The Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story

by Steve Hodel

  Six months later, having gained a thorough working knowledge of the Dahlia case on my own, I felt more confident and my curiosity won out. I sat down and read The Black Dahlia. I found Ellroy's fiction to be simultaneously disgusting and brilliant, profane and prophetic. It was obvious that he had done his homework and knew a great deal about the case. He mixed real names, real dates, and real locations with fictitious ones. I especially respected his street smarts: it was apparent he knew cops inside and out. I admired his ability to walk their walk and talk their talk. He knew their strengths and weaknesses. His "soft time" in L.A. County Jail, his homelessness, his sleeping in the L.A. public parks, and his golf caddying in West Los Angeles for the rich and famous had prepared him well. His novel clearly revealed that he understood people. Like a cop, he knew about their goods, their bads, and their uglies.

  Forgetting that I already owned a copy of My Dark Places — I hadn't made the connection between Ellroy the novelist and Ellroy the true-crime author — I e-mailed an order for a copy.

  I read it nonstop. In 1958, Geneva "Jean" Ellroy, the forty-threeyear old mother of then ten-year-old James Ellroy, was raped and murdered in El Monte, a town twelve miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The crime was never solved. Thirty-four years later the victim's son-cum-novelist teamed up with Sergeant Bill Stoner, a retired L.A. Sheriff's Department homicide detective, and in the spring of 1994 the two men became "partners" to try and solve the crime. Because Stoner had worked in LASD's Homicide Unsolved Unit, which had originally investigated the case, and Ellroy was not only the victim's son but a respected author, the two were given carte blanche by the sheriff's brass. All the 1958 police files were opened to them; they were provided copies of the photos, evidence, and original witness statements. Together the two-man team gumshoed the hell out of the case. Their investigation began in the spring of 1994 and it appears they spent almost a year pursuing every possible lead.

  The results of their investigation were fully documented in Ellroy's writing. My Dark Places served as an impressive homicide progress report, as well as a son's tribute to the memory of his murdered mother. Ellroy and Stoner's thoroughness and hard work may have been successful.

  Based on my review of their entire investigation as documented in My Dark Places, it is my professional opinion that, like many of the other crimes previously described in my investigative summary, the rape-murder of Geneva Ellroy in June 1958, and the rape-murder of Elspeth Long seven months later, in January 1959, may well have been committed by Fred Sexton. Here is a summary of the original facts and the subsequent Ellroy/Stoner investigation that provide the basis for my belief.

  Geneva Hilliker Ellroy (June 22, 1958)

  Betty Short became my obsession . . . my symbiotic stand-in for Geneva Hilliker Ellroy.

  —James Ellroy

  At 10:00 a.m. June 22, 1958, a woman's body was found near the playing field of Arroyo High School in El Monte, California. Originally a "Jane Doe," since no purse or identification were found near the body, she had been assaulted with numerous blows to the head, which likely rendered her unconscious, and then strangled with two separate ligatures, one a thin white clothesline-like cord — identical to that used in the earlier Springer murder — and a second the victim's own nylon stocking, identical to the suspect's action in the earlier Mondragon strangulation.

  The killer dumped the body in an isolated location known to be a "lovers' lane" and placed her dark blue overcoat over the lower portion of her body, just as the killer(s) had done in the Jeanne French murder. Like French, Geneva Ellroy, known to most of her friends as Jean, was a nurse by profession. The investigation was handled by LASD, which in 1958, because of their superior manpower and expertise, provided "contract service" for the smaller municipalities in the county, including El Monte.

  After hearing a public radio broadcast, a citizen called the police and the victim was quickly identified as Jean Ellroy, a forty-threeyear-old divorcee. She lived in El Monte with her ten-year-old son, James, and had not returned home the previous night. Based on later witnesses statements and coroner information, the time of death was believed to have been between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m., that is, five to seven hours before the body was discovered.

