by Hodel, Steve
Sound familiar?
In the case of Los Angeles’ 1947 Dahliagate, another conspiracy-of-silence, let’s take a moment to assess the consequences that resulted from police and politicians deliberately shutting down of the Black Dahlia investigation.
What was the result of their backroom decision to not pursue and arrest Dr. George Hill Hodel, once authorities had eavesdropped and recorded his confession and positively identified him as a serial killer, in the spring of 1950?
If my investigation is correct as presented in my sequel, MOST EVIL, coupled with the fact that we know serial killers do not simply STOP committing crimes, then the resultant effects of law enforcement allowing George Hodel, a known, identified serial killer, to remain free with no further attempts to apprehend him—were devastating.
The Consequences?
Just as in the case now unfolding against coach Sandusky, George Hodel did not stop his predatory serial crimes after fleeing the country in 1950. The likely results:
Manila, Philippines, 1967, “Black Dahlia copycat murder” of victim Lucila Lalu, who was abducted, bound with rope; slain and according to the Manila coroner, “her body was then bisected by a skilled surgeon.” After the dissection, her killer posed the body parts on a vacant lot, just three miles distant from Dr. Hodel’s then residence/office on Manila Bay. The case, a copycat Black Dahlia murder was dubbed by police and press as, “The Jigsaw Murder,” and forty-four years later, it remains one of Manila’s most horrific unsolved crimes.
How many other Manila and Asia related crimes occurred throughout the decades will never be known. However with George Hodel home-based in the Philippines with offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and travelling throughout Asia, Europe and the United States for forty-years, the final body count could easily be several dozen more.
If I am correct that my father replaced his “Black Dahlia Avenger” sobriquet of the 1940s with “Zodiac” in the 1960s, and resumed his letter writing, city-terrorizing campaign, promising, “There will be more,” then we must add, at minimum, another eight known victims to the count. They would include:
1966, Riverside victim, Cheri Jo Bates
San Francisco Bay Area victims:
1968, Betty Jensen and David Faraday
1969 Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau (Mageau survived the attack)
1969 Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell (Hartnell survived the attack)
1969, San Francisco victim Paul Stine
Chapter 16
Grandfather Harvey
In physical appearance, I favor my mother’s side of the family. The Harvey’s (UK) and the Boyles (Cork County, Ireland) from whom I also inherited my thirsty Irish genes.
From my boyhood, I remember my grandfather, Charles Eugene Harvey as a bear of a man, with snow white hair and a big smile, but that’s about all.
Mostly, I remember my mother’s stories about him. Her father was born in Pittsburgh, PA. He was one of six brothers, four of whom worked in the coal mines. Mother would frequently tell us three sons the story of how, at the turn of the century, these six burly brothers would walk into a bar-room, all order “sarsaparillas” [a nonalcoholic precursor to “Root Beer”], and look around the room just daring anyone to make a snide remark or snicker. Tough coalminers all.
Mother was born in 1906 in New York’s Central Park West. Three-years later, the family moved west to Los Angeles. Grandfather got a job with the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper as a linotype operator.
Grandfather Harvey’s second career began after his divorce from Grandmother when he started teaching printing at Hollywood High School in the 1920s.
Hollywood High claims over 500 “celebrity students” including a couple well known to our own investigation. To name just a few from their alma mater:
Vincent Bugliosi, Carol Burnett, Lon Chaney Jr., Judy Garland, Laurence Fishburne, Carole Lombard, Ricky Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jason Robards, Alexis Smith, Lana Turner, and Fay Wray. Both DDA head prosecutor Stephen Kay and my half-sister, Tamar Hodel also attended Hollywood High.
1928 Hollywood High School Year Book—Men Faculty
Photos of printing instructor, Charles Harvey in 1939 Yearbook
“Those who study printing with Mr. Harvey are given a chance to print programs, papers, and the Crimson and White for Hollywood.”
