Hodel, Steve 1941-

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HODEL, Steve 1941-

PERSONAL:

Born 1941, in Los Angeles, CA; Son of George Hodel (a surgeon); divorced; children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Hollywood, CA. Office—12400 Ventura Blvd., Box 378, Studio City, CA 91604. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles, CA, from police officer to Detective II, 1963-83, senior field homicide detective, beginning 1983, Detective III, until 1986; Hodel Investigations, founder and licensed private investigator, 1986—. The author and his work have been featured on 48 Hours, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS); and Dateline, National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Military service: Served in the U.S. Navy as a medic.

WRITINGS:

Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (nonfiction), Arcade (New York, NY), 2003, expanded edition with foreword by James Ellroy, Perennial (New York, NY), 2004.

Black Dahlia Avenger has also been translated into French.

ADAPTATIONS:

The author has adapted Black Dahlia Avenger for film.

SIDELIGHTS:

One of the most famous criminal cases in Los Angeles's history is the 1947 brutal murder of twenty-two-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short. Short was known as the "Black Dahlia" because of the flower she wore in her black-dyed hair. Her body, which was literally cut in two, was found carefully posed in a vacant lot, a few miles south of Hollywood. The crime, which was featured in national headlines for thirty-two days, became a top priority for the Los Angeles Police Department. However, the identity of the killer was never discovered, though the police investigated over a hundred suspects. One of these suspects, Dr. George Hodel, was the father of Steve Hodel, a former police detective turned private detective. Hodel writes in his book Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder, about how he came to believe his father was a serial killer.

George Hodel was a complicated man. A genius with an I.Q. of 186, he was a physician who ran a venereal disease clinic in Los Angeles during the time of the murder. A brilliant and seemingly respectable citizen, Hodel led a double life that included multiple affairs, orgies hosted at his home, and, his son came to believe, a string of jealousy-inspired murders that included the killing of Short. What protected him from prison, the author asserts, is that the doctor was privy to many embarrassing secrets about members of the LAPD, who apparently were patients at his clinic. The doctor was also privy to information on an L.A. abortion ring, where LAPD detectives were paid to overlook the performance of abortions (a felony at the time of Elizabeth Short's murder). Steve Hodel began investigating his father in 1999, immediately after his death at the age of ninety-one. The author's stepmother gave him his father's old photo album, and one of the women in the photographs strongly resembled Short.

Several factors led to Hodel's belief in his father's guilt, including his father's illicit parties, the fact that the manner in which Short was killed bore evidence of a surgeon's skills, accusations that his sister Tamar once made against their father, and a comment that his father once made in which he practically dared the police to prove he was guilty. Hodel thinks that his father killed Short out of a jealous rage, but a number of reviewers were initially skeptical and less convinced by his arguments. For instance, a writer for Court TV's Crime Library noted that several family members declared that Tamar was a "pathological liar," that Hodel offers very little hard evidence for either his father's alleged crimes or for a police cover-up, and that George Hodel does not fit the psychological profile of a serial killer, despite his clearly arrogant personality. In the end, the critic concluded that the author's "case against his father is not exactly compelling."

While Newsweek reporter Andrew Murr quoted veteran Los Angeles County, Head Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay (who was the Manson Family prosecutor) as saying, "I believe Steve has solved the case," he went on to comment that "Hodel presents almost no evidence of a police cover-up. But if nothing else, he gives us a fascinating family psychodrama." San Jose Mercury News critic Therese Poletti concluded that Hodel's book "is a fascinating and horrifying tale of 1940s Los Angeles."

Steve Hodel told CA: "Several factors led to my belief in my father's guilt, including taunting handwritten notes sent in by the killer, identified by myself and a forensic expert as being written by my father. I also believe that the careful posing of the body at the crime-scene and other 'signatures' were in imitation of previous well-known artworks (namely Minotaur & Lovers Lips) created by my father's close personal friend, surrealist-artist, Man Ray. Two years after the murder, my father was arrested by LAPD detectives for incest and charged with having sexually molested my sister, Tamar, when she was fourteen years old. Despite three adults being present in the room at the time, and their testimony as witnesses to these sex acts, my father was acquitted and immediately fled the United States for forty years."

"Indeed, new evidence surfaced in 2004, which dramatically increased the probability that my father was the actual killer. Secret files were released by the District Attorney's office showing that my father was in fact the prime suspect. Transcripts of secret police recordings capture the doctor saying, 'Supposing I did kill the Black Dahlia. They can't prove it now, my secretary is dead.' Other police reports and interviews state that he declared, 'They will never be able to prove I did that murder.' As a result of the new findings several television programs have been devoted to the story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times Magazine, November 21, 2004, Paul Teetor, "The Most Credible Story Ever Told" p. 59.

Newsweek, April 21, 2003, Andrew Murr, "Old Case, New Twist: An Ex-LAPD Detective Says He's Finally Solved the 1947 Black Dahlia Murder. He Probably Wishes He Hadn't," p. 59.

People, June 2, 2003, Bill Hewitt, "Accusing His Father: An Ex-L.A. Cop Uncovers a Painful Answer to the Notorious 1947 Black Dahlia Slaying," p. 75.

San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA), July 1, 2003, Therese Poletti, review of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder.

Variety, May 19, 2003, Nicole LaPorte, "Tomes Tussle over Truth in Murder Case," p. 7.