Ground Zero
Proximity of three locations of interest to the Pacific Building where the “little, foreign man” suspected of being William Hightower’s accomplice in the Father Heslin kidnap-murder of 1921 was seen with Hightower by three witnesses:
The Hearst Building, home of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper.
The Ritz-Carlton Club, formerly the Chronicle Building and home of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper at the time of the crime.
167 Post Street (the Liebes Building), where the HQ of the All-Russian Central Union of Co-operative Societies was established in 1919 by Alexander Zelenko, “life-long friend” of George Hodel’s parents.
Below: San Francisco Chronicle article on the launch of Zelenko’s US HQ, Hodel family photo of Zelenko with Sergei Rachmaninoff, apparently taken at the Hodels’ Pasadena residence, and a 1920 Harvard Magazine profile of Zelenko.
Los Angeles Times article from a year after the Heslin murder (10/15/22) on Zelenko’s construction of a house for George Hodel as a 15th birthday present from his parents:
