OMG, Woman's Corpse found in L.A. Hotel's Water Tank
- Thread starter MaryAnnDVC
- Start date
LiveYourLife
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
So tragic and disgusting at the same time. I'm skeeved out by just reading about it 
StephMK
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
Maybe so they wouldn't know where she'd get out. Though I'd guess they could meet her at each floor by the stairs.
Scary and so sad for her poor family.
As a guest though, OMG, that would be sooo hard to get past. I'm not a germaphobe either but just reading about it is hard enough.
Just watched the elevator video. She doesn't look scared to me (her movements are too dramatic, and for someone who is behaving in a paranoid fashion, she isn't trying to escape from the situation). Her behavior is disorganized - she looks like she's either high or having a psychotic episode. I'd be surprised if foul play was involved.
What a sad story for her and her family and an incredibly disturbing story for hotel guests.
What a sad story for her and her family and an incredibly disturbing story for hotel guests.
mombrontrent
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
This video was really strange and I agree it did look as if she was high or having a psychotic episode. However how did she manage to get herself in the water citern if no foul play was invovled
The whole thing seems really strange and I am curious to hear the full report as more details emerge.Bella the Ball 360
Keyboarding is not my thing excuse typos.<br><font
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2003
I cannot come up with an adjective that describes how disgusting this is and how sad. Did she commit suicide or do they think it was murder?
DisMN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 15, 1999
Me too, ME TOO! I've had trouble reading much about it I'm so skeeved out by it.
And *they* are saying that the water was *safe* to drink.
Yeah? NO!
.....to drink....and shower, brush your teeth, make coffee and for all other cooking.
Oh god just NO!!!!!!!!!!
Her poor family.
DisMN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 15, 1999
I finally watched the video and have to agree with you. I don't think she's scared or trying to escape. It seems more like she's talking and gesturing to imaginary friends or something.
The deal with the elevator buttons is just strange but must have made sense to her at the time.
DisMN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 15, 1999
Did you see the clip of the British tourists saying they just thought our water tasted that way? Sweet and very bad with a terrible smell????
Sweet and very bad with a terrible smell? I think I'm gonna be sick here.
I see, thanks. I investigatedthat today and discovered that even tall buildings don't have water tanks here, as the pressure is much higher, interesting.
This is really one of the weirdest stories I've ever heard, I guess I will be thinking of it whenever I'll take a shower in the US.
The roof was locked. She would not have been able to get up there on her own. And I have never heard of someone offing themselves by drowning. I suspect foul play. I also suspect someone with a roof key.
Crazy4Disney72
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2006
Oh that is just disgusting! Sounds like something that would be an episode of Bones!
TruBlu
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
Read this on CNN today...
That place sounds super creepy!!
"Los Angeles (CNN) -- The Cecil Hotel's dark past earned it a spot on Los Angeles tours long before a woman's body was found inside its rooftop water tank.
"It's the place where serial killers stay," said tour guide Richard Schave.
Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, conduct a "true crime and oddities" tour they call "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice."
The new mystery surrounding Elisa Lam's death will be added to Cooper's spiel during the tour stops at the Cecil Hotel, she said.
The killers
The most famous on their list are serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.
Hotel guests: Discovery 'sickening' Ramirez, known as the "Nightstalker," now resides on California's death row, but in 1985 he was living on the Cecil's top floor in a $14 a night room, Cooper said.
The Cecil, filled then with hundreds of transients living in the cheap rooms, was a good place for Ramirez to go unnoticed as he killed 13 women, Schave said. He was "just dumping his bloody clothes in the Dumpster at the end of his evening and going in the back entrance."
Jack Unterweger worked as a journalist covering Los Angeles crime for an Austrian magazine in 1991 when he moved into the Cecil.
"We believe he was living at the Cecil in homage to Ramirez," Schave said.
He is blamed with killing three prostitutes in Los Angeles while a guest at the Cecil.
The killed
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Cecil had a reputation as a place where people would kill themselves by jumping out upper-floor windows, Cooper said. "It's just what people do when they are at the end of their rope," she said.
Helen Gurnee, in her 50s, leaped from a seventh floor window, landing on the Cecil Hotel marquee on October 22, 1954, Cooper said.
Julia Moore jumped from her eighth floor room window on February 11, 1962, she said. Moore left behind a bus ticket from St Louis, 59 cents and an Illinois bank account book showing a balance of $1,800.
Pauline Otton, 27, jumped from a ninth floor window after an argument with her estranged husband on October 12, 1962, Cooper said. Otton landed on George Gianinni, 65, who was walking on the sidewalk 90 feet below. Both were killed instantly.
Not everyone on Cooper's list committed suicide.
