George Hodel
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George Hodel | |
---|---|
Born | George Hill Hodel Jr. October 10, 1907 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Died | May 17, 1999 San Francisco, California, U.S. | (aged 91)
Occupation | Physician |
Known for | Black Dahlia murder suspect |
Spouses |
June Hodel (m. 1990) |
Children |
|
George Hill Hodel Jr. (October 10, 1907 – May 17, 1999) was an
Early life
George Hill Hodel Jr. was born on October 10, 1907, and raised in Los Angeles, California. His parents, George Hodel Sr. and Esther Hodel, were of
By around 1928, Hodel was in a common-law marriage with a woman named Emilia; they had a son, Duncan. In the 1930s, he was legally married to Dorothy Anthony, a fashion model from San Francisco; they had a daughter, Tamar.
Hodel graduated from
Career
After the success of his medical practice and becoming head of the county's Social Hygiene Bureau, Hodel was moving in affluent
In 1940, Hodel married Dorothy Harvey, John Huston's ex-wife. He called her "Dorero" to avoid confusion with his other wife, Dorothy Anthony, at least within their circle,[2] but she is better known as Dorothy Huston-Hodel.
Hodel purchased the Sowden House in 1945 and lived there from 1945 until 1950. The structure, built in 1926 by Lloyd Wright (son of the noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright), has since been registered as a Los Angeles historic landmark. Hodel was effectively a polygamist: in the late 1940s, around the time of the deaths of Spaulding and Elizabeth Short, Hodel was living with "Dorero" and their three children; his first legal wife Dorothy Anthony and their daughter Tamar; and, at times, his original common-law wife, Emilia, mother of Hodel's eldest child (by that time an adult).[2][4] He was also prone to taking temporary lovers; a witness later suggested such a relationship between Hodel and Short.[4]
Hodel left the United States in March 1950 for
Death
Hodel returned to the United States in 1990. He married (legally) for the fourth time, to a woman named June, in San Francisco,[2] where he remained for the rest of his life. He died in 1999, at the age of 91.
Murder and rape suspect
On January 15, 1947, the naked body of 22-year-old
In late 1949, Hodel's teenage daughter Tamar accused him of incestuous sexual abuse and impregnating her. He was acquitted after a widely publicized trial.[5] Two witnesses to the alleged abuse testified at the trial. A third recanted her earlier testimony and refused to come forward, with one theory being that Hodel threatened her into silence. Tamar's testimony was perceived as contradictory and attention-seeking.[citation needed]
Hodel came to police attention as a suspect in the Elizabeth Short murder in 1949 after the sexual abuse trial. Known or suspected
Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They can't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary.
Hodel was also interviewed as a suspect in the nearby June 1949 murder of Louise Springer, the "Green Twig Murder", though evidence to support this accusation was not publicly available until July 2018.
In October 1949, Hodel's name was mentioned in a formal written report to the grand jury as one of five prime suspects in the Short murder, but none of the named suspects were submitted to the grand jury for consideration for indictment, as the investigation was still ongoing.
Hodel obtained a degree in psychiatry and counseled prisoners in the Territorial prison in Hawaii for three years, then moved on to the Philippines, where he started a new family, and appears to have remained until 1990, finally dying in 1999 in San Francisco without charges ever being filed. However, his son Steve has written that he believes Hodel re-entered the United States multiple times each year from 1958 through 1988 and specifically in 1966–1969 to commit more murders, and then return to the Philippines.[6]WP:OR
Reactions
After Hodel died in 1999, his son Steve Hodel, a former LAPD homicide detective, started investigating his father as a possible suspect in the Elizabeth Short murder and has written several books on the subject.
A September 2006 episode of
In July 2018, Sandi Nichols of
Included in the letter was the fact that LAPD, after being informed that "GH" knew victim Springer, brought "GH" in to be "grilled about the Springer murder." The Martin letter made it clear that "GH" was known and protected by law enforcement officers, and that they "let him go." Martin's instructions were that his letter was to be opened only in case of harm coming to either of his daughters. No harm came to either of them so the letter remained unreported and in the family's possession for 70 years until discovered and read by Martin's granddaughter.[6]
Trivia
In January 2019, the American TV network
The second project was an eight-part documentary podcast, entitled Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia,[11] a Cadence13/TNT production using archival audio and interviews with Hodel family members. The podcast includes many of the actual investigative findings and linkage of George Hodel to the Black Dahlia murder, establishing that according to secret police records he, in fact, knew and had dated the victim in the 1940s.
Both series surmise that Fauna might be both the granddaughter and the daughter of Hodel, though there is no evidence as to who her real father is. In 1949, George Hodel had been arrested and tried for incest by LAPD; his 14-year-old daughter Tamar accused him of raping her, resulting in a pregnancy she aborted. Hodel obtained criminal defense attorney Jerry Giesler and was acquitted after a three-week jury trial.
The Root of Evil producer Zak Levitt was able to obtain DNA analysis and a review of the results by one of the world's leading experts, which positively eliminated George Hodel as the biological father of Fauna Hodel.[12][citation needed]
See also
- Fauna Hodel — Hodel's granddaughter and true-crime author
- TNT Drama TV miniseries, featuring Jefferson Maysas George Hodel
- Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia
- ISBN 978-0-425-21218-9.
References
- ISBN 9781610695947 – via Google Books.
- ^ .
- ^ "George Hill Hodel Jr (Deceased), South Pasadena, CA California". South Pasadena High School Alumni Association - Classes of 1907-2018. South Pasadena Public Library, 2011. 2011. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
George graduated early from South Pasadena High in 1923 and later that year at only age 15, entered Cal Tech.
- ^ ISBN 978-1628724394.
- Archive.org.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-525-95132-2.
- Blumhouse Television/AMPLE Entertainment. A&E (TV network).
- ISBN 978-1945572975.
- OCLC 8812614. Archived from the originalon 10 April 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- Pasadena, California, United States. Archived from the originalon 28 February 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ Gentile, Yvette; Pecoraro, Rasha; et al. (Zak Levitt (producer)) (13 February 2019). "Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia" (Podcast). Cadence13/TNT. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022 – via Apple Podcasts.
- ^ "Anatomy of a Podcast: Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia- DNA Test Answers Question of Fauna Hodel's Paternity". April 8, 2019. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
External links
- Butterfield, Michael (2018). "Steve Hodel & Most Evil: Debunked". Zodiac Killer Facts – Separating Fact & Fiction. Archived from the original on August 27, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
- Hodel, Steve. "Squad Room Blog". SteveHodel.com. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
- Cooper, Kim (January 26, 2019). "A Rare Tour of Dr. George Hodel's Whimsically Weird Childhood House". Esotouric.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2018.