For years, ex-LAPD detective Steve Hodel has insisted that his father, creepy doctor George Hodel, killed the Black Dahlia at their home, the Lloyd Wright-designed Sowden House in Los Feliz, in 1947. The Black Dahlia, aka Elizabeth Short, was found sliced in half in Leimert Park on January 15 that year and the murder has been famously unsolved ever since (there's a James Ellroy book and a Brian De Palma movie about it). In 2003, Steve Hodel published Black Dahlia Avenger, which accused his creepy-sounding father (who died in 1991) of torturing and murdering Short at the Sowden House. Dr. Hodel was actually a suspect in the case; the LAPD tapped his house and an acquaintance claimed he knew Short. Plenty of people, including an LAPD detective involved with the case, are skeptical, but now a helpful Labrador retriever is corroborating the story!
Cadaver dog Buster was brought to the house a few months back and "immediately took off ... and ran to a vent located at the southwest corner of the property where he alerted, indicating he had picked up the scent of human decomposition," Hodel tells the Daily News. The vent sits just outside the basement. Soil samples from the basement "have been sent to a lab for analysis," because don't be silly, no one would rely on just a dog for evidence in a 66 year old murder!
· Author: Cadaver dog discovered Black Dahlia death scene at Hollywood home [LADN]
· Lloyd Wright's Los Feliz Sowden House Back on the Market [Curbed LA]
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