Black Dahlia Avenger II: Presenting the Follow-Up Investigation and Further Evidence Linking Dr. George Hill Hodel to Los Angeles’s Black Dahlia and other 1940s LONE WOMAN MURDERS

by Hodel, Steve

  Sgt. Charles Stoker was defended by prominent LA attorney, S.S. (Sammy) Hahn, who ironically also represented my mother, Dorothy Hodel in her 1944 divorce from George Hodel.

  Hahn, as expected, won an acquittal on the trumped up “Burglary” charge against Stoker and later helped establish that his LAPD female partner, Audre Davis, who was the prosecution’s star witness, had committed perjury.

  Attorney S.S. Hahn was the other go-to attorney in Los Angeles from the 1920s through the1950s. Hahn and his counterpart, Jerry “Get Me” Giesler, pretty much cornered the market on defending high-profile crimes and divorces in LA.

  Many of you will recognize Hahn’s name from the recent 2008 film, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood. Geoff Pierson plays Hahn as the “pro bono” attorney, representing the distraught mother, Mrs. Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), who testified and took down corrupt LAPD Capt. J.J. Jones and LAPD Chief James E. Davis.

  As a side note, Attorney Hahn was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1957. The LA Times, in reporting the “mysterious death,” quoted detectives as finding “a gash to the forehead and that heavy cement blocks had been tied around his neck which were holding him down at the bottom of the pool.” No note was found. The Times article also quoted investigating detective Jim Wahlke as saying, “From all indications, it appears to be a suicide, but…”

  “Atty. Hahn Dies in Swimming Pool Mystery,” LA Times, June 26, 1957

  Hahn, like George Hodel, was a Los Angeles taproot. His connections reached deep underground and spanned four decades of LA politics and power.

  The third leg of the legal stool in Los Angeles was Mickey Cohen’s lawyer, Samuel “Mouthpiece to the Mob” Rummel, who was gunned down in front of his Hollywood Hills home in 1950.

  His murder was never solved. Preliminary investigation revealed that Rummel had met with LA Sheriff’s Capt. Al Guasti the previous night, just hours before the shooting at his home. Though never actually tied to the shooting, Guasti was shortly thereafter indicted on major corruption charges.

  As far as Sammy Hahn’s “suicide,” what can I say? 1950s business as usual in the “City of the Fallen Angels.”

  Dr. Audrain, Dr. DeLong, and Dr. Hodel—Connecting the Dots

  In BDA, I stated early on that I believed that my father, Dr. George Hodel, was a participant in, or, at the very least, had full knowledge of the operations of Dr. Audrain’s MD abortion ring, as referenced in Sgt. Stoker’s expose.

  That was further confirmed post-publication with the revelations from the DA Hodel-Black Dahlia Files connecting known abortionist Charles Smith with Beverly Hills Dr. Francis Ballard, performing the abortion on my half-sister, Tamar.

  Also found in the DA files was the documented interview with Smith’s girlfriend, Mildred Bray Colby, who witnessed the early morning $1,000 cash payoff [$10,000 in today’s dollars] from George Hodel to Charles Smith, made at the Franklin house on December 29, 1949. This cash payment was made just five days after George Hodel’s acquittal on the Tamar incest/molestation charges.

  Next, we had my father’s statements in the DA transcripts confirming he performed abortions at his VD clinic, “Lots of them.”

  Add to that George’s separate taped statements to Baron Herringer [Harringa] where he tells him, “I’m the only one who knows how everything fits together. This is the best payoff between law enforcement agencies I have ever seen.”

  And now, what does this latest discovery tell us?

  1) Sgt. Charles Stoker, in conjunction with State Medical Board investigators, utilized a female undercover officer, whom he sent to Dr. Audrain’s medical office where Audrain’s nurse [not named, but probably his wife, Mathilde who was known to work there] confirmed her worst fears, and told her that “she’s pregnant” and scheduled her for an abortion. [According to state investigators and Sgt. Stoker, the sting arrest was blown due to the fact that law enforcement officers warned the performing doctor of the pending “sting operation.” And when the undercover officer showed up for her appointment, they found the office locked and closed, and the doctor “on vacation.”]

