The Los Angles mansion where the notorious Black Dahlia murder was allegedly committed has been sold for $4.7million.
The Mayan Revival Sowden House was once owned by Dr George Hodel, a prime suspect in the killing of a budding actress named Elizabeth Short in 1947.
Short met a gruesome end when she was tied up, raped, stabbed numerous times, had a joker-style smile cut into her face and her stomach filled with feces – before being finally murdered and cut in half.
Her death fascinated America and was never solved – but decades later wealthy doctor George Hodel’s son claimed his father killed Short in the basement of his LA home.
Short’s body was found dumped on wasteland but in 2014 cadaver dogs signalled that a death had occurred at Hodel’s Los Feliz home and forensic analysts found human remains in the garden.
The home has now been bought by Dan Goldfarb, founder of Canna-Pet, which makes non-psychoactive cannabis supplements for animals. He told the LA Times he plans to make the property into a ‘cannabis oasis’.
Sold: The Mayan Revival Sowden House has been bought for $4.7million. Pictured: The courtyard of the four-bedroom house complete with a pool
The Mayan Revival Sowden House was once owned by Dr George Hodel, a prime suspect in the brutal killing of a young woman named Elizabeth Short, which became known as the Black Dahlia murder. Pictured: The room that leads on to the courtyard
After Hodel’s death in 1999, his son Steve, a Los Angeles homicide detective, accused him of killing Short in the basement of the house before dumping her body in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles where it was discovered. Pictured: The entrance to the house
A police cadaver dog smelled human remains around the back of the house in 2014. Soil tests then confirmed that samples from the rear of the house were ‘specific for human remains.’ Pictured: The living room
Although he was a suspect at the time, Hodel was never charged and the mystery remains unsolved. Pictured: The bedroom
The notorious Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles in 1947 is arguably the most gruesome of America’s cold cases ever.
The body of aspiring starlet Elizabeth Short was found beside a sidewalk in a vacant lot in a southern Los Angeles suburb and shocked even the most hardened newspaper crime reporters.
The woman had been strung up by the wrists, her face and head severely beaten and a satanic smile cut into her face with deep cuts extending out from the corners of her mouth.
The 22-year-old had been viciously mutilated, with the trunk of her body completely severed, the anus had abrasions from the insertion of a foreign object and her stomach was filled with feces.
Short’s murder has remained unsolved for decades, although there was a break through in late 1948 when the killer was seduced out of hiding and admitted to knowing the two things about the crime that were never revealed to the public.
But the case was never solved by the LAPD because of a cover-up by the Homicide Division and lingering fears for years of reprisal by the department.
Elizabeth Short, 22, was famously murdered in 1947 in Los Angeles and her case has never been solved. The aspiring actress was found strewn beside a sidewalk, gruesomely mutilated
The case gained national attention and Short was quickly dubbed the Black Dahlia. She was found with her torso chopped in half, drained of blood and a joker smile carved into her face. Pictured: Short’s body at the crime scene
Pictured: Two police officers at the scene of the grizzly murder which shocked America to the core in 1947
Short had been strung up by the wrists, her face and head severely beaten and a satanic smile cut into her face with deep cuts extending out from the corners of her mouth (pictured)
Now Hodel’s former home, which has been used in the film The Aviator and TV show America’s Next Top Model, has been bought after round nine months on the market.
The Los Feliz mansion, which was listed by Douglas Elliman, was built in 1927 by Lloyd Wright for painted John Sowden with the interior of the house based around a central courtyard.
Completely renovated, the home now accommodates modern living while still preserving the architect’s masterwork.
There are also additional maid’s quarters, a detached office and five bathrooms at the four bedroom home. The home has been listed on and off since 2013.
Short’s murder captivated the nation. Her injuries ‘suggested necrophilia and a fetishism with knives’.
‘They were the marks of a sadistic lust murderer and it was speculated that the killer either had medical training or experience with handling corpses in a mortuary and a manifest fascination with death’, writes Piu Eatwell, a historical researcher and legal sleuth.
The young woman’s body had multiple deep lacerations to the face and blows to the head that suggested they were delivered while the victim was still alive and possibly what killed her.
