Georgette Bauerdorf was born on May 6, 1924, named after her father George, a wealthy oil man. Georgette grew up as an heiress, and received all that came with the title, a fancy education and world travel. Spending her early years in New York, her family moved to Los Angeles for a time after her mother died when she was 9-years-old.
After Highschool, her family moved back to NY and Georgette stayed behind, set up by her father in the luxurious El Palacio Apartments in West Hollywood
El Palacio Apartments in the 1940's
El Palacio Today
Georgette was known as a patriot, and as the world was at war during this time period, Georgette bestowed her kindness and wealth on every serviceman she encountered. She would take them around town, buy them meals, pick up anyone hitchhiking in their military uniform, and always opened her spacious apartment to let men use her apartment as a place to seek refuge. It was said that she gave a numerous and unkown number of keys to her apartment to several men who were welcome to come and go as they pleased.
Another avenue Georgette found to serve her country was through the infamous Hollywood Canteen, where she worked among Hollywoods starlights as a Junoir Hostess. Georgettes duties at the Canteen included being availabe as a dance partner and to mingle and provide company for the servicemen who were on leave or waiting to ship off overseas.
The night Georgette was murdered, she worked a shift at the Canteen with her best friend June Zeigler. Before they went in, Georgette told June she was nervous and asked June to sleep over that night. June brushed it off and told Georgette she was just excited as she would be flying to El Paso, Texas the next day to see her boyfriend, Jerry Brown, a service man she met at the Canteen months prior. They went in for their shift, and Georgette danced the night away. After Georgette was murdered and police were looking for suspects, June told them about a man who danced the Jitterbug and aggressively tried cutting in with Georgette for dances all night. This man was Cosmo Volpe.
Georgette clocked out at 11:30pm to head home, where she was wating from a call from her boyfriend Jerry about her trip the following day. As Georgette pulled out of the Canteen, she spotted a man in a miliarty uniform, Gordon Aadland, and stopped to offer him a ride. He later told Law Enforcement he was heading to the Clover Club to meet up with his brother.
Gordon was the last known person to see Georgette alive
The next morning, Lulu and Fred Attwood, housecleaners for the El Palacio residents went to Georgettes apartment, when the noticed the front door was ajar. They heard water running upstairs and found Georgette floating in the bathtub. There was also blood found on the carpet, located in near the doorway of Georgettes room and the bathroom.
Here is the photo we talked about. What do you make of it?
The interior of Georgettes Apartment
Investigators who responded to Georgettes Apartment learned that the light fixture outside of Georgettes Apartment door was unscrewed about two full turns, making it in operable. They believe that the killer might have done this to make it so that Georgette couldn't see who was knocking at her door, and the pushed their way into the apartment when she opened to see who it was.
Here is an example of one the nearby chairs being used to reach the light fixture, if the assalant wasn't tall enought to reach the approximately 8 foot high lightbulb.
Among other evidence found was the cloth that was found shoved down Georgettes throat, fingerprints from the light bulb, Georgettes 'little red book', and Georgettes car found 10 miles away, and out of gas.
Notice the damage to the left fender and the grill
Just before the one year aniversary of Georgettes murder, a letter address to the Police Department was found with what appeared to be blood on it.
To learn about the many suspects, details of the crime and our analysis, check out the episode at the top of the page, or listen to Two Sleuths Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Sources:
Episode Transcript:
EmHost00:00
Today we are headed to Hollywood, California. During its golden era, the 1940s. The world was at war. Many Americans were struggling and found themselves seeking refuge in theaters across the nation, looking for a distraction from reality. It was during this time when the silver screen was dripping with the most glamorous actors and actresses that have ever lived Catherine Hepburn, humphrey Bogart, elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant. The studios were cranking out film after film, many that still stand the test of time today, not only to help distract citizens from war, but in an effort to stimulate the economy as we were pulling ourselves out of the Great Depression. It was during this time, in 1940s, hollywood, where war and glamour were melded together, and there is no better example of that than the famous Hollywood canteen.
KatieHost00:51
While Hollywood was thriving during this period of time that we often look back and romanticize, one actor was looking to contribute to the war effort. John Garfield wanted to create a place where America's servicemen could experience a little bit of that golden glitz. As most servicemen stationed in LA and San Diego at that time were awaiting orders to ship off overseas, John thought there'd be no better way to help them take their minds off the fight facing them than to dazzle them with a night of dancing, food and entertainment. He enlisted the help of Betty Davis in the creation of this project, and thus the Hollywood canteen was born.
EmHost01:29
Now Betty, a major celebrity herself, helped turn the canteen into the thriving success that it went on to become. She was able to enlist other Hollywood elite to volunteer their time at the canteen, the likes of which included Shirley Temple, bob Hope, ella Fitzgerald, carrie Grant, louis Armstrong among magic acts performed by Rita Hayworth and Orson Wells, and even Bing Crosby, who came out to sing Christmas carols. On Christmas Eve, these celebrities took turn performing, serving up pot meals, doing the dishes and even taking a turn on the dance floor with servicemen. Located in a former barn at 1451 North Cahuenga Boulevard, located on the Sunset Strip, and in a nod to the previous generation, the canteen was styled with Old West decor and opened its doors on October 3, 1942.
KatieHost02:16
It was so packed on opening night that Betty Davis would later say she had to crawl through a window just to get inside. It was only after President Harry Truman announced victory over Japan that the war ended and the canteen closed its doors. During the three years it was in operation, it was estimated that over four million servicemen came through the doors, so, needless to say, it was a rousing success.
EmHost02:40
I found the research into the canteen absolutely fascinating. I think we all know Betty Davis as this gorgeous actress who appeared in over 100 films and, of course, who doesn't know that hit song, betty Davis Eyes. But beyond her acting career, her involvement as a co-founder and running of the Hollywood canteen is just so admirable. I want to cover a little bit more in depth what she actually contributed, as the canteen has cemented itself a place in Hollywood and American history.
KatieHost03:09
According to an article on Cinema Scholars by Benjamin McVeigh, betty said this quote there are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood canteen is one of them. End quote. Betty was so committed to the servicemen who were willing to sacrifice their lives for our country, and she was also staunchly against segregation. She also said that, quote the blacks got the same bullets as the whites did and should have the same treatment end quote. According to Cinema Scholars, because she took that stance, betty Davis was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal in 1980, which is the US Department of Defense's highest civilian award.
EmHost03:49
Now, since the main goal of the canteen was to thank military members for their service, betty made sure that the stars and other volunteer staff members treated each guest with the utmost respect and provided a safe space for them. In one memo she wrote to the staff, she said quote forget the wounds, remember the man. Learn to use the word prosthetics instead of artificial limbs. Never say it could have been worse. And when he talks about his war experiences, listen, but don't ask for more details than he wants to give. End quote.
KatieHost04:21
By the time the canteen had closed its doors, it was left with half a million dollars in surplus funds, which were then donated to various veteran relief organizations. The legacy of the canteen still lives on and remains a shiny symbol among wartime history. Beyond being a stage for celebrities to engage in philanthropy, it also provided many opportunities for young women to contribute and to volunteer their time, and this is where many young girls, some of them socialites, were hired and given the title of junior hostess. Their duties included serving food and coffee to the men, as well as being available as dance partners throughout the night.
