The cement sack found at the Black Dahlia crime scene

Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss
Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder


Many things have been said of Steve Hodel -- some of them fair, some of them not so fair. Because Sarah and I wrote a book that cautiously supports Steve's theory, it might surprise you to know that we often took/take him to task when we didn't/don't agree with his theories or conjecture. The most public examples of this can be found in the conversations between George Hodel's grandson (Joshua Hodel Spafford) and myself, which were posted to this blog in October. Well, Steve is nothing if not persistent and, all things being equal, every once in a while he comes up with something that holds our interest. So, this month we're posting an eight page paper with the short and inspiring title: "George Hodel, Lloyd Wright, the Black Dahlia Murder, and the J. A. Konrad bill for cement work." If the title didn't grab you, here is the concluding sentence: "A document showing that ten sacks of cement were used for cement work that was completed at the home of George Hodel, on January 10th, 1947, five days before the bisected body of Elizabeth Short was discovered next to a bloodstained cement sack, on January 15, 1947, increases the probability that Hodel -- a prime suspect in the murder -- killed Elizabeth Short." We'll leave it to you to decide whether you're interested in everything in between. The link for this paper (George Hodel / Cement Sack) is under the map in the Online Content section of this blog.

Mark Nelson