HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD SOWDEN/HODEL FRANKLIN HOUSE FOR SALE- PROBABLE 1947 BLACK DAHLIA CRIME SCENE PRICED AT 4.2M

 Two of Dr. George Hill Hodel’s private residences now on official list of L.A.  HISTORIC HOMES 

Sunday, March 13, 2011
Los Angeles Times

 

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Today’s LA Times “Home of the Week” is featuring the Hollywod Sowden House which is listed by the owner Xorin Balbes at 4.2 million. The house, was originally built in 1926 by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., for Mr. and Mrs. Sowden who I believe lived in the home for just one or two years. 

As many of my readers know, my father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, then Chief Venereal Disease Control Officer for L.A. County, bought the house in 1945 and we lived in the home until the spring of 1950, when father sold it and left the country. I believe dad bought the house for about $35,000 and if my memory serves me correctly he sold it for approximately the same amount.

This is the home that was “bugged” by the L.A.P.D. and the DA’s investigators who obtained tape-recorded conversations in which George Hodel admits to his committing  two separate murders (Black Dahlia and Ruth Spaulding) and provided further statements implicating himself in performing abortions, “lots of them” and making payoffs to several law enforcement agencies.

New physical evidence discovered by me in 2008 links this home as the probable crime-scene of the actual murder/surgical bisection of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short in the morning hours of January 15, 1947. See details HERE.and follow-up link HERE.

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DUELING GEORGE HODEL LOS ANGELES HISTORICAL CULTURAL MONUMENTS AND STREET ADDRESS TAKE US INTO THE “TWILIGHT ZONE”

In what can only be considered a BIZARRE HAPPENSTANCE (or is it?) Los Angeles now has “historically preserved” both George Hodel’s boyhood and his adult homes, both now officially registered as Los Angeles historic monuments.

My grandfather, George Hodel Sr. commissioned a famous Russian architect, Alexander Zelenko. That house (seen below) located at 6512 Monterey Rd. (then named Walnut Hill Ave.) was registered as a historic monument in 2006.

 Grandfather had Zelenko build a second home on the property for George Jr., his genius son, then attending Cal Tech.   Built for dad’s 15th birthday on the back lot facing a separate street, the address was 6511 SHORT WAY.

 

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4 Comments

  1. Robert Sadler on April 2, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Steve:
    I hope you stay ‘friendly’ with the new owners so when Bill Crump (Bill Crump Photography) and I come out LA for our photo shoot of you (still in the works), they will let us ‘shoot’ there.
    rjs

  2. Steve Hodel on April 2, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    That may be a tough order Robert. But, maybe? If not, we will just have to find a back-up.
    skh

  3. Kristen Brady on December 29, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    Hello Mr. Hodel, I just finished watching a segment on the ID Channel which featured the house on Franklin Street. I found the house facinating. Is there a website that has pictures that I would be able to view?
    Thanks for your help,
    Kristen

  4. Steve Hodel on January 17, 2012 at 11:09 am

    Kristen: At my Squad Room Blog site enter the search word “Sowden” and it will take you to various blogs on the house as well as a link to photographs.

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