  2) On May 5, 1949, Sgt. Stoker, under subpoena to a grand jury hearing, testified to all that he knew about LAPD police corruption, vice payoffs to Madame Brenda Allen, secret wire taps at Mickey Cohen’s home involving payoffs to cops, abortion ring payoffs, and most likely named Dr. Audrain as the head of the protected abortion ring.

  3) On May 20, 1949, just two-weeks following Sgt. Stoker’s testimony, Dr. E.W. DeLong, a close personal friend of Dr. L.C. Audrain, responded to Audrain’s home, and pronounced him dead due to natural causes—“heart disease”—and insured that no autopsy or toxicological tests would be performed; the body was removed to a private mortuary for burial.

  4) Prior to Dr. Audrain’s death, a chiropractor, Dr. Eric Kirk, who was named and figured prominently in Stoker’s book, was arrested and was serving prison time for performing abortions. Dr. Kirk was under grand jury subpoena and was going to testify and name names of many of the doctors involved in Audrain’s abortion ring.

  As a result of his filing a formal affidavit, Dr. Kirk was brought to LA from prison in September 1949, four months after Audrain’s death. His wife received death threats if her husband testified against LAPD homicide detectives, and it was unknown if he actually followed through with his promise to identify and name the corrupt cops.

  5) Dr. E.W. DeLong was doing business with and was obviously acquainted with Dr. George Hodel, which put him in close association to two known abortionists [Hodel and Audrain]. Working in Beverly Hills, he most certainly would have known George Hodel’s abortionists of choice for Tamar’s September 1949 abortion—Dr. Francis Ballard and his “assistant,” Charles Smith.

  Doctors Hodel and Audrain both lived in Hollywood and resided just three miles apart. Doctors DeLong, Ballard, Audrain, and Hodel all lived and worked within six miles of each other.

  Did Dr. Audrain in fact die of natural causes and the timing of his death was just “coincidental”? Or, was it a suicide? Murder? We will never know the truth of it now. But, with this latest direct tie-in in the transcripts, there is certainly much cause for reflection.

  At the time of his death, Dr. Audrain was seventy-three. If it was his wife, who had falsely confirmed the policewoman’s “pregnancy” and made the abortion appointment from their 1052 W. Sixth Street medical practice, then she was at risk and would have most certainly been arrested with him for conspiring to commit an abortion.

  Dr. Audrain was facing a major scandal, disgrace, and almost certain imprisonment. Those in power, his fellow abortion ring doctors, MD’s all, and the cops receiving protection money would have all wanted him out of the way.

  Dr. Audrain’s potential grand jury indictment and pending arrest was a huge threat to every corrupt cop and official involved. Fortunately for all of them, his unexpected death, be it “heart attack” or suicide, allowed for their problem, at least as related to Audrain, to just disappear.

  Grand Jury Indicts Ten in LA—Arrests Confirm Los Angeles-San Francisco State-wide Abortion Ring

  In April 1950, just two days after George Hodel fled the country, the seated 1950 grand jury indicted ten doctors and nurses involved in what the LA Times described as, “An alleged illegal surgical operations syndicate, then plunged headlong into investigation of reported protection payoffs to law enforcement officers.”

  The article went on to indicate that a Dr. Eric Kirk, currently serving time in prison for performing abortions [and a major player in Sgt. Stoker’s expose of the LA abortion ring] would be called as a witness and promised to “tell all.” [This would be additional testimony on these new arrests as he had already testified before the 1949 grand jury in September 1949.]

  Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1950

  Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1950

  In the updated version of BDA (HarperCollins July 2006), I included the information related to what DA investigator, Lt. Jemison re
ferred to as, “Hodel’s friend, abortionist Charles Smith.” That information revealed that Smith, in March 1950, was actively being investigated by law enforcement as being involved in the San Francisco/Los Angeles abortion ring.

  On March 20, less than a month from the grand jury indictments in LA, Lt. Frank Jemison, while interviewing Charles Smith’s ex-girlfriend, Mildred Bray Colby, said to her:

  “Did you know that he [Smith] has been operating girls from San Francisco for abortions?”

  Colby responded, “No, But, I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  During this same interview by Lt. Jemison, in reference to my half-sister, Tamar Hodel and Smith’s abortion arrest in October 1949 with Beverly Hills Dr. Francis Ballard, Miss Colby told Lt. Jemison:

  “Smith said that someday he was going to fix Tamar. He was going to cut a chunk out of the calf of her leg and fry it and eat it in front of her eyes and then puke it in front of her face.”

