Welcome to the Hotel California

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Eagles ‘Hotel California’ was written about the Cecil Hotel, in Los Angeles.

The lyrics hint at a hotel which on face-value seems welcoming and inviting but underneath harbours a dark secret.

And indeed, the Cecil Hotel has a macabre history which is so compelling, it was the inspiration for the American Horror Story’s Hotel Cortez.

The Cecil was built by William Banks Hanner and opened December 20th 1924. He built it as a hotel for wealthy international businessmen and upper-class social elites. Hanner spent $1 million (equal to $14,853,988.44 in 2020) on the 700-room hotel. Decorated in a Beaux Arts-style, it truly was a 5-star hotel in its time.

Sadly, just two years after the Cecil Hotel opened, the world was thrown into the Great Depression. The area surrounding the Cecil Hotel became known as “Skid Row” — home to thousands of homeless people.

The magnificent Cecil hotel soon became a meeting place for criminals, murderers, junkies, adulterers, runaways, and prostitutes instead of the businessmen for whom it was originally intended.

And over the following years, the Cecil Hotel earned itself a new reputation for all the wrong reasons.

On 22nd January 1927, Percy Ormond Cook was found dead in his room at the Cecil.

He left a note in which he said he had spent $40,000 in the previous six months, in an attempt to buy happiness after separating from his wife. 52-year-old Percy shot himself and was taken to the Receiving Hospital. Newspapers reported that doctors said he had only a slight chance of recovery, but sadly Percy had already passed by the time the news article was printed.

Attention was again bought to the Cecil’s doorstep in 1927, when John Croneur, was arrested in his hotel room for stealing a diamond hairpin from the Rosslyn Hotel.

November 19, 1931, the Cecil was back in the news when the search for W. K. Norton, who had been reported missing since Saturday 14th November, came to an abrupt end.

He had checked in under the name “James Willys”, claiming to be from Chicago. Norton had been dead, only a few hours when found by a maid. It is believed he had ingested poison capsules, some of which were found in his pocket.

The poor maids made yet another grizzly discovery in September 1932.

Mrs. Carrie Brown found a body believed to be 25-year-old Benjamin Dodich, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. He did not leave a suicide note and Police stated there was no apparent reason for his suicide.

July 1934, Army Medical Corps Sgt. Louis D. Borden, 53, was discovered dead in his room at the Cecil.

He had slashed his throat with a razor, which was found next to his body. Borden left several notes, one of which cited poor health as the reason for his suicide.

In March 1937, Grace E. Magro fell from a ninth-story window.

She hit telephone wires on the way down, which ripped the wires from the poles and became entangled around her body, crushing her.

She died at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital shortly after. Police were unable to determine whether Magro’s death was the result of an accident or suicide. Her companion, M.W. Madison, a 26-year-old sailor of the U.S.S. Virginia, was asleep at the time of her death and could offer no explanation for why she would have jumped.

Less than a year later, in January 1938, United States Marine Corps fireman Roy Thompson, 35, was found dead.

His body was spotted on the skylight of a neighbouring building, by a hotel employee.

He had been staying at the Cecil for several weeks and is believed to have committed suicide. Leaving no notes to explain his action, Roy, took what police termed a “suicide leap” from the fourteenth story of the Cecil.

In May 1939, Navy officer Erwin C. Neblett, 39, was found unconscious in his room after ingesting poison.

Neblett, who was a U.S. Navy Radio Man 2nd Class, died shortly after he was discovered, from strychnine poisoning. Inside his room, police found a sealed letter addressed to Dr. D.C. Neblett of Staten Island. Police did not open the letter but sent it along with his body to a mortuary in Long Beach and he was later buried in Tennessee.

11th January 1940, teacher Dorothy Sceiger, 45, was found having ingested poison.

The Los Angeles Times reported her to be “near death.” Dorothy passed away the next day and was interred at Evergreen Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Riverside, CA.

In September 1944, pregnant Dorothy Jean Purcell, 19, was sharing a room with her 38 year old boyfriend, Ben Levine.

Purcell went into labour and went to another bathroom on the same floor, as she did not want to wake her boyfriend. She gave birth to a baby boy but claimed she thought the baby was stillborn. She threw him out of the window, where he landed on the roof of an adjacent building. Purcell was charged with murder, but psychiatrists testified that she was “mentally confused”. In January 1945, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.In 1947, Elizabeth Short, dubbed by the media as the Black Dahlia, was rumored to have been spotted drinking at the Cecil’s bar in the days before her notorious, and to date unsolved, murder

Elizabeth Short, the “Black Dahlia” was also rumoured to be linked to the hotel.

She reportedly stayed at the hotel just before her violent murder in January 1947, which still remains unsolved. Several people claim they saw her at the bar before her death, although this has never been proven.

In addition to being cut completely in half at the waist, and having her intestines removed, Short’s mouth had been slashed from ear-to-ear, giving her face a ghastly, semi-smiling appearance known as a Glasgow Smile.

