Ghost Adventures – Black Dahlia House – S12E01

To kick off the new season, Zak and the gang delve into the mystery of the Black Dahlia and head to the location where the murder of Elizabeth Short may have taken place. They’re at the home of George Hodel, suspected murderer of Elizabeth and a doctor who may be linked to other murders.

As a quick recap, Elizabeth Short was murdered, disfigured and then displayed as a public spectacle. There was no true motivation for the murder with no one actually charged for the crime. There were many suspects, Hodel being one of them, but he was never officially charged as he fled the country. Technically, the murder is unsolved although his son Steven Hodel, a police officer, is firmly convinced his father committed the murder of Short as well as other women. He has written books on the subject and currently owns the property believed to be the murder site.

To get a little background, the team visits a couple of locations Elizabeth Short visited in her final days. They visit with Kim Cooper who has researched the Black Dahlia and now gives tours. She takes them to the Figueroa Hotel where she stayed as well as the bus station where some of her personal belongings, including many letters she never posted were kept. These are mentioned as some of the last places Elizabeth was seen.

After literally soaking up some of the energy of the area, they head back to the Hodel house to conduct a seance with Patti Negri and Fauna Hodel. It’s a bit odd that Zak is fine with a seance but it so against the Ouija board. But during the event, Zak asks questions, holds up pictures of George Hodel and has Billy work the computer to try and record responses.

During their conversation the word "malicious" comes up several times as well as the word "penny" which they assume to be the name of someone, perhaps a victim. Amidst the feelings of dark energy, Zak sees a ball of light moving around. Billy also claims to not feel well.

With the seance done, they head down to the basement where a lot of bad energy has been felt. Zak gets quite a scare when he hears a voice in his ear. They also have Billy go down to the basement wearing just an IR camera. This means he’s not looking through the lens and will have to feel his way around. Things turn a bit ugly as he becomes full of aggression and throws some violent outbursts at the George Hodel. A bit out of character for Billy.

The final part of the investigation is to head upstairs to the bathroom area where it is believed  Elizabeth was not only murdered, but dismembered. Her body was actually severed in half and this could be where it happened.

Using the modified Kinect camera, Zak believes he sees someone moving, possibly working on a body and then moving to a sink to wash it’s hands. He feels they are seeing George Hodel carrying out his deeds on another victim.

Unfortunately, they don’t make contact with Elizabeth, nor is there evidence to suggest the energy of George Hodel is within the house. As mentioned, he fled the country, possibly Asia, but his whereabouts is unknown. Interestingly, if you look up George Hodel, some have tried to link him to the Torso Murders and as well as the Zodiac killings. Those might be a bit of a stretch, but George got a pretty nasty reputation if he’s being linked to these other crimes.

I will have to say there were several embarrassingly comical pieces to this investigation. Again, the fact Zak is on board with a seance, but says a piece of cardboard known as the Ouija is a portal to the demonic is annoying. And at that same seance, Patti acts like she’s drunk out of her gourd and Billy has taken up the mantle of saying he feels dark energy and is going to throw up. Not to mention his little outburst down in the basement. Zak says that was caused by Billy touching the (tainted) ground. Pretty hard to buy into that. Sorry, but that felt staged. And finally, Zak coming unglued because of a voice in his ear? Come on, how many times have we seen this now? They all seem to be playing into the "dark energy" pretty handily these days.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Adventures – Museum of the Mountain West – S15E10
• Ghost Adventures – Prospect Place
• Ghost Adventures – Leslies Family Tree Restaurant – S12E07
• Ghost Adventures – Hotel Leger – S16E05
• Ghost Adventures – Tuolumne Hospital – S08E03
• Ghost Adventures – Kennedy Mine – S16E03
• Ghost Adventures – Freak Show Murder House – S14E02
• Ghost Adventures – The Haunted Museum (Old Wengert Mansion) – S12E13
• Ghost Adventures – Witches in Magna – S14E09
• Ghost Adventures – George Washington Ghost – S09E03