Bestselling True Crime Author Steve Hodel Returns to Library with His New “Black Dahlia Avenger III” and a Major New Announcement on November 1 at 7 p.m.
New York Times Bestselling True Crime Author, Steve Hodel returns for an encore Author Night at 7:00 p.m. in the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room for his latest sequel, “Black Dahlia Avenger III” on Thursday, November 1 at 7 p.m. The veteran LAPD homicide detective will present his four-year follow-up investigation into Los Angeles's infamous 1947 Black Dahlia murder that has confounded legions of law enforcement agencies, mystery readers, and armchair investigators for more than a half century. A major new discovery will be released at the Library Author Night.
The scorching new page turner, ”Black Dahlia Avenger III” includes all new evidence and forensics further linking Steve Hodel’s father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, a graduate of South Pasadena High School in 1923. George Hodel entered Caltech as a “boy genius” at age 15 after scoring a 186 on an IQ test, purportedly one point higher than Einstein. George became a physician and socialized with the likes of novelist Henry Miller, Surrealist artist Man Ray, and Beat poet Kenneth Rexroth. In 1949, George Hodel became a top suspect in the Black Dahlia murder investigation and two microphones were planted in his home by the LAPD.
Steve Hodel was born and brought up in Los Angeles, and even lived in South Pasadena for a short time while growing up. He’s now a private investigator after spending almost twenty-four years with the LAPD, most of them as a homicide detective-supervisor. During Steve’s LAPD tenure, he worked on more than three hundred murder cases and had one of the highest “solve rates” on the force. “Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder,” published in 2003, became a New York Times bestseller and was a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award Nominee. “Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac, and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel” published in 2009, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.
In 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2015, Steve Hodel made compelling appearances discussing his preceding books before full house audiences in the South Pasadena Library. He revealed a wealth of convincing evidence pinpointing his father, Dr. George Hodel, as the Black Dahlia murderer, the perpetrator of the most infamous crime in Los Angeles history.
Steve Hodel’s books prior to BDAIII have established the original Black Dahlia crime scene at the Hodel family’s historic Franklin residence (the Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. built “Sowden House”) in Hollywood where Steve grew up. They also linked evidence from the home to articles left in the vacant lot where Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia victim was discovered. Among the findings contained in the preceding books is convincing testimony that the murder had to have been committed by a doctor, the transcript of the incriminating tape from the District Attorney’s bugging of the Hodel residence in 1947, and provocative personal correspondence between Dorothy Huston Hodel, Steve’s mother (film director John Huston’s ex-wife).
The Author Night program is free and open to the public and presented by the South Pasadena Public Library, the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, and the South Pasadenan with special thanks to Rare Bird Books, Scott Gandell, 210eastsound, and Sisters in Crime, LA. The event will also feature Steve Hodel's new PowerPoint with images never-before-seen by the public until the release of BDA III.
The program will conclude with an interactive Q & A with Steve Hodel and Daniel Vasquez, the Executive Editor of SouthPasadenan.com. Mr. Vasquez is an award-winning journalist and columnist who has covered crime, courts, politics, and consumer technology. He was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Editorial Writing for a yearlong series on ethics and government published by the San Jose Mercury News. Autographed copies of Steve Hodel’s “Black Dahlia Avenger III” will be available for purchase.
The Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and no tickets or reservations are necessary. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please call 626 403-7350.