Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen

Share This

News

How the Hotel Cecil went from a luxury stay to one of LA’s most haunted buildings

The front of a beige color hotel with a big yellow sign that reads HOTEL CECIL and in the front a white truck and white car.
The Hotel Cecil has been the sight to mysterious deaths, murders and suicides since it first opened in the 1920s.
(
Jim Winstead
/
via the Creative Commons on Flickr
)

With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today. 

Welcome back to Spooky L.A., a series where we shine a flashlight on some hair raising history and haunts across Los Angeles. Today, Esotouric L.A.’s Kim Cooper walks us through the Hotel Cecil in downtown L.A.

Once intended as a luxury stay for business travelers, the hotel has a dark and troubling history that includes serial killers and suspicious deaths spanning nearly 100 years.

Listen 5:05
How the Hotel Cecil went from a luxury stay to one of L.A’s most haunted buildings

When Hotel Cecil took a turn for the worse

The Hotel Cecil was built in the 1920s with the intent of providing accommodations for traveling business people. But the hotel succumbed to the Great Depression and by the 1930s, it was a known site for many suicides for people from all walks of life.

Support for LAist comes from

By the 1960s, Cooper said Hotel Cecil experienced a decline like many other buildings in downtown. She said the hotel went from being travel friendly to hosting long term residencies.

“In the 1960s, people who were getting displaced from Bunker Hill chose to live in Hotel Cecil because it was a large, well run hotel,” said Cooper.

Later, in the 1980s, that’s when the likes of the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, who was convicted for 13 murders and committed a series of sexual assaults, started seeking residence at the hotel.

“You didn't really have to flash an ID. It was very cheap. It was close to the bus station. And people wouldn't ask questions if you came home after a night of really awful behavior covered in blood,” Cooper said.

Australian serial killer Jack Unterweger was also seen staying at the hotel in the 1990s. He is blamed for killing three women when he stayed in Los Angeles.

The tragic case of Elisa Lam

The strange death of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam has inspired documentaries, horror films and more. She was found dead at the age of 21 inside a water tank on the roof of the Hotel Cecil on Feb. 21, 2013.

Support for LAist comes from

Lam traveled from Vancouver and was suffering a mental health crisis when she stepped foot inside the hotel.

“She made the other women that she was sharing a room with so uncomfortable, leaving post it notes on their stuff and muttering and saying things they didn't understand,” Cooper said.

Lam was last seen on Jan. 31 before her body was found several weeks later. LAPD released security video at the time from a hotel elevator that shows Lam acting strangely hours before she disappeared. Her death has been ruled an accident.

Hotel Cecil continues to captivate

 “When you stand there, and its shadow is cast across the street on you, and you look up at it, and you can see, it has great bones,” Cooper said.

Cooper added that although the hotel has a tragic history, she wants people to know about some of the positive aspects.

“Alcoholics Anonymous exploded as a phenomenon on the West Coast out of the mezzanine of the Cecil. Because people who had been meeting in private homes asked the house physician, could we meet here?” Cooper said.

Support for LAist comes from

As of 2021, the hotel is now used as housing for people experiencing homelessness.

That’s it for today’s history lesson on the Hotel Cecil. Check back in tomorrow as we explore the creepy history of Los Feliz, where a rumored curse is thought to be alive and well.

At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.

But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.

We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.

Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist