Author Ray Bradbury and a Hodel Quartet of Synchronicities- 1948-1953-1982-2004
September 20, 2024
Birch Bay, Washington
(Reposting from December 6, 2019)
Mike Hodel and Ray Bradbury on “Hour 25 SFTV” (1982) photo by Steve Moore
Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept, first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related.
Bradbury Event No. 1- 1947-8
SUMMER NIGHT
In 1947, just months after the sensational newspaper reportage of the January 15, Elizabeth Short “Black Dahlia Murder” followed three weeks later and linked to a second crime, the February 10, Jeanne French, “Red Lipstick Murder”–Ray Bradbury wrote his mystery-fiction short story- Summer Night.
At the time of the murders, Ray Bradbury had been living and writing in Los Angeles, for over a decade and had decided to make it his permanent residence for the rest of his long and distinguished career.
In Bradbury’s Summer Night, a city is being terrorized by a serial killer who within two weeks has slain two women and left their bodies in public view. In his tale of terror, Bradbury calls his suspect, “The Lipstick Killer” who has left his unique mark on both of his female victims’ bodies by writing using Orange Lipstick.
Shortly after the publication of Bradbury’s short story, it was adapted to radio and aired the following year (1948) as a Suspense radio dramatization starring actress Ida Lupino.
SUMMER NIGHT (Adaptation from Bradbury short story 1948-click below)
Bradbury Event No. 2- 1953
Ray Bradbury is contacted by legendary film director John Huston (A lifelong and close friend to Dr. George Hill Hodel and formerly married for seven years to George’s ex-wife, Dorothy “Dorero” Huston Hodel, and mother to my two brothers Mike and Kelvin and myself.) Huston hires Bradbury to come to Ireland and write the screenplay for his next film, MOBY DICK. Bradbury agrees and in addition to the script writes his own book, Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury’s Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland.
John Huston Dorothy Huston Hodel
Excerpt from Wikipedia on Bradbury’s book, Green Shadows White Whale:
Bradbury Event No. 3- 1982
Mike Hodel interviews Ray Bradbury for the new TV show SF Hour 25
KPFK Radio Host Mike Hodel’s 1983 Lost Video Promo for Hour 25 SFTV Found (originally posted on my blog 12/2/16 courtesy of a reader “Gothling55”. Click below for 3 min promo.
(Brother Mike, who is narrating this video, sadly died in 1986, at the young age of 47, from brain cancer, just three short years after this video was made.)
Bradbury Event No. 4- 2004
La Quinta Roundtable West, Palm Desert, with Ray Bradbury and Steve Hodel 2004
In 2004, a year after the publication of my first book, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder, I was honored to co-host a talk at a La Quinta Roundtable West luncheon in Palm Desert, California with novelist Ray Bradbury. We each spoke on our separate writings followed by an audience Q&A.
Steve Hodel and Ray Bradbury co-host luncheon talks
With John Huston being so familiar with your mother and father, he would have been privy to the scandal with GHH and Tamar and the incest trial. Have you ever thought of his role as Noah Cross the incestuous land baron in “Chinatown” as anything more than a coincidence? There are some similar themes in the classic 1974 Film, and the disturbing true life story with your family. Not to call this casting a synchronicity, but it feels like more than a mere coincidence for this man, so familiar with GHH and his family secrets to portray a villainous character who is guilty of at least one of the same crimes as your father. This was just a thought I had when reading BDA and I’m just posting it here because of relevant subjects of John Huston and synchronicity.
Doug F:
I touch on this in BDA II and III. No coincidence. The incest trial and story was well-known to both John Huston and Jack Nicholson. Also, my half-sister Tamar, the victim of the incest with our father relayed it early on to Michelle Phillps (Mamas and Papas fame) who was her good friend and godmother to her three sons, who communicated it to Warren Beatty and that circle of people long before the movie was ever made. John Huston was close to George Hodel since their teens and was well aware of both the full details of the 1949 Incest Trial and that George was the prime suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder in 1950. Here is a direct quote from Huston from as presented in Peter Viertel’s “White Hunter Black Heart.”
Here are Huston’s comments on “Real Friendship.”
White Hunter Black Heart, page 64: …
“No, it’s not. To try and find out who your real friends are is very important. “ “How would you propose to go about doing that, John? Randsome asked. ‘
“Well, I don’t know. It’s kind of difficult. I think the perfect test would be to go to your friends and tell them you’ve just committed a murder, a cold-blooded, premeditated murder, and that you want to escape. There are no extenuating circumstances. All you want is help. The people who’d stick to you and help you escape without asking any questions would, I believe qualify as real friends.”
