The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance he has received from the UCLA Special Collections Department, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Man Ray Trust, and Artists Rights Society.
UCLA Special Collections files:
All UCLA images courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA
Photograph of Grant Terry/Roger Gardner, page 298
Photograph of Jeanette Walser, page 299
Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society:
All Man Ray images copyright © 2003 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris
Man Ray, Portrait of Dorothy Hodel, 1944 page 38
Man Ray, George Model, 1946 page 79
Man Ray,
Man Ray,
Man Ray,
Man Ray,
Man Ray,
Man Ray, George Hodel and Yamantaka, pages 253 and 265
Man Ray, Dorothy Hodel, Hollywood, 1944, page 299
Los Angeles Public Library:
All LAPL images courtesy of the Herald Examiner Collection / Los Angeles Public Library
Photograph of 'Beth Short' telegram, page 156
Photograph of envelope mailed to District Attorney, page 170
Photograph of note sent to
Photograph of note sent to
Photograph of note sent to
Photographs of post cards sent to
Photograph of Armand Robles, page 179
Photographs of notes sent to
Photograph of note sent to
Photograph of envelope addressed to
Photograph of LAPD Chiefs Thad Brown and William Parker, page 365
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertantly overlooked, the author would be happy to hear from them.
BLACK
DAHLIA
AVENGER
Introduction
For almost twenty-four years, from 1963 to 1986, I was a police officer, and later a detective-supervisor, with the Los Angeles Police Department, a period generally considered to be LAPD's 'golden years.' I was one of Chief William H. Parker's 'new breed,' part of his 'thin blue line.'
My first years were in uniformed patrol. My initial assignment was to West Los Angeles Division, where as a young and aggressive rookie, I was, as Chief Parker had demanded of all his men, 'proactive,' excelling in making felony arrests by stopping 'anything that moved' on the early-morning streets and alleys of Los Angeles. Over the next five years, as a street cop, I worked in three divisions: Wilshire, Van Nuys, and finally Hollywood.
In 1969,1 applied for and was accepted into the detective bureau at Hollywood. I was assigned to and worked all of the 'tables': Juvenile, Auto Theft, Sex Crimes, Crimes against Persons, Burglary, and Robbery.
My ratings within the detective bureau remained 'upper ten,' and as the years flew by I was assigned to the more difficult and complex investigations, in charge of coordinating the various task force operations, which in some instances required the supervision and coordination of as many as seventy-five to one hundred field officers and plainclothes detectives in an effort to capture a particularly clever (or lucky) serial rapist or residential cat burglar working the Hollywood Hills.
Finally, I was selected to work what most detectives consider to be the elite table: Homicide. I did well on
