multicolored inserts, which you can't see in the photo. I will draw you a picture of the knife as I remember it with the colors and everything. But Steve, I'm sure it's my knife. What is this all about? Where is it? Where is the picture from?
Feeling I could no longer keep him in the dark, I told him the knife in the photograph had been used in a murder back in 1948. And though I couldn't provide him with any more information just then, I promised that 'all would be made clear in the near future.' He reiterated that he would draw as complete a description of the knife as he could, including the colors on the handle, and mail it to me.
Exhibit 58 is the drawing Joe sent, which I received on July 26, 2001.
Joe Barrett's notations read:
Steve . ..
The knife was made for me by Frank Hudson, machinists mate 2nd or 1st aboard DD66 USS Allen (destroyer) sometime early 1945. Frank made several for different shipmates all in this fashion. Can't remember any of the other's names unfortunately.
Frank was from Wyoming as I recall and would be in his nineties if he's still with us.
This is an approximation though in the spirit of it 53 years later.
Joe
Hopefully, the Kern murder weapon, or a color photograph, remains in police evidence, so that they can be compared to Barrett's artistic rendering.
Even before this latest discovery, we had a strong case connecting George Hodel to the murder of Gladys Kern: the matching composite, the handkerchief, the witness descriptions, the bizarre letter writing, not to mention that the Franklin house was only a mile from both the crime scene and the place where Gladys Kern was last seen alive. Now here was a witness who, unaware of the crime, positively identified the murder weapon as his own knife, stolen from him, he believed, by my brother Michael, in 1948.
Unlike Joe Barrett, we can speculate what really happened. Father doubtless found his eight-year-old son in possession of Joe's knife, took it from him, and kept it. Just weeks, or perhaps only days later, he used it in the Kern homicide. Confident that the knife could never be linked to him, he simply left it at the crime scene in the sink after washing off the blood with water and wiping it clean of prints with his white handkerchief.
Does the LAPD still have the Kern murder weapon in evidence? They should, inasmuch as it is LAPD's policy that 'all unsolved homicides remain open until they are solved.' If not still in physical evidence, is there a photograph of the knife in the murder book file? Is there a color picture? If not, the evidence reports should detail the color descriptions on the unique handle, as Joe had drawn them for me. Finally, is the knife in police custody handmade, a 'one-of-a-kind' due to the smeared colors? If so, it would be distinct from the thousands of factory- tooled jungle knives issued during the war years.
These are all questions to be answered by LAPD, along with the dozens of others that this investigation has raised. For now, it is enough to know that one witness has corroborated the identity and provided a highly detailed description of what is believed to be the murder weapon. Further, he has traced it to the Franklin House, and linked it to George Hodel.
The Kern Handkerchief
In the summaries of the crimes in this chapter, we have been forced to rely on what was reported in the newspapers at the time. But there were facts never reported to the newspapers by the police because it was, and still is, routine for the assigned investigators to withhold many findings from the public, because they often use them later in interviewing suspects and witnesses. Police often reserve information so that it can be used in developing key questions that can be used in polygraph examinations to exclude those who come forward and falsely confess to a crime. The Dahlia murder brought out many such people, most of whom were mentally disturbed or simply seeking momentary celebrity.
In both the Jeanne French and the Gladys Kern homicides, white handkerchiefs were found near the bodies, which is highly unusual. In my experience — which includes the investigation of more than three hundred homicides — I have never encountered a case in which a suspect left a handkerchief at the scene of his crime. It is as if this was a 'calling card,' like dropping an ace of spades on the body. Such information would not normally be released to the public, and if the killer had left his 'calling card' at his other crime scenes, it could have been withheld by detectives in many of L.A.'s other unsolved murders.
Of special interest are the comments about the handkerchief found at the Gladys Kern murder scene. According to the
HANDKERCHIEF IN MURDER
FAILS TO YIELD CLUE
Only one shred of new information was turned up yesterday at the inquest into the murder of Mrs. Gladys Kern — the killer probably is a man whose laundry is done at home. This deduction was made from testimony given by Police Det. A.W. Hubka.
Hubka said that when he and Det. Sgt. C.C. Forbes investigated the slaying in the six-room vacant home at 4217 Cromwell Ave., in the Los Feliz district, a balled-up man's handkerchief was found in the kitchen sink near the body. No laundry marks were on it.
Dr. Hodel did not send his laundry outside to be done because he had a full-time live-in maid, Ellen Taylor, who did all his cleaning and laundering. Like the handkerchief found at the Kern crime scene, and possibly the French and later Newton homicides, his handkerchiefs would be without a laundry mark to aid in any tracing.
The Murray, Kern, and Bauerdorf homicides are only three of the murders that took place during roughly the same period as the Black Dahlia that, in my opinion, are linked by the same suspect behavior and descriptions, as well as by victim profile.
