Editing George Hodel (section)

===Black Dahlia murder===
On January 15, 1947, the naked body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in an empty lot in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Short had suffered gruesome mutilation, notably her body being cut in half at the waist, as well as [[Glasgow Smile|her mouth being cut ear to ear]]. The case earned major publicity and prompted one of the largest investigations in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. The case was never solved. However, authorities at the time interviewed hundreds of suspects and focused on about 25, one of whom was George Hill Hodel Jr. Various aspects of the case have suggested a strong connection to Surrealism, including the works of Man Ray in particular.

In late 1949, Hodel's teenage daughter Tamar accused him of incestuous sexual abuse and impregnating her (after which she was given a back alley abortion). He was acquitted after a widely publicized trial. There had been three witnesses present during and who participated in the sex acts. Two testified at the trial, and the third recanted her earlier testimony and refused to come forward, the theory being that Hodel had threatened her into silence. The trial had caused Tamar to look like a liar and that she had made up the entire abuse allegation for attention.

Hodel came to police attention as a suspect in the Elizabeth Short murder in 1949 after the sexual abuse trial; known or suspected sex criminals in the area were being investigated first, and it had come out in that trial that Tamar had allegedly claimed that her father was the Dahlia killer. Hodel's medical degree also aroused suspicion, given the hypothesis that whoever bisected Short's body had some degree of surgical skill. At least eight witnesses claimed first-hand knowledge of a 1946 relationship between Short and Hodel, then back in Los Angeles from China. 

The full details of the investigation came to light only in 2003, when a "George Hodel–Black Dahlia File" was discovered in the vault at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. The file revealed that in 1950, Hodel was the prime suspect of the Dahlia murder. His private Hollywood residence was electronically bugged by an 18-man DA/LAPD task force during the period February 15 to March 27, 1950. The transcripts of conversations revealed Hodel's references to performing illegal abortions, giving payoffs to law enforcement officials, and to his possible involvement in the deaths of his secretary and Short.