Dying in LA LA Land
This PodCast series from Ron Campise Retired Night Supervisor L.A.P.D. Crime Scene Investigator/Documentarian with 20 years on the job, 13 years of which as a Supervisor on the Night Shift. The busiest shift for Crime Scene Investigation, mostly from 2 to 4 am, "The Hours of the Spirits of the Dead". With over 3000 cases personally investigated and documented everything from run of the mill murders to occasional death of celebrities. And a vast number of fatal accidents, death investigations, robberies, officer involved shootings, drug houses and meth labs with vast amounts of cash, literally falling out of the sky. As the evening super I coordinated with a squad of investigators another 10000 cases. "Dying In LA LA Land" Are Stories of my actual Experiences and/or Experiences of Friends or Co-Workers, So be prepared to be shocked, horrified, amused or just plain disgusted!!
Dying in LA LA Land
"I left my Heart on the Hollywood Freeway".
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Ron Campise tells the story of a Disgruntled Actor and His poorly thought out Suicide attempt off the Sunset Blvd. over crossing of the Hollywood Freeway".
Thank you for listening, Please Check Out my other Episodes.
Hi, I'm Ron Campise. I have the honor and privilege of working for the Los Angeles Police Department for 20 years with the Crime Scene Investigation Unit known as CSI and 13 years as a night supervisor. This is another story, true story, out of the Dying in Lala Land series I'm presenting. This one's entitled I Left My Heart on the Hollywood Freeway. You know, a lot of people come to Hollywood, a lot of young people hoping to become actors, hoping to become entertainers. Sometimes the dreams aren't coming true. I used to meet them all the time. I lived in an apartment house in Hollywood. And they would come to the house, live there, you know, apartment, be so optimistic, and later, run out of money, they're sleeping in their car. And then later they're sleeping in my garage locker. And I remember one person was sleeping in there. He actually put a sleeping bag and everything, and I told him, I go, Fred, I go, dream's over. Gotta go back to Peoria. And he left. Well, this is a story of one young man. He was pacing up and down the sunset overpass on the Hollywood Freeway. Pacing up and down, looking at traffic, looking down, as if he was trying to time something. And sure enough, he jumped. What happened as he was going down, the freeway signs on the Hollywood Freeway, they have razor wire on them. So when he jumped, his sweatshirt clipped the razor wire and he was hanging from it. What the witnesses were saying, he said, Thank you, Lord, I'm alive. I didn't mean to I didn't really mean to do this. Because he had regrets, and what you'll find, people who survived suicide, they have regrets about it. Well he was there and he was hanging there for a couple minutes, and then finally his shirt began to tear. And it tore and it tore it, and he dropped right onto that freeway. He was standing straight up. He just fell right on his feet and he was standing up. And he again said, Oh, I'm alive. Thank you. Thank you. I get another chance. And then he turned around and there was a big semi-gravel truck coming right at him. And it hit him, couldn't stop, and it churned him right under the wheels. And it's the same as uh being in a blender. His arms popped off, his legs popped off, you know, he was decapitated, and it squeezed the largest organ in your body, the most it squeezed a heart right out of his body and it popped off. Bounced down the freeway and wound up uh in the bushes. Well we got there, and actually I got there because of traffic in Hollywood a little late. Got there, there was a CHP captain there, California High Patrol CHP. And the first thing he told me, he called me Sid. They used to call us Sid back then, the short for Scientific Investigation Unit. And he said, Sid, finally got here, huh? Took your time. Because I need this freeway cleared in 20 minutes. You will finish in 20 minutes. I need this freeway open. This is a major thoroughfare. And all I did, I did my usual, I go, Yes, sir, I'll do what I can. I looked on the freeway, they had officers walking down, they had shovels, like snow shovels. They were scraping the freeway, they were putting things in the bags, they had a gurney there. The coroner's uh deputies, the coroner was there, they were putting the arms on the gurney, they put the torso on the gurney, they put the head, and then finally I knew the coroner, and she said, She goes, For some reason we can't find the heart. And they were looking around and they were kind of panicked because they felt a little pressure too. Clear up this freeway scene. They could not find it. And finally, when I was walking up and out of there, they gave up. And I was walking out of there and right on the on ramp to the Hollywood freeway. I looked in the bushes and there was the heart. And I told the coroner, I go, You got your heart right over here. Come and get it. And she she knew me. She was like, Hey, thanks, Ron! Thanks for finding it. See you at the next one. Left the scene and high patrol. They had a very very bored patrol officer guarding the on-ramp because I actually I came down the opposite way in the on ramp, it was parked on the freeway, backed the car up, got out of there. When I got home that night, sometimes I had these really fitful, bizarre dreams, and I had one that night. And it was about that scene. And I was on the bridge, and there was a group of homeless guys, and they looked at me, and I imagined in this dream, the guy he who killed himself was in this group of homeless guys. They started to sing to the tune of I left my heart in San Francisco. I left my heart on the Hollywood Freeway near the sunset exit, close to Hollywood and Vine. Then they went on, I left my dreams on the Hollywood Freeway and the fastbound lane, and they were run over by a big ass truck. And then they went on they sing Little Waymo Cars, drive down sunset boulevard, seeking out the stars.