Nathan Leopold (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)
Richard Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936),
two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924 kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago. They committed the murder – characterized at the time as "the crime of the century" – as a demonstration of their ostensible intellectual superiority, which, they thought, enabled them to carry out a
"perfect crime" and absolve them of responsibility for their actions.
The Franks murder has been the inspiration for several dramatic works,
THE LEAST KNOW VICTIM OF THE MANSON FAMILY MURDERS ON CIELO DRIVE. MY STORY WILL EXAMINE OF HOW AN UNASUMING KID BECAME PART OF HOLLYWOOD'S DARK HISTORY.
known posthumously as "the Black Dahlia", was an American woman who was found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her case became highly publicized due to the graphic nature of the crime, which entailed her corpse having been mutilated and severed at the waist.
A native of Boston, Short had spent her early life in Massachusetts and Florida before relocating to California, where her father lived. It is commonly held that Short was an aspiring actress, though she had no known acting credits or jobs during her time in Los Angeles. She would acquire the nickname of the Black Dahlia posthumously, as newspapers of the period often nicknamed particularly lurid crimes; the term may have originated from a film noir murder mystery, The Blue Dahlia, released in April 1946. After the January 15, 1947 discovery of her body, the Los Angeles Police Department began an extensive investigation that produced over 150 suspects, but yielded no arrests.
Short's unsolved murder and the details surrounding it have had a lasting cultural intrigue, generating various theories and public speculation. Her life and death have been the basis of numerous books and films, and her murder is frequently cited as one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history, as well as one of the oldest unsolved cases in Los Angeles County.
It has likewise been credited by historians as one of the first major crimes in post-World War II America to capture national attention.
On the morning of January 15, 1947, Short's naked body was found severed in two pieces on a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. At the time, the neighborhood was largely undeveloped. Local resident Betty Bersinger discovered the body at approximately 10:00 a.m. while she was walking with her three-year-old daughter.Bersinger initially thought she had found a discarded store mannequin.
When she realized it was a corpse, she rushed to a nearby house and telephoned the police.
Short's severely mutilated body was completely severed at the waist and drained entirely of blood, leaving its skin a pallid white.
Medical examiners determined that she had been dead for around ten hours prior to the discovery, leaving her time of death either sometime during the evening of January 14, or the early morning hours of January 15.The body obviously had been washed by the killer.
Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, creating an effect known as the "Glasgow smile.”Short had several cuts on her thigh and breasts, where entire portions of flesh had been sliced away.
The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper, and her intestines had been tucked neatly beneath her buttocks. The corpse had been "posed," with her hands over her head, her elbows bent at right angles, and her legs spread apart.
Upon the discovery, a crowd of both passersby and reporters began to gather; Los Angeles Herald-Express reporter Aggie Underwood was among the first to arrive at the scene, and took several photos of the corpse and crime scene.Near the body, detectives located a heel print on the ground amid the tire tracks, and a cement sack containing watery blood was also found nearby.
Another widely circulated rumor (sometimes used to counter claims that Short was a prostitute) holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of a congenital defect that resulted in "infantile genitalia.”Los Angeles County district attorney's files state that the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had engaged in sex,including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case; FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's alleged lovers.Short's autopsy itself, which was reprinted in full in Michael Newton's 2009 book The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, notes that her uterus was "small"; however, no other information in the autopsy is provided that would suggest her reproductive organs were anything other than anatomically normal.The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what had been claimed prior to and following her death.
Another rumor—that Short was a lesbian—has often circulated; according to John Gilmore, this rumor began after Herald-Express reporter Bevo Means was told by the deputy coroner that Short "wasn't having sex with men" due to her purportedly "small" genitalia.
GEORGE HODEL
(October 10, 1907 – May 16, 1999)
first came under suspicion for murder in 1945, following the death of his secretary Ruth Spaulding by a drug overdose. He was suspected of having murdered her in order to cover up his financial fraud, such as billing patients for tests that were never performed. At about this time, Hodel moved to China where he had earlier worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. These events first came to public attention in 2004.
In January 1947, the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in an empty lot in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Short had suffered gruesome mutilation, notably her body being cut in half at the waist. The case earned major publicity and prompted one of the largest investigations in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. The case was never solved. However, authorities at the time interviewed hundreds and focused on about 25 suspects, one of whom was George Hill Hodel, Jr.
