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hey weirdos I'm Elina I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid yeah it is it is how are you
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today brother I'm feeling wonderful we just got to hang out with Alvin and Fran from affirmative murder I love them and
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that is a day brightener it is we got to it sounded kind of like you said day brightener it can be a dayb brainer as
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well I might have I'm tired I started to respond and then I was like did did she
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say what I thought she said I I meant day brightener yeah maybe I said day brainer maybe I'm not going to I'm not
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going to say I didn't sorry to call you out I knew what you meant but I was like
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wait a second actually I'm tired and you know it's just like I'm having a hard time coming up with responses 2024 is is
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not off to a terrible start by any means it's just like January was 435 days long
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and quite literally it's just been like a lot of stuff like it's just been busy yeah super busy but like fun busy yeah
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like good busy yeah really not a lot of like bad stuff going on so I'm not going
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to complain it's just like is tired cuz there's just a lot going on well we stayed at the board in house earlier
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this week too and that like totally [ __ ] up your sleep schedule because we did not sleep yes we stayed with um
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Karen and Sabrina from two girls one ghost we're just like hanging out with podcasters but we love them all I know
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and then like next week I think we're going to hang out with Jordan from the nighttime podcast like virtually
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obviously we're not going to Canada but we would love to I'd love to I know I don't know why that's obvious that we're
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not going to Canada like obviously not I keep trying to get Jordan and his whole
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fam to come to Salem oh my God I'm like come on down come come in come in here and let's go I want to go to Salem
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yesterday me too I love Salem I also want a new tattoo as do I which those two things are synonymous because
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tattoos in Salem yep always yeah always and forever yeah yeah hi Matt and Ryan hi Matt Ryan You're great and Jill in oh
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and I love Jill yeah yeah Black Veil tattoo yeah great yeah all right um I have a sad sad case today
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awesome and you might be mad at me if you're listening I'm really sorry it's unsolved oh no I know and it's really
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frustrating that it's unsolved but it happened in the 20s in the 20s so or no it didn't happen in the 20s that's a lie
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it happened kidding it was like the 30s in the 30s it was like I don't know it it was around that time but it was it
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was old timey so fingerprints and [ __ ] just like weren't good they tried what are you going to do this is why these
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are fascinating though cuz somehow it the case at least moves along at some kind of
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capacity any kind of forensic yeah and a lot of different [ __ ] ends up going on
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after this and I just want to say right off the bat this is a brutal one so just
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be ready for that hold on hold on to your butts we haven't said that in a while I'm holding on I like that all
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right so we're going to be talking about Georgette bardorf today Georgette Elise
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bardorf was born in New York New York on May 6th 1924 she was the second of two children born to George and constant
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bauerdorf as the daughter of a Wall Street financier and an independent oil tycoon because you know I [ __ ] love
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an oil tycoon I was going to say my goodness Georgette was born into New York high society and of course because
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of that she was afforded all the finest opportunities in life when she reached school age her parents enrolled her at
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St agathos School for Girls sagos I feel like you have to say it like that sagos
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I like how it like the voice changes and the tone Chang St Agatha's School for Girls it's just like it's not St
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Agatha's School for Girls It's sanaga school for girls that leads me to believe that it's a little bit of an
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intense place I don't even know oh okay I thought I thought you knew and you were like it is not Whimsical it's no
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all right I mean it's just a for boing name it really is yeah St agathos School for Girls uh it was just a prep school
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on New York Upper West Side that had been established to prepare the children of elite families for future ivy league
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educations it was very ho toi the elite you know when georgette's mother unfortunately passed away in 1935 the
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family ended up moving to Los Angeles where Georgette continued her uh Education First at the Marlboro school
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and then at Westlake School for Girls School for Girls School for Girls where she graduated in
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1941 her graduation from high school actually came just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor oh wow wow and
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it was at the onset of the US really getting involved in World War II what a time yeah but like many Americans the
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US's involvement in the war really inspired a great deal of patriotism in Georgette who immediately looked for
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opportunities to contribute to the war effort just help out do her thing let's go girls exactly yeah although they
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weren't expected to join the military many of Hollywood's biggest stars use their Fame to support the troops by
