{"id":3247,"date":"2016-10-22T09:38:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T16:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curatingla.com\/?p=3247"},"modified":"2016-10-22T09:38:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T16:38:42","slug":"halloween-horrors-scariest-los-angeles-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/curatingla.com\/cla\/2016\/10\/22\/halloween-horrors-scariest-los-angeles-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Horrors \u2013 The Scariest Los Angeles Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With Halloween approaching, it seems fitting to highlight some of the more gruesome events\u00a0that have taken place in the City of Angels. To help with this endeavor, I turned to James T. Bartlett, author of\u00a0Gourmet Ghosts<\/em> and recently-released Gourmet Ghosts 2.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For both books\u00a0Bartlett searched numerous\u00a0Los Angeles archives, trawled local\u00a0bars and hotels, and found unknown stories and pictures about the city\u2019s dark past for his murder, mystery, history and ghost guides.\u00a0Inspired by the true crime trend and American Horror Story, he selected\u00a0the \u201cbest\u201d deaths in Gourmet Ghosts 2<\/em> (and one he just couldn\u2019t leave out from the earlier book) for Curating LA and your bloody Halloween enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Guest Post by author\u00a0James T. Bartlett<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cecil Hotel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo by Jim Winstead<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Though it was renamed Stay on Main some years ago, this downtown hotel still has Cecil signs all over its exterior \u2013 and really could be said to be the deadliest hotel in Los Angeles. Whether they admit it or not suicides happen at every hotel, but the archives show that The Cecil really has an extraordinary catalog of violence and death.<\/p>\n

Serial killers such as \u201cNight Stalker\u201d Richard Ramirez (14 victims across Greater L.A.) and Johann \u201cJack\u201d Unterweger (at least 10 victims overall, three in Los Angeles) stayed here while they killed; Ramirez even threw some bloody clothes into the hotel\u2019s dumpsters.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s to say nothing of the 2013 puzzling death of Elisa Lam. Her bloated, decomposed and naked body was found in the water tank a few years ago, and her odd behavior the night she died was captured on an elevator CCTV \u2013 and went viral.<\/p>\n

There have been over a dozen suicides here too, a sniper, an arsonist, a stalker \u2013 and more. What is it about this place?<\/p>\n

Location: 640 South Main Street, Los Angeles<\/em><\/p>\n

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Two Slashing Murders In One Day<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo by Richard Langendorf<\/p><\/div>\n

In November 1944, Otto Stephen Wilson, 31, readily confessed to the brutal mutilation murders of two women, and was quoted in the Los Angeles Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been emotionally unstable and with my sexual complex I went completely insane and could not possibly control myself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Aptly nicknamed the \u201cRomeo Ripper\u201d and the \u201cRomeo Slasher,\u201d he met his first victim, Virgie Griffin, 26, in a bar. Back in his room at the Barclay Hotel he took a razor and knife, slashing open her body, removing her entrails, cutting off an arm and other body parts, and putting her remains in a closet.<\/p>\n

The next day he picked up Lillian Johnson, 48, strangled and then cut her to pieces in another hotel called The Joyce (now a parking lot), then went drinking. Soon after he was arrested, and the shocking affair was all over in barely a day.<\/p>\n

He was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin in September 1946, but who knows what this WWII-era Jack The Ripper might have done if he hadn\u2019t been captured?<\/p>\n

Location: 103 West 4th Street, Los Angeles<\/em><\/p>\n

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Biltmore Hotel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"millenniumbiltmorehotel\"<\/p>\n

One of the original luxury hotels downtown, the Biltmore is still a glitzy world of chandeliers, endless staircases and tinkling piano playing over afternoon tea. Some of the early Oscar ceremonies were held here, and in 1984\u2019s Ghostbusters<\/em> it was here in the lobby where Ray, Egon and Peter caught \u201cSlimer\u201d the hungry ghost.<\/p>\n

Ghost stories are everywhere (a man in a stovepipe hat, kids running around a remote balcony), but most famously it was the last place \u201cBlack Dahlia\u201d victim Elizabeth Short was seen alive (at least according to police records).<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most famous murder in Los Angeles history \u2013 it\u2019s inspired countless books, films and television shows \u2013 the facts were that Short\u2019s naked torso was found on wasteland in the south of the city and, despite endless suspects, her killer was never found.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d been cut in half at the waist, drained of blood, her mouth cut open, entrails removed \u2013 and more. Even today, the torture that Short suffered is hard to read, let alone imagine, and so it\u2019s apposite that the cocktail the Biltmore created in her memory \u2013 the Black Dahlia (vodka, Chambord black raspberry liqueur, Kahlua) \u2013 tastes bitter.<\/p>\n

Location: 506 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles<\/em><\/p>\n

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Gourmet Ghosts 2<\/em> is available at gift shops and bookstores across L.A., as well as on Amazon. While I’m a big proponent of supporting local bookshops, if you choose to purchase from Amazon please use the links below, since sales made through this site help me offset the cost of running Curating LA.<\/p>\n

For those who’d like to meet the author in person, he\u00a0will sign copies of his books at Dark Delicacies<\/a> in Burbank on October 22nd at 2pm and at\u00a0The Last Bookstore<\/a> in Downtown on October 28th at 7:30pm. For more information, visit\u00a0www.gourmetghosts.com<\/a>,\u00a0@GourmetGhosts and #GourmetGhosts.<\/p>\n