EmHost04:58
Two years after the canteen opened its doors, one of these junior hostesses would be found murdered after working a shift at the canteen. This is the case of Georgette Bauerdorf. I'm M a former special agent.
KatieHost05:11
And I'm Katie, an investigative journalist, and you are listening to Two Sleuths.
All suspects or persons of interest discussed on this podcast are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Listener discretion advised.
KatieHost05:51
Georgette Elis Bauerdorf was born on May 6, 1924, to Georgian Constance Bauerdorf. She had an older sister, constance, who was named after their mother, and as Georgette was the second born, she was named after her father, george. Their father was a financial tycoon with roots in Wall Street and the oil and mining industries and, as heiresses to their father's success in fortune, georgette and her sister were very privileged. They were well-traveled and they were sent to the finest schools in New York. Tragically, their mother died when Georgette was only nine years old, and it was after this event that their father moved them from the East Coast to Los Angeles, where Georgette attended the very prestigious Marlboro School and the Westlake School for Girls, whose alumni include Shirley Temple.
EmHost06:38
After graduating high school, georgette decided to stay in Los Angeles and we know she signed up for a few classes at UCLA. She even got a job working at the LA Times in the Woman Services Bureau. Her father didn't remain in California himself and he went back to New York, but he set Georgette up in the luxurious El Palacio apartments, which still exist today. They're located in West Hollywood, a highly desirable location with its proximity to Sunset Strip and walking distance for many hotspots. Now, georgette's apartment was a ground floor unit with a living room and a kitchen on the first floor and then a staircase leading up to two bedrooms and a bathroom on the top floor. For a 20-year-old it was quite a swanky apartment.
KatieHost07:20
Georgette's older sister, constance, had married an army pilot named Jack Dylan Jr, and during World War II he was called to the battle lines in Germany. Constance didn't want to live alone while her husband was away at war, so she moved into the spare bedroom in Georgette's Hollywood apartment. Unfortunately, jack was killed in action and when Constance received the news she was grief-stricken and she left Georgette and returned home to New York to be with her father. She left behind her 1936 Oldsmobile Coupe for Georgette to use and once again the 20-year-old was left to live alone in Southern California.
EmHost07:55
Now, while Georgette may have lived alone something fairly uncommon for young women in the 1940s she wasn't completely isolated in the city. She had her best friend, june Ziegler, and her father Secretary, rose Gilbert, to keep her company. It was likely that her father had ordered Rose to stay in the city so she could keep an eye on Georgette, and the two of them spent plenty of time together shopping and going out to eat around town.
KatieHost08:20
Georgette kept herself busy with one of her favorite hobbies helping other people. From what we know about her, she was very genuine and trusting by nature, and she didn't think twice about giving money to servicemen who were in need. She's described as being extremely patriotic. In fact, anytime she crossed paths with the serviceman, she supposedly fed them, picked them up if she saw them hitchhiking, and would even let some of them crash in her living room if they needed a place to stay. Now, one of the things that was discovered during the investigation was that she had even provided copies of her apartment key to several different men who she allowed to come and go while they used her apartment as a refuge.
EmHost09:01
As we mentioned, georgette's closest friend was June, and many of the details regarding Georgette's personal life and interests come from a website that June and, it looks like, her daughter, have put together to honor her friend and tell her story. It's also filled with antidotes of June's memories of Georgette, to include a letter that Georgette had written June while she was out traveling. We have the website linked down below in our show notes it's just georgettebauerdorfcom. Aside from being one of Georgette's closest friends, the two also volunteered together as junior hostesses at the Hollywood Canteen every Wednesday night Yet another example of Georgette's love of dedicating her life and free time to servicemen.
KatieHost09:42
Now, the Hollywood Canteen took its role in hiring the hostesses very seriously. In fact, each candidate underwent an FBI background check and had to audition for the role and, as such, the Canteen put in place a strict code of conduct for the volunteers, which prohibited them from exchanging addresses with the servicemen or fraternizing outside of the Canteen. They also were not allowed to arrive or leave the premises with servicemen and had to use a separate entrance to come and go from their shift. And finally, zero alcohol could be consumed on the premises, which applied to the servicemen, the hostesses and even the celebrities themselves.
EmHost10:19
And even with these rules in place, georgette, the gorgeous brunette she was, with the vivacious and larger-than-life personality, attracted the men in spades. She even kept a little red book and filled it with the names of the servicemen and boys she had met In June of 1944, while volunteering at the Canteen. One night Georgette met Army Private Jerry Brown. Now Jerry was stationed at Camp Callan at the time, just north of San Diego. The two were reportedly instantly attracted to one another and spent the entire night dancing. By the end of the night the two were smitten. Unfortunately for them, jerry was in the process of being transferred to Fort Bliss, that's, in El Paso, texas, in the following days.
KatieHost11:02
Now, this, of course, didn't stop Georgette and Jerry from pursuing a relationship, and they wrote each other frequently as the summer turned to fall. As the relationship seemed to blossom, georgette started making definitive plans to fly to El Paso to visit Jerry On Wednesday, october 11, 1944, georgette spent the day shopping with her father's secretary, rose. They had lunch and they went to the beauty salon. It was during this outing that Rose later recalled that Georgette cashed a check and actually used it to purchase a $90 plane ticket to El Paso. The flight was set to depart the following day. Rose describes Georgette as being very excited and in high spirits, since it was the first time she would see Jerry since her initial meeting at the canteen.
EmHost11:45
After saying her goodbyes to Rose, georgette went to get ready for her scheduled shift at the Hollywood canteen. Georgette drove herself there in her sister's car and arrived early, so she sat in the car in the parking lot knitting until her shift started. Her friend June also arrived early and, spotting Georgette, she jumped in the car with her. Now, according to June, georgette told her that she was really nervous about something, and so she asked June if she would come over to her apartment and stay the night. According to June, she kind of just brushed this comment off, thinking that Georgette was probably just worried about her trip the following day to visit Jerry, and she convinced Georgette that she didn't need to stay the night. But to this day we don't actually know what it was that Georgette was nervous about.
KatieHost12:28
The two entered the canteen for the start of their shift and it went on as usual, with the girls mingling and dancing the night away with the service men. But there was one man in particular who stood out. When June later thought back to that night, she says that he continuously tried to forcefully cut in while Georgette was dancing with other men that night, insisting that Georgette danced the jitterbug with him and June remembers this, she says, because Georgette preferred to dance the waltz and specifically did not like the jitterbug. Georgette finally appeased the man, though, by giving him a dance. However, after that dance he apparently wasn't satisfied and wouldn't leave Georgette alone for the rest of the night. Now Georgette told June she did not like his attitude but had agreed to dance with him to avoid any trouble.
EmHost13:14
But eventually their shift came to an end and Georgette went to clock out around 11 30 pm. At that point she left the canteen by herself and started the three mile drive west towards her apartment in her sister's Oldsmobile Coupe. While on Sunset Boulevard she came across a hitchhiker, a man dressed in a military uniform, and, as we know from many previous incidents, georgette found herself called to lend aid to the service man, so she pulled over and offered him a ride.