Her body had also been washed clean before it was left to be found in Leimert Park, which is not far from the Cecil.

Despite the severe mutilation, there was no blood at the scene, leading police to conclude that the young woman had been murdered somewhere else, drained of blood, then cleaned before the killer dumped her body.

In November 1947, Robert Smith, 35, died after ‘falling” from one of Cecil’s seventh-floor windows.

October 22, 1954, Helen Gurnee, 55, jumped from the window of her seventh-floor room and landed on the Cecil’s marquee on the busy Main Street.

She drew a crowd of hundreds of bystanders, as firemen attempted to retrieve her body. One witness was hospitalised, due to witnessing her death and becoming hysterical.

February 11, 1962, Julia Frances Moore, 50, jumped from the window of her eighth-floor room and landed in a second-story interior light well.

She did not leave a suicide note, but her possessions included an Illinois bank book showing she had in her account a balance of $1,800 (equal to $15,418.44 in 2020).

A few months later, on October 12, 1962, Pauline Otton, 27, jumped from the window of her ninth-floor room.

Her estranged-husband Dewey said his wife had turned up at his place of work earlier in the day wanting reconciliation. He said he took her to the hotel to discuss it.

When he left the room, Pauline jumped out of the window, and she landed on a pedestrian, George Gianinni, 65, killing them both instantly. As there were no witnesses, police initially thought Otton and Gianinni committed suicide together. However, investigators determined that Gianinni had his hands in his pockets and he was still wearing shoes, which they confirmed had he jumped, his shoes would have been knocked off upon impact.

“Pigeon Goldie” was a popular, 6 year resident of the Hotel.

“Pigeon Goldie” was well known around the area and had earned her nickname because she fed birds in nearby Pershing Square.

On June 4, 1964, a hotel worker discovered “Pigeon Goldie” Osgood, dead in her room. She had been strangled, raped, stabbed, and beaten, and her room was ransacked. Her Los Angeles Dodgers cap she always wore was found next to her body and a paper sack full of birdseed.

Investigators said the crime may have been committed by the same man who murdered another woman, Mrs. Viva Brown, 50, of Oakland, in a nearby hotel on May 16.

The two murders were linked after an autopsy showed that the 2 victims, had been killed and assaulted in the same manner.

Jacques B. Ehlinger, 29, was arrested late Friday. He was seen walking through Pershing Square in blood-stained clothing, shortly after Goldie had been found.

Police said Ehlinger, admitted knowing Mrs. Osgood and had been in the vicinity at the time of the murder. Ehlinger denied any knowledge of either murder and was eventually released without charge.

The murders still remain unsolved.

On December 20, 1975, a still-unidentified woman, fell from her twelfth-floor window onto Cecil’s second-floor roof.

She had registered at the hotel on December 16 under the name “Alison Lowell” and was staying in room 327.

Estimated age: 20–30 years old

Approximate Height and Weight: 5'4"; 118 lbs.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair; brown/hazel eyes. Multiple scars to both wrist.

Clothing: Blue sweater, second sweater blue, purple and black, navy blue pants, navy blue coat, black shoes and a beige bra. A black purse and a yellow-metal key.

Fingerprints: Available

Dentals: Not Available

The victim registered in room number 327 of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles on December 16, 1975, at 12.05. Had checked into the hotel under the name of “ Alison Lowell”. A Greyhound bus ticket purchased in Bakersfield, CA on 12/15/1975 was found on the dresser of the hotel room. No ID papers found in the room or with the decedent. On December 20, 1975, she fell or jumped from her 12th-floor window onto the 2nd-floor roof.

In the mid-1980s, Serial Killer Richard Ramirez lived in a room on the top floor of the hotel for $14 a night.

With the bodies of over-dosed addicts frequently found in and around the hotel, the “Night Stalker” never raised any suspicions at the Cecil.

After he had committed murder, he simply threw his bloodied clothing into the hotel dumpster and would walk through the hotel naked. This never raised any eyebrows since the hotel was by this point, total out and out chaos, so naked people wandering around was nothing new.

In 1991, serial killer Johann “Jack” Unterweger also stayed at the Cecil.

In public, Johann “Jack” Unterweger was a respected Austrian journalist and television host. However, in reality, he was a brutal murderer who strangled at least 10 women to death.

In June 1991 Unterweger was sent to Los Angeles by an Austrian magazine to research a story about crime, particularly prostitution, in the California city. Unterweger went on a ride-along with police and interviewed many people, including the Police, about crime in the city. He also used the opportunity to murder three sex workers during his stay.

Because the area around the Cecil Hotel was popular with prostitutes, Unterweger found it to be a prime spot to locate his victims. Unterweger even claimed to have “dated” the hotel’s receptionist whilst there.

On September 1, 1992, an unidentified man was found deceased in the alley behind the Cecil.

