The Curse of the Cecil Hotel: America's Most Dangerous Hotel

Adam Cox: 0:01

interestingly as well, if you go on Google and look at some of the reviews for the Cecil Hotel there's some funny people that, like, have retrospectively put a review in for like 10 years ago saying, I stayed there. It was awful. Should we read a couple? See if you can get a couple.

Kyle Risi: 0:16

Yeah. Yeah. So Cecil Hotel, stay on Maine. Mm-hmm. so Rosie Batty. Oh God. Woke up to a man staring at me. He was right in my face, but he said he worked there and was making sure I was okay.

Adam Cox: 0:32

That's really considerate.

Kyle Risi: 0:33

It is. Uh, so I'm pretty sure it was just routine. I felt pretty comfortable for the most part, apart from when he s smelled my hair. Depends what your boundaries are, would recommend. Beds are a bit springy though.

Adam Cox: 0:49

Bit springy.

Kyle Risi: 0:50

13 people market that one useful

Adam Cox: 1:16

Welcome to the compendium, an assembly of troublesome tales from downtown LA that have led to speculation of a century long curse on the Cecil Hotel. Awarding it, the title of one of the most dangerous hotels in the world. I think it should be Cecil. I, yeah. I have to correct myself every time because I, I see Cecil, but then I hear other people or Americans say Cecil, and it just sounds, what is that about? It's weird. Is that actually, if a person was called Cecil, would they call him Cecil? Oh, it doesn't sound right, does it? No, I think of Cecil. Yeah, that's

Kyle Risi: 1:49

true actually. It is definitely

Adam Cox: 1:51

Cecil. Cecil. well, we'll be calling it the Cecil Hotel today. Mm-hmm. Um, if you're just tuning in, my name's Adam Cox, who today will be putting on my c s i detective skills as I attempt to solve whether the curse of the Cecil Hotel is true and why it's such a hotbed for crime in la. Okay.

Kyle Risi: 2:12

It's, uh, Cecil and you're listening to the Compendium, an Assembly of Fascinating and Intriguing Things. We are a weekly variety podcast where I, Kyle Rei ordinarily tell Adam Cox all about a topic that I think. You'll find both fascinating and intriguing. But once again, you're in the driving

Adam Cox: 2:30

seat this week. I'm back, back again.

Kyle Risi: 2:32

Yeah, let's go for it.

Adam Cox: 2:33

So before we dig into it, is there anything that you know about the Cecil Hotel?

Kyle Risi: 2:37

Well, I know a little bit like my understanding is the Cecil Hotel, Cecil Hotel inspired like, um, the American Horror Story to a degree, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And it's of course a really famous hotel, which has also inspired other TV shows and other kind of things that are out there in the popular zeitgeist, but I also understand that it's in la is that right? Yeah. And it's just off the, tip of what they call, skid row, is that right? Yep. Where it's a big like homeless slum. That's right. That exists

Adam Cox: 3:14

in the city. So there's about 10,000 people living on the streets. a third of them are tents in Skid Row. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. And we'll, we'll talk about Skid Row. We'll come on to that, but, okay. But that's all that I know, that's all you know about the Cecil Hotel. Okay. Well you've got an idea that there is a checkered past, shall we say. Mm-hmm. Okay. So let's get into it. So in today's episode, we are covering the infamous Cecil Hotel, or Cecil, if you like to call it that. It's known as one of the deadliest hotels in not just Los Angeles or America, but the world. It has a really dark and haunting history that includes a lot of crimes such as assaults, suicide, and murder. The hotel would frequently, house drug addicts, prostitutes, gang members, and was even home to some of America's serial killers. Really? Yeah. What do you mean home? Well, we'll go into it, but the hotel it's also a permanent residency as well. Oh, really? So people could stay there for months, um, years even. Well, like a boarding house, we're talking a little bit. Mm-hmm. We'll explain why it offered that type of accommodation for the people in that area. Sure. Fine. So, some have suggested that the hotel is cursed and that there is this dark, supernatural energy that somehow draws these people in into a world of sin. Or even worse, these dark spirits that walk the halls of the hotel are so persuasive they can convince people to take their own life. Oh, really? Ooh. Mm-hmm. So this all resurfaced about 10 years ago there's a lot more attention brought to the hotel when one of the most bizarre deaths occurred in 2013, a Canadian student named Elisa Lamb was captured by C C T V behaving really strangely. Mm-hmm. And we'll, we'll look at that footage today. Mm-hmm. Um, but this captured the attention and imagination of people worldwide trying to solve what happened to her, what was going on, and her death, um, was really sad, and her body was found three weeks later. Oh shit. And in these unusual circumstances that people just couldn't explain. Really? Yeah. Okay.

Kyle Risi: 5:25

And her death then, I'm assuming reignited all these past stories or do you think that they kind of inspired or spurred on these stories to then kind of evolve out of

Adam Cox: 5:38

the hotel? I think, because it was worldwide in terms of what happened to her. Mm-hmm. You know, as international news. I think it just brought, much more attention to the hotel. Mm-hmm. And it brought to light all these stories that had been reported probably in Los Angeles and stuff like that. And just how many deaths had occurred at this hotel and why. Yeah. And what was going on. It, was there something more to it than just people coincidentally dying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 6:03

Oh, I'm excited for this.'cause like why was she there? She was traveling, right? She was traveling, yeah. Why would you go to the Cecil Hotel like on Skid Row?

Adam Cox: 6:11

Well, um, at the time it had rebranded to a different hotel to kind of attract a younger, um, crowd, I guess, and make more money.'cause the hotel was always designed to be this sort of travelers hotel. Mm-hmm. Um, but we'll dive into how it started and everything in just a second. Okay. I just need to be patient, I guess. You do just need to be patient. Just hold your horse. It's, um, and as you rightly mentioned at the beginning of this, it did inspire one of the seasons of American Horror Story Hotel. Ooh. The Lady Gaga. That's right. And if you remember watching that, there was these ghosts and vampires and other souls that were confined to this corrupt and torturous hotel. They could be. Yeah. They're like kind of trapped, weren't they? Exactly. Yeah. So that's, based on the events, I guess, of what's happened at the Cecil Hotel today we're gonna explore those a hundred years and find out about some of the unfortunate people that visited the hotel. Mm-hmm. And where in fact there is actually a curse that exists on the hotel. You keep me in suspense here. Okay. Let's do this. All right. So we start our story in late 1924 where the hotel completes construction and opens its owner, William Banks. Hannah invests about one to$2 million. Which was quite expensive for the time for a hotel, and that's the equivalent of around about 18 million in today's money. Wow. it becomes one of the largest hotels on the west coast in the 1920s. It stands 14 stories tall, and it's fitted out with 700 rooms. So a big hotel, 700 rooms is a lot. Mm-hmm. What's interesting, and I think a lot of hotels do this whilst there's 14 floors. Mm-hmm. The top floor is actually the 15th floor.'cause they cut out the 13th floor for bad luck. Oh, right. Yes. Like

Kyle Risi: 7:51

in China, they don't label their floor number four because the number four sounds a lot like death. Yes. So they just have like floor 1, 2, 3, skip, 4, 5,

Adam Cox: 8:03

6, 7. Yeah. And actually I clocked on the Ryan Air flight that we were on recently. Mm-hmm. Row 13 didn't exist. It went 12 and 14. Oh, really? Interesting. I didn't notice that. The hotel opened in the mid twenties. Um, from the outside, the hotel doesn't really look anything special, in my opinion anyway. it's a pretty generic concrete building for that time. But on the inside it was decked out pretty well. It had art deco features, stained glass windows, a marble staircase. It was all designed to attract this international businessman or kind of middle class traveler, it's not like the most luxurious hotel. Mm-hmm. But it's a, it's a good hotel.

Kyle Risi: 8:38

Sure. So I'm assuming you saw some pictures of the hotel when it was first built. Mm-hmm. Did it kind of give you the same vibes that they portrayed it in

Adam Cox: 8:47

American Horror Story? It takes so much inspiration in terms of the lobby and where all the keys are and everything like that. Oh, so it's very similar. Is

Kyle Risi: 8:55

it? Very, very similar. Wow. Okay. So in that case, if you have seen American Horror Story, then you do get a sense of that kind of upscale, this, not like luxury, luxury, but it's, but it's well

Adam Cox: 9:06

kitted out, you know? Yeah. It kind of reminds me of if you have, um, the Empire, is it the Empire State? No, the Chrysler building. Mm-hmm. That was quite art deco on the first floor, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. That kind of thing. Interesting. Okay. As I mentioned, it's intended for these international traveling businessmen and sort of middle class, and this was perfectly timed, based on that period in time. Mm-hmm. Because, as you may know, the twenties were nicknamed the Roaring Twenties in America. Mm-hmm. So, I dunno if you know much about the roaring twenties, I don't know a huge deal. No, it was roaring.

