Black Dahlia Avenger II: Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Further Evidence Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel to Los Angeles’s Black Dahlia and other 1940s LONE WOMAN MURDERS

by Hodel, Steve

  BLACK DAHLIA

  AVENGER

  II

  Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Further Evidence Linking

  Dr. George Hill Hodel to Los Angeles’s Black Dahlia and other 1940s

  LONE WOMAN MURDERS

  By

  STEVE HODEL

  Los Angeles, California

  Copyright ©2012 by Thoughtprint Press

  Los Angeles, California

  Published in the United States of America

  Visit our Web site at www.thoughtprintpress.com

  ISBN-978-0-9830744-7-2

  Author Website at www.stevehodel.com

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  For the victims, living and dead

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  1 Madi Comfort-, Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll”

  2 “Maganda”

  3 Marion Herwood Keyes and Ruth Spaulding

  4 Lillian Lenorak and John Farrow

  5 Scene of the Crime

  6 The DA-Hodel Black Dahlia Transcripts

  7 “The Baron”

  8 The Huston Letters

  9 DA Investigators Jemison and Morgan

  10 Hollywood Roomers

  11 Myth No. 1—“A Standalone Murder” – The Lone Woman Murders

  12 Myth No. 2—“The Missing Week”

  13 Myth No. 3—“Case Never Solved”

  14 “A Doctor Did It”

  15 Dahliagate—Why a Cover-Up?

  16 A Death in the Family

  17 Captain Jack Donahoe

  18 Handwriting Update

  19 The Angel City Abortion Ring Link

  20 Betty Bersinger and Detective Finis Brown

  21 A Surrealist Signature

  22 Touch DNA

  Epilogue

  Addendum

  Bibliography

  INTRODUCTION

  Twelve years and three months have now passed since I received that fateful 1:00 a.m. phone call from my stepmother on May 17, 1999.

  “Steve, this is June in San Francisco. Your father is dead! The paramedics are here. Come down now.”

  As a career homicide cop with LAPD, most of my three-hundred plus murder investigations began with a call just like that, but, always from the Hollywood Watch Commander.

  Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that a personal “Death Notification” would become the most difficult murder investigation of my career.

  But, it did and it has.

  Since the spring of ‘99, seemingly, each month has brought a new twist to the investigation. New witnesses have surfaced, new cold case victims were discovered, and new evidence was found.

  It has taken over a decade for the public perception of the investigation to transition from “strong circumstantial” to—CASE SOLVED.

  The Black Dahlia murder, has, for obvious reasons, stood out as the most challenging criminal investigation in my forty-three years of working cases.

  Surprisingly, my biggest challenge did not come from within; that is, from being confronted with the fact that the prime suspect I was pursuing—was my father.

  No, rather, it came from without. From finding myself in the position for the first time in my career of having to—DECONSTRUCT THE EVIDENCE!

  What do I mean?

  Prior to the Black Dahlia, without exception, all of my previous murder investigations had always been a tabula raza—a clean slate. You start with a blank field notebook and move forward as you begin to build your case.

  Not so with the Dahlia. As I began my investigation, I discovered that the “facts” of the case were a briar patch of misinformation, constructed from fifty-years of legend and lore.

  Never was the oft quoted cinematic line from the 1962 classic, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, truer than in the Black Dahlia murder:

  “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

  As if to underscore this, within three short years from the time of her murder, we have Elizabeth Short’s legend appear on-screen, as a laugh line, in the 1950 Hollywood classic, Sunset Boulevard. [Ironically, the words are spoken by a young Jack Webb, who, the following year, will begin his career in his new television show, Dragnet, starring as LAPD Sergeant Joe “Just the Facts” Friday.]

  In Sunset Boulevard, Webb plays the part of Artie Green, a young film producer, who, at his New Year’s Eve party, introduces his writer friend, Joe Gillis [William Holden] to the guests with the following line:

  “Fans, you all know Joe Gillis, the well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler, and Black Dahlia suspect.” [Much laughter]

  With the publication of this, my third book on Elizabeth Short and the related 1940s Los Angeles Lone Woman Murders, I believe that I have been able to replace most of the hype and faction [hack writers’ hyperbolic mix of fact and fiction] with the truth as documented in my accessing of the official Los Angeles District Attorney’s Black Dahlia secret files.

  These records, besides providing their own factual accounts contained many of the original LAPD summaries from the 1947 Black Dahlia investigation.

  Here, in BDA II, I present separate chapters detailing the Black Dahlia’s three major myths. Those being: (1) “The Black Dahlia was a standalone crime,” (2) Elizabeth Short had a “missing week” and (3) “The case was never solved.”

  None of these “urban legends” were ever true and I present the evidence which proves them false.

  In explaining and exposing the third myth, “The case was never solved,” I now have confirmation coming from within the LAPD—from most of its top commanders, past and present.

  The last “official word” from LAPD on the Black Dahlia case status came from self-professed gatekeeper, Detective Brian Carr, who, before exiting stage-right and retiring in May 2009, informed the public:

  “I don’t have time to prove or disprove Hodel’s investigation. All the physical evidence from the Dahlia investigation has disappeared, so we can’t do any DNA and so we can’t solve the case.”