KatieHost13:42
This service member was Sergeant Gordon Adland, who was on military leave and staying with his family in California. Gordon had found that hitchhiking in his uniform was the best way to get around town. He later said he found it odd that a female was behind the wheel, as it was usually men who stopped to pick him up, especially that late at night. Prior to being picked up by Georgette, he says he had taken his sister dancing at the Hollywood Palladium. Afterwards he says he walked his sister to a streetcar so she could safely make her way home. At that point, he says, he began to hitchhike west, trying to make it to the Clover Bar where his brother was bartending. It was only about three miles away.
EmHost14:21
Once in the car the two started chatting. Georgette told him about her boyfriend and how she had planned to visit him in Texas the following day. She told Gordon that she was heading home because she was anxiously waiting for a phone call from Jerry that night. According to Gordon, they spent about 10 minutes together. When he says they arrived at the Clover Club, which was located only one block away from Georgette's apartment, and Gordon said he got out of the car and watched Georgette drive away. This would be the last known report of anybody seeing Georgette alive.
KatieHost14:52
Fred and Lulu Atwood were a married couple who worked and lived at the El Palacio apartments. They were tasked with regularly cleaning every unit, similar to services offered at most hotels. Now, the following morning, on October 12th, it was around 11 am when Fred and Lulu entered Georgette's apartment. They immediately noticed that the door was ajar and once inside they both heard running water in the upstairs bathroom. Fred said he made his way upstairs and saw the bathroom door open. He peeked inside to see Georgette submerged face down in the bathtub.
EmHost15:26
Now the bathtub was reportedly about three-fourths of the way full of bloody water. Fred later said that the water was scalding hot. He also noticed that Georgette was only wearing the top half of a pajama set and nothing else. Immediately, fred said he pulled the stopper out of the tub, thinking she could be revived, but he eventually realized that there was nothing he could do to save her as she was already gone. He would tell the police that, aside from pulling the stopper out of the tub and turning off the water, he did not move her body or turn her over.
KatieHost15:58
Now the version of events I'm just told are one of the many that were told upon Georgette being found. Through various retellings to the police and then the newspapers, these events changed in some substantial ways. In many of the versions that were told it was not Fred but instead Lulu who first went upstairs to check on the sound of running water and when she saw Georgette she yelled out for Fred. Some events talk about how they started cleaning the first floor of the apartment first, and they were doing that for some time before one of them made their ways upstairs to find Georgette. And in other events Fred wasn't even there at the apartment.
EmHost16:32
So, despite what the actual scenario was. After finding Georgette in her bathtub, the apartment manager was alerted and the police were called. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office responded and arrived to Georgette's apartment around 12 pm. Rose was also notified and she came straight to Georgette's apartment shortly thereafter. Rose was actually photographed inside the apartment during the police investigation, where she seen handling Georgette's diary. This is obviously something that should not have been allowed, even with how little was known about forensics back then. It shouldn't have happened if not only because she could have disturbed something at the crime scene.
KatieHost17:10
Upon first inspection, deputies did not see any signs of a struggle throughout the apartment and, relying on news reports from the time, we see that they all provided conflicting information about what was found. Some say there was blood all over the bathroom, some that it was just in her bedroom, and then others report a combination of the two, but there is one location that has been mentioned consistently, and it was photographed, so we know this for sure. It was an unusually shaped bloodstain found on the carpet located near the doorway that led from Georgette's bedroom into her bathroom.
EmHost17:45
Aside from the shape of this bloodstain, another odd thing deputies noticed was that the spot was wet, but not from the blood itself. It actually appeared like the blood had been diluted, as if the murderer had stayed behind to clean up the blood. However, whomever committed this crime was unsuccessful in entirely removing the stain, as it was still visible to investigators. I have only found one picture of this bloodstain, posted by the LA Daily Mirror, and it will be posted throughout our social media and on the blog on our website, tosluispodcastcom.
KatieHost18:18
And, speaking of the LA Daily Mirror, we spoke to Larry Harnish, who's done a ton of research into this case and also wrote a lengthy piece for them on the Georgette Baradorf case, and we want to thank him for speaking to us and for the work that he's put into researching this. We'll link his source down in the show notes in case you'd like to check it out.
EmHost18:37
And when you go, take a look at this photo of the bloodstain, let us know what you make of the shape and the location of the blood. Now I do agree with the assessment that the blood does look diluted, as if someone did try to clean it up, even though we're looking at an old, black and white blurring newspaper photo. Now, another option for why it could have looked diluted is because it could have possibly been a transfer stain and not a location of where the blood came straight from either Georgette or her killer's body. I don't think it's very likely, just a possibility.
KatieHost19:09
Moving on to other evidence found, again, conflicting reports tell opposite accounts, specifically that pertaining to her bed. Some sources say the bed was made. Others say that the covers were tossed back and there was a simple indent in her pillow, as if she had been sleeping. One thing about both of these, however, is that her bed was not disheveled, pointing to the fact that the acts of violence that she would face that night did not happen on her bed. When she was found, she was only wearing a pajama shirt and her pajama bottoms were located at the foot of the bed. They were reported in some papers as having been torn down the side and as having blood on them.
EmHost19:48
In Georgette's room, they found an ashtray that was described as having a ton of cigarette butts in it. However, what is interesting is that when Georgette was found in the bathtub, she was wearing lipstick, but none of these butts had lipstick on them. The fact that she was found wearing lipstick is also highly interesting for many reasons, especially when you consider that she supposedly went home alone and was found in her pajamas, so she was either ready for bed or already asleep. As investigators were processing her room, they noticed that several valuable pieces of jewelry, silver and a roll of cash were all visible, and because they were left behind, they ruled out robbery as the motive for her murder.
KatieHost20:28
There is yet another piece of evidence that has led to a lot of speculation by law enforcement and the public. Just outside the front door of Georgette's apartment was a light fixture which hung straight down from the ceiling and illuminated the front door. Investigators found that the light bulb had been unscrewed about two turns and that kept it from turning on. Many theorized that the bulb was intentionally unscrewed by someone who planned the murder ahead of time and didn't want to be seen by a neighbor or pass her by as they entered her apartment. Or maybe they didn't want her to be able to see them clearly. The bulb was about eight feet high and we have a picture of a tall man reaching it easily on his own and another of a woman who was standing on a chair and able to reach it. There were chairs nearby that anyone could have easily grabbed and brought to this light bulb outside of Georgette's front door.
EmHost21:18
And another thing that having that light bulb unscrewed would prevent was if the killer had knocked on her door that night, she probably wouldn't have been able to see him. While looking out the people in her apartment door and considering how friendly she was, it was pretty possible she would open that front door to see who was there, and this would give her killer a chance to either push his way in or be invited inside if Georgette previously knew him. Investigators did not find any forced entry into her apartment, Cooperating how often Georgette let servicemen stay. Investigators found a stack of letters from various soldiers who had written Georgette thanking her for her hospitality, of allowing them to sleep on her couch when they had nowhere else to stay. So it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for her to open the door to someone she might not have been expecting.
KatieHost22:07
After noticing the partially unscruped light bulb, investigators dusted it for prints. Now, most reports from that time state that they did in fact find fingerprints on the light bulb, but those reports also vary widely. Some state that the prints were smudged. Others state that investigators were successful in finding at least one full fingerprint and that it was compared to military records with no hits. There were also several prints lifted throughout Georgette's apartment, from the bathtub where her body was found, on doors, glass-topped tables and in many other places, and these prints did not match.
EmHost22:41
Georgette as investigators were processing her scene back at the apartment. They were learning more about Georgette and it was likely through Rose, who was at the crime scene, where they learned that Georgette had a car that old mobile and they realized it was missing. Georgette always parked it on either the street in front of the apartments or in a parking lot that was nearby. Now no one knows where she had left the car when she was killed that night, but it wasn't found at either location. It wouldn't be until the following day when the car was found approximately 10 miles away from Georgette's apartment. It was found in a residential neighborhood, parked in front of a house at 728.5 East 25th Street South. Now. The keys were found in the ignition and the gas tank was empty, leading investigators to assume that 25th Street was not the intended destination for the driver.
KatieHost23:29
While canvassing the neighborhood, investigators learned that the first time the car was observed in this spot was at 730 that morning by a local resident. That was just a few hours before Georgette's body was found. Investigators also noted that there was damage to the front left fender of the car, but they weren't able to find out if this was caused the night Georgette was murdered or if it had happened previously while she was driving it. The vehicle was fingerprinted and the prints they lifted matched the unknown set of prints found in Georgette's apartment. These were very likely the killer's prints.
EmHost24:04
So the investigators turned their focus to questioning the outwards the couple that found Georgette in the bathtub, as well as other residents and employees at the El Palacio. Now, Fred Atwood said that he had woken up around midnight to what he thought sounded like a crash coming from Georgette's apartment. He said he assumed she had dropped something in the kitchen. He said he then heard the sound of her heels walking around through her apartment when he went back to sleep. Now we don't know where in this apartment complex the outwards lived.
24:32
Georgette's two-story apartment started on the ground floor, and so my first thought was that when you hear high heels walking around an apartment, that's usually something you hear from the apartment above you, and basements aren't common in California. But I did see just one reference to another janitor who said he lived in the basement of the El Palacio apartments. So maybe it was possible that the outwards lived below her first floor. This would be quite the coincidence, given how many other apartments were in the building. And another thing is it's a pre-war building. We know these buildings are built virtually soundproof between the walls and the floors, and this building is even advertised that way today. So how likely is it that he actually heard the sound of heels or a crash of something in the apartment, and why would he lie about it? And what's even more interesting about that is that when her next-door neighbor was interviewed, she said she didn't hear a sound the entire night. This+.
KatieHost25:30
After interviewing the rest of the employees and residents, they came away with only one other witness, another ear witness. It was one of Georgeette's neighbors. They were never named and again, we don't know the proximity of their apartment to Georgeette's, but they say that around 2.30 am they heard Georgeette scream Stop, stop, you're killing me. Unfortunately, this witness did not call the police after hearing this.
EmHost25:54
So Kate and I have both talked about this phrasing of Stop you're killing me, but we both think it's a bit odd. Personally, I feel like it sounds almost conversational, like she was with somebody and she was surprised to find out that whatever they had been doing previously had all of a sudden taken a turn and maybe she thought the person didn't realize that they were killing her. It makes us think that maybe she wasn't startled awake by a stranger who just attacked her in bed. I mean, we could be wrong. It was just something we noticed. Obviously, we don't know what it's like to be in that moment and maybe there is nothing unusual about that phrasing.
KatieHost26:28
That is interesting because at the time police learned this information, they don't know anything about Georgeette's cause of death or what would be learned later during the autopsy. At the scene, the LA County Coroner responded and noted that rigor mortis had fully developed and they placed her time of death approximately eight to 10 hours prior. But she was found in hot water, and this can accelerate the presence of rigor mortis. We haven't been able to find any documents of the coroner's report, and so we don't know if that was even taken into account when developing this timeframe.
EmHost26:58
The other thing we don't know is what time the coroner actually examined the body. That could change what eight to 10 hours prior would be. Now the at-woods said they found Georgeette around 11 am and the sheriff showed up what sounded like some time right before or at 12 pm. Now the coroner is a different story. It can take them hours to show up at a scene and we never found anything where they stated what time the coroner arrived. If they got there extremely fast let's say when the police did at 12, well then eight and a half hours prior would have been 2.30 am, and that was when the witness said they heard Georgeette screaming. So this tells me that they didn't take into account the fact that she was found in scalding hot water, and that tends to speed up rigor mortis. The reason I'm even bringing this up is in regards to trying to piece together a timeline, which we'll get into later.
KatieHost27:49
Another thing we never see addressed is something called levidity. If she had been killed eight to 10 hours prior to the coroner examining her, there should have been signs of it. Levidity is when blood in the body pools after death, based on gravity, settling at the body's lowest point. Georgeette was found face down in the bathtub, so the levidity should have shown that the blood settled along the front part of her body. We don't think she was killed in the bathtub, so if we had reports of what the levidity was, then it could have told us what position she was in before her body was moved.
EmHost28:21
So let's get into the autopsy. It was performed by autopsy surgeon Dr Frank Webb, and he made numerous findings that told a story of what Georgeette had endured leading up to her murder. Her cause of death was found to be strangulation due to a piece of fabric that had been shoved four inches down into her throat. He also learned that she had put up one hell of a fight. Her knuckles and hands showed many defensive ones.
28:46
Georgeette was also covered in bruises, and the bruises showed a lot of detail. On one side of her face and lips were bruises that actually showed the imprint of finger marks. These same handprint-type bruises were found along her abdomen as well as her thighs. Now, the ones on her thighs actually showed nail marks, piercing the skin above the finger marked bruises. All of this indicating that the killer used a lot of force, and by studying the size of the fingerprints left behind, we see a lot of articles referencing that these hands appeared to be large and powerful, almost ape-like. Another injury that was found was it looked like she had been struck in the back of the head at least once. However, it didn't break the skin and Georgeette did not bleed from this area.
KatieHost29:33
The autopsy also revealed that she had been raped, as spermatozoa was found present, and the fact that it was worded as spermatozoa indicated that they likely collected a sample of it and viewed it under a microscope. Upon examining the contents of her stomach, string beans were found and it was determined that she had eaten them about 90 minutes before she was murdered, based on the level of digestion that had occurred. But here's where we see more widely conflicting information, not only with what was found in her stomach, but also what was found in her apartment and the location of where she consumed this food.
EmHost30:07
Now some reports say that in the trash in her apartment a can of string beans and melon rinds were found, but there's no reference to melon being found among her stomach contents, leading people to wonder if she shared a snack in her apartment with somebody who ate the melon while she ate the beans.
