October 31, 2024 • 59 mins
The Suicide. Hotel Death. Where Dreams Go To Die. LA's Most Haunted Hotel. These are a few of the nicknames given to the infamous Cecil Hotel. In our second book club episode, we discuss Amy Price's book Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel and dive into the many mysteries and tragedies the Cecil has seen over the years.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Hotel history is created for adult audiences. Content may not be suitable for all listeners.
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Discretion is advised.
You're listening to Hotel History. We take you with us through the sordid history and
scandals of some of the world's most famous and infamous hotels. I'm D'Etta.
And I'm Yael. Let's get started.
This is our second book club episode. And the book that we chose is Behind the Door,
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Cecil Hotel by Amy Price. So obviously we picked the Cecil because everyone has asked us to do it.
Well, it's iconic. You can't have a hotel podcast and not eventually talk about the Cecil.
Oh, is it Cecil or Cecil?
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I think it's however, whatever region you come from, how they say that name.
I don't know.
No, it's Cecil. I've been saying Cecil like a fucking idiot. Oh my God. I say it. I don't
know why naturally I want to say Cecil. It looks like Cecil. But everyone pronounces it Cecil,
(01:22):
I think. But yeah, that's just me messing up everything I say on the podcast. It's just
what I do. But I will say that since day one of mentioning to people, oh, I have a hotel podcast,
everyone's like, did you do the Cecil Hotel? Are you going to do it? Are you going to do it?
(01:43):
Did you do it? Have you heard of it? I'm like, yeah, don't worry. It's coming. It's just,
we need, we have to find the right moment. We need a good Halloween moment to do it.
Yeah. And just, I mean, there for a while, everybody was talking about it. So, you know,
have to kind of wait a little while, let some time pass so our episode doesn't get lost in the fray.
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Yeah, that's true. But I think it's still a hot topic when you even Google it. Like there's still
news about it. Yeah, I just saw an article from July of this year about it. Which is crazy. But
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what's great about, I think also what's rare about this book is that it doesn't go into
it doesn't go into conspiracy theories that much, but it just goes into her experience and it makes
a lot more sense. Yeah, I really appreciate that it has that extra layer of, it's not just another
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history book about a famous place, but you know, Amy Price worked there for 10 years. And so it
really is her experience, her perceptions, the things that she saw day in and day out. And so
it's like, it is really a nice look behind the door that that you wouldn't have gotten to
otherwise know about besides just all of the famous stories. Yeah. And she was the general manager,
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but she didn't start out obviously as the general manager. She, in the book, she says that she was
hired to design a hotel room or like two hotel rooms. Yeah, that's a great book. And so it's
like two hotel rooms. Yeah, they were trying to get investors from Best Western. So she was
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just supposed to match a Best Western typical hotel room, make it look exactly like that.
And that would be the end of the job. It was supposed to take like three days or something.
I'm shocked. I, the more like she talks about it and there's so much to the hotel, but that's,
someone was like lying to them about the building and the rules because yeah, when you invest in
(03:58):
old buildings in a city, of course there's regulations that are insane. And who, at this
point, who wouldn't be buying that building and making it amazing? Yeah. Because it's so old and
historic, although the location is not great, but maybe that if they redid it, that would bring the,
right. That's part of the lore, right? She talks about that. Yeah. She says everyone's like, no,
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no, downtown LA is going to, it's going to happen. Like everything's going to be amazing.
You just watch like in 10 years from now, it's going to be so nice. Newsflash, it was not.
The power of Skid Row is stronger than your dreams.
So that's where, well, we should mention the Cecil Hotel is on seventh and main, I believe.
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Am I, I might be wrong exactly on the street, but I know it's on main. It's in the historic
district of downtown LA and it is like two blocks away from Skid Row. And anyone who knows LA knows
that downtown LA is like, it's like a hot steaming pile of garbage. Like there's, there's pool areas.
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Every, every few blocks, it's a totally different vibe. Yeah. The historic district is just, and
it's so sad because it's so, the building is so old. It's so old. It's so old. It's so old. It's
just, and it's so sad because it's so, the buildings are so beautiful. It's just disgusting.
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That's the only way it's, it's really beautiful down there, but it's also really unsafe, really
dirty, smelly. And I've worked there. And I've, I've worked around there. I used to hang out
all the time in downtown, but you know where I used to hang out the most was like little Tokyo
and arts district, which is a lot safer and nicer, although not, it wasn't always, but nicer than that
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part of downtown. So there's like different areas, but just a warning. If you're thinking of going
there, just go during the day at the very least, go during the day, wear a nose bug and don't talk
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to anyone. Don't make eye contact. I mean, maybe we're making it sound harsher than it is, but.
You know, I always think that I'm like, oh, we're being too harsh about it. But then I go downtown
again and I'm like, oh, no, no, that's, that's pretty, that's pretty accurate. Yeah. Well,
when I was just down there, I get anxiety hearing these stories because I know how aggressive it
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can be. Like downtown is aggressive, but there was a guy who was talking, screaming, not talking,
screaming to himself. And he was so aggressive. He was like waving his hands. He took glass bottles
off the floor and started throwing them at a fence. There's a bunch of people nearby. Like you don't
know where he's going to throw it. My manager, you know, I'm not going to say the whole story,
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but basically got attacked by, you know, someone from the street and just like.
This is, there's no rhyme or reason. It's really dangerous. So, and that's the kind of people that
congregate in downtown. Like it just, it's another level. And I get, there are like the
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downtown lovers who are just like, oh no, downtown's amazing.
I just don't, it could be amazing, but it's not. First of all, I just feel like I'm dying down there.
I don't know if you feel that way. Like I'm dying, like breathing in the air. You can't get a fresh
air. And I'm from New York. So you think, you think that like, no, you can handle it. It's like all of
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New York, but none of the fun stuff. It's all the shittiest parts of New York. It's like New York
in the nineties, but no New York landmarks. Everything is so outdated and it's, it's like
beyond dangerous. And then in the heart of it is the Cecil Hotel.
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The author goes into lots and lots of different stories about the people who were living there,
because it wasn't at the time, it was classified as a residential hotel because they had long-term
tenants. And so they had some hotel guests coming mostly from out of state and out of the country,
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because anybody from California probably knows what the Cecil is and is not going to book it.
But then they also had these long-term tenants that had super cheap rent.
And when she first started working there, people could come in and like pay in cash and not like
give an ID or anything like that. So it definitely drew a certain type of crowd that, that kept its
(09:16):
reputation the way it is.
Yeah, the hotel was built in 1924 and pretty much didn't have a lot of
success after the Great Depression. It like, it was nice. And then quickly the Great Depression
came and it like was shit and it stayed shitty for the past hundred years almost.
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Yeah, because a lot of the hotels that we've covered, like they had a tough time during the
depression, but then World War II like boosted them back up and then they were good until about
the seventies when they, a lot of them dipped again. But yeah, it's like the Cecil just
could not recover. Yeah, they started having a reputation, I think in the twenties of being like
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a place people would go, you know, to do seedy things. And then in the fifties, it was known
that like you went there with the prostitutes and stuff.
Yeah, this hotel has had so many deaths happen at it. And the very first suicide happens in 1927.
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So the hotel is less than, you know, is not even five years old, it's three years old and a guest
shoots himself. So it really just started downhill pretty much immediately. Like in 1931, a guest died
after taking poison capsules. Yeah. Like I saw several, there's a Wikipedia of all the different
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deaths that have happened there. And several of them were from people taking, ingesting some kind
of poison, especially in the thirties. Everyone knew that that was the place to do that.
Even back then, because I don't think they cared the other people, they didn't care.
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They cared much about their residents. Like when you read about other hotels, the concierge or the
front desk would be like, they were suspicious. We told this, people just go and they're like,
have a good day. You know, you can, you can, you can, you can check out, but you can never leave
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situations, but like no one cared. Yeah. I don't know. So I don't know if the decline is, oh, it
has been just managing the hotel and the workers, or is it also the location? Cause yes, the
location's not great, but I mean, this was a long time ago and it started like that. Yeah. Like the
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suicide started before Skid Row was a thing. So it definitely predates its bad location because I mean,
LA is, is really turning into something in the twenties. So this should have been a prime spot
in downtown LA. There is no other, almost is no other part of LA except downtown LA at this time.
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LA was so underdeveloped. Downtown is like, that's why downtown has a historic district.
Yeah. At the time, they probably didn't even call it downtown at the time. It was just town.
Yeah. This one story that I found from 1944 is just upsetting and mind boggling. So this 19 year
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old girl was staying in the hotel with her 38 year old boyfriend and she started having stomach
pains. So she went to the bathroom so she wouldn't wake her boyfriend up and ended up giving birth to
a baby on the floor. And she didn't even know she was pregnant. And then she thought that the,
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Oh my God, I've seen that episode on TLC.
I'm 16 and pregnant. She thought that her,
The show, I didn't know I was pregnant. You know?
Oh yes. Oh my God. Yes. Where they give birth to babies in the toilet.
In the toilet. Yes, the toilet baby. There's an episode of the righteous gemstones where she's
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like, I don't want to have a toilet baby. Anyway. So she, for some reason, she thought that the baby
was dead. I guess she thought it was stillborn. And so she threw it out of the window and it landed
on the roof of the building next door, but I guess they figured out it was not dead. And so she was
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put on trial, but they found her not guilty because of insanity. And they sent her in for
psychiatric treatment. I mean, she's obviously insane. Even if that baby is stillborn, you don't
throw it out the baby. You just pooped out the toilet and throw it out the window. Like, oops.
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You didn't see that one coming. Yeah. Like every step of this story, it's just like, I'm sorry.
