Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia

Last updated

Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia
Root of evil.jpg
Presentation
Hosted by
  • Yvette Gentile
  • Rasha Pecoraro
LanguageEnglish
UpdatesWeekly
Production
ProductionZak Levitt [1]
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes8
Publication
Original releaseFebruary 13 
April 3, 2019
Provider
Related
Related shows I Am the Night

The Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia or simply, Root of Evil, is an American investigative crime podcast covering the Black Dahlia murder and suspect George Hodel. [2] The podcast was produced as a partnership between Cadence13 and TNT as a companion to the fictional television series I Am the Night . [2] [1] The podcast was created by Zak Levitt, and hosted by Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, George Hodel's great-granddaughters. [1] [3] It features interviews with those who were impacted by the murder, including Hodel's relatives. [4] [5] The podcast charted in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, reaching the number one spot in the United States on April 21, 2019. [6] [7]

Contents

Background

In 1947, Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia, was brutally murdered. [1] The murder remains unsolved; however, George Hodel, a surgeon, was one of the primary suspects. After George Hodel's death in 1999, his son, Steve Hodel, a former homicide detective with the Los Angeles County Police Department, desired to learn more about his father and discovered information leading him to believe that George Hodel was the killer of the Black Dahlia. [7] [8]

The podcast is hosted by Hodel's great-granddaughters, Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, the daughters of Fauna Hodel. Throughout the podcast, the sisters interview their relatives, discuss 70 years of family history, and reveal the ways the family changed after the Black Dahlia case. [9] After her death in September 2017, Fauna Hodel's daughters began to sort through the things she left behind. In the podcast, Gentile and Pecoraro analyze audio recordings between Fauna and her mother, Tamar, George's daughter. Gentile and Pecoraro also reflect upon the weight that the Hodel name carries. [10] This is the first time that the family members have publicly spoken about their past. [11] [12] Gentile and Pecoraro believe that their great-grandfather did kill Elizabeth Short. [13]

Episodes

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal air date
1"Saved By The Ghetto"46:25February 13, 2019 (2019-02-13)
2"A Skilled Surgeon"40:16February 20, 2019 (2019-02-20)
3"George's Gift"43:23February 27, 2019 (2019-02-27)
4"The Minotaur"47:19March 6, 2019 (2019-03-06)
5"Traumatic Reenactment"58:07March 13, 2019 (2019-03-13)
6"Supposin' I Did Kill The Black Dahlia"68:56March 20, 2019 (2019-03-20)
7"The Troubling Questions"42:09March 27, 2019 (2019-03-27)
8"You Only Have One Family"46:44April 3, 2019 (2019-04-03)

Awards and nominations

The podcast was nominated for "Best Crime Podcast" at the 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, but lost the award to Man in the Window. [14] [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Dahlia</span> American murder victim (1924–1947)

Elizabeth Short, known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized owing to the gruesome nature of the crime, which included the mutilation of her corpse, which was bisected at the waist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Black Dahlia Murder (band)</span> American melodic death metal band

The Black Dahlia Murder is an American melodic death metal band from Waterford, Michigan, formed in 2001. Their name is derived from the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, often referred to as Black Dahlia. Currently, the band consists of lead vocalist Brian Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and guitarists Brandon Ellis and Ryan Knight. The Black Dahlia Murder has undergone various lineup changes, with Trevor Strnad and Eschbach remaining the only constant members, until the former's death in 2022, which then saw Eschbach take over lead vocals.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dahlia Lithwick</span> Canadian-American lawyer, writer and journalist

Dahlia Lithwick is a Canadian-American lawyer, writer, and journalist. Lithwick is currently a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate. She primarily writes about law and politics in the United States. She writes "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" and has covered the Microsoft trial and other legal issues for Slate. In 2018, the Sidney Hillman Foundation awarded Lithwick with the Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism noting that she "has been the nation's best legal commentator for two decades".

Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media markets.

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<i>Black Dahlia</i> (video game) 1998 video game

Black Dahlia is an interactive movie point-and-click adventure game that was released on February 25, 1998 by Take-Two Interactive. Black Dahlia is the last of the three Take-Two developed full-motion video-based adventure games, the other two being Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller and Ripper.

Many Black Dahlia suspects, or persons of interest, have been proposed as the unidentified killer of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", who was murdered in 1947. Many conspiracy theories have been advanced, but none have been found to be completely persuasive by experts, and some are not taken seriously at all.

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India Joy Eisley is an American actress. On television, she is known for her roles as Ashley Juergens in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008–2013), Audrina in the Lifetime film My Sweet Audrina (2016), and Fauna Hodel in the TNT series I Am the Night (2019). Her films include Underworld: Awakening (2012), Kite (2014), and Social Suicide (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Hodel</span> US physician, suspected Black Dahlia killer

George Hill Hodel Jr. was an American physician and suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. He was never formally charged with the crime. He was also accused of raping his daughter, Tamar Hodel, but was acquitted of that crime. He lived overseas several times, primarily between 1950 and 1990 in the Philippines.

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Fauna Hodel was an American author and motivational speaker, who wrote the true-crime memoir One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel, documenting her unusual beginnings and the connection to her grandfather, George Hodel, a prime suspect in the infamous Black Dahlia murder mystery.

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One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel is a memoir and true crime book by Fauna Hodel written with J. R. Briamonte. The story documents her connection to her grandfather, George Hodel, a prime suspect in the infamous Black Dahlia murder mystery. The book inspired I Am the Night, a 2019 six-episode limited television series, with the part of Fauna played by India Eisley.

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References

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