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Sept. 19, 2023

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

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In this episode of the Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating and Intriguing Things, we plunge into the dark history and unsettling tales surrounding the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. Once a luxurious destination in the 1920s, it has evolved into America's most dangerous hotel. Our journey explores the spine-chilling stories of ghosts and murder that have turned the Cecil into a place of legend. 

We delve into the mysterious case of Elisa Lam, whose untimely death has ignited discussions about the hotel's supposed curse. Moving through time, we'll examine how Prohibition and organized crime shaped its early days, adding another layer to its notoriety. But the Cecil isn't just haunted by ghosts; it's also affected by real-world issues like PTSD, as the hotel stands near the troubled area of Skid Row. We'll touch upon the economic crisis and the Great Depression's impact on affordable housing, unraveling how these factors have contributed to the Cecil's fearsome reputation.

We give you the Compendium, but if you want more, then check out these great resources:

  1. "American Horror Story: Hotel" - See how the Cecil Hotel inspired the fifth season of this hit show.
  2. "The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel" - A Netflix documentary that delves into the mysterious disappearance of Elisa Lam.

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Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:13.897
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.

00:00:13.928 --> 00:00:14.678
It was awful.

00:00:15.067 --> 00:00:15.997
Should we read a couple?

00:00:16.047 --> 00:00:16.827
See if you can get a couple.

00:00:16.858 --> 00:00:17.307
Yeah.

00:00:17.312 --> 00:00:17.318
Yeah.

00:00:17.367 --> 00:00:19.617
So Cecil Hotel, stay on Maine.

00:00:19.617 --> 00:00:19.978
Mm-hmm.

00:00:19.978 --> 00:00:22.198
so Rosie Batty.

00:00:22.542 --> 00:00:23.082
Oh God.

00:00:23.434 --> 00:00:25.234
Woke up to a man staring at me.

00:00:25.714 --> 00:00:31.414
He was right in my face, but he said he worked there and was making sure I was okay.

00:00:32.704 --> 00:00:33.634
That's really considerate.

00:00:33.634 --> 00:00:34.414
It is.

00:00:34.895 --> 00:00:38.465
Uh, so I'm pretty sure it was just routine.

00:00:39.994 --> 00:00:43.325
I felt pretty comfortable for the most part, apart from when he s smelled my hair.

00:00:45.573 --> 00:00:48.027
Depends what your boundaries are, would recommend.

00:00:48.057 --> 00:00:49.557
Beds are a bit springy though.

00:00:49.557 --> 00:00:50.188
Bit springy.

00:00:50.722 --> 00:00:52.222
13 people market that one useful

00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:25.510
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.

00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:29.650
Awarding it, the title of one of the most dangerous hotels in the world.

00:01:30.790 --> 00:01:32.200
I think it should be Cecil.

00:01:32.740 --> 00:01:33.370
I, yeah.

00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:39.730
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?

00:01:39.971 --> 00:01:40.540
It's weird.

00:01:40.661 --> 00:01:44.620
Is that actually, if a person was called Cecil, would they call him Cecil?

00:01:45.171 --> 00:01:47.141
Oh, it doesn't sound right, does it?

00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:48.460
No, I think of Cecil.

00:01:49.090 --> 00:01:49.631
Yeah, that's

00:01:49.631 --> 00:01:50.320
true actually.

00:01:50.801 --> 00:01:51.671
It is definitely

00:01:51.820 --> 00:01:52.480
Cecil.

00:01:52.570 --> 00:01:53.200
Cecil.

00:01:53.271 --> 00:01:55.671
well, we'll be calling it the Cecil Hotel today.

00:01:55.790 --> 00:01:55.881
Mm-hmm.

00:01:56.421 --> 00:02:10.383
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.

00:02:11.584 --> 00:02:12.033
Okay.

00:02:12.633 --> 00:02:18.334
It's, uh, Cecil and you're listening to the Compendium, an Assembly of Fascinating and Intriguing Things.

00:02:18.334 --> 00:02:25.060
We are a weekly variety podcast where I, Kyle Rei ordinarily tell Adam Cox all about a topic that I think.

00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:27.280
You'll find both fascinating and intriguing.

00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.280
But once again, you're in the driving

00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:30.759
seat this week.

00:02:30.759 --> 00:02:32.139
I'm back, back again.

00:02:32.189 --> 00:02:33.180
Yeah, let's go for it.

00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:37.539
So before we dig into it, is there anything that you know about the Cecil Hotel?

00:02:37.750 --> 00:02:50.659
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?

00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:51.319
Yeah, that's right.

00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:51.530
Yeah.

00:02:51.860 --> 00:03:04.610
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?

00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:04.789
Yeah.

00:03:04.789 --> 00:03:10.626
And it's just off the, tip of what they call, skid row, is that right?

00:03:10.656 --> 00:03:10.955
Yep.

00:03:10.985 --> 00:03:12.966
Where it's a big like homeless slum.

00:03:13.295 --> 00:03:13.656
That's right.

00:03:13.656 --> 00:03:14.165
That exists

00:03:14.225 --> 00:03:14.885
in the city.

00:03:14.890 --> 00:03:18.216
So there's about 10,000 people living on the streets.

00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:20.709
a third of them are tents in Skid Row.

00:03:20.769 --> 00:03:21.278
Wow.

00:03:21.459 --> 00:03:21.639
Yeah.

00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:22.359
That's crazy.

00:03:22.598 --> 00:03:24.549
And we'll, we'll talk about Skid Row.

00:03:24.549 --> 00:03:25.838
We'll come on to that, but, okay.

00:03:25.929 --> 00:03:29.348
But that's all that I know, that's all you know about the Cecil Hotel.

00:03:29.498 --> 00:03:29.829
Okay.

00:03:29.829 --> 00:03:33.264
Well you've got an idea that there is a checkered past, shall we say.

00:03:33.354 --> 00:03:33.653
Mm-hmm.

00:03:33.774 --> 00:03:34.253
Okay.

00:03:34.606 --> 00:03:35.567
So let's get into it.

00:03:35.627 --> 00:03:41.296
So in today's episode, we are covering the infamous Cecil Hotel, or Cecil, if you like to call it that.

00:03:41.667 --> 00:03:47.865
It's known as one of the deadliest hotels in not just Los Angeles or America, but the world.

00:03:47.985 --> 00:03:55.844
It has a really dark and haunting history that includes a lot of crimes such as assaults, suicide, and murder.

00:03:56.414 --> 00:04:05.044
The hotel would frequently, house drug addicts, prostitutes, gang members, and was even home to some of America's serial killers.

00:04:05.405 --> 00:04:06.004
Really?

00:04:06.064 --> 00:04:06.275
Yeah.

00:04:06.275 --> 00:04:07.264
What do you mean home?

00:04:07.745 --> 00:04:11.705
Well, we'll go into it, but the hotel it's also a permanent residency as well.

00:04:11.705 --> 00:04:12.186
Oh, really?

00:04:12.336 --> 00:04:16.206
So people could stay there for months, um, years even.

00:04:16.235 --> 00:04:18.485
Well, like a boarding house, we're talking a little bit.

00:04:18.485 --> 00:04:18.576
Mm-hmm.

00:04:18.821 --> 00:04:24.005
We'll explain why it offered that type of accommodation for the people in that area.

00:04:24.156 --> 00:04:24.336
Sure.

00:04:24.786 --> 00:04:25.115
Fine.

00:04:26.365 --> 00:04:36.216
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.

00:04:36.425 --> 00:04:43.475
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.

00:04:43.536 --> 00:04:44.136
Oh, really?

00:04:44.165 --> 00:04:44.196
Ooh.

00:04:44.326 --> 00:04:44.725
Mm-hmm.

00:04:45.305 --> 00:05:01.331
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.

00:05:01.511 --> 00:05:01.781
Mm-hmm.

00:05:01.810 --> 00:05:03.586
And we'll, we'll look at that footage today.

00:05:03.646 --> 00:05:03.735
Mm-hmm.

00:05:04.096 --> 00:05:17.605
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.

00:05:17.906 --> 00:05:18.216
Oh shit.

00:05:18.656 --> 00:05:23.245
And in these unusual circumstances that people just couldn't explain.

00:05:23.276 --> 00:05:23.935
Really?

00:05:24.026 --> 00:05:24.475
Yeah.

00:05:24.656 --> 00:05:25.136
Okay.

00:05:25.315 --> 00:05:37.675
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

00:05:38.336 --> 00:05:38.755
the hotel?

00:05:38.795 --> 00:05:41.536
I think, because it was worldwide in terms of what happened to her.

00:05:41.565 --> 00:05:41.685
Mm-hmm.

00:05:41.956 --> 00:05:43.576
You know, as international news.

00:05:43.815 --> 00:05:46.630
I think it just brought, much more attention to the hotel.

00:05:46.636 --> 00:05:46.721
Mm-hmm.

00:05:47.021 --> 00:05:52.391
And it brought to light all these stories that had been reported probably in Los Angeles and stuff like that.

00:05:52.391 --> 00:05:55.870
And just how many deaths had occurred at this hotel and why.

00:05:56.021 --> 00:05:56.411
Yeah.

00:05:56.620 --> 00:05:57.701
And what was going on.

00:05:57.701 --> 00:06:01.901
It, was there something more to it than just people coincidentally dying?

00:06:01.961 --> 00:06:02.170
Yeah.

00:06:02.170 --> 00:06:02.380
Yeah.

00:06:02.380 --> 00:06:02.711
Yeah.

00:06:03.326 --> 00:06:04.466
Oh, I'm excited for this.

00:06:04.495 --> 00:06:05.545
'cause like why was she there?

00:06:05.545 --> 00:06:06.656
She was traveling, right?

00:06:06.716 --> 00:06:07.735
She was traveling, yeah.

00:06:07.766 --> 00:06:11.096
Why would you go to the Cecil Hotel like on Skid Row?

00:06:11.396 --> 00:06:19.586
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.

00:06:19.586 --> 00:06:23.125
'cause the hotel was always designed to be this sort of travelers hotel.

00:06:23.125 --> 00:06:23.485
Mm-hmm.

00:06:23.906 --> 00:06:26.995
Um, but we'll dive into how it started and everything in just a second.

00:06:27.175 --> 00:06:27.475
Okay.

00:06:27.475 --> 00:06:28.396
I just need to be patient, I guess.

00:06:28.396 --> 00:06:29.396
You do just need to be patient.

00:06:29.456 --> 00:06:31.076
Just hold your horse.

00:06:31.555 --> 00:06:39.190
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.

00:06:39.250 --> 00:06:39.461
Ooh.

00:06:39.466 --> 00:06:40.271
The Lady Gaga.

00:06:40.331 --> 00:06:40.870
That's right.

00:06:40.870 --> 00:06:48.716
And if you remember watching that, there was these ghosts and vampires and other souls that were confined to this corrupt and torturous hotel.

00:06:48.721 --> 00:06:48.925
They could be.

00:06:48.925 --> 00:06:49.206
Yeah.

00:06:49.206 --> 00:06:50.185
They're like kind of trapped, weren't they?

00:06:50.185 --> 00:06:50.755
Exactly.

00:06:50.761 --> 00:06:51.055
Yeah.

00:06:51.055 --> 00:07:02.072
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.

00:07:02.072 --> 00:07:02.461
Mm-hmm.

00:07:02.468 --> 00:07:07.291
And where in fact there is actually a curse that exists on the hotel.

00:07:07.442 --> 00:07:08.762
You keep me in suspense here.

00:07:08.762 --> 00:07:08.791
Okay.

00:07:08.851 --> 00:07:09.841
Let's do this.

00:07:09.872 --> 00:07:10.471
All right.

00:07:10.471 --> 00:07:18.841
So we start our story in late 1924 where the hotel completes construction and opens its owner, William Banks.

00:07:18.841 --> 00:07:21.451
Hannah invests about one to$2 million.

00:07:22.547 --> 00:07:29.057
Which was quite expensive for the time for a hotel, and that's the equivalent of around about 18 million in today's money.

00:07:29.057 --> 00:07:29.117
Wow.

00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.879
it becomes one of the largest hotels on the west coast in the 1920s.

00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:38.175
It stands 14 stories tall, and it's fitted out with 700 rooms.

00:07:38.204 --> 00:07:40.725
So a big hotel, 700 rooms is a lot.

00:07:40.814 --> 00:07:41.144
Mm-hmm.

00:07:41.985 --> 00:07:46.454
What's interesting, and I think a lot of hotels do this whilst there's 14 floors.

00:07:46.514 --> 00:07:46.605
Mm-hmm.

00:07:46.850 --> 00:07:48.584
The top floor is actually the 15th floor.

00:07:48.615 --> 00:07:50.499
'cause they cut out the 13th floor for bad luck.

00:07:50.528 --> 00:07:50.949
Oh, right.

00:07:50.949 --> 00:07:51.278
Yes.

00:07:51.278 --> 00:07:51.579
Like

00:07:51.608 --> 00:07:58.499
in China, they don't label their floor number four because the number four sounds a lot like death.

00:07:58.738 --> 00:07:59.098
Yes.

00:07:59.098 --> 00:08:03.358
So they just have like floor 1, 2, 3, skip, 4, 5,

00:08:03.358 --> 00:08:03.959
6, 7.

00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:04.319
Yeah.

00:08:04.408 --> 00:08:07.678
And actually I clocked on the Ryan Air flight that we were on recently.

00:08:07.829 --> 00:08:07.978
Mm-hmm.

00:08:08.218 --> 00:08:09.389
Row 13 didn't exist.

00:08:09.389 --> 00:08:10.499
It went 12 and 14.

00:08:10.678 --> 00:08:11.309
Oh, really?

00:08:11.309 --> 00:08:11.819
Interesting.

00:08:11.908 --> 00:08:12.569
I didn't notice that.

00:08:13.064 --> 00:08:14.865
The hotel opened in the mid twenties.

00:08:14.954 --> 00:08:18.725
Um, from the outside, the hotel doesn't really look anything special, in my opinion anyway.

00:08:19.095 --> 00:08:22.125
it's a pretty generic concrete building for that time.

00:08:22.185 --> 00:08:25.095
But on the inside it was decked out pretty well.

00:08:25.574 --> 00:08:30.074
It had art deco features, stained glass windows, a marble staircase.

00:08:30.509 --> 00:08:37.450
It was all designed to attract this international businessman or kind of middle class traveler, it's not like the most luxurious hotel.

00:08:37.455 --> 00:08:37.500
Mm-hmm.

00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:38.919
But it's a, it's a good hotel.

00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:39.340
Sure.

00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:44.129
So I'm assuming you saw some pictures of the hotel when it was first built.

00:08:44.129 --> 00:08:44.130
Mm-hmm.

00:08:44.190 --> 00:08:47.700
Did it kind of give you the same vibes that they portrayed it in

00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:48.600
American Horror Story?

00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:54.600
It takes so much inspiration in terms of the lobby and where all the keys are and everything like that.

00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:55.340
Oh, so it's very similar.

00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:55.490
Is

00:08:55.490 --> 00:08:55.669
it?

00:08:55.669 --> 00:08:56.389
Very, very similar.

00:08:56.389 --> 00:08:56.450
Wow.

00:08:56.450 --> 00:08:56.659
Okay.

00:08:56.659 --> 00:09:06.500
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

00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:07.429
kitted out, you know?

00:09:07.490 --> 00:09:07.759
Yeah.

00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:11.240
It kind of reminds me of if you have, um, the Empire, is it the Empire State?

00:09:11.389 --> 00:09:12.409
No, the Chrysler building.

00:09:12.409 --> 00:09:12.500
Mm-hmm.

00:09:12.605 --> 00:09:14.720
That was quite art deco on the first floor, wasn't it?

00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:14.929
Yeah.

00:09:14.929 --> 00:09:15.259
Yeah.

00:09:15.409 --> 00:09:15.980
That kind of thing.

00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:16.730
Interesting.

00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:17.179
Okay.

00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:26.070
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.

00:09:26.075 --> 00:09:26.149
Mm-hmm.

00:09:26.230 --> 00:09:32.269
Because, as you may know, the twenties were nicknamed the Roaring Twenties in America.

00:09:32.274 --> 00:09:32.360
Mm-hmm.

00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:36.539
So, I dunno if you know much about the roaring twenties, I don't know a huge deal.

00:09:36.539 --> 00:09:37.679
No, it was roaring.

00:09:40.527 --> 00:09:40.767
Yeah.

00:09:40.767 --> 00:09:41.187
Thanks for that.

00:09:41.187 --> 00:09:41.517
I've got

00:09:41.517 --> 00:09:41.726
that.