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promoting war bonds and performing with the United service organization among plenty of other things the Uso The Uso
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exactly for those who couldn't or didn't want to travel local servicemen's clubs
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offered the opportunity to contribute and in Los Angeles there was no more prominent servicemen's Club than the
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Hollywood canteen the Hollywood canteen there is a Gilmore Girls episode where Rory Gilmore is joining the DAR and she
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has to make a function happen and she makes a place look like the Hollywood k and everyone has to dress up in vintage
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clothing you have no idea as soon as I read the words Hollywood canteen I said make sure you take a breath after you
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introduce that thought because this [ __ ] this [ __ ] Elena is going to go off about more girls it's true and they
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have did you see me I literally said it and then I took a breath and looked right up at you she moved back like I'm
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I'm going give you space Here's the stage here it is and they even have the triplets sing on stage that are like um
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meet me on or don't go under the apple tree with anyone else but me anyone else but me
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sing it sister uh yeah it's like I that's one of I that like it's wild because the the
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aesthetic aesthetic of that is just primo and when you think about what was actually happening at the time you're
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like like and it's just like and people have like it's like a theme yeah you're like damn but it was a place for people
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to go to like I hate to say it there's no better way to say it to get away from all of that yeah to kind exactly to like
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escape the what was going on on the outside because man people were R through it was Bleak quite a bit exactly
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so organized by Betty Davis and John Garfield two of Hollywood's biggest stars at the time Davis Betty Davis
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honey the Hollywood canteen offered enlisted men and men of Allied troops a place to unwind enjoy some music some
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dancing and a few drinks honey while they were on leave the canteen actually operated in entirely on volunteer
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support from the building materials to the personnel and it featured nightly appearances and performances from the
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biggest stars of the day like uh Abbott and Costello Glenn Miller and his orchestra Boris carof and Elizabeth
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Taylor oh damn the Hollywood canteen baby I [ __ ] love it now while many of these Stars performed on stage at the
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club it was also just as likely that they would act as bartenders servers dishwashers Cooks
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cigarette girls wow like all of them just banded together out of this sense of and patriotism I love it I didn't
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know about that part I didn't know about that part either and I think that's so cool that like you would see maybe I
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don't know but you would see like maybe Elizabeth Taylor up on stage and then she'd just be like serving you drinks
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afterwards yeah like that's wild where else can you see that yeah On Any Given night patrons could expect uh to find
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the likes of Rita Hayworth serving tables shut up Shirley Temple behind the bar serving Dr yeah which I was like is
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she old enough and then I was like she did grow she's perpetually a child just forever and even Spencer Tracy or humphy
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Bogart washing dishes isn't that really cool that's cool now historically the Hollywood canteen is remembered for
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their contributions to troop morale and the novelty of seeing Hollywood really getting their hands dirty just getting
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into it there but there were a small number of ordinary young women just kidding they were like ordinary they
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were way better than ordinary but they just weren't stars of course just like regular you and me kind of people who
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were brought on at the canteen as hostesses while the position was probably way more exciting on paper more
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often than not the hostesses and Junior Hostess positions typically involv tending to the less glamorous service
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industry jobs that literally never would have been assigned to the volunteer celebrities of course uh the
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expectations of the hostesses would range from welcoming patrons dancing with servicemen to cleaning bath rooms
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and mopping the floor at the end of the night which you know is a job exactly like maybe they the Hollywood Elite
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would go back and wash a couple dishes but I don't think they were cleaning the bathrooms I don't think they were
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cleaning the toilets to my knowledge at least who knows but all while maintaining a look of poison Elegance on
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par with the likes of Doris Day and Joan Crawford like you had to look the part and be willing to go clean some toilets
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if you were not an actress but still for a young woman with dreams of making it big in Hollywood there were few
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opportunities that were more exciting or had more career potential than Landing a
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job with the Hollywood oh I imagine you're literally rubbing elbows with the biggest stars of the day literally your
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bet Davis is out there yeah like come on Jo Crawford Rita a Hayworth baby Elizabeth Taylor Charley temple shley
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temple Humphrey bot after graduating from high school Georgette found work at the Los Angeles Times classifi counter
