The Medusa Touch- Acing it with Tamar Hodel and Things That Go Bump in the Night-Synchronicities

May 1, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington
“It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May. Where everythings…” (Camelot)
The Medusa Touch
I received the below ‘comment’ from my good friend and fellow sleuth, Dr. Luigi Warren just a few days ago. As a result, and having a life-long crush on Lee Remick (those eyes) and never having seen “The Medusa Touch” movie, I decided to watch it. (Remick had just co-starred in THE OMEN two years earlier.)
          1976                                                                                                         1978
                                                                                                       Click on poster to see trailer
As a detective with fifty-four years of experience, I have been trained to conduct  “Just the Facts” investigations. Rational and Objective. In my presentation of my findings through the decades, in the many separate homicide investigations, I have done my best to present to you, my readers the same.
That said, there is another part of me.  Not sure if it is my Irish/Druid roots; or my Russian Rasputin Mystic roots) but either way, I am a strong believer in Hamlet’s, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Now that I have entered my Eighties, I tend to favor more of the Jungian thinking. (Pun intended)
Throughout my writings, I have referred to this as “synchronicities”.  Strange events. Unexplainable to the rational mind, but nevertheless-that appear as “door openers” that have led me to discover truths, that without these synchronicities, would forever have remained hidden.  Since I do not believe in “coincidences” then there must be another explanation.  Some sort of mental/metaphysical “more things than in heaven and earth” connection.
Let me give you a real-life example of just one of the many synchronicities.
It is 1998, I am working as a Criminal Defense Investigator and am living in a rented house on Lake Whatcom in Bellingham, Washington. This is prior to my father’s death and I have no clew as to what is about to unfold in my life with my father’s death the following year.
As I step outside the front door, preparing to drive into the city on a case, I look down and see a single playing card on the front steps. It’s apparently been dropped or blown by the wind and laying in the dirt. It is the Queen of Clubs and has a single hole punched in it. (I have the original somewhere in a box in storage, but have reproduced its image below.)

(Simulated reproduction)
I find it curious and for some unknown reason, I picked up the card and kept it.  (Threw it in my desk drawer and forgot about it.)
Fast forward four years to 2002.
My father died the following year (1999) and I am now deep into the weeds of the Black Dahlia and L.A. Lone Woman Murder investigations.
I have conducted an in-depth investigation of my father’s background and early years and have discovered his newspaper articles and writings for the LA Record in 1924 as a young “crime reporter” riding around with LAPD Homicide Detectives and writing his tabloid accounts of the murder investigations.
The following article was written by George Hodel in 1924 and I included it in my 2003 publication, Black Dahlia Avenger.

Excerpt from the above article from Black Dahlia Avenger:

 

Other than the surprising discovery that my father was a young crime reporter riding along with LAPD homicide detectives and reporting the gruesome crime scenes, I merely document a “just the facts” accounting of his biography and let the article speak for itself.
Fast forward to 2005
Steve and half-sister Tamar-Los Angeles 2005
Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder has been published and become a New York Times bestseller and I have conducted numerous interviews for Dateline, 48-Hours, Court TV, etc.
My sister, Tamar has arranged to travel to Los Angeles for an interview and we reunite in person for the first time in about forty-five years!  (Previous to this all my contacts with my sister were by telephone with her at her residence in Oahu, Hawaii.)
My sister has always been a believer in the paranormal and all things psychic; astrology, tarot, hauntings etc.
During her short visit, Tamar informs me she is currently into tarot card reading and tells me, “Steven, my birthdate is March 24, so I am the Queen of Clubs.”
Tamar then asks, “What was our dad’s birthdate?”
I reply, “October 10th” (She looks it up in her book) and replies, “Oh my God. George is also the Queen of Clubs.”
She then asks me my birthdate.  I respond, “November 6th”.
Tamar looks it up, “You are the Ace of Diamonds- That’s a good card.”