  March 14, 1950, Telegram from San Francisco DA Edmund G. “Pat” Brown to Los Angeles DA’s Office showing they are cooperating in “Charles Smith, abortionist friend of Hodel” investigation.

  Three weeks prior to this telegram being sent from DA Brown in San Francisco to Lt. Jemison in Los Angeles, Lillian Lenorak appeared at Dr. Leslie Ballard and Charles Smith’s trial and perjured herself, claiming that while she was present at Dr. Ballard’s with Tamar, “he examined her, but no abortion occurred.”

  As a result of Lenorak’s testimony, the judge dismissed the charges in January 1950. Lenorak later recanted her testimony, admitting she lied to protect Dr. Hodel, Dr. Ballard, and Charles Smith. [The immediate cause of her lying, as we know from the officer Unkefer’s letter, was direct threats from George Hodel to harm both her and her son, John, and to have her placed in a mental institution.]

  LAPD Capt. Edwin Jokisch (ret.)

  “His [Steve Hodel’s] father was involved in this 1949 incest case and was apparently guilty as you could be.”

  LAPD Capt. Edwin Jokisch (ret.)

  One of the original detectives involved in the April 1950 San Francisco/Los Angeles abortion ring investigation and arrests was LAPD Sgt. Edwin Jokisch.

  In the late 1940s, Detective Jokisch and his partner, Lloyd Burton, were both assigned to the LAPD Homicide Abortion Squad. That was the unit that would have normally handled the investigation into my half-sister Tamar’s abortion. [In my original 2003 summary, I incorrectly attributed this detail to being under the direct supervision of the then existent, Gangster Squad. They were not. It was actually assigned to the Homicide Unit. My confusion came because during that time [1947-1949] many of the Gangster Squad detectives were loaned to and working homicide, primarily on the Black Dahlia investigation.]

  To this day, I have not been able to determine whether it was Sgt. Jokisch and his partner who made the 1949 abortion arrest of Dr. Ballard and Charles Smith, or if it was other officers assigned to their unit. If it was Jokisch, then in preparing the case for prosecution, he would or should have had direct follow-up contact with: George Hodel, who procured Dr. Ballard to perform the abortion; Tamar Hodel, who received it; and Lillian Lenorak, who was present and witnessed it. [Jokisch’s silence on this potential connection in recent years would seem to indicate that it was other detectives on the Homicide Abortion Squad who investigated and made the Dr. Ballard/Charles Smith arrests.]

  Jokisch’s career with LAPD spanned thirty-two years, from 1940 to 1972. He was promoted and retired as a police captain and passed away on August 3, 2011 at age-ninety-six.

  Capt. Jokisch, upon the original publication of my book in 2003, became one of the most vocal critics of my investigation. It was his belief that I was personally attacking him, as well as Chiefs William Parker, Thad Brown, and his good friend, Capt. Jack Donahoe.

  Ed was mistaken, and I told him so. I had no knowledge that he was connected to the 1948-1950 investigation as a detective assigned to the Homicide Abortion Detail until a year after publication of my book, when he contacted and informed me of his assignment to that unit during those years.

  As it turned out, much to my surprise, Jokisch informed me that he was the real-life, “Bill Ball” and his abortion squad partner, Det. Lloyd Burton was the same “Joe Small” named in Stoker’s 1950 expose, Thicker’N Thieves. [In my original 2003 publication, I speculated that “Bill Ball” may have been LAPD Lt. Bill Burns, who at the time was head of the Gangster Squad, and who I mistakenly believed was supervising the Abortion Team.]

  This admission from Jokisch means that it was his partner, Lloyd Burton, aka “Joe Small,” who it was alleged in the Thicker’N Thieves chapter, “Angel City Abortion Ring” by several witnesses to be, “on the take and receiving payoffs for protecting doctors.” In an interview just a few years prior to his death, Jokisch revealed that he had never actually read Stoker’s book, with its detailed allegation of police corruption in which Stoker provides specific names, dates, and locations.

  Ed Jokisch’s 2004 admission of being “Bill Ball” to me also informed me that it was Jokisch, along with his partner, Det. Lloyd Burton, who had made the arrest of Dr. Eric H. Kirk just two days prior to Sgt. Stoker and undercover policewoman Audre Davis coming into contact with Dr. Kirk in an attempted abortion sting operation. [For full details see BDA I, Chapter 25, “Sergeant Stoker, LAPD’s Gangster Squad, and the Abortion Ring.”]

