1949 LAPD Paid Police Informant Glenn Martin Letter Confirms Dr. George Hodel As Killer of Black Dahlia and LA Lone Woman Victim Louise Springer: Lead Dahlia Detective Harry Hansen Assigned to 1949 Springer Murder Suggests to Press ” the Two Crimes May Be Connected”

April 24, 2024
Birch Bay, Washington

Police informant Glenn Martin’s letter was never meant to be read. Written by Martin on October 25, 1949, while his acquaintance Dr. George Hodel was on trial for incest (Martin was confident Hodel would be convicted and sent to prison), he wrote the letter to be opened only “In case of Margaret Ellen or Glenna Jeans’ Death” and signed it with his initials WGM. Neither of his daughters was killed, and the letter remained unopened in his personal effects for the next sixty-nine years until it was found by his granddaughter, Sandi Nichols, in 2018.

I reproduced the entire Martin Letter  and detailed its contents in Black Dahlia Avenger III (Rare Bird Books 2018) 
In reading the letter, it becomes clear that Glenn Martin and “G.H.” (George Hodel) were acquainted, and both knew the victim, Louise Springer, prior to her murder in June 1949.  Below are verbatim extracts from the 1949 handwritten letter quoting Martin as implicating Hodel in both the Dahlia and Springer murders and confirming he was released based on his “connections and friendship” with LAPD officers.

Martin Letter Extracts: (My comments/clarification in bold red)

This is what happened. I or we Mother, G.H. & me were eating supper. St. McCawley of L.A. Police Dept (Lt. Kenneth McCauley IAD-Personnel Division) called me & said I have another one night job for you like before. Well you take it”? I said I’ll be down in AM and talk to you about it.” “I had worked on 2 different nights for him. I knew not what job was to be till I was with him & others officers those nights. Then it was to try to see if other officers could be invigled into crime. So, after supper G.H. got a call in which he answered OK. Ray, I’ll be down. Next A.M., I called McCawley (Lt. McCauley IAD) & told him I would not take the job. So he said “O.K. the job was over anyway.

SKH Note: LAPD’s IAD, The Bureau of Internal Affairs, was established on July 22, 1949, just one month after the Louise Springer murder.
The IAD was headed by Inspector William H. Parker (he would be appointed LAPD’s Chief of Police just one year later, in 1950), and Lt. Kenneth McCauley was in charge of operations supervising an eight-man team. I quote from the below article: …”The Bureau of Internal Affairs”–will handle complaints against Los Angeles policemen.”…The Bureau will receive complaints generated from external sources alleging improper conduct by officers.” (This is what Glenn Martin in his letter referred to when he worked under Lt. McCauley “to see if other officers could be inveigled into crime.” (Officers working IAD from its inception were known as “head hunters” and despised and feared by most of the sworn personnel because of their assigned duty to investigate “dirty cops.”)

                                          Citizen News July 23, 1949   CN Sept 3, 1949 

                                   

Just one month before George Hodel’s October 1949 arrest for Incest, Lt. McCauley is placed in charge of investigating the “Abortion racket” as well as allegations that LAPD officers were connected with payoffs etc. In 1952 McCauley is promoted and appt  LAPD Captain in charge of University Divison.

Martin Letter extracts continued:

…
“G.H. was grilled by police on Louise Springer death; he & I both knew her: The investigation officers became G.H. friend so matter dropped He threatened to get even with me. I had nothing to do with it. (the charge)* He bragged while drunk in a salloon. I believe Joe Choate (LA private attorney formerly a prosecuting attorney with the LA DA Office) who Margaret Ellen feared took her to the Hotel (Bizarrely the “hotel” was The Biltmore Hotel where Inspector William “Bill” Parker maintained a suite for IAD interrogation purposes for many years) where the police especially McCawley tried to make her admit that I, her father had committed the much famous Black Dalia. Of course she would not do that, as God & she knows I did not; her face (I believe Martin is referring to recent murder victim Louise Springer to whom both he and George Hodel were acquainted) was beaten so badly, hardly reconizable I have friends in Coroners office who in talking next AM. Let me see the body, as do a lot of those known on jury there, see. I near came sick at sight.
…
G.H. got credit at “Starr”** 949 S Brdway. On it he says his wife’s name is Ellen. (This further corroborates “GH” is George Hodel as his then full service-live-in housemaid and sexual partner (as verified on 1950 surveillance recordings “George got another headjob from Ellen” was named Ellen.)
…

