Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

suddenly I came to I washed my hands and knife then I looked in her bag for her home phone and address then left and ran out while inside I found he put small pocket book in my coat pocket and threw it away, also in my pocket was an old leather strap.

I knew this man as Louis Frazer he has 36 or 37 Pontiac fordor very dark number plates look like 46 plates but with 48 stickers about 5 ft.-10, Jet black curly hair wears blue or tan garbardine suit told me he was a fighter and looks it I won't rest till I find him I know every place we went together I know that man is my only aliby and without him I feel equally guilty.

The Examiner article stated that the writer of the note 'related that he himself was robbed and bound by the slayer, described as tall, dark and Latin.'

On February 17, 1948, an LAPD police artist obtained a composite drawing of the suspect as described by their unnamed witnesses. The sketch (exhibit 57) was published on the front page of the Daily News of February 18, 1948.

Exhibit 57

George Hodel, 1946

1948 LAPD composite

George Hodel, 1954

The above two photographs of George Hodel were taken in 1946 and 1954. The only alteration made to the Hodel photos was the airbrushing out of the mustache, for comparison to the police composite sketch.

The art of composite drawing in criminal investigations is particularly difficult, as the police artist is required to try and reproduce a physical likeness of the suspect from eyewitnesses' subjective and oftentimes varied verbal descriptions. While these composites frequently take on a generic appearance, in the Kern investigation it is obvious the police artist possessed unusual skill and ability. As can be seen, the overall likeness of the murder suspect bears a strong resemblance to that of Dr. Hodel. Of particular note are: the shape of the face, the nose, and left ear, the Asiatic appearance of the eyes, and the hair highlighting and style.

Five days after the Kern murder, the Los Angeles Times reported that a realtor associate of the victim, 'A man cloaked in anonymity, a mystery man, possessing vital information, is aiding police in their investigation.' The article said the man, who had 'intimate details' about the transaction involving the victim and the sale of the house where she was murdered, had agreed to cooperate only if his identity was kept secret. Further, all the documents and papers relating to the sale of the house had disappeared, along with the victim's 'client notebook.'

In exchange for the details and information, LAPD detectives pledged not to reveal the informant's name to the public.

After what would normally seem to have been many strong potential leads pointing to a suspect — the composite drawing, the unidentified photograph of the man found in her office desk drawer, a confidential informant providing police with the identity of the victim's 'secret client,' various eyewitnesses providing a detailed physical description of the suspect, and a rambling, handprinted note — the Gladys Kern homicide remains in the LAPD files more than fifty years later as an 'open' and unsolved case.

Kern Physical Evidence: Kern Murder Weapon

As in many homicide investigations, a critical piece of physical evidence would not be discovered until years, if not decades, after the crime. As if by chance, it would surface from an offhand remark made fifty years later, totally unassociated and unconnected to the actual investigation.

In July 2001, I called Joe Barrett and we met for lunch in Santa Barbara, where Joe reminisced about his old friend Rowland Brown and the comings and goings at the Franklin House in the late 1940s when he was rooming there. He told me the following story:

You know, Steve, that your brother Mike took a knife from my room there at the Franklin House, and I never got it back. Mike was only about eight or nine years old then and he told me that he 'lost it.' That was too bad because it had sentimental value to me. A good friend of mine had given it to me when we were overseas during the war years. Mike took it from my room, then he said he was playing with it in the vacant lot next door and must have lost it. That would have been in 1948.

His words jarred me and, without trying to sound too anxious or too professional, I asked, 'What did the knife look like, Joe?'

'It was a jungle knife,' he said. 'A Navy buddy of mine, a machinist mate, had made it for me while we were serving together aboard a destroyer, in early 1945.'

'Would you recognize it if you saw it?' I asked him. Joe gave me a quizzical look. 'Sure I would. There's not another like it in the world.' We parted, and I told him I would send him a photograph I had, 'just for curiosity's sake.'

Recalling the unusual description of the murder weapon used in the Gladys Kern murder in February 1948, I immediately pulled the file and searched for the picture.

It was there! The homicide detective held it in his hands as the press photographer from the Daily News photographed it for the morning edition: a jungle knife precisely as Joe Barrett had described it. I cut off all references to the Kern murder and mailed the picture to Joe.

Two days later, he called me back. 'It is my knife, Steve. What's this all about?'

'Are you positive, Joe? How do you know it's your knife? Isn't it just like any other jungle knife?'

His response was measured and firm:

I'm sure it's mine because he made it especially for me. If I could see the knife itself I could verify it positively, because he machined the handle. The knife had different-colored washers, which I think he had painted like blue and green and red and yellow and orange. He then put some kind of Plexiglas handle over the colored rings and the paint hadn't dried completely so they were smeared inside, but that was fine with me. I can recognize the knife immediately, even though it's been fifty or more years now. Your picture is black and white and the knife has