Famed Surrealist Artist/Photographer Edmund Teske Personal Friend to George Hodel and Man Ray and His Direct Knowledge of the Sowden/Hodel Residence; “Women were tortured for sport there. Murders happened there. It’s an Evil Place.”
April 11, 2025
(Revised/Updated from October 16, 2023)
Birch Bay, Washington
One of George Hodel’s friends who was “in the know” (and apparently by his own words much more than that?) was surrealist photographer EDMUND TESKE. (His artwork is now prominently displayed in the Getty Museum)
Strange that Edmund Teske and my paths never crossed during the more than three decades we both spent living in the West Hollywood hills of Laurel Canyon and on the streets of Hollywood.
My attention was directed to the surrealist artist/photographer, Edmund Teske some six years after his death and more than a decade into my father’s serial murder investigations.
It was another”happenstance” meeting as documented in Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014).
On the spur of the moment, I decided to go to a luncheon in DTLA which announced the closing of the historic Clifton’s Restaurant, at 7th & Broadway. I went and met with a small group all of whom, like myself, wanted to honor the memory of the famous eatery that served so many servicemen during the WWII years.
I ordered the “Blue Plate Special”, turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes and while enjoying my meal, was approached by the organizer of the event, Steven Lamb, a residential architect from Altadena.
Steve informed me that he had read my published writings on my investigation and was confident that I had correctly identified the killer (my father) and went on to inform me of his independent confirmations and then related the story of Edmund Teske approaching him in front of the Sowden/Hodel residence back in 1978 while he (Lamb) was taking photographs of the structure. Astounded, I asked Steve Lamb if he could fully document the meeting with Teske in a letter, which he did and which I published in the updated 2014 edition of BDA II.
The only mention of the name Teske that I had ever heard came from the former tenant/roomer, Joe Barrett. In a conversation, I had shown the below set of childhood photos taken in the courtyard of our home, which I informed him I believed were taken by our family photographer, Man Ray. Joe immediately corrected me by saying, “No, those pictures were taken by a photographer named Teske, a friend of your dad’s and Man Ray. I know that because I was there when he took them.”
I never gave it another thought until the name resurfaced a decade later coming from the architect, Steve Lamb at the Clifton’s cafeteria luncheon.
Architect Steven Lamb letter received in 2011:
Edmund Teske was an acquaintance of Aline Barnsdall and resided in Studio B residence in Barnsdall Park just a half-mile and a two-minute drive from the Sowden/Hodel residence. Aline Barnsdall’s residence at the park was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, father of Lloyd Wright who designed the Sowden/Hodel residence at 5121 Franklin Avenue, the actual crime location of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short and other L.A. Lone Woman murder victims.
Edmund Teske baseball card in chewing gum wrapper, 1975, just three years before contact with architect/photographer Steve Lamb in front of Sowden/ Hodel residence, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood. This is how Teske would have appeared when in 1978 Teske approached Lamb who was photographing the exterior of the Sowden/Franklin house, and stated out of the blue to Lamb that, “It’s an evil place. Artists, philosophers, accountants and politicians, WE ALL PLAYED THERE AND PAID THERE. Women were tortured for sport there. Murders happened there. It’s an Evil Place.” (SKH Note- This is not hearsay on Teske’s part, but rather in a court of law with Teske sworn under oath, would be considered DIRECT TESTIMONY.)
Rare copy of Edmund Teske 1974 signed catalogue to “Michael Drazmin.”
Artist/Photographer Edmund Teske born in 1911, just four years after George Hodel’s birth, died in 1996, just three years before George Hodel who died in 1999.
In another of the many Down the Rabbit Hole moments in my now twenty-five-year investigation it turns out that Teske, friend to my father George Hodel and Man Ray, who by his (Teske’s) own admissions “played and paid” at the Franklin/Sowden residence with “politicians, artists, and accountants” would have certainly known my father and mother’s paramour (and my future wife to be) Amilda Kiyoko Tachibana (“Kiyo”) during the years 1941-1950 from the many parties at our Franklin home. Further, he would have very likely continued his relationship/friendship with her when he moved to Laurel Canyon and after my divorce from Kiyo in the mid-to-late 1960s. (I was married to Kiyo from 1962-1965 and we bought and lived in film director Tay Garnett’s mansion on Utica Drive in the Canyon during those years.) After my divorce in 1965 Kiyo rented out the separate small houses on our property to THE DOORS, and to Neil Young of the Buffalo Springfied. Edmund Teske during that same time period took numerous photographs of Jim Morrison, so we have zero degrees of separation between Kiyo, Young, Morrison and Teske.