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but what she really dreamed of what her big aspirations in life were was to become a film actress a star baby a star
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honey and from her perspective a position at the canteen seemed like a great way to support the war effort
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while also networking with the Stars so she was really thrilled when she was accepted as volunteer and she was
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scheduled to work on Wednesday nights alongside one of her closer friends June zegler journalist Katie Dow wrote the
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hostess job suited Georgia perfectly she had a big smile and a welcoming charm oh
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I love that I know she's really pretty if you look up pictures of her I'm going to look up so the job Ed Georgette to
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feel like she was doing her part to support the troops but as a young woman she also appreciated the opportunity to
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dance and socialize with young soldiers who were coming in to unwind per the rules of the canteen though the
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hostesses were actually banned from giving out their personal information or like they weren't allowed to leave the
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club with the patrons meaning like you're not here to pick up dates essentially bummer but journalist Dow
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notes Georgette like so many others got around this by meeting up with men outside of work she was known to give
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soldiers keys to her apartment if they wanted to crash there always on the downstairs sofa while she slept upstairs
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friend said and she loved dating good for her good for her but never give your keys to anybody yeah no I just mean like
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you love dating like good for you Georgette you're young you're you're out here in the world like yeah yeah don't
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give your keys to to strange men yeah don't do that even if they seem nice yeah you don't know them Ted Bundy
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seemed nice to some people exactly so so don't do it don't do it but georgette's
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uh generosity toward these young men was a kind of extension of her sense of patriotism whenever anyone would
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question while why she was so willing to share everything with strangers she would tell them I think if these boys
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are willing to fight for us we ought to do anything we can for them that's a super nice thought it's and it's so
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pure-hearted and like obviously I don't think Georgette had seen a lot of the world at this point no you know and it's
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like this is also like you know a different time exactly like now we're like no like no no one is like above you
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know that kind of stuff like you got to you can't you can't be handing keys to people no but like things were different
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in different times and like this probably wasn't seen as that wild back then you know what I mean and it's like
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and especially with the war effort going on she really that was like a real sentiment absolutely that you should do
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what you can for these these people who are willing to risk their lives to you know fight for your country that of and
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I'm sure you're thinking if these men are willing to put their lives on like the front end to protect our country
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they're not why would they hurt me yeah they're not going to hurt me they're fighting for our country and it's like
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well anybody can be a bad person right unfortunately now it's also possible that this Behavior was a means of
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establishing herself as an independent person of course having come from a very wealthy family Georgette almost
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certainly didn't need to work and as a young woman in the early 40s she would have been expected or she would not have
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been expected to pay for or transport herself from to and from dates but she did both and she would even pay for her
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dates meal or whatever activity they were going to do at that time what a badass kind of like to demonstrate her
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autonomy and Independence oh hell yeah she's like I work exactly I work and I can afford this yeah no while these
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things would seem pretty normal today like you go dutch on dates or a girl will pay for a guy vice versa whatever
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at that time oh this was this was unheard of and certain parts of her behavior did obviously carry a certain
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amount of risk not only because her actions defied convention but also because she was revealing her wealth and
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status to strangers who might be willing or wanting to take advantage yeah absolutely but still whenever any
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friends would Express concern she would just dismiss them confident that it was the right thing to do completely naive
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to the dangers oh that hurts my heart because I know something bad is going to happen here and it's like you can tell
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that it was truly just her thinking that the world wasn't as dark a place as it really is exactly sad coming from such a
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pure place like I said earlier yeah so on the afternoon of October 11th 1944 Georgette met up with her father's
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secretary Rose Gilbert and they had some lunch together they went to the beauty parlor they did a little shopping it
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seems like they were like friendly yeah and they parted ways a little after 2 p.m. Georgette had actually just bought
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a plane ticket to visit her new boyfriend Jerry Brown a soldier who was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso Texas
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according to Rose Gilbert Georgette was quote in good health and gay Spirits after her lunch with rose Georgette went
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home to change and she headed to her shift at the Hollywood canteen when June her friend arrived at the canteen she