 SKH Note- The “Queen of Clubs” and the “Ace of Diamonds’ are the only two playing cards that have ever come up in my now twenty-four-year investigation. And yes, I’m playing with a full deck of cards.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”
Hamlet.

 

 

 

 

11 Comments

  1. Luigi Warren on May 1, 2023 at 5:10 pm

    Steve:

    Seems to me there’s almost no way a solipsistic, megalomaniac misanthrope and urban terrorist with a penchant for doomily forecasting his own murders, a film buff who found special significance in THE EXORCIST, CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND and SPELLBOUND, a fan of Ben Hecht’s FANTAZIUS MALLARE with a thing for mythology and Freudian analysis, would not “relate” to THE MEDUSA TOUCH, big time. So, it was interesting to find a least that hint of a connection in the timing of the 1978 letter.

    Best,

    LW

    • Steve Hodel on May 2, 2023 at 10:50 pm

      LW:
      Yes, I agree.
      Dad always seemed to ignore or give no counntenance to anything metaphysical–ever the scientist.
      But, his early years writings and later (think the 1980 Sparrow Letter) and his taunts as BDA and Zodiac all reference a “karmic” connection as Avenger and “Divine Retribution”. Was he feigning these references or was it a real part of his very real psycopathy? Hard to know. Perhaps there was a genuine SPLIT with two (or more) personalities. If his plea for help (catch me before I kill more, I cant control this thing inside me.”) was genuine then clearly he was Omen-Medusa like posessed.

      • Luigi Warren on May 6, 2023 at 12:46 pm

        Steve:

        I think if you consider the 1925 “Inference” poem in the light of the 1921 Heslin case, it gives a coherent picture of GHH’s “dark side” psychology and how he privately saw himself.

        Have you seen Ben Hecht’s The Scoundrel (1935)? Here he resurrects his egomaniac Mallare character as a charming but venomous New York publisher. As portrayed by Noel Coward (talk about “meticulous speech”), he seems more than a little reminiscent of “George Morel.”

        Best,

        LW

        • Steve Hodel on July 29, 2023 at 10:50 pm

          LW:
          No, was not familir with “The Scoundrel” but will definitely watch it. Thanks. Yes, no question GHH totally identified with Mallare for sure.

      • George A. on May 15, 2023 at 9:52 am

        Detective Hodel
        Sir:
        How would yourself and your partner process the Black Dahlia crime scene if you were dispatched to that location in 1947?

        Respectfully,
        George A.

        • Steve Hodel on July 29, 2023 at 10:37 pm

          George A: A lot different. Mainly NO reporters anywhere near it. Should have been roped off a half block or more away.
          Lot of advancements since my days in the Sixties/Seventies.

  2. Joakim on May 1, 2023 at 10:06 pm

    I think the ace of diamonds card can be about being told esoteric stuff at some point.

  3. Yolie on May 13, 2023 at 10:32 am

    Steve
    Our HEALING CIRCLE sends you a deep, deep cleansing, centering breath and powerful VIBRATIONS for ancestral healing. Ancestral healing connects us to our forefathers and foreMOTHERS. Ancestral healing dispels the negative energy of past generations and replaces it with Pure Love. The message of ancestral healing is eternal. The message of ancestral healing never grows old. Never!

    Peace to you. To brother Kel. To FaunaElizabeth.

    Peace always
    Yolie💎

    • Yolie 💎 on May 20, 2023 at 9:36 am

      Steve
      Our HEALING Circle sends you a deep, cleansing, centering breath and powerful VIBRATIONS for ancestral healing. Ancestral healing HEALS the wounds of previous generations. It dispels the negative energy of the past. Ancestral HEALING connects us to our forefathers and FOREMOTHERS in an aura of pure LOVE. The message of ancestral healing never grows old. Never.
      Peace to Brother Kel. Peace to FaunaElizabeth.
      Peace and good health to you always
      Yolie💎

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