The boys arrested, all of whom were juveniles, were released to the custody of their parents. Dr. Hodel's preliminary hearing was set for October 14.
In a related article in the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express on October 7, under the headline "Doctor Nabbed on Hollywood Incest Charge," the reporter added several important facts to the story:
The 14-year-old daughter told officers that her father had molested her since she was 11 years old.
Dr. Hodel, a medical officer of the United Nations mission to China, questioned by Deputy District Attorneys Ritzi and S. Ernest Roll admitted, "These things must have happened." He said he wanted to consult his psychiatrist.
Still in juvenile detention and "protective custody," Tamar was reinterviewed by Juvenile detectives, to whom she revealed that her father had also arranged and paid for an abortion performed on her in a Beverly Hills doctor's office. Accordingly, four days after George Hodel's arrest police arrested Beverly Hills physician Dr. Francis C. Ballard, age thirty-six, and his "associate" Charles Smith, also thirty-six, for performing an abortion on Tamar. In the complaint, the abortion was alleged to have occurred in September 1949, a month before Tamar ran away.
Several days after Father's arrest, Juvenile detectives conducted a search of the Franklin House. The search resulted in the seizure of various items deemed "pornographic" in nature, which would have included books, photographs, and several statues of nymphs and satyrs "frolicking" together. During the search, detectives found the statues in a secret storage room behind the living room bookcase, whose existence Tamar had revealed to the Juvenile detectives.
Since it contained all the ingredients of a big juicy Hollywood scandal, the story generated a huge amount of local public interest: a wealthy and prominent, dapper Hollywood physician, his Marilyn Monroe lookalike underage daughter, orgiastic parties, reams of pornographic material and art, some of which was stashed in secret rooms, more than a dozen Hollywood High School teenagers named in a sex ring, a secret abortion, and, just in time for the trial, the showmen defense attorneys of their day, Jerry "Get Me" Giesler and his ringmaster partner Robert Neeb.
A preliminary hearing was held in municipal court a week after the arrest, and based on the testimony of Tamar, who remained under Juvenile Hall detention, and other witnesses present in the bedroom at the time the acts occurred, Dad was bound over to the Superior Court for trial on two felony counts: incest and oral copulation. On December 8, 1949, a jury of eight women and four men were selected and the Superior Court trial of State of California vs. Dr. George Hill Hodel began.
The prosecution was confident because they felt they had an unusually strong case. Normally, in a charge of incest you rarely have more than the one complaining victim/witness. Parents generally do not have sex with their children in front of or with other people. Prosecutor Ritzi had three adult witnesses present in Father's bedroom, two of whom allegedly had participated in the sexual acts. Ritzi also had damning statements and admissions made by the defendant that he was "delving into the mystery of love and the universe" and that "these things must have happened." Also, the DA had Dad's statements — a potential "dream defense" — where he told detectives the whole thing was "unclear, like a dream. I can't figure out whether someone is hypnotizing me or I am hypnotizing someone." Ritzi also had the detectives' "loot" from the search of the Franklin House.
The first witness called to testify was Tamar. Because of her age, newspaper photographs of her were not permitted, but the attending press were overly colorful in their verbal descriptions of the young victim, characterizing Tamar in separate articles as "sultry," "blonde, blue-eyed, and loquacious," "precocious," and "gesturing dramatically and frequently to the jurors."
Tamar, questioned by prosecutor William Ritzi on direct examination, testified that on the evening of July 1, 1949, she returned home from a date. She changed her clothes and went into her father's bedroom wearing a green smock, blue jeans, gold slippers, and a brassiere. Present in her father's bedroom were her father, his friend Fred Sexton, and two adult women, Barbara Sherman, age twenty-two, and Mrs. Corrine Tarin, age twenty-seven. Tamar drank a tumbler full of sherry, and then Fred Sexton undressed her and committed an act of oral copulation. She testified that her father then performed both oral sex and an act of intercourse and was followed by Barbara Sherman, who orally copulated with her.
Tamar's direct testimony was followed by what the newspapers described as "two blistering days of cross examination by Giesler's partner, attorney Robert A. Neeb." On the second day, with Tamar just about to leave the witness stand, Neeb begged, "Just one more question, Your Honor." He stepped in close to the young teenager on the stand, turned and looked into the eyes of the jurors, paused for dramatic effect, and then demanded of the witness:
Tamar, do you recall a conversation you had with a roommate at the Franklin House by the name of Joe Barrett? And do you recall, in that conversation, making the following statement to him: "This house has secret passages. My father is the murderer of the Black Dahlia. My father is going to kill me and all the rest of the members of this household because he has a lust for blood. He is insane"?
The courtroom was shocked into silence as all eyes focused on the witness, awaiting her response. My sister's eyes darted to meet the eyes of her father, who was seated with defense counsel, wearing his most conservative dark suit. Then they quickly averted. Trembling and fearful with her eyes downcast, she could not speak. Ordered by the judge to answer, she simply stated, "I don't remember saying that to Joe."
The following morning, December 17, the Daily News reported the dramatic testimony: "Girl Accused of Trying to Pin Dahlia Murder on Dad." The Los Angeles Mirror's article of the same day declared, "Girl's Story Is 'Fantasy,' Court Hears." The article read, in part:
The 14-year-old daughter of a prominent Hollywood physician "plotted his downfall" with fantastic stories, including one that he killed Elizabeth (Black Dahlia) Short, his attorney, Robert A. Neeb Jr., sought to prove today.
Neeb hammered at the "fantasies" of blonde Tamar Hodel in her cross-examination at the morals trial of Dr. George Hill Hodel, 38.
Dr. Hodel, who has denied the charges, will seek to show that his daughter is a known "pathological liar" in matters dealing with her alleged relations with men.
Exhibit 14
Tamar, age 15 (1950)
Over the next few days the court saw more prosecution witnesses take the stand. Corrine Tarin testified to being present in the bedroom, but denied she had participated in any way. She told the jurors that she saw Tamar kiss Fred Sexton "very passionately," and then Sexton, in the presence of herself and George Hodel, undressed Tamar, orally copulated with her, and then had sexual intercourse with her. She admitted that after Sexton completed the act, Doctor Hodel pulled him off Tamar, they had heated, angry words, and he ordered Sexton out of the bedroom. Tarin remained in the bedroom while Hodel performed cunnilingus on his daughter and began an act of sexual intercourse. She completed her testimony by saying, "I am the mother of two daughters, and at that point, I became very disturbed, and I walked out of the bedroom."
Fred Sexton was called and reluctantly testified that the four of them were in the bedroom, that Tamar was undressed, and he "kissed her and attempted to have sex with her, but did not complete the act."
The third adult present in the bedroom, twenty-two-year-old Barbara Sherman, was called but refused to testify before the jury. Sherman recanted her earlier statements to the police as well as the sworn testimony she had provided at the October 14 preliminary hearing. Prosecutor Ritzi threatened her with arrest if she refused to tell the truth, but still Sherman would not cooperate. She was immediately arrested in the courthouse and charged with perjury and morals violations based on the fact that she had previously provided sworn testimony to having performed sexual acts with Tamar and to having witnessed the sexual acts on Tamar performed by both her father and Sexton. Juvenile officer M. H. Brimson was then called to testify to "finding the pornographic literature and lewd statuary in the mansion at 5121 Franklin Avenue."