List of violent incidents at the Cecil Hotel
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Numerous violent incidents, some resulting in death, have occurred at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.[a] Originally opened as a middle-class hotel on December 20, 1924, it eventually became a budget hotel, hostel, and rooming house. Its reputation is due to at least 16 sudden or unexplained deaths that have occurred in or around the hotel.[2]
In 2011, the hotel's name was changed to Stay on Main in an effort to distance the establishment from its past.[3]
| Date | Accused | Accused age | Victim | Victim(s) Age | Type | Method | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 22, 1927 | Percy Ormond Cook | 52 | Suicide | Gunshot to the head | Percy Ormond Cook stated in a letter addressed to the press that he was driven to suicide because of his separation from his wife and family. He added that he deliberated for a week before he killed himself.[4] | ||
| November 19, 1931 | W.K Norton | 46 | Possible suicide | Ingested poison | Norton was found dead in his room after ingesting poison capsules. A week prior, he had checked into the Cecil under the name "James Willys" from Chicago.[5] | ||
| September 1932 | Benjamin Dodich | 25 | Suicide | Gunshot to the head | A maid found Dodich dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He did not leave a suicide note.[5] | ||
| July 26, 1934 | Sgt. Louis D. Borden | 53 | Suicide | Slit throat | Borden was found dead in his room at the Cecil. He had slashed his throat with a razor. Borden left several notes, one of which cited poor health as the reason for his suicide.[5] | ||
| March 1937 | Grace E. Magro | 25 | Death | Fell from building | Magro fell from a ninth-story window. Her fall was broken by telephone wires which were wrapped around her body. She later died at the now-demolished Georgia Street Receiving Hospital. Police were unable to determine whether Magro's death was the result of an accident or suicide.[5] | ||
| January 9, 1938 | Roy Thompson | 35 | Suicide | Fell from building | Thompson jumped to his death from the window of his room after being a resident at the hotel for several weeks. His body was discovered atop a skylight of a next-door building by a hotel employee.[6] | ||
| May 1939 | Erwin C. Neblett | 39 | Possible suicide | Ingested poison | Neblett was found dead in his room after ingesting poison.[5] | ||
| January 1940 | Dorothy Seger | 45 | Suicide | Ingested poison | Seger, who registered under the pseudonym Evelyn Brent,[7] ingested poison on January 10, 1940, while staying at the Cecil. Beforehand, Seger sent her relatives a note indicating she was going to kill herself.[7] Dorothy died at General Hospital on January 12.[5][7] | ||
| September 1944 | Dorothy Jean Purcell | 19 | Purcell's un-named newborn son | Newborn | Murder (acquitted due to insanity) | Newborn discarded from window | Purcell was sharing a room at the Cecil with her boyfriend. Unaware that she was pregnant, she went into labor. She later testified that she did not want to awaken her boyfriend, so she went to the bathroom where she gave birth. Thinking the baby was dead, she threw him out of the window, and he landed on the roof of an adjacent building. Purcell was charged with murder. Three psychiatrists testified that she was "mentally confused" at the time of the incident. In January 1945, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.[5] |
| November 1947 | Robert Smith | 35 | Suicide | Fell from building | Smith died after jumping from one of the Cecil's seventh-floor windows.[5] | ||
| October 22, 1954 | Helen Gurnee | 55 | Suicide | Fell from building | Gurnee jumped from the window of her seventh-floor room and landed on top of Cecil's marquee. One week prior, she had registered at the hotel under the name "Margaret Brown".[5] | ||
| February 11, 1962 | Julia Frances Moore | 50 | Suicide | Fell from building | Moore jumped from the window of her eighth-floor room and landed in a second-story interior light well. She did not leave a suicide note.[5] | ||
| October 12, 1962 | Pauline Otton George Gianinni |
27 65 |
Suicide | Fell from building | Otton had an argument with her estranged husband, who had left the room prior to her suicide by defenestration. Otton landed on a pedestrian, Gianinni; both died instantly. Police initially thought Otton and Gianinni committed double-suicide. It was later determined that Gianinni had his hands in his pockets at the time of his death and was still wearing shoes, which would not have been possible had he jumped.[5] | ||
| June 4, 1964 | Jacques B. Ehlinger | 29 | "Pigeon Goldie" Osgood | 65 | Murder (acquitted) | Stabbed, beaten, and raped | A hotel worker discovered Osgood dead in her room. She had been raped, stabbed, and beaten, and her room was ransacked. Osgood was well known around the area, and had earned her nickname because she fed birds in nearby Pershing Square. Near her body was the Los Angeles Dodgers cap she always wore and a paper sack full of birdseed. Hours after her murder, Ehlinger was seen walking through Pershing Square in bloodstained clothing. He was arrested and charged with Osgood's murder, but was later cleared of the crime. Her murder remains unsolved.[5] |
| December 20, 1975 | "Alison Lowell” | Approx. 23 | Death | Fell from building | A still-unidentified woman jumped from her twelfth-floor window onto the Cecil's second-floor roof. She had registered at the hotel on December 16 under the name "Alison Lowell", and was staying in room 327.[8][9] | ||
| September 1, 1992 | N/A | Approx. 20-30 | Death | Fell from building | The body of an African-American man was found in the alley behind the Cecil. Police said he had either fallen, jumped, or been pushed from the hotel's fifteenth floor. The 20-to-30-year-old male has never been identified.[10][11] | ||
| February 19, 2013 | Elisa Lam | 21 | Death | Accidental drowning | The naked[12] body of Lam, a Canadian student, was found inside one of the water supply tanks on the hotel roof. She had gone missing almost three weeks earlier, on January 31, 2013. Her decomposing body was discovered by a maintenance worker in one of the rooftop water tanks after guests had complained about low water pressure and water that "tasted funny."[13] Video surveillance footage taken from inside an elevator depicted her erratic behavior, which caused widespread speculation about the cause of her death.[14] She was reported to have had bipolar disorder, for which she was prescribed various medications, which could have contributed to her death as well as her strange behavior in the elevator.[15] The Los Angeles County Coroner's office subsequently ruled the death an accident, with bipolar disorder being a significant contributing factor.[16] | ||
| June 13, 2015 | N/A | 28 | Death | Suspected to have fallen from the building |
The body of a 28-year-old man was found outside the hotel. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Country Coroner said that the death was believed to be suicide by defenestration.[17] | ||
- Besides direct deaths and violence at least two serial killers, Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger have stayed at the hotel, and murder victim Elizabeth Short (better known as "the Black Dahlia") .[1]
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