“Hey everybody! Thanks for checking out my brand spanking new episode as I explore DTLA, specifically
The Hotel Cecil and all of the dark stories that swirl there.” – Cynthia Troyer
IN LIKE CYN – Season 2 Episode 7
HOTEL CECIL
Published to Youtube January 14, 2016
IN LIKE CYN – SEASON 2 – EPISODE 7
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
IN LIKE CYN
Season 2 Episode 7
HOTEL CECIL
Published to Youtube January 14, 2016
[Cyn: Cynthia Troyer; SE: Sage Emeralds]
TITLE: The Comedy Multiverse
Cyn: Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of In Like Cyn.
TITLE: In Like Cyn
SE: Wha-wha – what? Uh uh uh yo! Every thing I do is brand new I must continue… Everything I do is brand new I must continue…
Cyn: And today we are heading down to the Hotel Cecil.
TITLE: Cynthia Troyer / screenwriter
Cyn: And there are a lot of different legends that go along with the Hotel Cecil. So let’s go explore.
Cyn VO: I headed to the Historic Core District —
TITLE: Hotel Cecil
Cyn VO: — which was the center of Los Angeles before World War II. The area showcases many of the things that put Los Angeles on the world stage. Including lovely parks, ornate movie palaces, and other architectural marvels like the Bradbury Building and the Edison Nightclub.
Cyn: I just parked the car, I’m walking down to Main Street. So the hotel has rebranded itself as Stay On Main, but we know it’s the Hotel Cecil. We know!
Cyn VO: The beautiful vintage European-style hotel was constructed in the 1920’s, opening its doors in 1924. Although this is debated and some say 1927. The Hotel Cecil was intended for business travelers, but in the 1950’s it gained a reputation as a residence for transients. 700 rooms. Part of the hotel is a dedicated hostel to attract travelers from Europe, but for years it has been known as an SRO, single room occupancy, long-term tenants with their own rooms but the bathrooms are shared by residents. Today, under the new owners, three floors have been converted back into hotel rooms.
Cyn VO: The dark reputation of the hotel goes back to 1947 and as it connects to one of the darkest unsolved crimes of Hollywood History — the Black Dahlia.
Cyn: But this is the hotel where Richard Ramirez. And the last place she was seen before she went missing. A copycat killer of Richard Ramirez, Elisa Lam, I’m going to tell you about all these stories, and link you over to the video so you can see Elisa Lam’s last moments. What are thought to be her last moments in an elevator.
Cyn VO: The Black Dahlia – Elizabeth Short, a fledgling actress, was last seen alive at the Hotel Cecil. She would be discovered in a field on South Norton Avenue, cut in half at the waist, and extanguinated – or drained completely of blood.
Cyn VO: Some say the hotel is cursed.
Cyn VO: Like I’ve already mentioned the Hotel has rebranded itself Stay On Main, unfortunately no name change is going to wash away the gory blood-soaked past of one of America’s most cursed and haunted hotels.
Cyn VO: The 1950’s and 1960’s the hotels of the area were filled with people at the edge of integrating with society. But the Hotel Cecil was where everybody came to die.
Cyn VO: Seven years after the Black Dahlia on October 22, 1954, 50-year-old Helen Gurnee, jumped out a seventh floor window landing on the Hotel Cecil’s marquee. Dying instantly.
Cyn VO: February 11, 1962. Julia Moore jumped from her eighth floor room window. Found in her room after her death were a bus ticket from St. Louis, 59 cents and an Illinois bank account book showing a balance of eighteen hundred dollars.
Cyn VO: October 12, 1962. Pauline Otton, 27, had an argument with her estranged husband, and jumped from a ninth floor window. As luck would have it, she landed on 65-year-old George Gianinni who was walking on the sidewalk below. Both were killed instantly.
Cyn VO: Beyond the suicides there have been numerous murders at this hotel as well. On June 4th, 1964. “Pigeon” Goldie Osgood was known for protecting and feeding pigeons in nearby Pershing Square. The retired telephone operator was found in her ransacked Hotel Cecil room, stabbed, strangled and raped. This crime has never been solved.
Cyn VO: The history of paranormal occurrences at the hotel are rumors and whispers.
Cyn VO: Before we get to the Serial Killers that have lived in these walls — Let me tell you the story of Elisa Lam.
Cyn VO: On January 26, 2013, 21-year-old college student — Elisa Lam — took Amtrack into Los Angeles. And she checked in here – 640 S. Main Street – none other than the Hotel Cecil. Lam, a psychology student from University of British Columbia was on holiday break.
Cyn VO: According to her facebook page she went to the San Diego Zoo, as well as attending the taping of the Conan O’Brien Show. And she called her parents daily. Until January 31st, 2013. Her parents knew immediately something was wrong and called the Vancouver PD, who in turn called the LAPD to investigate a missing person.
