, George Hodel, calling himself "Paul," drove Ora Murray on her late-night tour of Hollywood, committed the murder in the early-morning hours, and returned the vehicle to the hotel, where Gardner found it parked with a flat tire.

  In all likelihood, we will never know the facts surrounding this murder. I strongly suspect, however, that Hodel and Gardner did know each other and that Dr. George Hill Hodel did murder Ora Murray.

  Ora Murray did not immediately fade into history after the trial and acquittal. Her name resurfaced two years later on January 23, 1947, when she was mentioned by crime reporter Agness Underwood in her feature article wherein the reporter asked rhetorically in a headline, "Will Dahlia Slaying Join Album of Unsolved Murders?" Underwood raised the possibility that the 1943 Ora Murray, the 1944 Georgette Bauerdorf, the 1946 Gertrude Evelyn Landon, and the 1947 Elizabeth Short murders might all be connected.

  Georgette Bauerdorf (October 12, 1944)

  "Oil Heiress Found Dead in Tub Mystery," the Los Angeles Examiner headline said on the morning of Friday, October 13, 1944. Twenty-year-old Georgette Bauerdorf was the pretty brunette daughter of wealthy oil magnate George Bauerdorf, a close friend of William Randolph Hearst. She was living alone in an upscale apartment on the west side of Hollywood at 8493 Fountain Avenue, in a complex that lay just a block beyond LAPD's jurisdiction, which meant that this case too fell under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

  Georgette's body was discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Atwood, the apartment janitor and his wife, on the morning of October 12. While working with her husband in an adjacent apartment at approximately 10:30 in the morning, Mrs. Atwood heard the sound of running water coming from the Bauerdorf apartment. She knocked at Georgette's front door, which she found was ajar, and when no one answered she called her husband to go inside with her, where they discovered the victim lying submerged in the bathtub, which was overflowing. Georgette Bauerdorf was dead.

  The Atwoods, who lived across the hall from the victim, told detectives they had been awakened during the early-morning hours by a "commotion" in the Bauerdorf apartment and a crash of "something metallic," but were unable to pinpoint the exact time.

  The crime-scene investigation by West Hollywood detectives and the sheriffs homicide team determined that Georgette Bauerdorf had returned to her apartment the previous evening, fixed herself a snack, changed into her pajamas, and written an entry in her private diary. At some point after that, she was assaulted, beaten, and strangled. Her body was placed in the bathtub and the water turned on. When discovered, the victim was wearing only the top half of her pajamas; the bottom, which had been torn, was found lying near the bed. A gag had been forced into her mouth.

  A coroner's inquest determined that the cause of death was "obstruction of upper air passages by inserted cloth" and was ruled a homicide that had probably taken place after midnight on the morning of October 12, 1944. Coroner's examiner Dr. Frank Webb also wrote, "Abrasions on the knuckles of the girl's hands showed she had fought desperately against the attacker. Thumb and finger marks on her face, lips, abdomen, and thighs prove the attacker was powerful with almost ape-like hands." The coroner determined that the victim had not drowned, but had been murdered by forced asphyxiation prior to her body being placed in the bathtub.

  Because many of the victim's expensive belongings, including her jewelry, were in plain sight and had not been taken by the assailant, the motive of robbery was ruled out. Her purse was found at the crime scene, but without her car key, which was the only article removed from her residence. The suspect apparently stole the victim's car, which was found several days later at 728½ East 25th Street near the corner of 25th and San Pedro, a mile south of the downtown area. The car was out of gas; the key had been left in the ignition.

  Georgette Bauerdorf had graduated from the prestigious West-lake and Marlborough schools for girls. Marlborough, in a wealthy residential section of southern Hollywood, was only a few miles
southeast of her apartment. As part of her personal war effort, Georgette had volunteered to serve and entertain servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen, where they came to relax and dance with the pretty girls. Every Wednesday night she served as a junior hostess at the club, where she was well liked, popular, and considered generous and kind to all she met. According to entries found in her diary, Bauerdorf had a boyfriend named Jerry, who was about to graduate from an Army Air Force school in El Paso, Texas. She was planning a surprise flight down to see him graduate.