Kyle Risi: 9:40

Yeah. Thanks for that. I've got

Adam Cox: 9:41

that. Um, the reason they say that is with the end of the World War I in 1918, Uhhuh America was all about recovery and people were spending again. So there was an increase in construction. The oil industry grew and there were these technological advancements, which led to increased consumerism. Mm-hmm. People weren't just essentially buying necessities anymore. People could afford more luxury goods. Mm-hmm. You know, things like cars, radios, and other household appliances and hotels. And hotels. Mm-hmm. Um, that's my next point actually, because people could travel more, not only in cars and on railways, but it was the decade that commercial flights came into force. And so your average Joe could now take a plane, could have on holiday. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 10:24

We knew that because of, our Amelia

Adam Cox: 10:26

Earhart episode. That's right. Yeah. Wow. Um, and this was perfect for the owner of the hotel because he wanted to take advantage of these people that were visiting la mm-hmm. And traveling to the city for work or leisure. Sure.

Kyle Risi: 10:37

And this was all because people were traveling

Adam Cox: 10:39

internationally? Yes. Although it might have just been within America at the time. Nationally. Yeah. Yes, sir. Nationally, yeah. Hmm. Interesting. The hotel had a very successful launch and it was doing well in its first couple of years in June, 1926. The hotel does experience its first death on its premises. Okay. A man named William McKay dies of natural causes, and a few months later another man dies of heart disease. So it's nothing out of the ordinary. But I mean,

Kyle Risi: 11:06

that's like two deaths in the span of what you're saying

Adam Cox: 11:09

there, two, three months. Months. Yeah. So it's, it's a bit weird, but it's not, rousing any suspicion at this stage. They're just natural deaths. Not yet. But this would be the beginning of what would become a series of dark events that would plague the hotel for almost 10 decades. Oh. Nurse. Um, so to try and understand if there is something haunting the hotel, let's run through some more of the guests that never managed to check out. Okay. God. God. So supposedly the first suicide happened in 1927 by a guy called Percy Cook. Mm-hmm. He took his own life after a fallout with his wife. He tried to buy happiness and failed. So he left a suicide note to his wife, shot himself leaving his wife and son behind. Shit.

Kyle Risi: 11:53

So, first of all, what does that mean? He tried to

Adam Cox: 11:55

buy happiness? From what I could understand about,'cause there's not like loads of information I. I think he had a decent amount of money and he tried to fill a void, but that didn't really work out. So in his suicide note, he's sort of saying like, I tried all these things. I'm still not happy. Oh, I think that's, that's what I could interpret from the news story. So he checked

Kyle Risi: 12:12

into the hotel on his own without his wife and then

Adam Cox: 12:15

took his own life? I believe so, yeah. Mm-hmm. Then two years later, in April of 1929, a 33 year old Dorothy Robinson attempted to commit suicide in her room at the Cecil by overdosing on her antidepressants. Dorothy had been experiencing a psychotic breakdown after recently becoming widowed when her husband passed away a few months prior. Oh no. Um, but she did survive. She was, rushed to hospital and from what I understand, she made a recovery. Okay, that's good. The same, however, can't be said for a man who checked in as James Willis in 1931, a week later he was found dead by taking poison. But what was really peculiar was that wasn't his actual name, he checked in under an alias.

Kyle Risi: 12:56

I see. So they couldn't locate his family. I'm

Adam Cox: 12:58

assuming. Well, I think they eventually could work out who it was. Um, but what I found quite strange is that this isn't the only instance of someone giving a, a fake name. Mm-hmm. Um, and it becomes quite normal over the years as some people would perhaps use the hotel as a rendez view to have an affair. Mm-hmm. Or perhaps arrange a night with a prostitute. And so they would give a false name. Um, so I dunno if that was this guy's intention. Or perhaps he just didn't want to be found or matched back and perhaps just wanted to go missing. Mm-hmm. If that makes sense. The following year, a member of Star found another man who had taken his own life, uh, Benjamin Dodick, who, shot himself in the head. And the year after that, a man died after being pinned against the wall by a truck at the rear entrance.

Kyle Risi: 13:45

Jesus. So like the deaths are wrapping up.

Adam Cox: 13:47

They are. Um, and it doesn't stop there. A couple years after an army medical sergeant took his own life by slashing his own throat with a razor Jesus, which is a pretty gruesome and horrible way to go. Was he committing?

Kyle Risi: 14:01

I imagine him in the lobby doing that?

Adam Cox: 14:03

I think he did it in his own room. Um, but he was struggling with poor health and that's how he decided to end it. Jesus, three years later. Mm-hmm. In 1937, a woman named Grace Gro sadly fell from her hotel room on the ninth floor whilst her boyfriend was asleep. So he had no idea what happened at the time and no one knows if she fell, she jumped or perhaps something perhaps possessed her to jump I guess, people think this is a bit odd. Why, why would someone go and do that? Yeah. She hadn't acted strangely before they checked into the hotel. Mm-hmm. And what's worse is she fell onto these telephone wires, which did help to break her fall. But then, but

Kyle Risi: 14:45

they electrocuted her, I'm

Adam Cox: 14:46

assuming? I don't think they electrocuted her. I think they just broke her fall. But the injuries was just too bad that she died later in

Kyle Risi: 14:52

hospital. Oh. What is she like got chopped up? Like what you do with like an egg chopper? Ooh. When you put the egg or cheese? A cheese cutter. Cheese wire.

Adam Cox: 15:01

Maybe if it was a higher floor. I don't know. I dunno. God, that's horrible to think about. Yeah. so the following year, another man jumped from the top floor and he was found dead on a neighboring building. Okay. And in 1939, another man died through taking poison. Okay. So we haven't even got to the 1940s yet, and there's been nine deaths. Yeah, that seems a lot. Or at least nine deaths that have been reported and that we know about.

Kyle Risi: 15:28

And so this opened up in what year? 24. So it's averaging just slightly over one a year,

Adam Cox: 15:35

roughly? One every two years. Yeah. Averaging, so it's

Kyle Risi: 15:37

averaging like one death every two years.

Adam Cox: 15:40

So at this point in time, this is when I think it gets its nickname, the suicide. Mm-hmm. Um, because I guess maybe there is some attention and, and most of the deaths at this point have been people taking their own life. Maybe because it was one of the tallest buildings at the time. Perhaps that was one of the reasons people went to jump, but they

Kyle Risi: 15:57

weren't really jumping. Only one woman apparently jumped. Yeah.

Adam Cox: 16:01

Most people are perhaps taking poison or they've shot themselves or whatever, slashed their necks with a razor. So I think this is why people are starting to think, is there something suspicious going on? Why is this happening? Why are people being drawn to this place to end their lives,

Kyle Risi: 16:16

indian burial ground, Adam.

Adam Cox: 16:17

Well, oh no. Is it built on an Indian burial ground? It never is. We'll, we'll come back to that. The bad press, as I said, didn't really stop people from going to the hotel. It still remained pretty popular until the 1940s, but that doesn't mean that that decade started off any better because a female teacher is found dead in 1940 in her room from taking poison. Okay. It seems like the way to go. Take some poison. Yeah. I'm surprised

Kyle Risi: 16:42

that a man is taking poison. Normally it's the women that take poison. No, actually that, take that back. It's normally the women that administer poison, right? I dunno. Yeah. Women give the poison. They don't murder. They don't slash they don't stab, they don't shoot. They give you poison. Oh, sneaky. Yeah. It injects a bit of insulin in your mashed potatoes, but ooh, this mashed potato's a bit sweet. Then you're dead.

Adam Cox: 17:06

Unless it is actually sweet potato that this is true. Okay. So next up in in what was probably one of the most horrific events that I found out about. Mm-hmm. a young lady, she was 19 at the time, her name was Dorothy and her boyfriend who was 38. So a bit of an age gap. Mm-hmm. But, you know, um, they were staying at the hotel and they were in bed one night asleep. When Dorothy Awakes with serious abdominal plane, she goes to the bathroom where she single-handedly delivers a baby. Oh, wow. Her baby, I should say at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but her boyfriend had no clue about that, and I don't think she knew that she was pregnant. Oh, no. She didn't dump the baby, did she? Well, she delivers the baby and she does all this without waking her boyfriend. So she must have been out cold or whatever, but. She thinks the baby's stillborn. Mm-hmm. And so I guess some sort of fear of telling her boyfriend what's happened, him leaving her or whatever. Uh,'cause the baby's stillborn or that she's pregnant. Full stop. Right. You didn't expect it. Yeah. She makes the awful decision and throws the baby out of the window and heads back to bed. Jesus.