What? I'm sorry. What? Yeah. That's disgusting. Yeah. I just also, I have so many questions,
but I don't want to get into it because then it'll just get like too many gory details. But
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yeah, it attracts, the Cecil Hotel attracts fucking crazy people. And in the book,
she's always a little surprised. Like I thought he was. She's from the Midwest. And yes, I blame
a lot of it on that. Like she does come off as super naive. I mean, I'm not from a big city.
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I'm from a tiny, tiny little town and I can still look at somebody and be like,
no, there's some, there's nobody's right. Yeah. I think also Texas is just like a different
place. I think it gives you a little bit more reality. Maybe checks in my mind, just like
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having the meth lab neighbors can really... That's fair. I think you've seen it. Yeah.
I think there are Midwesterners who like really have never seen anything.
Genuinely. Yeah. They don't know what drug addiction looks like. They don't know, yeah,
how people can act. Like shady characters. Yeah. Which she does though, because she went to a
rehab or even though she pretended... That's true.
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She went to a rehab, pretended to be a drug addict. So she's seen it. So I think it gave her
a sense of like, I'm comfortable with this and I recognize it. But then there's also the naive
aspect where she was with her ex-boyfriend. Yeah.
There's just something... She picks up quickly, but I just think that, yeah,
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everyone that walks through that door assume they're not well. I would never assume any of them...
Yeah, honestly, just based on her description of the way the building smelled, the very first day
she went in there and smelled that, that right there tells you, oh, things are not well here.
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And you should just assume everything is off from there on. You should never think that anybody who
is willingly going into that building to live is okay.
I actually think smell is the most important signal about a situation than anything else.
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Because I live in a shitty building and it should have been a big indication that there's something
wrong with my neighbors and the building. When I started to smell weird things, I was like,
I started to smell weird things. Yeah. As you know, I always complain about the smell.
Yeah, it's a sign. Don't ignore the smell. Yeah, you have your senses for a reason.
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They are trying to keep you alive. Your eyes can fool you. Yeah.
It's true. As she mentions in the book, like, you look normal.
She had a smell. Yeah. She must have gotten used to the smell.
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That's true. You do go nose blind after you've been in the same area for a while. So yeah.
I have that. I don't know how to go nose blind. I'm still learning.
So whenever I was doing a little bit of the background on the Sea Soul, I did not realize
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that Elizabeth Short stayed at the Sea Soul. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had no idea.
That was the connection. That's why it's brought, like, they bring it up, I think,
in a couple of documentaries I've seen. And she might have mentioned it. But it's not,
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the thing about Elizabeth Short, or better known as the Black Dahlia, is that it was like a
brief connection to the hotel, but it didn't really have anything to do with her death, I think.
She was found in South LA in Leemont Park. I just watched the movie. I just watched the movie,
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The Black Dahlia, and then I went on a deep Black Dahlia hole. But do you know anything about the
Black Dahlia? Because I read about it. I knew about it a little bit, grisly murder, whatever.
But I didn't go deep into it. Yeah, I know some, because I watched the movie. And I've read a
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little bit about it. There's like, the lead person, the lead suspect of the case was this guy, and his
son, who's an LAPD cop, or retired now, I guess, wrote a book saying, like, it was my dad.
And he didn't know. He only found out later. And he wrote a whole book about, or something.
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There's even a show about it, how he was like, yeah, I found out it was my dad. Here's all the
evidence. And so it's one of those things where they never found the guy. But I mean, LA was so
corrupt back then that you never know really what happened. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah, it's really
interesting. And so so horrible. I still don't understand it. Like, why someone would do that.
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But you know, I'm not a murderer. So yeah, true.
There's been a few famous murderers that have stayed at the Cecil Hotel. One of them is Richard
Ramirez, the Night Stalker, who basically like killed a bunch of people by just sneaking into
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their house. He would find like people who left their doors open or windows and he would kill,
rape, kill, mutilate, torture, like all the worst things. Yeah, specifically women. He would torture
the women. If he found a man, I think he just killed him. But for the most part, he would do
disgusting things to the women. And a lot of the times there were older women like he killed. He
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raped and killed like grandmothers. Yeah, he would target elderly couples. Yeah, it was really
bizarre. And then, yeah, he was apparently doing this while also sometimes staying at the Cecil
Hotel. And I don't know if it was the Night Stalker documentary that I read this or maybe in my hand,
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but people who were living there or saw him even said he was like creepy and dark. Yeah.
They if people at the Cecil Hotel are like that dude, he's watch out for that one. Yeah. So yeah,
like apparently he would actually throw his bloody clothes into the Cecil's dumpster and then walk
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through the lobby either naked or in his underwear. Oh, yeah. To his room. And so this this journalist
Josh Dean wrote, none of which raised an eyebrow since the Cecil in the in the 80s was total
unmitigated chaos. Yeah, that's what that's what I'm saying. Like, was anyone working? Yeah, like
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how like how bad is a place that somebody walks like regularly walks through the lobby in their
underwear and you're like, oh, that's just richie. Well, apparently, they're probably just like one
guy collecting, you know, the rent or the money and like, it's not my problem. Yeah. But at least
with decades later, when by the time this author comes along to work in the hotel, it's it's bad.
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And she definitely finds a lot of dead bodies. And she mentions that. But it's not nearly as bad
as it was in the 80s. Yeah, it's it's not murders. It's just suicides and death by like natural
causes, overdoses. Well, some people murdered their partners or there were like some weird, but it
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wasn't like murder, mass murderers. Yeah, whatever. But yeah, it was at least the cops would come only
when there was like a dead body. Yeah. So I think the amount of times there's actually in the back
of the book, there's a whole list of the notes that would be left at the front desk by the employees,
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like for her and the number of them that say we called the police, the police never came. It's
just upsetting. Yeah, that happened. L.A. in general is like that. I feel like big cities are like
that, but in downtown. Yeah, there's so there's so many emergencies happening that your emergency
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has to be pretty bad for them to spare. And they probably if they get a call, they know where it's
coming from. They're just like, OK, is it that bad? Yeah. Does it work? A couple of times. Yeah.
Because if we're coming down there, it better be bad.
Yeah. But I mean, I'm not going in order of all like the crazy things that happened,
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but there was another murderer who came from Austria. Right. Yeah. I forgot his name,
Jack. And their wigger under vigor. Yeah. So this guy, he was a copycat of Ramirez
and he purposely went to the Cecil because he knew like that's the place to go. That's where
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Ramirez stayed. And he he strangled and killed at least three prostitutes in the hotel and he
strangled them with their own bras. Now, that is fucking scary. Am I worth it? Yeah. I have to say
good luck doing that with my stretched out ass bras. I'd be like one.
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You have time to fight back. I'd be like, you really need to keep up with your lingerie. This is sad.
Last time we went shopping. But yeah, that's that's crazy. But it's crazy we came all the way here.
He had to know he he fled Austria because he was killing people and he'd already been in prison for
(25:18):
murdering somebody. And then some other people like started dying in the area that he was in.
And so he was a suspect. So he fled that area and the murder stopped. And as soon as he got to LA
murder started. Yeah. OK. But I have a question. How did he get released from jail after they found
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out he was a murderer? I guess he served his time because I think he said he was in jail for like
13 years or something. But maybe maybe good behavior. I don't know. Just like the system is
like, but I don't know, like they should have kept him there for life. Maybe just a suggestion.
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Let's you know, someone someone takes place. It's not like I feel like murder cases vary so much
because there's obviously accidental or even like gang related or like acts of passion, like not the
same as premeditated. I am going to sexually assault and murder someone and then I'm going to
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keep doing it because I like the way it makes me feel. Yeah. If he does it once, that's enough for
him to go away for life. I feel like in the U.S. he would have been sentenced for life. I hope so.
I mean, I guess I think he was extradited. So I don't. So I will never know, I guess, because he
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I think he got he was charged and and sentenced again in Austria. Oh, so he might be out.
I mean, you think they learn their lesson. Yeah. What do you think jail is for? Like,
I don't think it's like just a punishment. It's to keep these people from hurting other
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yeah. Away from the rest of us. There were so many suicides at the Cecil Hotel that they started
to call the place the suicide. Oh, yeah. This it had the Cecil like I usually love all the
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different nicknames that are given to hotels, but the Cecil has some really bad ones. So there's the
suicide, there's hotel death, the place where dreams go to die. Like, my god, that's such sad.
Yeah, it's really. It's a dark, sad place, and it's
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it's really where it attracts dark, sad people. Yeah. One of the worst suicides that happened was
a woman who jumped from her ninth floor window after an argument with her husband.
She fell on a man walking by and killed him. They both died instantly.
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Like, how awful that you even have the bad luck to just walk by the Cecil and you die.
It's horrible. That was in 1962. Yeah. Yeah. That is not the last time people have
like killed themselves through throwing themselves off. Yeah, that was super. That was a very popular
(28:46):
and then they didn't fix the windows. At least I don't think they fixed the windows
even after that. Because in the book she mentions it, and that's in the 2000s that they had that
issue. So a big theme in the book is that a lot of the problems this hotel has is it's old and they
(29:11):
need to fix things. And aside from not having any money, they had so many like, they have, it's
like the amount of red tape that they have to go through and that they still couldn't get through
to this day. They couldn't redo the hotel at all. Yeah, because it was a residential hotel,
they basically couldn't do anything except cosmetic improvements. And the whole thing needed an
(29:36):
overhaul. And most of the rooms, because it was built in the 20s, when having your own bathroom
in your suite was a thing, a lot of the rooms have shared bathroom facilities, which is just
immediately a non-starter for most people when paying for a hotel. Yeah, that's, they can never
(29:58):
be like a part of real, you know, hotel competition because I'm sorry, but absolutely not. That's
disgusting. Yeah. So I mean, what they started trying to do after Amy Price started working
there was not in theory a bad idea. They decided to take some three of the floors and turn them
(30:19):
into a hostel because, you know, students that stay in hostels are more willing to deal with
a group bathroom situation because it's just more typical because, you know, you're trying to travel
on the cheap. And so you're willing to pay less money to have to deal with more inconvenience.
