by Hodel, Steve
In 2001, I had never heard of Edmund Teske, and his name meant nothing to me. I ignored the information for about a year until it came up again, this time from former Franklin house tenant, Joe Barrett.
I was visiting Joe in his home in Ventura, California and we were looking at some old photographs that my father had given me, one of which was my favorite. It showed my two brothers and I standing inside the Franklin house courtyard. I had dubbed it, “The Three Musketeers.”
I showed this photo to Joe and told him that I suspected it might have been taken by Man Ray.
Joe smiled and said, “No, not Man Ray. It was taken by another photographer friend of George’s. His name was Edmund Teske. I know, because I was there when he took it. Teske was a friend of both your dad and Man Ray.”
Photos by Edmund Teske circa 1948
“The Three Musketeers” [Left to right: Steven, Michael, Kelvin]
Second photo by Edmund Teske taken from inside the living room [Left to right: Michael, Steven, and Kelvin]
My brothers are now holding the two black cats while I blow bubbles.
This second reference got my attention. In doing some research, I discovered that Edmund Teske, while ever remaining the eccentric, had a remarkable past and deep ties to Hollywood up until his death in 1996.
Here is an excerpt from the J. Paul Getty Museum on a retrospective called, “Spirit into Matter: The Photographs of Edmund Teske that ran from June-September 2004.
Edmund Teske (1911–1996) was one of the most significant artist-photographers active in Los Angeles in recent decades. He approached photography as a highly malleable medium, open to the artist’s intervention at several points in the creative process. An inventive darkroom technician, Teske created photographs that expressed his emotional and spiritual concerns. His images reveal the power of memory and dreams to transform our perception and understanding of the visual world.
…
And from a Getty Research biography:
…
In the mid-1940s, Teske relocated to Los Angeles, where he initially worked at Paramount Pictures in the photographic still department. He continued to photograph and began to exhibit his images more frequently. His increasing experimentation led to his use of the solarization technique to reverse highlight and shadow. In 1956 he detoured briefly from photography to appear in the film biography of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life. After 1960 he frequently returned to older negatives, reinterpreting them through the use of experimental printing techniques.
From the Edmund Teske Archives:
Teske was drawn west by the allure of the motion picture industry and a desire to meet Greta Garbo. He worked in the stills department of Paramount Studios. He lived at the Frank Lloyd Wright residence of Aline Barnsdall on Olive Hill where he met Man Ray and other notable folk. He photographed actors and notable folk throughout his career. To name a few: Joel McCrea, Geraldine Page, Kenneth Anger, John Saxon, Ansel Adams, Jim Whitney, Ramblin’ Jack Eliott, Will Geer, Anaiis Nin, Jane Lawrence, and others.
Edmund Teske, friend to Aline Barnsdall, was an artist in residence
Here at “Hollyhock House” in Studio B from 1944-1949.
Hollyhock House, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California
The Frank Lloyd Wright designed residence known as “Hollyhock House” rests atop a hill at 4800 Hollywood Boulevard in East Hollywood.
It was built for Aline Barnsdall in 1921, who would later donate the home and its surrounding eleven acres to the city of Los Angeles to be preserved as a public art park.
The home is located only five blocks from the Franklin house, and, as a child, I have many fond memories of my brothers and I riding our bikes the short distance to play all day in “Barnsdall Park.”
“Synchronicity Happens”
Just one week ago, in mid-September 2011, I received a notification of the imminent closing of one of Los Angeles’s oldest and most respected downtown restaurants, Clifton’s Cafeteria at Seventh and Broadway. The notice also contained an invitation for those interested to meet and have a “last luncheon” before the closing and renovation by the new buyer. Though I didn’t know any of the dozen or so persons planning to attend, I decided to go out of respect for the original philanthropist owner, Clifford Clinton, who had done so much for Angelenos in the 1930s and 1940s.
