What do serial killers, the Black Dahlia, and low water pressure have in common? The Cecil Hotel. We’re taking our first deep dive into true crime with the tragedies surrounding the Cecil Hotel, and it’s gnarly. The Cecil is infamous for being a lawless, dark place, so we’re going decade by decade to give you some of the Cecil’s most notorious mishappenings. Check out the Netflix documentary we reference: Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

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Resources:

Callaghan, Chris. “The Curse of The Cecil Hotel.” American Ghost Walks, Accessed 03 Mar. 2024, https://www.americanghostwalks.com/articles/the-cecil-hotel-haunted-los-angeles.

Henry, Grace. “What happened in the Cecil hotel? History explained.” RadioTimes, 15 Dec. 2023, https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/true-crime/cecil-hotel-history-deaths-serial-killer-stays-netflix/.

Hutton, Alice. “The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel: Gruesome history of hotel where mysterious death of Elisa Lam took place.” The Independent, 11 Feb. 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-cecil-hotel-netflix-elisa-lam-los-angeles-b1800647.html.

Khouri, Andrew. “Once a den of prostitution and drugs, the Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A. is set to undergo a $100 million renovation.” Los Angeles Times, 01 Jun. 2016, https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cecil-hotel-20160601-snap-story.html.

Kranc, Lauren. “The Former Cecil Hotel Manager: ‘I Believe in Ghosts… But I Don’t Think They Run the Show Over There’.” Esquire, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35463537/cecil-hotel-manager-amy-price-elisa-lam-interview/.

Martin, Laura. “The Cecil Hotel’s True History Is Even Darker Than the Netflix Series.” Esquire, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/tv/a35471517/cecil-hotel-murders-true-story/.

Meares, Hadley. “‘The Suicide’: The Hotel Cecil and the Mean Streets of L.A.’s Notorious Skid Row.” PBS SoCal, 29 Sept. 2015, https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/the-suicide-the-hotel-cecil-and-the-mean-streets-of-l-a-s-notorious-skid-row.

Serena, Katie. “Inside The Cecil Hotel And Its Eerie History Of Death And Murder.” All That’s Interesting, 23 May 2023, https://allthatsinteresting.com/cecil-hotel-los-angeles.

“Who Was Jack Unterweger, the Austrian Serial Killer in Netflix’s Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel?” MovieMaker, 16 Feb. 2021, https://www.moviemaker.com/jack-unterweger-austrian-serial-killer-netflix-vanishing-at-the-cecil-hotel/.