My father was Dr. George Hodel.
He was a famous physician
and he was also the prime suspect in the killer
of Elizabeth Short,
better known as the Black Dahlia.
My dad was head of LA County Health Department.
Handsome, beautiful-speaking voice.
In 1949, my mother suddenly places my brothers and I
in a military academy.
Dad's gone and we don't know what's happening.
We would discover that my half-sister, Tamar,
disclosed that our father had had sex with her.
Dad was charged with incest and child molestation
and was found not guilty.
After four years in the Navy, I joined LAPD at 21.
Five years in patrol, 17 in homicide,
300 murder investigations.
I served for almost 24 years.
My father gets a penthouse in San Francisco.
We become very close in that last decade of his life.
And then I get that 3 a.m. phone call in 1999
from his wife, June.
She says, "Your father's collapsed
"and they've just pronounced him dead."
Two days later, I'm on the phone with my half-sister, Tamar.
She says "The LAPD cops
"that took me back and forth to the trial
"said 'We think your father killed the Black Dahlia.'"
And I said, "Well Tamar, there's no way."
I said, "Well I'm gonna be able to establish
"he had nothing to do with it."
But the first thing I discovered is LAPD
is confident that the killer was a trained, skilled surgeon.
Well my father was a trained, skilled surgeon.
But still, I said, "There's no way."
The next thing I find out is the Black Dahlia killer
is sending taunting notes to the police and the press.
This one note, full, non-disguised handwriting.
It's my father's handwriting.
I've identified it and so have experts.
I relocate back to Los Angeles
and I start a full bore investigation.
Like I'm trained to do.
A circumstantial case was building on Elizabeth Short.
We've got the surgeon, we've got the handwriting.
Then the description of the suspect
that was actually seen at the crime scene.
A witness was a half block away
and he saw this 1936 dark sedan.
Well Dad at that time
was driving a 1936 black Packard sedan.
After digging into it and getting all the witness statements
from that time period,
I submitted in secret to an active Head Deputy DA,
who came back and he said,
"Based on your investigation,
"I would file on Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia,
"and I would win it in a jury trial."
I get permission to actually examine some secret files,
and there's a Hodel file.
I find out he was the prime suspect all along,
and I find out that they tape recorded our residence.
His actual words were
"Suppose that I did kill the Black Dahlia.
"They can't prove it now.
"They can't talk to my secretary anymore
"'cause she's dead."
I didn't go to this case.
It came to me.
This man spread so much horror.
The tragedy of it is he could've cured cancer.
I mean he could've done anything.
And this dark side, this evil monster within
was the power that ruled.
Well Steve, thank you for being here.
You were very close to your father for a long time
towards the end of his life, right?
I was.
So this had to be a shock.
More than a shock.
I was confident when I started out
that I'd be able to exonerate him.
So when was the first time in working the evidence over
that it hit you that this really could be my father?
Probably about a year and a half into the investigation,
before everything came together, the witnesses,
and it all came together to the point
when I submitted it to the DA in secret.
