perhaps the most infamous hotel in the
united states
the cecil hotel in los angeles has a
long and sordid past
catering to those seeking the seedier
side of life its history has been
a grim assortment of misfortunes and sad
occurrences
that have continued until fairly
recently
the first recorded suicide at the sea
salt happened at a time when the great
depression was truly ramping up
and was perhaps an ominous important for
things to come over the following
decades
as there would continue to be such
deaths from that point on
every hotel has suicides every hotel
maybe maybe would have a murder or two
not like this on november 19 1931
a manhattan beach resident one w.k
norton
was found by hotel staff in his hotel
room deceased
according to kcet he had only been dead
for a few hours by the time he was found
in the subsequent investigation police
found capsules that were believed to be
filled with poison
in norton's vest pocket norton's death
may not have been the first
glimpse at what was to come at the cecil
also
according to kcet a woman named dorothy
robertson was taken to the hospital
after wandering around the hotel for
three days having consumed barbiturates
in an attempt to kill herself
following the death of her husband
another death that occurred at the cecil
happened in march 1937
and to this day authorities don't know
if it was intentional or an
accident in this case 25 year old grace
e
magro either fell or jumped from a ninth
story window
and wound up getting caught up in
telephone wires on the way down
according to the los angeles times her
companion was asleep in the room at the
time of the incident and therefore gave
no information
as to how magro ended up falling from
the window
magro was transported to the georgia
street receiving hospital
where she died soon after she is the
first of many people
if she did indeed choose to end her own
life by jumping from the higher stories
of the cecil hotel
is there a room here that maybe somebody
hasn't died in
in september 1944 nineteen-year-old
dorothy jean purcell
had been staying in the cecil for a
couple of days with 38 year old ben
levine
when she awoke in the early morning
hours to the feeling that she was about
to give
birth according to the los angeles times
purcell
then went to the restroom on her floor
and delivered the baby alone
not wanting to disturb levine believing
the baby to be stillborn
purcell then threw it out a nearby
window the baby landed on the roof of a
nearby building
and purcell went back to her room
deciding to refrain from telling levine
what had happened
purcell was arrested shortly after the
event took place
purcell was brought to trial for the
possible homicide
during the trial it was revealed by the
autopsy surgeon that the baby boy had in
fact
been alive when born the proof the
examiner explained
was evidence of oxygen in the lungs
purcell was also examined by
psychologists
and eventually found not guilty by
reason of insanity
they rented a room went up to the room
and then jumped out the window
another person who is known to have
jumped to her death from the cecil hotel
is 27 year old pauline autumn who did so
in october 1962.
otton though did not simply kill herself
after jumping
according to film daily auten leapt from
the window of her ninth story room
following an argument with her estranged
husband
unfortunately when she fell she landed
on a 68 year old transient man
named george gialini who just happened
to be walking by at the time
by the time police arrived both otton
and giolini were dead
having been killed instantly upon impact
when beginning their investigation there
were no witnesses to the events
which complicated things initially
police thought that the two had
potentially leapt together from the
hotel
the truth became clear however when
police discovered his hands in his
pockets and his shoes still on
something that would not have been
possible had he also jumped from the
hotel
some of the deaths that have occurred at
the cecil have remained unsolved to this
day
and the case of pigeon goldie osgood is
one of them
she was a retired telephone operator who
earned her nickname because she was
known to frequently feed the pigeons in
pershing square
a woman whose most dangerous act
according to the los
angeles times was to scare away bigger
birds from the smaller ones she was
feeding
was found dead in her cecil hotel room
in 1964
having been shot stabbed and sexually
assaulted
the hotel staffer who found her body
also found her dodger's baseball cap
and bags of feed next to the body police
suspected that osgood's death was
connected to another that occurred
the previous month at a nearby hotel a
29 year old laborer
jacques ellinger was arrested by police
after being seen in pershing square
covered with blood
shortly after the murder took place
ellenger had admitted to knowing osgoode
but denied having anything to do with
her death
police never found enough evidence to
charge ellinger
or anyone else and the crime sadly
remains unsolved
perhaps the most famous person on this
list the satan worshiping serial killer
richard ramirez the night stalker
is said to have spent some time living
at the cecil in the mid-1980s
during which he engaged in a crime spree
that devastated los angeles
according to biography ramirez was known
to have killed at least 14 people
and sexually assaulted and tortured at
least 20 more between june 1984
and august 1985. i'm afraid for
everybody elderly young everybody
from childhood through his teen years
ramirez's criminal behavior
exponentially increased starting with a
1977 arrest for marijuana
his first murder occurred seven years
later in 1984
when he killed nine-year-old may linda
lung
in san francisco's tenderloin district
this crime wasn't connected to ramirez
until new dna technology was used
over 20 years later ramirez's first
night stalker killing occurred on june
28 1984
when he assaulted then stabbed to death
79 year old
jenny vincal from that point he spent
over a year
terrorizing los angeles before being