Kyle Risi: 18:21

How, how do you do that? And then just head back to bed? She clearly didn't sleep that

Adam Cox: 18:27

night. I, I dunno. If she did sleep,

Kyle Risi: 18:30

then that's an

Adam Cox: 18:32

issue. Well, you would think that there would be a lot of blood and other things going on in that bathroom. There's like, there's a whole cleanup job you need to do there, but Yeah. Um, the, the body of the baby is found on a nearby building. Oh. And when they did a postmortem mm-hmm. There was evidence that the baby had air in its lungs. Oh,

Kyle Risi: 18:49

so it, it wasn't stillborn. Mm-hmm.

Adam Cox: 18:52

That's, that's sad. That's really sad. Um, she did go to trial, but was found not guilty of murder due to insanity. So perhaps, I don't know. Something not quite right there. Well, the

Kyle Risi: 19:02

thing is though, like you plead insanity mm-hmm. As a defense, in my opinion. So I think that that was what her lawyers instructed her to do, knowing that she probably premeditated, I don't know. Yeah. I I don't buy that. She didn't know

Adam Cox: 19:17

she was pregnant. Well, it happened, it happened to Somnia on East Enders. Yeah. But that

Kyle Risi: 19:21

is a fictional, like soap

Adam Cox: 19:23

opera. I think it's based on like true things happening as rare as it is.

Kyle Risi: 19:26

Sure. I mean, there was that recent woman from New Mexico who the police just show up at the house and they're like, is your daughter here? And the mom's like, why do you wanna see my daughter? And they're like, we've had, like, there's a police investigation. We can't tell you. That. Turns out that her daughter went to the hospital, she gave birth. She didn't know that she was pregnant. She ran to the toilet, gave birth in the toilet off the hospital. Oh my word. And dumped the baby

Adam Cox: 19:49

in the, in the trash. So kind of similar. Situation in a way. Wow. Yeah,

Kyle Risi: 19:54

I guess. But again, I think that she was pregnant.

Adam Cox: 19:56

I guess, I dunno, maybe there's this feeling of shame. I don't know. You're surprised. I, I dunno, I can't put myself in that sort of situation. Mm-hmm. But, um, but what

Kyle Risi: 20:04

happens after nine months if you've not had a period? Right. And you go, well, I mean, that's normally the first telltale sign. I know. Yes. Fair enough. Some women don't have regular periods, but if you have regular periods and you've stopped having a period, then surely that should be an alarm bell. And that was the case with this young girl from New Mexico. Oh, okay.

Adam Cox: 20:22

I guess so. So therefore she knew, I don't know. There, there might be some anomalies. I don't really know

Kyle Risi: 20:26

Okay. Yeah.

Adam Cox: 20:26

We, we deviate. We deviate. But, you're right to sort of say was, was she actually insane? Because I don't think she had any signs of insanity beforehand. Mm-hmm. So why did she do it? Did the hotel drive her to do that? Mm, I don't know. in 1947, a 35 year old man, uh, Robert, he decides to take his own life by jumping from the seventh floor. God, in 1954. Another instance of someone checking in under a false identity, um, she was a 55 year old woman this time. Um, and she also jumped from the seventh floor but then on the eighth floor, people would commit suicide as well. There's another lady here that I've got. Julia Moore. She decides to end her life from jumping from the window. Um, then on the ninth floor, you've got, uh, another lady, Pauline. she had been fighting with her husband in 1962. They had attempted a reconciliation at the hotel, but that didn't apparently work out. Um, and so to teach him a lesson mm-hmm. She jumps out the window.

Kyle Risi: 21:23

Jesus, that's a hard

Adam Cox: 21:25

lesson to learn, man. That really is. Um, but what's worse, she happened to jump. At the same time a man named George Gianni was passing by underneath. And so she lands on this poor man, and so she not only kills herself, she kills this man as well. Oh really? Police actually thought it was a joint suicide at the time because how they were, oh, there were lot lovers or something like that. Or got in a fight. Um, but they knew that he didn't jump because he had his shoes still on. Right. So I'm guessing that's a telltale sign. Well,'cause you're not allowed your

Kyle Risi: 21:57

shoes. Well, I'm guess on in the hotel room or they fly off when you're falling out the

Adam Cox: 22:02

window. I think that's the point that they fly off if you jump potentially. Or the impact, I dunno. Oh god. So yeah, that's really sad. Another man leads to his death in 1963. Then in 1964 we have our first murder. Okay. Um, so Goldie Osgood, uh, she was known, as pigeon Goldie as she would feed the local pigeons a bit like that lady from, uh, home alone. Yeah. Like that. That's, that's what I imagine. Mm. Um, so she's quite well known in the local area, little local celebrity. Um, and she lived in the hotel as I mentioned. Um, you could take up permanent lodgings there as well as just for a few nights. so she was found to have been stabbed. Strangled and raped in her room. Jeez. And they did arrest a guy, but then I think he got acquitted, and so they never actually found her killer. In 1975, another woman checks into the hotel, under Alison Loel, but this is not her real identity. She's only 23 when she ends her life in 1992. There's another man that doesn't have an identity, but he also commits suicide. But people can't rule out the fact that he might have been pushed this time round. Mm-hmm. In 2001, there's a, an overdose and a murder. A man is strangled in 2003, it, it just goes on and on and

Kyle Risi: 23:20

on. Yeah. I'm getting the sense that. There's a

Adam Cox: 23:23

lot of suicides. Yeah. Now, you might remember we talked about Elisa Lamb at the very beginning, and there was a Netflix documentary series that was released a few years ago, I think it was now. Mm-hmm. And that was all about the peculiar mystery about Elisa's death. Mm-hmm. Um, and I thought it would be interesting just to talk about the hotel manager, which was interviewed in that documentary series. That was a woman, wasn't it? Yeah, she was, um, a blonde woman and she'd worked there from 2007 to 2017. Okay. So 10 years. 10 years. And she said that there were at least 80 deaths while she worked there. Geez. Just while

Kyle Risi: 24:00

she was there. But at what portion? Right. Because remember you said that there was, there's two parts, right? There is the residential side and then there's the Taurus side.

Adam Cox: 24:09

True. But I think it's just the whole building. There's been that many. Right. Um, and that, that's like the equivalent of like eight deaths a year. Mm. Um, and these aren't really reported. You can't really find instances. So you don't know exactly what happened to these people, but that's,

Kyle Risi: 24:25

or is it even true? Is she, maybe, are they capitalizing on the myth of the hotel?

Adam Cox: 24:30

Maybe, or maybe there's some news stories that just buried, or maybe the type of clientele that's at the hotel at this point in time okay. There could be just a lot of overdoses, unfortunately. Um, she also mentioned that there would be calls to the police at least two to three times a day. Wow. So this really builds a picture of what this place was like at the time, and the type of clientele that would be staying there. All the trouble it would have, even in this very short window of time, you know, we've had this many instances of death. Mm-hmm. By the seventies and eighties, a lot of criminals would actually frequent and, and stay there. Um, and the rule was, I think that you didn't go past the sick floor because that's where people died. Sure.

Kyle Risi: 25:10

And, and I also imagine like this is probably where it's gonna ramp up even more with the crime side of things and the drugs, because across America during the seventies, it was notorious for huge crime levels rising across all of American or the urban built up areas. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So for example, New York City during the seventies, it was considered like the dystopian. Kind of city

Adam Cox: 25:35

of the world. Yeah. I remember growing up thinking or hearing that New York was pretty dangerous. Yeah, yeah. Like murders

Kyle Risi: 25:40

everywhere. Mm-hmm. People being robbed and stuff. And that didn't really come down to the nineties, but it really ramped up in the seventies, right? Mm-hmm. And LA and Chicago and those cities would've also started to get those really bad reputations. Yeah. Yeah. These

Adam Cox: 25:52

points as well. Exactly. Yeah. Well, it was also during this period that, one of the first serial killers stayed there. Um, the guy called The Night Stalker. Oh, yeah. Richard Ramirez. Mm-hmm. Um, so do you know much about Richard

Kyle Risi: 26:06

Ramirez? I wanna say, was he like a Latino kind of guy? I mean clearly by the name, so, but he would stalk the victims initially. That hence the, the, the name, the Night Stalker. But he didn't really. Discriminate he would or was he attracted to old ladies?