00:09:42.807 --> 00:09:51.697
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.

00:09:51.726 --> 00:09:54.067
So there was an increase in construction.

00:09:54.126 --> 00:10:00.667
The oil industry grew and there were these technological advancements, which led to increased consumerism.

00:10:00.697 --> 00:10:00.787
Mm-hmm.

00:10:01.116 --> 00:10:03.606
People weren't just essentially buying necessities anymore.

00:10:03.606 --> 00:10:05.616
People could afford more luxury goods.

00:10:05.677 --> 00:10:05.767
Mm-hmm.

00:10:06.006 --> 00:10:10.267
You know, things like cars, radios, and other household appliances and hotels.

00:10:10.596 --> 00:10:11.256
And hotels.

00:10:11.256 --> 00:10:11.346
Mm-hmm.

00:10:11.886 --> 00:10:20.711
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.

00:10:20.711 --> 00:10:23.861
And so your average Joe could now take a plane, could have on holiday.

00:10:23.861 --> 00:10:23.922
Yeah.

00:10:24.042 --> 00:10:26.121
We knew that because of, our Amelia

00:10:26.126 --> 00:10:27.052
Earhart episode.

00:10:27.081 --> 00:10:27.471
That's right.

00:10:27.476 --> 00:10:27.772
Yeah.

00:10:27.922 --> 00:10:28.341
Wow.

00:10:28.432 --> 00:10:34.072
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.

00:10:34.312 --> 00:10:36.442
And traveling to the city for work or leisure.

00:10:36.442 --> 00:10:36.892
Sure.

00:10:37.251 --> 00:10:39.741
And this was all because people were traveling

00:10:39.741 --> 00:10:40.432
internationally?

00:10:40.817 --> 00:10:41.177
Yes.

00:10:41.182 --> 00:10:42.977
Although it might have just been within America at the time.

00:10:42.977 --> 00:10:43.187
Nationally.

00:10:43.187 --> 00:10:43.398
Yeah.

00:10:43.398 --> 00:10:43.668
Yes, sir.

00:10:43.673 --> 00:10:43.957
Nationally, yeah.

00:10:44.298 --> 00:10:44.567
Hmm.

00:10:44.687 --> 00:10:45.168
Interesting.

00:10:45.508 --> 00:10:52.378
The hotel had a very successful launch and it was doing well in its first couple of years in June, 1926.

00:10:52.378 --> 00:10:55.827
The hotel does experience its first death on its premises.

00:10:56.008 --> 00:10:56.368
Okay.

00:10:57.008 --> 00:11:03.548
A man named William McKay dies of natural causes, and a few months later another man dies of heart disease.

00:11:03.908 --> 00:11:05.857
So it's nothing out of the ordinary.

00:11:05.857 --> 00:11:06.187
But I mean,

00:11:06.187 --> 00:11:09.518
that's like two deaths in the span of what you're saying

00:11:09.518 --> 00:11:11.107
there, two, three months.

00:11:11.113 --> 00:11:11.197
Months.

00:11:11.202 --> 00:11:11.408
Yeah.

00:11:11.408 --> 00:11:15.363
So it's, it's a bit weird, but it's not, rousing any suspicion at this stage.

00:11:15.363 --> 00:11:16.082
They're just natural deaths.

00:11:16.082 --> 00:11:16.562
Not yet.

00:11:16.692 --> 00:11:22.812
But this would be the beginning of what would become a series of dark events that would plague the hotel for almost 10 decades.

00:11:22.812 --> 00:11:22.842
Oh.

00:11:22.873 --> 00:11:23.442
Nurse.

00:11:24.702 --> 00:11:31.332
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.

00:11:31.513 --> 00:11:31.962
Okay.

00:11:32.143 --> 00:11:32.322
God.

00:11:33.673 --> 00:11:33.893
God.

00:11:35.373 --> 00:11:41.582
So supposedly the first suicide happened in 1927 by a guy called Percy Cook.

00:11:41.643 --> 00:11:41.732
Mm-hmm.

00:11:42.123 --> 00:11:44.732
He took his own life after a fallout with his wife.

00:11:45.003 --> 00:11:47.102
He tried to buy happiness and failed.

00:11:47.432 --> 00:11:52.442
So he left a suicide note to his wife, shot himself leaving his wife and son behind.

00:11:52.773 --> 00:11:53.222
Shit.

00:11:53.403 --> 00:11:54.842
So, first of all, what does that mean?

00:11:54.842 --> 00:11:55.202
He tried to

00:11:55.207 --> 00:11:56.072
buy happiness?

00:11:56.173 --> 00:12:00.133
From what I could understand about,'cause there's not like loads of information I.

00:12:00.462 --> 00:12:05.143
I think he had a decent amount of money and he tried to fill a void, but that didn't really work out.

00:12:05.143 --> 00:12:07.903
So in his suicide note, he's sort of saying like, I tried all these things.

00:12:07.903 --> 00:12:08.653
I'm still not happy.

00:12:09.253 --> 00:12:11.982
Oh, I think that's, that's what I could interpret from the news story.

00:12:12.013 --> 00:12:12.702
So he checked

00:12:12.702 --> 00:12:15.283
into the hotel on his own without his wife and then

00:12:15.283 --> 00:12:15.972
took his own life?

00:12:16.092 --> 00:12:17.173
I believe so, yeah.

00:12:17.173 --> 00:12:17.263
Mm-hmm.

00:12:17.563 --> 00:12:28.309
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.

00:12:28.940 --> 00:12:35.419
Dorothy had been experiencing a psychotic breakdown after recently becoming widowed when her husband passed away a few months prior.

00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:35.929
Oh no.

00:12:36.289 --> 00:12:37.429
Um, but she did survive.

00:12:37.429 --> 00:12:41.529
She was, rushed to hospital and from what I understand, she made a recovery.

00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:42.730
Okay, that's good.

00:12:43.779 --> 00:12:51.519
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.

00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:56.080
But what was really peculiar was that wasn't his actual name, he checked in under an alias.

00:12:56.470 --> 00:12:56.980
I see.

00:12:57.070 --> 00:12:58.840
So they couldn't locate his family.

00:12:58.840 --> 00:12:58.960
I'm

00:12:58.965 --> 00:12:59.409
assuming.

00:12:59.529 --> 00:13:02.320
Well, I think they eventually could work out who it was.

00:13:02.350 --> 00:13:08.855
Um, but what I found quite strange is that this isn't the only instance of someone giving a, a fake name.

00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:09.105
Mm-hmm.

00:13:09.485 --> 00:13:15.605
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.

00:13:15.754 --> 00:13:15.845
Mm-hmm.

00:13:16.174 --> 00:13:18.335
Or perhaps arrange a night with a prostitute.

00:13:18.875 --> 00:13:21.174
And so they would give a false name.

00:13:21.235 --> 00:13:23.605
Um, so I dunno if that was this guy's intention.

00:13:24.024 --> 00:13:28.495
Or perhaps he just didn't want to be found or matched back and perhaps just wanted to go missing.

00:13:28.524 --> 00:13:28.615
Mm-hmm.

00:13:28.855 --> 00:13:29.664
If that makes sense.

00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:38.129
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.

00:13:38.340 --> 00:13:44.490
And the year after that, a man died after being pinned against the wall by a truck at the rear entrance.

00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:45.480
Jesus.

00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:47.700
So like the deaths are wrapping up.

00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:48.539
They are.

00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:50.639
Um, and it doesn't stop there.

00:13:51.212 --> 00:14:00.462
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.

00:14:00.523 --> 00:14:01.513
Was he committing?

00:14:01.783 --> 00:14:03.462
I imagine him in the lobby doing that?

00:14:03.633 --> 00:14:04.952
I think he did it in his own room.

00:14:05.102 --> 00:14:09.003
Um, but he was struggling with poor health and that's how he decided to end it.

00:14:09.572 --> 00:14:12.393
Jesus, three years later.

00:14:12.482 --> 00:14:12.722
Mm-hmm.

00:14:13.173 --> 00:14:21.842
In 1937, a woman named Grace Gro sadly fell from her hotel room on the ninth floor whilst her boyfriend was asleep.

00:14:22.982 --> 00:14:34.336
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.

00:14:34.397 --> 00:14:36.466
Why, why would someone go and do that?

00:14:36.496 --> 00:14:36.826
Yeah.

00:14:36.893 --> 00:14:39.982
She hadn't acted strangely before they checked into the hotel.

00:14:40.013 --> 00:14:40.102
Mm-hmm.

00:14:40.673 --> 00:14:44.873
And what's worse is she fell onto these telephone wires, which did help to break her fall.

00:14:44.878 --> 00:14:45.283
But then, but

00:14:45.288 --> 00:14:46.253
they electrocuted her, I'm

00:14:46.253 --> 00:14:46.793
assuming?

00:14:46.852 --> 00:14:48.352
I don't think they electrocuted her.

00:14:48.352 --> 00:14:49.552
I think they just broke her fall.

00:14:49.552 --> 00:14:52.373
But the injuries was just too bad that she died later in

00:14:52.403 --> 00:14:52.852
hospital.

00:14:52.852 --> 00:14:52.854
Oh.

00:14:52.883 --> 00:14:55.312
What is she like got chopped up?

00:14:55.312 --> 00:14:57.293
Like what you do with like an egg chopper?

00:14:57.383 --> 00:14:57.682
Ooh.

00:14:57.682 --> 00:14:59.332
When you put the egg or cheese?

00:14:59.482 --> 00:15:00.503
A cheese cutter.

00:15:00.623 --> 00:15:01.312
Cheese wire.

00:15:01.403 --> 00:15:04.373
Maybe if it was a higher floor.

00:15:04.432 --> 00:15:04.883
I don't know.

00:15:04.972 --> 00:15:05.302
I dunno.

00:15:05.302 --> 00:15:06.773
God, that's horrible to think about.

00:15:06.832 --> 00:15:07.253
Yeah.

00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:13.480
so the following year, another man jumped from the top floor and he was found dead on a neighboring building.

00:15:13.809 --> 00:15:14.169
Okay.

00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:19.360
And in 1939, another man died through taking poison.

00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:20.259
Okay.

00:15:20.289 --> 00:15:23.980
So we haven't even got to the 1940s yet, and there's been nine deaths.

00:15:24.009 --> 00:15:25.179
Yeah, that seems a lot.

00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.179
Or at least nine deaths that have been reported and that we know about.

00:15:28.330 --> 00:15:30.070
And so this opened up in what year?

00:15:30.503 --> 00:15:30.982
24.

00:15:30.988 --> 00:15:34.857
So it's averaging just slightly over one a year,

00:15:35.158 --> 00:15:35.847
roughly?

00:15:35.947 --> 00:15:36.758
One every two years.

00:15:36.817 --> 00:15:36.998
Yeah.

00:15:36.998 --> 00:15:37.447
Averaging, so it's

00:15:37.452 --> 00:15:39.697
averaging like one death every two years.

00:15:40.317 --> 00:15:44.388
So at this point in time, this is when I think it gets its nickname, the suicide.

00:15:44.687 --> 00:15:44.898
Mm-hmm.

00:15:45.227 --> 00:15:51.018
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.

00:15:51.538 --> 00:15:54.011
Maybe because it was one of the tallest buildings at the time.

00:15:54.442 --> 00:15:57.922
Perhaps that was one of the reasons people went to jump, but they

00:15:57.922 --> 00:15:58.761
weren't really jumping.

00:15:58.761 --> 00:16:01.221
Only one woman apparently jumped.

00:16:01.341 --> 00:16:01.761
Yeah.

00:16:01.761 --> 00:16:07.162
Most people are perhaps taking poison or they've shot themselves or whatever, slashed their necks with a razor.

00:16:07.371 --> 00:16:10.942
So I think this is why people are starting to think, is there something suspicious going on?

00:16:10.947 --> 00:16:12.142
Why is this happening?

00:16:12.142 --> 00:16:16.011
Why are people being drawn to this place to end their lives,

00:16:16.162 --> 00:16:17.601
indian burial ground, Adam.

00:16:17.961 --> 00:16:19.341
Well, oh no.

00:16:19.341 --> 00:16:21.081
Is it built on an Indian burial ground?

00:16:21.442 --> 00:16:22.461
It never is.

00:16:22.491 --> 00:16:23.662
We'll, we'll come back to that.

00:16:24.741 --> 00:16:27.951
The bad press, as I said, didn't really stop people from going to the hotel.

00:16:27.956 --> 00:16:38.631
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.

00:16:39.201 --> 00:16:39.562
Okay.

00:16:39.802 --> 00:16:40.881
It seems like the way to go.

00:16:40.942 --> 00:16:41.631
Take some poison.

00:16:41.932 --> 00:16:42.081
Yeah.

00:16:42.086 --> 00:16:42.652
I'm surprised

00:16:42.652 --> 00:16:44.062
that a man is taking poison.

00:16:44.121 --> 00:16:45.831
Normally it's the women that take poison.

00:16:45.861 --> 00:16:47.871
No, actually that, take that back.

00:16:47.932 --> 00:16:50.001
It's normally the women that administer poison, right?

00:16:50.481 --> 00:16:50.871
I dunno.

00:16:51.412 --> 00:16:51.591
Yeah.

00:16:51.621 --> 00:16:52.822
Women give the poison.

00:16:52.822 --> 00:16:53.542
They don't murder.

00:16:53.542 --> 00:16:55.552
They don't slash they don't stab, they don't shoot.

00:16:56.392 --> 00:16:57.172
They give you poison.

00:16:57.501 --> 00:16:58.192
Oh, sneaky.

00:16:58.402 --> 00:16:58.581
Yeah.

00:16:58.581 --> 00:17:04.132
It injects a bit of insulin in your mashed potatoes, but ooh, this mashed potato's a bit sweet.

00:17:04.731 --> 00:17:05.211
Then you're dead.

00:17:06.741 --> 00:17:10.132
Unless it is actually sweet potato that this is true.

00:17:10.281 --> 00:17:10.642
Okay.

00:17:11.392 --> 00:17:18.429
So next up in in what was probably one of the most horrific events that I found out about.

00:17:18.489 --> 00:17:18.638
Mm-hmm.

00:17:19.259 --> 00:17:24.919
a young lady, she was 19 at the time, her name was Dorothy and her boyfriend who was 38.

00:17:24.949 --> 00:17:26.118
So a bit of an age gap.

00:17:26.209 --> 00:17:26.298
Mm-hmm.

00:17:26.538 --> 00:17:32.868
But, you know, um, they were staying at the hotel and they were in bed one night asleep.

00:17:32.989 --> 00:17:41.239
When Dorothy Awakes with serious abdominal plane, she goes to the bathroom where she single-handedly delivers a baby.

00:17:41.838 --> 00:17:42.259
Oh, wow.

00:17:42.378 --> 00:17:43.999
Her baby, I should say at this point.

00:17:43.999 --> 00:17:44.361
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:44.538 --> 00:17:48.828
Um, but her boyfriend had no clue about that, and I don't think she knew that she was pregnant.

00:17:49.038 --> 00:17:49.398
Oh, no.

00:17:49.729 --> 00:17:51.108
She didn't dump the baby, did she?

00:17:51.378 --> 00:17:57.490
Well, she delivers the baby and she does all this without waking her boyfriend.

00:17:58.070 --> 00:18:00.020
So she must have been out cold or whatever, but.

00:18:00.861 --> 00:18:02.601
She thinks the baby's stillborn.

00:18:02.601 --> 00:18:03.141
Mm-hmm.

00:18:03.681 --> 00:18:09.830
And so I guess some sort of fear of telling her boyfriend what's happened, him leaving her or whatever.

00:18:10.401 --> 00:18:13.101
Uh,'cause the baby's stillborn or that she's pregnant.

00:18:13.161 --> 00:18:13.701
Full stop.

00:18:13.705 --> 00:18:13.971
Right.

00:18:13.971 --> 00:18:14.871
You didn't expect it.

00:18:15.171 --> 00:18:15.381
Yeah.

00:18:15.381 --> 00:18:20.000
She makes the awful decision and throws the baby out of the window and heads back to bed.

00:18:21.171 --> 00:18:21.740
Jesus.

00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:24.560
How, how do you do that?

00:18:24.560 --> 00:18:26.211
And then just head back to bed?

00:18:26.300 --> 00:18:27.590
She clearly didn't sleep that

00:18:27.590 --> 00:18:27.921
night.

00:18:28.161 --> 00:18:29.240
I, I dunno.

00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:30.201
If she did sleep,

00:18:30.351 --> 00:18:32.090
then that's an

00:18:32.090 --> 00:18:32.480
issue.

