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Most Evil
MOST EVIL: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel
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Audio Book
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BOOK DETAILS

  • Audio Book
  • Sep.22.2009
  • 9781441800473

Steve gives an overview of the book:

Twenty Years after shocking the world in Los Angeles, could Dr. George Hill Hodel have returned to terrorize California as the killer known as Zodiac? When veteran LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel discovered that his late father had known the victim of the infamous Black Dahlia murder case in 1947 Los Angeles, the ensuing three-year investigation became the New York Times bestseller Black Dahlia Avenger. Publication led directly to the discovery of a cache of hidden documents covered up for decades, that confirm George Hodel had long been law enforcement's number one suspect in Elizabeth Short's grisly death. A lurid murder mystery that had endured for more than fifty years was finally resolved. But for Steve Hodel, that revelation was only the beginning. With twenty-five years of experience investigating homicides, Hodel's instincts told him that a...
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Twenty Years after shocking the world in Los Angeles, could Dr. George Hill Hodel have returned to terrorize California as the killer known as Zodiac?

When veteran LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel discovered that his late father had known the victim of the infamous Black Dahlia murder case in 1947 Los Angeles, the ensuing three-year investigation became the New York Times bestseller Black Dahlia Avenger. Publication led directly to the discovery of a cache of hidden documents covered up for decades, that confirm George Hodel had long been law enforcement's number one suspect in Elizabeth Short's grisly death. A lurid murder mystery that had endured for more than fifty years was finally resolved.

But for Steve Hodel, that revelation was only the beginning. With twenty-five years of experience investigating homicides, Hodel's instincts told him that a man capable of bisecting Elizabeth Short's body, arranging it in gruesome and public tableau, and taunting the police and public with notes and phone calls, did not begin or end his killing career with the Black Dahlia.

In Most Evil, Steve Hodel compiles never-before-seen visual, circumstantial, and forensic evidence to make the case that his father was a prolific serial killer whose signature is visible not in any single method of murder, type of victim, or specific killing ground, but rather as a series of complex arrangements, installations, and obscure references to art, culture and film, that, taken together, reveal a chilling and never-before-documented variety of serial murder: murder as a fine art. Among his crimes may be some of the most enduring and infamous murders of the last century, including Chicago's "Lipstick Murders" in 1945 Chicago, the "Jigsaw Murdered" in Manila, as well as the series of killings in California in the 1960's by the man who called himself Zodiac.

Steve Hodel's relentless and compelling investigation, detailed in Most Evil, revolutionizes the way we think about some of the most brutal and previously unconnected murders in American history--and may change our understanding of serial killers altogether.

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(From the Introduction)

...

I knew very little about my father when his ashes were scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge. Naturally, I was curious about the man he had been. I wanted to know more. Gentle inquiries started with a book of photographs he kept with him until his death. Two of them reminded me of a TV movie I'd seen about the Black Dahlia starring Lucie Arnaz.

My investigation widened and drew me into increasingly lurid and frightening territory. The result: my book Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder. (Arcade, 2003: updated by HarperCollins in 2006)

Then in 2003, Los Angeles head deputy district attorney Stephen Kay reviewed the evidence I'd collected and declared the Black Dahlia murder "solved." Old DistrictAttorney files and forensics told the story. Only after delving into my father's dark mind was I able to explain why he posed Elizabeth Short's body the way he did and carved the ghastly smile into her face.

George Hodel did nothing by accident. He lived his life as a bizarre game that trumped even those of his hero, the Marquis de Sade, taunting and outwitting the police, seducing and brutally mudering innocent women.

He didn't stop in 1950. Nor did he begin in the '40s. Nor was Elizabeth Short just an ex-girlfriend.

I know now that my father was also responsible for a series of infamous murders in Chicago, (where he was known for a time as the Lipstick Killer),  Manila (where the local press dubbed him the Jigsaw Murderer) and the Bay Area of California (where he called himself Zodiac).

It's a bizarre, terrifying, and surreal story that will alter criminal history, exonerate the innocent, and change the way we think about the motives and signatures of serial killers. Hang on.

Steve Hodel

December 2008

steve-hodel's picture

In 2003, I began a review of the secret DA Hodel/Black Dahlia Files.  From inside the pages of those files a white paw reached out and pulled me into a second Rabbit Hole. This one was deeper and darker than the first! 

 

 

About Steve

Steve Hodel is a 24-year veteran of the LAPD. [1963-1986] During 17 of those years, he was assigned to Hollywood Homicide Division where he investigated over 300 murders and had one of the highest "solve rates" on the Department. He is a licensed P.I. specializing in criminal...

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Published Reviews

Feb.24.2012

...

"George Hodel, I think, is fit company for some of noir's most civilized villains--like Waldo Lydecker in "Laura", Harry Lime in "The Third Man" or ven Noah Cross in "Chinatown," the man who (...