30:23
But then we see other reports stating that she actually ate a very large meal based off of what was found in her stomach, and that this included meat, and there was no evidence of meat being prepared or any remnants left behind in her apartment. So this leads to the theory that she stopped somewhere to eat a full meal at a restaurant before going home that night. Now the Daily News published a statement saying that, quote all that is known is that she stopped somewhere on her way home and ate a substantial dinner, including meat and string beans, about an hour and a half before she died. End quote. This, however, doesn't line up with the fact that we know she was in a hurry to get home because she was waiting for a phone call from her boyfriend, jerry. So if we consider that as a fact, it would be unlikely she would stop somewhere to eat a meal, and there were no employees at any restaurant that ever came forward to confirm that Georgette had come in that night. And this case was highly publicized so it's likely they would have.
KatieHost31:19
The fabric that was found in Georgette's throat leads to even more questions. It was so far down her throat that investigators didn't actually see it, and they had assumed that Georgette had been drowned. However, only a few drops of water were found in her lungs. Eventually, once the fabric was removed, it was found to be a 9 inch by 9 inch square piece of gauzy type bandage material. Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that the brand was crepe tetra. This is the type of bandage that's used to treat injuries such as a sprain, so think like a common-day ace bandage. Research of this brand revealed many interesting things, just that it was likely from the standard 10 inch bandage roll. Asking the question what happened to the other inch of fabric? It wasn't found in Georgette's apartment and secondly, this was an extremely unique brand.
EmHost32:12
It actually hadn't been sold in the United States in over 22 years and it had to be imported from France or England. Now, according to the Daily News, all imports of crepe tetra stopped in 1939, five years before Georgette's murder and given her link to service men. Investigators followed this lead and looked into the angle, but they found that the Army and Navy had no record of ever using crepe tetra.
KatieHost32:37
After learning everything up to this point, investigators were leaning toward the theory that someone entered Georgette's apartment while it was empty and waited for her to return home. They believed that once she entered her apartment, she had a snack in the kitchen and then went upstairs to get ready for bed, changing into her pajamas and going to sleep, and then, around 2 to 3 am, she was attacked, raped and murdered. They learned that Georgette was known to undress in front of an open window and due to this habit, they believe maybe she caught the attention of someone who ended up targeting her because of this.
EmHost33:12
And, to be honest, I'm not so sure I agree with this theory. There are so many things that just don't line up. First off, there was no sign of forced entry into her apartment. That turns the list of suspects away from a stranger or a peaking tom into one of the many servicemen whom she had provided with a key. So if their theory that someone came and laid in wait, it would have to have been someone she knew. And this theory also doesn't account for how her bed was completely undisturbed, no signs of a struggle. So if she wasn't killed until two or three AM, she likely would have been already asleep and attacked in her bed.
33:50
And one of the biggest things I always come back to is the fact that the car was taken. If it was a stranger, as they believed, because she was undressing in front of a window, how would they know that she had a car? And beyond that, if they were lying and waiting her apartment, how would they know where she parked it that night? And they also leaned pretty hard on this unscrewed light bulb in front of her door as the ploy that led the killer to get Georgia to open the door for him. And that goes completely against the theory that he was already inside when she got home. Overall, whoever killed Georgia, I do not believe he was in her home waiting for her. I believe he entered some point after she already got home.
KatieHost34:27
Remember they had fingerprint evidence. The same set of unknown prints that were found in her apartment were also found in her car. Now we read that they did not match the prints of any servicemen and we would assume that they also checked records beyond servicemen, but that was never explicitly stated. Beyond that, the semen found back then was not the gold mine. It would have been today. So instead investigators focused on the leads they had at that time. First they checked in with Georgette's boyfriend, jerry. He was stationed in El Paso and was found not to have been in Los Angeles during the time she was murdered. One thing we haven't seen reported anywhere was whether or not he spoke with Georgette on the phone that night, as she had mentioned she was planning to do. There are so many reports about how she was eagerly awaiting that phone call, so you assume it would have been one of the main questions investigators asked of Jerry to help build out a timeline. But we've never seen any information about Jerry mentioning it or if he did or did not talk to Georgette that night.
EmHost35:27
As we mentioned earlier, georgette kept a little red book which was kind of like a diary slash appointment book. Investigators noticed an entry made on October 9th, just two days before she was murdered, and she made the entry that said call to Jerry. At 6.30 came through Jerry's a lamb Letter from dad and Jerry wrote Jerry. Now this diary was found in her room but there was no note about her call from Jerry that night. Now there was also an entry from October 10th, the day before she was murdered, and it just said Mr Wade.
36:01
Now this Mr Wade has either never been identified by police or, if they did, they never told us and shared this information publicly, and Georgette's friends and family also didn't have any insight to who Mr Wade was. So the timing of this entry is interesting, along with the fact that there is really nothing else written along with this entry, just a name, and the fact that no one in Georgette's life seemed to know what it was referencing, and since she was already extremely secretive about Jerry supposedly only June and Rose knew about him. Could this have been someone else that she was keeping a secret from everyone?
KatieHost36:39
After police rolled out Jerry, they moved on to that man at the canteen, the one that June had told them about that had been aggressively cutting in to dance the jitterbug with Georgette the entire night. Law enforcement put out the description June gave of him and upon seeing it the man contacted the Sheriff's Department. He was identified as Corporal Cosmovulp. He was originally from New York but had been stationed in Los Angeles. He told investigators that he was a professional dancer and that Georgette had told him she didn't really know how to dance and wanted him to teach her and that was why he kept dancing with her that night. He said he left the canteen at 10 pm and returned to his base at the Lockheed Terminal where he checked in at 1130. His alibi was checked and confirmed.
EmHost37:23
So in the days after her murder they had interviewed seven suspects. Each one voluntarily came into the police station and these men included Ernest Tate, a former price fighter, and George Baker. Now, both men had previously been employed as part-time janitors at Georgette's apartment complex and both left about a month prior to the murder. Now, ernest Tate told them that he had had a passkey to actually get into Georgette's apartment but that he had turned it in before he quit. And, as law enforcement found out, both men had solid alibis that were confirmed, that little red diary that Georgette kept a list of names of the many servicemen she had met. We found that at least one of those men was found in Long Beach. He was questioned and it was determined he was not in LA at the time of her murder. But we don't know actually how many of these men were found and questioned. And one thing we never saw any reporting on. So it leads me to believe that they didn't take the effort to try and track down the men who had supposedly been given keys to Georgette's apartment.
KatieHost38:23
Let's talk about that hitchhiking Sergeant, the one that Georgette gave a ride to the night she was murdered. The man who was likely the last known person to have seen her alive, sergeant Gordon Adlin, had been stationed overseas during the war and he was only briefly in Los Angeles to enjoy his furlough, during which time he was visiting his family. The night that Georgette picked him up while he was hitchhiking was reportedly his last night of leave. The next morning he told investigators he had boarded a train at LA's Union Station and headed north where he would eventually return to his military post overseas. According to Gordon, when he took a seat on the train he picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Times that a previous writer had left behind. He said that on the front page a picture of Georgette looked right up at him, under the headline that an oil heiress had been murdered. Gordon said he recognized her immediately.