00:18:32.540 --> 00:18:35.931
Well, you would think that there would be a lot of blood and other things going on in that bathroom.

00:18:35.931 --> 00:18:38.270
There's like, there's a whole cleanup job you need to do there, but Yeah.

00:18:38.810 --> 00:18:42.320
Um, the, the body of the baby is found on a nearby building.

00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:42.351
Oh.

00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:45.320
And when they did a postmortem mm-hmm.

00:18:45.566 --> 00:18:48.770
There was evidence that the baby had air in its lungs.

00:18:49.461 --> 00:18:49.611
Oh,

00:18:49.611 --> 00:18:51.201
so it, it wasn't stillborn.

00:18:51.260 --> 00:18:51.471
Mm-hmm.

00:18:52.280 --> 00:18:53.240
That's, that's sad.

00:18:53.270 --> 00:18:54.201
That's really sad.

00:18:54.770 --> 00:18:59.570
Um, she did go to trial, but was found not guilty of murder due to insanity.

00:18:59.601 --> 00:19:00.891
So perhaps, I don't know.

00:19:00.891 --> 00:19:02.121
Something not quite right there.

00:19:02.181 --> 00:19:02.510
Well, the

00:19:02.510 --> 00:19:05.151
thing is though, like you plead insanity mm-hmm.

00:19:05.840 --> 00:19:08.391
As a defense, in my opinion.

00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:15.050
So I think that that was what her lawyers instructed her to do, knowing that she probably premeditated, I don't know.

00:19:15.201 --> 00:19:15.621
Yeah.

00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:16.701
I I don't buy that.

00:19:16.780 --> 00:19:17.280
She didn't know

00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:18.141
she was pregnant.

00:19:18.441 --> 00:19:20.300
Well, it happened, it happened to Somnia on East Enders.

00:19:20.510 --> 00:19:20.661
Yeah.

00:19:20.665 --> 00:19:21.080
But that

00:19:21.080 --> 00:19:23.090
is a fictional, like soap

00:19:23.090 --> 00:19:23.601
opera.

00:19:23.780 --> 00:19:26.750
I think it's based on like true things happening as rare as it is.

00:19:26.840 --> 00:19:27.320
Sure.

00:19:27.381 --> 00:19:34.520
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?

00:19:34.520 --> 00:19:36.530
And the mom's like, why do you wanna see my daughter?

00:19:36.590 --> 00:19:39.651
And they're like, we've had, like, there's a police investigation.

00:19:39.651 --> 00:19:40.161
We can't tell you.

00:19:40.165 --> 00:19:40.431
That.

00:19:40.431 --> 00:19:43.611
Turns out that her daughter went to the hospital, she gave birth.

00:19:43.611 --> 00:19:45.050
She didn't know that she was pregnant.

00:19:45.171 --> 00:19:48.411
She ran to the toilet, gave birth in the toilet off the hospital.

00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:48.770
Oh my word.

00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:49.461
And dumped the baby

00:19:49.461 --> 00:19:50.391
in the, in the trash.

00:19:50.510 --> 00:19:51.471
So kind of similar.

00:19:51.816 --> 00:19:53.105
Situation in a way.

00:19:53.286 --> 00:19:53.705
Wow.

00:19:53.976 --> 00:19:54.306
Yeah,

00:19:54.486 --> 00:19:54.846
I guess.

00:19:54.846 --> 00:19:56.405
But again, I think that she was pregnant.

00:19:56.645 --> 00:19:58.955
I guess, I dunno, maybe there's this feeling of shame.

00:19:58.955 --> 00:19:59.405
I don't know.

00:19:59.405 --> 00:20:00.365
You're surprised.

00:20:00.526 --> 00:20:03.066
I, I dunno, I can't put myself in that sort of situation.

00:20:03.096 --> 00:20:03.395
Mm-hmm.

00:20:03.875 --> 00:20:04.296
But, um, but what

00:20:04.300 --> 00:20:06.246
happens after nine months if you've not had a period?

00:20:06.576 --> 00:20:06.935
Right.

00:20:06.965 --> 00:20:10.715
And you go, well, I mean, that's normally the first telltale sign.

00:20:10.746 --> 00:20:11.316
I know.

00:20:11.320 --> 00:20:11.675
Yes.

00:20:11.675 --> 00:20:12.066
Fair enough.

00:20:12.066 --> 00:20:19.865
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.

00:20:19.895 --> 00:20:22.355
And that was the case with this young girl from New Mexico.

00:20:22.385 --> 00:20:22.746
Oh, okay.

00:20:22.846 --> 00:20:22.976
I guess so.

00:20:22.976 --> 00:20:24.296
So therefore she knew, I don't know.

00:20:24.296 --> 00:20:25.726
There, there might be some anomalies.

00:20:25.756 --> 00:20:26.266
I don't really know

00:20:26.266 --> 00:20:26.536
Okay.

00:20:26.536 --> 00:20:26.806
Yeah.

00:20:26.865 --> 00:20:28.036
We, we deviate.

00:20:28.036 --> 00:20:28.605
We deviate.

00:20:28.695 --> 00:20:31.615
But, you're right to sort of say was, was she actually insane?

00:20:31.615 --> 00:20:35.066
Because I don't think she had any signs of insanity beforehand.

00:20:35.096 --> 00:20:35.215
Mm-hmm.

00:20:35.455 --> 00:20:36.925
So why did she do it?

00:20:36.931 --> 00:20:38.605
Did the hotel drive her to do that?

00:20:38.665 --> 00:20:39.385
Mm, I don't know.

00:20:40.346 --> 00:20:46.976
in 1947, a 35 year old man, uh, Robert, he decides to take his own life by jumping from the seventh floor.

00:20:47.635 --> 00:20:49.526
God, in 1954.

00:20:49.526 --> 00:20:55.346
Another instance of someone checking in under a false identity, um, she was a 55 year old woman this time.

00:20:55.405 --> 00:21:01.059
Um, and she also jumped from the seventh floor but then on the eighth floor, people would commit suicide as well.

00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:02.849
There's another lady here that I've got.

00:21:02.849 --> 00:21:03.792
Julia Moore.

00:21:03.792 --> 00:21:06.282
She decides to end her life from jumping from the window.

00:21:06.913 --> 00:21:11.018
Um, then on the ninth floor, you've got, uh, another lady, Pauline.

00:21:11.367 --> 00:21:14.248
she had been fighting with her husband in 1962.

00:21:14.758 --> 00:21:19.018
They had attempted a reconciliation at the hotel, but that didn't apparently work out.

00:21:19.107 --> 00:21:22.317
Um, and so to teach him a lesson mm-hmm.

00:21:22.557 --> 00:21:23.428
She jumps out the window.

00:21:23.968 --> 00:21:25.107
Jesus, that's a hard

00:21:25.113 --> 00:21:26.008
lesson to learn, man.

00:21:26.067 --> 00:21:27.028
That really is.

00:21:27.117 --> 00:21:30.567
Um, but what's worse, she happened to jump.

00:21:30.567 --> 00:21:35.157
At the same time a man named George Gianni was passing by underneath.

00:21:35.877 --> 00:21:41.157
And so she lands on this poor man, and so she not only kills herself, she kills this man as well.

00:21:41.157 --> 00:21:41.758
Oh really?

00:21:42.268 --> 00:21:48.657
Police actually thought it was a joint suicide at the time because how they were, oh, there were lot lovers or something like that.

00:21:48.663 --> 00:21:49.557
Or got in a fight.

00:21:49.948 --> 00:21:53.788
Um, but they knew that he didn't jump because he had his shoes still on.

00:21:54.478 --> 00:21:54.807
Right.

00:21:54.988 --> 00:21:56.968
So I'm guessing that's a telltale sign.

00:21:57.147 --> 00:21:57.988
Well,'cause you're not allowed your

00:21:57.988 --> 00:21:58.768
shoes.

00:21:59.188 --> 00:22:02.248
Well, I'm guess on in the hotel room or they fly off when you're falling out the

00:22:02.248 --> 00:22:02.667
window.

00:22:02.698 --> 00:22:06.117
I think that's the point that they fly off if you jump potentially.

00:22:06.147 --> 00:22:07.228
Or the impact, I dunno.

00:22:07.347 --> 00:22:07.647
Oh god.

00:22:08.877 --> 00:22:10.137
So yeah, that's really sad.

00:22:11.288 --> 00:22:13.863
Another man leads to his death in 1963.

00:22:13.923 --> 00:22:16.803
Then in 1964 we have our first murder.

00:22:17.073 --> 00:22:17.403
Okay.

00:22:17.883 --> 00:22:25.593
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.

00:22:25.803 --> 00:22:26.012
Yeah.

00:22:26.012 --> 00:22:26.343
Like that.

00:22:26.343 --> 00:22:27.363
That's, that's what I imagine.

00:22:27.573 --> 00:22:27.843
Mm.

00:22:27.903 --> 00:22:31.113
Um, so she's quite well known in the local area, little local celebrity.

00:22:31.682 --> 00:22:34.202
Um, and she lived in the hotel as I mentioned.

00:22:34.292 --> 00:22:38.792
Um, you could take up permanent lodgings there as well as just for a few nights.

00:22:39.458 --> 00:22:42.698
so she was found to have been stabbed.

00:22:43.042 --> 00:22:45.772
Strangled and raped in her room.

00:22:46.462 --> 00:22:46.732
Jeez.

00:22:47.002 --> 00:22:53.002
And they did arrest a guy, but then I think he got acquitted, and so they never actually found her killer.

00:22:53.363 --> 00:22:59.218
In 1975, another woman checks into the hotel, under Alison Loel, but this is not her real identity.

00:22:59.488 --> 00:23:03.657
She's only 23 when she ends her life in 1992.

00:23:03.657 --> 00:23:07.768
There's another man that doesn't have an identity, but he also commits suicide.

00:23:07.768 --> 00:23:11.127
But people can't rule out the fact that he might have been pushed this time round.

00:23:11.127 --> 00:23:11.218
Mm-hmm.

00:23:11.847 --> 00:23:14.788
In 2001, there's a, an overdose and a murder.

00:23:15.268 --> 00:23:20.188
A man is strangled in 2003, it, it just goes on and on and

00:23:20.188 --> 00:23:20.488
on.

00:23:20.667 --> 00:23:21.057
Yeah.

00:23:21.178 --> 00:23:22.438
I'm getting the sense that.

00:23:22.782 --> 00:23:23.053
There's a

00:23:23.057 --> 00:23:23.833
lot of suicides.

00:23:23.863 --> 00:23:24.313
Yeah.

00:23:24.823 --> 00:23:33.313
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.

00:23:33.317 --> 00:23:33.432
Mm-hmm.

00:23:33.732 --> 00:23:38.038
And that was all about the peculiar mystery about Elisa's death.

00:23:38.038 --> 00:23:38.428
Mm-hmm.

00:23:38.847 --> 00:23:45.387
Um, and I thought it would be interesting just to talk about the hotel manager, which was interviewed in that documentary series.

00:23:45.567 --> 00:23:46.768
That was a woman, wasn't it?

00:23:46.827 --> 00:23:51.538
Yeah, she was, um, a blonde woman and she'd worked there from 2007 to 2017.

00:23:51.988 --> 00:23:52.317
Okay.

00:23:52.347 --> 00:23:53.248
So 10 years.

00:23:53.307 --> 00:23:54.028
10 years.

00:23:54.087 --> 00:23:59.458
And she said that there were at least 80 deaths while she worked there.

00:23:59.462 --> 00:23:59.817
Geez.

00:23:59.817 --> 00:24:00.147
Just while

00:24:00.147 --> 00:24:00.807
she was there.

00:24:01.228 --> 00:24:02.337
But at what portion?

00:24:02.397 --> 00:24:02.698
Right.

00:24:02.728 --> 00:24:05.698
Because remember you said that there was, there's two parts, right?

00:24:05.698 --> 00:24:09.567
There is the residential side and then there's the Taurus side.

00:24:09.748 --> 00:24:10.107
True.

00:24:10.113 --> 00:24:11.667
But I think it's just the whole building.

00:24:11.758 --> 00:24:12.748
There's been that many.

00:24:12.748 --> 00:24:13.077
Right.

00:24:13.738 --> 00:24:17.458
Um, and that, that's like the equivalent of like eight deaths a year.

00:24:17.667 --> 00:24:17.998
Mm.

00:24:18.403 --> 00:24:21.522
Um, and these aren't really reported.

00:24:21.522 --> 00:24:22.843
You can't really find instances.

00:24:22.843 --> 00:24:25.692
So you don't know exactly what happened to these people, but that's,

00:24:25.903 --> 00:24:26.712
or is it even true?

00:24:26.718 --> 00:24:30.702
Is she, maybe, are they capitalizing on the myth of the hotel?

00:24:30.942 --> 00:24:37.699
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.

00:24:38.269 --> 00:24:40.398
There could be just a lot of overdoses, unfortunately.

00:24:41.148 --> 00:24:46.249
Um, she also mentioned that there would be calls to the police at least two to three times a day.

00:24:46.729 --> 00:24:46.999
Wow.

00:24:47.509 --> 00:24:53.028
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.

00:24:53.028 --> 00:24:58.788
All the trouble it would have, even in this very short window of time, you know, we've had this many instances of death.

00:24:58.848 --> 00:24:58.939
Mm-hmm.

00:24:59.788 --> 00:25:04.469
By the seventies and eighties, a lot of criminals would actually frequent and, and stay there.

00:25:04.888 --> 00:25:10.169
Um, and the rule was, I think that you didn't go past the sick floor because that's where people died.

00:25:10.169 --> 00:25:10.558
Sure.

00:25:10.858 --> 00:25:27.909
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.

00:25:27.939 --> 00:25:28.148
Mm-hmm.

00:25:28.239 --> 00:25:28.388
Yeah.

00:25:28.419 --> 00:25:34.239
So for example, New York City during the seventies, it was considered like the dystopian.

00:25:34.644 --> 00:25:35.423
Kind of city

00:25:35.634 --> 00:25:36.443
of the world.

00:25:36.564 --> 00:25:36.683
Yeah.

00:25:36.683 --> 00:25:39.594
I remember growing up thinking or hearing that New York was pretty dangerous.

00:25:39.624 --> 00:25:40.013
Yeah, yeah.

00:25:40.013 --> 00:25:40.554
Like murders

00:25:40.554 --> 00:25:41.034
everywhere.

00:25:41.064 --> 00:25:41.153
Mm-hmm.

00:25:41.153 --> 00:25:42.203
People being robbed and stuff.

00:25:42.203 --> 00:25:46.493
And that didn't really come down to the nineties, but it really ramped up in the seventies, right?

00:25:46.493 --> 00:25:46.584
Mm-hmm.

00:25:46.804 --> 00:25:51.753
And LA and Chicago and those cities would've also started to get those really bad reputations.

00:25:51.753 --> 00:25:51.755
Yeah.

00:25:52.054 --> 00:25:52.263
Yeah.

00:25:52.294 --> 00:25:52.473
These

00:25:52.503 --> 00:25:53.134
points as well.

00:25:53.193 --> 00:25:53.673
Exactly.

00:25:53.673 --> 00:25:54.064
Yeah.

00:25:54.453 --> 00:25:59.973
Well, it was also during this period that, one of the first serial killers stayed there.

00:26:00.364 --> 00:26:03.003
Um, the guy called The Night Stalker.

00:26:03.034 --> 00:26:03.124
Oh, yeah.

00:26:03.124 --> 00:26:04.023
Richard Ramirez.

00:26:04.054 --> 00:26:04.233
Mm-hmm.

00:26:04.834 --> 00:26:06.693
Um, so do you know much about Richard

00:26:06.693 --> 00:26:07.233
Ramirez?

00:26:07.354 --> 00:26:09.993
I wanna say, was he like a Latino kind of guy?

00:26:10.644 --> 00:26:15.624
I mean clearly by the name, so, but he would stalk the victims initially.

00:26:15.628 --> 00:26:18.624
That hence the, the, the name, the Night Stalker.

00:26:18.683 --> 00:26:20.784
But he didn't really.

00:26:21.398 --> 00:26:25.778
Discriminate he would or was he attracted to old ladies?

00:26:26.229 --> 00:26:30.239
Um, I think, uh, it, he didn't have a, a type from what I underst.

00:26:30.243 --> 00:26:30.278
Okay.

00:26:30.278 --> 00:26:30.999
You didn't have a type.

00:26:30.999 --> 00:26:31.269
Yeah.

00:26:31.269 --> 00:26:34.898
Um, because I think there were, people of all ages, men and women.

