(October 10, 1907 – May 16, 1999) was an American physician and suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia. He was never formally charged with the crime. He was also accused of raping his daughter, Tamar Hodel, but was acquitted for that crime.
Is I am the night based on a true story?
I Am the Night is partially based on the very true story of Fauna Hodel, a woman who decides to find her birth family when she discovers that she was given away as a baby. Fauna's story was first told in her autobiography, One Day She'll Darken.
Is'I am the night'a true story?
However, it's a little too complicated to say I Am the Night is a true story. Here's what's rooted in fact and what was fabricated for the screen. Fauna Hodel was a real person and much of her backstory in the show is true.
What happened to George Hodel in I am the night?
India Eisley as Fauna Hodel in I Am the Night. George Hodel came under suspicion after he was accused of molesting his daughter, Tamar Hodel. It was 14-year-old Tamar who led the police to consider George Hodel as a suspect, after accusations surfaced that he had been molesting her.
What is fauna's real name in I am the night?
In researching the I Am the Night true story, we learned that Fauna's adoptive parents had referred to her by the nickname "White Patty" due to her light skin color. Though they never legally changed her name, they decided to call her Patricia Ann Greenwade.
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What true story is I Am the Night based on?
That child was Fauna Hodel, and I Am the Night is based on the real-life Fauna Hodel's memoir. Per Fauna Hodel's autobiography, One Day She'll Darken, Fauna didn't learn who her mother was until she was a teenager, at which point she set out to meet her blood relatives.
What happened to Fauna Hodel's adoptive mother?
However, as "Pat" learned of her adoption and looked into her origins, she learned this was a fabrication on the part of her birth mother, Tamar. Tamar passed away in 2015 at 80 and Fauna died of breast cancer on September 30, 2017.
Did Tamar ever meet fauna?
She would not meet her biological mother, Tamar, until she was in her early 20s. Though her life with her adopted mother in Nevada was complex and challenged—racially, financially, and in other ways—she avoided the worst of growing up as the daughter of a woman as ruined as Tamar had been.
Is Jay Singletary a real person?
Jay Singletary, the reporter played by actor Chris Pine, is fictional. How did Fauna Hodel discover that she was given away as a baby? Fauna knew she was adopted from an early age (in reality, she was given away and had never been officially adopted).
Who is faunas father?
George HodelBorn August 1, 1951, in San Francisco, Hodel was the first child of 16-year-old Tamar Nais Hodel and the granddaughter of Los Angeles doctor and socialite George Hodel.
Who owns Hodel's house?
The house transferred ownership for years, until 2001 when designer Xorin Balbes purchased the home for $1.2 million. It was Xorin Balbes who restored the house into the structure it is today.
Where is Tamar Hodel today?
How Did Tamar's Story End? DuJour reports that Tamar eventually moved to Hawaii with Debbie (who changed her name to Fauna-Elizabeth), and had three sons. Again, there's not too much information out there, but at the time of DuJour's article in 2015, she was 80 and in hospice care in Hawaii.
Who is Jay in I Am the Night?
Jay Singletary is a major character in 'I Am the Night,' and is portrayed by Chris Pine.
What happened to Jay from I am the night?
After his career went haywire, Jay went off to fight in the Korean War, and came back coke-addled and crippled by PTSD. Now, he works as a gossip reporter and photographer.
Did Tamar Hodel have a child?
Fauna HodelTamar Nais Hodel / Children
Who was Tamar Hodel's biological mother?
model Dorothy AnthonyAs George later told the LAPD, the aim of these parties was to "delve into the mystery of love and the universe.” Unfortunately, Tamar was forced to participate in these parties beginning at the age of 11. Tamar and her mother, model Dorothy Anthony, had lived in the house along with George's other women and children.
What did George Hodel do to his daughter?
Tamar Nais HodelGeorge Hodel / Daughter
Did Tamar Hodel have a child?
Fauna HodelTamar Nais Hodel / Children
Where is Tamar Hodel today?
How Did Tamar's Story End? DuJour reports that Tamar eventually moved to Hawaii with Debbie (who changed her name to Fauna-Elizabeth), and had three sons. Again, there's not too much information out there, but at the time of DuJour's article in 2015, she was 80 and in hospice care in Hawaii.