Hodel came to police attention as a suspect for the Elizabeth Short murder in 1949 after the sexual abuse allegations and trial, when known or suspected sex criminals were investigated. Hodel's medical degree also aroused suspicion, given the hypothesis that whomever bisected Short's body had some degree of surgical skill. The full details of the investigation came to light only in 2004, when a "George Hodel- Black Dahlia File" was discovered in the vault at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office. The file revealed that in 1950, Hodel was the prime suspect of the Dahlia murder. His private Hollywood residence was electronically bugged by an 18-man DA/LAPD Task Force during the period 18 February to 27 March 1950. The transcripts of conversations revealed Hodel's references to performing illegal abortions, giving payoffs to law enforcement officials, and to his possible involvement in the deaths of his secretary and Elizabeth Short. The DA tapes recorded him saying:
"Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They can't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary."
In October 1949, George Hodel's name was mentioned in a formal written report to the GJ as one of five prime suspects, but none of the named suspects were submitted to the 1949 Grand Jury for consideration for indictment as the investigation was "ongoing." By April 1950, Lt. Jemison had gathered enough evidence to charge Dr. Hodel and was about to arrest him for the Short murder, when Hodel again fled the United States. He lived in Asia until 1990.
After Hodel died in 1999, his son Steve, a former LAPDhomicidedetective, wanted to learn more about his father. In the process he uncovered information that led him to believe his father was Elizabeth Short's killer. This investigation began with the discovery of a photo album owned by George Hodel, which contained a portrait of a dark-haired young woman who Steve Hodel believed was Elizabeth Short. During Steve Hodel's investigation, he learned that his father may have killed more than once. Steve Hodel also suspected his father of being the Lipstick Killer of the 1940s and the Zodiac Killer of the 1960s, and may have been responsible for other murders.
Hodel had purchased the famous Sowden House in Hollywood, living there from 1945 to 1950. The structure, built in 1926 by Lloyd Wright (son of the noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright), is now a registered Los Angeles Historic Landmark. Based on information developed in 2010-2014 (physical evidence, cement sacks) used to transport the body from the residence to the vacant lot where Elizabeth Short's body was found, some researchersargue that Sowden House is where Short was slain and her body surgically bisected. A police cadaver dog and subsequent soil analysis tests conducted in 2014 by forensic anthropologist, Dr. Arpad Vass confirmed that soil samples from the rear of the residence were "specific for human remains." The segment was filmed for the television program "Ghost Hunters" but did not air. It was instead made available via the show's website.
Laird Cregar, a fan of the original novel, encouraged 20th Century Fox to buy the film rights. Fox relented, but wanted to recreate the success they had enjoyed with The Lodger the previous year and made several changes to the story, including the main character's personality and the setting. Cregar, George Sanders and John Brahm, who had all worked together in The Lodger, were announced as working on the film.
Cregar, who had ambitions of being a leading man and was worried that he would always be cast as a villain, refused the role and was put on suspension. Glenn Langan was announced as his replacement.
However, Cregar realized he could use his romantic scenes with Linda Darnell and Faye Marlowe to his advantage in order to change his public image into a more romantic one. He thus accepted the role, but began a radical crash diet to give his character more physical appeal.
The film had to be shot entirely in sequence so as to be consistent with Cregar's real life weight loss.
This frustrated director John Brahm, who frequently clashed with Cregar over how the film should be handled. Cregar, a real-life musician, was eager to perform the musical pieces on his own; however, Brahm insisted that Cregar mime. Cregar used amphetamines to aid his rapid weight loss which led to erratic behavior on his part. Brahm lost patience with Cregar and forced the entire cast and crew to sign a document stating they were on Brahm's side and not Cregar's in order to humiliate him into submission.
When the filming had ended, Cregar told Brahm: "Well, I think we've worked together long enough to know we never want to work together again."
George Sanders also brought complications. Having been put on suspension the previous year for refusing to perform in The Undying Monster, George accepted the role of Dr. Allan Middleton. However, he was unhappy with his script, particularly the final line in the film, which required him to justify the death of George Harvey Bone by saying, "He's better off this way." When shooting the scene, which was very expensive to film, George repeatedly refused to say the line. He later got into an altercation with the film's producer, Robert Bassler, which ended in George punching Bassler. The line was later changed to, "It's better this way."
American composer Stephen Sondheim has cited Herrmann's score for Hangover Square as a major influence on his musical Sweeney Todd
Born in Hawaii, Lockin was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He began dancing professionally at area fairs at the age of eight. His act co-starred Neal Reynolds, an African American boy with whom he would tap dance, tell jokes, pantomime, and do impressions of famous people.
After graduation, he immediately began working as a professional actor and dancer.
He had an early, and uncredited, role as a young farm boy in the 1962 film version of Gypsy.
