The Haunted History of the Cecil Hotel

Welcome back to The Leslie Life! We are still keeping it spooky and so, today is all about the Cecil Hotel. Located at 640 S Main St in Downtown, Los Angeles, the Cecil hotel is a historic landmark that has a history full of death and violence.

Last week, my friend Jenny and I headed downtown to snap some photos of the Cecil so that I could share its sordid past. Let’s dive right in!

The beginning:

The Cecil was built in 1924 and opened its doors in 1927. The million-dollar hotel was a luxurious establishment for its time and was a place intended for the wealthy and elite. However, two years after it opened, the Great Depression plunged the world into an economic collapse. Thus, the area around the Cecil became what we now know as Skid Row, and the hotel developed a reputation for being home to criminals and drug addicts.

Violence & death:

A total of at least 16 deaths have occurred at the Cecil throughout its nearly 100-year-old history. I will not be discussing every death, only a few of them that stood out to me. Unsurprisingly, several suicides have occurred, especially in the early years of the hotel. But, this is just the beginning.

In 1944, 19-year-old Dorothy Jean Purcell was staying at the hotel with her 38-year-old boyfriend. In the middle of the night, Purcell woke up in pain and went to the bathroom, where she gave birth to a baby boy. She had no idea she was pregnant. Instead of calling an ambulance or the police, Purcell threw her baby out of the window. The baby-which was still alive at birth-landed on the roof of the building next door. Purcell went to trial for murder where she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

On October 12, 1962, 27-year-old Pauline Patton jumped from the window of her hotel room after having an argument with her estranged husband. An older man by the name of George Giannini just happened to be walking by at the same time. Patton landed on Giannini, killing them both instantly.

In 1964, Goldie Osgood was found brutally murdered in her room at the Cecil. She was known as “pigeon Goldie” due to her habit of feeding the birds at Pershing Square (also in Downtown). To this day, her murder remains unsolved.

There are many more deaths related to the Cecil, and you can read about them here and here.

Infamous guests:

The Cecil has been home to two notorious serial killers, “night stalker” Richard Ramirez, and Jack Unterweger.

In the 1980s, Ramirez lived at the Cecil and used the Cecil’s dumpster to dispose of evidence, and in general, to stay lowkey. At this time, the hotel and skid row were in complete chaos. If Ramirez looked suspicious, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the Cecil and so, he never raised an eyebrow.

Jack Unterweger was an Austrian killer who came to Los Angeles in 1991 as a journalist. He lived at the Cecil and wrote about crime in Los Angeles. What no one knew, was that Unterweger was actually murdering prostitutes. He was eventually caught and sent to trial in Austria where he committed suicide in prison.

Elisa Lam:

Arguably, the most infamous case at the Cecil is the death of Elisa Lam. In 2013, 21-year-old Canadian college student Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil. She was traveling by herself and promised her parents she would contact them every day. And she did… until she didn’t. Soon, there was no trace of Lam. Her concerned parents contacted the LAPD, but they had no luck finding her either.

When guests at the Cecil started to complain about the taste and pressure of the water, maintenance went to check out the water tanks on the roof (one can be seen in the above photo). That is where the naked body of Elisa Lam was found. Lam’s death was ruled an accidental drowning. Due to the strange nature of it all, many questions remain. A video (seen below) of Lam acting erratically in an elevator at the Cecil brings in even more questions.

Surveillance video of 21-year-old Elisa Lam, the Canadian woman found dead in the rooftop water tank of the Cecil Hotel, shows her acting bizarrely in the Lo...

Was Lam interacting with something we can’t see? Is there a paranormal aspect to it all? How did she get to the roof without being seen, and how did she even close the lid of the tank? The truth is, we may never know. What we do know though, is that Elisa Lam died at the Cecil, further damming the hotel.

The future of the Cecil:

The last death at the Cecil was a suicide in 2015. Due to its horror-filled history, the Cecil is world-famous. American Horror Story: Hotel was inspired by Lam’s death. Back in 2017, the Cecil was declared a Los Angeles landmark.

The hotel is currently closed however when I went to take photos, I was greeted by some people inside the hotel who said they were using it to film.

This is not the end of the Cecil though. It’s allegedly going to reopen in 2021 as a hotel and micro-living units. Personally, I think the future is pretty bright for this dark establishment.

If you want to learn more about the Cecil, I highly recommend this episode of the Lights Out Podcast.

Make sure to subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lights-out-podcast/id1505843600 Follow On Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/3SfS...

Thank you for reading, and stay spooky!

XOXO

-Leslie V