“Mr. Harvey, printing instructor collects rare books and fine printing. In his collection he has a page from an original Gutenberg Bible.”
Hollywood High Year Book 1939
After twenty years of teaching at the high-school at age sixty-two, Grandfather washed his hands of the printer’s ink, and, in semi-retirement, donned the uniform of a doorman complete with gold buttons and epaulets at one of Hollywood’s fancy hotels.
Mother had a tremendous love for her father. She spoke proudly of the chess-playing atheist who was a voracious reader, a liberal, a thinker, and a scholar. She affectionately described him as a lover of people and life.
My favorite anecdote about Grandfather was the story Mother told us as children. It was when Grandfather Harvey was working as a doorman in Hollywood.
As the story goes, while working at the hotel, Grandfather met a woman who was staying as a long-term guest. Each day, he would be there to open the door for her as she came and went. The woman was a writer, and being kindred spirits—naturally, they soon became friends. A greet, a nod, a smile, and some small talk.
One day, the woman checked out of the hotel and returned to the East.
During her stay at the hotel, she had written a play. In November 1944, it premiered on Broadway. It was a smash hit and ran for nearly five years. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1945. The name of the playwright? Mary Chase. Her play? Harvey.
Based on her brief friendship and affection for Grandfather, the friendly hotel doorman, she honored him by naming her pooka, the invisible six feet six inches rabbit, after him!
It would be nice to end my story about Grandfather Harvey here on this high note. However, like most twists and turns in my ongoing investigation, it seems there is always something more…
A Death in the Family
“I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.”
Sherlock Holmes in, The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In the past ten years, I had never done any research into my grandfather’s life. There was no real reason to as nothing ever surfaced to suggest he had any role to play in any part of my investigation.
I knew practically nothing about his life, other than the few stories told by my mother. I didn’t know when he was born nor could I recall when he died, other than having a vague impression. It was sometime in the 1950s. In the spring of 2010, I decided to order his death certificate, as a first step, to see what family information it might contain such as: his birth date, relatives etc. Here’s what I discovered:
Copy of Death Certificate of Charles Eugene Harvey
The facts surrounding my grandfather’s death appeared clear and simple.
Apparently, on a cold winter morning in December 1949, he suffered a heart attack at his residence, The Vine Manor Hotel, 1814 N. Vine Street in Hollywood.
From there, he was rushed to a nearby medical facility where he died two hours later. His attending physician arrived and indicated he had last seen his patient some two weeks prior on December 9. The doctor noted a ten-year medical history of “arteriosclerotic heart disease.” Obviously, the death was from “natural causes” and the doctor, when filling out the death certificate, checked off “no autopsy to be performed.” My grandfather’s body was cremated three days later without further ceremony. End of story. Well, not quite.
When I first saw my grandfather’s death certificate, my eyes were instantly drawn to the distinctive hand-printed block lettering entered by the doctor in the cause of death section. I believed I recognized the handwriting. From there, my eyes flashed to the bottom signature line for confirmation—“G. Hill Hodel, M.D.”
&nb
sp; So, from the death certificate, we learn that not only was George Hodel claiming to be Charles Harvey’s “attending physician” and was at the medical facility soon after Grandfather’s initial heart attack, but he also instantly took charge of the body and ordered, “no autopsy to be conducted,” insuring cremation without any examination or lab tests.
Bottom portion of Grandfather Harvey’s death certificate
My next surprise was when I read the actual date of death—December 23, 1949. A date thoroughly familiar to me from my own investigation. Why?
Because that is the very day that Dr. George Hill Hodel was acquitted by a jury of felony child molestation and incest, charges that, for those who knew him and had followed the trial were convinced, would be sending him to prison for a very long time.
Even my father believed he would be convicted. In a conversation with house roomer Joe Barrett, just days before the verdict, Dad reflected on prison life, saying to Joe, “It won’t be so bad. I’ll be able to read and perhaps work in the hospital.”
