Today is Jan. 15, the anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s death. As is the custom, the Daily Mirror will be dark.

Trim your roses in her memory.

To the Oct. 26, 2021, audience at the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Public Library who attended Duffy Hudson’s performance delivering the words of Steve Hodel: You should know that virtually everything you heard was a lie.

The fault is not necessarily with Hudson, except for his lack of skepticism. He transformed himself into a human tape recorder and delivered what appeared to be a flawless repetition of what Steve Hodel told him. The responsibility is with Steve Hodel and his rather incredible gift for making up new lies and embellishing his old ones.

Hudson spoke for 90 minutes, including a question-and-answer period, and it would be humanly impossible to catalog all of the fiction. But here’s a few tidbits:

Update: Steve Hodel claims George Hodel ran an abortion ring. He did not. George Hodel was opposed to abortion. Who said so? Tamar Hodel. Oops.

Steve Hodel now claims that the Sowden House was his boyhood home. It was not.

Steve and his two brothers, Kelvin and Michael, were in the custody of his mother, the former Dorothy Harvey, when she separated from George Hodel, and they lived at a number of residences when Steve was young.

We know this because she was repeatedly cited for neglecting Steve and his brothers and eventually sentenced to jail. To cite one instance, in December 1944 and February 1945, Steve and his brothers were living with their mother at 4555 Glenalbyn Drive in Mount Washington.  There were times when Dorothy Hodel was couldn’t afford a residence and she and the children lived at the Sowden House. But the arrangement was temporary. She also used the Sowden House as a mail drop when she had no fixed address. When Dorothy Hodel was questioned by investigators in 1950, she was living over a bait shop on Santa Monica Pier. So all of Steve Hodel’s stories about the swanky parties his parents threw at the Sowden House – you guessed it: Lies.

Steve Hodel now claims that Los Angeles County district attorney’s Lt. Frank Jemison was “ordered” to turn over his files on the Black Dahlia case to the LAPD and that he shrewdly left second copies in a vault, safe and secure to be discovered (surprise!) by Steve Hodel.

Not at all. The district attorney’s files are a shambles and I should know because I’ve gone through them. The D.A.’s office now distributes a CD ROM of the files rather than granting access to the originals, so researchers have no way of knowing that Steve Hodel is lying. But in reality, the files are a mess; lots of papers randomly shoveled into boxes with no order whatsoever.

And, of course, Steve Hodel doesn’t mention that the only reason the district attorney has any Black Dahlia files is because the grand jury was looking into in the Leslie Dillon debacle of Dr. J. Paul De River and the gangster squad. 

Steve Hodel has also returned to his claim that his father “probably” killed Geneva Ellroy, mother of author James Ellroy. Steve Hodel earned a robust, throaty “FU” from Ellroy when he originally floated this nonsense, but Ellroy eventually jumped into the Hodel crowd and has now jumped out, refusing to discuss Steve Hodel or the Black Dahlia.

One of Steve Hodel’s more bizarre claims is that when the purported killer of Elizabeth Short called Examiner city editor James Richardson, he identified himself as the “Black Dahlia Avenger.” Of course, that isn’t true. As with so many things, it’s something Steve Hodel would very much like to be true. But it’s not.

Another bizarre claim, and there are so many that it’s hard to keep track, is that Elizabeth Short went from Los Angeles to Chicago to “investigate” the 1946 Suzanne Degnan killing. In reality, Elizabeth Short stopped in Chicago en route from Medford, Mass., to Los Angeles several months after the Suzanne Degnan murder. As for Elizabeth Short being interested in the murder – everybody was. It was a huge case and everyone was following it.

Oh. And the nonsense about George Hodel being a taxi driver and knowing the city of Los Angeles like the back of his hand, including the neighborhood on South Norton Avenue where Elizabeth Short’s body was found. Naturally, Steve Hodel has never actually researched when the neighborhood was developed – or he would know that it didn’t exist when his father was driving a cab. Yet another example of the caliber of research one can expect from former Detective III Hodel.

Did I mention that George Hodel’s purported photos of Elizabeth Short aren’t her? So says her family.

I may add to this as I find more lies – and these are lies. Steve Hodel knows that these things aren’t true. These aren’t mistakes. These are deliberate misrepresentations and lies. But truly: fact-checking Steve Hodel would be a life’s work.

The main thing, of course, is that every bit of Steve Hodel’s investigation is about Steve. Elizabeth Short barely enters the discussion. It is all about Steve Hodel.

Someone asked me to write a one-paragraph rebuttal to Steve Hodel’s claims about his father, Dr. George Hodel. My reply:

Steve Hodel has been lying about his father and the Black Dahlia for nearly 20 years, so it’s impossible to put a rebuttal into one paragraph, but here goes.

“Retired homicide detective discovers dead dad is serial killer” is a great elevator pitch. But it’s a lie. All of it. All of it? Yes. All. Of. It. The slew of books and updates, the TV interviews, the magazine articles, the talks, the blog. And the podcasts. All of it is a lie. It is a massive, massive lie — almost 20 years in the making.  Lie upon lie upon lie. The average person who knows nothing of the Black Dahlia case cannot imagine the magnitude of Steve Hodel’s lies. You wouldn’t think someone would be capable of fabricating so many falsehoods.

His claim, in essence, is this: Multiple law enforcement agencies in an investigation involving hundreds of officers and detectives covered up a terrible murder and in fact allowed a known serial killer to continue murdering because:

He. Knew. Who. Had. VD.

So VD is worse than murder, right?

Understand: You have to be a good liar to be a cop: You have to lie to witnesses to make them think you know more than you do. You have to lie to suspects to make them think you have more evidence than you’ve got and obtain a confession. You may have to lie or misrepresent to a judge to get a search warrant (ever read a Harry Bosch book?). Being a good liar is an essential part of the cop’s toolbox. Steve Hodel lies confidently, he lies with self-assurance and he lies with impunity, because that’s how a cop lies.

Steve Hodel has contributed 23% of George Hodel’s Wikipedia page.

Where Steve Hodel goes wrong is that he lies all the time and he lies about everything involving his dad being a killer. Take George Hodel’s Wikipedia page. Who is one of the top authors? Steve Hodel. Who has edited it the most? Steve Hodel. Is that against Wikipedia’s rules? Of course. Has he been warned? Of course. Does he do it anyway? Of course. Welcome to the world of Steve Hodel’s lies.

Wikipedia’s warning to Steve Hodel about potential conflict of interest – ignored, of course.

Start with George Hodel’s supposed photos of Elizabeth Short — they’re not her. Who says so? Her family. Without those photos Steve Hodel has nothing, which is why he keeps dredging up more “related” cases  and continues to find “new evidence” based on technobabble about “thoughtprints.” The foundation of his case is a lie. He will try to talk his way around the photos and say they don’t matter. Because that’s how cops lie when they are confronted with hard, cold evidence. The photos aren’t her and without them he has nothing.

Dr. George Hill Hodel had no connection to Elizabeth Short. None.

Did George Hodel say “supposin’ I killed the Black Dahlia?” Of course he did. He was a smart guy and he was baiting the cops who had installed bugging equipment in his house a few hours before. Make an absolutely absurd, outlandish claim to see if they will react. And they did nothing — because they knew he was baiting them.

Steve Hodel is the top editor of his father’s Wikipedia page. Conflict of interest much?

What are Steve Hodel’s other lies? Let me catalog some of them: His dad wasn’t rich. His dad wasn’t influential. His dad had no admitting privileges at any hospital, he wasn’t an accredited surgeon (meaning no hospital would let him operate) and in fact had the minimum surgical training to graduate from medical school. (Note: The “hemicorporectomy” surgery that Steve Hodel claims his dad was taught in medical school didn’t exist then. Another lie).

Was George Hodel friends with Ben Hecht? The Hecht archive hasn’t a word about him. Was his murder buddies with Man Ray? There’s nothing in the Man Ray archives to indicate anything more than a superficial business relationship.

The John Huston letters tell a much different story than the one Steve Hodel paints by distorting and manipulating the correspondence between Huston and Steve’s mother. The Herrick Library’s rules forbid posting the letters (which I have) online, which allows Steve Hodel to manipulate the texts in whatever way he wants — a typical Steve Hodel ploy. He exploits uninformed, gullible readers.

Ruth Spaulding, Dr. George Hodel’s secretary, committed suicide. But Steve Hodel has concocted a bizarre scenario in which George Hodel “forced her to commit suicide” with an overdose of sleeping pills. All because she “knew about billing irregularities.” All a lie. All. Of. It.

And wow does he cherry-pick his quotes.

Watch the master liar at work:

becomes:

Yes, “Had trouble with one spool” becomes “I’m in trouble.” Because no one will ever fact-check retired homicide Detective Steve Hodel.

A total fraud.

George Hodel was never suspected of killing his secretary, who committed suicide. His clients were poor Blacks living in segregated L.A., not the wealthy elite.

He did NOT rape Tamar Hodel. She made up the charges against him and thirteen boys at Hollywood High to get even with George Hodel for being sent to L.A. from the Bay Area.

Why did Tamar want revenge on her father? Because she was an incorrigible teenager; her mom couldn’t handle her any more, mainly because Tamar was lying about men molesting her.