  I quote from page 346 of that chapter:

  On September 17, 1949, an article appeared in the Los Angeles Mirror over the headline, “Wife of L.A. Abortionist in Hiding.” The story carried a picture of Dr. Eric H. Kirk, captioned: “He’ll testify.” The article said that Kirk’s wife, Mrs. Marion Kirk, “a key witness in a huge abortion-payoff probe, was in hiding after it was learned that she received numerous telephone threats to “keep her mouth shut.”

  Interestingly, in the totally unrelated April, 1950 LA/San Francisco Abortion Ring arrests by state-wide authorities including, Det. Jokisch, when the case came to trial in 1950, a defendant-witness also received multiple threatening phone calls.

  However, this time the threats were specific. I quote from the LA Times, September 30, 1950:

  PHONE THREATS IN OPERATION TRIAL REPORTED

  Telephone threats to “lay off” yesterday were featured in the trial of three persons on charges of criminal conspiracy and illegal medical operations

  Henry J. Glynn, 55-year old hospital manager and one of three defendants on trial, reported to Superior Judge Thomas I., Ambrose that he had been the object of threatening phone calls since the beginning of the trial last week. [SKH Note-Judge Ambrose was the presiding judge on Dr. Hodel’s three week incest trial.] Officer’s Name

  Glynn said he received a call last Monday evening from a mysterious person who told him he had “better lay off Jokisch and his pals.” [Emphasis mine]

  Det. Lt. Ed Jokisch, a police officer, was one of the arresting officers in the case and currently is investigative advisor to Dep. Dist. Attys. Adolph Alexander and Albert K. Lucas.

  … Hint Dropped

  In early questioning of prospective jurors, Atty A.N. Chelenden, representing Oswald P. Gallardo, an osteopath and one of the defendants, hinted that a part of his defense may be allegations of official corruption and possible graft.

  The third defendant, Miss Frieda Zipse, 32, a nurse, was present in the chambers hearing but made no statement.

  On two separate occasions, circa 2004 and 2006, retired LAPD Capt. Jokisch, then in his early nineties attended several of my public talks, and, at the second one, in rather heated words, informed me, “Well, maybe you did solve the Black Dahlia murder, but you had NO RIGHT to speak against the fine reputations of Chief Parker, Thad Brown, and Jack Donahoe. Capt. Jack Donahoe was one of my closest personal friends.”

  Circa 2009, Capt. Jokisch, at age ninety-four, conducted a personal tape-recorded interview with a copy-editor, Larry Harnisch, also one of my most vocal critics, who, for the past fifteen years, has been promising to publish a
book claiming that, “Dr. Walter Bayley was the probable Black Dahlia killer.”

  In a KFI “Crime Hunters” radio interview, when queried by the host, Eric Leonard, about Dr. Bayley’s possible motive for the killing, Harnisch responded that the Black Dahlia murder “was rage driven.” He then made an on-air speculation that Dr. Bayley may have killed Elizabeth Short because of a “sustained rage over the death of his son,” who, he informed the interviewer, “was killed in a traffic accident in the 1920s” some twenty-five years prior to the murder.

  After Jokisch’s death in 2011, Harnisch posted his taped interview on the Internet.

  In it, Jokisch reflected on the memories of his time with the LAPD, vented some of his anger about the publication of my book to a sympathetic ear [Harnisch], and then surprisingly, he had this to say in relation to George Hodel’s 1949 arrest for incest:

  “His [Steve Hodel’s] father was involved in this 1949 incest case and was apparently guilty as you could be. [Emphasis mine.] But he was found not guilty. But he had the best mouthpiece you could have in those days. He had Jerry Giesler and his partner.”

  Los Angeles Times, 1957

  LOOT RECOVERED

  Det. Lt. Ed Jokisch, left, and chief of detectives Thad Brown check portion of the $88,000 worth of furs and jewelry recovered after arrest of suspects in robbery of Lauritz Melchior home.

  Chapter 20

  Mrs. Betty Bersinger—“Witness Number 1”

  Had there been an arrest and trial in the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia Murder,” the very first witness to be called and to testify for the prosecution would have been, Mrs. Betty Bersinger.