Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

Left: Esther Leov Hodel, George Hodel's mother and the author's grandmother, circa 1912.

Below: This Hodel family photograph was taken circa 1917 at the Hodel residence in South Pasadena. It depicts composer Sergei Rachmaninov seated between the Russian minister of culture and his wife (possibly the Zelenkos).

LOS ANGELES EVENING

BOY OF NINE CHIEF

   SOLOIST AT SHRINE

      HOLIDAY EXERCISES

George Hodel, age nine. Photograph from the Los Angeles Evening Herald of July 17, 1917. George, a musical prodigy, was selected to play a piano concert at the L.A. Shrine Auditorium in honor of Bastille Day.

Dorothy Harvey Huston and John Huston arriving in Los Angeles, circa 1926, shortly after their marriage. They are being met at the train by Johns father, Walter Huston (left).

This remarkable photograph, dated July 29, 1942, was discovered by the author in 2002. Dr. George Hill Hodel lectures police recruits and vice detectives at the Los Angeles Police Academy on the newly enacted 'May Act,' which temporarily established prostitution as a federal offense. Though his son was an LAPD officer for nearly twenty-four years, Dr. Hodel never mentioned the fact that he had once lectured to police officers, obviously at the request and invitation of the department brass.

(Photograph courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA)

Dorothy Harvey Hodel, circa 1943, in front of the Valentine Street home, with her two sons, Steven (left) and Kelvin.

Dorothy Hodel, in the courtyard of the Franklin House, circa 1946-47.

'The Three Musketeers,' Franklin House, circa 1948. From left to right: Steven, Michael, and Kelvin.

Dr. George Hill Hodel in the living room of the Franklin House, in early 1950, just months before he left the United States.

Joe Barrett, U.S. Navy, circa 1945. From 1948to 1950, he was a boarder in the Franklin House, and privy to many of its secrets.

The author, age 18. Photograph taken in Manila, Phillipines, while he was visiting his father from his naval base in Subic Bay.

Rookie LAPD officer Steve Hodel and Chief Thad Brown, 1966. Why would the chief insist on having his picture taken with the raw rookie? This photograph would later prove to be an important clue in the Black Dahlia investigation.

LAPD Detective II Steve Hodel, Hollywood Division, 1983.

Tamar Hodel, the author's half-sister, circa 2000. Her information would unwittingly play a major role in helping the author solve the Black Dahlia and other Los Angeles area murders.

Los Angeles County Head Deputy District Attorney Stephen R. Kay. Kay has prosecuted many of Los Angeles's most notorious murderers, most notably Charles Manson and the rest of the Manson Family.

(Photograph courtesy of David Fairchild Studio)

Silhouette of George and June Hodel, taken by the author in 1998 from their 38th-floor, penthouse suite in downtown San Francisco.

advised that the four latent fingerprints appearing in the photographs were searched through the single fingerprint file, but no identifications were effected. The photographs are being retained for any future comparisons, which might be desired.

Documents reveal that fingerprint comparisons were being conducted as late as January 19, 1949, which means that these unidentified prints were not those of the postal inspectors, whose prints would already have been on file. Whether these were actual suspect prints or not and whether they yet remain in existence for comparison is not known.