Who is the woman in I Am the Night?
The I Am the Night creators, husband-and-wife team Patty Jenkins and Sam Sheridan, actually knew Fauna Hodel. Fauna died in 2017 after a battle with cancer, inspiring Jenkins and Sheridan to bring her story to the small screen.
Why did Glynn Martin move to LA?
She had moved to LA in pursuit of a career in Hollywood, and after her death, she became "a sad cliche—the ultimate warning tale... A starry-eyed young girl comes to Hollywood, and things go very bad for her," Glynn Martin, former Los Angeles police sergeant, explained to the BBC.
What happened to Elizabeth Short?
The crime quickly became a tabloid sensation, partly because of the gruesome way Short's body had been mutilated , and partly due to Short's personal story. She had moved to LA in pursuit of a career in Hollywood, and after her death, she became "a sad cliche—the ultimate warning tale... A starry-eyed young girl comes to Hollywood, and things go very bad for her," Glynn Martin, former Los Angeles police sergeant, explained to the BBC.
Is I Am the Night based on a true story?
I Am the Night, the new miniseries starring Chris Pine, is based on real events— and in some cases, the true story is just as awful as its fictionalized retelling. Below, everything you need to know about the Black Dahlia, the Hodels, and how the two true crime stories come together.
Fauna Hodel was a real person and much of her backstory in the show is true
Fauna was born in a convent in San Francisco and her birth mother, 16-year-old Tamar Hodel, assigned her birth father as "unknown Negro." Her adoptive mother, Jimmie Lee Greenwade of Reno, NV, gave her the name Patricia Ann Greenwade. Jimmie's story of how Fauna came into her possession is taken directly from the real Fauna's memoir.
Here's what happened to Tamar Hodel
Fauna eventually traced her roots back to Los Angeles where her mother, the daughter of the prominent but notorious doctor George Hodel, fell pregnant at 15. Before her pregnancy, Tamar accused her father of incest and a sensationalized public trial was held.
Was George Hodel Fauna's father?
It's heavily implied in the TNT series that Fauna is a product of incest, but other members of the Hodel family say that's impossible. Author Steve Hodel, a former LAPD detective and crime author who wrote Black Dahlia Avenger and Most Evil.
Did George Hodel kill the Black Dahlia?
The murder of The Black Dahlia, AKA Elizabeth Short, has been the most notorious unsolved crime in Los Angeles history since her bisected body was found in a vacant lot on January 15, 1947. It remains unsolved, but several credible theories have arisen in the 72 years since Short's death.
Is Chris Pine's character based on a real person?
While much of Fauna's story is based in reality, Jay Singletary, the reporter who helps her unlock the secrets of her past, is a work of fiction.
Who is the author of "I Am the Night"?
Photo: Clay Enos/TNT. I Am the Night is several different things: a loose adaptation of a memoir by Fauna Hodel, who was conceived after her grandfather, George Hodel, allegedly raped and impregnated his then-14-year-old daughter, Tamar; a melodramatic period noir overlapping true-life characters like Fauna and her adoptive mother, ...
Did Tamar and Deborah move to Hawaii?
But mother and daughter did eventually move to Hawaii, alongside Tamar’s three sons, and as the DuJour piece puts its, Tamar was “often stoned on psychedelics as a way to blunt her pain.”.
What was the name of the movie that was filmed in Los Angeles in 1946?
At the time, George Marshall's 1946 noir film The Blue Dahlia starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd was a popular movie and was still in Los Angeles theaters. Photos of Elizabeth Short dressed in black were sent to the press after her body was discovered, which prompted the Herald-Express to dub her "the Black Dahlia".
What is the movie Fauna about?
The film deals with Fauna's adoptive family taking in a light-skinned child with a mysterious past, which includes her grandfather being a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder case. Fauna was heavily involved in the production, but legal issues and a lack of money led to the film being shelved.
Who was the woman who was murdered in 1947?
There were cuts all over her body, rope burns and defensive wounds on her wrists, hands, and ankles, and one breast had been cut off. Aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered in January of 1947. Fauna Hodel's grandfather, George Hodel, became a suspect in the case. Source: FBI.gov.
