In the long letter Father sent me on June 4, 1980, referred to here as 'The Parable of the Sparrows,' which he typed himself rather than giving it to his secretary or wife to type, there are four separate instances where he used his unique double-dash endings:
Page 2
'plastic coating--'
'mirror film--'
Page 3
'to her--'
'Remember--'
The use of these double-spaced dashes is such a rarity that their appearances in the Bauerdorf note and in my father's letter to me set off a loud alarm.
Exhibit 56 shows how the original note appeared in the September 21, 1945,
Los Angeles Examiner,
Gladys Eugenia Kern (February 14, 1948)
On February 17, 1948,
WOMAN SLAIN IN HOLLYWOOD
MYSTERY; POLICE SEEK ANONYMOUS
NOTE WRITER
The victim was fifty-year-old real estate agent Gladys Eugenia Kern, who was stabbed to death while showing a house to a potential buyer. Her body was found two days later at 4217 Cromwell Avenue in the exclusive Los Feliz section of the Hollywood Hills, by another real estate agent who was showing the house to a client.
The murder weapon, left at the crime scene by the killer and found in the kitchen sink wrapped in a man's bloody handkerchief, was described as an eight-inch jungle knife of a type used by soldiers during the war. Police found unidentified fingerprints at the crime scene, which, if not lost or disposed of, presumably remain as potential evidence in the unsolved homicide.
A check of Gladys Kern's movements by LAPD detectives revealed she had last been seen the previous Saturday, Valentine's Day, February 14, meeting with a man at her Hollywood real estate office at 1307 North Vermont Avenue. The manager of a drugstore at the corner of Fountain Street and Vermont Avenue, directly across the street from the victim's office, saw her enter the drugstore at approximately 2:00 P.M. accompanied by a man she described as 'having very dark curly hair, and wearing a dark blue suit.' The two of them sat at a counter, had a soda, and then left the drugstore together.
Possibly the last person to have seen the victim alive was radar engineer William E. Osborne, whose laboratory was next door to Mrs. Kern's office. Osborne saw the victim talking with a man at her Vermont Avenue office on February 14, 1948, at approximately 4:00 P.M. The witness told police that at that time, 'She put her head in the door of my laboratory and told me she was leaving. There was a tall chap in the office with her.' Osborne had the impression that she knew him, because, he told police, 'They were talking generalities, not business.'
He provided the following description of the man, which was broadcast by the LAPD as an all points bulletin: 'Male, approximately 50 years of age, 6' tall, long full face, graying hair, wearing a business suit with a moderate cut, well dressed and neat, with a New York appearance in his dress and manner.'
After their initial press releases, police told reporters that they had the names of live additional witnesses who had seen the victim with a similarly described individual, but the police did not release their names.
Two additional witnesses, Japanese gardeners working across the street from the murder scene at the hillside mansion, were located by police and told of seeing 'two men coming out of the mansion, and down the steps,' on Saturday afternoon, the day of the murder. The gardeners saw the two men get into a parked vehicle and drive off, but the police provided no detailed description of these two suspects or their vehicle.
During their search of the victim's office, police discovered that a 'clients' book' containing Mrs. Kern's appointments and clients' names was missing from her desk. During their search of the victim's desk, police also discovered a small snapshot showing the victim standing with an unidentified man, whom they were attempting to identify.
The strongest lead in the investigation was a bizarre handwritten note the police received that had been left in a downtown mailbox at 5th and Olive, on Sunday, February 15, the day after the victim's murder and a day before her body was discovered. The note, written on 'cheap blank paper,' was neither addressed nor stamped but had been folded in half, glued closed, marked 'Hurry, give to police,' and deposited in a mailbox in the same city block as the Biltmore Hotel. Its condition — glued and folded — was strikingly similar to the earlier Dahlia note left in the downtown cab driver's vehicle that said, 'Take to Examiner at once. I've got the number of your cab.' In the Dahlia murder, we recall, the suspect alternately directed his notes to both police and the press.
The Kern note was found by the mailman and given to police. The mailbox, only two city blocks from my father's medical office on 7th Street, was on the same block where another 1947 note (exhibit 28) was left by the Black Dahlia Avenger. That Dahlia Avenger note told police to 'Ask news man at 5+ Hill for clue. Why not let that nut go I spoke to said man B.D.A.'
LAPD detectives and forensics experts concluded that the Kern note had most probably been written by the suspect, who, they believed, had altered his handwriting and deliberately used odd phrasing and misspelled words. This note was excerpted, precisely as the writer had spelled and punctuated it, in the
I made acquaintance of man three weeks ago while in Griffith Park he seemed a great sport we got friendly friday night asked me if I wanted to make about $300. He said he wanted to buy a home for his family but he was a racketeer and no real estater would do business with him he suggested I buy a home for him in my name then he would go with person to look at property to make sure he liked and I was to tell real estater that he was lending me the cash so he had to inspect and I waited outside after while I went up to investigate, there I found her lying on floor, him trying to take ring off fingers he pulled gun on me and told me he just knocked her out he knew I carried money so he took my wallet with all my money tied my hands with my belt let lay down on sink and attached belt to faucet.
After he left I got free and tried to revive her I turned her over, I was covered with blood pulled knife out then
