Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Murder hotel
The chilling story of how a plush retreat became LA’S tower of horror
WAuthorities on roof where Elisa Lam, left, was found dead hen it opened in the 1920s, the Cecil Hotel was an opulent destination for business travellers who would admire the marble lobby with stainedglass windows and potted palms.
But while the lobby remained polished and tasteful for decades, the 700 rooms and those within them soon turned it into one of the most notorious hotels in the world, where hundreds died and serial killers “let their hair down”.
For nearly a century the Cecil in downtown Los Angeles was linked to some of the city’s most notorious activity, from untimely deaths to housing killers like The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.
Now a new Netflix documentary will reveal many of its dark secrets, including the inside story of what happened to college student Elisa Lam in 2013.
Recalling her experiences there, Amy
After committing brutal murders Ramirez would come back covered in blood KIM COOPER LA CRIME HISTORIAN ON SERIAL KILLER STAYING AT THE HOTEL
Price, general manager from 2007-2017 says: “In [my] first few days the maintenance manager said we had a problem and I said, ‘What do you mean?’.
“One of the guests had died. I’d never had any experience with a dead body, a coroner or even the police.
“I come to find out this happens all the time. He walked me through the entire hotel. Along the way he would point and say, ‘Someone died here, someone died there’. Suicides, overdoses, murders.
“At one point I think I asked him, ‘Is there a room here that maybe somebody hasn’t died in?’. It was just so shocking. I saw around 80 deaths over my 10 years there. There were thousands of 911 calls.”
But decades before Amy joined the hotel, it had more than it’s fair share of death and dangerous behaviour. Building began in 1924 amid a financial boom, only for downtown LA to suffer when the Great Depression hit. The area around the hotel later became Skid Row, where the City’s poorest and homeless people lived, alongside sex workers and villains.
The first documented suicide at the
Cecil was reported in 1931, when a guest named W.K. Norton died in his room after taking poison capsules. Another resident slashed their throat in 1934.
In 1964, a retired phone operator was found dead in her seventh floor room. She had been raped, stabbed, and beaten.
In 1985 the hotel was the residence of serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the “Night Stalker”. For weeks he paid £9 a night as he plotted raping, murdering and torturing women and children.
LA crime historian Kim Cooper tells the series: “The Cecil was a place where serial killers can let their hair down.
“After committing some of the most brutal murders ever in South California, Ramirez would come back to the Cecil. He would be in the back alley, covered in
thousands of 911 calls AMY PRICE FORMER GENERAL MANAGER OF THE CECIL
blood, taking off his clothing and go up in his pants. It is that kind of place.”
Former resident Kenneth Givens, who stayed in the early 80s, says you avoided going to the top floors where there were residential rooms and also parties, drugs and danger. Givens says:
“There was a lot going on in the Cecil, drugs, robberies, prostitutes. It was pretty much lawless. I would never go no further than the sixth floor. On the higher floors people got killed. Once they got a guy up there they would rob him, beat him up and throw him out the window.”
The hotel also continued to be a suicide hot spot. Helen Gurnee, in her 50s, leaped from a seventh floor window, landing on the marquee.
Julia Moore jumped from her eighth-floor room and Pauline Otton, 27, leapt from the ninth floor after an argument with her estranged husband. She landed on George Gianinni, 65. Both died instantly.
Historian Cooper says: “The Cecil has always been a hotbed for death.”
Several years after Ramirez checked out, another serial killer checked in.
In 1991, Austrian author Jack Unterweger booked a room claiming he was researching LA’S red light district.
He even went out with the police to watch them work. But during his fiveweek stay he strangled three prostitutes with their bra straps. He was sentenced to life for nine murders.
Then in 2013 the hotel, now a place for travellers on a budget or those short of money on the higher floors, hit front pages again. Student Elisa Lam, staying there, was reported missing on February 1, sparking an internet frenzy as amateur detectives tried to solve the case.
Tim Marcia a retired LAPD homicide detective recalls: “We looked in the hotel at who could be a suspect or who had her under their control. We felt she had to be in there somewhere.”
Weeks later guests began complaining about a lack of water pressure and tap water tasting funny.
Elisa, who was bipolar and had stopped taking her medication, was found dead and naked in a water tank on the roof. It was later ruled to be an accidental drowning. Her death ended
DETECTIVE Tim Marcia worked on Elisa case
the hotel’s chances of a comeback even after it rebranded several floors.
Ms Price adds: “It turned into an absolute amusement park. Every time I walked out there were people with cameras. People were checking in, trying to do documentaries.”
The Cecil shut in 2017 and is now being redeveloped for housing and potentially a new upmarket hotel.
There is even talk of a rooftop swimming pool, although how many will want to take a dip metres from where Elisa was found, remains to be seen.
Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel is a four-part series launching on Netflix on February 10.