00:26:35.259 --> 00:26:41.469
Um, but he did target some women and I think he would, you know, um, sexually attack them I think in some instances.

00:26:41.618 --> 00:26:41.919
Am I

00:26:41.919 --> 00:26:48.219
right in thinking also he kind of like operated around Griffin Park, which is the main big park up there in

00:26:48.223 --> 00:26:48.878
Los Angeles?

00:26:48.878 --> 00:26:49.598
In Los Angeles?

00:26:49.598 --> 00:26:49.808
Yeah.

00:26:49.868 --> 00:26:55.868
Well, yeah, he stayed at the hotel, I think between 1984 and 1985.

00:26:55.868 --> 00:26:55.869
Mm-hmm.

00:26:56.189 --> 00:27:07.118
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.

00:27:07.118 --> 00:27:09.124
And his dad I think he was an alcoholic.

00:27:09.243 --> 00:27:09.394
Mm.

00:27:09.398 --> 00:27:11.374
So perhaps suffered some abuse there.

00:27:11.763 --> 00:27:14.134
Um, He had epilepsy as well.

00:27:14.134 --> 00:27:15.064
Sorry, that's what I meant to say.

00:27:15.064 --> 00:27:15.513
From Sure.

00:27:15.513 --> 00:27:16.263
The blows to the head.

00:27:16.263 --> 00:27:18.663
So I think he didn't have a good start in life.

00:27:18.663 --> 00:27:20.854
He started drinking and smoking weeded.

00:27:21.223 --> 00:27:29.054
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.

00:27:29.263 --> 00:27:29.614
Right.

00:27:30.374 --> 00:27:34.993
And he would come back from Vietnam with these stories of murder and rape Oh, really?

00:27:34.993 --> 00:27:36.134
Pictures and things like that.

00:27:36.134 --> 00:27:39.693
And that's what sparked his first sort of curiosity with, death and things like

00:27:39.693 --> 00:27:39.963
that.

00:27:40.203 --> 00:27:42.064
So what's his connection with the Cecil

00:27:42.064 --> 00:27:42.574
Hotel then?

00:27:43.114 --> 00:27:56.753
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.

00:27:57.098 --> 00:28:00.249
It's almost like an area you can probably blend in a little bit.

00:28:00.249 --> 00:28:02.288
Yeah, you can, you can disappear a little bit, you know?

00:28:02.425 --> 00:28:06.236
the parks you mentioned, he would, I think, prey on his victims and stalk them.

00:28:06.506 --> 00:28:09.836
He would break into their houses at night through unlocked doors.

00:28:09.865 --> 00:28:10.165
Mm-hmm.

00:28:10.286 --> 00:28:10.675
Actually, yeah.

00:28:10.675 --> 00:28:12.746
So he wouldn't even breaking in, he's just letting himself in.

00:28:12.776 --> 00:28:12.955
Yeah.

00:28:12.955 --> 00:28:13.105
Yeah.

00:28:13.105 --> 00:28:13.826
Because at the time

00:28:13.830 --> 00:28:17.276
people felt there was really, it was quite common for people to just Yeah.

00:28:17.336 --> 00:28:17.875
Leave their

00:28:17.875 --> 00:28:19.046
doors open at that time.

00:28:19.105 --> 00:28:19.375
Yeah.

00:28:19.375 --> 00:28:22.165
So I think people like him is now why we lock our doors.

00:28:22.316 --> 00:28:22.645
Yeah.

00:28:22.645 --> 00:28:23.036
It,

00:28:23.040 --> 00:28:25.105
I think that's what they said in the documentary, wasn't it?

00:28:25.105 --> 00:28:25.526
Yeah.

00:28:25.586 --> 00:28:26.006
Yeah.

00:28:26.086 --> 00:28:28.215
He was quite creepy.

00:28:28.215 --> 00:28:32.596
I mean, he would sketch, uh, a pentagram on certain bodies as well.

00:28:32.752 --> 00:28:34.702
Oh, so here's our satanism link.

00:28:34.883 --> 00:28:35.153
Yeah.

00:28:35.153 --> 00:28:37.643
So he was definitely connected and interested in that.

00:28:38.032 --> 00:28:41.752
Um,'cause obviously we talked about that in, was it the last episode?

00:28:41.752 --> 00:28:42.232
I think we talked

00:28:42.232 --> 00:28:42.563
about that.

00:28:42.682 --> 00:28:48.053
Well, wherever the episode lands, it was the episode with the Satanic panic of the 1980s.

00:28:48.053 --> 00:28:53.782
But yeah, this was all kind of remnant from the 1960s and fed into the seventies.

00:28:53.782 --> 00:28:53.843
Yeah.

00:28:53.843 --> 00:28:55.613
Which then fed into the, the eighties.

00:28:55.702 --> 00:28:55.972
Yeah.

00:28:56.182 --> 00:29:02.817
Where people were really intrigued by satanism and all these different cults were starting to rise, so people had a real morbid fascination.

00:29:02.817 --> 00:29:04.198
And if you did anything.

00:29:04.813 --> 00:29:07.292
Around satanism, it was guaranteed to capture

00:29:07.292 --> 00:29:07.803
headlines.

00:29:07.833 --> 00:29:08.073
Yeah.

00:29:08.073 --> 00:29:12.242
I think there's even like pictures of him in court with the pentagram on his actual hand or something like that.

00:29:12.242 --> 00:29:12.512
Yeah, I'm sure.

00:29:12.512 --> 00:29:13.742
I'm sure there is crazy.

00:29:13.863 --> 00:29:15.992
Um, so yeah, he, it really horrible.

00:29:15.992 --> 00:29:19.772
He would nearly decapitate some of his victims, remove the eyes from one of them.

00:29:19.772 --> 00:29:22.623
He was a horrible Oh, so he mutilated his bodies?

00:29:22.653 --> 00:29:22.803
Mm-hmm.

00:29:22.893 --> 00:29:23.343
Yeah.

00:29:23.343 --> 00:29:30.153
You can't, what was also strange, so once he is spotted dumping his bloodied clothes after a murder mm-hmm.

00:29:30.393 --> 00:29:32.073
In a dumpster outside the hotel.

00:29:32.163 --> 00:29:32.403
Mm-hmm.

00:29:32.409 --> 00:29:34.022
And he walks through the lobby naked.

00:29:34.383 --> 00:29:34.833
Oh wow.

00:29:34.982 --> 00:29:35.403
That's hot.

00:29:35.883 --> 00:29:37.143
Um, mm Okay.

00:29:37.472 --> 00:29:47.042
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.

00:29:47.042 --> 00:29:47.432
Oh really?

00:29:47.432 --> 00:29:48.633
It's, it's, it's just mental.

00:29:48.692 --> 00:29:49.053
Yeah.

00:29:49.113 --> 00:29:49.593
Okay.

00:29:49.712 --> 00:29:51.002
I mean, just a naked man walking.

00:29:51.008 --> 00:29:54.663
And you might have just thought that, oh, he's, um, covered in blood.

00:29:55.613 --> 00:29:55.833
Oh,

00:29:56.272 --> 00:29:56.553
I don't know.

00:29:56.712 --> 00:29:57.472
I didn't know what it looks like.

00:29:57.942 --> 00:30:00.942
Um, so yeah, it didn't arouse any kind of suspicion.

00:30:00.972 --> 00:30:04.182
And he wasn't the first serial killer that lived there.

00:30:04.393 --> 00:30:04.903
Who else?

00:30:04.962 --> 00:30:08.532
Um, no, he didn't necessarily live there, but he stayed there for a period of time.

00:30:08.532 --> 00:30:08.623
Mm-hmm.

00:30:08.863 --> 00:30:09.942
John unga.

00:30:10.363 --> 00:30:11.682
Oh, I don't, never heard of him.

00:30:11.788 --> 00:30:16.858
So he was a convicted murderer in Austria in 1974.

00:30:16.858 --> 00:30:16.888
Oh.

00:30:16.949 --> 00:30:19.828
And he went to prison for strangling a woman with her bra.

00:30:20.128 --> 00:30:20.459
Okay.

00:30:20.878 --> 00:30:22.318
Uh, he served time in prison.

00:30:22.378 --> 00:30:23.128
I mean, I mean, these

00:30:23.128 --> 00:30:25.618
women walk around with a ready to go weapon.

00:30:26.429 --> 00:30:27.449
What do you expect?

00:30:27.479 --> 00:30:28.019
No, I'm joking.

00:30:28.019 --> 00:30:28.169
Joking.

00:30:28.618 --> 00:30:28.878
I'm joking.

00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:30.118
Oh, yeah.

00:30:30.124 --> 00:30:30.929
We're gonna get complaints.

00:30:31.979 --> 00:30:45.929
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.

00:30:46.019 --> 00:30:46.558
Oh, really?

00:30:46.618 --> 00:30:46.798
Yeah.

00:30:46.798 --> 00:30:48.778
So he actually was rehabilitated.

00:30:48.898 --> 00:30:50.189
Well, you didn't go on to Kilmore.

00:30:50.923 --> 00:30:51.644
Hold that thought.

00:30:51.673 --> 00:30:52.034
Okay.

00:30:52.243 --> 00:30:55.903
Uh, he hosted TV shows about criminal rehabilitation.

00:30:55.963 --> 00:30:56.144
Mm-hmm.

00:30:56.443 --> 00:31:01.513
Now I can you imagine a murderer now almost becoming like a mini celebrity in that sense?

00:31:01.513 --> 00:31:02.683
Like, let's give him a TV show.

00:31:02.683 --> 00:31:03.943
Let's give him a, I don't know.

00:31:03.943 --> 00:31:04.273
What if he's

00:31:04.273 --> 00:31:07.693
paid his dues, then why not?

00:31:08.203 --> 00:31:09.044
Like you if you a

00:31:09.044 --> 00:31:09.733
murderer though?

00:31:09.953 --> 00:31:10.433
I don't know.

00:31:10.673 --> 00:31:12.094
I mean, and this was only 30 years ago.

00:31:12.094 --> 00:31:12.364
Mm-hmm.

00:31:12.443 --> 00:31:14.064
But this just seems really alien to me.

00:31:14.064 --> 00:31:14.153
Mm-hmm.

00:31:14.394 --> 00:31:15.804
That they would ever even consider this.

00:31:15.804 --> 00:31:17.933
But maybe that's what they do in Austria, or did at the time.

00:31:18.304 --> 00:31:22.294
In 1991, though, he's hired to write about crime and prostitution in la.

00:31:22.443 --> 00:31:22.534
Mm-hmm.

00:31:22.773 --> 00:31:27.423
So he takes a trip over there, and he conveniently decides to stay at the Cecil Hotel.

00:31:27.513 --> 00:31:27.814
Mm-hmm.

00:31:28.417 --> 00:31:34.861
And it was at this time that three sex workers go missing and well, they found dead essentially.

00:31:35.280 --> 00:31:38.165
And all of them, I think had been strangled with their own bra.

00:31:38.171 --> 00:31:38.496
Their own

00:31:38.496 --> 00:31:38.915
bra.

00:31:39.306 --> 00:31:40.806
God, you think you would've learned, right?

00:31:40.875 --> 00:31:42.076
Two serial killers.

00:31:42.405 --> 00:31:49.365
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.

00:31:49.365 --> 00:31:51.826
And it feels very much like Sin City.

00:31:51.826 --> 00:31:51.826
Mm.

00:31:51.832 --> 00:31:52.546
Like the movie.

00:31:52.806 --> 00:31:53.026
Yes.

00:31:53.175 --> 00:31:53.465
Yeah.

00:31:53.526 --> 00:31:53.826
It does.

00:31:53.826 --> 00:31:58.905
Like, uh, in fact, you know, this organized crime, there's drugs, there's prostitution, do

00:31:58.905 --> 00:32:01.215
you think that there was, that there's a solid connection?

00:32:01.221 --> 00:32:03.135
Do you think that's what inspired Sin City?

00:32:03.526 --> 00:32:11.445
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.

00:32:11.445 --> 00:32:11.536
Sure.

00:32:11.986 --> 00:32:15.766
Um, so yeah, I think that probably inspired, Frank Miller, the comic writer.

00:32:15.945 --> 00:32:16.276
Mm-hmm.

00:32:16.538 --> 00:32:19.782
And so at this point we're gonna move on to Elisa Lamb.

00:32:20.143 --> 00:32:20.772
Let's do it.

00:32:21.053 --> 00:32:32.093
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.

00:32:32.353 --> 00:32:35.143
she would become one of its most famous victims as a result.

00:32:35.618 --> 00:32:40.173
So, bearing in mind this hotel's reputation, I think you mentioned earlier, why would she even stay there?

00:32:40.233 --> 00:32:40.564
Mm.

00:32:40.983 --> 00:32:49.830
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.

00:32:49.836 --> 00:32:49.901
Mm-hmm.

00:32:50.250 --> 00:32:56.701
The stay on Maine, which would and accommodate younger travelers and a bit more of a, like a hostile, but nicer, I guess.

00:32:56.730 --> 00:32:56.820
Mm-hmm.

00:32:57.060 --> 00:32:57.391
You know what I mean?

00:32:57.395 --> 00:32:57.441
Mm-hmm.

00:32:57.840 --> 00:33:05.040
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.

00:33:05.191 --> 00:33:05.461
Right.

00:33:05.520 --> 00:33:05.851
Okay.

00:33:05.851 --> 00:33:09.270
So what's the inspiration behind the wording or the rebranding of Stay

00:33:09.270 --> 00:33:09.961
on Maine?

00:33:10.111 --> 00:33:16.471
Well, they couldn't basically kick the old tenants out because they had to as part of the LA law.

00:33:16.861 --> 00:33:17.010
Mm-hmm.

00:33:17.340 --> 00:33:22.500
They had to provide so much accommodation for low income residents Yeah, it makes sense.

00:33:22.750 --> 00:33:23.830
But they needed to make money.

00:33:23.830 --> 00:33:26.830
And so what they did is they divided, I think the lobbies up into two.

00:33:26.830 --> 00:33:31.361
So you had a separate lobby for stay on Maine and a separate lobby for the Cecil and the residents.

00:33:31.421 --> 00:33:35.260
So they're keeping the riffraff away from the tourists.

00:33:35.260 --> 00:33:37.090
And they don't even share the same entrance.

00:33:37.151 --> 00:33:40.211
They don't share the same entrance, but they do share the same lift.

00:33:40.330 --> 00:33:40.691
Okay.

00:33:40.695 --> 00:33:40.990
God.

00:33:41.128 --> 00:33:42.210
So imagine you are staying.

00:33:43.019 --> 00:33:45.990
At the stay on Maine and you're thinking, oh, this is not too bad.

00:33:45.990 --> 00:33:46.349
This is

00:33:46.355 --> 00:33:46.619
nice.

00:33:46.619 --> 00:33:48.119
But the lifts stink of piss.

00:33:48.299 --> 00:33:48.900
They did.

00:33:49.019 --> 00:33:49.410
They did.

00:33:49.410 --> 00:33:49.589
Oh, did they?

00:33:49.589 --> 00:33:49.950
Yeah.

00:33:49.950 --> 00:33:54.150
They're like, um, I can't remember what one of the policemen says, but yeah, he, he does comment on that.

00:33:54.420 --> 00:34:00.000
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.

00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:07.200
Interestingly as well, if you go on Google and look at some of the reviews for the Cecil Hotel and the Stay on Main.

00:34:07.289 --> 00:34:07.529
Yeah.

00:34:07.535 --> 00:34:15.039
There's some funny people that, like, have retrospectively put a review in for like 10 years ago saying, I stayed there.

00:34:15.070 --> 00:34:15.820
It was awful.

00:34:16.210 --> 00:34:17.139
Should we read a couple?

00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:18.400
Um, see if you can get a couple.

00:34:18.429 --> 00:34:18.880
Yeah.

00:34:18.885 --> 00:34:18.889
Yeah.

00:34:19.329 --> 00:34:21.579
so Cecil Hotel, stay on Maine.

00:34:21.880 --> 00:34:22.239
Mm-hmm.

00:34:23.313 --> 00:34:24.393
Stay on Maine.

00:34:25.773 --> 00:34:26.913
Uh, hotel.

00:34:27.963 --> 00:34:32.762
so Rosie, Rosie Bati, or batty.

00:34:33.873 --> 00:34:34.413
Oh God.

00:34:35.822 --> 00:34:37.623
Woke up to a man staring at me.

00:34:38.103 --> 00:34:43.802
He was right in my face, but he said he worked there and was making sure I was okay.

00:34:45.092 --> 00:34:46.023
That's really considerate.