Adam Cox: 26:26

Um, I think, uh, it, he didn't have a, a type from what I underst. Okay. You didn't have a type. Yeah. Um, because I think there were, people of all ages, men and women. Um, but he did target some women and I think he would, you know, um, sexually attack them I think in some instances. Am I

Kyle Risi: 26:41

right in thinking also he kind of like operated around Griffin Park, which is the main big park up there in

Adam Cox: 26:48

Los Angeles? In Los Angeles? Yeah. Well, yeah, he stayed at the hotel, I think between 1984 and 1985. Mm-hmm. Uh, I mean, he didn't necessarily start out a murderer, but I think when you learn about his history, um, so he had a couple of major blows to his head as a kid before he was like eight. And his dad I think he was an alcoholic. Mm. So perhaps suffered some abuse there. Um, He had epilepsy as well. Sorry, that's what I meant to say. From Sure. The blows to the head. So I think he didn't have a good start in life. He started drinking and smoking weeded. But what's interesting, I say interesting, uh, in a strange way, but he, it sounds like he was influenced by his older cousin who went to Vietnam. Right. And he would come back from Vietnam with these stories of murder and rape Oh, really? Pictures and things like that. And that's what sparked his first sort of curiosity with, death and things like

Kyle Risi: 27:39

that. So what's his connection with the Cecil

Adam Cox: 27:42

Hotel then? Well, he traveled around, but he, he lived there for a couple of years and I think it was just a perfect spot given that the place was kind of run down at this point and a lot of crime was going on, like you mentioned in the eighties. It's almost like an area you can probably blend in a little bit. Yeah, you can, you can disappear a little bit, you know? the parks you mentioned, he would, I think, prey on his victims and stalk them. He would break into their houses at night through unlocked doors. Mm-hmm. Actually, yeah. So he wouldn't even breaking in, he's just letting himself in. Yeah. Yeah. Because at the time

Kyle Risi: 28:13

people felt there was really, it was quite common for people to just Yeah. Leave their

Adam Cox: 28:17

doors open at that time. Yeah. So I think people like him is now why we lock our doors. Yeah. It,

Kyle Risi: 28:23

I think that's what they said in the documentary, wasn't it?

Adam Cox: 28:25

Yeah. Yeah. He was quite creepy. I mean, he would sketch, uh, a pentagram on certain bodies as well. Oh, so here's our satanism link. Yeah. So he was definitely connected and interested in that. Um,'cause obviously we talked about that in, was it the last episode? I think we talked

Kyle Risi: 28:42

about that. Well, wherever the episode lands, it was the episode with the Satanic panic of the 1980s. But yeah, this was all kind of remnant from the 1960s and fed into the seventies. Yeah. Which then fed into the, the eighties. Yeah. Where people were really intrigued by satanism and all these different cults were starting to rise, so people had a real morbid fascination. And if you did anything. Around satanism, it was guaranteed to capture

Adam Cox: 29:07

headlines. Yeah. I think there's even like pictures of him in court with the pentagram on his actual hand or something like that. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure there is crazy. Um, so yeah, he, it really horrible. He would nearly decapitate some of his victims, remove the eyes from one of them. He was a horrible Oh, so he mutilated his bodies? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You can't, what was also strange, so once he is spotted dumping his bloodied clothes after a murder mm-hmm. In a dumpster outside the hotel. Mm-hmm. And he walks through the lobby naked. Oh wow. That's hot. Um, mm Okay. But the weird thing I think is that I think he missed here is, that's really weird, but no one reports that, because this is just daily life at the Cecil Hotel. Oh really? It's, it's, it's just mental.

Kyle Risi: 29:48

Yeah. Okay. I mean, just a naked man walking. And you might have just thought that, oh, he's, um, covered in blood. Oh,

Adam Cox: 29:56

I don't know. I didn't know what it looks like. Um, so yeah, it didn't arouse any kind of suspicion. And he wasn't the first serial killer that lived there. Who else? Um, no, he didn't necessarily live there, but he stayed there for a period of time. Mm-hmm. John unga. Oh, I don't, never heard of him. So he was a convicted murderer in Austria in 1974. Oh. And he went to prison for strangling a woman with her bra. Okay. Uh, he served time in prison. I mean, I mean, these

Kyle Risi: 30:23

women walk around with a ready to go weapon. What do you expect? No, I'm joking. Joking. I'm joking.

Adam Cox: 30:29

Oh, yeah. We're gonna get complaints. Um, he served time in prison, uh, and he managed to fool everyone by saying that he was a changed person and he had rehabilitated Uhhuh so much so that he was released in 1990 and he became a playwright and a journalist.

Kyle Risi: 30:46

Oh, really? Yeah. So he actually was rehabilitated. Well, you didn't go on to Kilmore.

Adam Cox: 30:50

Hold that thought. Okay. Uh, he hosted TV shows about criminal rehabilitation. Mm-hmm. Now I can you imagine a murderer now almost becoming like a mini celebrity in that sense? Like, let's give him a TV show. Let's give him a, I don't know. What if he's

Kyle Risi: 31:04

paid his dues, then why not? Like you if you a

Adam Cox: 31:09

murderer though? I don't know. I mean, and this was only 30 years ago. Mm-hmm. But this just seems really alien to me. Mm-hmm. That they would ever even consider this. But maybe that's what they do in Austria, or did at the time. In 1991, though, he's hired to write about crime and prostitution in la. Mm-hmm. So he takes a trip over there, and he conveniently decides to stay at the Cecil Hotel. Mm-hmm. And it was at this time that three sex workers go missing and well, they found dead essentially. And all of them, I think had been strangled with their own bra. Their own

Kyle Risi: 31:38

bra. God, you think you would've learned, right?

Adam Cox: 31:40

Two serial killers. And it, it makes you wonder, as we said, it's this like a, hotel that they they sought out because they could, hide in the shadows to commit these crimes. And it feels very much like Sin City. Mm. Like the movie. Yes. Yeah. It does. Like, uh, in fact, you know, this organized crime, there's drugs, there's prostitution, do

Kyle Risi: 31:58

you think that there was, that there's a solid connection? Do you think that's what inspired Sin City?

Adam Cox: 32:03

Well, I think there's a few Sin Cities in the world, but I think Los Angeles at the time was one of the big ones because of some of the things that were going on that we'll go into. Sure. Um, so yeah, I think that probably inspired, Frank Miller, the comic writer. Mm-hmm. And so at this point we're gonna move on to Elisa Lamb. Let's do it. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, she was a 21 year old Canadian student who's traveling at the time by herself, and she mysteriously vanishes at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles in January, 2013. she would become one of its most famous victims as a result. So, bearing in mind this hotel's reputation, I think you mentioned earlier, why would she even stay there? Mm. And so it had rebranded to, the Stay on Main, or I should say what they did is they divided up the hotel into separate sections. Mm-hmm. The stay on Maine, which would and accommodate younger travelers and a bit more of a, like a hostile, but nicer, I guess. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Um, for the first few floors, You also have some residents that would stay there and on the very top floors would be the Cecil Hotel residence. Right.

Kyle Risi: 33:05

Okay. So what's the inspiration behind the wording or the rebranding of Stay

Adam Cox: 33:09

on Maine? Well, they couldn't basically kick the old tenants out because they had to as part of the LA law. Mm-hmm. They had to provide so much accommodation for low income residents Yeah, it makes sense. But they needed to make money. And so what they did is they divided, I think the lobbies up into two. So you had a separate lobby for stay on Maine and a separate lobby for the Cecil and the residents.

Kyle Risi: 33:31

So they're keeping the riffraff away from the tourists. And they don't even share the same entrance.

Adam Cox: 33:37

They don't share the same entrance, but they do share the same lift. Okay. God. So imagine you are staying. At the stay on Maine and you're thinking, oh, this is not too bad. This is

Kyle Risi: 33:46

nice. But the lifts stink of piss.

Adam Cox: 33:48

They did. They did. Oh, did they? Yeah. They're like, um, I can't remember what one of the policemen says, but yeah, he, he does comment on that. And so you could get in a lift with someone who's basically high on drugs and you're like, Ooh, that's is weird. Interestingly as well, if you go on Google and look at some of the reviews for the Cecil Hotel and the Stay on Main. Yeah. There's some funny people that, like, have retrospectively put a review in for like 10 years ago saying, I stayed there. It was awful. Should we read a couple? Um, see if you can get a couple.

Kyle Risi: 34:18

Yeah. Yeah. so Cecil Hotel, stay on Maine. Mm-hmm. Stay on Maine. Uh, hotel. so Rosie, Rosie Bati, or batty. Oh God. Woke up to a man staring at me. He was right in my face, but he said he worked there and was making sure I was okay.

Adam Cox: 34:45

That's really considerate.

Kyle Risi: 34:46

It is. Uh, so I'm pretty sure it was just routine. I felt pretty comfortable for the most part, apart from when he s smelled my hair. Depends what your boundaries are, would recommend. Beds are a bit springy though.

Adam Cox: 35:01

Bit springy.