The small group of us met outside at noon, introduced ourselves, then proceeded inside to make our selections from hundreds of cafeteria “choices.” Out of homage to the establishment, I went with the blue-plate special, a traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy, which Clifton’s sold during the Depression to the needy for—one penny!
The brainchild for the luncheon was Steve Lamb, a residential architect from Altadena, California. Steve and I got to talking and it turned out that he had read my books. He then went on to tell me a most remarkable story that he said he had been relating to his friends for over thirty years. After hearing the story, I asked him if he could “write it up” and send it to me. He did, and here is a scan of his letter, which I received on September 28, 2011:
This apparent chance meeting with Steve, his wife, Jeanette, and a handful of his friends at Clifton’s is another remarkable example of how the facts and corroborations just keep coming. All I can say is: SYNCHRONICITY HAPPENS!
Some Teske Afterthoughts
Edmund Teske in scene clip from MGM’s Lust for Life [1956}
In this scene with Kirk Douglas [Vincent Van Gogh] and Anthony Quinn [Paul Gauguin] Edmund Teske, a fellow artist, is questioning Van Gogh’s skill as an artist. Teske was forty-five years-old when the film was released. Quinn won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
For those who would categorize this chance conversation between Steve Lamb and Edmund Teske as nothing more than the ranting’s of a “mad artist,” a lost and delusional soul whose words were not to be trusted, consider the following—his well-documented biography.
I will pick up his bio just from 1978 forward. The conversation in front of the Franklin house occurred when Teske was sixty-six. Here are some of the highlights of his life and some remarkable personal accomplishments following that conversation:
My biographical source came from: Edmund Teske: A Chronology compiled by Michael Hargrave, as found in Spirit into Matter: the Photographs of Edmund Teske by Julian Cox, Edmund Teske, J. Paul Getty Museum. What follows is only a partial summary from Mr. Hargrave’s chronology:
…
1978 Conducted workshop for the Friends of Photography and Lectures at the Society for Photographic Education National Conference, Pacific Grove, California
1979 Invited and became visiting professor of the Photography Department at California State University, Los Angeles.
1980 Led a workshop at the Victor School, Victor, Colorado.
Guest speaker at Camera vision’s Artist’s Hot seat series, Los Angeles.
1981 One group show. Photographer or Priest maker, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, England (followed by several other British venues).
1982 Presented slide lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder; conducted a one-week workshop at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1983 Taught a photography workshop at Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles.
1986 Gave a workshop and seminar at the Victor School, Victor, Colorado.
1987 One group show, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
1988 Was the subject of a two-part television film produced by Light-borne Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1989 Lectured at the Santa Monica Public Library on Photographers and their Art.
1990 Teske was shot by an unknown assailant in the doorway of his Hollywood studio on Harvard Boulevard; suffered debilitating injuries to his jaw and the left side of his face.
1991 Participated in a symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Relevance of History and Theory to the Creative Process, moderated by Weston Naef, with Ralph Gibson, Jo Ann Callis, David Hockney,
Gay Block, and Richard Misrach.
1993 One-man exhibition at J. Paul Getty Museum
1995 Gave a talk at UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art.
1996 Died at his downtown Los Angeles studio on November 22 of a heart attack. Memorial service was held at Hollyhock House on December 14.
These active and very dynamic eighteen years following Teske’s conversation demonstrate him to be a lecturing professor and world traveler, with all of his faculties completely intact.
With the further understanding that Edmund Teske was clear-headed and of sound mind in 1978, some twenty years before I even began my investigation, let us reexamine his disclosure to Steve Lamb in front of the Hodel Franklin house. [Also, let’s keep in mind that Teske was a close friend of both Man Ray and George Hodel, and obviously, a regular visitor to the house, as well as (at least on one occasion) being our “family photographer.”]
“It’s an evil place! Artists, philosophers, accountants and politicians we all played and paid there. Women were tortured for sport there. Murders happened there. It’s an EVIL place.”
I have no reason to doubt or question Steve Lamb’s specific quoting of Teske’s words.