caught and arrested in august 1985
when he attempted to steal a car area
residents chased ramirez and proceeded
to beat him until the police arrived
the cecil has not had one infamous
serial killer it had two
austrian johann jack underweigher also
spent time at the hotel
by the time he stayed at the cecil
though ultravigor had already been
convicted of
and released from prison for murder in
1974
hunter veger killed 18 year old margaret
schaefer and was given a life sentence
for it
according to biography he began to write
prodigiously in prison
and accrue following for his work less
than a decade after being sentenced a
petition was started for his release
which happened in 1990 after he served
the minimum 15 years
required by austrian law upon release
unterweger took the lives of at least
seven more people before being hired by
a magazine to write about crime in los
angeles
in the time he was there he stayed some
of the time at the cecil hotel
also in that time three sex workers were
found killed in much the same way
unterveger's european victims had been
wintervaker came under suspicion for the
deaths and when police finally had
enough evidence
he had fled unterweger was eventually
captured in miami
and extrasided back to austria on the
day he was sentenced to life without the
possibility of parole
he took his own life in his jail cell
some crimes have occurred not quite
within the walls of the cecil hotel
but they are tangentially related take
the death of 32 year old terry francis
craig for example
the los angeles times writes that in
1988 craig had been found
brutally stabbed to death in the rented
huntington beach home she had shared
with her boyfriend robert sullivan
according to witnesses sullivan had been
seen driving away from the property the
day of the killing
and where did he go when police found
him almost two months later
sullivan was holed up at the cecil hotel
one of the most recent tragedies to
strike on the grounds of the cecil hotel
is that of 21 year old canadian student
elisa lam
who was found in a water supply tank on
top of the hotel on february 19
2013. according to cnn after complaints
from residents about the pressure
and taste of the water a maintenance
worker found her body
lamb's story is a tragic one she checked
into the hotel on january 26th
and the last known footage of her was
taken five days later
in the video lam can be seen entering
and leaving an
elevator pressing the buttons multiple
times and possibly gesturing and talking
to someone off screen
who she may or may not have been hiding
from this footage was not the only cause
for consternation and confusion by
police and armchair detectives alike
though
the physical location of lamb's body
also created issues in explaining her
death
she was found inside one of the four
eight-foot tall
water cisterns on the hotel roof not
only that
her possessions and clothing were found
inside the tank with her
though she was undressed theories range
when it comes to explaining lamb's
disappearance and death
while the paranormal and the hotel's
history have been invoked cnn reports
that her death was ruled an accident
the explanation is that you know she
was having some behavioral difficulties
and
maybe didn't know exactly what she was
doing
usa today adds that bipolar disorder
which lamb was on medication for
was a significant factor in the death
this explanation though
sadly does not fully explain just how
lamb ended up in the water tank
one of the more popular horror
television series of the last decade
ryan murphy and brad falchuk's anthology
series american horror story
used the cecil hotel as part of the
inspiration for its fifth
season aptly named hotel set at the
hotel cortez in los angeles
the season dives into the hotel's
mysterious past
and the guests that have for various
reasons never checked out
while there are some people that are
still actually alive inside
the majority of the characters viewers
were introduced to had
already met their end this is put on
full display in the episode devil's
night
when mr march hosts a dinner for a
veritable who's who of american serial
killers
including john wayne gacy eileen wuornos
jeffrey dahmer zodiac killer and the
cecil's own former resident
richard ramirez i don't get you man the
real fun starts
after you get caught don't you know that
and giving yourself your own nickname
not cool dude
the cecil hotel wasn't the only
inspiration for the season though
according to screen rant there was
another infamous hotel used
built in the late 1800s to accommodate
visitors to the 1893 world's colombian
exposition
or world's fair hh holmes murder castle
and holmes himself were integral
references for many of the plot points
of the season
while march is not a direct adaptation
of homes the similarities are there
while the cecil hotel may seem like the
kind of place that should have been
shuttered long long ago
it is in fact still open in 2007
new owners started renovating and
refurbishing the hotel
working to turn it from single resident
occupancy housing into something closer
to a hostile-like boutique hotel
experience
a few short years after that in 2011 the
cecil hotel got another upgrade
a new name in 2011 the cecil hotel
became the stay on main
a few years after a portion of the hotel
was refurbished by a new owner
then in 2014 the hotel was again sold to
richard bourne
a new york-based hotelier then in 2015
simon baron development entered a
99-year ground
lease with the property owner according
to curbed los angeles
at that time plans for renovation
included rehabbing 261 of the 301
residency units
and building 30 additional in a
different spot owned by the company
then in 2017 it was designated a los
angeles historic landmark
as of early 2021 the stay on main is not
open
though as curved wrote in 2019
construction is supposed to wrap
in mid to late 2021 if you or
anyone you know is having suicidal
thoughts please call the national
suicide prevention lifeline
at 1-800-273-talk 1-800-273-8255