Who was Johnny's sister?
Johnny never showed up on the day he was supposed to arrive. Instead, Johnny's sister, Barbara, called and told Fauna that Johnny had been murdered, drowned in the water. At the funeral, Fauna wondered why the casket was closed. She was told that his body had been mutilated, his penis cut off and shoved in his mouth.
Is I Am the Night based on a true story?
Yes. I Am the Night is based on Fauna Hodel's autobiography, One Day She'll Darken. The information in the book is in part derived from journals that Fauna had written throughout the first 25 years of her life.
Why was Elizabeth Short's body sliced in half?
The murder of Elizabeth Short was a major sensation in 1947, in part because of the gruesome state of her corpse: sliced in half at the waist, drained of blood, with surgical incisions throughout her body (including her mouth, her thigh, and her pelvis). Detectives suspected a doctor or medical student could have done this work.
Who is the uncle of the Black Dahlia?
Fauna' s uncle, Steve Hodel, is the one who has promoted this theory as his father's motive for the Black Dahlia and other murders. The retired detective has published books about his decades of research and has said George Hodel carved up Short's body to create something akin to Man Ray's art, "a masterpiece, a crime so shocking and horrible it would endure, be immortalized through the annals of crime lore."
Who played Jimmy Lee in the movie Fauna?
He also was behind the lawsuits that prevented her from completing the movie about her life, starring Alfre Woodard as Jimmy Lee.
Is Chris Pine's character in I Am the Night made up?
Chris Pine's character in I Am the Night is completely made up. At the same time, it's entirely possible that Los Angeles reporters who covered this and other murders at the time got seriously messed up by their work. The police were notoriously corrupt, and readers' appetites for bloody, moralistic crime stories were insatiable.
Where did George Hodel meet Fauna?
In the show, Fauna and George meet for the first time at a bus station as Fauna is on her way to Los Angeles. At the time, she does not realize who he is as he casually makes conversation with her. The encounter is true, but the way it is depicted is not. According to Fauna's autobiography, she and her daughter Yvette met George at a marina without realizing who he was. It was only as she was going through family photos did she find a photo of George and make the connection. Seriously spooky, but that was George Hodel.
What is the symbolism of the recurring bull in some episodes?
The symbolism of the recurring bull in some episodes has an interesting, and true, backstory. Production designer Julie Berghoff discovered in her research of Hodel's life and home that Hodel liked to travel and collect sculptures of animals.
How old was Tamar when she took the witness stand?
Unfortunately, this was a true occurrence. Tamar took the witness stand at only 14 years old in December 1949, while her father George Hodel was charged with incest. A defense lawyer, Robert Neeb, questioned Tamar with the intention of making her out to be unstable and a pathological liar.
Is Corinna Hodel based on a real person?
Like Jay, Corinna's character is also artistic embellishment. However, Corinna is based on a real person. Specifically, Dorothy Huston Hodel, George Hodel's second wife and an ex-wife of classic movie director John Huston. According to Dorothy's son Steve Hodel on his blog, Dorothy was artistic like Corinna, but in a different medium as she wrote for film and radio. The show's depiction of Corinna as an alcoholic was true. Steve describes his mother on his blog as an "alcoholic in the extreme". However, he speaks fondly of Dorothy completely, especially in her love for her sons and of nature.
Is Jay based on a real person?
This character is completely fictional. Chris Pine helped create his character. He added the improvisational shrieking in a knife-fight in one episode and diagnosed his character with PTSD. According to series screenwriter Sam Sheridan, Jay is based on characters that did exist in real life. There were reporters that were sued for libel and George Hodel won those cases, disgracing many reporters in the same way Jay is disgraced.
Was Big Momma real?
The boisterous character of Big Momma, the matriarch in which Fauna goes to stay with in California in the show, was real. Big Momma was Jimmie Lee's mother, as depicted. Fauna stayed with Big Momma and other relatives while searching for answers about her past. Big Momma's character was a great source of support and understanding, especially during a time in which Fauna was at odds with Jimmie Lee over her decision to pursue the answers she was seeking about her background. We can only imagine what Big Momma must have been like in real life.