00:34:46.023 --> 00:34:46.802
It is.

00:34:47.282 --> 00:34:50.853
Uh, so I'm pretty sure it was just routine.

00:34:52.382 --> 00:34:55.713
I felt pretty comfortable for the most part, apart from when he s smelled my hair.

00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:00.416
Depends what your boundaries are, would recommend.

00:35:00.445 --> 00:35:01.945
Beds are a bit springy though.

00:35:01.945 --> 00:35:02.576
Bit springy.

00:35:03.110 --> 00:35:04.610
13 people market that one useful

00:35:04.661 --> 00:35:11.880
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.

00:35:12.099 --> 00:35:13.119
Ooh, here's a good one.

00:35:13.269 --> 00:35:13.630
Okay.

00:35:14.195 --> 00:35:17.226
So one star review from Noah Durante.

00:35:17.646 --> 00:35:23.815
Uh, I forgot to write a review, but the rooms are dirty and I hear people fighting and screaming all the time.

00:35:24.175 --> 00:35:30.956
The water tastes funny and the cop keeps coming into the hotel and I see a dude with red food coloring.

00:35:31.945 --> 00:35:33.385
Overall a bad hotel.

00:35:33.746 --> 00:35:34.675
I dunno what that means.

00:35:34.675 --> 00:35:34.976
I dunno.

00:35:35.606 --> 00:35:36.235
It's very weird.

00:35:36.235 --> 00:35:42.146
So I think there's generally some awful reviews, but I do think some people have jumped on the bandwagon a little bit.

00:35:42.150 --> 00:35:42.235
Yes.

00:35:42.445 --> 00:35:44.835
And sort of trying to play up at its history.

00:35:44.896 --> 00:35:45.346
Mm-hmm.

00:35:45.585 --> 00:35:45.586
Mm-hmm.

00:35:45.735 --> 00:35:46.456
Yeah, for sure.

00:35:46.815 --> 00:35:47.206
But yeah.

00:35:47.206 --> 00:35:48.286
Interesting, interesting.

00:35:48.346 --> 00:35:48.675
Yeah.

00:35:49.675 --> 00:35:51.146
So back to Elisa.

00:35:51.335 --> 00:35:53.436
so She's been staying at the hotel for a little while.

00:35:53.626 --> 00:35:58.306
She would check in with her family back home in Canada pretty frequently, probably most days.

00:35:58.335 --> 00:36:04.425
And when her family don't hear from her, they report Elisa is missing as they can't get hold of her.

00:36:04.615 --> 00:36:09.385
The police start their investigation and the hotel hands over all their C C T V footage.

00:36:09.956 --> 00:36:12.445
Like, I'm surprised they took it that seriously straight away.

00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:13.485
Do you know what I mean?

00:36:14.115 --> 00:36:15.496
Like, they start their investigation.

00:36:15.496 --> 00:36:17.416
They contacted the hotel, they asked all the C C

00:36:17.416 --> 00:36:18.255
T V footage.

00:36:18.286 --> 00:36:20.856
Well, I dunno how, quickly it's turned over, but Right.

00:36:20.856 --> 00:36:21.565
She's reported missing.

00:36:21.585 --> 00:36:22.005
Mm-hmm.

00:36:22.186 --> 00:36:23.295
She's staying at the hotel.

00:36:23.706 --> 00:36:25.626
let's see where her movements were.

00:36:25.626 --> 00:36:25.686
Yeah.

00:36:25.715 --> 00:36:27.005
Did she leave the hotel?

00:36:27.010 --> 00:36:28.085
What, what's going on?

00:36:28.135 --> 00:36:29.726
So they turn over all the footage.

00:36:30.085 --> 00:36:32.766
And the police start looking through it all.

00:36:32.896 --> 00:36:40.065
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.

00:36:40.306 --> 00:36:43.635
So they only have footage of her entering the hotel, entering in.

00:36:43.635 --> 00:36:43.965
Okay.

00:36:44.146 --> 00:36:44.235
But

00:36:44.235 --> 00:36:47.896
nothing ever going out, nothing capturing her on any of the exits, leaving the building.

00:36:47.896 --> 00:36:50.565
So she's gotta still be in the hotel, she's gotta still be in the hotels.

00:36:50.570 --> 00:36:55.096
What they're thinking, they then look into the C C T V in the lift.

00:36:55.186 --> 00:36:55.335
Mm-hmm.

00:36:55.635 --> 00:37:02.266
Now this footage is what's actually released to the public to try and help the police find Elisa.

00:37:02.266 --> 00:37:02.356
Mm-hmm.

00:37:02.686 --> 00:37:06.766
Because it's, this is the last bit of footage of her alive shit.

00:37:07.275 --> 00:37:11.061
Um, and this footage went global in terms it was on the news.

00:37:11.061 --> 00:37:12.561
It was kind of everywhere at the time.

00:37:12.561 --> 00:37:15.081
And it reignited these theories at the Cecil.

00:37:15.456 --> 00:37:19.297
Curse had struck again, and that something sinister is haunting that hotel.

00:37:19.302 --> 00:37:19.336
Right?

00:37:19.387 --> 00:37:19.746
Right.

00:37:19.806 --> 00:37:21.271
So I think we should watch the video.

00:37:21.271 --> 00:37:21.302
Okay.

00:37:21.331 --> 00:37:23.161
And then you describe what you see.

00:37:23.402 --> 00:37:23.791
Okay.

00:37:24.431 --> 00:37:26.322
So it's a silent video clip.

00:37:26.891 --> 00:37:28.032
It's about three minutes.

00:37:29.532 --> 00:37:32.561
It's C C T V footage of inside an elevator.

00:37:32.922 --> 00:37:34.362
The elevator door's just opened.

00:37:34.751 --> 00:37:36.222
A young woman's just gotten in.

00:37:37.391 --> 00:37:37.572
Ooh.

00:37:37.572 --> 00:37:38.621
She seems very dramatic.

00:37:38.621 --> 00:37:39.521
She's bent over.

00:37:39.521 --> 00:37:43.902
She's looking at the the numbers.

00:37:44.652 --> 00:37:45.581
She's taking her time.

00:37:45.641 --> 00:37:46.331
She's pressed the button.

00:37:46.331 --> 00:37:48.641
Now she's standing in the corner of the elevator.

00:37:48.646 --> 00:37:49.601
She's just standing there.

00:37:49.871 --> 00:37:50.092
Oh.

00:37:52.092 --> 00:37:52.452
Oh.

00:37:53.862 --> 00:37:57.192
So, She's paused.

00:37:57.282 --> 00:38:01.092
The elevator hasn't closed, but she's looked out really quickly.

00:38:02.262 --> 00:38:03.172
Well, outside the doors.

00:38:03.181 --> 00:38:04.181
She's outside the doors.

00:38:04.186 --> 00:38:04.211
Okay.

00:38:04.211 --> 00:38:07.601
Like look left and right, but like in a crouched motion.

00:38:07.751 --> 00:38:08.141
Okay.

00:38:08.472 --> 00:38:14.592
And then she's stepped back in and now she's standing by the inside of the elevator, almost like she's hiding.

00:38:14.681 --> 00:38:15.672
Oh, now she's hiding.

00:38:15.672 --> 00:38:16.541
And she's cowering.

00:38:18.342 --> 00:38:19.362
Someone's out there.

00:38:19.452 --> 00:38:22.661
Clearly she's taking another peak.

00:38:24.661 --> 00:38:25.621
She's looking out.

00:38:27.621 --> 00:38:29.242
I don't think she sees anyone.

00:38:31.242 --> 00:38:31.532
Okay.

00:38:31.632 --> 00:38:32.981
She's taking a step further.

00:38:33.012 --> 00:38:39.612
Oh, she's just done a little skip and a jump and she's just now doing some fancy footwork.

00:38:40.771 --> 00:38:41.731
So I, I get it.

00:38:41.731 --> 00:38:44.786
There's this mix of, is someone after her.

00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:53.081
Then some of her movements seemed quite animated in like a steppy, dancey way.

00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:54.965
I think she's quite erratic.

00:38:55.085 --> 00:38:55.295
Yeah.

00:38:55.295 --> 00:38:56.945
I think with some of the hand gestures.

00:38:57.246 --> 00:38:57.516
Mm-hmm.

00:38:57.786 --> 00:39:00.865
Um, she'd gone in and she'd pressed a load of the buttons on the lift.

00:39:00.956 --> 00:39:02.516
Like she'd pressed them all basically.

00:39:02.806 --> 00:39:05.835
But bizarrely the lift hasn't even

00:39:05.835 --> 00:39:06.376
closed.

00:39:06.405 --> 00:39:06.585
No.

00:39:06.585 --> 00:39:07.635
The doors are still open.

00:39:07.996 --> 00:39:09.916
So she's now back in the elevator.

00:39:10.215 --> 00:39:11.806
She's now pressing all the buttons.

00:39:11.835 --> 00:39:11.925
Okay.

00:39:11.931 --> 00:39:13.666
'cause before, I think she just pressed the one button.

00:39:14.536 --> 00:39:17.775
Now she's pressing them all the elevator's not closing.

00:39:17.775 --> 00:39:18.195
Weird.

00:39:18.585 --> 00:39:19.516
Is it malfunctioning

00:39:20.056 --> 00:39:20.715
we, yeah.

00:39:20.715 --> 00:39:23.025
Or is someone actually holding it?

00:39:23.085 --> 00:39:23.266
But

00:39:23.416 --> 00:39:26.146
she would interact with someone just on the outside of the

00:39:26.150 --> 00:39:27.195
door if they were Right.

00:39:27.376 --> 00:39:27.735
Right.

00:39:27.735 --> 00:39:33.436
But then I think what you're about to see, oh, she's talking

00:39:33.436 --> 00:39:35.235
to Oh, those hands.

00:39:36.335 --> 00:39:36.606
Okay.

00:39:36.606 --> 00:39:39.215
She could be talking to someone very animatedly.

00:39:39.215 --> 00:39:40.206
Where is she talking to them?

00:39:40.445 --> 00:39:41.496
She's looking

00:39:42.005 --> 00:39:42.965
So she's outside the lift.

00:39:42.996 --> 00:39:43.476
Yeah.

00:39:43.916 --> 00:39:50.275
It is kind of obscured from view, I think You can see, it looks like she's talking to someone gesturing, like given directions.

00:39:50.275 --> 00:39:50.635
I don't know.

00:39:50.635 --> 00:39:51.596
So there's something going on.

00:39:51.596 --> 00:39:51.806
Almost.

00:39:51.806 --> 00:39:53.155
She, she's having a conversation.

00:39:53.206 --> 00:39:57.505
But also the hand gestures are too dramatic.

00:39:57.536 --> 00:39:57.626
Mm-hmm.

00:39:58.436 --> 00:40:01.885
For me to think that that was a natural conversation.

00:40:01.916 --> 00:40:02.005
Mm-hmm.

00:40:02.157 --> 00:40:06.242
But she could be talking to someone if that's how she talks to Oh, the lift's closing.

00:40:08.242 --> 00:40:08.362
Pissed.

00:40:08.362 --> 00:40:09.592
So she, she's gone out the lift.

00:40:09.592 --> 00:40:09.862
She pissed off.

00:40:09.893 --> 00:40:10.182
Yeah.

00:40:10.188 --> 00:40:10.583
Yeah.

00:40:10.583 --> 00:40:11.333
She left.

00:40:11.963 --> 00:40:13.043
And then the lift closed.

00:40:13.043 --> 00:40:13.793
Conveniently.

00:40:13.793 --> 00:40:15.592
It closes when she's left.

00:40:15.862 --> 00:40:17.003
That's weird.

00:40:17.003 --> 00:40:18.143
It's very weird.

00:40:19.163 --> 00:40:21.382
So, oh, the lift is opening now.

00:40:22.612 --> 00:40:23.422
What's happening now?

00:40:23.572 --> 00:40:23.902
It's just

00:40:23.907 --> 00:40:24.293
replaying.

00:40:24.773 --> 00:40:24.922
Oh.

00:40:24.922 --> 00:40:28.402
Must have just, oh no, no, it's three minute mark.

00:40:28.432 --> 00:40:29.603
It's probably gone to the next floor.

00:40:29.632 --> 00:40:30.952
Now it's closing again.

00:40:31.913 --> 00:40:32.813
And now it's going up.

00:40:33.304 --> 00:40:34.114
And then it opens.

00:40:34.144 --> 00:40:34.474
Yes.

00:40:34.474 --> 00:40:35.255
On a different floor.

00:40:35.315 --> 00:40:36.635
This time it's a red floor.

00:40:38.494 --> 00:40:39.184
Shit,

00:40:39.855 --> 00:40:40.755
So what happened?

00:40:40.815 --> 00:40:42.945
It's a very weird video.

00:40:43.005 --> 00:40:49.648
I think everyone can agree when they watch that, to just recap some of the points she's seen there.

00:40:49.798 --> 00:40:50.938
Pressing a load of buttons.

00:40:51.539 --> 00:40:51.719
Mm-hmm.

00:40:51.958 --> 00:40:53.608
Like as if she wants to go to every floor.

00:40:54.313 --> 00:41:00.134
She's definitely seems like she's hiding at some point, or at least trying to like, stay out the way.

00:41:00.134 --> 00:41:07.123
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.

00:41:07.634 --> 00:41:21.403
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.

00:41:21.409 --> 00:41:23.594
But that timestamp okay.

00:41:23.643 --> 00:41:24.574
It's not legible.

00:41:24.623 --> 00:41:26.244
You know, there should be numbers there.

00:41:26.333 --> 00:41:26.603
Yeah.

00:41:26.603 --> 00:41:28.284
At a time, but it's just a blur.

00:41:28.313 --> 00:41:28.884
Why though?

00:41:29.273 --> 00:41:37.773
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.

00:41:37.773 --> 00:41:38.014
Sure.

00:41:38.364 --> 00:41:38.543
But

00:41:38.543 --> 00:41:43.793
why would you have CTV footage with deliberately.

00:41:44.753 --> 00:41:46.193
Timestamps that you can't even read or

00:41:46.224 --> 00:41:47.664
see, well this is what people think.

00:41:47.664 --> 00:41:50.454
Has something been docked here or Right.

00:41:50.454 --> 00:41:53.423
Edited to kind of, I dunno, hide something.

00:41:53.454 --> 00:41:53.603
Yeah.

00:41:53.603 --> 00:41:55.134
Dunno what, but hide something.

00:41:55.253 --> 00:41:55.583
Mm-hmm.

00:41:56.063 --> 00:41:57.054
So what are the theories?

00:41:57.204 --> 00:42:03.440
Okay, this odd behavior by Elisa made, made people think was she being chased by a killer?

00:42:03.827 --> 00:42:04.996
Was there a foul play?

00:42:05.056 --> 00:42:08.266
Because is there some kind of coverup with the weird times stamp?

00:42:08.436 --> 00:42:13.056
Um, or is there something in the hotel that is making her act this way?

00:42:13.206 --> 00:42:15.217
I e the curse has come back.

00:42:16.266 --> 00:42:23.797
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.

00:42:23.827 --> 00:42:23.916
Mm-hmm.

00:42:24.277 --> 00:42:26.856
And it's, you know, it's a safe place for criminals to hide.

00:42:27.197 --> 00:42:28.907
is there something darker going on?

00:42:29.547 --> 00:42:39.213
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.

00:42:39.304 --> 00:42:45.603
She is found floating in one of the hotel's water tankers, which sits up on the rooftop.

00:42:45.994 --> 00:42:46.384
Oh God.

00:42:47.043 --> 00:42:48.213
She is in there.

00:42:48.213 --> 00:42:53.224
She's completely naked, and it's only when guests of the hotel complain about an odd color.

00:42:53.224 --> 00:42:53.224
Oh.

00:42:53.284 --> 00:42:54.273
And taste of the water.

00:42:55.204 --> 00:42:56.793
Hence one of the reviews we just read.

00:42:56.853 --> 00:42:57.034
Yeah.

00:42:57.574 --> 00:42:59.764
Well, I, yeah, I dunno if that's true.

00:42:59.974 --> 00:43:07.884
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.

00:43:07.884 --> 00:43:10.704
Maybe there's like, I dunno, a dead bird or, oh, so that's spurs them on

00:43:10.764 --> 00:43:11.304
to check.

00:43:11.454 --> 00:43:11.784
Okay.

00:43:11.873 --> 00:43:12.114
Yeah.

00:43:12.114 --> 00:43:13.614
And that's, so, so she's naked.

00:43:13.614 --> 00:43:14.784
Where is her clothes?

