A Genius for Murder

FROM THE PUBLISHER A Genius for Murder: A Play in Three Acts is a dramatization of 1940s Hollywood Noir. The play is a Hollywood Confidential, based on real people and real events taken from the actual newspapers, secret police files, recorded transcripts and courtroom documents of that day. It centers on a five-year timeline (1945-1950) in the life of Dr. George Hill Hodel, then Head Venereal Disease Control Officer for the Los Angeles Health Department and a “prime suspect” in a series of LA Lone Woman Murders the most infamous being the 1947 torture-surgical-murder of twenty-two-year-old, Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short, Did George Hodel actually commit these sadistic murders? Or, because of his skill as a surgeon, was he just rounded up as “one of the usual suspects?” As a member of the seated jury, you will be asked to weigh the evidence, and then vote your mind at the close of Act III. George Hodel, an LA born native, was a sophisticate and bon vivant extraordinaire. Possessed of a high-genius IQ he was a member of Hollywood’s inner-circle of the rich and famous. His personal friends were an eclectic group of actors, artists, and writers who make up the play’s cast. We meet and party with George’s beautiful wife, Dorero, a screenwriter, recently divorced from George’s longtime friend, famed film-director John Huston. We are introduced to George’s inner-circle of avant garde intimates such as the surreal photographer, Man Ray and his wife and muse, Juliet. We drink and philosophize with writer and fellow Dadaist, Henry Miller, along with George’s confidant, the mysterious German Baron, Ernst von Harringa. In the 1940s, George Hodel was the A-List doctor to Hollywood’s A-List stars as well as LA’s downtown politicos and high-ranking officers on both the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff’s Departments. As owner of the First Street VD Clinic, Dr. Hodel was the go-to-guy for “a girl with a problem” and was known and recognized inside the police department as a “High Jingo,” one who is well connected, and a man not to be messed with. The play, as a historical drama, takes us back to relive and rediscover the noir-underbelly of Los Angeles, as a-City of Angles. Corrupt police and politics ruled the day. City Hall was surrounded by Machiavellian princes all with their long knives drawn. Nothing was as it appeared. Throughout it all, one highly intelligent and powerful man knew the city’s secrets and “how everything fit together” and that knowledge made him extremely dangerous. It also made him UNTOUCHABLE. This Play in Three Acts is based on that time and that man. A man who unquestionably had-A GENIUS FOR MURDER. The play was written by Steve Hodel, the son of Dr. George Hill Hodel. Steve is a retired LAPD homicide detective and the New York Times bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger. (HarperCollins 2006-Skyhorse e-book 2012) His true-crime book became an international bestseller as well as being nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America in the Best Fact category.