  On my side of the law enforcement ledger, I now have the following officers who were and are all in agreement that the Black Dahlia murder “is solved.”

  They include four of the original top ranking command staff: two former LAPD police chiefs, as well as the original DA’s investigators; a LASD under sheriff, an LASD commander, and the 2004 LAPD chief of detectives.

  Also voicing his strong support was a then active head deputy district attorney, who, in 2003 and again in stronger terms in 2006, informed the public that based on the evidence—and were George Hodel still living and the witnesses available—he would have filed two murder counts [Elizabeth Short, Black Dahlia, and Jeanne French, Red Lipstick Murder] and believed he “would win a conviction in both cases in a jury trial.”

  The names and reasons for these separate law enforcement officers’ opinions, as well as the source of their statements, are all summarized in Chapter13, CASE SOLVED.

  But, it is you, my readers, who have followed my ongoing investigations and served as dedicated jurors in the Court of Public Opinion, that have been my
biggest supporters.

  My unofficial tally, based on the many letters and thousands of e-mails I have received from you over the past decade, indicates that most of you [about 90 percent] have found the evidence not just compelling, but “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which of course meets the legal criteria for establishing a “guilty” verdict.

  Within the following chapters, you will find much that is new.

  In my chapter on “Maganda,” which deals with the controversy of the photographs found in my father’s private album, I was able to “prove myself wrong” [by following the evidence] on what I formerly believed was solid forensic evidence. It was not. And by following the truth of it, and self-correcting the error, it led me to new and important proofs.

  That is what truth does. It opens doors and keeps on opening them until the case is made.

  In a criminal investigation, one of the surest signs that one may well be on the wrong track and in pursuit of the wrong suspect, is when the doors start to close and no more open. Generally speaking, when one hits that dead-end, it is advisable to either turn around or to back out and drive down another alley.

  Probably, the most dramatic new investigative finding came in 2008 with the discovery and linkage of physical evidence to the actual Black Dahlia crime scene. However, I’ll leave that revelation for you to discover on your own.

  Finally, there is the Huston Letters—private, highly personal correspondences between my mother and her former husband, famed film director/writer/actor, John Huston.

  They span the years 1948–1957 and give us a real-time understanding of the absolute terror and horror my mother was suffering as she struggled to keep us together—just to survive. Her struggle was literally, week by week, during those dangerous post-Dahlia months from 1948 to 1950. The reading of those letters, which contained her desperate pleas to John for help, leave NO DOUBT that our father was a psychological time bomb, about to explode.

  I have included all of the letters not only because of my mother’s dramatic first person descriptions of the desperate conditions at the Franklin house, but also because, in the later years, they documented an exchange of ideas between John and Dorothy that many readers, as well as historians and cinephiles, will find of interest.

  On a personal note, [which has only been revealed to me through the discovery of these hitherto unknown and unpublished letters] I have, since reading them, become exceedingly grateful to John upon learning of his overwhelming generosity.

  Time and time again, as demonstrated in my mother’s letters, John repeatedly sent emergency dollars which kept the sheriff at bay and fed and housed us during those difficult gypsy years.

  In the writing of this third book, I would like to acknowledge a few close friends who have been of tremendous help. First, as always, there is Roberta McCreary who has been my confidant and with me from the start, and remains constant and true. Also, much thanks goes to my good friend, Hermann H., for providing encouragements and suggestions, and to Dennis Effle, my resident Hollywood historian, amigo, and researcher extraordinaire! Kudos to Kevin Knoblock for his many suggestions and critique. And, finally a sincere “well done” to all the staff at Accurance Author Partner’s for their outstanding professionalism in helping me to cross all the t’s, dot the i’s as well as design and format the book.

  Steve Hodel

  Los Angeles, California

  November 22, 2011

  Chapter 1

  Madi Comfort, Duke Ellington’s Original “Satin Doll”

  “We all knew that he (Dr. George Hill Hodel) had done it. There was no doubt!”

  —Madi Comfort June, 2003

  The year was 1942. The “cigarette girl” at the Hollywood Casino Club on the Sunset Strip was a knockout. Just eighteen, she had a perfect figure, soft satin skin, and jet-black hair. Mattie Hodge (she would later, at Duke Ellington’s suggestion, change the spelling to Madi) was the bar crowd’s favorite. A few whispered complaints may have come from the chorus-line girls who knew they couldn’t compete with Mattie’s natural beauty.

  From the contacts she made on The Strip, Mattie’s public persona would go on to include: model, singer, film actress, and, later in life, she would school herself in painting and become an accomplished artist.

  Mattie also had a secret—a big one! A secret so big that all of Los Angeles wanted to know it. For fifty-five years, she kept it hidden and planned to take it with her to the grave. But, in the final ten days before her death, Fate or Happenstance jumped on board and whispered in her ear, telling her to “Share it.” She did. This is the story of that secret—Madi’s secret.