00:43:14.813 --> 00:43:15.114
How does

00:43:15.114 --> 00:43:15.773
she get in there?

00:43:15.923 --> 00:43:19.974
Her clothes are in there, but she is, um, naked.

00:43:20.034 --> 00:43:21.594
They're just not, not on her.

00:43:22.074 --> 00:43:23.213
They're floating around in the tank.

00:43:23.219 --> 00:43:24.983
Did she take them off while she was in the tank?

00:43:25.494 --> 00:43:27.983
Well, we're gonna discuss a little bit more about that.

00:43:28.284 --> 00:43:33.443
So the media reports, um, that she has found sealed within the tank.

00:43:33.893 --> 00:43:37.914
Uh, the hatches on, and this creates even more questions because how did she die?

00:43:37.914 --> 00:43:40.014
How did she get in that tank in the first step?

00:43:40.018 --> 00:43:40.094
Mm-hmm.

00:43:40.373 --> 00:43:41.873
Did someone put her in there?

00:43:42.173 --> 00:43:47.003
Because this tank is eight to 10 feet tall, and so it's not easy to kind of climb up.

00:43:48.009 --> 00:43:55.708
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.

00:43:55.708 --> 00:43:58.708
It's like a cylinder type tank essentially.

00:43:58.708 --> 00:44:00.298
And you've gotta try and lift yourself up.

00:44:00.358 --> 00:44:00.748
Mm-hmm.

00:44:00.809 --> 00:44:03.659
Or close the hatch essentially has that, has she done that?

00:44:04.528 --> 00:44:06.719
It's pretty impossible, essentially is what people think.

00:44:06.958 --> 00:44:07.409
Well, it depends

00:44:07.409 --> 00:44:08.878
how heavy this hatch is, right?

00:44:09.059 --> 00:44:09.148
Mm-hmm.

00:44:09.449 --> 00:44:11.099
And how do you put the hatch into place?

00:44:11.099 --> 00:44:12.088
Get in, how

00:44:12.094 --> 00:44:13.318
big is the hatch entrance?

00:44:13.324 --> 00:44:13.588
True.

00:44:13.588 --> 00:44:14.969
And then how high is the water?

00:44:14.969 --> 00:44:17.219
Because the water rises up and down depending on it.

00:44:17.248 --> 00:44:18.329
How much is being used?

00:44:18.329 --> 00:44:18.599
Sure.

00:44:18.599 --> 00:44:18.878
And things like that.

00:44:19.048 --> 00:44:22.378
And so if she's further down in the water, you, you can't scramble up.

00:44:22.378 --> 00:44:25.168
There's no ladders and things to kind of climb up from the inside.

00:44:25.469 --> 00:44:25.559
God.

00:44:25.619 --> 00:44:25.768
Do you

00:44:25.768 --> 00:44:32.668
think that she got into the tank when the water level was low and therefore she couldn't get herself out?

00:44:32.849 --> 00:44:34.289
Did she managed to get the hatch on?

00:44:34.318 --> 00:44:34.978
'cause you said it was

00:44:34.978 --> 00:44:35.458
sealed.

00:44:35.518 --> 00:44:36.478
It was sealed, yeah.

00:44:36.579 --> 00:44:37.358
May be.

00:44:37.652 --> 00:44:41.315
She had put herself in there, the water level was really low.

00:44:41.436 --> 00:44:42.726
She couldn't get herself out.

00:44:42.726 --> 00:44:43.655
She ended up dying.

00:44:43.655 --> 00:44:46.115
Someone was walking around, they noticed that the hatch is off.

00:44:46.115 --> 00:44:47.465
They went up and just tightened it.

00:44:48.119 --> 00:44:50.159
Well, that is one possibility.

00:44:50.219 --> 00:44:52.588
Um, but why she got in there in the first place.

00:44:52.858 --> 00:44:54.179
There's lots of questions here.

00:44:54.298 --> 00:44:56.159
We are gonna try and unravel some of them.

00:44:56.219 --> 00:44:56.579
Okay.

00:44:57.148 --> 00:45:03.179
So the autopsy is carried out and even after this, it's not a hundred percent clear what has happened.

00:45:03.778 --> 00:45:11.048
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.

00:45:11.139 --> 00:45:11.438
Okay.

00:45:11.494 --> 00:45:13.773
To suggest that she was killed beforehand.

00:45:13.804 --> 00:45:14.074
Mm-hmm.

00:45:14.893 --> 00:45:16.119
And then placed in the tank.

00:45:16.219 --> 00:45:18.048
Plus, these tanks aren't easy to climb.

00:45:18.393 --> 00:45:22.994
So to put someone in this tank, you have to, climb on these sort of pipes.

00:45:23.023 --> 00:45:24.103
So that's not very easy to do.

00:45:24.164 --> 00:45:26.233
You've got squeeze in between other tanks as well.

00:45:26.293 --> 00:45:26.384
Mm-hmm.

00:45:26.389 --> 00:45:27.409
Because this one was at the back.

00:45:27.690 --> 00:45:33.210
And so for someone to do that without causing any trauma or harm to her body is pretty much impossible.

00:45:34.050 --> 00:45:34.561
But it also

00:45:34.650 --> 00:45:37.081
seems bizarre that she would go for the one at the back.

00:45:37.081 --> 00:45:38.431
Um, I This

00:45:38.431 --> 00:45:39.181
is so weird.

00:45:39.300 --> 00:45:39.871
It is weird.

00:45:39.871 --> 00:45:40.351
It is.

00:45:40.860 --> 00:45:47.230
So the police think that she's gotten in there herself, but why would she do that in the first place?

00:45:47.235 --> 00:45:50.139
Unless maybe someone's persuaded her to get in there?

00:45:50.144 --> 00:45:50.190
Hmm.

00:45:50.409 --> 00:45:58.447
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.

00:45:58.606 --> 00:45:58.876
Mm-hmm.

00:45:59.086 --> 00:46:10.485
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.

00:46:10.485 --> 00:46:13.065
They know it shuts after a period of time, like 30 seconds.

00:46:13.070 --> 00:46:13.204
Mm-hmm.

00:46:14.452 --> 00:46:18.172
the internet get hold of her autopsy report, I dunno how, but they do.

00:46:18.592 --> 00:46:23.152
And they start to pick holes in it because at first it says her cause of death was undetermined.

00:46:23.572 --> 00:46:27.351
And it looks like it's dated on the 15th or this month that it comes out.

00:46:27.592 --> 00:46:27.922
Yeah.

00:46:28.036 --> 00:46:39.286
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.

00:46:39.797 --> 00:46:44.137
And that's really weird because they're like, well, why would someone go back could

00:46:44.137 --> 00:47:02.527
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.

00:47:02.916 --> 00:47:03.456
Possibly.

00:47:03.456 --> 00:47:06.067
But I think because of the weird timestamp mm-hmm.

00:47:06.697 --> 00:47:09.496
And the way that she's got in the tank Yeah.

00:47:09.501 --> 00:47:11.092
The whole situation is just weird.

00:47:11.097 --> 00:47:12.862
And that's why people think, oh, is there a coverup?

00:47:12.862 --> 00:47:14.692
Is there someone in the police force that did that?

00:47:14.692 --> 00:47:16.072
And they're protecting one of their own.

00:47:16.731 --> 00:47:19.161
So, For us to really find out.

00:47:19.672 --> 00:47:21.262
We need to look at the facts.

00:47:21.335 --> 00:47:22.414
The facts.

00:47:22.474 --> 00:47:23.255
The facts.

00:47:23.795 --> 00:47:25.505
Let's start with those elevator doors.

00:47:25.534 --> 00:47:26.914
Why didn't they close?

00:47:27.125 --> 00:47:27.545
Yeah.

00:47:28.385 --> 00:47:31.175
Well, Elisa is seen pressing several buttons.

00:47:31.179 --> 00:47:32.764
I think she presses pretty much all of them.

00:47:32.769 --> 00:47:37.284
Uhhuh at the very bottom of that row buttons is the whole door button.

00:47:37.704 --> 00:47:38.094
Okay.

00:47:38.244 --> 00:47:42.324
That keeps the elevator's doors open for two minutes.

00:47:42.925 --> 00:47:43.614
Oh really?

00:47:43.824 --> 00:47:45.864
Until you then override it by pressing

00:47:45.869 --> 00:47:46.764
the closed door button?

00:47:46.885 --> 00:47:47.545
No, it doesn't.

00:47:47.545 --> 00:47:48.445
It just stays open.

00:47:48.744 --> 00:47:51.710
So you can press all the buttons and it stays open, or that lift.

00:47:51.710 --> 00:47:53.059
That's how it works, essentially.

00:47:53.090 --> 00:47:53.719
I see.

00:47:53.750 --> 00:47:57.590
There may be a way to override it, but she didn't press that button to override it.

00:47:57.679 --> 00:47:59.269
Nothing to see here, guys.

00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:05.559
When people find that out, they're like, okay, unlikely she was being held in that lift by someone.

00:48:05.565 --> 00:48:05.650
Mm-hmm.

00:48:05.985 --> 00:48:06.519
Or something.

00:48:06.739 --> 00:48:08.079
So that's ruled out.

00:48:08.492 --> 00:48:09.961
Now let's look at the timestamp.

00:48:09.961 --> 00:48:10.277
Mm-hmm.

00:48:10.726 --> 00:48:15.947
So has someone edited it and blurred it out and cut parts out of that video footage?

00:48:16.367 --> 00:48:18.407
For someone to do that, that suggests a coverup.

00:48:18.467 --> 00:48:23.442
And the police are perhaps hiding something or, Maybe there's a killer within the police force.

00:48:23.615 --> 00:48:28.146
What's also odd is that the police do a massive search of that hotel.

00:48:28.235 --> 00:48:28.326
Mm-hmm.

00:48:28.565 --> 00:48:30.666
And that does include the roof.

00:48:30.846 --> 00:48:32.376
And nothing is initially found.

00:48:32.405 --> 00:48:34.266
No one even, you know, goes near the tank.

00:48:34.266 --> 00:48:35.135
Well, they didn't look in the tank.

00:48:35.195 --> 00:48:36.246
They didn't go in the tank, no.

00:48:36.246 --> 00:48:36.695
Sure.

00:48:37.246 --> 00:48:40.777
but there's no real answer to the timestamp issue, which is slightly annoying.

00:48:41.134 --> 00:48:50.204
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.

00:48:50.655 --> 00:48:58.264
The only thing that people may say is that because that footage got uh, pushed out by media outlets, All over the place.

00:48:58.264 --> 00:48:58.585
Mm-hmm.

00:48:58.664 --> 00:49:04.394
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

00:49:04.394 --> 00:49:04.664
whatever.

00:49:04.664 --> 00:49:07.905
But the original footage, they don't find

00:49:07.905 --> 00:49:08.655
anything suspicious.

00:49:08.715 --> 00:49:09.014
Don't find

00:49:09.014 --> 00:49:09.795
anything suspicious.

00:49:09.795 --> 00:49:14.715
So are you saying that on the timestamps on the original video, they're not obscured or

00:49:15.045 --> 00:49:16.574
they don't actually say that?

00:49:16.574 --> 00:49:19.094
They just say that there's nothing suspicious about the footage.

00:49:19.099 --> 00:49:19.335
They're not, yeah.

00:49:19.335 --> 00:49:20.474
They're just not alarmed by it.

00:49:20.474 --> 00:49:20.775
Yeah.

00:49:20.954 --> 00:49:21.375
I see.

00:49:21.568 --> 00:49:25.300
So the next theory is perhaps she's on some form of drugs?

00:49:25.481 --> 00:49:31.106
Well, toxicology report suggests that there's no alcohol or illicit drugs that are found in her system.

00:49:31.106 --> 00:49:31.226
Mm-hmm.

00:49:31.766 --> 00:49:35.726
The only drugs that are found in her system are ones that are lithium.

00:49:36.077 --> 00:49:36.367
What?

00:49:36.637 --> 00:49:37.847
Lithium, lithium.

00:49:38.637 --> 00:49:39.626
Because she's antidepressant.

00:49:39.626 --> 00:49:40.827
I don't know, like an antidepressant.

00:49:40.856 --> 00:49:41.217
I don't know.

00:49:41.427 --> 00:49:46.166
Well, um, she is on prescribed drugs because she suffers from bipolar.

00:49:46.496 --> 00:49:46.827
Okay.

00:49:47.246 --> 00:49:52.226
but what's really weird about this is that the strength that they would expect to find in her system Yeah.

00:49:52.407 --> 00:49:56.246
Is way lower than someone that is taking this medication way.

00:49:56.246 --> 00:49:56.817
He lower.

00:49:56.817 --> 00:49:57.717
So what does that mean?

00:49:57.717 --> 00:50:01.617
That means she is not taking her medication?

00:50:01.985 --> 00:50:15.195
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.

00:50:15.324 --> 00:50:15.655
Okay.

00:50:15.804 --> 00:50:16.675
It makes sense

00:50:17.724 --> 00:50:22.224
So the autopsy revealed that the concentration of her medication in her body was really weak.

00:50:22.375 --> 00:50:26.724
And so that suggests that she perhaps stopped taking her medication.

00:50:26.784 --> 00:50:27.144
Right.

00:50:27.684 --> 00:50:33.385
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.

00:50:33.445 --> 00:50:33.715
Mm-hmm.

00:50:33.844 --> 00:50:40.954
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.

00:50:41.434 --> 00:50:45.364
So, with this in mind, The severity of her diagnosis.

00:50:45.815 --> 00:50:53.925
You can perhaps have these weird kind of, um, I guess unorganized thoughts where logic and reality don't quite make sense.

00:50:53.929 --> 00:50:53.974
Yeah.

00:50:53.974 --> 00:50:54.855
They, yeah, sure.

00:50:55.184 --> 00:50:59.295
And so perhaps she was running away from something in her mind mm-hmm.

00:50:59.755 --> 00:51:00.054
And it's

00:51:00.054 --> 00:51:05.514
really common for people who do suffer from all sorts of mental health conditions that are on medication.

00:51:06.085 --> 00:51:09.715
They're taking the medication, they all of a sudden go, do you know, I'm feeling really great?

00:51:09.894 --> 00:51:11.125
I don't think I need it anymore.

00:51:11.215 --> 00:51:11.514
Yeah.

00:51:11.844 --> 00:51:15.385
But they don't realize always that, well, you're feeling great because you're taking your meds.

00:51:15.414 --> 00:51:15.894
Right, exactly.

00:51:15.894 --> 00:51:16.105
Yeah.

00:51:16.315 --> 00:51:19.824
So they try to wean themselves off or they think, oh, it's gonna be different this time.

00:51:20.664 --> 00:51:22.135
And they do.

00:51:22.135 --> 00:51:24.054
And yeah, unfortunately,

00:51:24.144 --> 00:51:27.264
then they spiral down again and have to like, then rebuild that's it.

00:51:27.264 --> 00:51:27.414
Yeah.

00:51:27.414 --> 00:51:27.775
Up again,

00:51:27.954 --> 00:51:28.795
it's, I feel like that's

00:51:28.795 --> 00:51:29.485
really common.

00:51:29.817 --> 00:51:38.896
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.

00:51:39.347 --> 00:51:45.737
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.

00:51:46.067 --> 00:51:46.516
Wow.

00:51:46.637 --> 00:51:47.987
So she was a bit disruptive.

00:51:48.317 --> 00:51:48.737
Yeah.

00:51:48.836 --> 00:51:58.161
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.

00:51:58.166 --> 00:51:58.251
Right.

00:51:58.251 --> 00:52:00.052
So she didn't disturb other guests.

00:52:00.081 --> 00:52:00.231
Mm-hmm.

00:52:00.509 --> 00:52:04.228
this, this information's all kind of drip fair and eventually comes out.

00:52:04.228 --> 00:52:11.248
So four months later, after her death, the police think they finally cracked the case and the cause of her death go,.

00:52:11.938 --> 00:52:16.168
It was accidental, drowning with her bipolar disorder.

00:52:16.259 --> 00:52:16.349
Mm-hmm.

00:52:16.829 --> 00:52:18.509
That was the contributing factor.

00:52:18.568 --> 00:52:18.929
Yeah.

00:52:19.139 --> 00:52:19.559
I mean,

00:52:19.559 --> 00:52:20.728
that makes all perfect

00:52:20.728 --> 00:52:21.599
sense to me.

00:52:21.829 --> 00:52:24.588
So if we go with this reasoning, we can assume the following.

00:52:24.949 --> 00:52:25.309
Yeah.