What Teske told Lamb some thirty-three years ago independently supports what the “bag lady” [probably our maid, Ellen Taylor] had said, as well as the words spoken by fellow insiders, Joe Barrett and Lillian Lenorak, and certainly underscore Mattie Comfort’s 2003 declaration that, “We all knew George Hodel did it. There was no doubt.”
For Teske to disclose these secrets to a complete stranger begs the question: who else did he tell and in what detail? Certainly, he would have shared this knowledge with at least some of his own close personal friends and confidants.
Edmund Teske, July 1996
Screen capture from YouTube video interview in tribute to Global Liberty Exhibition by Jean Ferro. Teske died just four months later in November 1996.
Chapter 11
Urban myth (noun). An often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
The Black Dahlia’s Three Greatest Urban Myths
Urban Myth No. 1- “A Standalone Murder”
The Black Dahlia murder was a standalone. Her killer never committed a crime before or after her brutal murder.
LA Lone Woman Murders
In March 1947, LAPD informed the public they believed a number of the recent lone woman murders were committed by the same suspect, and released a written “11 Points of Similarity” summary to the daily newspapers in support of their belief.
In the below Los Angeles Examiner March 14, 1947 article, printed just eight weeks after the Black Dahlia murder, LAPD informed the public that it was their considered opinion that the murders of Elizabeth Short (January15), Jeanne French (February10), and Evelyn Winters (March12) were all committed by the same suspect and went on to publicly list their reasons WHY. I quote from the article:
“Dahlia Case Similarities Checked in Fourth Brutal Death Mystery”
…
Checking similarities between the death of Miss Winters and the Short, and French killings, police listed the following:
1) All three girls frequented cocktail bars and sometimes picked up men in them.
2) All three were slugged on the head (although Mrs. French was trampled to death and Miss Short tortured and cut in two).
3) All three were killed elsewhere and taken in cars to the spots where the bodies were found.
4) All three were displayed nude or nearly so.
5) In no case was an attempt made to conceal the body. On the contrary, bodies were left where they were sure to be found.
6) Each had been dragged a short distance.
7) Each killing was a pathological case, apparently motiveless.
8) In each case, the killer appears to have taken care not to be seen in company with the victim.
9) All three women had good family backgrounds.
10) Each was identified by her fingerprints, other evidence of identity having been removed.
11) Miss Short and Miss Winters were last seen in the same Hill Street area.
In January 1947, the press suggested a link to four of the victims. Then by 1950, it was up to seven.
The 1949 Grand Jury issued a scathing report on the unsolved Black Dahlia and new Lone Woman Murders and ordered the investigation of these crimes be taken away from LAPD and reinvestigated by the District Attorney’s Office.
LAPD and the LA Sheriff’s Department were both convinced that many of their 1940s crimes were committed by the same suspect.
Posted below are two separate 1949 front page headlines where police and press both link a new killing, Mrs. Louise Springer, to the Black Dahlia suspect and speculate that perhaps at least NINE of the previously unsolved “Horror Murders” are connected to the same man.
“Mother Kidnaped, Slain; Seek Curly-Haired Man New ‘Black Dahlia’ Case”
Los Angeles Examiner
June 17, 1949
“Police are not overlooking the possibility that a single slayer committed all [nine] of the Los Angeles “Horror Murders.”
Long Beach Press Telegram
June 17, 1949
The Long Beach Press Telegram article provided details on the June 16, 1949 slaying of Mrs. Louise Springer and then went on to name the eight previous victims possibly killed by “a single slayer”:
1. Elizabeth Short (“Black Dahlia”)
2. Mary Tate
3. Evelyn Winters
4. Jeanne French (“Red Lipstick Murder”)
5. Rosenda Mondragon (“Silk Stocking Murder”)
6. Dorothy Montgomery
7. Laura Trelstad
8. Gladys Kern (Real Estater Murder)
9. Louise Springer
Three months later, in September 1949, LAPD chief of detectives Thad Brown removed any question that LAPD suspected many of the LA murders were connected when he informed the press and the public that they were checking out a sex strangulation murderer, Ray Dempsey Gardner, age twenty-seven, arrested in Ogden, Utah.
