A STAR CALLED "DR. GEORGE HILL HODEL"

ZODIAC-  (n) a belt-shaped region in the heavens on either side of the ecliptic; divided into twelve constellations or signs for astrological purposes.

From MOST EVIL Chapter 23- Murder as a Fine Art

Pages 257-259:

In our many talks during the final decade of his life (1990-99), my father dismissed astrology as quackery. In his opinion its only useful purpose was to pick the pockets of the gullible. The field that interested him was astronomy, especially as it related to Zuni and Hopi cultures.

In October 1998, seven months before his death, he diagnosed his own congestive heart disease. Shortly after his ninety-first birthday, knowing that his health was failing and fearing the real possibility of a major stroke that could leave him an invalid, he prepared to take his own life.

Still in possession of a valid medical license, he wrote out several prescriptions in his wife, June’s name for sleeping pills (barbiturates). After he’d accumulated enough pills to ensure a lethal dose, he wrote (in his block printing) “June Hodel conference notes,” which were to be his final instructions.

But over the next several months, his strength rebounded. So he stashed the notes away in his desk, where they were found by June after his death. 

                                                            23.7

 

Figure 23.7 is a copy of that note. Several of his cryptic notations are relevant to this investigation. For example, the eighth line from the bottom reads:

 

LAST ACT OF LV DISP. ALL EFFECTS

 

Here my father is reminding himself to tell June that as a last act of love he wants her to dispose of all his personal effects. In what can be considered the most fateful ironies of all, she didn’t carry this out. June didn’t find my father’s note until after she had given me his photo album of loved ones that contained the photograph of Elizabeth Short, which was one of the catalysts for my Black Dahlia Avenger investigation. What other “personal effects” did June also find and not show me?

The third line from the bottom reads:

 

L= CONC. ON EXCRETA

 

In a previous entry, my father had used “L” as an abbreviation for the word “life.” In light of that, the phrase can be translated as, “Life is nothing but a concentration of excreta.” Or, to be more profane, “Life is shit.”

The most relevant notation is ten lines from the bottom:

 

RESRVD PL. IN CNST AQUILA

 

After my father’s death, June explained that shortly after deciding to permanently relocate from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1990, he had purchased a permanent memorial to himself in the heavens located in the 8-degree belt on the ecliptic known as Zodiac. In other words, he had bought a star and had it registered in his name.

The star– known as Dr. George Hill Hodel– can be found by pointing a telescope at the Zodiacal constellation Aquila (the eagle) and aligning the sight to RA (right ascension) 19hrs 56mins 53secs at declination 8’16mins. The registration is placed in a vault in Switzerland and “is recorded in a book which will be registered in the copyright office of the United States of America.” This practice is not recognized in the scientific community, but is more like buying a plot of land on the moon. Nevertheless, my father must have chuckled to himself at his private, heavenly memorial to his crimes.

It’s another manifestation of his enormous ego, an immortal mocking of humanity fixed and registered in the Zodiac’s constellation, Aquila.

Even after its namesake’s death, star George Hill Hodel shines its sardonic, dark light on us, and will forever.

 

      Star Dr. George Hill Hodel 

 Constellation Aquila

 

See related article in Failure Magazine by Jason Zasky,

 “Zodiac killer named a star for himself in Zodiacal Constellation Aquila?”