Another Sad and Tragic Story- Son Reports the 1958 Rape of his Mother by Dr. George Hill Hodel in Manila, Philippines

November 27, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington

The below story was originally blogged in 2013.

I wanted to reblog it as further independent corroboration of George Hodel’s criminality while living abroad.

 

Bess Robison

1922-2009

ANOTHER SAD AND TRAGIC STORY

 

Los Angeles, California

I recently received an e-mail from Alan Robison, who informed me he is the son of one of Dr. George Hill Hodel’s former victims. The crime reportedly occurred in Manila, Philippines circa 1958.

Alan’s telling of the crime, in his, and his mother’s own words. (I have omitted certain parts of his narrative, which are not directly related to the actual crime, and which I believe should remain private and confidential.)

Dear Mr. Hodel,

My name is Alan Robison.  I am 61 years old. My mother’s name was Bess Robison. She died in 2009.  My father died in 2012. I had been caring for him for fifteen months, and he was suffering from five separate diseases.

In 1989 I was staying with my mother in her home in Tyler, Texas. At that time, she disclosed to me that she had been raped in Manila in 1958 while working as a radio missionary with my father. At that time my parents were living in Manila and broadcasting a radio show across the Iron Curtain.

Mother told me that she was having “female problems” and had asked my father to find her an American doctor in Manila.  He found her one, and during my mother’s telling me the story she also told me his name, which was “HODEL.”

My mother took me with her to the first appointment to see Dr. Hodel. I was seven ½ years old. I recall the office, the nurse, her desk, the arrangement of furniture in the waiting room and remember seeing Dr. Hodel. He never spoke to me, but he made eye contact once, and it was icy to me.

In her conversation with Dr. Hodel, my mother informed me that she mentioned that she was a musical prodigy and could play five different instruments at the age of twelve.

Dr. Hodel brought up the fact of his piano expertise after my mother described, in her interview with him, her job of playing the piano on the radio.

I sat in a chair from which I could see his desk, him, and the window behind the desk, which showed a view of Manila harbor and the bay. I recall what he wore, his mustache, and his offhand, cool manner. He was not friendly or relaxed, but he was polite.

After the first visit when I went with her, I assume she returned alone to Hodel’s office for treatment. Perhaps he told her to leave me at home?

My mother told me that Dr. Hodel raped her at his office (I assume she was sedated), and she immediately afterwards wept when she reported it to my father.

Mother never told me what Dr. Hodel was treating her for; she indicated that he told her he must do a “pelvic exam” as part of the general physical exam.

My father then did the wrong thing. He refused to get involved and believed she had “led him [Hodel] on.” My mother told me that father “was shocked, but was afraid involvement would ruin his
reputation.”

Mother went on to tell me that she and my father were “having sexual problems”, and in a conversation with Dr. Hodel he had asked her, “How often do you and your husband have sex?”
She told him, “Once a month.”  Hodel replied lasciviously to her, “But you, you are a WOMAN!” as if to alert her to his appreciation of her.

The relationship between my parents quickly degraded after my mother telling father about the incident and his decision to not believe her.

Within a week or two after that mother decided to leave her husband and return to the U.S. with my brother and me.

Soon after our return to the U.S. mother contracted a serious illness, peritonitis, and she had to be operated on.
To this day, I believe that her contact with Dr. Hodel caused this peritonitis, but I can’t prove it. She almost died.

Both my parents suffered illnesses from living in the tropics.

Thanks for reading all of this, Steve. Bless you. If there is anything else I can try to provide, I will. But
as of now, these details are the most relevant. All else is another story. You are deeply appreciated by so many for your valiant career and sincere investigations.

Ken Alan Robison

SKH Note- Alan Robison provided some personal information in his Email, which I am including since it addresses his motivation in contacting me:

…

I am poor and dying of heart disease, severe aortic stenosis. I do not have cable or computer of my own. I use public computers at the local library, where I walk to, since I don’t have a car–walking, however, is good for me. The Veteran’s Association pays for my meds.  I want the world to know she[mother] was attacked.

To both Bess Robison, may she Rest in Peace, and to her son Alan, and to the rest of your surviving relatives, let me offer my most sincere apologies for my father’s terrible crime.

Alan, I know the aftereffects of that sexual assault brought much pain into both your mother’s and your own life, and surely contributed to ongoing emotional pain and traumas in the decades that followed.   For this, I am truly sorry and hope that you may find some peace in publicly speaking out and informing us of the Truth of your mother’s victimization. The Truth, in many ways, does help “set us free.”

Gratefully Yours,

Steve Hodel

Los Angeles, California

REST IN PEACE BESS ROBISON