Since its construction in 1924, the Cecil Hotel has been haunted by unfortunate and enigmatic occurrences that have bestowed upon it an unrivaled notoriety for the eerie. The establishment has even provided temporary residence for some of America’s most infamous serial killers, and a minimum of 16 distinct instances of homicide, self-inflicted deaths, and inexplicable supernatural incidents have transpired within its walls.
This is the spooky tale of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Grand Opening Of The Cecil Hotel
Constructed in 1924 by hotelier William Banks Hanner, the Cecil Hotel was intended to serve as a prestigious accommodation for global entrepreneurs and influential members of society. Boasting a luxurious marble lobby, exquisite stained-glass windows, elegant palm trees, and a grand staircase, this magnificent Beaux Arts-style hotel comprised of 700 rooms was a venture that Hanner invested a staggering $1 million in.
In due course, the vicinity of the Cecil Hotel would be inhabited by numerous destitute individuals. Los Angeles, like any other place, was not exempt from the financial breakdown, and the global economy was plunged into the Great Depression merely two years after the Cecil Hotel commenced its operations. Hanner would eventually feel remorseful about his financial venture, however.
Criminal activity and aggression contributed to the reputation that Hotel Cecil ultimately earned, but it got even worse. The hotel’s reputation quickly gained notoriety as a meeting place for criminals, runaways, and drug addicts, despite its initial appeal as a beautiful establishment.
Suicide And Homicide At “The Most Haunted Hotel In Los Angeles”
In the 1930s, at least six suicides were reported at the Cecil Hotel, where a few residents ingested poison, slit their own throats, or jumped out of their bedroom windows while shooting others.
Roy Thompson of the Marine Corps, who later leaped from the Cecil Hotel, was discovered on the skylight of a nearby building less than four years afterwards. In 1934, Army Sergeant Louis D. Borden, for instance, used a razor to slit his throat.
The following couple of decades solely witnessed a rise in brutal fatalities.
In the middle of the night in September 1944, 19-year-old Jean Dorothy Purcell awoke with stomach pains while staying with Ben and Cecil Levine. She went to the bathroom, not realizing that she was about to give birth to a baby boy, which completely shocked her.
She was admitted for psychiatric treatment and was not found guilty by reason of insanity for the murder. During her trial, she mistakenly threw her newborn baby out of the window onto the roof of the building next door, thinking the baby was dead.
Immediately, her descent resulted in the deaths of both herself and Giannini. Pauline Otton, a 27-year-old woman, leaped from her ninth-floor window following a disagreement with her separated spouse, Dewey. In 1962, George Giannini, a 65-year-old man, was strolling near the Cecil Hotel with his hands in his pockets when he was fatally hit by a woman who had fallen.
If he had jumped, his fallen shoes would have been in mid-flight. Initially, the police thought that Giannini had committed suicide together with the person who found him, but they reconsidered when they found that he was still wearing his shoes.
Residents of Los Angeles promptly bestowed the nickname “the most ghostly hotel in Los Angeles” upon the Cecil Hotel, taking into account the instances of suicides, accidents, and homicides.
A Serial Killer’s Paradise
The Cecil Hotel has also functioned as a temporary residence for some of the most gruesome killers in American history, while unfortunate disasters and self-inflicted deaths have significantly added to the hotel’s number of casualties.
In the mid-1980s, Richard Ramirez, also known as the “Night Stalker” and responsible for the brutal murder of 13 individuals, resided in a chamber situated on the highest level of the hotel for a significant portion of his terrifying rampage.
“‘It was complete, absolute pandemonium,'” states reporter Josh Dean, “ever since the 1980s at the Cecil… All of which would not have caused any suspicion,” he would discard his bloodstained garments into the Cecil Hotel’s trash receptacle and confidently stroll into the hotel’s entrance area either entirely nude or solely wearing undergarments, subsequent to taking someone’s life.
At times, Cecil’s eyebrow would slightly raise in amazement as he would often find himself near the alleys of the blood-soaked Ramirez’s hotel, where junkies’ lifeless bodies were frequently discovered. Remarkably, he was able to stay there for a mere $14 per night.
Reportedly, Ramirez’s affiliation with the hotel was the cause for Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, who strangled sex workers with their own brassieres, also choosing the hotel as his residence in 1991.
Unterweger repeatedly scoured these surroundings to find potential targets, as the vicinity of the Cecil Hotel was frequented by sex workers. Although he asserted that he had a romantic relationship with the hotel’s receptionist, Unterweger disappeared just a few steps away from the hotel after allegedly murdering a prostitute.
Eerie Cold Cases At The Cecil Hotel
Some serial killers known to be attributed to the Hotel Cecil have left behind unsolved murders, with episodes of violence occurring in and around the area.
Another disturbing instance of unresolved violence has occurred, as the killer who raped and fatally beat and stabbed her was never convicted. However, he was later cleared when a suspect, walking nearby with bloodstained clothing, was found. Prior to the fatal attack, she had been raped. Osgood Goldie, a local woman known in the area around Cecil, was found dead in her ransacked room, leaving many to pick up the pieces.
After her murder in 1947, Elizabeth Short, also known as the “Black Dahlia,” became a somberly remarkable visitor of the hotel in Los Angeles.
The unsolved mystery revolves around the gruesome murder of a woman who had recently stayed at a hotel. It is unclear whether Cecil, the victim, had any connection to her death. However, her body was discovered on a street not too far from where she was last seen, with her throat slit and her mouth brutally carved from ear to ear on the morning of January 15th.
The Hotel Cecil, where one of the most mysterious deaths ever took place, has a long history of violence stories that go beyond the recent incident in 2013.
Critics who thought otherwise, the authorities ruled her death as an accidental drowning, even though hotel guests had complained about the funny taste and high water pressure. Elisa Lam, a Canadian college student who had gone missing for three weeks, was found dead inside the water tank on the roof of the hotel. She was found naked.
Lam was caught on surveillance cameras acting strangely in an elevator before her death, waving her arms erratically, pressing multiple buttons, and attempting to hide from someone who appeared to be yelling at her.
Several days before, bodies were discovered and it was last seen at Hotel Cecil, pointing out that both women were traveling alone from L.A. To San Diego in their twenties. True horror aficionados began drawing parallels between the disappearance of Lam and the Black Dahlia murder, leading many people to believe the rumors of the haunted hotel after the video surfaced.
Thin though these connections may sound, the hotel has nevertheless developed a reputation for horror that defines its legacy to this day.
The Cecil Hotel Today
Once again, tales of spirits and speculation about the hotel’s eerie presence circulated, and the final corpse was discovered at the Cecil Hotel in 2015, a man who allegedly took his own life. The establishment, which harbors unfathomable acts of violence and chaos, later became the unsettling source of inspiration for a season of American Horror Story.
In 2011, developers in New York City signed a 99-year lease and started renovating a building to include hundreds of fully furnished micro units, turning it into an upscale boutique hotel. The developers attempted to shake off the macabre history of the Cecil by rebranding it as The Stay, a budget hotel and hostel for tourists, offering rooms for $75 per night.
Perhaps the renovations of Hotel Cecil can finally shake its reputation for defining all eerie and bloody things that have plagued the ill-fated building for a century.