00:52:25.369 --> 00:52:27.108
Elisa hadn't been taking her medication.

00:52:27.289 --> 00:52:29.568
Uhhuh, she'd been acting strangely to other guests.

00:52:29.599 --> 00:52:29.688
Mm-hmm.

00:52:30.318 --> 00:52:37.548
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.

00:52:38.449 --> 00:52:41.329
And we know the family have confirmed that that's happened before.

00:52:41.958 --> 00:52:50.329
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.

00:52:50.449 --> 00:52:50.778
Mm-hmm.

00:52:51.349 --> 00:52:54.889
She sees the water tanks and perhaps she thinks that's a good place to hide.

00:52:55.518 --> 00:52:56.509
She climbs the ladder.

00:52:56.568 --> 00:52:58.639
She opens the hatch and she jumps in.

00:52:59.389 --> 00:52:59.688
Okay.

00:52:59.989 --> 00:53:03.889
Now, if the tank was filled with water, then you could potentially pull yourself out.

00:53:03.893 --> 00:53:08.418
However, if the water was being used, as I mentioned, then it's gonna decrease and then it's hard to get back out.

00:53:08.958 --> 00:53:11.719
So that's one of the reasons, she drowned.

00:53:11.748 --> 00:53:13.789
'cause she's, she's treading water for so long.

00:53:14.148 --> 00:53:18.469
Perhaps she undresses herself to try and stay afloat or the other.

00:53:18.474 --> 00:53:19.518
What about hypothermia?

00:53:19.608 --> 00:53:22.009
That's exactly the other, um, alternative, right?

00:53:22.009 --> 00:53:24.559
'cause that affects your nerve endings, I believe.

00:53:24.648 --> 00:53:24.949
Yeah.

00:53:24.949 --> 00:53:25.579
I think if you

00:53:25.579 --> 00:53:29.748
start to get really cold, then you start to actually feel very hot.

00:53:29.809 --> 00:53:29.989
Mm-hmm.

00:53:30.228 --> 00:53:32.418
And you want to take your clothes off.

00:53:32.449 --> 00:53:35.478
That's what happened with the guys on the DLO Pass incident.

00:53:35.539 --> 00:53:35.809
Yeah.

00:53:35.809 --> 00:53:35.869
Yeah.

00:53:36.393 --> 00:53:37.083
Interesting.

00:53:37.114 --> 00:53:38.643
So,'cause it, it's up on the roof.

00:53:38.648 --> 00:53:39.784
It's 14 stories.

00:53:39.813 --> 00:53:41.914
It's January, it could get very cold.

00:53:41.974 --> 00:53:42.393
Yeah.

00:53:42.693 --> 00:53:44.434
That's possibly what happened.

00:53:44.434 --> 00:53:47.373
And so that's the reason she was found naked.

00:53:47.434 --> 00:53:48.123
God.

00:53:48.943 --> 00:53:57.804
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.

00:53:57.893 --> 00:53:58.344
Sure.

00:53:59.034 --> 00:54:04.463
So not everything adds up yet and people are still really dubious about the explanation and the cause of death.

00:54:04.494 --> 00:54:04.643
Mm-hmm.

00:54:06.083 --> 00:54:08.244
But I'm sorry to say there is no scandal.

00:54:08.434 --> 00:54:09.893
Yeah, I don't

00:54:09.893 --> 00:54:10.673
think so either.

00:54:10.673 --> 00:54:14.543
I think, I think that possibly the reason why the hatch was shut.

00:54:14.994 --> 00:54:20.963
'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.

00:54:20.994 --> 00:54:22.253
'cause the water level was too low.

00:54:23.123 --> 00:54:25.003
Days have gone by, 19 days went by.

00:54:25.559 --> 00:54:27.148
Someone has obviously been doing maintenance.

00:54:27.148 --> 00:54:31.228
They come out, they see the litters off the tank, they're not gonna look in the tank.

00:54:31.228 --> 00:54:33.869
No one expects a body to be in that tank.

00:54:33.958 --> 00:54:35.878
Just like with Amanda Knox.

00:54:35.878 --> 00:54:37.438
She came home, the door was open.

00:54:38.068 --> 00:54:41.068
She didn't think that someone will be dead in the house, right?

00:54:41.068 --> 00:54:41.159
Mm-hmm.

00:54:41.164 --> 00:54:42.509
You're not looking for that.

00:54:42.688 --> 00:54:46.028
They just see, oh, someone's forgot to put this, this lid on.

00:54:46.349 --> 00:54:49.349
They lock it down, they tighten it, and that's it.

00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:53.489
She's now entombed in here until they discover her body 19 days later.

00:54:53.998 --> 00:54:56.009
Well, that's a logical theory.

00:54:56.099 --> 00:54:56.338
Mm-hmm.

00:54:56.344 --> 00:54:57.028
But you're wrong.

00:54:57.289 --> 00:54:57.791
Okay.

00:54:57.842 --> 00:54:59.956
first we'll talk about the autopsy report.

00:54:59.956 --> 00:55:03.737
This was actually just a misread from someone not properly writing an eight.

00:55:04.367 --> 00:55:08.086
So if you think about it, the first date it said it looked like it was the 15th.

00:55:08.086 --> 00:55:08.407
Mm-hmm.

00:55:08.836 --> 00:55:10.847
And then the second date was the 18th.

00:55:11.356 --> 00:55:15.847
But if you draw a five and you don't properly loop up that bottom bit to the end.

00:55:15.847 --> 00:55:16.126
Yeah.

00:55:16.322 --> 00:55:21.195
And that's why someone thought it was two different dates, but it was both the same date.

00:55:21.284 --> 00:55:22.815
They corrected it on the same day.

00:55:23.025 --> 00:55:23.355
Okay.

00:55:23.355 --> 00:55:26.034
So nothing really suspicious there.

00:55:26.034 --> 00:55:27.565
Nothing going on here, boys.

00:55:27.894 --> 00:55:32.514
But for the hatch, this was the biggest conundrum that people just could not get their heads round.

00:55:32.514 --> 00:55:33.175
Why?

00:55:33.204 --> 00:55:34.195
Why was it shut?

00:55:34.255 --> 00:55:39.402
Surely that must've assumed that someone else was involved in order to be able to close that hatch.

00:55:39.402 --> 00:55:39.492
Mm-hmm.

00:55:40.271 --> 00:55:44.652
Well, it was the media that reported the hatch was found shut.

00:55:44.802 --> 00:55:45.041
Oh, it

00:55:45.047 --> 00:55:46.242
wasn't found shut.

00:55:46.246 --> 00:55:47.322
Then in real life,

00:55:47.532 --> 00:55:54.987
in the report by the police, the janitor had said, He found Elisa and the hatch was open.

00:55:55.137 --> 00:55:56.097
Ah.

00:55:56.376 --> 00:56:00.757
So that failed to get reported correctly by the media and it just went with it And rolled and rolled.

00:56:01.206 --> 00:56:01.327
Sure.

00:56:01.356 --> 00:56:02.226
Like I understand

00:56:02.231 --> 00:56:03.097
the motivation, right.

00:56:03.097 --> 00:56:07.327
People who are reporting on this, they're gonna be like, oh, murder at the Seesaw Hotel.

00:56:07.717 --> 00:56:09.277
Oh, someone's committed suicide.

00:56:09.306 --> 00:56:11.052
Oh, they've opened up the hatch, and there they are.

00:56:11.052 --> 00:56:13.032
But like, how can we make this more mysterious?

00:56:13.061 --> 00:56:13.692
Mm-hmm.

00:56:13.692 --> 00:56:15.461
The hatch was shut.

00:56:15.731 --> 00:56:16.092
Yeah.

00:56:16.092 --> 00:56:16.751
Tight.

00:56:17.472 --> 00:56:22.961
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.

00:56:22.961 --> 00:56:23.052
Mm-hmm.

00:56:23.056 --> 00:56:27.371
But when you kind of pinpoint them down, they all can be solved with logic and reasoning.

00:56:27.402 --> 00:56:27.882
Yeah.

00:56:28.782 --> 00:56:31.152
So for poor Elisa, it was a tragic accident.

00:56:31.152 --> 00:56:35.681
It wasn't suicide, it wasn't murder, she wasn't cursed by ghosts.

00:56:35.686 --> 00:56:36.851
That rule the hotel.

00:56:37.492 --> 00:56:44.931
and actually despite her death, there was still a lot of people interested in going to the hotel, particularly because of her death actually.

00:56:45.262 --> 00:56:45.681
Yeah.

00:56:45.681 --> 00:56:52.005
Um, and so that caused some concerns that there might be copycat, situations that would happen as a result.

00:56:52.365 --> 00:56:55.365
And so the hotel finally closed at the stores in 2017.

00:56:56.085 --> 00:56:56.376
What?

00:56:57.016 --> 00:56:57.525
It's actually

00:56:57.525 --> 00:56:58.186
closed.

00:56:58.936 --> 00:56:59.775
It did close.

00:57:00.106 --> 00:57:00.496
Okay.

00:57:00.596 --> 00:57:06.800
So whilst it was closed, people still suspected that place is haunted because there's footage of lights turning on throughout the building.

00:57:07.010 --> 00:57:09.411
Even security guards'cause it still needed security.

00:57:09.416 --> 00:57:09.630
Mm-hmm.

00:57:09.860 --> 00:57:12.471
Um, to sort of ward off trespasses.

00:57:12.471 --> 00:57:15.291
They say that they would hear noises in the night and things like that.

00:57:15.291 --> 00:57:18.471
So it still had a very creepy aura about it.

00:57:18.972 --> 00:57:26.291
But if Elisa wasn't cursed well, were the rest of the victims that we went through cursed.

00:57:26.592 --> 00:57:28.751
Is there still something to this?

00:57:28.757 --> 00:57:30.592
Well, I have a theory on that.

00:57:30.771 --> 00:57:31.132
Okay.

00:57:31.552 --> 00:57:37.092
So you have this idea of like, let's say San Francisco Bay Bridge, right?

00:57:37.512 --> 00:57:41.771
The gold of Gate bridge where people commit suicide on that.

00:57:41.831 --> 00:57:46.601
And then over time that becomes known as the place that you go if you want to commit suicide.

00:57:47.351 --> 00:57:49.782
And I think maybe that could have something to do with it.

00:57:49.961 --> 00:57:56.532
It reputation then precedes itself as the place that you go if you want to commit suicide.

00:57:57.672 --> 00:58:00.672
Because a lot of the deaths that happen there are suicides.

00:58:00.672 --> 00:58:06.911
Yes, there's some murders, but maybe if you account for the suicides correct.

00:58:06.916 --> 00:58:11.197
For that, the number of murders that happen is maybe within an

00:58:11.257 --> 00:58:11.976
acceptable level.

00:58:12.277 --> 00:58:12.487
Yeah.

00:58:12.487 --> 00:58:16.056
I mean, I dunno what the acceptable level or acceptance level.

00:58:16.101 --> 00:58:18.442
I'm not quite sure what the right terminology is there.

00:58:18.472 --> 00:58:19.492
One every five years.

00:58:19.521 --> 00:58:19.762
Yeah.

00:58:19.762 --> 00:58:23.512
What, like if you go to a travel lodge in London, how many suicides does that had?

00:58:23.572 --> 00:58:23.882
Do you know what I mean?

00:58:23.882 --> 00:58:24.411
Oh, okay.

00:58:24.416 --> 00:58:25.012
Actually, no.

00:58:25.192 --> 00:58:26.481
Suicides versus murders.

00:58:26.481 --> 00:58:28.851
Suicides, I would say maybe one a year.

00:58:29.061 --> 00:58:29.331
Mm-hmm.

00:58:29.961 --> 00:58:34.282
But if you have, let's say, a murder, then like one a decade,

00:58:34.782 --> 00:58:36.952
well, let's try and find out what happened to this place?

00:58:36.956 --> 00:58:37.371
Why?

00:58:37.402 --> 00:58:42.112
Why was it chosen as a suicide place, even if it wasn't haunted and everything like that?

00:58:42.382 --> 00:58:46.132
Was it built on some weird ancient burial, Indian ground or something?

00:58:46.251 --> 00:58:46.492
Hmm.

00:58:46.641 --> 00:58:54.112
Or did it really just attract criminals through some sort of paranormal way, this darkness drawing them in and tempting people to commit suicide?

00:58:54.742 --> 00:58:59.121
So to find out the real reason, we have to go back to the decade it was built, the 1920s.

00:58:59.121 --> 00:58:59.211
Mm-hmm.

00:58:59.456 --> 00:59:05.822
And whilst that decade started off really well, by the time you reach 1929, it's a completely different America.

00:59:06.121 --> 00:59:06.452
Okay.

00:59:06.512 --> 00:59:08.762
So a very quick American history lesson.

00:59:08.851 --> 00:59:13.208
Uhhuh number one, was also the decade of prohibition in America.

00:59:13.298 --> 00:59:13.838
Ooh.

00:59:13.869 --> 00:59:14.619
No alcohol.

00:59:14.679 --> 00:59:15.039
Yeah.

00:59:15.039 --> 00:59:26.079
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.

00:59:26.469 --> 00:59:26.679
Oh.

00:59:26.679 --> 00:59:29.949
So people are like, I can't have anything to drink.

00:59:30.009 --> 00:59:30.278
Yeah.

00:59:30.278 --> 00:59:30.458
I'm gonna

00:59:30.458 --> 00:59:31.358
kill myself.

00:59:31.418 --> 00:59:36.128
Well, the whole point of the ban was to reduce social issues associated with alcohol abuse.

00:59:36.188 --> 00:59:36.248
Okay.

00:59:36.248 --> 00:59:38.918
Such as crime, poverty, and family problems.

00:59:38.978 --> 00:59:40.659
And did it work well?

00:59:41.079 --> 00:59:44.469
It kind of created more problems well, for the C hotel.

00:59:44.469 --> 00:59:44.679
Mm-hmm.

00:59:45.219 --> 00:59:48.489
Um, so that essentially created speakeasies.

00:59:49.329 --> 00:59:51.668
Which were illegal bars and clubs that would sell alcohol.

00:59:51.849 --> 00:59:52.418
Oh, really?

00:59:52.452 --> 01:00:00.342
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.

01:00:00.972 --> 01:00:10.271
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.

01:00:10.271 --> 01:00:11.141
Mm-hmm.

01:00:11.202 --> 01:00:14.351
And that obviously created a really sort of rough area.

01:00:14.472 --> 01:00:14.561
Mm-hmm.

01:00:15.322 --> 01:00:23.012
number two Throughout the last few decades, many Americans migrated westward in search of opportunities following the Gold Rush.

01:00:23.016 --> 01:00:23.021
Mm-hmm.

01:00:23.731 --> 01:00:25.771
And so they wanted to improve their wealth.

01:00:25.831 --> 01:00:29.101
And going to California and LA was perhaps the way to do that.

01:00:29.672 --> 01:00:34.592
The construction of the railroad network played a crucial role in helping those people migrate.

01:00:35.161 --> 01:00:41.311
Uh, and that railroad extended all the way to Los Angeles, specifically the area known as Skid Row.

01:00:41.371 --> 01:00:41.672
Mm-hmm.

01:00:42.617 --> 01:00:47.407
This would bring in immigrant laborers and the area began to rapidly grow.

01:00:47.887 --> 01:00:50.286
Um, but a lot of the work in LA was agricultural.

01:00:50.416 --> 01:00:58.456
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.

01:00:58.637 --> 01:00:59.507
Okay, interesting.

01:00:59.536 --> 01:01:02.327
Um, were these low cost basic lodgings?

01:01:02.327 --> 01:01:04.876
They're the ones that sort of spr up around this area.

01:01:05.476 --> 01:01:10.786
And that was to, I guess, keep people entertained whilst they were out of work.

01:01:11.536 --> 01:01:16.527
Um, and to get a place, eventually you didn't need a background check, you didn't need to put any deposits down.

01:01:16.586 --> 01:01:17.697
It was very easy.

01:01:18.056 --> 01:01:23.996
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.

01:01:24.056 --> 01:01:24.146
Mm-hmm.

01:01:25.617 --> 01:01:26.246
Actually,

01:01:26.726 --> 01:01:48.481
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.

01:01:48.632 --> 01:01:49.052
Oh, right.

01:01:49.081 --> 01:01:50.702
That had mental health issues.

01:01:50.731 --> 01:01:50.882
Mm-hmm.

01:01:51.121 --> 01:01:55.952
So you just have an influx of these people living on the streets with mental health issues.

01:01:55.952 --> 01:02:00.092
All of a sudden they're just now homeless because they can't provide for themselves.

