Nickels: Psychic to (Philadelphia) stars

In my 2014 book, Legendary Locals of Center City Philadelphia, I included the story of a talented clairvoyant, Arlene Ostapowicz of Northeast Philadelphia. 

Though not an attorney, singer, former mayor, artist or writer, Arlene has been a guest on many television and radio shows. In fact, she was once offered a guest spot on Bill Maher's show, Politically Incorrect, but had to decline because the live show was on too late at night. For several years she worked at the Courier-Post of New Jersey and was a monthly commentator on an Atlantic City cable TV station. In the 1980s, she was in high demand with City Hall politicians and judges.

Her life as a City Hall consultant started when Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (now deceased) stopped at Arlene's place one day for a reading. Krajewski had heard about Arlene's talents by “word of mouth,” the poor person’s powerful advertising tool, and decided to give it a try. After the reading, Krajewski became a fan and wanted to see Arlene on a regular basis. She liked what Arlene told her, not because it was what she wanted to hear, but because — for better or worse — of Arlene’s accuracy. 

It wasn’t long before word of Arlene's talents, thanks to Krajewski, spread among the vast network inside City Hall, especially among the judges, some of whom contacted Arlene and asked for appointments.

The judges were so eager to see Arlene they sent limos to her humble house in the city's Wissinoming section to pick her up and then drive her to their chambers. Once delivered to their chambers, Arlene gave them a reading, after which she was quietly chauffeured home again. After a few months of this, Krajewski came up with an idea. She asked Arlene if she would see former mayor Frank Rizzo, who was then set on running for a new term as mayor. This was in the 1980s, when Rizzo had his famous radio show.

Arlene agreed, and met Rizzo and Krajewski in a South Philadelphia house where the consultations began.

A little segue here: I met Rizzo in the 1980s and remember being awed by the size of the man. Tough, resilient, stubborn, and cut from a John Wayne mold, the former mayor could also be charismatic and warm. In an interview I conducted with him shortly before his death in the early 1990s, he spoke tenderly of a police officer friend dying of AIDS. 

During his time as police chief, however, officers under him routinely rounded up people on the street. I was taken into custody one summer night in 1975 while walking in the city; police were looking for a male suspect with red hair, and inside the van were 10 male redheads, plucked from city sidewalks who were subsequently arranged in a lineup. Rizzo’s charm and charisma could win over his staunchest enemies. He spoke in a style that he used to disarm his critics. When I spoke with him, he said, “Anything you want to say about me you can say it, anything you want to add — no problem.” 

Arlene never told me what Rizzo asked her, or even what she said to him, but what went down must have impressed him because the next time he saw her, he said, "If I get elected, I'm going to get you an office in City Hall and put you on the payroll."

Often psychics claim to be talented but they miss the mark on many levels. Arlene was said to have had an accuracy rate of 85 percent ,which is about as high as psychic accuracy gets. 

Arlene was also the teacher and mentor of Jacqueline Bigar, the star astrologer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News for many years.

When she did a television spot during the Goode administration when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy, she was asked by a reporter if the city would sink or swim, and she said swim — meaning that the federal government would come to the city's rescue at the eleventh hour. 

When that prediction came true, there were more limos at her door.

Naturally, you'd think a woman this talented would charge the moon and the stars for consultations, or at least live in an exotic penthouse with busts of Egyptian gods and goddesses, and strut around town like a diva. She'd also have a press agent who screened calls and booked customers, and then she'd be a regular on the lecture circuit, all for very big fees of course. Had Arlene allowed her head to swell, she might even have started her own religion, a la psychic Sylvia Brown. 

But no, Arlene lived in a humble Northeast house with a ramshackle porch, yet she was reading for the high and mighty and also for the so-called "little people" whom she said were just as important to her.

"I never wanted to be famous," she told me. This was true even when she studied metaphysics in England in 1972 and became an organizer of the Atlantean Society, and then came back to the U.S. to start a chapter here. The chapter studied things like auras and everything related to the paranormal, even possession and exorcisms.

A good many people equate people with a natural gift of prophecy (like Arlene), with the dark side. I don't know where this association comes from. Instead of something good, they see sinister shades of Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, black magic, or Satanic influences. Rather than these monsters, Arlene honored a number of Catholic saints, like Saint Therese of Lisieux. She also told me before her death that she had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart.

She also said the rosary and talked with many clients about the reality of angels. She often made believers out of skeptics. She once told me that St. Thomas was the medium for the twelve apostles, and that the gift of prophecy has always been with the world, from Moses on, and didn't disappear with the death and resurrection of Christ. Like the famous seer Jeanne Dixon, she was a devout Catholic.

Her clients included real estate agents, crusty businessmen battling out ugly real estate deals, worried moms and dads, nurses, physicians, judges, and politicians. 

The Philadelphia Police Department came to her door asking for help to solve murders or help find a missing person. She has worked with the police on many crimes, such as the Dolores Della Penna murder in 1972, the Candace Clothier killing in 1968, as well as far more recent cases.

She once told me about her experiences in a possessed house in Bridesburg. 

The malevolent presence was so bad that when the owner tried to get the pastor of his parish church to come by and say some prayers, the poor priest couldn't get up the steps. A force kept pushing him backwards. With her Atlantean Society friends, Arlene says that she then went into the house and to the troubled room in question where her group formed a circle, held hands and began some prayers when something unbelievable happened. She says that she was pushed all the way across the floor, as if gliding on ice, to the very edge of the stairs.