Some will say that these set of facts are nothing more than “coincidence.” That could be the case, but I seriously doubt it. The timing, along with my father’s actions in the weeks that followed, is just too revealing.
Consider this:
1) According to both my grandmother and mother, Charles Harvey hated George Hodel. He hated my father because of how Dad physically and psychologically abused his daughter, Dorothy. That being the case, he certainly would not have allowed George to be his personal physician.
2) Mother knew the truth of father’s crimes, and, most probably, had related them to the man she loved most—her father. Grandfather knew some if not all of the details and very likely was aware that Elizabeth Short had been to the Franklin house and had dated George. He would also have known that Tamar had obtained an abortion and that witnesses perjured themselves.
Despite the jury’s “not guilty” verdict that very morning, Charles Harvey was still a danger and threat to George. Perhaps hearing the unjust verdict just hours earlier, Grandfather became enraged and threatened to go to the police with what he knew.
3) As we know, George Hodel had a history, a track record of silencing those who threatened his freedom. How? By drugging them! There was Ruth Spaulding’s 1945 death investigation, which LAPD was convinced was a forced overdose by Dr. Hodel but couldn’t prove it. Again, the probable motive was to silence her from revealing what SHE KNEW.
Then in mid-January 1950, just three weeks after Grandfather Harvey’s death, came George Hodel’s staged “attempted suicide” of Lillian Lenorak. Again, with the same motive, he drugged her unconscious and set her up to discredit her and keep her silent from speaking out and confessing her perjury. We know from his own admission to Officer Unkefer that he “gave her a sedative injection and she won’t wake up for hours.”
I’m also convinced that Elizabeth Short and others were drugged before he killed them.
Just weeks before grandfather’s death, there was also the mysterious circumstances of actress Jean Spangler’s late night disappearance. She was last seen in public in Hollywood at a restaurant, arguing with a man fitting George Hodel’s description the very day after he bailed out of custody on his arrest for incest. This was in October 1949, just one week before George Hodel was formally arraigned on felony charges that could send him to prison for decades. Did Jean also make the fatal mistake of threatening to reveal what she knew or suspected about him to the police?
Recall my half-brother Duncan’s words, “… I remember one of the girl’s Dad was dating back then was a drop-dead gorgeous actress by the name of Jean.”
But back to Grandfather Harvey. How easy would it have been for George to have given him a “hot shot” say, a large dose of an amphetamine, which, with his bad heart, would have readily induced a “cerebral hemorrhage,” coma, and death?
This was followed-up by George’s claims that Grandfather was his patient. And, within hours of the death, his filling out the death certificate as “by natural causes—no autopsy.” It was followed by the cremation of the remains three days later. George, as usual, was in complete control.
The really “perfect crimes” are those that are never detected. This could well be such a case.
ALL MY LOVE AND REST IN PEACE - GRANDFATHER
Chapter 17
Captain Jack Donahoe—A Print Shop Connection
On Saturday, January 24, 1947, the below cut-and-paste note was sent to the Los Angeles Examiner, along with a package containing Elizabeth Short’s personal effects—her birth certificate, social security card, personal papers, address book with seventy-five names in it, and six personal photographs of the victim which showed her in the company of various ex-boyfriends.
This first note and the victim’s personal property were sent by the killer a day after making a taunting phone call and speaking with the Los Angeles Examiner’s city editor, James Richardson.
In closing his brief conversation with the city editor, the killer told Richardson:
I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll send you some of the things she had with her when she, shall we say disappeared? “See how far you can get with them. And now I must say goodbye. You may be trying to trace this call.
The package with Elizabeth Short’s personal effects and the note arrived a day later with the killer promising, “Letter to follow.”
“Here is Dahlia’s belongings. Letter to Follow”
Avenger posted this note to Examiner in a mailbox located just three blocks from George Hodel’s downtown medical office
On Monday, January 26, 1947, the second promise “Letter to Follow,” a postcard addressed to the LA Examiner, was received. It, like the first message, was mailed just a few blocks from Dr. Hodel’s private medical practice.