Now Hodel’s former home, which has been used in the film The Aviator and TV show America’s Next Top Model, has been bought after round nine months on the market
The new owner is Dan Goldfarb, founder of Canna-Pet, which makes non-psychoactive cannabis supplements for animals. He told the LA Times he plans to make the property into a ‘cannabis oasis’
The Los Feliz mansion, which was listed by Douglas Elliman, was built in 1927 by Lloyd Wright for painted John Sowden with the interior of the house based around a central courtyard
The house boasts additional maid’s quarters, a detached office and five bathrooms at the four bedroom home. The home has been listed on and off since 2013
Completely renovated, the home now accommodates modern living while still preserving the architect’s masterwork
The notorious Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles in 1947 is arguably the most gruesome of America’s cold cases ever. Pictured: One of the bathrooms in the house
House of murder: The 22-year-old had been viciously mutilated, with the trunk of her body completely severed, the anus had abrasions from the insertion of a foreign object and her stomach was filled with feces
Short’s murder captivated the nation. Her injuries ‘suggested necrophilia and a fetishism with knives’. Pictured: The bathroom
John Sowden House located in the Los Feliz neighbourhood of California is pictured here in 1940 before the murder took place
The trunk of her body had been completely severed by an incision cutting through the intestine exposing the organs of the abdomen and lacerating the intestines and both kidneys.
There was a gaping cut extending down from the naval to just above the pubis, multiple lacerations in the skin of the hip and an irregular piece of flesh had been removed from in front of her left thigh.
A square of tissue had been cut out from the right breast.Her stomach was filled with feces and the corpse completely cleaned and drained of blood.
As the case rose in prominence and no legitimate suspect on hand, detectives dived into the depths of the victim’s life in order to track down her elusive killer.
Elizabeth Short, called ‘Beth’, was the third of five girls. She was raised by her mother, Phoebe, in Medford, Massachusetts, a working class Boston suburb. Her father feigned suicide only to resurface years later.
‘She wanted to be someone famous. She had stars in her eyes, dreams rather than plans. I think of her as a very beautiful but very private person, with a sadness about her. A void, something missing’, her mother, Phoebe recalled.
Pictured: Notes sent to newspapers from people claiming to be the killer
Short was identified by her fingerprints as she was once arrested in September 1943 for underage drinking with soldiers in a Santa Barbara restaurant
The movie industry in Southern California promised the golden life and stimulated a wave of women to seek their fame and fortune in the movies and Tinseltown. Pictured: Short’s certificate of death
Robert ‘Red’ Manley identifies Short’s purse in the Black Dahlia murder case. Manley, a salesman and acquaintance of Short, was one of the last people to be seen with her
Short suffered from an acute bronchial condition and she moved around between Florida, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Chicago – in search of a better climate for her health. Pictured: Her body
Short suffered from an acute bronchial condition and she moved around between Florida, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Chicago – in search of a better climate for her health.
She once worked as a clerk at the U.S. Army’s Camp Cooke in Lompoc, California, a small town north of Santa Barbara and won a ‘Cutie of the Week’ contest.
Her former boss said ‘she was one of the loveliest girls I have ever seen – and the most shy’. She suddenly left the camp after being assaulted by a sergeant at the Army base.
She had been arrested in September 1943 for underage drinking with soldiers in a Santa Barbara restaurant. The fingerprints filed by the Santa Barbara police were what identified her body.
Short’s body was discovered one morning in the wet morning grass in a vacant lot in a south LA neighborhood – and a room in the Aster Motel in downtown Los Angeles was found to be covered in blood and human feces. It was Short’s death chamber.
Rumors circulated that Short was a female pervert and had indulged in ‘unnatural intimacies’ with other women. There were unsubstantiated sightings at gay bars.
Folksinger Woody Guthrie, once indicted by New York authorities for sending obscene letters in the mail, was considered a suspect in the ensuing hysteria and possibly capable of such a heinous crime a suspect in the ensuing hysteria until it was discovered he wasn’t in LA at the time of the murder.
Over 500 crackpots came forward confessing to the murder in exchange for a free meal and a place to stay for the night from authorities.
Funeral rites held for Short on January 25, 1947. Her mother said: ‘She wanted to be someone famous. She had stars in her eyes, dreams rather than plans. I think of her as a very beautiful but very private person, with a sadness about her. A void, something missing’