Cecil Hotel’s dark history – murder, horror and bizarre Elisa Lam vanishing

The Cecil Hotel is one of the most notrious locations for crime and bizarre happenings in the world.

The large hotel in Downton Los Angeles first opened in 1927 and ever since has been associated with crime, debauchery, and death.

First built by hoteliers William Banks Hanner, Charles L. Dix and Robert H. Schops in 1924, the Cecil was planned as a destination for toursits and businessman in the growing hotspot of Los Angeles in the roaring 20s.

However, with the Great Depression, the hotel fell on hard times.

Despite growing into a fashionable spot in the 1940s, it once again fell into disrepute as the surrounding blocks, known as Skid Row, became populated by the homeless and transients.

However, even in its early years, the hotel developed a reputation as the site of multiple suicides.

The first reported suicide was W.K. Norton in 1931 when he swallowed poisonous capsules in his room.

Various suicides or suspicious deaths followed, including guests slashing their throats in their rooms or falling to their deaths from room windows.

It also became a site for sex workers to meet up with their clients and for adulterous affairs to take place.

In 1947, the hotel became linked to one of the most notorious murders in US history – the Black Dahlia.

It had been rumoured that the Dahlia herself Elizabeth Short, a wannabe actress, had been spotted at the hotel’s bar shortly before her murder.

Short was later found in Leimert Park dead, her body having been been mutilated and bisected at the waist.

Her murder remains unsolved.

As the suicides connected to the hotel began to reach considerable number, the long-term visitors to the hotel began to refer to it as “The Suicide.”

In 1962, one infamous case saw Pauline Otton leap to her death from the ninth floor and also kill an elderly person on the street below.

In 1964, an unsolved murder took place in the hotel when “Pigeon” Goldie Osgood, who was known for feeding local pigeons, was found raped, stabbed and strangled in her room, having been a long-term resident at the hotel.

In the years that followed, Skid Row became even more notorious for the high levels of crime and homelessness int the area and the hotel was associated with similar people and behaviour.

In the mid 1980s, the infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez who was dubbed ‘The Night Stalker’ was reported to have stayed at the hotel.

Ramirez would become notorious as a serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, pedophile, and burglar, who had attacked numerous people around California.

This was also followed by a reported stay from international serial killer Jack Unterweger in the 1990s.

Despite the hotel being partially regenerated by its new owners – a group led by Fred Cordova – who had bought the hotel for $26million, the most notorious story was yet to come.

In 2013, Canadian college student Elisa Lam was reported missing during her stay at the Cecil while she was on a trip to Los Angeles.

It became clear to investigators that Elisa had never left the hotel before her disappearance but could not find her.

A subsequent piece of eerie security footage showing her enter an elevator and press all of the buttons on the middle row but the lift would not close or move.

She also was seen stepping in and out of the lift, looking around, waving her arms around, and at one point looked like she was hiding in the lift before walking out of shot.

The elevator subsequently closed its doors after she disappeared from the footage.

Once the footage was released to the public it became a viral Internet sensation as various forums, YouTubers, and media pundits weighed in on the bizarre case.

Elisa was finally found after hotel guests complained about the bad-tasting water and the low water pressure, prompting a check of the water supply cistern on the hotel’s roof.

Inside, they found Elisa’s naked body with her clothes and personal items floating nearby.

It had moderately decomposed and had become bloated, reportedly giving off a slight greenish colour.

The exact circumstances of her death have yet to be solved, but the much-delayed autopsy report concluded that she had died by accidental drowning.

There was ruled to be no evidence of suicide, physical trauma, or sexual assault.

Toxicology results found only prescription drugs and a moderate amount of alcohol in her system.

However, the results of the report have continued to be questioned, including the toxicology results and others positing that there was evidence of sexual abuse.

Ultimately, the conspiracy theories surrounding her death remained, ranging from Elisa suffering from the effects of illegal drugs to symptoms of a psychotic episode, and most of all, to accusations of foul play and claims that the video showed her interact with someone who pursued her and later murdered her.

Some have even accused the security footage of being tampered with to remove someone from the video, including by management at the hotel with access to the footage before the police. This was denied by hotel staff.

None of these theories have been proven.

Since the curious case of Elisa Lam’s death, the notoriety of the Cecil Hotel has endured.

Yet, in 2017, the hotel was named a historic-cultural monument by the City Council in a unanimous 10-0 vote in Los Angeles, California.

There are continued plans to renovate the building into a mixture of hotel guest rooms and apartments.

The fifth series of the popular anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Hotel, was set in a hotel partly inspired by the Cecil Hotel.

The hotel is now the focus of a new four-part series from director Joe Berlinger, the man behind the the acclaimed Netflix true crime series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and and the Hollywood biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron as the serial killer Ted Bundy.

*Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is released on Netflix on February 10, 2020.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call us direct 0207 29 33033.

Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/cecil-hotels-dark-history-murder-23394765