  The Lead

  I’ve been a detective all my adult life. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I am sixty-eight, and this is my forty-seventh year in conducting criminal investigations. Working LAPD’s Hollywood Division Homicide in the 1970s, my hot leads came to me in one of three ways: (1) from a jailhouse snitch, (2) someone “dropping a dime” and calling me with information, or (3) a “walk-in” where the witness would come to the police station with a “Here’s what I know….”

  Detective work is much different today. Twenty-first century witness tips now generally come to me by way of “e-mails.” That’s how this one arrived. It was from Lynelle Lujan, the office-manager at the Whittier Historical Society Museum. It read:

  August 20, 2010

  “Dear Mr. Hodel,

  I don’t know if you remember me. I sent you a Whittier Daily News article about 3 months ago. I’m writing you today for a different reason however. While lending my boss [Myra Hilliard, the Museum’s Executive Director] your first book, she recognized Madi Comfort’s name, whom she knew briefly before her death.

  We have since made contact with Madi’s longtime companion and mentioned your book and the connection of your father with Madi. His name is George and he is willing to meet with you. He remembers the time that your father died, and that Madi made several phone calls and seemed agitated.

  If you would like to meet with George, we can offer the Whittier Museum as a private meeting place, perhaps before or after your October 12th speaking engagement at the Whittier Public Library.

  Sincerely,

  Lynelle Lujan

  Madi Comfort—Her Backstory

  Madi returned to her roots, Whittier, California, in 1970. The small town, which lies just twelve miles southeast of Los Angeles, was originally a Quaker community and is now famous for its “urban forest,” magnificent tree lined parkways, providing a country lifestyle for its city dwellers.

  Madi has been featured in a number of local articles over the years, and former Whittier mayor, Allan Zolnekoff, proclaimed February 3, 2002 to be “Madi Comfort Day.” The honor read in part, “…for the historical precedent set by her family of pioneering African-Americans to settle in Whittier and overcoming racial unwelcome; her achievements as an artist, her contributions to the Whittier Community, and her dedication to the arts and music in Whittier.”

  Madi, at age seventy-nine, suffered a heart attack and died in Whittier on June 20, 2003. For those not familiar with Madi, here is a brief biography on this exceptionally talented lady.

  Her birth name was Mattie Hodge, born November 19, 1923. Her mother, not wanting to raise her newborn daughter, had agreed to allow her to be adopted by Whittier’s first ever black residents, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Huff. When time came to turn the child over, her mother informed the Huff’s that she had changed her mind and decided to keep her daughter, but would honor them by giving the child Mrs. Huff’s given name, “Mattie.”

  Mattie’s mother was abusive, and the child’s growing up years were difficult ones, compounded greatly by the otherwise hard times of the Great Depression.

  As a young woman, Madi’s natural charm and exceptional beauty drew her west, from Whittier to Hollywood, where in 1942, at age eighteen, she was offered a job as a “cigarette girl” at a nightclub on the Sunset Strip. Her popularity at the club and regular contact with Hollywood celebrities
brought her modeling jobs, some singing gigs, and a few small parts in films.

  Madi met and fell in love with Joe Comfort, a young soldier who would become a well-known LA bass player in the1940s and 1950s. Joe later joined with Lionel Hampton and Nat King Cole, and played on many of the classic Sinatra/Nelson Riddle records that Capitol made in the 1950s. Joe and Madi were married in Los Angeles on May 13, 1943. She was just nineteen. Madi soon found herself in an abusive relationship with Joe and ended the marriage several years later.

  Madi and Joe Comfort, Wedding Day, May 1943

  Dancing at the Plantation Club, 108th and Central, Watts

  Madi as Ebony Magazine’s 1955 Cover Girl—Kiss Me Deadly

  Madi’s most memorable film role was a small part in the 1955 film noir, Kiss Me Deadly. Madi plays a blues singer working in an LA Jazz Club. In this Mickey Spillane adapted classic, hard-boiled P.I. Mike Hammer (played by actor Ralph Meeker) comes into the bar for a few drinks as she was singing, “I’d Rather Have the Blues than What I’ve Got.” In the film, Madi lip-syncs the song which was actually sung by popular Central Avenue vocalist, Kitty White. The film’s producer would later tell Madi, “If I’d known you sang as well as you do, I’d have had you sing the piece in our picture.”

  Screen shots from the 1955 film noir, Kiss Me Deadly – Left: Madi singing

  Right: Madi with star of film, Ralph Meeker and unidentified male

  One of Madi’s major claims to fame was that she was the original, “Satin Doll” from the song of the same name. Duke Ellington, along with Billy Strayhorn and Johnny Mercer, wrote the song which became a major hit in 1956.

  Ellington, Madi’s one-time boyfriend, named her his “Satin Doll” as well as suggested that she change the spelling of her name from Mattie to Madi, telling her, “My Dear, you should really spell your name M A D I, because you really are the Mad One, you know.” She followed his advice.

  The following additional information and excerpt on Mattie Comfort was recently emailed to me by a friend familiar with the LA music scene of the 1950s. It gives us a fascinating look into that time, along with a Madi anecdote.