Ruth, Marion and Florence – Not “Suicide” It Was Murder (Part 1 of 3)

September 22, 2025
Birch Bay, Washington
(Welcome Fall Equinox)

Introducing my new Research Assistant, Dorero

Many of you know that my mother, Dorothy “Dorero” Huston Hodel, was a brilliant, compassionate woman who shaped me and my brothers’ early lives. In her honor, I’ve named my new research assistant “Dorero.”

Rima and I now have a partner in the work — Dorero is my AI research and creative assistant, helping me reconstruct crime scenes, build maps, format documents, and create the noir-style sketches you’ll see in this series.

One of Dorero’s greatest strengths is her ability to quickly reference and cross-check information across my nine published true crime books. That capacity to “speed read” past investigations, pull out names, dates, and facts, and bring them into the present makes her an invaluable part of my ongoing research.

Think of Dorero, alongside Rima, as my third set of eyes and ears — a collaborator who helps me bring these cases to life for you. Together, as a threesome, we’ll continue exploring the truth behind Los Angeles’ most haunting unsolved crimes.

Meet our new team member-“Dorero”-

Dorero

Steve and Rima

Ruth, Marion, and Florence – Part 1 of 3

Not “Suicide” – It was Murder

In the early to mid-1940s, Dr. George Hill Hodel was Chief of L.A. County Health Department’s Social Hygiene Division (the so-called V.D. Czar) and Director of his own private First Street Clinic in downtown Los Angeles. At that time, he employed three women: Ruth Spaulding and Marion Herwood Keyes as secretaries at his First Street Clinic, and Florence Feinfield, an epidemiologist, at the L.A. County Health office in Chinatown.

Florence Feinfield

Florence Feinfield (1920–2016)

Initially referred to as Florence X in my investigation, she contacted the Los Angeles Times in 2004 requesting I reach out regarding George Hodel’s then-unknown Jane Doe secretary who had overdosed. She identified her as Ruth Spaulding and provided critical background.

• Close friends with Ruth Spaulding and Marion Herwood Keyes.

• Described Ruth as “tall and slender” and Marion as “exceptionally beautiful.”

• Ruth was “a kind person with an understanding nature” and wanted to be a writer.

• Last saw Ruth in April 1944 in San Francisco.

• After Ruth’s death in 1945, phoned Hodel but was placed on hold 45 minutes, never got through.

• Met Ruth’s sister, who suspiciously asked: “What was going on there?”

• Unaware of Ruth’s affair with Hodel until later, suspected it began after 1943.

• Attended Hodel’s gatherings but “did not fit in.”

• Remembered Hodel saying he wanted to “father a child of every nationality.”

• Hodel threw her a generous farewell party in 1943.

• Married to Dr. Arthur Feinfield for 71 years; died 2016, age 96.

George Hodel and Florence Feinfield’s L.A. County Health Office
Chinatown seen in the distance, just a chopstick away

Marion Herwood Keyes IMDB

Marion Herwood Keyes (1904–2009)

• Secretary to George Hodel alongside Ruth at the First Street Clinic.

• Close friend of Ruth and Florence; attended Hodel’s parties.

• Described as “exceptionally beautiful” by Florence.

• Later became a Hollywood costume designer with credits including Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Clock (1945), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

• After leaving, Florence, and Ruth and Dr. George Hodel and the First Street Clinic in the early 1940s, she became secretary to director Vincente Minnelli, known as his “unkissed fiancée.”

• Lived to 105; died in Sequim, Washington in 2009.

• Her long life and career stand in stark contrast to her good friend Ruth’s murder.

Ruth Spaulding
(HS photo 1934)

Ruth Spaulding (1918–1945)

• Secretary and one-time lover to George Hodel at the First Street VD Clinic.

• Close friend of Florence and Marion.

• Described by Florence as tall, slender, kind, and driven to be a writer.

• Last seen by Florence in April 1944 during a San Francisco visit.

• Died May 1945 at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital; coroner listed suicide by barbital overdose.

Evening Herald May 18, 1945

“Ruth Spaulding, 25, of 1206 West 2nd St., died
last night in Georgia Street Receiving Hospital from
an oversoe of sleeping stablets police said.”

• Dorothy Hodel called by George Hodel to Ruth Spaulding’s apartment and given papers written by Rth believed to allege and cocument criminal misconduct committed by George Hodel.  George ordered Dorothy “to take the papers home and to burn Ruth’s papers without reading them.” Dorothy complied, informing her stepdaughter, Tamar Hodel, “Ruth was still alive and he could have saived her.”

• 1950 surveillance tapes: George Hodel said, “Put a pillow over her head… Expired at 12:39… Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary.”

• March 2, 1950: DA Lt. Jemison’s notes planned reinvestigation into Ruth’s death; he was later removed from the case and ordered to “return all the Hodel surveillance recordings and files to LAPD, Chief Thad Brown and to never be involved in any future Hodel related investigation.”

#4-“All Witnesses In re: Ruth’s Death-Sec to Hodel”

This concludes Part I of a three-part series.  “Next, in Part II, we’ll follow a new clew ‘Two Doors Down,’ where George Hodel’s neighbors weren’t just close by — they were convenient bedfellows in payoff and protection.”