Authorities believe the decedent either fell from, jumped from, or was pushed from the hotel’s fifteenth floor. At the time of his death, the decedent was five feet, nine inches tall and weighed around 185 pounds. He was wearing blue sweatpants and a black sweatshirt over a grey t-shirt. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office placed the decedent’s age at twenty to thirty-two years. The decedent’s identity has never been established.

In 2011, the Cecil Hotel was rebranded as “Stay on Main”.

For its long history, the Cecil Hotel has been drenched in death. Above the check-in desk, there’s an old clock with its hands permanently stuck at 5.27.

It's still known as “the Suicide” and there are countless stories of cold spots and shadowy figures seen in the hotel.

In 2014 of a ghost photograph, showing a shadowy figure at a window of the Cecil Hotel, looking like it was about to jump appeared online.

There are stories of people saying that they see Elizabeth Short in the hotel and others who report feeling like they’re being watched.

However, the revamp did nothing to shake off the hotels’ seemingly magnetic attraction for death, since a further 2 have been reported since the change.

The mystery behind the 2013 death of Elisa Lam is deserving of an entire article dedicated to her story, due to the sheer amount of weirdness involved, and how it leaves everyone with far more questions than answers.

There are online communities dedicated to her case, which is still to date, unsolved.

On January 31st, Elisa Lam, also known by her Cantonese name, Lam Ho Yi, was due to check out of the Cecil to make her way to Santa Cruz.

Only she didn’t ring home. Lam contacted her parents every day whilst she was travelling, so when she failed to ring home that day, fearing something was wrong, her parents called the Police.

Interest in her disappearance spiked once video footage from the hotel was released & quickly went viral online. The video which shows her still in the hotel on Feb 1st, in her what is believed to be her final few moments, has been described by many viewers as unnerving.

The footage has been extensively scrutinised online. Typically the internet did what it does best and became a hotbed of debate and theories. And there were many — ranging from claims of paranormal involvement, elevator games (a supernatural game which players believe the elevator can take you to “another world”), witchcraft, drugs and psychotic breaks.

Once it was discovered Lam suffered from mental health issues, namely bipolar disorder, that also became a theory behind her weird behaviour seen on the video. Her toxicology report came back as clean, so she wasn’t under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.

Some viewers argued that the video had been tampered with before being made public.

On February 19, Lam’s naked body was found in one of four 1,000-gallon (3,785 L) tanks on the hotel roof, that provide water to guest rooms, a kitchen, and a coffee shop, after residents complained about the quality and taste of the water, accompanied by low water pressure. Her clothing was found in the tank with her body.

Pedro Tovar, Cecil’s chief engineer, noted that there are four ways to get onto the roof. Three fire escapes which you can get to via interior doors, and one staircase from the 14th floor. An alarm will sound if someone attempts to open the door to the roof, something that only hotel employees would be able to do. If the alarm sounds, it is audible to the front desk, as well as the 14th and 15th floors. Once on the roof, you would first have to climb up to the platform the tanks sit on, then squeeze between them and other plumbing equipment to get to another ladder, which you could use to climb onto one of the four cisterns. Each has a heavy, metal lid, which you’d need to be able to open before you could get inside.

In another weird twist, Lam’s Tumblr blog was updated after her death. Her phone was not found either with her body or in her hotel room; it has been assumed to have been stolen at some time around her death. Whether the continued updates to her blog were facilitated by the theft of her phone, the work of a hacker, or through the Tumblr’s Queue option (which allows users to schedule posts to automatically publish), is not known.

One Reddit poster pointed out

“She died February 2013. Posts were made for ten more months, randomly skipping May and then July — November, then back in December.

You think she set a post queue almost a YEAR in advance, with no rhyme or reason? It’s not like she uploaded weekly.”

On June 13, 2015, the body of a 28-year-old man was found outside the hotel.

Some believe he may have committed suicide by jumping from the hotel, although a spokesperson for the county coroner informed the Los Angeles Times that the cause of death had not been determined. A man who identified himself as the assistant manager of the Cecil said the man who died was not a guest but declined to provide more details.

Other interesting Cecil Hotel facts:

U2 performed an impromptu live concert in 1987 on the rooftop of a one-story building next door to the Cecil Hotel.

The performance was filmed released as a music video for the release of the band’s song “Where the Streets Have No Name” with the Cecil in the background.

The hotel is also known as the inspiration for Barton Fink.

The hotel can be seen in the background of Blink-182’s video “The Rock Show”. They also throw money down to their fans below, from the single-story rooftop, located next door to the Cecil Hotel.

The hotel was sold in 2014 to real estate developer Richard Born.

In 2015, Simon Baron Development entered a 99-year ground lease with the property owner. The developer proposes to rehab 261 of the existing residential units and build 30 new units at a nearby property it is already leasing. (Those 30 replacement units are required to be built and open no later than July 2028.)

However, a change of name and owners hasn’t deterred some people from posting distasteful, fake reviews for the hotel, based on its history, especially around the Elisa Lam murder.

Let’s hope that when the hotel gets a revamp it can also shed its unfortunate habit of attracting murder and mayhem that has made it so infamous.