The hotel that was home to serial killers and elevator games couldn’t find anyone to give it a second chance at a hotel, so now will provide low income housing.

The Cecil

LA’s Infamous Cecil Hotel Transforms Into Apartments For Unhoused Angelenos

A notorious hotel in Downtown Los Angeles is being reborn as housing for Angelenos struggling with homelessness.

The Cecil Hotel is infamous for a string of gruesome and often mysterious deaths since it opened in 1924. Over the years, its guests have included serial killer Richard Ramirez and tourist Elisa Lam, whose bizarre death in 2013 was featured in a recent Netflix series.

But on Tuesday morning, the former seedy hotel reopened with a new purpose: providing 600 apartments to unhoused Angelenos.

“This is the best use possible for this particular space, and really can bring a lighter side to the darkness that the building had originally,” said Sierra Atilano, the chief real estate officer at Skid Row Housing Trust, which will manage the building.

The units will be reserved for single renters earning less than 60% of the area’s median income. The goal will be to serve extremely low-income renters — those earning 30% or less of the median income. In L.A., that’s $24,850 per year for an individual. – Source

Timeline of incidents

January 22, 1927
Percy Ormond Cook 52
Suicide Gunshot to the head
In the evening, Cook shot himself in the head while inside his hotel room after failing to reconcile with his wife and child. Although the Times reported that he was rushed to the Receiving Hospital with a slim chance of survival, death records reveal that he died that same evening.

November 19, 1931
W. K. Norton 46
Suicide
Ingested poison Manhattan Beach resident W. K. Norton was found dead in his room after ingesting poison capsules. A week prior, he had checked into the Cecil under the name “James Willys” from Chicago.

September 1932
Benjamin Dodich 25
Suicide
Gunshot to the head
A maid found Dodich dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He did not leave a suicide note.

July 1934
Sgt. Louis D. Borden 53
Suicide Slit throat
In late July, former Army Medical Corps Sgt. Borden was found dead in his room at the Cecil. He had slashed his throat with a razor. Borden left several notes, one of which cited poor health as the reason for his suicide.

March 1937
Grace E. Magro
Death Fell from building
Magro fell from a ninth-story window. Her fall was broken by telephone wires which were wrapped around her body. She later died at the now-demolished Georgia Street Receiving Hospital. Police were unable to determine whether Magro’s death was the result of an accident or suicide.

January 1938
Roy Thompson 35
Death Fell from building
United States Marine Corps fireman Thompson jumped from Cecil’s top floor and was found on the skylight of a neighboring building. He had been staying at the Cecil for several weeks.

May 1939
Erwin C.
Neblett 39
Death Ingested poison
Navy officer Neblett was found dead in his room after ingesting poison.

January 1940
Dorothy Seger 45
Death Ingested poison
Teacher Seger, who registered under the pseudonym Evelyn Brent, ingested poison on Jan 10, 1940 while staying at the Cecil and was reported by the Los Angeles Times to be “near death”. Beforehand, Seger sent her relatives a note indicating she was going to end her life.Dorothy eventually succumbed to the effects of the poisoning and passed away at General Hospital on Jan 12, 1940

September 1944
Dorothy Jean Purcell 19
Purcell’s un-named newborn son 0 Murder (acquitted due to insanity) Newborn discarded from window Purcell was sharing a room at the Cecil with her boyfriend, shoe salesman Ben Levine, 38. Purcell, who had apparently been unaware that she was pregnant, went into labour. She later testified that she did not want to disrupt the sleeping Levine, so she went to the bathroom where she gave birth to a baby boy. Thinking the baby was dead, she threw him out of the window, and he landed on the roof of an adjacent building. Purcell was charged with murder. Three psychiatrists testified that she was “mentally confused” at the time of the incident. In January 1945, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

November 1947
Robert Smith 35
Death Fell from building
Smith died after jumping from one of Cecil’s seventh-floor windows.

October 22, 1954
Helen Gurnee 55
Death Fell from building
San Francisco stationery firm employee Gurnee jumped from the window of her seventh-floor room and landed on top of Cecil’s marquee. One week prior, she had registered at the hotel under the name “Margaret Brown.”

February 11, 1962
Julia Frances Moore 50
Death Fell from building
Moore jumped from the window of her eighth-floor room and landed in a second-storey interior light well. She did not leave a suicide note. Among her possessions were a bus ticket from St. Louis, 59 cents in change, and an Illinois bank book showing a balance of $1,800.

October 12, 1962
Pauline Otton 27
George Gianinni 65
Suicide Fell from building
Otton jumped from the window of her ninth-floor room after an argument with her estranged husband Dewey. He had left the room prior to Otton’s suicide. Otton landed on a pedestrian, Gianinni, killing them both instantly. As there were no witnesses, police initially thought Otton and Gianinni committed suicide together. However, it was soon determined that Gianinni had his hands in his pockets at the time of his death, and he was still wearing shoes. Had he jumped, his shoes would have likely fallen off during the fall or upon impact, and his hands would not have been in his pockets.

June 4, 1964
Jacques B. Ehlinger 29
“Pigeon Goldie” Osgood 65
Murder (acquitted) Stabbed, beaten, and raped
A hotel worker discovered Osgood, a retired telephone operator, dead in her room. She had been raped, stabbed, and beaten, and her room was ransacked. Osgood was well known around the area and had earned her nickname because she fed birds in nearby Pershing Square. Near her body was the Los Angeles Dodgers cap she always wore and a paper sack full of birdseed. Hours after her murder Ehlinger was seen walking through Pershing Square in bloodstained clothing. He was arrested and charged with Osgood’s murder but was later cleared of the crime. The murder remains unsolved.

December 20, 1975
“Alison Lowell” Approx. 23
Death Fell from building
A still-unidentified woman jumped from her twelfth-floor window onto the Cecil’s second-floor roof. She had registered at the hotel on December 16 under the name “Alison Lowell” and was staying in room 327.

September 1, 1992
Approx. 20-30
Death Fell from building
The body of an African American man was found in the alley behind the Cecil. Police said he had either fallen, jumped, or been pushed from the hotel’s 15th floor. The 20-to-30-year-old male has never been identified.

February 19, 2013
Elisa Lam 21 Death Unknown (?)
(Probably accidental drowning.)
The naked body of Lam, a Canadian student, was found inside one of the water supply tanks on the hotel roof. She had gone missing almost three weeks earlier, on January 31, 2013. Her decomposing body was discovered by a maintenance worker in one of the rooftop water tanks after guests had complained about low water pressure and water that “tasted funny.” Video surveillance footage taken from inside an elevator shortly before her disappearance showed her acting strangely, pressing multiple elevator buttons, hiding in the corner of the elevator, and waving her arms wildly, causing widespread speculation about the cause of her death.After the elevator video was released, many theories arose about Lam’s death. She was reported to have had bipolar disorder, for which she was prescribed various medications, which could have contributed to her death as well as her strange behavior in the elevator. Authorities later ruled Lam’s death as an accidental drowning.

June 13, 2015 28
Death Suspected to have fallen from the building
The body of a 28-year-old man was found outside the hotel. Some conjectured he may have committed suicide by jumping from the hotel, although a spokesperson for the county coroner informed the Los Angeles Times that the cause of death had not been determined. – Source

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