If only walls could talk, the walls of the Hotel Cecil in Downtown Los Angeles would have haunting stories to tell. This week we take a closer look at the haunting history of the Hotel Cecil. So, Let's talk about that!
If only walls could talk, the walls of the Hotel Cecil in Downtown Los Angeles would have haunting stories to tell. This week we take a closer look at the haunting history of the Hotel Cecil. So, Let's talk about that!
All across America and Europe the 1920s roared and roared loudly. It was a period known for its historic financial prosperity. It changed the way the world worked, blossoming the consumer economy and culturally being reborn. Profiting from the boom 1923 the stoic Biltmore hotel was born which became famously known as the last place the black dahlia was seen. One year later, hoping to profit the same, a new hotel found its home in the financial district downtown. In 1924 a stones throw across Pershing square came the 19 floor, 700 room Hotel Cecil on 640s main st in Los Angeles. The Hotel Cecil was built as a destination point for international traveling and local bankers venturing to the Spring Street Financial District. It came at a time where people would need to be whisked away to the city to work and needed to extended stays in the city. Nestled among the local restaurants, theaters, shops, and fast paced atmosphere of downtown The Hotel Cecil though not as glamorous as the Biltmore, welcomed guests with floor to ceiling marble lobbies and an air of sophistication. But you see sometimes things that burn bright, tend to find themselves left in the dark before they know it. The future predicted by the builders of this once wondrous hotel seemed to have rewritten itself to be a future no one ever expected. It seems so long ago that the Cecil was known for anything other than criminal and paranormal darkness. What was once built for the wealthy men who handled everyone's money, is now the beacon for those whose souls are lost and have nowhere else to go. I have always wondered, what resides within the Cecil other than her human guests? So, let’s talk about that.
Before this episode starts I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who tune in each week and those how like each post on Instagram and who share the podcast with all their friends. This is the 20th episode of Audibly haunted and we have officially passed over 1000 downloads. When I started this I didn’t think anyone would listen let alone having it be heard across the world. I want to thank you all and I have so much planned for this year so keep liking, sharing and listening! Also due to the dark nature of this episode listener discretion is advice.
Opening its doors in 1924 the Hotel Cecil welcomed her guests with a luring marble lobby and long stained glass windows. It featured potted palms all around with awe inspiring alabaster statues and a lavish staircase that seemed to make promises of comfort in the upper floors. The build cost hoteliers—William Banks Hanner, Charles L. Dix and Robert H. Schops a total of 1.5 million and in total the 3 men invested a whooping 2.5 million at the time into the full hotels enterprise. They were contenting against several other luxurious hotels that had popped up within a few miles radius. The hotel flourished for 5 years until October 24 1929 the day that marked the beginning of the great depression that rang throughout America. As the hotel did sit slap dap in the middle of the financial district the area around the hotel was hit hard. It degraded the hotels surroundings into a poverty stricken area. The hotel suffered again during world war II in the end crippling the area around her leading to the creation of skid row. This once beautiful luxurious destination spot became the waypoint for criminals, junkies, the elderly that had nowhere to go, and the lost souls of los angeles.
To make matters even worse for the hotel, with the full development of freeways in the 50s this allowed people to commute to the city and head back home to live in the suburbs. THus leading fewer people to rely on the Cecil as a place to stay while they worked leaving even more room for the ruffians and thugs of the streets to take up room and board. In the end giving the Cecil a new reputation, that of drugs, violence, and death.
The great depression took its toll on America and while many things began going back to the way they were, some things remained changed forever. Between the 1940s into the 1960s The Hotel Cecil once again became a destination spot in the city, but not in the way you would imagine. The Cecil became the hot spot for guest suicide and it became a regular accurance throughout the hotels history to this day. Guests would check into their rooms and never leave the hotel. Many would be found by cleaning staff the following day dead at their own hands in their rooms. Guests' methods included poisoning, gunshots, or even razor blades. At times guests chose the means of flight as their way to go choosing to fling themselves out from their high up window.