Kyle Risi: 35:03

13 people market that one useful

Adam Cox: 35:04

From what I could see, it was a mixture of one star and then five star reviews, which makes me feel like it was people kind of like, we need to get our average up. Ooh, here's a good one. Okay.

Kyle Risi: 35:14

So one star review from Noah Durante. Uh, I forgot to write a review, but the rooms are dirty and I hear people fighting and screaming all the time. The water tastes funny and the cop keeps coming into the hotel and I see a dude with red food coloring. Overall a bad hotel.

Adam Cox: 35:33

I dunno what that means. I dunno. It's very weird. So I think there's generally some awful reviews, but I do think some people have jumped on the bandwagon a little bit. Yes. And sort of trying to play up at its history. Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: 35:45

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. But yeah.

Adam Cox: 35:47

Interesting, interesting. Yeah. So back to Elisa. so She's been staying at the hotel for a little while. She would check in with her family back home in Canada pretty frequently, probably most days. And when her family don't hear from her, they report Elisa is missing as they can't get hold of her. The police start their investigation and the hotel hands over all their C C T V footage.

Kyle Risi: 36:09

Like, I'm surprised they took it that seriously straight away. Do you know what I mean? Like, they start their investigation. They contacted the hotel, they asked all the C C

Adam Cox: 36:17

T V footage. Well, I dunno how, quickly it's turned over, but Right. She's reported missing. Mm-hmm. She's staying at the hotel. let's see where her movements were. Yeah. Did she leave the hotel? What, what's going on? So they turn over all the footage. And the police start looking through it all. And what they see is that she had gone out one morning and she came back but what they don't find is her leaving the hotel again. So they only have footage of her entering the hotel, entering in.

Kyle Risi: 36:43

Okay. But

Adam Cox: 36:44

nothing ever going out, nothing capturing her on any of the exits, leaving the building. So she's gotta still be in the hotel, she's gotta still be in the hotels. What they're thinking, they then look into the C C T V in the lift. Mm-hmm. Now this footage is what's actually released to the public to try and help the police find Elisa. Mm-hmm. Because it's, this is the last bit of footage of her alive shit. Um, and this footage went global in terms it was on the news. It was kind of everywhere at the time. And it reignited these theories at the Cecil. Curse had struck again, and that something sinister is haunting that hotel. Right? Right. So I think we should watch the video. Okay. And then you describe what you see. Okay.

Kyle Risi: 37:24

So it's a silent video clip. It's about three minutes. It's C C T V footage of inside an elevator. The elevator door's just opened. A young woman's just gotten in. Ooh. She seems very dramatic. She's bent over. She's looking at the the numbers. She's taking her time. She's pressed the button. Now she's standing in the corner of the elevator. She's just standing there. Oh. Oh. So, She's paused. The elevator hasn't closed, but she's looked out really quickly. Well, outside the doors. She's outside the doors. Okay. Like look left and right, but like in a crouched motion. Okay. And then she's stepped back in and now she's standing by the inside of the elevator, almost like she's hiding. Oh, now she's hiding. And she's cowering. Someone's out there. Clearly she's taking another peak. She's looking out. I don't think she sees anyone. Okay. She's taking a step further. Oh, she's just done a little skip and a jump and she's just now doing some fancy footwork. So I, I get it. There's this mix of, is someone after her. Then some of her movements seemed quite animated in like a steppy, dancey way.

Adam Cox: 38:53

I think she's quite erratic. Yeah. I think with some of the hand gestures. Mm-hmm. Um, she'd gone in and she'd pressed a load of the buttons on the lift. Like she'd pressed them all basically.

Kyle Risi: 39:02

But bizarrely the lift hasn't even

Adam Cox: 39:05

closed. No. The doors are still open.

Kyle Risi: 39:07

So she's now back in the elevator. She's now pressing all the buttons. Okay.'cause before, I think she just pressed the one button. Now she's pressing them all the elevator's not closing. Weird. Is it malfunctioning

Adam Cox: 39:20

we, yeah. Or is someone actually holding it? But

Kyle Risi: 39:23

she would interact with someone just on the outside of the

Adam Cox: 39:26

door if they were Right. Right. But then I think what you're about to see, oh, she's talking

Kyle Risi: 39:33

to Oh, those hands. Okay. She could be talking to someone very animatedly. Where is she talking to them? She's looking

Adam Cox: 39:42

So she's outside the lift. Yeah. It is kind of obscured from view, I think You can see, it looks like she's talking to someone gesturing, like given directions. I don't know. So there's something going on. Almost. She, she's having a conversation.

Kyle Risi: 39:53

But also the hand gestures are too dramatic. Mm-hmm. For me to think that that was a natural conversation. Mm-hmm. But she could be talking to someone if that's how she talks to Oh, the lift's closing.

Adam Cox: 40:08

Pissed. So she, she's gone out the lift. She pissed off.

Kyle Risi: 40:09

Yeah. Yeah. She left.

Adam Cox: 40:11

And then the lift closed. Conveniently. It closes when she's left. That's weird. It's very weird. So, oh, the lift is opening now. What's happening now? It's just

Kyle Risi: 40:23

replaying. Oh. Must have just, oh no, no, it's three minute mark. It's probably gone to the next floor. Now it's closing again. And now it's going up. And then it opens. Yes. On a different floor. This time it's a red floor. Shit,

Adam Cox: 40:39

So what happened? It's a very weird video. I think everyone can agree when they watch that, to just recap some of the points she's seen there. Pressing a load of buttons. Mm-hmm. Like as if she wants to go to every floor. She's definitely seems like she's hiding at some point, or at least trying to like, stay out the way. But then almost the way that she peers out of the elevator suggests that she's being followed or she's kind of looking behind her. Then she's, looks like she might be gesturing to someone when she's outside the elevator communicating with either a person or something, and then the doors don't shut and then they only shut when she's left and then we didn't pick up on it. But that timestamp okay. It's not legible. You know, there should be numbers there. Yeah. At a time, but it's just a blur. Why though? Well, this whole footage sparks so much curiosity and like online communities, Reddit, slews, and all that sort of stuff for just like what is going on in the street. Sure. But

Kyle Risi: 41:38

why would you have CTV footage with deliberately. Timestamps that you can't even read or

Adam Cox: 41:46

see, well this is what people think. Has something been docked here or Right. Edited to kind of, I dunno, hide something. Yeah. Dunno what, but hide something. Mm-hmm. So what are the theories? Okay, this odd behavior by Elisa made, made people think was she being chased by a killer? Was there a foul play? Because is there some kind of coverup with the weird times stamp? Um, or is there something in the hotel that is making her act this way? I e the curse has come back. And from looking at this footage, you can totally see why people are suspecting this because bad things keep happening to this hotel over and over again. Mm-hmm. And it's, you know, it's a safe place for criminals to hide. is there something darker going on? So the police spend several weeks looking for her, and it's 19 days after her disappearance that her body is discovered by one of the janitors. She is found floating in one of the hotel's water tankers, which sits up on the rooftop. Oh God. She is in there. She's completely naked, and it's only when guests of the hotel complain about an odd color. Oh. And taste of the water. Hence one of the reviews we just read. Yeah. Well, I, yeah, I dunno if that's true. I think it's probably based on this, but the guests are complaining about the water and it's from that, that people decide, or let's go check inside these tankers. Maybe there's like, I dunno, a dead bird or, oh, so that's spurs them on

Kyle Risi: 43:10

to check. Okay. Yeah. And that's, so, so she's naked. Where is her clothes? How does

Adam Cox: 43:15

she get in there? Her clothes are in there, but she is, um, naked. They're just not, not on her. They're floating around in the tank. Did she take them off while she was in the tank? Well, we're gonna discuss a little bit more about that. So the media reports, um, that she has found sealed within the tank. Uh, the hatches on, and this creates even more questions because how did she die? How did she get in that tank in the first step? Mm-hmm. Did someone put her in there? Because this tank is eight to 10 feet tall, and so it's not easy to kind of climb up. Once you are in the tank, you can't get out very easily because if, imagine the water being inside the tank there's nothing to grab onto. It's like a cylinder type tank essentially. And you've gotta try and lift yourself up. Mm-hmm. Or close the hatch essentially has that, has she done that? It's pretty impossible, essentially is what people think. Well, it depends

Kyle Risi: 44:07

how heavy this hatch is, right? Mm-hmm. And how do you put the hatch into place? Get in, how

Adam Cox: 44:12

big is the hatch entrance? True. And then how high is the water? Because the water rises up and down depending on it. How much is being used? Sure. And things like that. And so if she's further down in the water, you, you can't scramble up. There's no ladders and things to kind of climb up from the inside. God. Do you

Kyle Risi: 44:25

think that she got into the tank when the water level was low and therefore she couldn't get herself out? Did she managed to get the hatch on?'cause you said it was

Adam Cox: 44:34

sealed. It was sealed, yeah.

