A New Taunting Double Entendre “Clew” Linking Dr. George Hodel to the 1947 “Black Dahlia Avenger” Mailings

August 20, 2025
Birch Bay, Washington

On January 28, 1947, some thirteen days after his torture/murder and posing of the body of Elizabeth Short on the vacant lot in Liemert Park, five miles south of Hollywood, the “Black Dahlia Avenger” mailed in a collage, a cut-and-paste letter to the Herald Express newspaper.  It read:

“Go Slow, Man Killer Says, Black Dahlia Case.”

This taunting communication presents yet another of George Hodel’s signature double entendres–a cryptic “clew” ahd homage to his close friend, the surrealist artist Man Ray. 

A Personal Homage to “Man”

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890–1976) in South Philadelphia, Man Ray changed his name in response to early 20th-century American antisemitism. He shortened his nickname “Manny” to simply Man, a name his friends—including my parents, George and Dorothy Hodel—used throughout the 1940s during their close friendship in Hollywood.

So what is George telling us here?

Yes, the killer of the Black Dahlia was a man. But more significantly, he was a Man Ray devotee, carefully staging the body in a Surrealist Minotaur pose as an artistic homage. “Go Slow, Man Killer” becomes yet another layered clew—one of many hidden in plain sight within his crime scene M.O.

Collage as Surrealist Medium—and Murder Signature

Critics have long claimed that the 1947 “Black Dahlia Avenger” postcards and clippings came from different publicity-seeking pranksters. They didn’t. These taunts share a consistent style—each one bearing the hallmarks of Dr. George Hill Hodel, who relished the press attention and stoked it to remain “above the fold” in Los Angeles headlines.

Collage and cut-and-paste were core tools of the surrealist vocabulary. In fact, Man Ray’s debut exhibition at William Copley’s Beverly Hills gallery featured a collage invitation—typifying the kind of visual puns and puzzles embraced by his circle, George included.

Below: Man Ray’s 1916 cut-and-paste collage, “Transmutation (Theatr).”

Man Ray cut-and-paste collage TRANSMUTATION (THEATR)- (1916)

A Hidden Military “Tell” in the Mail

During World War II, U.S. servicemen were allowed to send mail without postage using the “Free Franking” privilege—writing “FREE” in the upper-right corner and listing their name, rank, and military unit at the upper left. This rule, passed by Congress in 1942, applied to letters and postcards alike.

Below: Examples of WW2 postcards using free franking. Bottom right: George Hodel’s “Go Slow” postcard, using the same ‘FREE’ format—showing insider knowledge from his 1946 UNRRA service in China.

Hodel’s command of these postal nuances suggests not only authorship of the mailings, but also reinforces his link to both military identity theater and calculated media manipulation.

Precedent: Georgette Bauerdorf, 1944

In the 1944 unsolved murder of Hollywood Canteen hostess Georgette Bauerdorf, George Hodel again surfaced under a false military guise. An anonymous note to the press and police claimed:

“…Sometime after Oct. 11, the one who murdered Georgette Bauerdorf will appear at the Hollywood Canteen. He will be in uniform. Since he committed the murder he has been in action on Okinawa. The murder…was divine retribution. Let the Los Angeles police arrest the murderer—if they can.”

The signature flourishes are unmistakable—just as they would reappear three years later in the Dahlia taunts.

Conclusion

The “Go Slow” postcard is yet another nail in the evidentiary coffin. More than a lurid newspaper tease, it’s a calculated act of artistic self-reference—a blending of real-world violence and surrealist tribute. In George Hodel’s coded universe, even his postage tells a story.

Stay tuned. More clews await decoding.

Man Ray at his Villa Elaine residence apartment 1946 just two miles from his good friend George Hodel’s Sowden/Franklin House in Hollywood.