  An investigation into Jean Ellroy's movements prior to the killing revealed that she had left home in her own car, a 1957 Buick, at approximately 8:30 p.m. the previous night. Two primary witnesses were able to recognize the victim and provide a description of the man she was seen with on three separate occasions at two locations in El Monte just hours before her murder: Stan's Drive-in restaurant and the Desert Inn nightclub, both only three miles from where her body was found.

  The first witness, Margie Trawick, age thirty-six, a part-time waitress and regular patron of the Desert Inn, provided detectives with the following information:

  On the previous evening, June 21, 1958, she was seated at a table inside the Desert Inn as a customer and observed the victim walk into the establishment at 10:45 p.m., accompanied by another female described as a "dishwater-blonde with a ponytail, heavyset, 40 years of age." They sat down at a table, and almost immediately a man, who appeared to be of Mexican descent, walked over to their table, helped Ellroy off with her coat, and began to dance with her. Trawick had the impression that both women knew the man, whom she described as follows: possible Mexican, age forty to forty-five, five foot eight to six feet tall, dark hair slicked back, receding on both sides, with a noticeable widows' peak, thin-jawed ("you might think he had no teeth until you saw him smile"), swarthy complexion, dark suit, white shirt, open at the collar.

  Trawick left the Desert Inn with a male friend at approximately 11:30 p.m. and noted that the Mexican was seated at the table with the two women. When she returned at 12:50 a.m. they had disappeared.

  The second witness was Lavonne Chambers, a twenty-nine-year-old carhop waitress employed at Stan's Drive-in, located six blocks from the Desert Inn. Chambers provided sheriffs detectives with a formal statement on June 25, three days after the body was discovered.

  She was serving customers on Saturday, June 21, 1958. She first observed the victim at the drive-in at 10:00 p.m. She was seated in the front passenger's seat of what Chambers believed was a 1955 or 1956 Oldsmobile, dark green, possibly two-tone in color, with a dull paint job. The driver, a male, ordered "just coffee," and the victim asked for "the thinnest sandwich you have," to which Chambers responded, "That would be a grilled cheese sandwich," and the victim replied, "Okay." After their brief meal they left the drive-in. The witness provided detectives with the following description of the driver: possibly Greek or Italian descent, thirty-five to forty years of age, thin face, dark complexion, dark receding hair combed straight back and thick on top.

  Chambers informed detectives that the same two returned to the drive-in at approximately 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning, shortly after the bar closed. She again served them, the victim ordering "a bowl of chili and coffee" and the male "just coffee." The two finished their food and drink and left.

  Chambers positively identified a photograph of the victim and her clothing. She had no doubt that Jean Ellroy was the same woman she had served on June 21 and 22.

  Based on the witnesses' statements, a police artist prepared a composite drawing, both witnesses agreeing that the drawing was a good likeness of the suspect.

  A third witness at the Desert Inn was interviewed and thought she remembered seeing the suspect with the victim and described him as "swarthy complected." Throughout his book, Ellroy would refer to the killer of his mother as "the Swarthy Man."

  Elspeth "Bobbie" Long (January 22, 1959)

  In their ongoing search for the killer, Bill Stoner and James Ellroy discovered a second murder with a similar M.O. Seven months to the day after the murder of Jean Ellroy, another body was found dumped on an isolated gravel road in the adjacent town of La Puente, three miles from El Monte. The distance between the two dump locations was slightly over four miles. This dump location was approxima
tely one mile from the Desert Inn and Stan's Drive-in. The similarities to the Ellroy case were uncomfortably close. Elspeth "Bobbie" Long, fifty-two, had received multiple blows to the head with a crescentshaped weapon and had been raped and strangled to death, the suspect using Long's nylon stocking as a ligature.

  As in the Ellroy murder, the suspect had placed the victim's coat over the lower portion of her body. Her purse, which was found nearby, revealed her address to be 223 VA West 52nd Street, Los Angeles. T he purse also contained a bus ticket to the Santa Anita Racetrack, purchased at 6th and Main in downtown Los Angeles the previous day Acquaintances interviewed later by detectives confirmed that the victim loved to play the horses and was a regular at the local tracks.