He appeared in the play Morning Sun in October 1963 with Patricia Neway and Bert Convy, but it closed after nine performances. He made his Broadway debut on April 8, 1964, in West Side Story in New York City, and appeared as an actor and dancer in a regional production of Take Me Along. Later that year, he was cast in a starring role in the musical Tom Sawyer, which played at the St. Louis Municipal Opera.
He replaced Jerry Dodge in the role of Barnaby Tucker in Hello, Dolly! in the winter of 1965, and went across the United States on six traveling productions with several actresses playing Dolly Levi, including Betty Grable, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Dorothy Lamour and Anne Russell. He remained in the role for the movie version of Hello, Dolly!, and when filming for that ended, continued the role in the Broadway version of Hello, Dolly!, where he worked with both Ethel Merman and Phyllis Diller until it closed on Dec. 27, 1970.
He had mixed feelings about Carol Channing as Dolly, about whom he once said: "Carol Channing is rather disconcerting. You'll notice her looking at you with those big baby-stare eyes. Then eventually it dawns on you that the person behind those eyes is, in show business terms, about 200 years old."
He also later expressed unhappiness with the way audiences reacted to Merman in the role of Dolly Levi, and how this changed the show. "She wasn't Dolly up there, she was Ethel Merman in Dolly clothes. ... The audiences came, of course; they came to see the Ethel Merman version. But it wasn't Hello, Dolly! any more, it was hershow. ... Channing or Streisand, they were part of a cast, trying to act out a character. But with Ethel Merman—and not just her fault, with the audience, she was such an institution—the rest of us felt like just her chorus boys or her chorus line."
In 1967, he was cast in a minor role in the film The Graduate, but was contractually bound to continue in a regional production of Hello, Dolly! in Las Vegas, Nevada, and could not take the job.
In 1967, Lockin married dancer Kathy Haas, who was a bit-part dancer in a production of Hello, Dolly! in San Francisco. Their son, Jeremy Daniel Lockin, was born in 1969. The couple divorced in late 1969.
Lockin was cast in the 1969 film version of Hello, Dolly! on the basis of his dancing. He underwent 13 screen tests before he got the part. He later said that doing the film was "the dream of my life".
He felt a strong need to compete with the film's director, legendary dancer Gene Kelly. At one point during filming, he did a series of four "butterflies" (a cartwheel in which a person does not put their hands on the ground) while Kelly looked on; Kelly suggested an improvement and, to demonstrate, leaped into six technically superior butterflies of his own. Lockin, chastened, reportedly sulked for three days.
After his divorce, Lockin went back on tour with Hello Dolly!, continuing his role as Barnaby. He stayed with the tour until it ended; at which point, with his career in decline due to substance abuse issues, Lockin moved into his mother's apartment in Anaheim. Around 1974, Lockin began assisting his mother in running the Jean Lockin Dance Studio.
The studio closed in early 1977, and Lockin began teaching at another dance studio.
On the night of August 21, 1977, Lockin went to a gay bar, (the Frat House?) in Garden Grove, California. He left the bar with a slight, 34-year-old unemployed medical clerk, Charles Leslie Hopkins (who already had a police record, and was on probation at the time.) Several hours later, Hopkins called police to say that a man had entered his apartment and tried to rob him. Upon arrival, police found Lockin's body on the floor of Hopkin's apartment. He had been stabbed 100 times, and bled to death. His body had also been mutilated after death. Hopkins claimed he had no idea how the dead body got in his apartment.
Police found a book of pornographic pictures in Hopkins' apartment which showed men being tortured during sexual orgies. Prosecutors initially intended to seek a first degree murderconviction, and to use the book to prove that Hopkins had planned the murder. Hopkins' trial began in May 1978, but endured a two-month delay after the prosecutor was injured in an unrelated accident.
On July 31, the trial court ruled the pornographic book inadmissible as evidence.
On August 8, the trial court judge held that the death penalty could not be applied to Hopkins due to lack of evidence of premeditation.
On September 28, 1978, Hopkins was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to a three-year prison term.
Since the court was permitted to consider suppressed evidence if the evidence was not seized merely to obtain a lengthier prison sentence and it did not "shock the conscience of the court," the trial judge increased Hopkins' sentence from the usual three years to four years. Prosecutors said that with good behavior, Hopkins would be released in two years (considering time served).
Charles Leslie Hopkins died an usually slow and painful death from cancer; however, if you read any of his obituaries online, or his family’s “memorial tributes,” you will sadly see that there is NO mention of his murder of Danny, the brutal nature of the savage killing, or the fact that Hopkins was gay. Hopkins left OC after the murder, he got married TO A WOMAN, and they had 5 kids together and 4 step kids.”