So it wasn't a bad idea if they, they, what they did was they were able to take these three floors
(30:44):
that were separate from where the tenants were living and separate from the upper floors of the
hotel. And so they basically tried to have two hotels within the same building and they called
the hostel stay on main and they like made it bright colors and super inviting. And they even
were able to block off like a section of the lobby and give it its own lobby, like its own separate
(31:08):
entrance and lobby area so that the hostel guests didn't really even have to interact at all with
the Cecil, except whenever they were using the shared elevators, which was probably the most
interesting interaction. Oh my God. Yeah. Only, only poor students would probably, but that,
(31:33):
you know, it's interesting. She said that after, or was that much later that it was popular for a
while. Yeah. Like when they first opened, it was really popular and they got really good reviews
and they had a little coffee shop that was really popular next to it. And it seemed like to be
(31:54):
really great, but it's like, they just couldn't, because the elevators were shared, they couldn't
necessarily keep the tenants and the questionable guests of the Cecil hotel area out of the stay on
main area. And so then they started having issues with that and the smells and, and yeah, just as
(32:15):
you can imagine, like, Oh, and, oh, and because they had no air conditioning or heating, because
that was one of the renovations that they weren't allowed to do. Yeah. I don't think they can,
they still can't do it because not only is it a residential hotel, like that's what it's
marked as, but it's now a historic landmark, which makes it, or historic, it's some historic,
(32:40):
uh, you know, I don't know if it's a landmark, but what is it? A historical hotel or something. So it
basically is a more expensive to do anything to, there's a lot of rules and regulations,
especially to the exterior and like all this stuff. It makes it so difficult. And if you have a ton
(33:03):
of money to invest, there's no point. So it just, it's sad because I think the city of LA is why
this, the Cecil is such shit. Yeah. Yeah. It could have been, it could have been completely revamped
and turned into something amazing if they would have just allowed them to do anything. Yeah. And
(33:28):
even now, I mean, yeah, sure. It's a residential hotel. And so there's like issues with trying to
not to make sure that the hotel owners don't like take away housing and, you know, habitable areas
or make fewer rooms for the tenants and stuff like that. But I'm sure the people who lived there
would have appreciated air conditioning and new plumbing. Yeah. And, and it's like now it's still
(33:56):
kind of a shack now, even though it's permanent housing. I found out that my coworker went there.
She, I think she like, she, she had a job there or something. She was checking in on, so I forgot
what the story was. And she's like, they have huge rents. Yeah. And then I just watched something on
(34:20):
the news about it and how these people who are living there, the transitional, you know, housing
that these people are going through, it's a disrepair. It's disgusting. There's rats and
it's moldy and it's, it's like, and they're never going to let it, like, what is the point of this
building? If you can't fix it, I just don't understand. Like you can preserve its history.
(34:46):
You don't have to tear down the whole building. You could talk about, you know, all the crazy
things that happened, but give it like a new life, give it some hope. You don't have to keep it
for housing. They deserve better than that. If they let someone actually fix it.
Yes. Yeah. Do like you think that, oh, that a roof is the only thing that they need?
(35:10):
They need something that's not a health hazard. But that's the thing. Why can't someone in the
city just designated as something else? What is so difficult about this? Like I don't understand.
This is where, you know, I get confused about how stuff works, but it's really sad. It really,
(35:34):
it's such a gem. Like there, I feel like they can do so much with this hotel, like make it a haunted
house. Just make it into like a permanent house. A 50 story, 600 room haunted house. Oh my God.
Just turn it into a spirit Halloween, you know? Yeah. No, maybe the first floor, the gift
(36:00):
but you can knock down the wall. You can do a light. It doesn't have that.
The roots are like a closet size. They're like a hundred square feet or 150 square feet. They're
tiny. Yeah. So they're called micro apartments. It's called pods.
(36:20):
So if you knock down like five of them, you could have a decent room or apartment, whatever they can,
they, you know, in the book, they talk about this. People come and they have all these plans and
everyone's so excited and no one does any of the research. And then it all, all the hope slowly
goes down the drain and it's really sad. Yeah. And you can even, when she talks about that, it's just,
(36:44):
it's like depressing. You know what's happening in the book because it's, everyone knows the
Cecil. Like she doesn't, it's, it's just like, Oh my God. I don't know. Yeah.
But there's also that famous story that everyone wants us to talk about. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Of all
the sad things that happened, like the story of Elisa Lam is one of the saddest. No. Yeah. That was,
(37:13):
that was heartbreaking. There's a lot of conspiracy around that. And I don't,
I mean, because I watched the documentary, I was like, you didn't finish it, right? Oh yeah. I'm on
the last episode. Oh, okay. The, the, yeah. All of the, the internet made this story so much worse.
(37:33):
Yeah, they did. I mean, this, it's, it's pretty straightforward in my opinion.
But that's cause I'm always skeptical of like these, you know, supernatural stories. It's that
a young woman who is not well, had an episode and unfortunately, I don't think she like committed
(37:57):
suicide. Like she wanted to kill herself. I think she was having hallucinations. Yeah. She was,
yeah, she was in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a,
in a, in a mental state. And it was a tragedy. It was exactly. And people are like, oh, she was
(38:18):
possessed and this and that. And the hour someone was with her. Someone was, she was hiding from
someone. Yeah. So this happened in 2013 and she was a, she was a guest of the stay on main
hostel area of the hotel, I believe. Yeah. She was in the hostel part or at least she started out in
(38:42):
the hostel. And then they had to move her because her roommates were complaining about her.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So they, then they moved her to the fifth floor, I think. Yeah. And I remember
that part now. Yeah. So she disappears and then whenever the police are looking for her, they
(39:11):
release the security footage from the hotel to the public, hoping that somebody can help,
we'll have some sort of insight or we'll know where she is, have seen her and the video footage
goes viral and just, it's like this huge media, social upheaval that, and all of these
(39:37):
internet YouTube sleuths all start trying to figure this out because she's like behaving
really erratically in the security footage. Like she's going into the, it's footage from the
elevator and she comes into the elevator and starts pushing all of the buttons and then is
looking out the door and hiding in the corner. And it's just very, very weird. Yeah. And it looks,
(40:05):
it does look like she's possessed in the video and her hand movements and everything.
But people really took it too far. I think it's really sad because this person, and especially
the family, like deserves respect and they just, I don't know, it's also a weird fascination.
(40:25):
I find it strange how people can get so hyper fixated on something like that and assume
the most insane thing. It just, yeah. Or they start trying to like connect all of these things.
They really don't have a connection. I mean, there were some weird things with this.
Like, I mean, they're like, it looked, it appeared that the video had been tampered with,
(40:49):
like the timing was weird. There was like a chunk of time missing that you could like see places
where the video had been cut because suddenly the elevator door is open and she's like,
the elevator door is open. And then just suddenly it like jumps to the, it's already six inches
closed. So there's like weird stuff. So I can see where people get carried away with it. But
(41:13):
there's, but they really start to like get crazy, carried away. Like they immediately
jumped to the conclusion that the police are hiding something or covering something up because
it takes months for the autopsy results to be released. And it's like, guys, come on, this is
not the only, you know, strange death that has occurred in Los Angeles. The police are not just
(41:40):
dealing with this one case. Like, of course it's going to take months for toxicology reports and
all of that stuff to come back. There are other things being investigated too. I mean, things
take forever. And especially in like with anything bureaucratic, it's going to be,
you know, a long time, but also why do they have to give it to the public so quickly?
(42:04):
Yeah. Well, and also you don't want them to rush because then they're going to miss something or
get something wrong. And I saw on the third episode, they're like one of the internet people
is like, well, you know, nobody can get ahold of the police file and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, nobody is allowed to see into police files. That's like a normal thing. Why are you
(42:25):
guys acting like they're trying to cover something up? Yeah, they're making, they're stirring the pot.
I think that's what I don't like is that it causes more issues for people who never, who don't
deserve it. Like I got interest personally interested, but then you get like crazy people
and they start bothering the family. Like there really is no boundary. And so like you need to,
(42:46):
you're not helping, you know, it's just like the second you get a little bit too
fast, it's like, you know, just find a new hobby. Start a podcast. Not about that, but yeah,
it was really sad. And so to finish the story, if someone isn't familiar with Alisa Lam's story, but
(43:15):
she goes missing and then over, was it the next few months or was it like weeks? It was weeks.
It was like 19 days. Yeah. The, the water pressure and the hotel is being weird. The water coming
out of the sinks are, you know, it's discolored. Like there's something doesn't taste right.
(43:37):
Something's wrong. Someone checks the water tanks on the roof and they found her body in a
water tank. And that's like the most controversial part of that. And it's really sad, but I can't
imagine what that was like for that person. But there's this whole thing was, was the water tank
(43:58):
closed or open? You know, was it a murder? Was it, it was open? Well, they keep saying that, oh,
well, when the police got up there, the water tank was closed, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
well, yeah, because the guy who had to go check the water tank had like, had to look in and then
he probably put the lid back on. So of course it was closed when the police got up there.
(44:24):
Yeah. But when he got there, it was open. Well, that's what nobody will say. Like nobody says
when the worker found it, it was like this. All they say is when the police got up there,
it was closed. I'm like, well, duh, cause the police weren't the first ones to be there.
