| 1970 | Born to Joe Hell and Molly Stern |
| 1984 | Disruptive in school but good in studies, a troubled student with a rather thick school record, with multiple and confusing psychological theories and speculations, the majority centering on an overly developed mother/son relationship, the impact of a household with unreliable father figures coming and going, attention deficit disorder (as it would later be called), and manic-depressive symptoms |
| 1985 | Joe goes punk, mohawk, leather jacket, but refuses to wear jeans, usually used corduroys instead; begins discovering the positive side to individualism, school record develops into a more positive but still thick tome |
| 1988 | Graduates high school; mother tells him about his heritage; first attack (other than domestic abuse) made on her; Joe believes it to be mob-based. He also goes straight-edge that year, gets rid of jacket and moves to just white t-shirts and slacks or shorts, begins working out but quickly loses that discipline but does begin a discipline of drinking heavily |
| 1989 | Mother violently slain, case remains officially unsolved. Gets P.I. license and begins emulating certain behaviors of Joe Hell. |
| 1990 | Realizing the professional world isn't ready for a straight edge detective, he starts dressing more seriously, growing his hair out to a crewcut, and slowly donning the appearance he's known for - tan/light brown trench coat, fedora, dark colored (navies, reds, browns) patterned tie, white or brown shirt, and tan or brown dress slacks, all reasonably well pressed and kept up; no significant notices in the press; operates out of his house |
| 1991 | Makes page 10 story regarding the capture of a fugitive deadbeat husband and begins to generate a real income (albeit still at poverty level; his mother's house is paid for and he remains there, mitigating some expenses). |
| 1992 | Several notices in the papers list Jack Hell as a witness in divorce and business lawsuits as a result of his investigative role. A bloody multiple gangland murder reported on page two lists Jack Hell as a witness questioned by the police. |
| 1993 | Opens Stern Inc., quickly retitled to Hell Investigations; business picks up and the lawsuits begin. Arrested in March for trespassing, his only guilty conviction to date but maintains license as part of pledge to do community service. First libel case brought against him when a spurned husband is dissatisfied with Hell's implications of his embezzlement; Hell's proof reverses the situation and the suit is dismissed. This year also sees Hell's relationships with dependent and downtrodden women begin in earnest, with several affairs. |
| 1994 | First of several drunk and disorderly run-ins with the law, though he's merely cited, as is typically done over the next three years. His name and face begin to appear in society columns (for his role as an investigator, primarily breaking up marriages), the business section (for corporate investigative work), and arrest reports (as a witness and/or suspect). |
| 1995 | A cocky Hell, now successful, is again sued, this time losing a judgement for $250,000 in an invasion of privacy case brought by another ex-husband. Only the involvement of Dr. Keeleher saves the case on appeal; as part of the settlement the case is sealed, only the principles involved and the fact the case exists remains on the books. Dr. Keeleher appears in court records as counsel on behalf of Hell several times after this. One of Hell's girlfriends is found brutally murdered, and he begins a tailspin into increased drinking but, for the next few months, the business increases. |
| 1996 | Tax records reveal this to be Hell's best financial year. It's also the year he legally changes his name from Jack Stern to Jack Stern Hell. However, several police reports list him for drunk and disorderly citations (though miraculously no arrests on those charges), as well as a more serious arrest for the murder of the husband of a woman who had hired him. The charge is the result of a setup by her and he is quickly cleared of those charges. His increasingly enigmatic profile as both a troublemaker and an advocate of the abused (it's now known he often handles cases for abused women for free, sometimes even without their asking) attracts even more attention, positive and negative. He is still linked romantically to women of lower status or intelligence, often both. |
| 1997 | Unusually little is heard from Hell, though he is listed as the defendant in a libel case as the result of a divorce and a slander case as the result of a corporate espionage investigation. Gambling losses appear to lead to the loss of his office space, but his reputation for success apparently keeps enough business coming his way to keep him housed and fed. While he still is not arrested for known drunk and disorderly activities, police records show that Hell voluntarily (?) stayed in the drunk tank for at least 27 nights throughout 1997. |
| 1998 | Begins seriously cleaning up his act. Also conducts an investigation of Lee Whitehead, executive vice-president in Dagget industries, which results in front page stories of the executives philandering and emotional wife abuse as well as hints at unethical if not illegal practices. It also results in Whitehead's divorce. Then a smear campaign takes place in the papers directed at Hell, detailing his run-ins with the law and hinting he's been involved in his mother's and girlfriends' murders, as well as multiple unsavory personal details. In the meantime Whitehead quietly drops out of the papers but remains powerful in Dagget, despite a temporary demotion as the company prides itself on its moral image. Hell's home burns to the ground, the first in a series of such misfortunes throughout the year, including his default on credit cards which he claims he never owned - those cases still lingering in civil courts. |
| 1999 | Hell's name appears listed in a battered women charity as a contributor of services (undisclosed details). Throughout the year he has no drunk and disorderly citations and no time in the drunk tank (at least none recorded), although he is still known as something of a party animal. He begins using a somewhat controversial but legal and, if not misused, non-lethal gun of his own design. However, not all of his life is turning around; he experiences his 3rd violent loss of a girlfriend (although this time he catches and brings the perpetrator to justice). He also is subject to yet another major legal case; as part of the settlement the records are sealed so the outcome is uncertain. His legal residence changes several times and by the last half of the year no legal residence is shown on any records. Adding injury to insult, a fall from a 5th story while on a stake-out results in a hospital stay of several nights, abruptly ending as the impaired Hell apparently narrowly escapes an attempt by unknown parties to do him in. |
| 2000 | Hell shows up in photos taken at the Furies mansion in January and February and is clearly establishing more ties to the heroic community of Bay City. |