Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

It has been my experience that at best, these 'profiles' should be considered an investigative tool; at worst, they can be dangerously speculative, demographically overweighted, and misleading, and, if given too much credence, can actually misdirect and impair an investigation. Profiles or patterns of predictability, like one's daily horoscope, often make more sense ex post facto. Human beings, especially human beings who murder, and above all those who murder and get away with it, are rarely predictable. Like wild beasts, they are cunning, predatory, and instinctual, and their environment has taught them survival and how best to avoid trappers.

In the Black Dahlia case, for example, John Douglas, former head of the FBI's serial crime division, provided over the past five years several separate published profiles on Elizabeth Short's killer. In virtually everything, his profiles were wide of the mark. He theorized: 1) that the killer was a white man in his late twenties; 2) he had no more than a high school education; 3) he lived alone and made his living working with his hands rather than his brains; and 4) though Douglas had made no review of any of the police files, he stated to a 'certainty' that Elizabeth Short's death was the result of a 'stranger murder,' in other words that she was a victim of opportunity.

Douglas was not the only profiler to be wildly wide of the mark. More recently, in the 2002 Washington, D.C., area serial sniper case, profilers had a field day, theorizing in the media, among other things, that the sniper was white, that he had no children, and that he was from the D.C. area, none of which was true of the alleged perpetrators, John Allen Muhammad and John Malvo

Coming back to the Jean Ellroy and Bobbie Long homicides, there remains the question of composite drawings. Often, police composites are weak or generic; this one is not, and it is evident that it bears a remarkable likeness to Fred Sexton. The physical description of 'the Swarthy Man' in all respects matches Sexton's appearance. As we know from numerous other witnesses sightings in 1947-50, many referred to the second man in just those words. I am not privy to a photograph of Sexton from the 1958 time period, so we must use our own imaginations to age him some ten years or more. As can be seen in this photograph, Sexton could pass for Hispanic, Italian, or Greek.

Exhibit 66

Fred Sexton, circa 1945-47

1958 LASD composite

Exhibit 66 is a photograph of Sexton, along with the composite drawing of the Ellroy murder suspect that was published in the newspapers of that time as well as in Ellroy's My Dark Places. This, in conjunction with what we know to be Sexton's M.O. throughout the entire decade of the 1940s, qualifies him as an exceptionally strong suspect in these two murders that occurred some eight and nine years later. Future investigation may well connect Sexton to the town of El Monte, and possibly to a car of like description. His close friend and accomplice to many of the rapes and murders, George Hodel, was medical director at the Ruth Home and Hospital in the 1940s, which was located at 831 North Gilman Road in El Monte. This girls' home and hospital was only one mile from the Desert Inn, and would most likely have been the closest nightclub for Father's afterwork drinks, dancing, and entertainment. As of this writing, I have not conducted any additional research into other unsolved homicides that may have occurred between 1950 and 1957.

Helene Jerome (August 27, 1958)

On August 28, 1958, the Los Angeles Examiner ran the headline 'Actress Found Dead in Hollywood.' Helene Jerome was a graduate of London's Royal Academy of Arts, and had devoted most of her career to the stage. She had acted with Barbara Stanwyck in Frank Capra's 1933 romantic melodrama The Bitter Tea of General Yen, and later with Mae West in the 1936 film Klondike Annie, in which she says to West, 'Too many girls follow the line of least resistance.' Mae answers, in what has become a classic response, 'Yeah, but a good line is hard to resist.'

The paper reported that the nude body of the fifty-year-old actress had been found in her apartment at 1738 North Las Palmas. The night clerk at the building, Orio Janes, was the last to see the victim, at approximately 4:00 a.m., when he went to her apartment to check on her because her telephone had been 'off the hook' for over an hour. At that time the witness saw her in the company of a man; however, his description was not released to the public.

It was learned that roughly six hours before the murder, the victim's estranged husband, Edwin Jerome, had been visiting her at the apartment. During his visit, a man telephoned from the lobby asking for Helene. Mr. Jerome told the caller she was sleeping. 'Just tell her George [italics mine] called,' the caller responded. Police were given a description of 'George' by the clerk, but it was not made public. Deputy Chief Thad Brown put Hollywood detective Henry Kerr in charge of the investigation.

Dr. Newbarr performed the autopsy and determined that the cause of death was strangulation. In his words, 'The victim was strangled with such force that it fractured the Adam's apple.'

Though we have minimal information on this crime, the facts as presented would seem to indicate that the victim could well have known the suspect 'George.' Like some other victims, Jerome had links to Hollywood and the film industry dating back to the 1930s. Based on his actions, the suspect could well have been Fred Sexton, using the name 'George.' Sexton's ex-wife's residence, which he was known to visit regularly and stay in for weeks at a time, was only a few miles from the crime scene. This murder occurred two months after the Geneva Ellroy strangulation, and five months prior to that of Bobbie Long.

Though not dumped, the victim was found nude and strangled. In my opinion, while Fred Sexton would appear to be a more likely suspect, my father's involvement cannot be completely ruled out, since he would occasionally 'pass through town' on business trips from the Far East.^*

It is not known if physical evidence (fingerprints or DNA) still exist on the Jerome murder investigation, and to the best of my knowledge this crime also remains as an LAPD unsolved homicide.

A statistical summary of the twenty separate crimes reviewed in this investigation over a two-decade span reveals the following:

1) LAPD crimes — 10 murders (Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French, Gladys Kern, Mimi Boomhower, Jean Spangler, Evelyn Winters, Rosenda Mondragon, Louise Springer, Helene Jerome, and Jane Doe); 2 kidnap-rapes (Sylvia Horan and lea M'Grew);Irobbery (Armand Robles)

2) LASD crimes — 4 murders (Ora Murray, Georgette Bauerdorf, Geneva Ellroy, and Bobbie Long).

3) Long Beach PD —Imurder (Laura Trelstad).

4) San Diego PD —Imurder (Marian Newton).