Yeah. I think they say it at the end or like, they basically make sure that's what the, the
(44:46):
thing that I got from it, the documentary was at the end. They're like, yeah, it was open.
But the professional people were saying that not the sleuths that wanted it to be closed.
Right. Yeah. So, but yeah, it's, oh my God. And then something else is that people were then
obsessed with the hotel for the hot reason and they were coming and they were sneaking and
(45:08):
they were putting their lives at risk because one, it's a dangerous place to be in general,
but two, like they were climbing the fire escapes and going on the roof and like
we were being reckless and an obsession they had. And she talks about that in the book a lot.
It's like, oh, we found another person trying to make a movie. And then they were like,
(45:33):
I'm trying to make a movie on the roof. It's just, it's so weird. It's yeah. And then also
people didn't want to drink the, what the staff didn't want to drink the water, even after they
cleaned the, you know, everything was fine. Oh yeah. I don't blame them. I don't blame them.
Cause it's not a rational thing. It's, it's just, once you know, you're like, I can't, I can't do.
(45:58):
Yeah. You could never ever again. No, absolutely not. Well, and so it turns out that
Elisa had bipolar disorder and she had medications that she was supposed to be taking. And she
wasn't like had a history of stopping her medications at certain points and then behaving
(46:21):
erratically and trying to hide and things like that. So it does seem like it was pretty
straightforward of she wasn't taking her medication properly. She had a mental episode
of some sorts and it was just a tragic accident. Yeah. It was really, really sad. But I think that
(46:42):
the hotel got, it definitely gave him a boost of publicity and attention and probably business that
he didn't really ask for, but they probably didn't mind. I'm sure it did boost their tourism
to a certain extent. It still does. I mean, people like, if you just Google it, people stand outside
(47:07):
and they talk about it. Like I just went and looked at videos on YouTube and everyone has
a fascination with this hotel. Every single person she mentioned in the book,
I mean, needs to have their own TV show and write a book about their life.
(47:29):
And I would watch and read every single one. Yeah. Cause I always wonder like what, what happened
in a person's life where they end up living in this as a tenant at the Cecil hotel, where usually
people, the only people living there are having a rough time. And some of them were seemed like
(47:52):
they were having a very rough time. Like she tells some upsetting stories about a woman that seemed
to possibly be being held hostage, but who couldn't speak English and like, wouldn't let anybody see
her face. Like that was very weird and disturbing. Okay. That whole story, when she's saying that
(48:15):
story, I thought she was going to say that that woman was found dead. Yeah, I did too. But then
she kept that, but then too many people saw her and she finally met her. But should we give away
that story? Can we spoil it? If you don't want to know, cause you think you're going to read this
(48:40):
book, then jump ahead. So basically this, this woman goes missing. And she, well, she got first,
there's a man that lives in the hotel. He has a, he calls her his wife or sister. And this woman
goes into this room and then has never seen again, but whenever they check the room, she hides under
(49:05):
the blankets, like she's like still and cockroaches are coming out of like the blankets or something.
Oh yes. He's, this man is a hoarder. It's disgusting. Like the descriptions of some of the
states, these rooms were in where you would get nauseous. Like it's really, you know what it makes,
it makes my neighbor who is a hoarder, I have a neighbor who's a hoarder seem like the cleanest
(49:31):
person in the world. Like, you know, it's, it makes it look good. That's how bad it is.
So this woman, she apparently, we don't know if she's dead or alive. The sky sounds right,
the sky sounds right, sounds very weird and mean and all that stuff. And the family of the woman
(49:54):
is like trying to find her. And, you know, basically the main, the author talks about this.
She's very concerned. She wants to help this woman. There's nothing she can do. Everyone's like,
no, there's nothing you can do, blah, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden,
I don't know how many years later, but the guy dies. And then what happened to him? He died of
(50:14):
a heart attack? Yeah, I think he just died of natural causes. Yeah, I thought it was suspicious.
And the woman was seen laughing and like so jockey. Yeah, she was just like laughing hysterically.
Yeah. And apparently she was also seemed happy when the author saw her run away. And she was
(50:36):
like, I think it was the first time I saw her. And then all of a sudden, I don't know. And she
was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
And then the author saw her. But like before, like there was something must have been wrong.
There's like a disorder that the joker has and a lot of, there are a lot of people who have other
(51:02):
stories that are like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just
like had no idea what was going on. But the whole story was so bizarre. And
do you think it was the same woman? But maybe he brought this woman in.
(51:22):
He something happened to her and he found another woman.
And one of the maintenance guys who was telling Amy Price about her had seen her because she used
to leave the hotel room. Like she would, she would leave every once in a while. And so they knew what
she looked like. But then just like after a certain point, I think that they, maybe they had to change
(51:43):
rooms or something. And after they changed rooms, that's when she stopped coming out. And so they
knew it was the same woman, but he also like slightly would change the name that he had
originally given for their ledger. Like he had given a specific name for the, for the guest ledger.
And then he started calling her something different than what was in there. It was like similar,
(52:06):
but it was not exactly the same. And yeah, and he could never decide if she was his wife or his
sister. Like, yeah, it was because she didn't speak English. Nobody could determine if she
really wanted to be there or not, but she would refuse to leave if they asked her to.
So there was really nothing she could do. Yeah. I guess she did want to be there, but it just,
(52:27):
that story was so weird. I don't know if we described it right, but it just,
even she said it's the most disturbing story that she experienced. Yeah. Looking at the hotel. And
I understand why, even though I'm like, oh, I thought she's going to find a dead body. I thought
the whole time this man had a wife or a woman. Thinks she's alive and it's just decomposed.
(52:51):
Yeah. I feel like that was going to happen. So I was going at the darkest, darkest thing.
And so this made it seem like, oh my God, thank God. Yeah. Oh my God. I know. Yeah.
There's just so many, the book is so good. She really liked the stories that she has and
every single person she talks about is crazier than the next person. And, but then so
(53:17):
these are very, it's amazing for working at a place like that because she really, like,
she really did the best she can and she dealt with these people really well.
I don't know anyone who can do that. Yeah. She sounds like she has a lot of patients
because I don't know that I could have worked there for a decade dealing with all of that.
(53:40):
But she also sounded like she kind of was addicted to the drama. A little bit. Yeah.
I really like this one. Yeah. Yeah. This was a good pick. This book has so many
just characters in it and you never know what's going to happen next. Like what she's going to
talk about next every time you think, okay, that's going to be the craziest story. Like
she's not going to top that. She does. So it's no wonder that this hotel was the inspiration for one
(54:08):
of the seasons of American Horror Story. I saw that. I didn't watch it. I didn't watch it.
I saw that. I didn't watch that season, but I saw that it was the inspiration. I'm watching.
Yeah. I started it, but I never finished it. It was, I remember it starting off pretty strong.
I mean, it's the season with Lady Gaga in it too, right? Oh, it was the fifth season
(54:30):
and it centered around the mysterious Hotel Cortez in Los Angeles.
Probably the scene of disturbing and paranormal events overseen by its enigmatic staff. The
location loosely based on the Cecil Hotel. Something I also realized paranormal activity.
(54:58):
She didn't mention any. I don't think she experienced any.
No, it kind of sounds like that was not, honestly, she was, I think the living were enough.
Cause yeah, it's supposed to be the most haunted hotel in Los Angeles, but I, and also on the,
(55:21):
some of the articles I read, like I didn't read any mentions of paranormal stuff.
Yeah. I think there can't be that many stories of paranormal because it's still being used and the
crazy overpowers the paranormal. Like if you're there, you're a lot of other things that are
(55:42):
actually like from some of the, like from these stories, like if you're a ghost in the Cecil,
you're not going to out crazy. The people that are living there. I'm sorry. You don't,
you don't have what it takes. So I have a theory about why I don't think the Cecil Hotel is actually
haunted yet. I think that the ghosts are scared of the people. And I think that they've gone through
(56:07):
enough that they're going to probably go haunt a nicer hotel. Yeah. Or any other place from their
past. Yeah. I think I got it goes, come back to where the trauma happened, but I think the
Cecil is just like, they're like, you know what? I'm good. They're supposed to like freak people
(56:28):
out a little, right? So it's not going to be like, can you hear my shoes? They're going to have to
compete with like fighting and throttles throwing against the wall. Like it's just, yeah, it's not
fun. Yeah. There's already so probably so much chaos happening that you can't, you can't compete
(56:51):
with that. Can you imagine being a ghost there and you look out the window of whatever room
you're haunting and there's somebody on the fire escape masturbating. Cause that's something that
happens in the book. So not the ghost part, but yeah, there's so much that happens in the book.
I can't, I'm like trying to go through everything and be like, do we miss a good story? Yeah,
(57:16):
we definitely missed a good story. I feel like this is an episode a lot of people have been
anticipating. So I know people, they're, there's something about the Cecil hotel that people just
get like excited about. Yeah. It's, it's very macabre. I mean, it definitely has that, whatever
(57:36):
that thing is that makes people into true crime and tragedy tourism. Like it has that in spades.
It's yeah, there's so much just fascinating and dark and unsettling and it still exists.
Yeah. So I mean, even though now it's being used for something else, which I'm sure has stories,
(58:00):
but she was the general manager up until like what 2017, 2017. Oh, I thought it was even before that.
So it kind of, you know, people can, whatever it still exists, it sounds like a place that
shouldn't exist anymore, or that would have been like totally changed by now. Yeah. That's why
(58:23):
I like it too.
Thanks for listening to Hotel History. You can follow us on most social media platforms,
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(58:47):
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Hotel history is created for adult audiences. Content may not be suitable for all listeners.
(00:06):
Discretion is advised.
You're listening to Hotel History. We take you with us through the sordid history and
scandals of some of the world's most famous and infamous hotels. I'm D'Etta.
