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There's a film in the works about the abandoned Los Feliz Murder Mansion where in 1959, a doctor murdered his wife and attacked his teenage daughter with a hammer before overdosing on pills.
The film is being produced by Luisa Iskin and John Wunder for The Coalition group and written Joshua Melkin (Cabin Fever 2). The film is based on a longform article written by journalist Jeff Maysh for Medium.com, the Wrap reports.
The mansion sits empty at 2475 Glendower Place in Los Feliz. Built in 1925, the Spanish Revival Mansion was purchased by the Perelson family in the 1950s. In the wee morning hours of December 6, 1959, Dr. Harold Perelson took a hammer and struck his sleeping wife once in the head, killing her. He then entered the bedroom of his 18-year-old daughter, Judye, and hit her with the hammer. This time, however, his aim was off and Judye woke up. She screamed, ran into her parents' room, discovered her mother's body and ran out of the house. Perelson's two younger children, ages 11 and 13, woke up and Perelson told them they were having a nightmare and to go back to bed. Judye got the attention of a neighbor, Marshall Ross, who said he entered the home and watched as Perelson swallowed two Nembutals (a barbiturate) and 31 other pills, then laid down on Judye's bed and waited for death. He was dead by the time the paramedics arrived. Perelson's reasons for his horrific crime may have been rooted in financial troubles, though no one knows for sure.
What's been going on in the house since is a bit of a mystery. The house was sold to Emily and Juan Enriquez in 1960 via probate auction, but if the couple moved in, they didn't stay for long. The house sat empty until Emily died in 1994, and then the house went to her son, Rudy. Rudy never moved in either, though it has been said that he uses the house for storage purposes.
Some curious folks who have explored the house said they saw a Christmas tree and unwrapped presents inside. The Perelsons were Jewish, so the holiday decorations may not have been theirs, and it's unclear whose presents they were. Neighbors mostly don't like thrill seekers poking about the house, but have said that occasionally a burglar alarm at the home will go off without provocation.
This wouldn't be the first time Hollywood has jumped on a spooky story or a piece of grisly true crime. A woman who lives in the house that The Conjuring was based on is suing Warner Brothers, saying that she is constantly being disturbed by trespassers looking for ghosts on her property. The new season of American Horror Story was partially inspired by the dark history of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and Sony Pictures announced plans last year for a film called The Bringing, based on the death of a Canadian tourist whose body was found on the roof of the hotel in a water tank in 2013.
