Irish Sun Journalist Emma Parry Gets It Right: An In-Depth Look at the Black Dahlia–Zodiac Investigation

September 13, 2026
Birch Bay, Washington

The Irish Sun, October 29, 2024. Senior Reporter Emma Parry examines Steve Hodel’s evidence connecting the Black Dahlia Avenger and Zodiac crimes.

I recently came across an October 29, 2024 article in The Irish Sun that I somehow missed when it was originally published.

Written by senior reporter Emma Parry, the article is titled, “Chilling Zodiac Killer & Black Dahlia Similarities ‘Prove They Were Same Man’—But Not Suspect New Netflix Doc Names.”

The story appeared during renewed public interest in Arthur Leigh Allen following the Netflix documentary This Is the Zodiac Speaking. Rather than simply repeating the familiar Allen narrative, Parry took the time to examine my twenty-seven-year investigation identifying Dr. George Hill Hodel as both the Black Dahlia Avenger and the Zodiac serial killer.

What impressed me most was the depth of her reporting.

The Black Dahlia–Zodiac investigation cannot be accurately summarized through a single handwriting comparison, photograph, cipher, or circumstantial connection. It is a cumulative case. Parry clearly did her homework and presented many of its essential elements, including the thirty-two separate crime signatures linking the two purportedly unrelated murder series.

Among the parallels she addressed were the killer’s self-created public identities; his manipulation of the press; taunting letters to police and newspapers; deliberate misspellings and disguised handwriting; cut-and-paste communications; threats of additional murders; excessive postage; word games and puns; crime-scene messages; mailed property belonging to victims; and matching symbolic, artistic, and biographical connections.

She also included the highly unusual use of the signatory “a friend” by both the Black Dahlia Avenger and Zodiac, as well as the February 14 anniversary connection to the 1948 murder of Gladys Kern.

There are few journalists who take the time—or are given the space—to examine this investigation beyond its most sensational surface details. Emma Parry did both. Her article provides one of the clearest and most comprehensive journalistic summaries of the Black Dahlia–Zodiac evidence that I have seen.

My belated but sincere thanks to Emma Parry and The Irish Sun for giving the investigation a fair, accurate, and well-researched presentation.

Read Emma Parry’s complete article here:
https://www.thesun.ie/news/14094469/zodiac-killer-black-dahlia-george-hodel-arthur-leigh-allen/

—Det.III Steve Hodel (ret.)
LAPD Hollywood Homicide
Author, Black Dahlia Avenger and Most Evil I and II

UPDATE—September 13, 2026: Emma Parry has kindly reminded me that she published two separate articles examining my Black Dahlia–Zodiac investigation. Her earlier October 24, 2024 report provides a detailed overview of the evidence identifying Dr. George Hill Hodel as both killers and addresses my continuing request for law enforcement to conduct a DNA comparison.

Read Emma Parry’s companion article:
I Can Prove My Father Was the Zodiac & Black Dahlia Killer Beyond Reasonable Doubt—Now Cops Need to Test His DNA