A documented suicide involved an individual jumping from their room window and landing on a pedestrian below simplifying walking by, killing them both. For the Cecil death did not have an age limit. In September of 1944 19 year old Dorothy Jen Purcell woke in the night to extreme stomach pains. Fearing that she might wake her 38 year old husband Ben Levine, Dorothy slips off to the bathroom. There on the bathroom floor fully unaware that she was even pregnant, a very shocked Dorothy gave birth and delivered her own child quietly in the night. Believing the baby was still born instead of calling for help from her sleeping husband she felt there was only one thing to do. She opened up the room window and threw her newborn child out the Hotel Cecil window. As their window was on the upper floors the baby’s lifeless body was found on the roof of the adjacent building. However, when the coroner performed an autopsy they found the baby’s lungs had filled with air meaning the child was alive and birth and alive when thrown from the window. Dorothy was arrested and put on trial, but was never found guilty pleading mentally confusion and insanity.
While suicides were a regular tragedy within the walls of the Hotel Cecil, a close second was murder. Among the dirty streets and tall concrete buildings sits a small concrete park used now to host concerts and events named Pershing Square. Goldie “The Pigeon Lady of Pershing Square” Osgood was a frequent visitor at the park for well feeding pigeons. She was known by everyone local to the park and those local to the Cecil. She was said to be a beacon of warmth and was a very happy go lucky old lady. She was kind to everyone that came across her path. The square is not far from the hotel and being retired and low income Goldie found herself living at the hotel. On June 4th 1964 79 year old Goldie Oswood’s body was found in her room at the cecil stabbed beaten and raped. The coroner deemed she had also been choked with a rag. What lay beside her body within the ransacked room was her Dodger cap and a bag of bird seeds. The news of her murder within the Cecil spread quickly throughout the community, even making news in the Pershing Square news paper. People mourned the loss of the sweet old lady and wondered who was cruel enough to do such a thing. To this day the dodger hat she wore remains on the shelf to mark her room. And to this day the murder remains unsolved. Even in 2024 people still visit and leave her flowers at her grave within Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.
While the hotel cecil housed many would down on their luck, she housed two guests that made national headlines. In 1985 a man by the name of Richard Ramirez checked into room 1419 on the 14th floor at the Hotel Cecil. Does the name sound familiar? Well he did also go by the walk in killer, the valley intruder, but he was most famously known as the night stalker. Between June of 1984 to August of 1985 Ramirez had Californians double and triple checking their homes before they hit the hay. Ramirez would silently break into peoples homes with the use of a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, various types of knives, a machete, a tire iron and a claw hammer. He punched, pistol whipped, and strangled many of his victims as well as sexually assaulting many of his female victims. He found pleasure in scaring, torturing, killing, and raping. He would leave satanic worship symbols within the homes of all his victims.
On April 10 1984 the body of 9 year old Mei Leung, a Chinese American little girl was found raped and stabbed. Mei was with her 8 year old brother searching for a lost dollar when Ramirex approached them. He told the little girl to follow him to the basement and he would show here where the dollar is. He then proceeded to rape and stab the little girl with a switch blade. Ramirez then hung the girls half naked body from a pipe using her blouse.
On March 17 1985 is when he began to gather real attention when he committed two murders and attempted a third all in one night. News outlets went crazy describing him as curly-haired with bulging eyes and wide-spaced, rotting teeth. He was a sick man who would sometimes lounge around his victims homes eating their snacks while soaked in their blood. He would then ransack the homes for valuables and cash. He would at times also take body parts from his victims like souvenirs.
After shooting and stabbing of Maxine Levenia Zazzara, a 44-year-old woman, in 1985 Ramriez was said to have brought her eye balls back to his room at the Cecil. Ramriez was seen prowling through skid row on his way back to the Cecil. Reports state he would remove and discard of his bloody clothing into the hotels dumpsters in the back. He would use the Cecil as his home base to plan out his next victims. In the end Ramirez was convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults and fourteen burglaries. Richard Ramirez was captured August 30 1985.
A short time after Ramirez, another killer entered the doors of the Cecil. Jack Unterweger the silver tongued devil from Austria. It all started in 1974 when Unterweger murdered 18-year-old West German national Margaret Schäfer. He killed her with the strap of her own bra. This murder landed him a life in prison in 1976. But you see Unterweger was sharp he was not going to accept his sentencing and began writing. Poems, short stories, and even an auto biography titled Purgatory or The Trip to Prison – Report of a Guilty Man. He was charming and charismatic he had truly convincted people that he was rehabilitated and ready to be a member of society. People loved him and soon people began demanding a pardon and to release Unterweger from prison. The judge though demanded at least the minimum of 15 years be served and once that was done on May 23 1990 Unterweger was released.