  Georgette was seen on the evening of Wednesday, October 11, at 10:30 p.m. when she left the Hollywood Canteen for home, a short two-mile drive west of Hollywood. Her girlfriends at the canteen told police she had been dancing as usual with different servicemen that night. Georgette's friend, twenty-year-old June Ziegler, who worked with her at the canteen, told Sheriff's Department homicide detectives what she saw on that Wednesday evening:

  She [Georgette] was seated in her car near the canteen when I arrived about 6:30

  P.M

  . She was knitting and appeared quite nervous. I climbed in the car and we talked for about 30 minutes before we went inside. She told me she was nervous and asked if I would spend the night with her. At the time I did not pay much attention, because I thought she was just nervous about the plane trip, which I knew she had kept secret from everyone but myself.

  In his book Severed, John Gilmore mentions Agness Underwood's belief that the Dahlia and Bauerdorf murders were connected. Gilmore also refers to an anonymous tip that Underwood received about a week after the Bauerdorf murder, in which the informant indicated that a white male had been seen walking away from Bauerdorf's car at 25th and San Pedro. The man was described as tall and thin, wearing what appeared to be a military uniform but without the Army jacket. Underwood speculated that he might have been impersonating a serviceman to pick up girls at the canteen.

  It was also rumored that Bauerdorf may have made some additional entries in her personal diary, recovered at her home by the sheriffs detectives, that related to the friend of a soldier, an older man, with whom she had danced that Wednesday evening. Acquaintances said that Georgette had indicated to others at the canteen that she did not like him because he was aggressive and persisted in dancing with her.

  Unidentified latent fingerprints were found in the bathroom near the body, throughout the apartment, and in her recovered vehicle, and detectives were hopeful at the time that they would eventually lead to the identification of the suspect. A latent print obtained from a light bulb in the foyer, believed removed by the suspect, added speculation that he could have been taller than the average male.

  Blood spots were also found on clothing at the crime scene, and could have been either the victim's or the suspect's. If the clothing was not disposed of, it could still be of potential value for blood typing or DNA evidence.

  In my review of published facts from the investigation, I discovered a most important and unique piece of evidence: the murder weapon. Most accounts simply refer to it as a "gag" or piece of cloth. However, one article in the Los Angeles Herald Express, reporting on the autopsy inquest on October 20, 1944, was more precise:

  DEPUTIES TESTIFY

  Deputy Sheriffs A. M. Hutchingson and Ray Hopkins told of the routine investigation and failure to find, so far, any clue to the girl's slayer.

  Exhibits shown to the jury included the gag, which was stuffed down Miss Bauerdorf's throat. The material in this gag has been identified by medical supply men as elastic cotton knit ace bandage, such as used by athletes to ease sprained muscles and by orthopedic physicians . . .

  Deputy Sheriff Howard Achenbach, acting on a hunch, entered the Orthopedic Supply Co. at 309 South Hill St., where the material was identified as bandage. However, it was learned that the material in this 9" size of the gauge had not been sold in this city for 22 years.

  The killer brought this most unusual weapon with him to the apartment, and after beating the victim suffocated her by forcing it down her throat. Who, other than a medical professional, would be carrying such a "weapon"?

  Exhibit 55

  Above is a photograph of my reconstructed version of how the murder weapon must have appeared, based on the sheriff's deputies' description.

  The Los Angeles daily papers covered the Bauerdorf investigation for several weeks, but the Hearst papers minimized their coverage, probably because of Hearst's close friendship with, and respect for, the victim's father.

  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 murdernx

  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 thought-prints 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)

  Almost a year ago

  (who)

  Georgette Bauerdorf, age 20,

  (What)

  Hollywood Canteen hostess, was murdered

  (where)

  in her apartment in

  West Hollywood--

  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 B-movie cliches 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.

  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 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 four separate instances where he used his unique double-dash endings: