Twenty years before shocking the world in Los Angeles in 1947 as âThe Black Dahlia Avengerâ, did George Hodel terrorize California by committing some of its most infamous crimes and serial murders?
From the introduction:
In writing The Further Serial Crimes of George Hill Hodel, MD, The Early Years Part 1: 1920s, my original intent was to present all my fatherâs suspected crimes from the 1920s and 1930s in one edition. I have found this is simply not possible as it would require a book that would dwarf Dostoevskyâs nearly 700-page opus Crime and Punishment. Therefore, I will present âThe Early Yearsâ in two partsâtwo editions. This edition is part one and presents my investigations of his suspected crimes in the 1920s. Note that I said âsuspected crimesâ. I want to be crystal clear on this point. My two-part âEarly Yearsâ investigations are just thatâa search for the truth.
In the presentation of these crimes from long ago (the first one goes back 100 years), I make no claim to a âsolutionâ. I am not saying that my father, George Hill Hodel, committed any of these crimes beyond a âreasonable doubtââwhich would be the legal requirement to find him guilty.
Several of these crimesâwithout the introduction of hard physical evidence or DNAâare not solvable. Others have been claimed âsolvedâ by law enforcement and are considered âcase closedâ. To be clear: These crimes from the '20s and '30s did not present themselves to me post-Black Dahlia Avenger, published in 2003. I was aware of them and his possible involvement in them as early as the year 2000, a full three years before I presented my father to the world as the killer of Elizabeth âBlack Dahliaâ Short and the other LA Lone Woman Murders.