And no, George Hodel didn’t run an abortion ring and was in fact opposed to abortions. Who said so? Tamar Hodel, who was mad at her father because he wouldn’t allow her to get an abortion. I can hear you saying “Wait, that’s not what Steve Hodel says.” Of course not. That’s in the original newspaper coverage, which most people haven’t read.

George Hodel wasn’t Zodiac. That’s a lie. He didn’t kill Suzanne Degnan. That’s a lie. Steve Hodel even lies about the district attorney’s report on the case.

He claims that the investigator, Frank Jemison, was a “white hat” who was ordered to turn over files to the LAPD and kept backup copies for Steve to magically find 50 years later in pristine condition. NOT EVEN REMOTELY TRUE. The D.A.’s final report said the investigation of George Hodel “tend to eliminate this suspect.” Steve will try to talk his way around this and say the investigator “was ordered” to write that and “was ordered” to turn over files. You guessed it. Even more Steve Hodel lies.

But don’t just take my word for it. Who else says George Hodel didn’t do it? The LAPD, which broke its silence on the Black Dahlia case to say that there was nothing to Steve Hodel’s claims or anyone else’s. Of course, Steve has to blame that on the “continuing cover-up” at the LAPD rather than admit that he’s lying.

George Hodel was under surveillance for a little more than five weeks and eliminated as a suspect. Not because he was wealthy. Not because he was influential. But because the investigators determined that he didn’t do it. And Steve Hodel has spent almost 20 years building a massive structure of lies — all based on the foundation of two photographs that he says are Elizabeth Short. And aren’t.

After almost 20 years, Steve Hodel shows no signs of stopping the lies. But really, folks, it is time to stop falling for his nonsense. Be a fact-checkers and gatekeepers, not megaphones for Steve Hodel’s lies.

Do reporters check the clips when writing for publication? Or do they rely on a faulty memory?

In the case of Jill Abramson, reviewing Carl Bernstein’s Chasing History for the New York Times, faulty memory wins out, along with a lack of fact-checking.

In a mere two lines of her review, Abramson packs in several errors that ought to be corrected.

–Will Fowler was a reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner. He never worked for the Los Angeles Times.

–Will Fowler claimed he was the first reporter at the Black Dahlia crime scene. He never said he found the body of Elizabeth Short.

–Will Fowler was also lying when he said he was the first reporter at the crime scene. He was one of the last to arrive. Will told many tall tales about his involvement in the Black Dahlia story; this was just one of them.

Reporters: Check the clips (or Google) rather than relying on your memory, which is apt to be faulty.

Today is Jan. 15, the anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s death. As is the custom, the Daily Mirror will be dark.

Trim your roses in her memory.

Note: This is an encore post from 2012.

Mary Mallory points out that this is the 90th anniversary of William Desmond Taylor’s death. I did several posts when the Daily Mirror was at The Times:

William Desmond Taylor, Mystery Guest | Crime scene photos | William Desmond Taylor, on the Frontiers of Fashion

I made a “reaction” video of me watching a Steve Hodel Zoom session sponsored by Sisters in Crime of Atlanta.

I have been fact-checking Steve Hodel since Black Dahlia Avenger was published in 2003 and even I was amazed by some of his lies. Notice that Elizabeth Short is barely mentioned in Steve’s presentation. It’s all about his “journey.”

Also: 6 Reasons George Hodel Didn’t Kill Elizabeth Short.

Steve is a skilled liar and in this video, he unintentionally gives a master class in how police officers lie: He is always confident, self-assured, if he sees an inconvenient fact coming his way, he sidesteps it. He gives out the minimal information and nothing extra. He never gets rattled or loses his cool. He is always in control of the narrative. When he cannot dispute the facts, he attacks the individual, which is what he does with me. I’m the “sour grapes” hardcore “naysayer” who dares to question the great LAPD homicide detective.

Part 1 runs 112 minutes. I’ll post Part 2 in a few days.

Update: Here’s Part 2.

BethShort.com c. 1998, platform for the late, lying John Gilmore and many graphic crime scene photos.

If you were on the Infobahn in the dial-up modem days and were interested in the Black Dahlia case, you may recall Pamela Hazleton’s now-defunct website BethShort.com, with its color scheme of black backgrounds, white type and bright yellow links. The website launched in the late 1990s and had a curious affiliation (always denied) with the late, lying John Gilmore (d. 2017).

I clashed with Pamela in 1997 over her display of so many photos of Elizabeth Short’s body (provided by the late, lying John Gilmore) and for being a platform for so many lies by the late John Gilmore. Sadly, she did not share my concerns and was more than happy to post the images (provided by the late, lying John Gilmore) so that they spread all over the world and have appeared on record covers, outsider art, cellphone cases, you name it.

Pamela later got into the habit of asking readers for money to keep her rarely updated website going (I think we all know the cost of maintaining a website is virtually nil these days). For a long time, the website was down, but Pamela kept the domain.