Kyle Risi: 44:36

May be. She had put herself in there, the water level was really low. She couldn't get herself out. She ended up dying. Someone was walking around, they noticed that the hatch is off. They went up and just tightened it.

Adam Cox: 44:48

Well, that is one possibility. Um, but why she got in there in the first place. There's lots of questions here. We are gonna try and unravel some of them. Okay. So the autopsy is carried out and even after this, it's not a hundred percent clear what has happened. What is ruled out is that she was unlikely murdered, or, was caused any harm by anyone because there's no trauma found on her body. Okay. To suggest that she was killed beforehand. Mm-hmm. And then placed in the tank. Plus, these tanks aren't easy to climb. So to put someone in this tank, you have to, climb on these sort of pipes. So that's not very easy to do. You've got squeeze in between other tanks as well. Mm-hmm. Because this one was at the back. And so for someone to do that without causing any trauma or harm to her body is pretty much impossible. But it also

Kyle Risi: 45:34

seems bizarre that she would go for the one at the back. Um, I This

Adam Cox: 45:38

is so weird. It is weird. It is. So the police think that she's gotten in there herself, but why would she do that in the first place? Unless maybe someone's persuaded her to get in there? Hmm. I mean, if we look at the C C T V it does look like she might be hallucinating or maybe she's on some kind of drugs and perhaps she's not being chased with someone. Mm-hmm. Online, Reddit YouTubers or whatever, they're convinced that she's being chased or someone is stopping that lift from moving because, the door just doesn't stay open it should shut, everyone's been in an elevator. They know it shuts after a period of time, like 30 seconds. Mm-hmm. the internet get hold of her autopsy report, I dunno how, but they do. And they start to pick holes in it because at first it says her cause of death was undetermined. And it looks like it's dated on the 15th or this month that it comes out. Yeah. But then someone crosses that out and changes it to accident and the date on that looks like it's the 18th, so it's three days later that someone had marked it undetermined. And that's really weird because they're like, well, why would someone go back could

Kyle Risi: 46:44

it be that some, these autopsies get peer reviewed by like someone does the autopsy, then you hand it over to a superior and then they have a little look and they go, well actually based on X, Y, and Z and this and that and that, all new evidence that comes along within those three days, they just go, well, it's only a small change, just cross the spread out and change it.

Adam Cox: 47:02

Possibly. But I think because of the weird timestamp mm-hmm. And the way that she's got in the tank Yeah. The whole situation is just weird. And that's why people think, oh, is there a coverup? Is there someone in the police force that did that? And they're protecting one of their own. So, For us to really find out. We need to look at the facts. The facts. The facts. Let's start with those elevator doors. Why didn't they close? Yeah. Well, Elisa is seen pressing several buttons. I think she presses pretty much all of them. Uhhuh at the very bottom of that row buttons is the whole door button. Okay. That keeps the elevator's doors open for two minutes.

Kyle Risi: 47:42

Oh really? Until you then override it by pressing

Adam Cox: 47:45

the closed door button? No, it doesn't. It just stays open. So you can press all the buttons and it stays open, or that lift. That's how it works, essentially. I see. There may be a way to override it, but she didn't press that button to override it. Nothing to see here, guys. When people find that out, they're like, okay, unlikely she was being held in that lift by someone. Mm-hmm. Or something. So that's ruled out. Now let's look at the timestamp. Mm-hmm. So has someone edited it and blurred it out and cut parts out of that video footage? For someone to do that, that suggests a coverup. And the police are perhaps hiding something or, Maybe there's a killer within the police force. What's also odd is that the police do a massive search of that hotel. Mm-hmm. And that does include the roof. And nothing is initially found. No one even, you know, goes near the tank. Well, they didn't look in the tank. They didn't go in the tank, no. Sure. but there's no real answer to the timestamp issue, which is slightly annoying. What people do say is that the hotel handed over that footage to the police and the police have said there's nothing suspect about the footage. The only thing that people may say is that because that footage got uh, pushed out by media outlets, All over the place. Mm-hmm. That maybe something has been edited by press or someone out there, and that's what's been replicated to make it look a bit weird or

Kyle Risi: 49:04

whatever. But the original footage, they don't find

Adam Cox: 49:07

anything suspicious. Don't find

Kyle Risi: 49:09

anything suspicious. So are you saying that on the timestamps on the original video, they're not obscured or

Adam Cox: 49:15

they don't actually say that? They just say that there's nothing suspicious about the footage. They're not, yeah. They're just not alarmed by it. Yeah. I see. So the next theory is perhaps she's on some form of drugs? Well, toxicology report suggests that there's no alcohol or illicit drugs that are found in her system. Mm-hmm. The only drugs that are found in her system are ones that are lithium. What? Lithium, lithium.

Kyle Risi: 49:38

Because she's antidepressant. I don't know, like an antidepressant. I don't know.

Adam Cox: 49:41

Well, um, she is on prescribed drugs because she suffers from bipolar. Okay. but what's really weird about this is that the strength that they would expect to find in her system Yeah. Is way lower than someone that is taking this medication way.

Kyle Risi: 49:56

He lower. So what does that mean? That means she is not taking her medication?

Adam Cox: 50:01

Well, this is the thing that video footage, when you look at it again under this understanding, experts are suggesting that her behavior was consistent with someone experiencing a manic episode. Okay.

Kyle Risi: 50:15

It makes sense

Adam Cox: 50:17

So the autopsy revealed that the concentration of her medication in her body was really weak. And so that suggests that she perhaps stopped taking her medication. Right. And that's something that's actually backed up by her family, because this isn't the first time that she's stopped taking her meds. Mm-hmm. And she became delusional before she was seeing things that weren't there, like imagining she's being chased and she was hiding under a bed. So, with this in mind, The severity of her diagnosis. You can perhaps have these weird kind of, um, I guess unorganized thoughts where logic and reality don't quite make sense. Yeah. They, yeah, sure. And so perhaps she was running away from something in her mind mm-hmm. And it's

Kyle Risi: 51:00

really common for people who do suffer from all sorts of mental health conditions that are on medication. They're taking the medication, they all of a sudden go, do you know, I'm feeling really great? I don't think I need it anymore. Yeah. But they don't realize always that, well, you're feeling great because you're taking your meds. Right, exactly. Yeah. So they try to wean themselves off or they think, oh, it's gonna be different this time. And they do. And yeah, unfortunately,

Adam Cox: 51:24

then they spiral down again and have to like, then rebuild that's it. Yeah. Up again,

Kyle Risi: 51:27

it's, I feel like that's

Adam Cox: 51:28

really common. Well, what's also interesting, is because of this type of hotel, it was, um, she shared a room with some other girls and they complained about her odd behavior. She apparently left notes to other guests on their beds to tell'em to go away, go home, and she wouldn't let people in her room. Wow. So she was a bit disruptive. Yeah. So eventually because of her behavior, the hotel guests, I mean, they didn't call the police or do anything like that, they just decided to move her to a dedicated room, sit by herself. Right. So she didn't disturb other guests. Mm-hmm. this, this information's all kind of drip fair and eventually comes out. So four months later, after her death, the police think they finally cracked the case and the cause of her death go,. It was accidental, drowning with her bipolar disorder. Mm-hmm. That was the contributing factor. Yeah. I mean,

Kyle Risi: 52:19

that makes all perfect

Adam Cox: 52:20

sense to me. So if we go with this reasoning, we can assume the following. Yeah. Elisa hadn't been taking her medication. Uhhuh, she'd been acting strangely to other guests. Mm-hmm. She's seen in the elevator, uh, and she looks like she's having one of these episodes hallucinating, paranoia, and she's trying to run away from someone. And we know the family have confirmed that that's happened before. And so she's running through the hotel, she's genuinely feeling scared for her life and she thinks that going to the roof is a good way to escape whatever is chasing her. Mm-hmm. She sees the water tanks and perhaps she thinks that's a good place to hide. She climbs the ladder. She opens the hatch and she jumps in. Okay. Now, if the tank was filled with water, then you could potentially pull yourself out. However, if the water was being used, as I mentioned, then it's gonna decrease and then it's hard to get back out. So that's one of the reasons, she drowned.'cause she's, she's treading water for so long. Perhaps she undresses herself to try and stay afloat or the other. What about hypothermia? That's exactly the other, um, alternative, right?'cause that affects your nerve endings, I believe. Yeah. I think if you

Kyle Risi: 53:25

start to get really cold, then you start to actually feel very hot. Mm-hmm. And you want to take your clothes off. That's what happened with the guys on the DLO Pass incident.