  An autopsy confirmed multiple skull fractures and, as with Jean Ellroy, slides obtained indicated the presence of semen, confirming sexual intercourse and the probability of rape. Unlike with the Ellroy murder, detectives were unable to locate witnesses who could place anyone with the victim in the hours immediately preceding her death. Some witnesses believed they may have seen her at the Santa Anita track the previous day, but the information was sketchy and unreliable.

  Based on the Bobbie Long murder information, Ellroy and Stoner debated the possibility of a serial killer. Stoner believed they were the same suspect; Ellroy had serious doubts. They decided to do a psychological profile on both unsolved homicides and obtained the services of a respected Department of Justice profiler, a retired LASD homicide detective named Carlos Avila. Avila's profiles on both victims were published in Ellroy's book, and I found nothing in them that added to the weight of the other investigative evidence. What was important in the profiler's review was his opinion that the suspect was, most probably, a serial killer.

  It has been my experience that at best, these "profiles" should be considered an investigative tool; at worst, they can be dangerously speculative, demographically overweighted, and misleading, and, if given too much credence, can actually misdirect and impair an investigation. Profiles or patterns of predictability, like one's daily horoscope, often make more sense ex post facto. Human beings, especially human beings who murder, and above all those who murder and get away with it, are rarely predictable. Like wild beasts, they are cunning, predatory, and instinctual, and their environment has taught them survival and how best to avoid trappers.

  In the Black Dahlia case, for example, John Douglas, former head of the FBI's serial crime division, provided over the past five years several separate published profiles on Elizabeth Short's killer. In virtually everything, his profiles were wide of the mark. He theorized: 1) that the killer was a white man in his late twenties; 2) he had no more than a high school education; 3) he lived alone and made his living working with his hands rather than his brains; and 4) though Douglas had made no review of any of the police files, he stated to a "certainty" that Elizabeth Short's death was the result of a "stranger murder," in other words that she was a victim of opportunity.

  Douglas was not the only profiler to be wildly wide of the mark. More recently, in the 2002 Washington, D.C., area serial sniper case, profilers had a field day, theorizing in the media, among other things, that the sniper was white, that he had no children, and that he was from the D.C. area, none of which was true of the alleged perpetrators, John Allen Muhammad and John Malvo

  Coming back to the Jean Ellroy and Bobbie Long homicides, there remains the question of composite drawings. Often, police composites are weak or generic; this one is not, and it is evident that it bears a remarkable likeness to Fred Sexton. The physical description of "the Swarthy Man" in all respects matches Sexton's appearance. As we know from numerous other witnesses sightings in 1947-50, many referred to the second man in just those words. I am not privy to a photograph of Sexton from the 1958 time period, so we must use our own imaginations to age him some ten years or more. As can be seen in this photograph, Sexton could pass for Hispanic, Italian, or Greek.

  Exhibit 66

  Fred Sexton, circa 1945-47

  1958 LASD composite

  Exhibit 66 is a photograph of Sexton, along with the composite drawing of the Ellroy murder suspect that was published in the newspapers of that time as well as in Ellroy's My Dark Places. This, in conjunction with what we know to be Sexton's M.O. throughout the entire decade of the 1940s, qualifies him as an exceptionally strong suspect in these two murders that occurred some eight and nine years later. Future investigation may well connect Sexton to the town of El Monte, and possibly to a car of like description. His close friend and accomplice to many of the rapes and murders, George Hodel, was medical director at the Ruth Home and Hospital in the 1940s, which was located at 831 North Gilman Road in El Monte. This girls' home and hospital was only one mile from the Desert Inn, and would most likely have been the closest nightclub for Father's afterwork drinks, dancing, and entertainment. As of this writing, I have not conducted any additional research into other unsolved homicides that may have occurred between 1950 and 1957.