"Pigeon Goldie" Osgood, a retired telephone operator, was found dead in her ransacked room on June 4, 1964, Cooper said. Osgood, known for protecting and feeding the pigeons at nearby Pershing Square, was stabbed, strangled and raped. The crime has not been solved.
Not an ordinary hotel
Schave and Cooper have theories about why the Cecil's past has been so sordid.
It was built in the 1920s as a hotel "for businessmen to come into town and spend a night or two," Cooper said.
But it was soon upstaged by nicer hotels in a better part of town, she said. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, it became more of a transient hotel. Eventually, it transitioned into a single room occupancy business, known as an SRO. Long-term tenants rented individual rooms and shared bathrooms with neighboring residents.
"This was just a place where people who were really down on their luck were going," Schave said. "These hotels are filled with people who are at the edge of being integrated in society."
During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, hundreds of people who were "down on their luck" called the Cecil home, he said. "They were all hustling to make ends meet."
"It's not like that any more, of course," Cooper said.
New owners converted three of the floors back to hotel rooms around 2007, but most of the building remains SRO, Schave said.
Another section serves as a hostel that is marketed toward European tourists, he said
It was not clear if Lam was staying in one of the hotel rooms, which offer more privacy, or the hostel.
Repeated calls by CNN to the Cecil Hotel management were not returned Wednesday and Thursday."
That place sounds super creepy!!
"Los Angeles (CNN) -- The Cecil Hotel's dark past earned it a spot on Los Angeles tours long before a woman's body was found inside its rooftop water tank.
"It's the place where serial killers stay," said tour guide Richard Schave.
Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, conduct a "true crime and oddities" tour they call "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice."
The new mystery surrounding Elisa Lam's death will be added to Cooper's spiel during the tour stops at the Cecil Hotel, she said.
The killers
The most famous on their list are serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.
Hotel guests: Discovery 'sickening' Ramirez, known as the "Nightstalker," now resides on California's death row, but in 1985 he was living on the Cecil's top floor in a $14 a night room, Cooper said.
The Cecil, filled then with hundreds of transients living in the cheap rooms, was a good place for Ramirez to go unnoticed as he killed 13 women, Schave said. He was "just dumping his bloody clothes in the Dumpster at the end of his evening and going in the back entrance."
Jack Unterweger worked as a journalist covering Los Angeles crime for an Austrian magazine in 1991 when he moved into the Cecil.
"We believe he was living at the Cecil in homage to Ramirez," Schave said.
He is blamed with killing three prostitutes in Los Angeles while a guest at the Cecil.
The killed
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Cecil had a reputation as a place where people would kill themselves by jumping out upper-floor windows, Cooper said. "It's just what people do when they are at the end of their rope," she said.
Helen Gurnee, in her 50s, leaped from a seventh floor window, landing on the Cecil Hotel marquee on October 22, 1954, Cooper said.
Julia Moore jumped from her eighth floor room window on February 11, 1962, she said. Moore left behind a bus ticket from St Louis, 59 cents and an Illinois bank account book showing a balance of $1,800.
Pauline Otton, 27, jumped from a ninth floor window after an argument with her estranged husband on October 12, 1962, Cooper said. Otton landed on George Gianinni, 65, who was walking on the sidewalk 90 feet below. Both were killed instantly.
Not everyone on Cooper's list committed suicide.
"Pigeon Goldie" Osgood, a retired telephone operator, was found dead in her ransacked room on June 4, 1964, Cooper said. Osgood, known for protecting and feeding the pigeons at nearby Pershing Square, was stabbed, strangled and raped. The crime has not been solved.
Not an ordinary hotel
Schave and Cooper have theories about why the Cecil's past has been so sordid.
It was built in the 1920s as a hotel "for businessmen to come into town and spend a night or two," Cooper said.
But it was soon upstaged by nicer hotels in a better part of town, she said. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, it became more of a transient hotel. Eventually, it transitioned into a single room occupancy business, known as an SRO. Long-term tenants rented individual rooms and shared bathrooms with neighboring residents.
"This was just a place where people who were really down on their luck were going," Schave said. "These hotels are filled with people who are at the edge of being integrated in society."
During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, hundreds of people who were "down on their luck" called the Cecil home, he said. "They were all hustling to make ends meet."
"It's not like that any more, of course," Cooper said.
New owners converted three of the floors back to hotel rooms around 2007, but most of the building remains SRO, Schave said.
Another section serves as a hostel that is marketed toward European tourists, he said
It was not clear if Lam was staying in one of the hotel rooms, which offer more privacy, or the hostel.
Repeated calls by CNN to the Cecil Hotel management were not returned Wednesday and Thursday."
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