Adam Cox: 53:35

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So,'cause it, it's up on the roof. It's 14 stories. It's January, it could get very cold. Yeah. That's possibly what happened. And so that's the reason she was found naked. God. but what about that closed hatch, the water tank, how could that have happened and what's with the dodgy autopsy report, which looked like it had been edited. Sure. So not everything adds up yet and people are still really dubious about the explanation and the cause of death. Mm-hmm. But I'm sorry to say there is no scandal. Yeah, I don't

Kyle Risi: 54:09

think so either. I think, I think that possibly the reason why the hatch was shut.'cause I don't think if the water level was low mm-hmm And she couldn't get up, that's the only logical reason why she wasn't able to get out.'cause the water level was too low. Days have gone by, 19 days went by. Someone has obviously been doing maintenance. They come out, they see the litters off the tank, they're not gonna look in the tank. No one expects a body to be in that tank. Just like with Amanda Knox. She came home, the door was open. She didn't think that someone will be dead in the house, right? Mm-hmm. You're not looking for that. They just see, oh, someone's forgot to put this, this lid on. They lock it down, they tighten it, and that's it. She's now entombed in here until they discover her body 19 days later.

Adam Cox: 54:53

Well, that's a logical theory. Mm-hmm. But you're wrong. Okay. first we'll talk about the autopsy report. This was actually just a misread from someone not properly writing an eight. So if you think about it, the first date it said it looked like it was the 15th. Mm-hmm. And then the second date was the 18th. But if you draw a five and you don't properly loop up that bottom bit to the end. Yeah. And that's why someone thought it was two different dates, but it was both the same date. They corrected it on the same day. Okay. So nothing really suspicious there. Nothing going on here, boys. But for the hatch, this was the biggest conundrum that people just could not get their heads round. Why? Why was it shut? Surely that must've assumed that someone else was involved in order to be able to close that hatch. Mm-hmm. Well, it was the media that reported the hatch was found shut. Oh, it

Kyle Risi: 55:45

wasn't found shut. Then in real life,

Adam Cox: 55:47

in the report by the police, the janitor had said, He found Elisa and the hatch was open. Ah. So that failed to get reported correctly by the media and it just went with it And rolled and rolled. Sure. Like I understand

Kyle Risi: 56:02

the motivation, right. People who are reporting on this, they're gonna be like, oh, murder at the Seesaw Hotel. Oh, someone's committed suicide. Oh, they've opened up the hatch, and there they are. But like, how can we make this more mysterious? Mm-hmm. The hatch was shut.

Adam Cox: 56:15

Yeah. Tight. So that's what fueled the mystery and that's what kind of brought this big hype to it because of all these different elements. Mm-hmm. But when you kind of pinpoint them down, they all can be solved with logic and reasoning. Yeah. So for poor Elisa, it was a tragic accident. It wasn't suicide, it wasn't murder, she wasn't cursed by ghosts. That rule the hotel. and actually despite her death, there was still a lot of people interested in going to the hotel, particularly because of her death actually. Yeah. Um, and so that caused some concerns that there might be copycat, situations that would happen as a result. And so the hotel finally closed at the stores in 2017. What?

Kyle Risi: 56:57

It's actually

Adam Cox: 56:57

closed. It did close. Okay. So whilst it was closed, people still suspected that place is haunted because there's footage of lights turning on throughout the building. Even security guards'cause it still needed security. Mm-hmm. Um, to sort of ward off trespasses. They say that they would hear noises in the night and things like that. So it still had a very creepy aura about it. But if Elisa wasn't cursed well, were the rest of the victims that we went through cursed. Is there still something to this? Well, I have a theory on that.

Kyle Risi: 57:30

Okay. So you have this idea of like, let's say San Francisco Bay Bridge, right? The gold of Gate bridge where people commit suicide on that. And then over time that becomes known as the place that you go if you want to commit suicide. And I think maybe that could have something to do with it. It reputation then precedes itself as the place that you go if you want to commit suicide. Because a lot of the deaths that happen there are suicides. Yes, there's some murders, but maybe if you account for the suicides correct. For that, the number of murders that happen is maybe within an

Adam Cox: 58:11

acceptable level. Yeah. I mean, I dunno what the acceptable level or acceptance level. I'm not quite sure what the right terminology is there. One every five years. Yeah. What, like if you go to a travel lodge in London, how many suicides does that had? Do you know what I mean? Oh, okay. Actually, no.

Kyle Risi: 58:25

Suicides versus murders. Suicides, I would say maybe one a year. Mm-hmm. But if you have, let's say, a murder, then like one a decade,

Adam Cox: 58:34

well, let's try and find out what happened to this place? Why? Why was it chosen as a suicide place, even if it wasn't haunted and everything like that? Was it built on some weird ancient burial, Indian ground or something? Hmm. Or did it really just attract criminals through some sort of paranormal way, this darkness drawing them in and tempting people to commit suicide? So to find out the real reason, we have to go back to the decade it was built, the 1920s. Mm-hmm. And whilst that decade started off really well, by the time you reach 1929, it's a completely different America. Okay. So a very quick American history lesson. Uhhuh number one, was also the decade of prohibition in America. Ooh. No alcohol. Yeah. So for those that aren't familiar with that period, it was between 1920 and 1933 where the production sale and transportation of alcohol drinks were banned in America.

Kyle Risi: 59:26

Oh. So people are like, I can't have anything to drink. Yeah. I'm gonna

Adam Cox: 59:30

kill myself. Well, the whole point of the ban was to reduce social issues associated with alcohol abuse. Okay. Such as crime, poverty, and family problems. And did it work well? It kind of created more problems well, for the C hotel. Mm-hmm. Um, so that essentially created speakeasies. Which were illegal bars and clubs that would sell alcohol. Oh, really? And while it wasn't limited to la, a lot of these speakeasies were downtown near the Toy District Skid Row and the Cecil Hotel. And around these, bars, there'd be organized crime, la gangsters and bootleggers, there'd be taken advantage of, you know, selling this unlicensed alcohol. Mm-hmm. And that obviously created a really sort of rough area. Mm-hmm. number two Throughout the last few decades, many Americans migrated westward in search of opportunities following the Gold Rush. Mm-hmm. And so they wanted to improve their wealth. And going to California and LA was perhaps the way to do that. The construction of the railroad network played a crucial role in helping those people migrate. Uh, and that railroad extended all the way to Los Angeles, specifically the area known as Skid Row. Mm-hmm. This would bring in immigrant laborers and the area began to rapidly grow. Um, but a lot of the work in LA was agricultural. And so it was seasonal and so take cater to the workers between the jobs, many bars and flop houses or dos house in the uk. Okay, interesting. Um, were these low cost basic lodgings? They're the ones that sort of spr up around this area. And that was to, I guess, keep people entertained whilst they were out of work. Um, and to get a place, eventually you didn't need a background check, you didn't need to put any deposits down. It was very easy. So if you were an ex criminal or you perhaps had been released from a mental institution, it was quite easy to get accommodation there. Mm-hmm. Actually,

Kyle Risi: 1:01:26

one interesting thing as well that I found out when I was listening to this podcast on the 1970s in America is that new regulations came in the seventies so what would constitute whether or not you received help resulted in loads of kind of asylums and hospitals turning people away from hospitals. Oh, right. That had mental health issues. Mm-hmm. So you just have an influx of these people living on the streets with mental health issues. All of a sudden they're just now homeless because they can't provide for themselves. That's awful. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why homelessness in New York was just through the roof, because I think it turned out like 80% of the homeless people had mental health issues mm-hmm. Of some degree. I don't know if that figure's correct, but quite a large number of the homeless people.

Adam Cox: 1:02:17

Yeah. And, and that's kind of the same for Skid Row in la, which we we'll touch on at the very end, but yeah, at very similar sort of instance. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, there was a big change in consumerism and opportunity for Americans at this time. There was a huge stock market, boom. Many people invested in stocks, often leveraging their own assets. Okay. So people had the opportunity to buy on credit as well at that point in time. So that, helped with the economy and everything like that. but The last thing to happen in that decade was the start of the Great Depression. Mm-hmm. And so, for those that are not too clued up on what that is, it was a huge economic crisis that hit the United States in the 1930s, very similar to the credit Crunch of 2008. Um, but it began with the stock market crash in 1929. And so those that had invested, and leveraged their assets lost out big time. That caused a chain reaction of financial collapse and widespread unemployment. And the impact was pretty devastating. People lost their homes, banks went under, businesses failed. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, that wasn't just Los Angeles, it was the rest of the country, but Los Angeles in particular, Um, heavily relied on agriculture and oil and real estate. And so the demand for goods and services really dropped in that particular area. And so that exasperated this problem that was in downtown la. Mm-hmm. in summary, you have all these people that have just moved to LA to find work. They're now jobless, they're homeless, and they're in an area of growing crime from gangsters close to these speakeasys DOS houses. And where illegal alcohol is sold a recipe for disaster. Yeah, for sure. So five years after the hotel opening, all these things combined changed the area greatly. The hotel, um, the street that it's on, it slowly sort of become absorbed into the Skid row area, so to speak. Mm-hmm. Uh, And so the clientele that it attracted also changed. We've touched on Skid Row throughout this podcast, so I think let's just, finally talk about what Skid Row is and the impact that's had on the Cecile Hotel. Okay. So it's not unique to la Um, there's skid rows throughout America, but I think, oh, it's like a,

Kyle Risi: 1:04:28

Term that people just have in each city. Like, oh, go down Skid Row. It's not unique. That, that's surprising to me.

