Exactly how accurate is the I am the Night series to the true story?
By Rachel Roth
George Hodel
Did Dr. George Hodel stalk Fauna as he does in the series? In her memoir, Fauna mentions the numerous times she noticed people discreetly stalking her and according to Jimmy Lee, a man dressed as a chauffeur would regularly watch Fauna from afar. In San Diego, an older man walked directly up to Fauna and her daughter but said nothing. Fauna never knew who the man was until she saw pictures of George Hodel and recognized him.
Even as she got older, he continued keeping tabs on her. Fauna and her husband believed their phones were tapped and someone had been listening to their phone calls. Fauna became even more convinced when her cousin was murdered after a series of crude phone conversations.
Fauna’s cousin Johnny would shamelessly flirt with her over the phone. During their calls, Fauna would hear a faint clicking sound as if someone else was listening. A few days later they found Johnny’s dead body, horribly mutilated, in an empty field.
I am the Night had a similar murder involving a young man named Nero who was murdered after making sexual advances toward Fauna over the phone. He was also found dead in an empty field.
Was Ivanovich Victor Sepp real?
It’s unknown if Dr. Hodel had any kind of henchman, but according to Steve Hodel, he did. Fred Saxton, an artist, and Dr. Hodel were childhood friends and alleged partners in crime. Aside from aiding his father with Short, Steve Hodel believed Sexton also killed a woman named Geneva Ellroy, but Ellory’s son denies this theory.
Sexton became famous for designing the Maltese Falcon prop model for the 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon, and for his artwork. There isn’t much about his relationship with Dr. Hodel and even less about any possible crime he committed.
The relationship between father and daughter
On I am the Night, it’s suggested that Tamar had a strange relationship with her father as seen in one episode where she’s watching him engage in a sex party as he makes peek-a-boo faces at her from afar.
In real life, Dr. Hodel was supposedly obsessed with his own daughter. He’d paint naked pictures of her and tried transforming her into a “sex goddess”. In 1949, Tamar accused him of rape, but the charges were dropped from lack of evidence and for the question of Tamar’s reliability.
To make things weirder, Tamar’s name had been picked by her father from the poem Tamar by Robinson Jeffers. A poem about an incestuous love between a brother and a sister with strong sexual themes.