Georgette Bauerdorf - Volunteered at Hollywood Canteen

Volunteered At Hollywood Canteen

Bauerdorf's father, George, was an oilman from Elko, Nevada. He was in New York City with Georgette's stepmother and married sister at the time of the murder. Bauerdorf worked as a junior hostess at the Hollywood Canteen, where she danced with enlisted men. She had been living alone in the apartment for several weeks before her death.

The day before her death she cashed a $175 check and purchased an airline ticket to El Paso, Texas for $90. She told friends that she was going there to rendezvous with her soldier boyfriend. On October 11 Pvt. Jerome M. Brown, an antiaircraft artillery trainee from Chicago, Illinois was identified by Fort Bliss authorities as the man Bauerdorf was going to visit before she was slain. Brown told Army officials he met Bauerdorf at the Hollywood Canteen on the night of June 13. He left California a few days afterward and arrived in El Paso some days after their meeting.

They corresponded and the trainee said he received six letters from the heiress. Brown was formerly stationed at Camp Callan, California.

Newspaper reports indicate Bauerdorf may have gone directly home from the Hollywood Canteen. The time she left was around 11:15 p.m., Wednesday, October 12, 1944. Earlier in the day she had lunch with Mrs. Rose L. Gilbert, a secretary to her father. The two women went shopping. Gilbert told deputies that Bauerdorf was in good spirits.