A portrait of Georgette Bauerdorf published in the Daily News, Oct. 13, 1944.

It’s unclear from news reports whether Georgette Bauerdorf was pursuing any further education after apparently graduating from the Westlake School for Girls. Several stories in the Los Angeles papers say that she worked at one of the local papers, possibly as a copy messenger, but none of the stories identifies the newspaper. The Daily News (Oct. 13, 1944) said: “Last year, anxious to become a newspaper reporter, she worked for several weeks on a Los Angeles daily.”

The newspaper accounts of the killing say that she was a junior hostess at the Hollywood Canteen, but none of them say when she began. Apparently she was one of about 30 young women who volunteered at the canteen on Wednesday nights.

Georgette Bauerdorf, an Unsolved Murder:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 |  Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31

At the time of the killing, Georgette was living at El Palacio Apartments, 8493 Fountain Ave., with her older sister, Constance Ann, known as Connie. The Times clips show that in 1942, Connie Bauerdorf was a junior hostess at events for servicemen hosted by Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers at Pickfair on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

In August 1943, The Times announced that Constance Bauerdorf of 8493 Fountain Ave. was engaged to Aviation Cadet John Francis Dillon Jr., a former Fordham University student, who was stationed at Polaris Flight Academy in Lancaster.  Attaining the rank of lieutenant, Dillon was killed overseas, according to an April 30, 1944, obituary in the New York Times.

On Aug. 28, 1944, about the time of what would have been Connie’s first wedding anniversary, she went back East, accompanied by her father, George, and stepmother, who apparently lived in Reno, Nev., and stayed at the apartment when they were in town.

From then until she was killed, Georgette lived in the apartment alone.

To be continued.