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found Georgette in the parking lot knitting in her car that's so cute while she waited for her friend to arrive for
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their shift to start June later told reporters she seemed very happy but a little nervous but Georgette explained
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she was nervous because was really excited about going to El Paso in the coming days for the most part their
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shift at the canteen was pretty ordinary but June did tell police that there was
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a quote dark husky soldier who had been harassing Georgette all throughout the night and Who quote insisted on
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jitterbugging with Georgette against her wishes that sentence is everything jitterbugging with someone against their
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wishes I know that is an actual thing I know that Jitter bugging is a dance so doing that against somebody's wishes is
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not awesome at all no of course not but the way that that sentence structure is laid out I just have to point out cuz
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we're all feeling it we are that that is a funny sentence no I'm so glad you did
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because I was thinking the exact same thing yeah like it's just the sentence actual thing that happened not funny
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sentence funny like Jitter bugging with someone against their wishes seems like it would be like a funny thing it seems
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like it would be a card and Cards Against yeah like like I'm going to Jitterbug you against your wishes you
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know like you seem like you're just being like haha LOL but no it's awful in real life yeah it's not it's not great
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at all so just again not good sentence hilarious now according to June zegler Georgette liked
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the waltzes the dreamy kind and I had never seen her Jitterbug before I love that she loved the dreamy waltzes yeah
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she seems like such a romantic oh my God she does I love it she really speaks to
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my soul I feel that way I don't think I would Jitterbug with people either like she does she seems like she's just that
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girl like she seems like she would love Lana Del re if she was around now doesn't she like she would be a
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Summertime Sadness kind of kind of girl speak to my soul some more she sounds cool she does sound cool I would want to
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be her friend I do want to be her friend yeah now at several points throughout the evening June saw her friend politely
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declining this man's invitations but Georgette did finally give in I think it sounds like just to make this guy go
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away she was like fine I'll [ __ ] Jitter she absolutely should have had to do no that's [ __ ] up but after that
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there were no more incidents and the evening wrapped up with Georgette leaving through the side door around
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11:30 that night and driving herself home as far as anybody could remember she was alone when she left the canteen
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and there was nobody in her car when she pulled out of the lot okay just her now
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this is really awful the next morning October 12th Lulu Atwood arrived at the El palatio apartments in West Hollywood
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where she worked daily cleaning the apartments and the Spanish style apartment complex when Lulu reached the
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bower dwarf apartment she found the front door unlocked and slightly a jar so immediately that was pretty weird
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yeah so she knocked a couple times before entering and she called out anyone here before she finally did go in
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because nobody was answering although the apartment appeared to be vacant as she expected it would be Lulu felt like
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she could hear water dripping somewhere on the second floor so she went up the stairs to investigate and assuming that
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obviously the dripping was coming from the bathroom she pushed open the bathroom door
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and discovered the lifeless body of Georgette bardorf flying face down in the tub her face and head half submerged
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in a shallow pool of pink tinged water ooh Lulu started screaming like could not believe what she was what was in
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front of her and that brought up the janitor at the El palatio who heard her screaming and it also happened to be her
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husband oh wow they cleaned together and the two called police investigators arrived at the she scene a short time
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later and after a brief survey of the apartment they initially suspected the death was accidental I'm sorry what they
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assumed Georgette had slipped in the bathroom and hit her head when she fell hence the blood that had seeped into the
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water I don't know about that however that theory quickly went out of the window when one of the officers noticed
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that each apartment had a motion sensor light outside the front door that went off whenever someone walked by ah and he
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was like he realized the light outside of georgette's door f to turn on when anyone was near he was like why was that
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going on so he pulled up a chair to investigate the fixture and when he reached for the bulb he realized it was
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not malfunctioning but had in fact been quote carefully unscrewed two turns to the left just loose enough to no longer
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automatically activate oh that's Sinister it gives me it immediately reminds me of strangers yeah when they
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turn the bulb yeah yep and it won't turn on obviously and he turns it back and it's like what the [ __ ] like why did
00:20:00