And I'm Yael. Let's get started.
This is our second book club episode. And the book that we chose is Behind the Door,
(00:36):
Cecil Hotel by Amy Price. So obviously we picked the Cecil because everyone has asked us to do it.
Well, it's iconic. You can't have a hotel podcast and not eventually talk about the Cecil.
Oh, is it Cecil or Cecil?
(00:58):
I think it's however, whatever region you come from, how they say that name.
I don't know.
No, it's Cecil. I've been saying Cecil like a fucking idiot. Oh my God. I say it. I don't
know why naturally I want to say Cecil. It looks like Cecil. But everyone pronounces it Cecil,
(01:22):
I think. But yeah, that's just me messing up everything I say on the podcast. It's just
what I do. But I will say that since day one of mentioning to people, oh, I have a hotel podcast,
everyone's like, did you do the Cecil Hotel? Are you going to do it? Are you going to do it?
(01:43):
Did you do it? Have you heard of it? I'm like, yeah, don't worry. It's coming. It's just,
we need, we have to find the right moment. We need a good Halloween moment to do it.
Yeah. And just, I mean, there for a while, everybody was talking about it. So, you know,
have to kind of wait a little while, let some time pass so our episode doesn't get lost in the fray.
(02:04):
Yeah, that's true. But I think it's still a hot topic when you even Google it. Like there's still
news about it. Yeah, I just saw an article from July of this year about it. Which is crazy. But
(02:26):
what's great about, I think also what's rare about this book is that it doesn't go into
it doesn't go into conspiracy theories that much, but it just goes into her experience and it makes
a lot more sense. Yeah, I really appreciate that it has that extra layer of, it's not just another
(02:46):
history book about a famous place, but you know, Amy Price worked there for 10 years. And so it
really is her experience, her perceptions, the things that she saw day in and day out. And so
it's like, it is really a nice look behind the door that that you wouldn't have gotten to
otherwise know about besides just all of the famous stories. Yeah. And she was the general manager,
(03:13):
but she didn't start out obviously as the general manager. She, in the book, she says that she was
hired to design a hotel room or like two hotel rooms. Yeah, that's a great book. And so it's
like two hotel rooms. Yeah, they were trying to get investors from Best Western. So she was
(03:33):
just supposed to match a Best Western typical hotel room, make it look exactly like that.
And that would be the end of the job. It was supposed to take like three days or something.
I'm shocked. I, the more like she talks about it and there's so much to the hotel, but that's,
someone was like lying to them about the building and the rules because yeah, when you invest in
(03:58):
old buildings in a city, of course there's regulations that are insane. And who, at this
point, who wouldn't be buying that building and making it amazing? Yeah. Because it's so old and
historic, although the location is not great, but maybe that if they redid it, that would bring the,
right. That's part of the lore, right? She talks about that. Yeah. She says everyone's like, no,
(04:23):
no, downtown LA is going to, it's going to happen. Like everything's going to be amazing.
You just watch like in 10 years from now, it's going to be so nice. Newsflash, it was not.
The power of Skid Row is stronger than your dreams.
So that's where, well, we should mention the Cecil Hotel is on seventh and main, I believe.
(04:51):
Am I, I might be wrong exactly on the street, but I know it's on main. It's in the historic
district of downtown LA and it is like two blocks away from Skid Row. And anyone who knows LA knows
that downtown LA is like, it's like a hot steaming pile of garbage. Like there's, there's pool areas.
(05:17):
Every, every few blocks, it's a totally different vibe. Yeah. The historic district is just, and
it's so sad because it's so, the building is so old. It's so old. It's so old. It's so old. It's
just, and it's so sad because it's so, the buildings are so beautiful. It's just disgusting.
(05:40):
That's the only way it's, it's really beautiful down there, but it's also really unsafe, really
dirty, smelly. And I've worked there. And I've, I've worked around there. I used to hang out
all the time in downtown, but you know where I used to hang out the most was like little Tokyo
and arts district, which is a lot safer and nicer, although not, it wasn't always, but nicer than that
(06:08):
part of downtown. So there's like different areas, but just a warning. If you're thinking of going
there, just go during the day at the very least, go during the day, wear a nose bug and don't talk
(06:29):
to anyone. Don't make eye contact. I mean, maybe we're making it sound harsher than it is, but.
You know, I always think that I'm like, oh, we're being too harsh about it. But then I go downtown
again and I'm like, oh, no, no, that's, that's pretty, that's pretty accurate. Yeah. Well,
when I was just down there, I get anxiety hearing these stories because I know how aggressive it
(06:54):
can be. Like downtown is aggressive, but there was a guy who was talking, screaming, not talking,
screaming to himself. And he was so aggressive. He was like waving his hands. He took glass bottles
off the floor and started throwing them at a fence. There's a bunch of people nearby. Like you don't
know where he's going to throw it. My manager, you know, I'm not going to say the whole story,
(07:21):
but basically got attacked by, you know, someone from the street and just like.
This is, there's no rhyme or reason. It's really dangerous. So, and that's the kind of people that
congregate in downtown. Like it just, it's another level. And I get, there are like the
(07:43):
downtown lovers who are just like, oh no, downtown's amazing.
I just don't, it could be amazing, but it's not. First of all, I just feel like I'm dying down there.
I don't know if you feel that way. Like I'm dying, like breathing in the air. You can't get a fresh
air. And I'm from New York. So you think, you think that like, no, you can handle it. It's like all of
(08:05):
New York, but none of the fun stuff. It's all the shittiest parts of New York. It's like New York
in the nineties, but no New York landmarks. Everything is so outdated and it's, it's like
beyond dangerous. And then in the heart of it is the Cecil Hotel.
(08:29):
The author goes into lots and lots of different stories about the people who were living there,
because it wasn't at the time, it was classified as a residential hotel because they had long-term
tenants. And so they had some hotel guests coming mostly from out of state and out of the country,
(08:50):
because anybody from California probably knows what the Cecil is and is not going to book it.
But then they also had these long-term tenants that had super cheap rent.
And when she first started working there, people could come in and like pay in cash and not like
give an ID or anything like that. So it definitely drew a certain type of crowd that, that kept its
(09:16):
reputation the way it is.
Yeah, the hotel was built in 1924 and pretty much didn't have a lot of
success after the Great Depression. It like, it was nice. And then quickly the Great Depression
came and it like was shit and it stayed shitty for the past hundred years almost.
(09:39):
Yeah, because a lot of the hotels that we've covered, like they had a tough time during the
depression, but then World War II like boosted them back up and then they were good until about
the seventies when they, a lot of them dipped again. But yeah, it's like the Cecil just
could not recover. Yeah, they started having a reputation, I think in the twenties of being like
(10:05):
a place people would go, you know, to do seedy things. And then in the fifties, it was known
that like you went there with the prostitutes and stuff.
Yeah, this hotel has had so many deaths happen at it. And the very first suicide happens in 1927.
(10:26):
So the hotel is less than, you know, is not even five years old, it's three years old and a guest
shoots himself. So it really just started downhill pretty much immediately. Like in 1931, a guest died
after taking poison capsules. Yeah. Like I saw several, there's a Wikipedia of all the different
(10:49):
deaths that have happened there. And several of them were from people taking, ingesting some kind
of poison, especially in the thirties. Everyone knew that that was the place to do that.
Even back then, because I don't think they cared the other people, they didn't care.
(11:11):
They cared much about their residents. Like when you read about other hotels, the concierge or the
front desk would be like, they were suspicious. We told this, people just go and they're like,
have a good day. You know, you can, you can, you can, you can check out, but you can never leave
(11:31):
situations, but like no one cared. Yeah. I don't know. So I don't know if the decline is, oh, it
has been just managing the hotel and the workers, or is it also the location? Cause yes, the
location's not great, but I mean, this was a long time ago and it started like that. Yeah. Like the
(11:52):
suicide started before Skid Row was a thing. So it definitely predates its bad location because I mean,
LA is, is really turning into something in the twenties. So this should have been a prime spot
in downtown LA. There is no other, almost is no other part of LA except downtown LA at this time.
(12:17):
LA was so underdeveloped. Downtown is like, that's why downtown has a historic district.
Yeah. At the time, they probably didn't even call it downtown at the time. It was just town.
Yeah. This one story that I found from 1944 is just upsetting and mind boggling. So this 19 year
(12:48):
old girl was staying in the hotel with her 38 year old boyfriend and she started having stomach
pains. So she went to the bathroom so she wouldn't wake her boyfriend up and ended up giving birth to
a baby on the floor. And she didn't even know she was pregnant. And then she thought that the,
(13:10):
Oh my God, I've seen that episode on TLC.
I'm 16 and pregnant. She thought that her,
The show, I didn't know I was pregnant. You know?
Oh yes. Oh my God. Yes. Where they give birth to babies in the toilet.
In the toilet. Yes, the toilet baby. There's an episode of the righteous gemstones where she's
(13:32):
like, I don't want to have a toilet baby. Anyway. So she, for some reason, she thought that the baby
was dead. I guess she thought it was stillborn. And so she threw it out of the window and it landed
on the roof of the building next door, but I guess they figured out it was not dead. And so she was
(13:57):
put on trial, but they found her not guilty because of insanity. And they sent her in for
psychiatric treatment. I mean, she's obviously insane. Even if that baby is stillborn, you don't
throw it out the baby. You just pooped out the toilet and throw it out the window. Like, oops.
(14:21):
You didn't see that one coming. Yeah. Like every step of this story, it's just like, I'm sorry.