In the Los Angeles Times piece, “Alleged Garroter May Be Linked to Killings Here,” Chief Brown is quoted as saying, “…efforts will be made to trace his activities in the hope of forming a connection with local murders.”
The article goes on to specifically name the suspected crime victims as: “…Elizabeth Short, Jeanne French, Louise Springer, Georgette Bauerdorf, as well as other and similar cases.
Los Angeles Times, September 14, 1949
The FACT that law enforcement suspected a serial killer from the get-go was eventually covered over by tabloid accounts which created the DAHLIA MYTH. The truth was replaced by pulp fiction magazines and sexploitation novels. Hollywood dream makers and spin doctors have never really cared about facts. Nightmares are the stuff their dreams are made of—and so it went.
By the nineties, even the cops bought into the myths and legends. “A standalone crime, none before, none after.” None of the “new breed” had ever read the case files or did any in depth study of the original investigation. They were simply ignorant of what their “old school” predecessors, the original Black Dahlia investigators had suspected all along—many of the 1940s Lone Woman Murders were serially connected to the same killer.
Lone Woman Murders—Updates
LA Lone Woman Murders 1943-1949 Category I (definites)
In my original BDA 2003 and in the updated chapters published in the HarperCollins revised editions [“Aftermath” chapter, 2004 and “New Investigation,” 2006], I broke the suspected crimes into separate categories: I-“Definites” [strong M.O. and signature linkage] II-Probables, and III-Possibles.
Within the Category I range, I initially listed seven (7) victims, most of whom corresponded with LAPD’s suspected list of serial victims. Those original seven were:
1. Ora Murray-1943
2. Georgette Bauerdorf-1944
&n
bsp; 3. Elizabeth Short-1947
4. Jeanne French-1947
5. Gladys Kern-1948
6. Mimi Boomhower-1949
7. Jean Spangler-1949
Ora Murray- “White Gardenia Murder” Update
Sixty-seven years after the crime was committed, I believe I have found an additional signature-link to the brutal murder of Mrs. Ora Murray, one of the eight “Category I (definites) LA Lone Woman Murders, which was originally summarized in my 2003 publication of Black Dahlia Avenger.
Below is a brief summary of the crime M.O. (For those wanting a fuller description, I suggest you read BDA Chapter 23, pages 294-306.)
On the evening of July 26, 1943, Mrs. Ora Murray, age forty-two, accompanied by her sister, Latona Leinann, went out for a night of drinks and dancing at the Zenda Ballroom, located in downtown Los Angeles at Seventh and Figueroa. [The dancehall was located just one block from Dr. Hodel’s medical office at Seventh and Flower.]
The victim, married to an Army sergeant stationed in Mississippi, was temporarily visiting her sister in Los Angeles.
At the dancehall the two women met and danced with a man named, “Paul.” Ora’s sister later described “Paul” as being “tall and thin, very dapper and a very good dancer. He wore a dark double-breasted suit and a dark fedora.” Paul claimed he was from San Francisco, “just down to L.A. for a few days.” After a number of dances, Paul offered to drive Ora Murray to Hollywood and show her the sights. Mrs. Murray accepted and after first driving the sister home, the couple then continued on to supposedly tour Hollywood.
Some eight-hours later, Ora Murray’s partially nude body was found on the grass at the Fox Hill Golf Course in West Los Angeles. She had been severely beaten about the face and body and the cause of death was found to be, “constriction of the larynx by strangulation.” Ora’s killer had ceremoniously wrapped her dress around her body like a sarong and then carefully placed a white gardenia under her right shoulder. Based on this unusual M.O. the press dubbed the crime, The White Gardenia Murder. The investigation was handled by LA County Sheriff’s Homicide, as it was just outside of the city limits.