that happen which for some reason they just like in that movie it drives me crazy that they don't immediately leave
00:20:05
yeah I'd be like bye if I found that somebody had done that [ __ ] that bye see you but that is Sinister so Sinister now
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whether it had been done before or after georgette's death wasn't exactly clear but either way somebody wanted to make
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sure the apartment would be dark and that they wouldn't be seen either entering or exiting once they determined
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that the death was no accident other aspects of the scene began to make more sense
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after pulling georgette's body from the tub investigators noticed she had what appeared to be a piece of washcloth or
00:20:35
bath towel stuffed deeply into her mouth what in the adjoining bedroom there were
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blood stains on the floor which looked like somebody had tried to clean up though investigators couldn't determine
00:20:46
whether they had resulted from the attack or not but they assumed most likely yeah they also found blood stains
00:20:52
on the bed and the room was in total disarray this is a quote the bed clothes were pulled back Georgette clothing was
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scattered over the bed and chairs and the contents of her purse were strewn over the floor oh that's so chilling
00:21:04
which I was like but you guys like walked through the bedroom first to the bathroom and you were like wow messy
00:21:10
girl must have fallen in the bathroom she's just she you know Blood on the floor and then it took the light outside
00:21:17
for you to like what what there were blood stains on the bed they're saying on the bed on floor come on like what so
00:21:25
now going to the motive like why did this happen yeah whatever the killer had been looking for when they searched
00:21:30
georgette's purse it was not money there was actually a large amount of expensive
00:21:34
jewelry on the dresser and a ton of other valuable items that were really easily accessible all throughout the
00:21:39
apartment that's even more unsettling none of which had been touched like nothing yeah among the things that had
00:21:45
fallen out of the purse was a note in georgette's handwriting that read June and I have date to go to the Hollywood
00:21:50
canteen tonight Wednesday and it's just like like that's so sad it's like a cute
00:21:55
little just like plans for the future also missing was the 1936 green coupe that Georgette shared with her sister
00:22:03
Connie and the keys were nowhere to be found in the apartment oh other than the disheveled state of the bedroom though
00:22:10
there didn't appear to be a struggle anywhere else in the apartment and it didn't seem like Georgette had
00:22:14
entertained any guests after arriving home from the Hollywood canteen okay so that was all a little bit weird cuz like
00:22:20
you said everyone said that they didn't see her leave with anyone and they didn't see anyone in her car exactly
00:22:25
given the victim's high profile and her con however tenuous to well-known Hollywood
00:22:30
figures investigators quickly mobilized to investigate the murder luckily in his
00:22:35
first uh press conference inspector William Penrose told reporters there are still a few elements of the mystery that
00:22:41
I can't explain indicating that he would provide more information following the results of an autopsy smart now when
00:22:48
detectives were able to reach George bardorf by phone in New York yeah he insisted his daughter's death had to be
00:22:54
an accident telling police she suffered from cramps and heartaches and refused to go to a doctor so he thought this was
00:23:01
like a medical issue or something like that and they were like they had to tell him what had actually happened to her
00:23:08
the autopsy definitely determined that georgette's death was not an accident according to the county autopsy
00:23:14
technician Frank Webb despite being found face down in the water there was actually no evidence that Georgette had
00:23:20
uh died by Drowning rather she had died of quote strangulation from a wedge of towel stuffed down her throat so that is
00:23:30
Bleak that is horrific she suffocated suffocated shov down her throat yeah oh like it makes you have to take a deep
00:23:41
breath I can't even imagine Oh that's oh I can't even that is so brutal and vile
00:23:48
that's the thing that's like really brutal it is web estimated that the death had occurred about 8 to 12 hours
00:23:55
prior to When georgette's body was discovered and her stomach contents indicated that she'd eaten a snack of
00:24:01
canned string beads and melon an hour or two before she died so it seemed like she just left work went home had a snack
00:24:09
had a snack she had changed into her PJs like like it was getting ready for bed really it seemed like nor so
00:24:16
somebody just came in this house now trigger warning for sexual assault here in addition to the cause of death the
00:24:23
autopsy noted that Georgette had experienced a rather violent sexual assault before her death which explained
00:24:29
why she was discovered wearing only her pajama top while the bottoms were found at the foot of the bed she had abrasions
00:24:36
on her hands and her face and the knuckles on her right hand quote were smashed and bruised other injuries
00:24:42
included a large contusion on the right side of her head quote as could be caused by a fist blow oh my God and an a
00:24:49
similar injury on her abdomen on her right thigh and this is particularly Bleak web found a quote bruised imprint
00:24:56
of a hand even into the fingernail marks piercing the skin my God this person is
00:25:02
like a monster like a a Rabbid animal literally what the [ __ ] and like that's from like holding her down you assume
00:25:10
and like the force with which they must have been holding her someone to bruise down to the fingernails and it seems
00:25:16
like she fought like to nail for her Knuckles to be all bruised and smashed like she was oh and that's even worse
00:25:24
and she had clearly tried to get away and that's why there were too I'm like did anyone hear anything yeah oh no yep
00:25:33
from what investigators could tell Georgette had left the Hollywood canteen around 11:30 that night and arrived home
00:25:39
about 10 or 15 minutes later where like I said earlier she changed into pajamas and made herself a snack just getting
00:25:46
ready for bed yeah and this timeline was supported by georgette's downstairs neighbor who told police he heard the
00:25:52
sound of high heels on the floor just a little after 11:30 followed shortly by a
00:25:57
quote crash as if somebody dropped a tray or something and then silence so you can understand why he didn't
00:26:02
investigate your neighbors drop [ __ ] all the time oh yeah if you live in an apartment building you hear [ __ ] like
00:26:06
that you're not calling the police for every like small like a crash that you're probably waiting a second to be
00:26:11
like I hear anything else like maybe that was just someone dropping something according to her friends Georgette was a
00:26:17
creature of habit and this was all in keeping with her bedtime routine which is why everyone who knew her insisted
00:26:23