EmHost39:18
Now, according to Gordon, as soon as he saw this, he said he started writing a letter on the train and when the train stopped in Sacramento he posted the letter to the chief of police telling them about seeing Georgette the night she was murdered. And Gordon actually said his motivation for telling the police was it hopes to extend his furlough, thinking he might be a witness, and asked to remain stateside, but that didn't happen. He was sent back to his base overseas. He said it was about a week after he arrived that he was called to the base's headquarters where a provost-martial officer asked Gordon a list of questions about the night he saw Georgette, and the officer then wrote down Gordon's responses and left. Now, according to Gordon, this was the first and the last time he would ever be contacted in any official or law enforcement capacity in regards to Georgette's murder.
KatieHost40:09
This information comes from Gordon himself in an article he wrote for the Chronicle in 2012. He doesn't go into any of the questions he was asked by investigators or the answers that he gave, but he did say that he was dancing with his sister at the Palladium that night and after he walked her to a streetcar and then started to hitchhike his way to the Clover Club where his brother was bartending. His plan was to get a ride home with his brother when his shift ended at 2 am. During the initial investigation, police say that they learned from Gordon that that night, after Georgette dropped him off in front of the bar, he claimed to have watched her drive away from the club and make a right-hand turn.
EmHost40:49
So what's interesting about that is, when you look into this case, you find a lot of coverage on the direction that Georgette turned that night, based off of what Gordon saw. Apparently the direction she turned would have actually taken her down Laurel Canyon, which is the opposite direction from her apartment, and so Gordon realized this. Years later he said he reached out to police saying she actually turned the other way and it was his fault for misleading detectives. However, I've looked at this map and I don't really see what the big deal is about which direction she turned, because she only lived a block away from the Clover Club and she could have turned left or right and been home at relatively the same time. So maybe the reason this was made such a big deal is because maybe some of these roads weren't there in the 1940s, but I kind of doubt that.
KatieHost41:38
Okay, let's talk about something that's a little odd In that article that Gordon wrote is the first and only time that we see a different version of events that have been written about during the interaction between Gordon and Georgette following her murder. Previously we knew that she had given him a ride and had dropped him off at the Clover Club, but in that article he says something different. Gordon says that Georgette did not take him all the way to the Clover Club. Instead, she dropped him off before turning off of sunset where she was presumably going to return to her home. We know that the Clover Club was basically one street over from her apartment, about 0.2 miles away.
42:16
If you think about it, this is pretty much the exact opposite of what we know about Georgette. She was always willing to go out of her way and to give time to help servicemen, and the club was so close it really would not have been that inconvenient for her to drop him there. Instead, in this article that Gordon wrote, he says he got a second ride from a stranger who took him directly to the Clover Club. However, the turn she would have made to go to her apartment was really just about one straight away from the Clover Club, so why would he have needed another ride when he was that close? This version of events is a drastic departure from the first story that he allegedly told investigators.
EmHost42:54
Another thing is that we never see anywhere in the investigation that they actually confirmed Gordon's alibi. That night we found articles where they confirmed other suspects, but they never mentioned confirming Gordon's. They just sent that one guy out there to interview him overseas and then he was never contacted again. It would have been so easy for law enforcement to have contacted his brother and simply ask him if, first off, did Gordon show up at the club and did he then give him a ride home after his shift. But we never saw that this was done and so for that reason it leaves Gordon as a possible suspect. A real question mark for me. But there is more.
43:35
I checked the Los Angeles Times publication for October 12th 1944, the date that Gordon said he left on the train. Now this newspaper was 22 pages long and I scoured every inch of it. Not only is Georgette's picture and story about her death not on the front page, it wasn't in this paper. It wouldn't be reported on for the very first time until the following day, on October 13th, and even then her picture or story weren't on the first page. They were on page five. In fact, georgette's picture itself would never be on the front page of the LA Times. There is, on October 14th, a column that's on the front page, but her picture doesn't actually appear until page three.
KatieHost44:18
Of course it's not uncommon for so many inconsistencies to pop up in a long time cold case. That's one of the reasons why it's so hard to solve them. Investigators can misspeak, reporters can misunderstand and even the memories of witnesses can become unreliable over time. But these inconsistencies with Gordon's version of events and the facts of the case are very curious. Remember, georgette's car was taken after the attack.
44:43
If the most prominent theory by police is true that a stranger killed her, how would they know that she had a car, which car it was and where it was parked? Hypothetically, if for some reason Georgette and Gordon had gone back to her place, they would have parked the car and walked to the apartment together. The green beans and melon rinds found in the trash could have been a late night snack they shared, with Gordon eating the melon, since no trace of it was found in Georgette's stomach. It would explain why there was no forced entry. And then, when you look at the car where it was left after it ran out of gas, it's in the direction that someone would have been heading if they were going to Union Station.
EmHost45:22
So, in black and white terms, gordon had the means and the opportunity to murder George Ed, yet he wasn't questioned directly by police and it doesn't appear that his alibi was confirmed by his brother. In this letter he wrote to police, he could have made up the fact that he was going to the Clover Club, because it's extremely convenient that she just happened to pick up a hitchhiker who was heading to the club closest to her apartment. Did his brother even work there? It seems that Gordon grew up in this area, as he was home on furlough, so it's likely he knew the area really well. When George Ed stopped to pick him up, he could have found out where she lived and where she was heading, and that allowed him to choose the name of the bar he said he was going to. Another thing is he could have been somebody who frequented the canteen and learned about George Ed's generosity in letting soldiers a place to stay in her apartment. He could have seen her at the canteen that very night and watched her leave. At that point he could have walked out to stand on Sunset Boulevard knowing that she would stop and help him.
46:24
Without answers to these questions, we cannot cross Gordon off of the list of suspects, he was, in almost all likelihood, the last person to see her alive, and sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. However, if none of the above hypotheticals were true, it could have been just a crime of opportunity when she picked him up that night. Now, this is just a theory, but it's because he wasn't properly investigated and, to be clear, gordon was never named a suspect by the police. Now Gordon died in 2013. We learned that he went to college after the war and he became a teacher and a writer and, as we learned from the website that was written by George Ed's friend over the years, they didn't seem to have any suspicions over Gordon and they said they were happy that he shared his encounter with George Ed with them. So the last thing I want to do is besmirch Gordon's name or memory. However, I'm an investigator and I'm trying to think this way and ask these questions.
KatieHost47:20
George Ed's story ran for about 10 days in the LA Times and then most of the coverage on her slowed to a stop, and some speculate there may be an interesting reason as to why it appears that George Ed's father didn't believe that his daughter was murdered.
47:35
He said that he knew his daughter suffered from cramps and heart pains and that he believed this could have caused her death. Now I'm not sure how one dies from cramps, especially given the state that she was found in and all that blood in the apartment. But there have also been rumors that George Ed's father had asked police to close the case quickly. There are also rumors that he was good friends with another tycoon, william Randolph Hearst, a powerful newspaper magnet, and that he allegedly helped to kill the story in the media. The allegations here that George Ed's father had become aware that his daughter was sexually active and he didn't want details of her romantic life becoming public. As the investigation carried on or in the event there was ever a trial, it does appear the news coverage fizzled out over time and the investigation stalled, that is, until a year later when a letter was discovered.