See full story on that reference HERE.
Interesting, because Orson Welles said pretty much the same thing about Darryl Zanuck at his funeral in 1979. “If I did something really outrageous;, that if I committed some abominable crime, which I believe is in most of us to do under the right circumstances, that if I were guilty of something unspeakable, and if all the police in the world were after me, there was one man, and only one man I could come to, and that was Darryl (Zanuck). He would not have made a speech about the good of the industry, the good of the studio. He would not have been mealy-mouthed or put me aside. He would have hid me under the bed. Very simply, he was a friend”.
Wow. That quote is incriminating and brazen. Think that for John Huston, the role of Noah Cross was paying some sick form of homage to GHH? A few years Later Polanski would go on to rape a 13 year old girl at Jack Nicholson’s house. The mommas and the Poppas singer John Phillips also had a now widely known abusive, incestuous relationship with his daughter. Why is this disturbing and tragic theme so prevalent in these circles?!
Yes, as one travels thru his or her lifetime it becomes quite clear that novels or fiction are really true stories veiled in fictional characters. My first choice(s) in reading material is true crime and I heartily recommend the book “Filthy Rich” by James Patterson co-authored with John Connolly. For those who analyze criminal behaviors & the effects on society this tragic biography thrusts the evils that men (& women!) do square in your face! While reading this startlingly sad & sometimes revolting account of one man’s life you cannot help but see & feel the cruelty so prevalent today in our political, social, economic and religious leaders! The “core” personalities of so many in power today sadly reflect a dearth of morality, empathy, understanding and unfortunately love of fellow man. Frightening!!
Interesting. I’ll give “Filthy Rich” a read. Steve, what do you make of fact that Michelle Phillips would marry a man (John Phillips) supposedly that she supposedly met through Tamar) that would also have an incestuous relationship with his daughter? A sick coincidence?
Doug F: Yes, I’d say so. Incest was/is famously underreported then and now.
Wow Steve. Wow. The number of prominent people in Hollywood and in the art world who KNEW what a monster George Hodel was and what he’d done and then PAYED HOMAGE TO HIM through their various works is just unbelievably EVIL to me. Never mind the horrors GHH inflicted directly on to all those poor souls he viciously murdered, but the FANDOM, THE ADMIRERS, THE TRIBUTES that these people all payed to him! Those people Steve! Those people…those people… Well, they too are The Darkness aren’t they? Yes they are.
Your friend,
Lucas
Lucas:
Yes, it reminds me of the famous line in the great film, “A Man for All Seasons” where actor Paul Scofield in the role of Sir Thomas More informs “the jury” of the Latin legal phrase, “qui tacet consentire,” or “silence gives consent.” Those in George Hodel’s sphere of activity THAT KNEW and remained silent would according to that premise be “giving consent” to his criminal acts.
(My thoughts are with you at this difficult time of your loss my friend.)
Thank you brother. This is the hardest thing in the world.. For this old guy anyway. We’ll talk soon. I have new edits and new sections to send you.
Your friend
Lucas
Lucas, Steve & Doug, Did we not grow up ( sounds like were in the same era!) being admonished by our elders that “silence is golden”…. said to us as parents, older relatives quoted to us with their index finger crossing their lips! To those of us who suffered consequences for being “mouthy & sassy” I now look back and cherish every loudmouthed, truthful & loud moment because I’ve learned that so many times I was dead on target! 👍😎🌵
Steve & Lucas,
Before I read your books, I always thought the surrealists were strange, but I didn’t know how sick many of them were. Like Lucas, I see them doing homage to GHH evil & sick. It was like them saying, “Wow, George really outdid us with the Black Dahlia. I got to hand it to him on that one.” GHH sees Copley’s “It’s Midnight Dr.———.” and likely gets a big laugh out of it. Meanwhile, Beth Short’s mutilated remains still lie buried and there’s nothing funny about that. A sick boys club mentality was at work.
Merry Christmas,
Dan
Hi Dan: Same here. I knew very little about “The Movement” other than I was never particularly attracted to their artworks. But since getting pulled into the Black Hole and being exposed to their blatant misogynistic-sadistic depictions, and seeing GHH take it from “dream to reality” as his own “Murder as a Fine Art”, I am totally repulsed and horrified. Steve
I’ve been to Ray Bradbury fan since I was a kid. How interesting all the synchronicities between his life and your family.