What? I'm sorry. What? Yeah. That's disgusting. Yeah. I just also, I have so many questions,
but I don't want to get into it because then it'll just get like too many gory details. But
(14:45):
yeah, it attracts, the Cecil Hotel attracts fucking crazy people. And in the book,
she's always a little surprised. Like I thought he was. She's from the Midwest. And yes, I blame
a lot of it on that. Like she does come off as super naive. I mean, I'm not from a big city.
(15:13):
I'm from a tiny, tiny little town and I can still look at somebody and be like,
no, there's some, there's nobody's right. Yeah. I think also Texas is just like a different
place. I think it gives you a little bit more reality. Maybe checks in my mind, just like
(15:33):
having the meth lab neighbors can really... That's fair. I think you've seen it. Yeah.
I think there are Midwesterners who like really have never seen anything.
Genuinely. Yeah. They don't know what drug addiction looks like. They don't know, yeah,
how people can act. Like shady characters. Yeah. Which she does though, because she went to a
rehab or even though she pretended... That's true.
(15:57):
She went to a rehab, pretended to be a drug addict. So she's seen it. So I think it gave her
a sense of like, I'm comfortable with this and I recognize it. But then there's also the naive
aspect where she was with her ex-boyfriend. Yeah.
There's just something... She picks up quickly, but I just think that, yeah,
(16:25):
everyone that walks through that door assume they're not well. I would never assume any of them...
Yeah, honestly, just based on her description of the way the building smelled, the very first day
she went in there and smelled that, that right there tells you, oh, things are not well here.
(16:45):
And you should just assume everything is off from there on. You should never think that anybody who
is willingly going into that building to live is okay.
I actually think smell is the most important signal about a situation than anything else.
(17:07):
Because I live in a shitty building and it should have been a big indication that there's something
wrong with my neighbors and the building. When I started to smell weird things, I was like,
I started to smell weird things. Yeah. As you know, I always complain about the smell.
Yeah, it's a sign. Don't ignore the smell. Yeah, you have your senses for a reason.
(17:33):
They are trying to keep you alive. Your eyes can fool you. Yeah.
It's true. As she mentions in the book, like, you look normal.
She had a smell. Yeah. She must have gotten used to the smell.
(17:54):
That's true. You do go nose blind after you've been in the same area for a while. So yeah.
I have that. I don't know how to go nose blind. I'm still learning.
So whenever I was doing a little bit of the background on the Sea Soul, I did not realize
(18:15):
that Elizabeth Short stayed at the Sea Soul. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had no idea.
That was the connection. That's why it's brought, like, they bring it up, I think,
in a couple of documentaries I've seen. And she might have mentioned it. But it's not,
(18:37):
the thing about Elizabeth Short, or better known as the Black Dahlia, is that it was like a
brief connection to the hotel, but it didn't really have anything to do with her death, I think.
She was found in South LA in Leemont Park. I just watched the movie. I just watched the movie,
(18:58):
The Black Dahlia, and then I went on a deep Black Dahlia hole. But do you know anything about the
Black Dahlia? Because I read about it. I knew about it a little bit, grisly murder, whatever.
But I didn't go deep into it. Yeah, I know some, because I watched the movie. And I've read a
(19:21):
little bit about it. There's like, the lead person, the lead suspect of the case was this guy, and his
son, who's an LAPD cop, or retired now, I guess, wrote a book saying, like, it was my dad.
And he didn't know. He only found out later. And he wrote a whole book about, or something.
(19:47):
There's even a show about it, how he was like, yeah, I found out it was my dad. Here's all the
evidence. And so it's one of those things where they never found the guy. But I mean, LA was so
corrupt back then that you never know really what happened. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah, it's really
interesting. And so so horrible. I still don't understand it. Like, why someone would do that.
(20:14):
But you know, I'm not a murderer. So yeah, true.
There's been a few famous murderers that have stayed at the Cecil Hotel. One of them is Richard
Ramirez, the Night Stalker, who basically like killed a bunch of people by just sneaking into
(20:35):
their house. He would find like people who left their doors open or windows and he would kill,
rape, kill, mutilate, torture, like all the worst things. Yeah, specifically women. He would torture
the women. If he found a man, I think he just killed him. But for the most part, he would do
disgusting things to the women. And a lot of the times there were older women like he killed. He
(20:59):
raped and killed like grandmothers. Yeah, he would target elderly couples. Yeah, it was really
bizarre. And then, yeah, he was apparently doing this while also sometimes staying at the Cecil
Hotel. And I don't know if it was the Night Stalker documentary that I read this or maybe in my hand,
(21:20):
but people who were living there or saw him even said he was like creepy and dark. Yeah.
They if people at the Cecil Hotel are like that dude, he's watch out for that one. Yeah. So yeah,
like apparently he would actually throw his bloody clothes into the Cecil's dumpster and then walk
(21:43):
through the lobby either naked or in his underwear. Oh, yeah. To his room. And so this this journalist
Josh Dean wrote, none of which raised an eyebrow since the Cecil in the in the 80s was total
unmitigated chaos. Yeah, that's what that's what I'm saying. Like, was anyone working? Yeah, like
(22:07):
how like how bad is a place that somebody walks like regularly walks through the lobby in their
underwear and you're like, oh, that's just richie. Well, apparently, they're probably just like one
guy collecting, you know, the rent or the money and like, it's not my problem. Yeah. But at least
with decades later, when by the time this author comes along to work in the hotel, it's it's bad.
(22:35):
And she definitely finds a lot of dead bodies. And she mentions that. But it's not nearly as bad
as it was in the 80s. Yeah, it's it's not murders. It's just suicides and death by like natural
causes, overdoses. Well, some people murdered their partners or there were like some weird, but it
(22:58):
wasn't like murder, mass murderers. Yeah, whatever. But yeah, it was at least the cops would come only
when there was like a dead body. Yeah. So I think the amount of times there's actually in the back
of the book, there's a whole list of the notes that would be left at the front desk by the employees,
(23:20):
like for her and the number of them that say we called the police, the police never came. It's
just upsetting. Yeah, that happened. L.A. in general is like that. I feel like big cities are like
that, but in downtown. Yeah, there's so there's so many emergencies happening that your emergency
(23:41):
has to be pretty bad for them to spare. And they probably if they get a call, they know where it's
coming from. They're just like, OK, is it that bad? Yeah. Does it work? A couple of times. Yeah.
Because if we're coming down there, it better be bad.
Yeah. But I mean, I'm not going in order of all like the crazy things that happened,
(24:06):
but there was another murderer who came from Austria. Right. Yeah. I forgot his name,
Jack. And their wigger under vigor. Yeah. So this guy, he was a copycat of Ramirez
and he purposely went to the Cecil because he knew like that's the place to go. That's where
(24:27):
Ramirez stayed. And he he strangled and killed at least three prostitutes in the hotel and he
strangled them with their own bras. Now, that is fucking scary. Am I worth it? Yeah. I have to say
good luck doing that with my stretched out ass bras. I'd be like one.
(24:49):
You have time to fight back. I'd be like, you really need to keep up with your lingerie. This is sad.
Last time we went shopping. But yeah, that's that's crazy. But it's crazy we came all the way here.
He had to know he he fled Austria because he was killing people and he'd already been in prison for
(25:18):
murdering somebody. And then some other people like started dying in the area that he was in.
And so he was a suspect. So he fled that area and the murder stopped. And as soon as he got to LA
murder started. Yeah. OK. But I have a question. How did he get released from jail after they found
(25:41):
out he was a murderer? I guess he served his time because I think he said he was in jail for like
13 years or something. But maybe maybe good behavior. I don't know. Just like the system is
like, but I don't know, like they should have kept him there for life. Maybe just a suggestion.
(26:04):
Let's you know, someone someone takes place. It's not like I feel like murder cases vary so much
because there's obviously accidental or even like gang related or like acts of passion, like not the
same as premeditated. I am going to sexually assault and murder someone and then I'm going to
(26:26):
keep doing it because I like the way it makes me feel. Yeah. If he does it once, that's enough for
him to go away for life. I feel like in the U.S. he would have been sentenced for life. I hope so.
I mean, I guess I think he was extradited. So I don't. So I will never know, I guess, because he
(26:46):
I think he got he was charged and and sentenced again in Austria. Oh, so he might be out.
I mean, you think they learn their lesson. Yeah. What do you think jail is for? Like,
I don't think it's like just a punishment. It's to keep these people from hurting other
(27:10):
yeah. Away from the rest of us. There were so many suicides at the Cecil Hotel that they started
to call the place the suicide. Oh, yeah. This it had the Cecil like I usually love all the
(27:30):
different nicknames that are given to hotels, but the Cecil has some really bad ones. So there's the
suicide, there's hotel death, the place where dreams go to die. Like, my god, that's such sad.
Yeah, it's really. It's a dark, sad place, and it's
(27:56):
it's really where it attracts dark, sad people. Yeah. One of the worst suicides that happened was
a woman who jumped from her ninth floor window after an argument with her husband.
She fell on a man walking by and killed him. They both died instantly.
(28:19):
Like, how awful that you even have the bad luck to just walk by the Cecil and you die.
It's horrible. That was in 1962. Yeah. Yeah. That is not the last time people have
like killed themselves through throwing themselves off. Yeah, that was super. That was a very popular
(28:46):
and then they didn't fix the windows. At least I don't think they fixed the windows
even after that. Because in the book she mentions it, and that's in the 2000s that they had that
issue. So a big theme in the book is that a lot of the problems this hotel has is it's old and they
(29:11):
need to fix things. And aside from not having any money, they had so many like, they have, it's
like the amount of red tape that they have to go through and that they still couldn't get through
to this day. They couldn't redo the hotel at all. Yeah, because it was a residential hotel,
they basically couldn't do anything except cosmetic improvements. And the whole thing needed an
(29:36):
overhaul. And most of the rooms, because it was built in the 20s, when having your own bathroom
in your suite was a thing, a lot of the rooms have shared bathroom facilities, which is just
immediately a non-starter for most people when paying for a hotel. Yeah, that's, they can never
(29:58):
be like a part of real, you know, hotel competition because I'm sorry, but absolutely not. That's
disgusting. Yeah. So I mean, what they started trying to do after Amy Price started working
there was not in theory a bad idea. They decided to take some three of the floors and turn them
(30:19):
into a hostel because, you know, students that stay in hostels are more willing to deal with
a group bathroom situation because it's just more typical because, you know, you're trying to travel
on the cheap. And so you're willing to pay less money to have to deal with more inconvenience.