EmHost48:28
Now it's not entirely clear how or where this letter was found, but it was said it was a 14-year-old girl and in one telling this letter was found on the street outside George Ed's apartment. Others say it was found in a book in a library. Either way, this letter was found to be addressed to police. Once police got it in their hands, they found that this letter was written on a typewriter and at first glance it appeared there was blood on it. The letter read quote to the Los Angeles police Almost a year ago, georgette Bauerdorf, age 20, hollywood canteen hostess, was murdered in her apartment in West Hollywood. And now, in October 11th, a year after her death, the one who murdered her will appear at the Hollywood canteen. The murderer will be in uniform. He has, since he committed the murder, been in action in Okinawa. The murder of Georgette Bauerdorf was divine retribution. Let the Los Angeles police arrest the murderer, if they can end quote as police examined this letter, they found out that what looked like blood on the paper was actually iodine.
KatieHost49:35
And it's interesting that it was iodine. It could have just been chosen because in its liquid form it does have a similar color to blood. But could the fact that it was iodine be connected to the fact that the killer used a rare medical bandage to murder Georgette, both being items a doctor or medical professional would commonly have access to in their practice? At the end of the day, sheriff Lieutenant Garner Brown says that he believes the note was left by a youthful prankster. Killers have given absolutely zero credibility to this note, so much so that they never sent anyone to stake out the Hollywood canteen. And the fact that the killer would be in uniform meant nothing, as all servicemen at the canteen wore their uniforms. And, as it turned out, only one month later, the day after Thanksgiving, the Hollywood canteen shut its doors and officially closed forever.
EmHost50:26
Now around the same time. This note was found. On October 6th, almost one year after Georgette was murdered, another young woman was attacked, and she lived not far from Georgette's apartment. 37-year-old Doris Hillman was found in her ground floor apartment getting ready for bed when a man came through her window and attacked her. He hit her in the face and then she started screaming, so much so that her neighbors also started yelling back, and all of this scared off the man, so he ran to climb back out the window. He came in.
50:58
The murder survived, but the man got away and he was described as a tall man with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and he was dressed in an army uniform. So police wondered if this attacker, who has never been identified to this day, could possibly have been the same man who killed Georgette. It does line up with the potential of a peeping Tom who spots targets through open windows, and the other link, of course, being that military uniform. If this attacker was the same man who murdered Georgette, we know that uniform might have helped him gain access to her that night.
KatieHost51:33
Two months after that letter was found in 14 months after Georgette's murder, a 22-year-old man walked into the FBI's San Francisco field office. John Lehman Sumter told agents that he was the one who killed Georgette. Investigators from Los Angeles quickly made their trip up to the Bay Area to question Sumter themselves. When police checked Sumter's criminal history, they found that he had been dishonorably discharged from the army for writing bad checks. When the police sat him down, this was the story he told. Sumter says that he met Georgette on a streetcar the night she was murdered. The two got to talking and she asked him to accompany her home. So he went to her apartment where he says he had a cup of coffee, and the two chatted for a while, but eventually a man dressed in a military uniform showed up at her apartment and stayed for about an hour. As soon as that soldier left, sumter says he strangled Georgette.
EmHost52:28
Now, right off the bat, the investigators realized there was almost nothing about his confession that fit the facts of Georgette's murder, and so they continued to question him at length, where they took the time to dive into details none of which he was able to be accurate about. Eventually, he finally admitted that he had made the entire thing up. When they asked him why, Sumter told them that he wanted to die in the electric chair because he had nothing to live for, but he was afraid to commit suicide. This ended up being a completely false confession, and Sumter was dismissed as a suspect right away.
KatieHost53:04
There are a few other sources that mention another suspect. His name is Robert George Pollock-White. One of these sources that website we've mentioned a few times GeorgetteBauerDorffcom states that Robert murdered a 65-year-old woman in San Diego by shoving cloth down her throat. It is remarkably similar to how Georgette was murdered and is a fairly unusual way to kill someone.
EmHost53:28
So I spent over two hours just trying to find any information on Robert George Pollock-White or Robert George-White or any combination of these names. I also looked into the murder of a 65-year-old in San Diego around this time. We have no reference for what year this happened, aside from it being after Georgette's murder, and in the sources where this man pops up as a suspect for Georgette's murder, it was said that he received the death sentence and was executed the same year as his arrest. So I looked through California's death penalty records from 1941 to 1967. There is no Robert White listed. The last thing mentioned about this man in regards to Georgette's case was that the police learned that he was in Los Angeles during this time Georgette was murdered, so this guy sounds like a great suspect. The method of the murder is identical and it's referenced in several sources about this case, but I cannot personally or individually cooperate any of this information or any evidence that this man even existed. So, sleuths, if you have the time to do some more digging and find him, please let us know.
KatieHost54:38
And finally, a common theory thrown out in Georgette's case is that she was another victim of the Black Dahlia's killer. Elizabeth Short named the Black Dahlia by news outlets is probably one of the most widely known unsolved cases in America, so we don't need to dive into that one. But a quick refresher was that she was found murdered in 1947, in Los Angeles, just three years after Georgette. She was found nude in an area eight miles south of Georgette's apartment in the Lymeret Park neighborhood and she had been bisected at least partially drained of blood. Her face was mutilated and she had blunt-forced injuries to her head. There are conflicting reports of her, whether or not she was sexually assaulted.
EmHost55:20
Now Georgette has been written about in several books, articles and blogs by different authors, and they all list her as a victim of the Black Dahlia, and they specifically rely on the fact that these two girls knew each other and that Elizabeth Short also spent time at the Hollywood Canteen. However, both of these are extremely incorrect and, as Larry Harnish points out in his series on Georgette, elizabeth didn't even move to LA until two years after Georgette was murdered, and the Hollywood Canteen, as we know, was already shut down by then. Then, we consider their social economic standings, they were both on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, so it's very likely that Elizabeth didn't even have any friends in common with Georgette.
KatieHost56:02
So let's look at their murders in comparison. One was murdered in an apartment, one left outside, one dismembered, one is fixated with fabric. One was sexually assaulted, the other one it's not clear. Elizabeth was killed in one unknown location and moved to another where she was posed. Whomever killed her mailed her belongings to the newspapers, but Georgette's killer, as far as we know, didn't take anything aside from her car, which they then abandoned and they're never heard from again. The modus operandi between the two women couldn't be more different.
EmHost56:36
But there are a few similarities when you do look at the victimology. They were 20 and 22. They both had dark hair and did share similar features and overall look, and then they both lived in Los Angeles. But aside from that, I don't see any similarities in how they were killed.
56:53
I guess there is the possibility that if this is the work of one person who is a serial killer Georgette being one of his earlier victims might have been him working his way up to what he ultimately did with Elizabeth, but even that, I think, is a bit of a stretch. There is really only one similarity that we see between the two they were both found with something in their mouth. Elizabeth was found with her underwear in her mouth and Georgette had a medical fabric that was found in her mouth, but this was used to kill her. So then we have a completely different cause of death for Elizabeth, who, it's reported, died from a loss of blood and shock. So could the two women have been killed by the same man, as it has been alleged by so many others? I personally think it's extremely unlikely.