George Hill Hodel’s undisguised handwriting on a postcard promising to “turn himself in” in two days.
Capt. Jack Donahoe, commander of LAPD’s Homicide Unit informed the public:
“We believe this postcard is from the killer and is legitimate and is the ‘letter to follow.’ The fact that the postcard was printed rather than lettered with words cut out of newspapers also supports the theory that the killer intends to turn himself into the police, and no longer needs to take pains to conceal his identity.”
Captain Jack Donahoe,
LAPD Homicide Division
LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division analyzed the note and writing and determined that it was written using a ballpoint pen with blue ink. [In 1947, ballpoint pens had only been on the market for one-year and were both rare and expensive. They were selling for approximately $12.50, the equivalent of about $125.00 in today’s dollars, and due to their expense were primarily used and possessed by lawyers, physicians, business executives, and military officers.]
Capt. Donahoe responded with a public message directed to the killer, which was printed in all of the LA dailies, informing the “Avenger”:
“If you want to surrender as indicated by the postcard now in our hands, I will meet you at any public location at any time or at the homicide detail office in the City Hall. Communicate immediately by telephoning MI 5211 extension 2521, or by mail.”
The Black Dahlia Avenger taunted police with several more notes, one of which demonstrated his journalistic skill in writing headlines. Some detectives voiced their suspicions that it may have been written by reporters hoping to keep the story alive. [What no one suspected was the bizarre truth of it—that the killer had actually been a journalist! George Hodel, as we know, was a crime reporter covering the police beat and had written his own headlines in the 1920s for one of LA’s largest newspapers, The LA Record.]:
“Dahlia Killer Cracking, Wants Terms”
In another cut and paste the following day, he wrote:
“I Will Give Up In Dahlia Killing If I get 10 Years
Don’t try to find me
On the morning of January 29, Capt. Donahoe, confident that the kill
er would actually turn himself in, positioned his detectives at all the local police stations. But by evening, it became obvious that the suspect was a “no show.”
The following morning, January 30, the Avenger’s message addressed to Capt. Donahoe was received in the mail:
Have changed my mind.
You would not give me a SQUARE deal.
Dahlia killing was justified.
Proof Sheet Paper-
“At least one of the notes sent in by the Dahlia killer in that case, used proof-sheet-paper, of a type commonly found in printing shops.”
Captain Jack Donahoe
LAPD Homicide Division
Capt. Donahoe also made public a second important link in hopes of capturing the Avenger. He was confident that the killer either worked for or was connected in some way to a printing company.
Why?
Because at least one of the posted notes sent in was placed on a unique proof sheet paper, commonly used in print shops.
Proof sheet paper was a lower grade of paper stock used in print shops to proof copy before it went to press on a higher grade of paper, thus saving money.
As detailed in BDA, one of LAPD’s first really viable suspects in the Black Dahlia murder was, Otto Parzyjegla, a tall, thin, thirty-six-year-old linotype operator who worked at a Los Angeles printing company.
Parzyjegla had been arrested in February 1947 for the vicious murder of his employer, Swedish newspaper publisher, Alfred Haij, whom he had bludgeoned to death and then “hacked the torso into six pieces and then crammed them into three boxes at the rear of the print shop.”
Donahoe declared Parzyjegla to be, “the hottest suspect yet in the ‘Black Dahlia’ killing.”
On February 19, 1947, a formal “live show up” of Otto Parzyjegla was conducted by LAPD detectives at Wilshire police station. In attendance were six women victims of attempted attacks, as well as additional witnesses from both the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia” and Jeanne French “Red Lipstick” murders. After viewing the line-up, all of the witnesses eliminated Parzyjegla, informing detectives that he was not the man they had seen as witnesses in the Dahlia, Jeanne French, and other related crimes.