that she wouldn't have let her attack her in the apartment willingly at that that hour they quote swore Georgette
00:26:29
would have never entertained while in her pajamas oh so like she wouldn't have opened the door in her pajamas yeah she
00:26:34
was ready to go to sleep this is this seems like it was just she was doing what she does before bed yeah and
00:26:39
somebody surprised her it sounds like sounds like and you want to say like did somebody break in but then you think she
00:26:46
had given her keys to people previously ke unfortunately unfortunately around 2:30 a.m. now this is when I'm
00:26:53
like another of georgette's neighbors was awoken when he heard a woman scream scaming oh come on in one of the nearby
00:26:59
apartments he later told a reporter I sat right up in bed and listened it was a feminine voice screaming stop stop
00:27:06
you're killing me then I didn't hear anymore and I decided it was just a family row it was just a family row and
00:27:14
she's yelling stop stop you're killing me even if it's a family row that's called domestic violence [ __ ] and like
00:27:22
call someone it's a different time people didn't want to get involved in [ __ ] it's a different time but you still
00:27:27
have a godamn brain in your head don't you stop stop you're killing me I'm sorry I hear someone yelling stop stop
00:27:34
you're killing me I at least calling to be like I don't know what's going on but
00:27:37
this is where I heard this this is what I heard this was unfortunately the last time anyone would hear anything from
00:27:43
George up Bard oh that's awful that's awful truly that's like really upsetting that everything about it is upsetting
00:27:49
but hearing that somebody heard her screaming stop stop your killing and for them their reason to be I thought it was
00:27:56
a you mean you thought it was somebody beating their wife and I just didn't want to get involved and you just didn't
00:28:00
want to get involved in that when she's saying you're killing me come on dude on another level so if
00:28:06
you heard the next day that some wife had been beaten to death by her husband would you be like well it was a family
00:28:11
row Y no no not at all that irritates me same after the scene was processed and statements were taken investigators
00:28:19
determined the only things that were missing were $100 from georgette's purse and Connie's green coue the car that
00:28:25
they both shared the car was discovered actually later that afternoon about 12 miles from the apartment on St uh St P
00:28:32
Pedro Street excuse me out of gas with the keys still in the ignition the car was immediately processed for
00:28:38
fingerprint evidence to be compared with the quote unquote thousands of fingerprints collected from the
00:28:43
apartment with the hope that they could later match the prince to a suspect yeah
00:28:47
they're hoping it's somebody who had been in the apartment before left fingerprints this time yeah and then
00:28:52
they're on the car which good police works for the time like aside from the blood evidence on the floor that the
00:28:59
killer had apparently tried to clean up there was also a number of cigarettes stubbed out on the living room floor oh
00:29:05
that also likely belonged to the killer since Georgette didn't smoke yeah and most importantly her diary was
00:29:11
discovered among the scattered bed clothes wow Georgette was known to keep detailed records of her dating and
00:29:16
social activities so investigators hoped that the book which contained scores of
00:29:20
references to civilians and servicemen would provide a as a lead to identify the killer like any kind of lead if
00:29:27
she's keeping those kind of Records based on everything investigators had learned about georgette's life they
00:29:32
concluded that the killer was not someone she was close to but was more likely somebody who she had recently met
00:29:38
and extended some amount of generosity of or Hospitality towards which when you think about that her killer was likely
00:29:46
someone she met just recently and was kind to yeah and had like maybe given somewhere to stay maybe help them out in
00:29:54
some way wild yeah absolutely Wild Rose Gilbert her father's secretary told investigators about georgette's tendency
00:30:02
to give rides to soldiers saying she had the means to do it and she was interested in servicemen she used to
00:30:07
show them the sights and the and foot the bills a given what they' learned investigators focused their
00:30:12
investigation on the men that she'd been seen with at the canteen on the night of
00:30:16
the murder starting with the soldier who kept cutting in on her all the time and
00:30:20
forcing her to Jitterbug with him yeah although the pool of potential suspects was really quite large they're being
00:30:26
solders actually work to the benefit of the investigators because they could narrow their focus as Dow points out
00:30:33
quote any soldier who missed curfew would have been noted down as going awall which allowed detectives to rule
00:30:40
out large pools of suspects which that's pretty interesting yeah that is a good way of doing it it is yeah this included
00:30:46
the dark and husky soldier who had harassed Georgette all night later identified as Captain Cosmo vulpi oh he
00:30:53
was confirmed as having been back at the base during the window that Georgette was beli to have been murdered oh
00:30:58
interesting he was just kind of a creep not Mur was just being a creep that night but not a murdering creep yes
00:31:03
having ruled out so many men so quickly within a week of the murder investigators found themselves at what
00:31:09
appeared to be a dead end in the investigation with their most significant EV evidence fingerprints
00:31:14
collected from the scene proving to be virtually worthless yeah the only match between the prince in the car and the
00:31:22
prince in the apartment were georgettes oh man yeah and the only suspects they had thus far Two Soldiers and part-time
00:31:30
janitors at the El palatio Apartments had offered solid aliis and they were released from custody soon after being
00:31:36
brought in for questioning so every time it seems like you know like June tells them well there was this weird soldier
00:31:43
that was like forcing her to dance with him all night they check that out he's got an alibi he checks out they find
00:31:47
these two janitors who also happen to be soldiers Alibi yep now after less than a
00:31:52
week the large pool of serviceman suspects had been Whitted down to none and the theory of be the killer being a
00:31:58
soldier was actually pretty much abandoned oh wow about 5 days into the investigation detectives received a
00:32:04
letter from a soldier in Sacramento who claimed to have received a ride from Georgette between 11:00 p.m. and
00:32:10
midnight on the evening she was killed huh this Soldier explained that the driver of the car matched the
00:32:16
descriptions and photos that he'd seen of Georgette in the papers and she had excitedly told him about her plans to
00:32:22
visit her boyfriend in Texas in the days that followed oh so he had Insider after ring him out as aect investigators
00:32:30
were confident that the killer wasn't a sold from theen because Georgette had been alone when she picked this guy up
00:32:37
and presumably then drove home immediately after dropping him off yeah and look at her she's picking up
00:32:42