Once released he became a mini celebrity much like the Gypsy Rose of today. Quickly he began working in journalism and in 1991 he was hired by a Austria magazine to write about crime taking place in los angeles. Reports suspect Unterweger specifically chose the Cecil as his dwelling while in the states to pay a sickening homage to Ramirez as Unterweger was attracted to the night stalkers fame and murders. While staying at the hotel Unterweger committed three murders all of which were sex workers brought back to his room. What was this killers signature? Each victim was strangled with their own bra straps. He was later caught and sent back to Austria where he was once again sentenced. But before he can spend the rest of his life behind bars the night of his conviction unterweger hung himself in his Austrian jail cell.
All of the crime, drug use, suicides, even the local serial killer down the hall was really a backdrop for one of the most haunting and mysterious murders the Cecil has ever seen. The Mysterious death of Elisa Lam.
Having turned 21 Elisa Lam felt the need to leave her home in Vancouver Canada and to venture out to California. She longed to get away from her studies at University of British Columbia so she set off on a solotrip up the west coast. Haven’t ventured San deigo on January 26 2013 Lam arrived in Los Angeles via the Amtrak train with her next stop being Santa Cruz. Her family were uneasy about her leaving on her own but to compromise Elisa promised her family she would check in with them every day. Having promised this her family found it strange that on January 31th, the day she was to have checked into the Cecil, Elisa never called to check in with her family. In the next day The Lam family calls the LAPD and reports her missing stating she should have checked into the cecil. The LAPD conduct a search of the hotel but Elisa is nowhere on the property.
Soon in an effort to find Elisa police release a haunting video from the surveillance camera within one of the hotels elevators asking people of they had seen this girl. It was the last known footage of Elisa and this is where the case takes a turn into something far more sinister. The video shows Elisa entering the elevator leans down selects several floors and then pushes herself to the back corner of the elevator. She seems to freeze then slowly walks towards the door and quickly takes a step forward jumping out half way out of the elevator swinging her head left and right as if checking to see if anyone is there. She steps back in and seems to hide herself in the corner near the elevator buttons. Again she slowly sticks her head out of the elevator seeing if anyone is in the hallway. Standing in the door way he hops out of the elevator and stand just out of voew of the camera though you can see her skirt and her leg and arm coming into view. She then runs back into the elevator and frantically pushes all the buttons to the floors and hops back out. She stands at the edge of the elevator and here is where the footage becomes haunting. She begins to move erratically swinging her arms with her fingers wide spread and hands bent in a strange angle. She appears to be talking with someone or something in the hallway twisting and bending her fingers. After this she is seen walking away form the elevator but the footage does not stop there. The elevator doors close and open and close and open a few times as if something is standing there calling the elevator not allowing it to leave.
In the middle of February guests staying at the hotel began to complain of low water pressure as well as stained brown water that carried a putrid odor coming from their showers and faucets. With this reports maintenance was sent to check the water tanks atop the Cecil hotel. Upon opening the tank there floating at the top of the water was Elisa Lams body. To this day no one knows what happened or how her body made it into the tank. Some speculate that she was drugged or was having a psychotic breakdown which is what caused her strange movements. However there are those that ask was there something sinister at work? With the strange actions of the elevator and other ghostly reports of the hotel is it possible that Elisa was being haunted or possibly possessed? Something that I think is with Ramirez’s first victim being a very young girl of Chinese decent and with his love of tormenting his victims what if Ramirez’s evil spirit tormented and led Elisa to her death. The video led to hundreds of millions of views with people creating investigative groups trying to solve the mystery but to the day it remains unsolved and it has left a permeant stain on the Cecil.
Now the Cecil has become a paranormal investigators hotspot. Even when the hotel was shut down and no one was inside people living in the buildings next to the hotel would see people standing in the windows and would hear doors slamming shut. As people ventured back in to the hotel even before its closer in 2017 the higher would went up on the floors the heavier the feeling gets and it almost feels like the building is closing in on you. Lights flicker all around you but some say the scariest place in the cecil is in room 1419 rameriez’s room. Feeling like you are being watched the energy within the room changes and becomes heavy and sickly. Anything above the third floor the guards do not even want to venture into as the Cecil becomes something sinister. All in all guests claim that almost all 700 rooms make you feel like someone or something is watching your every move.
During its construction no one could have guessed what the Hotel Cecil would have turned into. In a last ditch effort to breathe new life into the Cecil it was shut down and renovated as reopened under the name The Stay on Main. But no matter what they try to do the history of this building has stained its very foundation just like the blood on its hotel room carpets.