I believe Chaote (attorney Joe Choate) Framed this with McCawley (Lt. McCauley) to make M.E. (Mary Ellen?) mistake (or mistate) or accuse another so the real killer would continue free. Choate always knew and was paid off as att. First and then blackmail. Now $$ have stopped & Grand Jury is pressing, Not Grand Jury bribe, but Choate to a Police Officer, ether Jack Donohue (LAPD Captain Donahue, originally in charge of Black Dahlia murder in 1947) or McCawley.(Lt. Kenneth McCauley)

Los Angeles Daily News 
June 16, 1949, Louse Springer Murder
I quote from the below article:

FIND BEAUTY SLAIN IN PARKED AUTOMOBILE

…”Pretty Mrs. Louise Springer, 28, was found strangled to death today in the rear seat of an automobile, which had been abandoned on a side street  about the time she was reported missing Monday night.”
…

“The face, neck and chest were black with discoloration induced by the agony of strangulation. “The husband was to be spared the ordeal of viewing the remains until tomorrow.”

“WOMAN GARROTED TO DEATH IN MYSTERY”

…”Evidence of sexual abuse and location of the death car, at once suggested to detectives a possible relationship to the unsolved slaying here more than two years ago of Elizabeth Short, the “Black Dahlia.” The Short girl’s bisected body was found in a vacant lot within a few blocks of the place where Mrs. Springer was last seen alive. She, likewise, had been subjected to sexual abuse.

The above photos show Detective Harry Hansen, LAPD Homicide, at the scene on June 16, 1949, and assigned to investigate the Louise Springer murder. (Det. Hansen, along with his partner, Sgt. Finis Brown (brother of Chief of Detectives Thad Brown) was the lead detective on the Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia” murder in 1947, and statements in this article indicate LAPD thought “that the two crimes might be connected to the same killer.”

We know from additional reports that LAPD detectives conducted a follow-up investigation to San Francisco,  where the victim and her husband had recently relocated after moving their business (hair salon)  to Los Angeles. There were also issues raised as to the questionable paternity of Louise’s young son.

      Los Angeles Daily New
June 16, 1949 (Same paper, as above on the same day LAPD Lt. McCauley, in addition to attempting to identify doctors in the abortion ring, was also investigating corrupt Vice Squad officers involved in payoffs in the Brenda Allen Scandal 

 

Summary of the Importance of the Glenn Martin Letter

The Glenn Martin Letter was never intended to be read. It was a father’s “insurance” in case either of his two young daughters, Margret Ellen or Glenna Jeans, came to harm. (It remained hidden and unopened for 68 years.) Martin obviously feared that George Hodel might kill one or both due to the fact that he (Hodel) believed Glenn Martin informed on him, causing Hodel to be picked up and taken in and “grilled” by LAPD detectives from the IAD Division. (Lt. McCauley et al.) Martin then tells us that both he and George Hodel knew the victim, Louise Springer, and named Dr. Hodel as her killer as well as the killer of “The Black Dahlia.” He further corroborates the “GH” by naming his “wife” as “Ellen” George Hodel’s 1949 known housemaid and sexual partner. Martin confirms that George had plenty of “juice” and was “let go” because of friendly detectives who allowed him to go free and attempted to blame his crimes on Martin.  Further, detectives in 1949, as documented in the dailies,  suspected the Elizabeth Short and Louise Springer murders both may have been committed by the “Black Dahlia Avenger.” Detective Harry Hansen was assigned the Springer murder to simultaneously investigate along with his  Black Dahlia investigation.

Update April 28, 2024

Below are articles showing that McCauley was promoted to LAPD Commander and was serving in the Valley in 1971, which means he and I were “on the job” for at least eight years, as I joined LAPD in 1963. We never had contact, but I am confident he was aware that I joined the Department considering the role he played as described above in “the grilling of Dr. George Hodel” in 1949.
Dep. Chief Thad Brown was also still the Chief of Detectives when I joined the Department, so “if walls had ears.” Below are two articles showing Cmdr. McCauley serving in the Valley Divisions in 1971 and his obituary showing he died in December 1993.