KatieHost57:39
So who killed Georgette Bauerdorf? We don't know, and there are so many questions left unanswered. Could the janitor, fred Atwood, have killed her? The statements that have come out about the events of that morning and when Georgette's body were found, and when and how he was involved have been wildly conflicting. Some of them state that Fred wasn't even at the apartment, that his wife, lulu was in the apartment alone when her body was found. He did have access to her apartment, but so did many other soldiers who Georgette had given keys to, as there were no signs of forced entry. It is possible that the murderer had a key and did they enter her apartment and lay in wait for her, or did they make entry after she had fallen asleep? Did they ring the doorbell and she opened the door under the darkness of that unscrewed light bulb? The interesting thing here is that she was found to be wearing lipstick, indicating that she likely wasn't completely ready to go to bed, but she was in her pajamas. Latching on to that, idea.
EmHost58:36
We have to think that whoever made contact with her, it was likely at the moment she was getting ready for bed. Is this where that unscrewed light bulb came into play? Did they knock on the door as she was getting ready when she came out to open it and see who was there? It's all very hard to say, but there is one big question that's just never answered and always bothered me Jerry Georgette was supposed to be waiting for a call from him that night. They were going to be discussing her plans to visit him the following day and it is never said that Jerry was asked if they spoke that night.
59:10
So much information could have been obtained from this event. If he called and no one answered, what time was that? But if they did talk, that would have been tremendously helpful with not only the timeline but she likely would have talked about what her day was like, the events that occurred after she left the canteen. All of this could cooperate dropping Gordon off at the Clover Club or if she stopped and ate a big dinner, as some suggest. This call from Jerry is never brought up and anything I've ever read and then there are endless questions about the crime scene itself.
KatieHost59:42
It is said that the apartment showed no signs of a struggle, but the evidence in defensive wounds left on Georgette's body tell quite a different story, which means she likely wasn't attacked while she was asleep in bed. And then we have that blood stain. The only injuries that could have produced blood from Georgette was a bloody nose, which was a confirmed injury, or from the trauma of a sexual assault. So could it have been the killer's blood, and why was effort made to clean it up? Beyond that, where were the items that the killer used to clean up the blood? We never saw anything. Where police found any towels with blood on them?
EmHost01:00:14
And then we tie this into the bathtub. What was the point of that? There is one motive I see that might combine these two things the cleaning up of the blood and putting her in the bathtub. This could be an act that's called in forensic psychology the act of undoing. It could be that the killer was experiencing regret or remorse and so therefore he was trying to undo the act. However, this is actually pretty rare In a study I found published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
01:00:42
They took a sample of 975 homicides and only 1% of those cases showed any evidence of undoing a crime, and the most common method of this undoing was when they covered the body with a blanket or some other object. And most strikingly, out of the 12 cases in the study where the undoing was done by the killer, in 10 out of the 12 cases the victim was a family member of the killer, and so that actually helps you understand this whole undoing, because it's more likely a family member would feel guilt or remorse over a murder. So when we look at the fact that we're possibly seeing signs of undoing at Georgette's crime scene and we know it's rare, and in the times that it does happen it's a family member. That leaves us asking a whole other set of questions.
KatieHost01:01:30
And the bathtub brings us to another interesting question, and that one regarding the timeline. It is likely the killer stayed in the apartment for a significant amount of time after the killing, which is not very common. This is evident from the several cigarettes left in the ashtray, the attempt to clean the blood and taking the time to move her body to the bathtub. And then the killer turned the tub on. If she was murdered around 2.30, and her car was first seen on the street abandoned at 7.30, that's the window of time when the killer left her apartment. But the water in the tub was running and scalding hot and remember Fred said he pulled the stopper out of the tub, so we know it was not draining the water and it was described as being 3 fourths of the way full when she was found floating in it.
EmHost01:02:14
And so how does this make any sense? If the killer left her apartment right before the car was found, at 7.30, so let's say he left her apartment at 7.20, then how is it that, when she was first found four hours later, that the tub had not overflowed? This part keeps me questioning things. Could the car have been used to try to create false leads and alter the timeline?
01:02:38
The only way I see this even making sense is if it was Fred that killed Georgeette, because Fred likely would have known her car and where she parked it. Could he have taken the car and driven it away from her apartment to make it look like someone had come and gone, when in fact the killer actually lived at the apartment complex? So, hypothetically, if this happened when Fred got back to the apartment, he could have then gone in, moved her body and started running the tub shortly before she was found, since he knew when his wife would be going in her apartment. I mean, this is definitely a long shot. It would have been risky for him to have gone in and out of her apartment in the morning, when it's light out and when people are up and about. The one question I just can't answer is how that bathtub didn't overflow with the timeline that we do know about.
KatieHost01:03:24
And then we have the evidence the fingerprints found on that light bulb inside of her apartment and in her car all matched, it's likely the killer's fingerprints. Today we would most likely have been able to get touch DNA from those prints and she was sexually assaulted because they said they found the presence of spermatoza. That means that a sample was likely collected and placed on a slide and viewed under a microscope. That means it would be collected as evidence. And those cigarettes and obviously great source of DNA. And then the blood found on the carpet even if the killer had attempted to clean it up, it could have been collected and would likely still hold value.
EmHost01:04:03
So there is some really good evidence in this case by today's standards and we're seeing all of these really old cold cases today where their evidence is being reexamined by today's standards, and this case would be a prime case for that to happen. But the truth here is absolutely gut-wrenching and pretty infuriating. So I requested the records for this case back in December 2021. When I got a response, it was a letter signed by Captain Jose Mendoza of the Homicide Bureau. In this letter there were several boxes that could have been checked for a response and two different boxes were checked in this case. One box stated we were unable to locate any record of the incident for which you submitted, and the second box checked was one of those other boxes where they wrote in a response and they said an extensive search through our historical archives produced no reports.
01:04:58
They told me that they have nothing on this case. They don't have any evidence, any police reports or records left. So how is this even possible? I set to find out, and I have a few relatives and friends who are LA County sheriffs. I was determined to find this evidence. After talking to them, I've learned that this case truly no longer exists. And again, how could this happen? The best answer they have is that it was destroyed back when everything was kept under the city hall or one of the buildings it was kept in. There was some kind of a flood. It was a vague and really non-justifiable answer, having the evidence in this case what the advancements made today could have helped us find justice for.
KatieHost01:05:43
Georgia In a crime that happened 79 years ago. Odds are slim that many are still around today who might have had any firsthand accounts of events surrounding the murder, or witnesses who might have information they never came forward with. But information could have been passed down through generations and, as time goes on, sometimes lips do loosen. If anyone knows anything about the murder of Georgette Bauerdorf, please contact the LA County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. The number will also be in our show notes.
EmHost01:06:19
After her murder, georgette's body was returned to New York by her father, where she was laid to rest in the family plot. Her sister, constance, went on to have children and she named her daughter Georgette in memory and honor of her sister. Her family never got any answers to her brutal and senseless murder. Georgette Bauerdorf didn't deserve to die.
KatieHost01:06:39
But she deserves to be remembered. That'll do it for today's episode. We hope that you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving this week with your families, your loved ones and your friends.
EmHost01:06:51
As we will be doing the same, we will be back on December 5th with a brand new episode. Until then, stay vigilant.
KatieHost01:06:58
And stay curious, fellow sleuths.