In an attempt to further establish that my father and Sexton were lifelong friends, I showed Mary Moe a photograph of a young, dark-complexioned man that had been given to me by June after Father's death. It was one of a collection of photographs taken by my father in 1925. Though it was of poor quality, I believed it bore a resemblance to Sexton, who would have then been about eighteen. I initially e-mailed a copy of the photo to Mary, and then showed her the actual photograph during our second meeting. She said:
I can't say for sure or not if it is a photo of my father. It's really hard to tell. It certainly could be, because the mouth and lips resemble his, but I'm unsure. Dad had the same dark complexion as in the picture. I know they knew each other back then, because it was the strangest thing. Guess who did an art review of my dad's work — it was your dad's ex-wife, Emilia Hodel! I came across this review from a San Francisco paper where she gave him this terrible review as an artist. Everyone else gave him great reviews, but Emilia wrote him this really bad review. I'll try and find a copy for you.
Mary Moe's candor revealed a man chillingly similar to my own father. The two men had been practically inseparable for thirty years, from boyhood until my father's departure in 1950. Except during Father's medical training years, both had lived within a few miles of each other and both had offices in downtown Los Angeles. When trouble came stalking Sexton, my father unhesitatingly provided him with medical aid and a gun. They shared sexual favors with women, and in the case of my father, he even shared his teenage daughter. Clearly these men held each other in the closest confidence, and one protected the other.
With my own investigative insights, Joe Barrett's brief but telling story of Sexton's sexual obsession with the young female art students, coupled with the biography I had learned from Mary Moe, I was now focused on Fred Sexton as Suspect Number 2.
Most of the crimes I researched involved two mysterious and unidentified suspects. The primary suspect was a suave and polished, tall, thin, well-dressed man who had been seen with the victims just before they were either killed or disappeared. The second man, of similar physical build, was more often referred to simply as 'swarthy complexioned.'
I believe it's important to see exactly how these two men appeared in the mid- to late 1940s, to compare them to the victim and witness descriptions we have already heard and those yet to come. Following are photos of each man as he looked in the late 1940s, along with his overall physical description, and character traits:
In 1947, Dr. George Hill Hodel was thirty-nine years old, tall at six foot one, trim at about 165 pounds, with black curly hair, an olive complexion, and a well-trimmed mustache that made him look Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. He had a soft, educated, and deeply resonant voice that was partially the result of his training and experience as an announcer on public radio.
A meticulous and stylish dresser, he was very aware of how he looked and how important his looks were as a method of control. His physical demeanor demanded respect. He sought a position of dominance in all situations; he sought to exercise control, and he was an intellectual, sophisticated, and charismatic personality. He was also an experienced, accomplished, and self-professed womanizer.
Exhibit 34
Fred Sexton's swarthy looks would easily have allowed someone to take him for an Hispanic, Italian, or Portuguese. A self-educated and intelligent bohemian, Sexton had penetrating eyes and a menacing cold stare.
We have been told he was fluent in both Italian and Spanish. With his smoldering good looks and brooding demeanor, he looked a lot like one of the stars of the silent movie era. At thirty-nine years old, six foot one, 180 pounds, and with sleek, slicked-back hair, Sexton, who also wore a mustache and a goatee from time to time, was as much of a womanizer as my father.
17
LAPD Secrets and the Marquis de Sade
— Marquis de Sade
RELATING TO THE BLACK DAHLIA INVESTIGATION, the LAPD possessed and was actually able to keep some 'key questions' confidential, away from the press and public, for forty years, until they were finally leaked. Some of these secrets were learned from the unaltered photographs of Elizabeth Short's body. Others came from police and coroner's files, and were alleged to be 'hand copied reproductions of originals.'* All of this 'secret information' related to the autopsy findings, the horrific details that fully described exactly where and how the sadistic killer(s) tortured the victim.
Once I learned of these atrocities, I was shaken to my core. A hardened veteran who personally attended hundreds of postmortems, I thought I had seen everything. But I was wholly unprepared for what I learned. I believe for the sake of truth, accuracy, and above all,
Dr. Newbarr's autopsy report describes a victim who endured a horrific and painful death at the hands of a suspect or suspects who took the infliction of physical punishment to the extreme. The young woman was trussed and bound by her hands and feet, was tortured initially by the killer's inflicting minor cuts to her body and to her private parts, then cutting away her pubic hairs, which he would later insert into her vagina. She was then beaten about her entire body. She was forced to endure the overwhelming humiliation of being made to eat either her own or their fecal excrement. Finally, she was beaten to death, and her face and body were viciously lacerated and defiled. The killer(s) cut large pieces of flesh from her body, which they inserted into her vagina and/or her rectum. Her killer sliced her mouth from ear to ear into a bloody grin, lacerated her breasts, and cleanly and surgically bisected her body. To a trained forensic pathologist, of even greater significance was the four-inch gaping laceration cut into the victim's lower torso from her umbilicus down to the suprapubic region, a spot right above her pubic area, with numerous crisscross lacerations cut into that region as well. This incision in length, description, and location is consistent in every respect with that made by a skilled surgeon performing a hysterectomy. After the