hitchiker yeah soldiers like she's even giving them rides yeah when the investigation began there seemed to be a
00:32:48
wealth of suspects and leads but just a week later nearly all of those leads and
00:32:52
suspects had been ruled out or shown themselves to be worthless and detectives found themselves at really a
00:32:57
loss for where to go next yeah the predominant theory was that georgette's killer had arrived to the apartment
00:33:03
shortly after she'd gotten back from work allowing her time to get into her pajamas and then eat something and then
00:33:10
after unscrewing the bulb outside the door he somehow convinced her to let him inside where he attacked and sexually
00:33:16
assaulted her in the bedroom stuffing a piece of towel in her mouth to prevent her from screaming and once he realized
00:33:23
that she'd been strangled to death the killer threw her body in the bathtub turned on the water tried to clean up
00:33:29
quickly and then turned out her purse in search of her car keys and flood the apartment and took the money too given
00:33:36
that a considerable number of values had been left behind it's most likely and the detectives believe that the motive
00:33:43
was most likely sexual assault yeah it seems like it was I think the car was incidental it was just to get away mhm
00:33:48
and I honestly think the fact that she died was not what this person intended I think yeah I think it was like oh [ __ ]
00:33:55
exactly yeah which is so sad so without any new evidence investigators began to consider
00:34:02
alternative theories as to how Georgette died and turned to the last person to have seen her alive who was Sergeant uh
00:34:08
Gordon adland the serviceman who she picked up hitchhiking on her way home he had been cleared as a suspect and
00:34:14
detectives didn't think he was involved but something he said in his letter made
00:34:18
them wonder if the crime had occurred somewhere else because according to him when Georgette let him out of the car
00:34:24
quote she turned north of boul Boulevard which would have taken her into the Hollywood Hills or into San Fernando
00:34:31
Valley instead of back to her apartment so she took a weird turn so investig investigators theorized that she could
00:34:39
have traveled to the valley to meet a serviceman that she had met earlier that evening and after attacking and killing
00:34:45
her quote he might have driven with her body in the car to her apartment to set a stage to baffle the later
00:34:53
investigation I don't know about that it's a little shaky for me that seems that's messy that's that's a messy
00:35:02
I don't like that one very tenuous yeah it it doesn't seem likely no I'd be shocked if that was the case I I don't
00:35:08
think it is the new theory was developed when detectives reversed their earlier belief and once again established that
00:35:14
the murder was uh most likely committed by a serviceman wow and this was based on the coroner's discovery that the
00:35:20
cloth removed from georgette's throat was actually an elastic cotton bandage not a washcloth the kind used by
00:35:27
servicemen in the military oh mhm interesting but the problem with this with this theory that you know she had
00:35:35
met somebody gotten killed and then they drove her back to the elsewhere like the
00:35:39
blood it ignored all the other evidence like you were just going to say in order
00:35:44
for this to have been the case one the killer would have had to spend time at the scene smoking cigarettes and
00:35:49
remember like you were just saying somebody transferred blood onto the floor and the bed and the bed which
00:35:55
obviously happened during a fight there absolutely and it also ignored the fact that Georgette had clearly been home
00:36:02
long enough to eat something before the kill said at least like an hour right and the fact that her neighbors had Hur
00:36:08
her on at least two occasions saying stop stop you're going to kill me exactly so given that this theory was
00:36:14
quickly abandoned glad but just the fact that they even like yeah like H you're ignoring
00:36:20
everything that's one of those you bring up out loud to like the rest of the investigators and as you're saying it
00:36:25
you go now I that this is definitely not the case but I had to say it out loud yeah as you're saying it you're like I'm
00:36:31
not going to finish that one no just had to say it to you guys let's not let it leave this room yeah while the second
00:36:37
theory had been dismissed as farfetched it still emphasized the fact that aside from the unusual nature of the bandage
00:36:44
investigators had almost no evidence or leads that would Point them toward the killer so as a result they began
00:36:49
grasping for any ideas that could explain the murder and possibly Point them in a New Direction 2 weeks after
00:36:56
George Jet's death Lieutenant Garner brown one of the lead investigators on the case held a press conference where
00:37:02
he laid out yet another new Theory according to him Georgette at times failed to draw the curtains and her
00:37:08
Slayer may have watched her preparations to retire before gaining entrance to the
00:37:12
Hollywood apartment where she was raped and strangled that that to me seems more
00:37:17
likely that seems possible to me for sure whatever the Killer's motivation or trigger event the trail quickly went
00:37:24
cold and by by the end of October the investigation had completely stalled out the story had all but disappeared from
00:37:31
papers but then on December 28th hey my birthday your birthday 22-year-old former Navy Seaman John Sumpter walked
00:37:39
into the FBI in uh their office in San Francisco I just walked into the FBI walked into the FBI and confessed to the
00:37:48
murder of Georgette bardorf according to him they had met on a street car earlier
00:37:54
that day he told her he was out of money and looking for work he said she told me
00:37:58
this was no time for a man to be broke because there were jobs everywhere that sounds like her yeah right and he
00:38:04
claimed that the two then arranged to meet another soldier at her apartment later that night and a little after
00:38:09
midnight when the other Soldier left georgette's apartment he attacked and killed her and then flood the
00:38:15
apartment any hope that he was the killer quickly faded after hearing his story which contradicted literally all
00:38:21
of the evidence and information collected so far inspector Frank aarn told the obviously all are repetitions
00:38:28
of the magazine article yeah referring to the magazine that he was quite literally holding when he entered the
00:38:34
FBI's office awesome yeah he's very mentally ill man yeah obviously it turned out he had been dishonorably
00:38:43
discharged from the military before being C uh court marshaled for check fraud and it appeared he was just
00:38:49
seeking attention when he confessed to the murder the next day the Press reported the incident describing him as
00:38:55
a quote slack J shab dressed man who had 20 cents in cash and a check for $1.5 million signed by himself and made to
00:39:04
cash in his pockets wow yeah okay two days later the LA County deputy sheriff held a press conference where he
00:39:11
declared Suter a phony and told reporters I'm not I'm satisfied he's not the man oh her poor family having to and
00:39:18
to get hope that maybe there was going to be some kind of Justice yeah exactly according to a spokesperson for the