Cyn VO: LAPD Canines scoured the Hotel Cecil from the bottom floor to the top floor. The dogs were even taken to the rooftop. And they found no scent of Elisa and nothing was suspicious.
Cyn VO: February 14, 2013. The LAPD released the video of Elisa in the elevator.
Cyn OS: This is the Elisa Lam video I’m going to put a link up to it. Note that she’s wearing black shorts, red sweatshirt and sandals. She enters the elevator presses the buttons, then she sort of backs herself into a corner and she looks frightened. Some people say she’s talking to someone – but to whom? She peaks outside the elevator, goes in and out, presses the buttons, trying to get the elevator to work but it doesn’t. She goes in and out a few times – finally gives up, walks out, outside of view of the camera, and the elevator closes — And she’s never seen alive again.
Cyn VO: February 19th. A resident complained of low water pressure. The Maintenance Man took a ladder to the roof, unlocked the access door to the roof, turned off the alarm to the roof – and made his way to four one thousand gallon tanks that sit up on this platform raised about five feet off the roof. Each tank is about four foot in diameter, and eight feet tall, with very slick sides to them. He put the ladder up to one of the tanks, and opens the latch at the top of the tank, looks inside and sees Elisa floating face up and naked. He gets down and calls the LAPD homicide detectives.
Cyn VO: The detectives come out and they are baffled by what they see. But they figure out the tank opening is too small to remove her body. They cut a larger hole to the top of the tank and they see her clothes and sandals around her in the tank. The coroner responds and removes the body. And there are no visible injuries except for a scratch on her knee.
Cyn VO: February 22nd. The Coroner’s reports states that the cause of death is inconclusive! And then for four long months – nothing! Then on June 20th the Coroner releases a statement that the cause of death was accidental drowning. The Coroner’s report went on to say something strange – it wasn’t suicide and no foul play occurred.
Cyn VO: The clothing found floating in the tank with her is exactly what she wore in the elevator. However the cell phone that she carried with her everywhere was never found.
Cyn VO: How did she get through a locked door? And how did she get into the tank with no ladder? No ladder was found on the roof. Many people theorize that she used the fire escape to get to the roof. But this unsolved case gets even weirder.
Cyn VO: Buried on page 17 of the Coroner’s Report they admit that they couldn’t get a blood tox screen because they couldn’t find enough blood in her body to do the toxicology screen. No blood was found in the water and no unusual points on the skin to explain how the blood could have been drained from her body.
Cyn VO: Here’s a very strange side note: February 21st just two days after Elisa Lam’s body was found in the water tower, the CDC dispatches scientists to Los Angeles to understand an aggressive strain of tuberculosis spreading so rapidly.
Cyn VO: Okay? So what does a TB outbreak have to do with the Elisa Lam case? The Los Angeles Times cites that the CDC will use what is called the Lam / Elisa test. To test the tuberculosis, to discover the exact strain spreading in victims in LA. Conicidence?
Cyn VO: The internet hive mind has turned Elisa Lam into a macabre celebrity, just like the Black Dahlia.
Cyn VO: And I’ve saved the best for last – or in this case the worst for last – during the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s people who were down on their luck flocked to the Hotel Cecil, just at the edge of skid row. During that time the Hotel Cecil was home to not one – but two serial killers.
Cyn VO: Richard Ramirez, a serial killer known as the “NightStalker” lived in the Cecil’s top floor in a fourteen dollar a week room. It was 1984 going on 1985 and the hotel was flooded with transients. Ramirez went on his killing sprees burglar-ing, raping and killing 13 women. Ramirez would return to the Hotel Cecil, dropping his bloody clothes in the dumpster, going in the back entrance.
Cyn VO: After he was caught, Ramirez an avowed Satanist, never expressed any remorse for his crimes. He received thirteen death sentences, but died of lymphoma awaiting execution on California’s Death Row.
Cyn VO: Six years later, in 1991 Jack Unterweger worked as a journalist covering LA crime for an Austrian magazine. He checked into the Hotel Cecil. A serial killer Jack began to copycat Ramirez. In his five-week stay, Unterweger killed three hookers in his room. Unterweger was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. He committed suicide by hanging himself.
Cyn VO: If you come to Los Angeles take the “Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice” tour – I’m not sure I recommend exploring on your own.
AMISH BUDDHA FILMWORKS
Cyn VO: Next week on In Like Cyn, Ariane Von Kamp and I take a trip to Jet Propulsion Lab Open House.
Cyn: You know we’re in Mission Control right now!
AVK: We’re having NASA certified pizza!
Cyn: Uh huh. This pizza was made on Mars.
AVK: Pizza of the Astronauts.
Cyn VO: Join me every Thursday for a new In Like Cyn.
OUTRO
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