Kiyo circa 1942 in
George Hodel album Time Magazine “Kiyo Astrologer to the Stars” 1969 seen seated with Neil Young
(Author Note- Actually rented by my ex-wife Kiyo, I divorced and gave her the property in 1965)
A major retrospective on Edmund Teske was held at the Los Angeles Getty Museum in June 2004, ironically just a year after the publication of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger (2003) which presented Teske’s statements architect/photographer Steven Lamb as to his (Teske’s) knowledge of tortures and multiple murders occurring at the Hodel/Sowden House in the late 1940s.
Wow- I had forgotten this from the book. The threads running throughout the George Hodel story are simply incredible.
Eliza S:
Yes, very true. Really makes one wonder what exactly Teske’s involvement was with is remark “we played there” to architect Steve Lamb. We know he was a close friend to Man Ray and obviously also to George and we have him photographing us boys at the Franklin House in a familiar casual “shoot.” So many interconnected links.
Steve, unfortunately Teske’s statement “we played there” regarding the Sowden house, (your childhood home!) is a frighteningly true description of what so many of us knew were the scary “pitfalls” one encountered living in a big metropolis……..be it NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, any big coastal cities! Oh for the safety of hometown closeness and camaraderie of a small American town😱! In varying degrees the “murder & mayhem” we experienced in Los Angeles, San Francisco are and probably always were part of all American life! Don’t know any answers on how to avoid the pitfalls everywhere! “Just stay alert” as I always told children & grandchildren! “Follow your gut feelings!” And sometimes that means “call for help, run like hell”!! 😲🌵
Almost any large community, say more than 100,000 people or so, most likely contains a coterie of dangerous, degenerate people who have the money and connections to hide their activities and escape penalties when apprehended. I have heard of them here in Chicago and in my native St. Louis. That’s why you need to be cautious when you move to a new community and are looking for friendship and love, and get to know the place and the people you meet before you get involved. However, young people in Elizabeth Short’s age bracket, their late teens and early 20s, tend to be frenetically social and far too trusting, sadly.
Madi Comfort also used the word “played” to describe her relationship with your parents.
Karen:
Yes, she did. That was in reference to the three of them sharing lovemaking back in 1943-44 at the residence in South Pasadena, “with the very long driveway.” That home is now an upscale BnB.
These Hollywood pedophile & murder rings aren’t conspiracies it seems. I’ve questioned the Hollywood occult rumors, but I think it was and still is very much a part of the scene. The more I learn, the more I can’t deny it. The link to Anton Levey and many in Hollywood is disturbing. A thread of darkness runs through it all. Teske reminds me of a warlock or wizard in his old age. By pointing out the evil that surrounded the house, I have to wonder if he was feeling some remorse as he spoke to Steve? I’d say probably not much or he would’ve confessed and paid the price for his crimes. I’m Catholic so am always thinking about the afterlife & find it hard to understand others who have no guilt for their diabolical deeds.
Another thread that confirms your parents party house on Franklin. Teske knew. Madi knew and Ray knew too. Odd detail: in April, 1965 I met the band Buffalo Springfield when they rented our rehearsal hall at the Hollywood Center Theater on Las Palmas ave. The group first stayed at the Hollywood Center Motel around the corner in Sunset. I became friends with Neil and Steven for a while. I recall Neil moving to an apartment on Orchard street in back of the Chinese theater off Hollywood Blvd and I visited him once at the rustic cabin he rented up in Laurel Canyon. I had no idea at the time who Kiyo was or who you were in relationships to that property. As I went down the hill to get in my car I ran into another musician I had met earlier who was playing with a jazz trio at a small bar at Crescent Heights and Sunset called Sheri’s:. It was John Densmore of the newly formed Doors, who was with his girlfriend. In addition to almost meeting you way back in the mid 1960’s at your old property, I worked at the IHOP on Sunset across from Hollywood high school to pay the bills and I met a lot of the Hollywood division police department’s New Centurions who worked crowd control at the Pancake house on weekends. Since you were in school at LACC at that time, you didn’t moonlight there. That was another missed chance to meet you in the late 1960’s. Flash forward 40 + years and I finally got to meet you after contacting you via a response to your original publication of, “Black Dahlia Avenger.” It was only then that I realized we had this close encounter somewhere in the past of our well spent youth.
Dennis E:
Strange how destiny has a couple ships pass each other in the Fog of Life then after so many voyages, they pull up a dock side by side and the passenger’s get to say “Hi!”, What’s your story, Old Mate?” Glad we got to meet eventually Dennis. Trust you are well and enjoying the warmth and sunshine down there in L.A. Steve