  Helene Jerome (August 27, 1958)

  On August 28, 1958, the Los Angeles Examiner ran the headline "Actress Found Dead in Hollywood." Helene Jerome was a graduate of London's Royal Academy of Arts, and had devoted most of her career to the stage. She had acted with Barbara Stanwyck in Frank Capra's 1933 romantic melodrama The Bitter Tea of General Yen, and later with Mae West in the 1936 film Klondike Annie, in which she says to West, "Too many girls follow the line of least resistance." Mae answers, in what has become a classic response, "Yeah, but a good line is hard to resist."

  The paper reported that the nude body of the fifty-year-old actress had been found in her apartment at 1738 North Las Palmas. The night clerk at the building, Orio Janes, was the last to see the victim, at approximately 4:00 a.m., when he went to her apartment to check on her because her telephone had been "off the hook" for over an hour. At that time the witness saw her in the company of a man; however, his description was not released to the public.

  It was learned that roughly six hours before the murder, the victim's estranged husband, Edwin Jerome, had been visiting her at the apartment. During his visit, a man telephoned from the lobby asking for Helene. Mr. Jerome told the caller she was sleeping. "Just tell her George [italics mine] called," the caller responded. Police were given a description of "George" by the clerk, but it was not made public. Deputy Chief Thad Brown put Hollywood detective Henry Kerr in charge of the investigation.

  Dr. Newbarr performed the autopsy and determined that the cause of death was strangulation. In his words, "The victim was strangled with such force that it fractured the Adam's apple."

  Though we have minimal information on this crime, the facts as presented would seem to indicate that the victim could well have known the suspect "George." Like some other victims, Jerome had links to Hollywood and the film industry dating back to the 1930s. Based on his actions, the suspect could well have been Fred Sexton, using the name "George." Sexton's ex-wife's residence, which he was known to visit regularly and stay in for weeks at a time, was only a few miles from the crime scene. This murder occurred two months after the Geneva Ellroy strangulation, and five months prior to that of Bobbie Long.

  Though not dumped, the victim was found nude and strangled. In my opinion, while Fred Sexton would appear to be a more likely suspect, my father's involvement cannot be completely ruled out, since he would occasionally "pass through town" on business trips from the Far East.*

  It is not known if physical evidence (fingerprints or DNA) still exist on the Jerome murder investigation, and to the best of my knowledge this crime also remains as an LAPD unsolved homicide.

  A statistical summary of the twenty separate crimes reviewed in this investigation over a two-decade span reveals the following:

  1) LAPD crimes — 10 murders (Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French, Gladys Kern, Mimi Boomhower, Jean Spangler, Evelyn Winters, Rosenda Mondragon, Louise Springer, Helene Jerome, and Jane Doe); 2 kidnap-rapes (Sylvia Horan and lea M'Grew);Irobbery (Armand Robl
es)

  2) LASD crimes — 4 murders (Ora Murray, Georgette Bauerdorf, Geneva Ellroy, and Bobbie Long).

  3) Long Beach PD —Imurder (Laura Trelstad).

  4) San Diego PD —Imurder (Marian Newton).

  5) Alhambra PD —Ikidnap/attempted murder (Viola Norton).

  Since I have no access to the various police files,Iacknowledge that some of these crimes may have since been solved. Each law enforcement agency can easily and quickly do their own review to ascertain if the case was cleared or not.

  By the Numbers

  One final observation about these serial murders: the numbers themselves. In the Los Angeles Times article "Farewell My Black Dahlia," LAPD detective Harry Hansen noted, "Most homicides — I think the figure is 97 percent — are solved. A very few aren't. You can't win them all."

  I would argue with Hansen's math. A homicide clearance rate of 97 percent in a major metropolitan city like Los Angeles is all but impossible. A remarkable clearance rate, with lots of hard work and lots of lucky breaks, would run around 80 percent.

  A review of the latest California Department of Justice statistics for Los Angeles County during the last ten-year period (1990-2000) shows an alarming drop in the solve rate! A mere 37 percent of all Los Angeles homicides were solved for the year 2000. The highest clearance rate for the decade occurred in 1991: 63 percent. The decade's average was 57 percent.

  Let's give the department the benefit of the doubt and say that in the mid-1940s they cleared 75 percent of their annual homicides.