The Cecil Hotel was built in Los Angeles, California in 1926 and opened as a budget-friendly hotel for travellers and affordable housing for long-term tenants. However – there has always been something about the hotel – maybe the location adjacent to “Skid Row”, the transient nature of clientele that it attracted, or more likely – the poor management practices of turning a blind eye to nefarious activities – that resulted in it being a hot spot for crime, including disappearances, suicide, and murder. Join Carly and Tab as we take a journey through the dark and twisted history of Hotel Cecil, including the disappearance of Elisa Lam.
Content warnings: Discussions of suicide, murder, sexual assault, crimes against children, and distressing mental health symptoms.
Case Sources:
- Elevator Game Rules: https://theghostinmymachine.com/2021/02/03/the-most-dangerous-games-the-elevator-game-revisited-rules/
- Elisa Lam Elevator Video: https://web.archive.org/web/20141029231120/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq4LmWiDiC0
- https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/41234056/
- Keeler’s Hotel Weekly, Vol. XVIII, No. 6, February 7, 1925, page 7.
- https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/the-suicide-the-hotel-cecil-and-the-mean-streets-of-l-a-s-notorious-skid-row
- https://allthatsinteresting.com/cecil-hotel-los-angeles
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205929311/william-kelly-norton
- https://www.moviemaker.com/night-stalker-richard-ramirez-cecil-hotel/
- Bartlett, James T. (2016). Gourmet Ghosts 2: More Ghosts, Murders, Suicides and L.A. Weirdness. City Ghost Guides. ISBN 9780997582901.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Ramirez
- Blankstein, Andrew; Flores, Adolfo (February 20, 2013). “Woman’s body found in hotel’s water tank”. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021
- Crime junkie episode: Mysterious Death of: Elisa Lam from 2018
- Netflix Documentary: CrimeScene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
- Netflix Series: Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/a-century-of-the-cecil-hotel-a-storied-past-and-uncertain-future-1.3121074
- https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/calgarys-cecil-hotel-a-reminder-of-a-time-of-evil-death-and-darkness
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/a-glimpse-inside-the-cecil-hotel-in-its-final-days-1.3191986
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/comments/mjf19g/has_anyone_ever_stayed_at_the_old_cecil_hotel/
Historically Bad is created and produced by Tabitha Festa and Carly Sullivan.
Historically Bad Podcast 