So it wasn't a bad idea if they, they, what they did was they were able to take these three floors
(30:44):
that were separate from where the tenants were living and separate from the upper floors of the
hotel. And so they basically tried to have two hotels within the same building and they called
the hostel stay on main and they like made it bright colors and super inviting. And they even
were able to block off like a section of the lobby and give it its own lobby, like its own separate
(31:08):
entrance and lobby area so that the hostel guests didn't really even have to interact at all with
the Cecil, except whenever they were using the shared elevators, which was probably the most
interesting interaction. Oh my God. Yeah. Only, only poor students would probably, but that,
(31:33):
you know, it's interesting. She said that after, or was that much later that it was popular for a
while. Yeah. Like when they first opened, it was really popular and they got really good reviews
and they had a little coffee shop that was really popular next to it. And it seemed like to be
(31:54):
really great, but it's like, they just couldn't, because the elevators were shared, they couldn't
necessarily keep the tenants and the questionable guests of the Cecil hotel area out of the stay on
main area. And so then they started having issues with that and the smells and, and yeah, just as
(32:15):
you can imagine, like, Oh, and, oh, and because they had no air conditioning or heating, because
that was one of the renovations that they weren't allowed to do. Yeah. I don't think they can,
they still can't do it because not only is it a residential hotel, like that's what it's
marked as, but it's now a historic landmark, which makes it, or historic, it's some historic,
(32:40):
uh, you know, I don't know if it's a landmark, but what is it? A historical hotel or something. So it
basically is a more expensive to do anything to, there's a lot of rules and regulations,
especially to the exterior and like all this stuff. It makes it so difficult. And if you have a ton
(33:03):
of money to invest, there's no point. So it just, it's sad because I think the city of LA is why
this, the Cecil is such shit. Yeah. Yeah. It could have been, it could have been completely revamped
and turned into something amazing if they would have just allowed them to do anything. Yeah. And
(33:28):
even now, I mean, yeah, sure. It's a residential hotel. And so there's like issues with trying to
not to make sure that the hotel owners don't like take away housing and, you know, habitable areas
or make fewer rooms for the tenants and stuff like that. But I'm sure the people who lived there
would have appreciated air conditioning and new plumbing. Yeah. And, and it's like now it's still
(33:56):
kind of a shack now, even though it's permanent housing. I found out that my coworker went there.
She, I think she like, she, she had a job there or something. She was checking in on, so I forgot
what the story was. And she's like, they have huge rents. Yeah. And then I just watched something on
(34:20):
the news about it and how these people who are living there, the transitional, you know, housing
that these people are going through, it's a disrepair. It's disgusting. There's rats and
it's moldy and it's, it's like, and they're never going to let it, like, what is the point of this
building? If you can't fix it, I just don't understand. Like you can preserve its history.
(34:46):
You don't have to tear down the whole building. You could talk about, you know, all the crazy
things that happened, but give it like a new life, give it some hope. You don't have to keep it
for housing. They deserve better than that. If they let someone actually fix it.
Yes. Yeah. Do like you think that, oh, that a roof is the only thing that they need?
(35:10):
They need something that's not a health hazard. But that's the thing. Why can't someone in the
city just designated as something else? What is so difficult about this? Like I don't understand.
This is where, you know, I get confused about how stuff works, but it's really sad. It really,
(35:34):
it's such a gem. Like there, I feel like they can do so much with this hotel, like make it a haunted
house. Just make it into like a permanent house. A 50 story, 600 room haunted house. Oh my God.
Just turn it into a spirit Halloween, you know? Yeah. No, maybe the first floor, the gift
(36:00):
but you can knock down the wall. You can do a light. It doesn't have that.
The roots are like a closet size. They're like a hundred square feet or 150 square feet. They're
tiny. Yeah. So they're called micro apartments. It's called pods.
(36:20):
So if you knock down like five of them, you could have a decent room or apartment, whatever they can,
they, you know, in the book, they talk about this. People come and they have all these plans and
everyone's so excited and no one does any of the research. And then it all, all the hope slowly
goes down the drain and it's really sad. Yeah. And you can even, when she talks about that, it's just,
(36:44):
it's like depressing. You know what's happening in the book because it's, everyone knows the
Cecil. Like she doesn't, it's, it's just like, Oh my God. I don't know. Yeah.
But there's also that famous story that everyone wants us to talk about. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Of all
the sad things that happened, like the story of Elisa Lam is one of the saddest. No. Yeah. That was,
(37:13):
that was heartbreaking. There's a lot of conspiracy around that. And I don't,
I mean, because I watched the documentary, I was like, you didn't finish it, right? Oh yeah. I'm on
the last episode. Oh, okay. The, the, yeah. All of the, the internet made this story so much worse.
(37:33):
Yeah, they did. I mean, this, it's, it's pretty straightforward in my opinion.
But that's cause I'm always skeptical of like these, you know, supernatural stories. It's that
a young woman who is not well, had an episode and unfortunately, I don't think she like committed
(37:57):
suicide. Like she wanted to kill herself. I think she was having hallucinations. Yeah. She was,
yeah, she was in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a,
in a, in a mental state. And it was a tragedy. It was exactly. And people are like, oh, she was
(38:18):
possessed and this and that. And the hour someone was with her. Someone was, she was hiding from
someone. Yeah. So this happened in 2013 and she was a, she was a guest of the stay on main
hostel area of the hotel, I believe. Yeah. She was in the hostel part or at least she started out in
(38:42):
the hostel. And then they had to move her because her roommates were complaining about her.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So they, then they moved her to the fifth floor, I think. Yeah. And I remember
that part now. Yeah. So she disappears and then whenever the police are looking for her, they
(39:11):
release the security footage from the hotel to the public, hoping that somebody can help,
we'll have some sort of insight or we'll know where she is, have seen her and the video footage
goes viral and just, it's like this huge media, social upheaval that, and all of these
(39:37):
internet YouTube sleuths all start trying to figure this out because she's like behaving
really erratically in the security footage. Like she's going into the, it's footage from the
elevator and she comes into the elevator and starts pushing all of the buttons and then is
looking out the door and hiding in the corner. And it's just very, very weird. Yeah. And it looks,
(40:05):
it does look like she's possessed in the video and her hand movements and everything.
But people really took it too far. I think it's really sad because this person, and especially
the family, like deserves respect and they just, I don't know, it's also a weird fascination.
(40:25):
I find it strange how people can get so hyper fixated on something like that and assume
the most insane thing. It just, yeah. Or they start trying to like connect all of these things.
They really don't have a connection. I mean, there were some weird things with this.
Like, I mean, they're like, it looked, it appeared that the video had been tampered with,
(40:49):
like the timing was weird. There was like a chunk of time missing that you could like see places
where the video had been cut because suddenly the elevator door is open and she's like,
the elevator door is open. And then just suddenly it like jumps to the, it's already six inches
closed. So there's like weird stuff. So I can see where people get carried away with it. But
(41:13):
there's, but they really start to like get crazy, carried away. Like they immediately
jumped to the conclusion that the police are hiding something or covering something up because
it takes months for the autopsy results to be released. And it's like, guys, come on, this is
not the only, you know, strange death that has occurred in Los Angeles. The police are not just
(41:40):
dealing with this one case. Like, of course it's going to take months for toxicology reports and
all of that stuff to come back. There are other things being investigated too. I mean, things
take forever. And especially in like with anything bureaucratic, it's going to be,
you know, a long time, but also why do they have to give it to the public so quickly?
(42:04):
Yeah. Well, and also you don't want them to rush because then they're going to miss something or
get something wrong. And I saw on the third episode, they're like one of the internet people
is like, well, you know, nobody can get ahold of the police file and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, nobody is allowed to see into police files. That's like a normal thing. Why are you
(42:25):
guys acting like they're trying to cover something up? Yeah, they're making, they're stirring the pot.
I think that's what I don't like is that it causes more issues for people who never, who don't
deserve it. Like I got interest personally interested, but then you get like crazy people
and they start bothering the family. Like there really is no boundary. And so like you need to,
(42:46):
you're not helping, you know, it's just like the second you get a little bit too
fast, it's like, you know, just find a new hobby. Start a podcast. Not about that, but yeah,
it was really sad. And so to finish the story, if someone isn't familiar with Alisa Lam's story, but
(43:15):
she goes missing and then over, was it the next few months or was it like weeks? It was weeks.
It was like 19 days. Yeah. The, the water pressure and the hotel is being weird. The water coming
out of the sinks are, you know, it's discolored. Like there's something doesn't taste right.
(43:37):
Something's wrong. Someone checks the water tanks on the roof and they found her body in a
water tank. And that's like the most controversial part of that. And it's really sad, but I can't
imagine what that was like for that person. But there's this whole thing was, was the water tank
(43:58):
closed or open? You know, was it a murder? Was it, it was open? Well, they keep saying that, oh,
well, when the police got up there, the water tank was closed, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
well, yeah, because the guy who had to go check the water tank had like, had to look in and then
he probably put the lid back on. So of course it was closed when the police got up there.