01:02:00.242 --> 01:02:00.661
That's awful.

01:02:00.842 --> 01:02:01.322
Yeah.

01:02:01.411 --> 01:02:12.922
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.

01:02:13.152 --> 01:02:13.811
Of some degree.

01:02:13.931 --> 01:02:17.467
I don't know if that figure's correct, but quite a large number of the homeless people.

01:02:17.617 --> 01:02:18.067
Yeah.

01:02:18.067 --> 01:02:24.577
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.

01:02:25.414 --> 01:02:31.088
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, there was a big change in consumerism and opportunity for Americans at this time.

01:02:31.548 --> 01:02:33.168
There was a huge stock market, boom.

01:02:33.199 --> 01:02:37.188
Many people invested in stocks, often leveraging their own assets.

01:02:37.489 --> 01:02:37.849
Okay.

01:02:37.909 --> 01:02:41.389
So people had the opportunity to buy on credit as well at that point in time.

01:02:41.389 --> 01:02:44.599
So that, helped with the economy and everything like that.

01:02:44.713 --> 01:02:48.956
but The last thing to happen in that decade was the start of the Great Depression.

01:02:49.016 --> 01:02:49.106
Mm-hmm.

01:02:49.556 --> 01:02:59.396
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.

01:02:59.545 --> 01:03:02.846
Um, but it began with the stock market crash in 1929.

01:03:02.943 --> 01:03:07.182
And so those that had invested, and leveraged their assets lost out big time.

01:03:07.782 --> 01:03:12.523
That caused a chain reaction of financial collapse and widespread unemployment.

01:03:13.023 --> 01:03:15.273
And the impact was pretty devastating.

01:03:15.273 --> 01:03:17.936
People lost their homes, banks went under, businesses failed.

01:03:18.079 --> 01:03:18.378
Mm-hmm.

01:03:18.603 --> 01:03:29.215
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.

01:03:29.215 --> 01:03:34.286
And so the demand for goods and services really dropped in that particular area.

01:03:34.795 --> 01:03:39.188
And so that exasperated this problem that was in downtown la.

01:03:39.188 --> 01:03:39.668
Mm-hmm.

01:03:40.021 --> 01:03:43.112
in summary, you have all these people that have just moved to LA to find work.

01:03:43.172 --> 01:03:49.981
They're now jobless, they're homeless, and they're in an area of growing crime from gangsters close to these speakeasys DOS houses.

01:03:49.987 --> 01:03:54.362
And where illegal alcohol is sold a recipe for disaster.

01:03:54.541 --> 01:03:55.351
Yeah, for sure.

01:03:55.512 --> 01:04:00.282
So five years after the hotel opening, all these things combined changed the area greatly.

01:04:00.867 --> 01:04:08.527
The hotel, um, the street that it's on, it slowly sort of become absorbed into the Skid row area, so to speak.

01:04:08.617 --> 01:04:08.856
Mm-hmm.

01:04:09.277 --> 01:04:12.456
Uh, And so the clientele that it attracted also changed.

01:04:13.117 --> 01:04:22.126
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.

01:04:22.240 --> 01:04:22.541
Okay.

01:04:22.601 --> 01:04:28.101
So it's not unique to la Um, there's skid rows throughout America, but I think, oh, it's like a,

01:04:28.260 --> 01:04:30.481
Term that people just have in each city.

01:04:30.481 --> 01:04:31.951
Like, oh, go down Skid Row.

01:04:31.951 --> 01:04:32.820
It's not unique.

01:04:33.030 --> 01:04:34.201
That, that's surprising to me.

01:04:34.530 --> 01:04:34.860
Yeah.

01:04:34.860 --> 01:04:37.771
I think, um, Los Angeles has the most famous mm-hmm.

01:04:38.070 --> 01:04:39.630
Is the skid row, I guess.

01:04:40.081 --> 01:04:42.561
Um, but the terminology comes from the logging era.

01:04:42.606 --> 01:04:43.626
The logging.

01:04:43.896 --> 01:04:44.346
Yeah.

01:04:44.346 --> 01:04:50.536
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.

01:04:51.045 --> 01:04:58.905
In America, um, they would drag these logs against these sort of greased skids or as way of kind of transporting logs around.

01:04:58.905 --> 01:05:03.525
And so that's why the skid, uh, terminology came from a loosely.

01:05:03.916 --> 01:05:04.396
Sure.

01:05:04.456 --> 01:05:09.556
But how does that associate with like Decrepitness and like run downness and

01:05:09.556 --> 01:05:09.916
stuff?

01:05:10.545 --> 01:05:13.126
Well, near the, or is that just, does that come later on?

01:05:13.215 --> 01:05:19.695
Well, near these areas, there'd be these single room occupancy hotels for traveling workers coming to the city to find work.

01:05:20.266 --> 01:05:23.806
Uh, and they were always really close to these sort of railroads, I guess, that were being built.

01:05:24.376 --> 01:05:33.706
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.

01:05:34.315 --> 01:05:41.545
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.

01:05:41.905 --> 01:05:42.115
Mm-hmm.

01:05:42.505 --> 01:05:45.925
And suffering with addiction and other mental health issues.

01:05:45.985 --> 01:05:47.726
They didn't necessarily have a job to go to.

01:05:47.936 --> 01:05:50.036
And so they found themselves on the street as well.

01:05:50.168 --> 01:06:02.119
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.

01:06:02.449 --> 01:06:10.889
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.

01:06:10.918 --> 01:06:11.009
Mm-hmm.

01:06:11.579 --> 01:06:21.099
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.

01:06:21.398 --> 01:06:21.818
Right.

01:06:22.403 --> 01:06:26.454
On one hand, this helped because it made sure people had homes.

01:06:26.514 --> 01:06:37.653
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.

01:06:37.873 --> 01:06:42.833
They, wanted to keep it confined into this particular area to stop mm-hmm.

01:06:43.074 --> 01:06:44.213
More homeless spreading.

01:06:45.003 --> 01:06:46.864
So that had a negative impact.

01:06:46.869 --> 01:06:52.184
And so you've got these 50 block radius, um, of these people that are being detained, if you will.

01:06:52.273 --> 01:06:52.364
Mm-hmm.

01:06:52.664 --> 01:06:55.393
Kind of like a, an invisible wall, right?

01:06:55.393 --> 01:06:55.693
Yeah.

01:06:55.699 --> 01:06:55.963
Yeah.

01:06:56.056 --> 01:06:59.967
and what they did is they put harsh prison lighting around the area.

01:07:00.146 --> 01:07:00.476
Mm-hmm.

01:07:00.956 --> 01:07:07.097
And they'd also put blocks on trash cans to deter people from raiding bins, like raid outside of the area.

01:07:07.101 --> 01:07:08.086
So to keep them in.

01:07:08.086 --> 01:07:11.568
And that, that harsh lighting was almost like, you, you, you, you don't wanna be around it.

01:07:11.836 --> 01:07:12.197
Yeah.

01:07:12.297 --> 01:07:18.717
and so the Cecil falls within these borders, and that is why it's had such a troubled pass for the last 10 decades.

01:07:19.177 --> 01:07:25.206
I imagine like a lot of the people that are living in Skid Row, they eventually come across a bit of money.

01:07:25.206 --> 01:07:27.518
They maybe sell a bit of drugs, they maybe rob the right person.

01:07:28.177 --> 01:07:32.617
They get a bit of money, they check into the hotel, they have a shower, they have a nice bed for the night.

01:07:33.141 --> 01:07:36.862
What comes with these people is essentially the trouble.

01:07:37.311 --> 01:07:37.552
Mm-hmm.

01:07:37.612 --> 01:07:38.032
Right.

01:07:38.152 --> 01:07:42.891
And it just so happens that proximity wise, it's on that skid row section as well.

01:07:42.891 --> 01:07:44.335
So it's attracting the people.

01:07:44.335 --> 01:07:44.876
Exactly.

01:07:44.972 --> 01:07:54.900
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.

01:07:55.221 --> 01:07:58.340
so this has all increased the danger, the drugs, the violence.

01:07:58.431 --> 01:08:03.021
And so in answer to my original question that I started the podcast with mm-hmm.

01:08:03.291 --> 01:08:05.061
Is the Cecil Hotel cursed?

01:08:05.451 --> 01:08:07.190
Well, yes it is.

01:08:07.550 --> 01:08:11.690
But not through paranormal activity, but just from pretty bad luck.

01:08:11.931 --> 01:08:12.351
Mm-hmm.

01:08:12.590 --> 01:08:14.001
Yeah, that's a good way of putting

01:08:14.001 --> 01:08:14.181
it.

01:08:14.353 --> 01:08:18.314
And finally, as for Skid Row, it's still incredibly dangerous.

01:08:18.314 --> 01:08:24.014
It's not advised to go there, particularly at night, and it's not uncommon to come across someone that's overdosed.

01:08:24.140 --> 01:08:34.216
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.

01:08:34.216 --> 01:08:40.445
You can even go and get fentanyl to make sure that you get some kind of opioid into your system well.

01:08:40.445 --> 01:08:40.716
So they

01:08:40.716 --> 01:08:41.916
give you like a

01:08:41.916 --> 01:08:42.966
safe dose.

01:08:43.025 --> 01:08:43.536
Yes.

01:08:43.605 --> 01:08:47.195
I was watching these videos and, you go into the store and Yeah, you just ask for it.

01:08:47.195 --> 01:08:54.036
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.

01:08:54.426 --> 01:08:54.815
Yeah.

01:08:54.815 --> 01:09:00.336
I mean, from what I understand of heroin, kind of, what, what do you call it?

01:09:00.456 --> 01:09:01.655
Like withdrawal symptoms.

01:09:01.716 --> 01:09:02.826
It looks horrible.

01:09:02.886 --> 01:09:03.036
Yeah.

01:09:03.036 --> 01:09:05.105
You get itchy, you can't calm down.

01:09:05.105 --> 01:09:07.626
You're sweaty, you're freaking out.

01:09:07.685 --> 01:09:08.046
Yeah.

01:09:08.136 --> 01:09:08.466
Yeah.

01:09:08.496 --> 01:09:08.916
Exactly.

01:09:08.916 --> 01:09:10.475
And it's, it's, it's terrible.

01:09:10.480 --> 01:09:24.126
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.

01:09:24.395 --> 01:09:24.935
Mm.

01:09:25.189 --> 01:09:34.430
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.

01:09:34.671 --> 01:09:35.270
Wow.

01:09:35.331 --> 01:09:36.801
So, okay.

01:09:36.860 --> 01:09:41.091
So the whole thing is now what happened to the, the manager that was there for like 10 years,

01:09:41.121 --> 01:09:42.440
I'm guessing she's at another hotel.

01:09:42.501 --> 01:09:42.621
Yeah.

01:09:42.988 --> 01:09:45.238
I'd wanna be working at a hotel near a beach or something.

01:09:45.328 --> 01:09:45.717
Sure.

01:09:45.747 --> 01:09:48.358
Completely different sort of, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:09:48.387 --> 01:09:48.927
Worlds apart.

01:09:49.287 --> 01:09:49.438
Wow.

01:09:49.438 --> 01:09:49.707
So it's

01:09:49.707 --> 01:09:55.159
still going, Elisa hasn't shut down yet because it's, it's right there on the outskirts of Skid Row.

01:09:55.159 --> 01:09:55.250
Mm-hmm.

01:09:55.670 --> 01:10:00.439
So it makes sense to have it as something for these people.

01:10:00.979 --> 01:10:01.069
I

01:10:01.069 --> 01:10:01.460
think so.

01:10:01.579 --> 01:10:01.850
Yeah.

01:10:01.850 --> 01:10:02.300
Or affordable housing.

01:10:02.350 --> 01:10:03.460
there is, there is good.

01:10:03.460 --> 01:10:04.869
That can be done with that place.

01:10:04.899 --> 01:10:04.989
Mm-hmm.

01:10:04.989 --> 01:10:11.199
And especially if they've got rid of all these other hotels and housing and that can house 700 people potentially.

01:10:11.260 --> 01:10:11.350
Mm-hmm.

01:10:11.800 --> 01:10:13.300
Then they, they need it.

01:10:13.720 --> 01:10:14.050
Yeah.

01:10:14.319 --> 01:10:19.079
Um, but it does make me think, unless things drastically change in skid row mm-hmm.

01:10:19.350 --> 01:10:21.909
Then the curse is probably not over yet.

01:10:22.149 --> 01:10:22.630
No, it's

01:10:22.630 --> 01:10:23.380
not, is it?

01:10:23.590 --> 01:10:23.979
Mm.

01:10:24.670 --> 01:10:25.149
That's it.

01:10:25.569 --> 01:10:26.260
That's my story.

01:10:26.750 --> 01:10:30.380
And that is the story of the Cecil Hotel or Cecil

01:10:30.380 --> 01:10:30.890
Hotel.

01:10:30.979 --> 01:10:31.189
Yeah.

01:10:31.194 --> 01:10:32.750
The curse of Cecil Hotel.

01:10:32.779 --> 01:10:33.260
It was good.

01:10:33.500 --> 01:10:35.359
Lots of, lots of suicides.

01:10:35.359 --> 01:10:36.590
That's surprising.

01:10:36.649 --> 01:10:36.979
Yeah.

01:10:37.640 --> 01:10:38.000
Yeah.

01:10:38.210 --> 01:10:42.050
This is probably why they ended up putting Bibles in, in hotels.

01:10:42.050 --> 01:10:42.350
Right.

01:10:42.529 --> 01:10:42.739
Yeah.

01:10:42.739 --> 01:10:44.960
And I guess why hotel rooms.

01:10:45.380 --> 01:10:47.479
You can't open the window in the hotel rooms anymore, can you?

01:10:47.600 --> 01:10:48.020
No.

01:10:48.199 --> 01:10:54.770
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

01:10:54.770 --> 01:10:54.949
they?

01:10:55.010 --> 01:10:55.884
You can open it like an inch.

01:10:55.889 --> 01:10:56.123
Yeah.

01:10:56.123 --> 01:10:56.753
Just get a little

01:10:56.759 --> 01:10:58.314
width of air and that's it.

01:10:58.764 --> 01:10:58.944
Yeah.

01:10:58.974 --> 01:10:59.243
Nope.

01:10:59.304 --> 01:10:59.753
No more.

01:10:59.753 --> 01:11:00.234
No more.

01:11:00.833 --> 01:11:02.663
But I guess, yes, some people jumping out, right?

01:11:02.783 --> 01:11:02.963
Yeah.

01:11:02.963 --> 01:11:04.043
Probably don't have the liability

01:11:04.043 --> 01:11:04.554
insurance.

01:11:04.644 --> 01:11:04.854
Yeah.

01:11:04.854 --> 01:11:06.413
And I never knew about the, the Bible thing.

01:11:06.413 --> 01:11:06.984
That makes sense.

01:11:06.984 --> 01:11:10.823
'cause I just thought we were predominantly a Christian country.

01:11:10.972 --> 01:11:11.332
Mm-hmm.

01:11:11.390 --> 01:11:28.604
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.

01:11:28.604 --> 01:11:34.305
But then also as a consequence as well, it's also there to potentially save some people.

01:11:34.305 --> 01:11:34.395
Mm-hmm.

01:11:34.395 --> 01:11:34.645
Who are mm-hmm.

01:11:35.114 --> 01:11:36.524
Wanting to commit suicide.

01:11:36.675 --> 01:11:37.335
They're lost.

01:11:37.454 --> 01:11:37.725
Yeah.

01:11:38.175 --> 01:11:43.484
Uh, I dunno how it convinces you to not do it, but maybe it can give you some comfort in those final moments.

01:11:43.489 --> 01:11:43.845
Right.

01:11:44.354 --> 01:11:44.595
Yeah.

01:11:44.715 --> 01:11:46.305
Or maybe there's a chapter that speaks to you.

01:11:46.425 --> 01:11:46.875
Who knows?

01:11:47.175 --> 01:11:48.164
Yeah, possibly.

01:11:48.435 --> 01:11:48.585
Mm.

01:11:48.585 --> 01:11:50.774
But yeah, that was, uh, that was really good.

01:11:50.774 --> 01:11:51.824
Thank you very much.

01:11:51.975 --> 01:11:57.951
Alright, So I guess that's another episode for the Compendium and Assembly of fascinating and intriguing things.

01:11:58.140 --> 01:12:01.980
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01:12:02.280 --> 01:12:10.081
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01:12:10.690 --> 01:12:13.631
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01:12:13.871 --> 01:12:22.841
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01:12:23.229 --> 01:12:25.122
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