00:39:25
Sheriff's Department Suter explained that he had confessed to the murder because he quote wanted to he said I
00:39:31
wanted to die in the chair because I had nothing to live for but I was afraid to
00:39:34
commit suicide wow that's like yeah it's not it doesn't excuse what he did but it's like no but
00:39:43
what a sad wow that's awful way to exist yeah so he was held on a charge of vagrancy and police in San Francisco
00:39:50
expected that after going before a judge he would be sent to quote a psychopathic
00:39:55
Ward at San Francisco hospital for observation yeah it's a very sad end there yeah now once the story of his
00:40:01
confession receded from the headlines the case once again went cold for several months until a strange new lead
00:40:07
gave investigators reason to hope that this case might soon be solved in late September of 1945 a school girl in Los
00:40:14
Angeles discovered what investigators described as a rambling note in which the writer confessed to being
00:40:20
georgette's killer this letter was typ written so weird it was typewritten and smeared in what appeared to be iodine
00:40:27
stains oh and the note read to the Los Angeles police almost a year ago Georgette bardorf aged 20 Hollywood
00:40:34
canteen Hostess was murdered her murdered in her apartment in West Hollywood between now and October 11th a
00:40:41
year after her death the one who murdered her will appear at the Hollywood canteen the murderer will be
00:40:46
in uniform he has since committed the murder been in action at Okinawa the murder of Georgette bardorf was divine
00:40:53
retribution let the Los Angeles police arrest the murderer if they can what the [ __ ] it was very strange Lieutenant
00:41:01
Garner Brown declared that the note was likely uh prepared by a youthful prankster but the police still kept an
00:41:07
eye on the Hollywood Hollywood canteen just to be sure which had since closed it wasn't even open oh wow the author of
00:41:13
the note was never identified they never found anybody outside the Hollywood canteen and Brown's theory of a hoax was
00:41:20
believed to have been true jeez this reminds me of like it's very black dollas you should mention that oh is
00:41:27
that part of this we are going to touch on that very briefly that is really you're a little psychic over there it's
00:41:34
like it very it just has that vibe to it like the Hollywood of it all 40s the 40s
00:41:39
of it all and then all these people confessing to it like that's a strange thing you know like it's very much so
00:41:46
the final new lead that year came when investigators arrested 61-year-old Henry Lynch a plumber and quote unquote
00:41:53
self-appointed sleuth who claimed he had been collecting evidence for the past year and was not able to solve the case
00:41:58
oh in the days leading up to his arrest he had just been seen loitering outside of the apartments where Georgette had
00:42:04
lived and whenever he was asked what he was doing there he said he was working on the Boward dorf case oh after
00:42:10
investigating his Alibi and talking to family members they determined that Lynch was what would today be described
00:42:17
as a citizen investigator yeah and he was released from custody and just told to stay away from the apartment complex
00:42:23
cuz they like he's somebody who would be like on the internet trying to a case exactly yeah the final suspect in the
00:42:29
case was questioned in 1950 when police arrested Corporal Chester vcas in selo uh vcas was believed to have
00:42:37
strangled an 18-year-old woman on a public foot path in Los Angeles and investigators thought that there were
00:42:43
enough similarities between the cases that he could possibly be the killer but when they arrived in selo they
00:42:49
discovered that he would have only been 16 years old at the time that Georgette was murdered and while it wasn't
00:42:55
completely out of the question they just felt he was very unlikely to be the killer yeah I don't we we've heard a lot
00:43:03
of su I mean 16-year-olds can be very adult when it comes to what the [ __ ] they do exactly so I'm like I feel like
00:43:10
maybe that was thrown out a I get why they're like it would be a little unlikely but
00:43:16
like you can't really you can't totally throw that out the window you don't know
00:43:19
what kind of 16-year-old he was yeah and I don't know his build or anything like
00:43:23
that like I you see 16y olds and you're like you're 16 like you look like a giant exactly uh a short time later
00:43:29
though he was also acquitted of the murder of the woman in the young woman in Los Angeles oh so I think maybe that
00:43:34
went hand yeah that probably helped now when the investigation into Georgette Boward dorf's murder began detectives
00:43:41
felt like they had more than enough evidence to find the killer but just a few months later when that suspect pool
00:43:47
started narrowing down and with all the evidence Stripped Away all they really had was a few cigarette butts and some
00:43:53
fingerprints that had no matches and an unusual bandage that was used in the murder yeah so with no more leads or
00:44:00
evidence to be found the case quickly went cold and by the end of the decade it was just shelved alongside countless
00:44:05
other murders in Los Angeles open but inactive oh that's so infuriating but when the dead and mutilated body of
00:44:13
actress Elizabeth Short AKA The Black Dalia was discovered in a vacant lot in La a few years later some in law
00:44:20
enforcement and the Press actually thought there may have been a connection between the two and that was based
00:44:25
largely on the fact that the main suspect in the Black Dalia case also would have had access to the medical
00:44:31
grade bandage used in georgette's death ah but that theory has mostly been debunked ah today georgette's murder
00:44:40
remains unsolved and unlike the Black Dalia and so many other high-profile Hollywood murders it's really been
00:44:46
mostly forgotten by the public so that's why I wanted to pick this one and talk about it it's not I've never heard of it
00:44:52
I had neither I um I was looking for cases actually on Tik Tok and I found a couple videos that talked about her and
00:44:59
I was like I've never heard of that and Dave and I started looking into it and I
00:45:02
was like it's enough for an episode yeah and who knows absolutely somebody could
00:45:06
still be alive that you never know saw something that night or you never know I hope that hopefully someday it gets
00:45:12
solved oh poor Georgette I know it's a really sad story like I said she just seemed like a cool girl who would have
00:45:18
liked Al Del re yeah and just like she would have had like a charity set up by now I think yeah she was just that girl
00:45:25
that was like I got coffee today don't worry about it yeah you know like she's just like you know like you're down on
00:45:30
your luck and she's like crash on my couch yeah she's like whatever don't worry about it she just seemed like a
00:45:34
really what a hor empathetic person a horrific end yeah it's really awful wow um so yeah that one was really sad I'm
00:45:43
sorry but again I hope it gets solved someday you never know yeah but in the meantime we hope you keep listening and
00:45:49
we hope you keep it weird but I swear that you give anybody the keys to your apartment don't do that
00:45:55
do [Music] up