(44:24):
Yeah. But when he got there, it was open. Well, that's what nobody will say. Like nobody says
when the worker found it, it was like this. All they say is when the police got up there,
it was closed. I'm like, well, duh, cause the police weren't the first ones to be there.
Yeah. I think they say it at the end or like, they basically make sure that's what the, the
(44:46):
thing that I got from it, the documentary was at the end. They're like, yeah, it was open.
But the professional people were saying that not the sleuths that wanted it to be closed.
Right. Yeah. So, but yeah, it's, oh my God. And then something else is that people were then
obsessed with the hotel for the hot reason and they were coming and they were sneaking and
(45:08):
they were putting their lives at risk because one, it's a dangerous place to be in general,
but two, like they were climbing the fire escapes and going on the roof and like
we were being reckless and an obsession they had. And she talks about that in the book a lot.
It's like, oh, we found another person trying to make a movie. And then they were like,
(45:33):
I'm trying to make a movie on the roof. It's just, it's so weird. It's yeah. And then also
people didn't want to drink the, what the staff didn't want to drink the water, even after they
cleaned the, you know, everything was fine. Oh yeah. I don't blame them. I don't blame them.
Cause it's not a rational thing. It's, it's just, once you know, you're like, I can't, I can't do.
(45:58):
Yeah. You could never ever again. No, absolutely not. Well, and so it turns out that
Elisa had bipolar disorder and she had medications that she was supposed to be taking. And she
wasn't like had a history of stopping her medications at certain points and then behaving
(46:21):
erratically and trying to hide and things like that. So it does seem like it was pretty
straightforward of she wasn't taking her medication properly. She had a mental episode
of some sorts and it was just a tragic accident. Yeah. It was really, really sad. But I think that
(46:42):
the hotel got, it definitely gave him a boost of publicity and attention and probably business that
he didn't really ask for, but they probably didn't mind. I'm sure it did boost their tourism
to a certain extent. It still does. I mean, people like, if you just Google it, people stand outside
(47:07):
and they talk about it. Like I just went and looked at videos on YouTube and everyone has
a fascination with this hotel. Every single person she mentioned in the book,
I mean, needs to have their own TV show and write a book about their life.
(47:29):
And I would watch and read every single one. Yeah. Cause I always wonder like what, what happened
in a person's life where they end up living in this as a tenant at the Cecil hotel, where usually
people, the only people living there are having a rough time. And some of them were seemed like
(47:52):
they were having a very rough time. Like she tells some upsetting stories about a woman that seemed
to possibly be being held hostage, but who couldn't speak English and like, wouldn't let anybody see
her face. Like that was very weird and disturbing. Okay. That whole story, when she's saying that
(48:15):
story, I thought she was going to say that that woman was found dead. Yeah, I did too. But then
she kept that, but then too many people saw her and she finally met her. But should we give away
that story? Can we spoil it? If you don't want to know, cause you think you're going to read this
(48:40):
book, then jump ahead. So basically this, this woman goes missing. And she, well, she got first,
there's a man that lives in the hotel. He has a, he calls her his wife or sister. And this woman
goes into this room and then has never seen again, but whenever they check the room, she hides under
(49:05):
the blankets, like she's like still and cockroaches are coming out of like the blankets or something.
Oh yes. He's, this man is a hoarder. It's disgusting. Like the descriptions of some of the
states, these rooms were in where you would get nauseous. Like it's really, you know what it makes,
it makes my neighbor who is a hoarder, I have a neighbor who's a hoarder seem like the cleanest
(49:31):
person in the world. Like, you know, it's, it makes it look good. That's how bad it is.
So this woman, she apparently, we don't know if she's dead or alive. The sky sounds right,
the sky sounds right, sounds very weird and mean and all that stuff. And the family of the woman
(49:54):
is like trying to find her. And, you know, basically the main, the author talks about this.
She's very concerned. She wants to help this woman. There's nothing she can do. Everyone's like,
no, there's nothing you can do, blah, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden,
I don't know how many years later, but the guy dies. And then what happened to him? He died of
(50:14):
a heart attack? Yeah, I think he just died of natural causes. Yeah, I thought it was suspicious.
And the woman was seen laughing and like so jockey. Yeah, she was just like laughing hysterically.
Yeah. And apparently she was also seemed happy when the author saw her run away. And she was
(50:36):
like, I think it was the first time I saw her. And then all of a sudden, I don't know. And she
was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
And then the author saw her. But like before, like there was something must have been wrong.
There's like a disorder that the joker has and a lot of, there are a lot of people who have other
(51:02):
stories that are like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just
like had no idea what was going on. But the whole story was so bizarre. And
do you think it was the same woman? But maybe he brought this woman in.
(51:22):
He something happened to her and he found another woman.
And one of the maintenance guys who was telling Amy Price about her had seen her because she used
to leave the hotel room. Like she would, she would leave every once in a while. And so they knew what
she looked like. But then just like after a certain point, I think that they, maybe they had to change
(51:43):
rooms or something. And after they changed rooms, that's when she stopped coming out. And so they
knew it was the same woman, but he also like slightly would change the name that he had
originally given for their ledger. Like he had given a specific name for the, for the guest ledger.
And then he started calling her something different than what was in there. It was like similar,
(52:06):
but it was not exactly the same. And yeah, and he could never decide if she was his wife or his
sister. Like, yeah, it was because she didn't speak English. Nobody could determine if she
really wanted to be there or not, but she would refuse to leave if they asked her to.
So there was really nothing she could do. Yeah. I guess she did want to be there, but it just,
(52:27):
that story was so weird. I don't know if we described it right, but it just,
even she said it's the most disturbing story that she experienced. Yeah. Looking at the hotel. And
I understand why, even though I'm like, oh, I thought she's going to find a dead body. I thought
the whole time this man had a wife or a woman. Thinks she's alive and it's just decomposed.
(52:51):
Yeah. I feel like that was going to happen. So I was going at the darkest, darkest thing.
And so this made it seem like, oh my God, thank God. Yeah. Oh my God. I know. Yeah.
There's just so many, the book is so good. She really liked the stories that she has and
every single person she talks about is crazier than the next person. And, but then so
(53:17):
these are very, it's amazing for working at a place like that because she really, like,
she really did the best she can and she dealt with these people really well.
I don't know anyone who can do that. Yeah. She sounds like she has a lot of patients
because I don't know that I could have worked there for a decade dealing with all of that.
(53:40):
But she also sounded like she kind of was addicted to the drama. A little bit. Yeah.
I really like this one. Yeah. Yeah. This was a good pick. This book has so many
just characters in it and you never know what's going to happen next. Like what she's going to
talk about next every time you think, okay, that's going to be the craziest story. Like
she's not going to top that. She does. So it's no wonder that this hotel was the inspiration for one
(54:08):
of the seasons of American Horror Story. I saw that. I didn't watch it. I didn't watch it.
I saw that. I didn't watch that season, but I saw that it was the inspiration. I'm watching.
Yeah. I started it, but I never finished it. It was, I remember it starting off pretty strong.
I mean, it's the season with Lady Gaga in it too, right? Oh, it was the fifth season
(54:30):
and it centered around the mysterious Hotel Cortez in Los Angeles.
Probably the scene of disturbing and paranormal events overseen by its enigmatic staff. The
location loosely based on the Cecil Hotel. Something I also realized paranormal activity.
(54:58):
She didn't mention any. I don't think she experienced any.
No, it kind of sounds like that was not, honestly, she was, I think the living were enough.
Cause yeah, it's supposed to be the most haunted hotel in Los Angeles, but I, and also on the,
(55:21):
some of the articles I read, like I didn't read any mentions of paranormal stuff.
Yeah. I think there can't be that many stories of paranormal because it's still being used and the
crazy overpowers the paranormal. Like if you're there, you're a lot of other things that are
(55:42):
actually like from some of the, like from these stories, like if you're a ghost in the Cecil,
you're not going to out crazy. The people that are living there. I'm sorry. You don't,
you don't have what it takes. So I have a theory about why I don't think the Cecil Hotel is actually
haunted yet. I think that the ghosts are scared of the people. And I think that they've gone through
(56:07):
enough that they're going to probably go haunt a nicer hotel. Yeah. Or any other place from their
past. Yeah. I think I got it goes, come back to where the trauma happened, but I think the
Cecil is just like, they're like, you know what? I'm good. They're supposed to like freak people
(56:28):
out a little, right? So it's not going to be like, can you hear my shoes? They're going to have to
compete with like fighting and throttles throwing against the wall. Like it's just, yeah, it's not
fun. Yeah. There's already so probably so much chaos happening that you can't, you can't compete
(56:51):
with that. Can you imagine being a ghost there and you look out the window of whatever room
you're haunting and there's somebody on the fire escape masturbating. Cause that's something that
happens in the book. So not the ghost part, but yeah, there's so much that happens in the book.
I can't, I'm like trying to go through everything and be like, do we miss a good story? Yeah,
(57:16):
we definitely missed a good story. I feel like this is an episode a lot of people have been
anticipating. So I know people, they're, there's something about the Cecil hotel that people just
get like excited about. Yeah. It's, it's very macabre. I mean, it definitely has that, whatever
(57:36):
that thing is that makes people into true crime and tragedy tourism. Like it has that in spades.
It's yeah, there's so much just fascinating and dark and unsettling and it still exists.
Yeah. So I mean, even though now it's being used for something else, which I'm sure has stories,
(58:00):
but she was the general manager up until like what 2017, 2017. Oh, I thought it was even before that.
So it kind of, you know, people can, whatever it still exists, it sounds like a place that
shouldn't exist anymore, or that would have been like totally changed by now. Yeah. That's why
(58:23):
I like it too.
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(58:47):
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