So I am happy to report that the domain BethShort.com is up for sale.  For only $5,499 on Go Daddy.

Bye, Pamela.

A short personal message to Steve Hodel. And have a cinnamon roll.

Here’s Doug Laux’s “story behind the story” on the Black Dahlia. You may have listened to Doug’s Black Dahlia podcast, released in January. Doug spent years on the Dahlia project, pitching it to various people. That “true” crime podcast you loved so much? Yeah, it’s a business and like anything else in the entertainment industry, it can be sleazy.

Oxygen posted a story for the anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s murder, so I thought I would go through it and point out the sorts of errors that writers usually make.

Christina Coulter falls into many of the traps that await writers who assume that published articles, even from reputable sources, are accurate.  And if you want to honor the memory of Elizabeth Short on the anniversary of her murder – trim your roses.

I, in the persona of NOT Dr. Alan Campbell with “Boxy,” posted a brief video on Dorothy Hodel’s statement to Dist. Atty’s Lt. Frank Jemison. For those who aren’t up for my dramatic reading, here are a few key points and the actual interview:

• Dorothy Hodel says that Dr. George Hodel never practiced surgery. His specialty was VD and administrative medicine.
• Dorothy Hodel says that she and George Hodel obtained an interlocutory divorce in 1944 (when Steve Hodel was about age 3) and final divorce decree in 1945 (when Steve Hodel was about 4).
• Dorothy Hodel says that she was living with her brother – not at the Franklin House — when Elizabeth Short was killed.
• Dorothy Hodel says that George Hodel was never interested in earning money, only in medicine.
• Dorothy Hodel says she is a housewife, not a writer; that she has worked as a writer but not at the present time (1950).
• Dorothy Hodel says that Lillian Lenorak was a “mental case.” Lenorak was the woman who said George Hodel “dated” Elizabeth Short and was the only person to say so. Everyone else Jemison interviewed said there was no connection between George Hodel and Elizabeth Short.

If you have been paying attention, Steve Hodel has been claiming the opposite of all this: That his father was a prominent surgeon (sorry, no); he and his brothers were “princes” in the Sowden House; that they were living there in 1947, when Elizabeth Short was killed – though conveniently away that time;  that George Hodel was rich and powerful; that his mother was a screenwriter; and that Lillian Lenorak (though never identified by name) clinches that George Hodel “dated” Elizabeth Short.

I’ll be live tomorrow (March 1) at 10 a.m. on my YouTube channel! (YouTube.com/LMHarnisch)

Coming next week: Ask me anything about the Black Dahlia case, Tuesday, April 4, at 10 a.m.

Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them!

Here’s my latest “ask me anything” on the Black Dahlia case.

I talked about John Gilmore, Steve Hodel, Piu Eatwell, the crime scene and the LAPD investigation, among many other Dahlia-related subjects.

Coming next week: Ask me anything about the Black Dahlia case, Tuesday, May 2, at 10 a.m.

Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends.

Here’s the Ask Me Anything for July. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello!

Here is this month’s Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case. I discussed the latest in Black Dahlia projects and gave an update on the book (124,000 words and counting). I addressed two recurring subjects: Carl Balsiger and why he was a suspect, and allegations of corruption within the LAPD. (And no, only in the alternative reality of Steve Hodel did the LAPD cover up for Dr. George Hodel).

Here’s an Ask Me Anything that I did Tuesday about Steve Hodel and his lies about his father, Dr. George Hodel.

To be scientific, I analyzed Steve Hodel’s techniques for lying, which I call Inflation, Distortion, Suppression and Fiction, and how he gets away with it – his primary tool being ignorance among his audience about how law enforcement works, how the court system works, how juries work, how grand juries work, ignorance about the medical profession and modern art. Among other subjects.

We had a fun session. Hope you enjoy it!

Here’s my latest Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case. We had a good turnout and lots of excellent questions. The video is posted on YouTube and on Instagram.

I discussed Don’t Dress Up Like the Black Dahlia for Halloween and talked about Wikipedia, The Black Dahlia in Hollywood, Ancestry.com and whether there are any good books on the Black Dahlia case. (No!) Also, Did John Gilmore make up LAPD Detective Herman Willis? (Yes!) Is Donald Wolfe’s Black Dahlia Files any good? (No!) More on the Leslie Dillion debacle and why Patrick S. O’Reilly isn’t a good suspect. I also covered the coroner’s inquest, James Ellroy, and Elizabeth Short’s estimated time of death. And many other items too numerous to mention.

I’ll do it again the first Tuesday in October, which is Oct. 3.

And remember: I’ll have an Ask Me Anything on George Hodel, live on YouTube, Sept. 19 at 10 a.m. Pacific time.