Adam Cox: 1:04:34

Yeah. I think, um, Los Angeles has the most famous mm-hmm. Is the skid row, I guess. Um, but the terminology comes from the logging era. The logging. Yeah. It's, it's something that, I guess how they sort of built up areas, I think a few hundred years ago or something like that mm-hmm. In America, um, they would drag these logs against these sort of greased skids or as way of kind of transporting logs around. And so that's why the skid, uh, terminology came from a loosely. Sure.

Kyle Risi: 1:05:04

But how does that associate with like Decrepitness and like run downness and

Adam Cox: 1:05:09

stuff? Well, near the, or is that just, does that come later on? Well, near these areas, there'd be these single room occupancy hotels for traveling workers coming to the city to find work. Uh, and they were always really close to these sort of railroads, I guess, that were being built. And so when the Great Depression hit along with prohibition, the area grew in size and people that had just moved to LA were without a job. You also had a lot of veterans returning from World War II and the Korean War that were coming back to the US via LA and they had P T S D. Mm-hmm. And suffering with addiction and other mental health issues. They didn't necessarily have a job to go to. And so they found themselves on the street as well. and so whilst the hotel was doing okay throughout the thirties and forties, even though it had all the suicides by the fifties and sixties, there's a bigger shift because many residential hotels in Skid Row fell into disrepair. And that meant that affordable permanent housing, was really hard to come by for those that were in that area, and that forced more people onto the streets. Mm-hmm. And so in the seventies, there was also a conscious decision to preserve the remaining affordable home options in Skid Row to provide a place for those on low income to live. Right. On one hand, this helped because it made sure people had homes. But also what it did is whilst the council were building other areas in the city with these big skyscrapers, the financial district, et cetera, they didn't want these other little skid rows popping up. They, wanted to keep it confined into this particular area to stop mm-hmm. More homeless spreading. So that had a negative impact. And so you've got these 50 block radius, um, of these people that are being detained, if you will. Mm-hmm. Kind of like a, an invisible wall, right? Yeah. Yeah. and what they did is they put harsh prison lighting around the area. Mm-hmm. And they'd also put blocks on trash cans to deter people from raiding bins, like raid outside of the area. So to keep them in. And that, that harsh lighting was almost like, you, you, you, you don't wanna be around it. Yeah. and so the Cecil falls within these borders, and that is why it's had such a troubled pass for the last 10 decades.

Kyle Risi: 1:07:19

I imagine like a lot of the people that are living in Skid Row, they eventually come across a bit of money. They maybe sell a bit of drugs, they maybe rob the right person. They get a bit of money, they check into the hotel, they have a shower, they have a nice bed for the night. What comes with these people is essentially the trouble. Mm-hmm. Right. And it just so happens that proximity wise, it's on that skid row section as well. So it's attracting the people.

Adam Cox: 1:07:44

Exactly. What started as a mid luxury Travelers Hotel ran issues because of the economy and its location in LA and the way Skid Row has been looked after since the mid 20th century. so this has all increased the danger, the drugs, the violence. And so in answer to my original question that I started the podcast with mm-hmm. Is the Cecil Hotel cursed? Well, yes it is. But not through paranormal activity, but just from pretty bad luck. Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: 1:08:12

Yeah, that's a good way of putting

Adam Cox: 1:08:14

it. And finally, as for Skid Row, it's still incredibly dangerous. It's not advised to go there, particularly at night, and it's not uncommon to come across someone that's overdosed. A body people are high in the streets and with 10,000 people living in that area, there are these outreach programs and mental illness centers to help those. You can even go and get fentanyl to make sure that you get some kind of opioid into your system well. So they

Kyle Risi: 1:08:40

give you like a

Adam Cox: 1:08:41

safe dose. Yes. I was watching these videos and, you go into the store and Yeah, you just ask for it. I think it's free and it's to stop you from having,'cause I think if you have a withdrawal from heroin, it can be very serious.

Kyle Risi: 1:08:54

Yeah. I mean, from what I understand of heroin, kind of, what, what do you call it? Like withdrawal symptoms. It looks horrible. Yeah. You get itchy, you can't calm down. You're sweaty, you're freaking out.

Adam Cox: 1:09:07

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it's, it's, it's terrible. So they do support there, there is mental health treatment centers and things, but whether anything will truly get done to get these people off the street, I'm not too sure, but maybe some of them will find their way into the newly reopened Cecil Hotel. Mm. it's been identified as a historical cultural monument protected by Los Angeles City Council, and it's been reopened as affordable housing for permanent residence.

Kyle Risi: 1:09:34

Wow. So, okay. So the whole thing is now what happened to the, the manager that was there for like 10 years,

Adam Cox: 1:09:41

I'm guessing she's at another hotel. Yeah. I'd wanna be working at a hotel near a beach or something. Sure. Completely different sort of, yeah, yeah, yeah. Worlds apart. Wow. So it's

Kyle Risi: 1:09:49

still going, Elisa hasn't shut down yet because it's, it's right there on the outskirts of Skid Row. Mm-hmm. So it makes sense to have it as something for these people. I

Adam Cox: 1:10:01

think so. Yeah. Or affordable housing. there is, there is good. That can be done with that place. Mm-hmm. And especially if they've got rid of all these other hotels and housing and that can house 700 people potentially. Mm-hmm. Then they, they need it. Yeah. Um, but it does make me think, unless things drastically change in skid row mm-hmm. Then the curse is probably not over yet. No, it's

Kyle Risi: 1:10:22

not, is it? Mm.

Adam Cox: 1:10:24

That's it. That's my story.

Kyle Risi: 1:10:26

And that is the story of the Cecil Hotel or Cecil

Adam Cox: 1:10:30

Hotel. Yeah. The curse of Cecil Hotel.

Kyle Risi: 1:10:32

It was good. Lots of, lots of suicides. That's surprising. Yeah.

Adam Cox: 1:10:37

Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 1:10:38

This is probably why they ended up putting Bibles in, in hotels.

Adam Cox: 1:10:42

Right. Yeah. And I guess why hotel rooms. You can't open the window in the hotel rooms anymore, can you?

Kyle Risi: 1:10:47

No. Well, not in the ones, in some of the UK ones that we go to in the uk they've got their like tethered to that little tiny white wire, aren't

Adam Cox: 1:10:54

they? You can open it like an inch. Yeah. Just get a little

Kyle Risi: 1:10:56

width of air and that's it. Yeah. Nope. No more. No more. But I guess, yes, some people jumping out, right? Yeah. Probably don't have the liability

Adam Cox: 1:11:04

insurance. Yeah. And I never knew about the, the Bible thing. That makes sense.'cause I just thought we were predominantly a Christian country.

Kyle Risi: 1:11:10

Mm-hmm. Well, it's in America that it started like 1899 where the kind of Christian evangelical movement pushing to put these bibles in hotels for people that were traveling that were maybe lonely or needed some kind of emotional support and stuff. But then also as a consequence as well, it's also there to potentially save some people. Mm-hmm. Who are mm-hmm. Wanting to commit suicide. They're lost. Yeah. Uh, I dunno how it convinces you to not do it, but maybe it can give you some comfort in those final moments. Right.

Adam Cox: 1:11:44

Yeah. Or maybe there's a chapter that speaks to you. Who knows?

Kyle Risi: 1:11:47

Yeah, possibly. Mm. But yeah, that was, uh, that was really good. Thank you very much. Alright, So I guess that's another episode for the Compendium and Assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. If you enjoy today's episode, subscribe and leave us a cheeky five star review. You can also engage with us on Instagram or visit us on our new website@thecompendiumpodcast.com. We always love hearing from you, so check that out. And remember, we release every Tuesday, so join us next week as we unravel yet another intriguing story from the world of the fascinating and intriguing. And until then, see you next week.