Built during Los Angeles's rapid growth in the Roaring Twenties, the Beaux Arts-style Cecil Hotel was briefly a glimmering downtown landmark until it became one of the most infamous sites of violence and murder in the country. Nicknamed "The Suicide," the Cecil was the eerie location of more than a dozen people taking their own lives going back to the 1940s and '50s. Rumors still swirl that Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, frequented the hotel in the days before her gruesome murder. Serial killer Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez lived at the Cecil for long stays in the 1980s. Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger murdered three sex workers while a guest at the Cecil in 1991. Author Dale Perelman charts the brutal and mysterious history of Los Angeles's most notorious hotel.

Avoid The Tourist Herds. What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades? This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery. Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter). Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. Scandals: Sister Aimee Semple’s disappearance, Zoot Suit riots, Howard Hughes’ collisions, George Michael sex sting, Dr. Lanterman’s abortions, Pio Pico shortsighted swap, Rodney King beating, Roman Polanski’s flight from justice and Julian Oil, Valhalla Cemetery and Girard Swindles Famous Homicides and Killers: Billionaire Boys Club, Barbara Graham, Black Dahlia, Bonnie Lee Bakely, Edward Allaway, Police Captain Walter Auble, Charles Crawford, Christian Brando, Dominique Dunne, Dr. Raymond Finch, Efren Saldivar, Ennis Cosby, Geneva Ellroy, Haing Ngor, Johnny Stompanato, Mickey and Trudy Thompson, Newhall CHP Shootout, Nicole Brown-Simpson, SLA Fuselage, Phil Spector, Ramon Novarro, Rebecca Schaeffer, Ronni Chasen, Sal Mineo, Sam Cooke, Susan Berman, Ted Healy, North Hollywood Bank of America Heist, Van Cleef & Arpels Hostage Standoff, William Desmond Taylor and the Wonderland massacres Serial Killers: Charles Manson, Golden State Killer, Richard Ramirez and Hillside Stranger Murder-Suicides: Dorothy Stratten, Johnny Lewis, Ned Doheny and Phil Hartman Assassinations and Contract Murders: Bugsy Siegel, Notorious B.I.G., Raymond Washington, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Vic Weiss Celebrity Suicides and Locations: Brian Keith, Carol Landis, Hotel Cecil, Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge, Darby Crash, DeeDee Ramone, Del Shannon, Don Cornelius, Freddie Prinze, George Reeve, Herve Villechaize, Hugh O’Connor, Keith Emerson, Lupe Velez, Margaux Hemmingway, Peg Entwistle, Pete Duel, Pier Angeli, Ross Alexander, Tony Scott and Verne Troyer Shocking Celebrity Deaths and Overdoses: Dennis Wilson, Lenny Bruce, Janis Joplin, John Belushi, Michael Jackson, Paul Walker, River Phoenix and Whitney Houston Prostitution and Renowned Madams: Lee Frances, Hollywood Love Market, Heidi Fleiss, Calle de los Negroes and Hugh Grant’s Indiscretion

In Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died, I reviewed twenty-eight ordinary people who were thrust into the spotlight, gaining fame not for their talents or accomplishments while living, but for the way they died. Newspaper and magazine articles ensured that stories of the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained in the public eye, so that, as Andy Warhol had predicted, their fame would last at least fifteen minutes. In some cases, it lasted much longer. While these individuals may have been “ordinary” before they died, they became extraordinary after death. Some of the people I reviewed in Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died include the “Boy in the Box,” later identified as Joseph Zarelli, who died from blunt force trauma; Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week old infant who was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock in Australia; George Floyd, whose death resulted from police brutality; Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, who were stabbed to death; Elisa Lam, who drowned in a water tank on the roof of her hotel; Michael Faherty, whose death in Ireland was attributed to spontaneous human combustion; Katherine Morris, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal grilling in an automobile; Carlos Sousa, who was mauled to death by a tiger; Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair, who committed murder-suicide; and Jayne and Corinne Peters, whose death was due to filicide-suicide, among many others. Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died reads like a mystery novel, presenting biographical and scientific information that helps readers understand how medical examiners and coroners utilized forensic analysis to determine the causes and manners of death of twenty-eight “not-so-famous” people.

This book traces a trend that has emerged in recent years within the modern panorama of American horror film and television, the concurrent—and often overwhelming—use of multiple stock characters, themes and tropes taken from classics of the genre. American Horror Story, Insidious and The Conjuring are examples of a filmic tendency to address a series of topics and themes so vast that at first glance each taken separately would seem to suffice for individual films or shows. This book explores this trend in its visible connections with American Horror, but also with cultural and artistic movements from outside the US, namely Baroque art and architecture, Asian Horror, and European Horror. It analyzes how these hybrid products are constructed and discusses the socio-political issues that they raise. The repeated and excessive barrage of images, tropes and scenarios from distinct subgenres of iconic horror films come together to make up an aesthetic that is referred to in this book as Baroque Horror. In many ways similar to the reactions provoked by the artistic movement of the same name that flourished in the XVII century, these productions induce shock, awe, fear, and surprise. Eljaiek-Rodríguez details how American directors and filmmakers construct these narratives using different and sometimes disparate elements that come together to function as a whole, terrifying the audience through their frenetic accumulation of images, tropes and plot twists. The book also addresses some of the effects that these complex films and series have produced both in the panorama of contemporary horror, as well as in how we understand politics in a divisive world that pushes for ideological homogenizations.

Death sometimes arrives randomly to those seemingly insulated from risk by virtue of their wealth, celebrity and protective environments. Periodically the world halts in shock and reflection upon the abrupt and sudden headlines of a celebrated personality’s death. Their demise jolts and reinforces our understanding of the fragility and vulnerability of life. This edition chronicles the background stories and detailed locations of some of the most newsworthy, famous and even infamous unexpected sudden passings. The profiles feature self-induced suicides, drug overdoses, celebrity murders, unexplained deaths and even brazen homicides where the perpetrator has taken their own life. The West Coast historically remains a vortex for the unexpected. Understanding the circumstances beyond simple summary reporting often clarifies the motivations behind each unfortunately and often desperate act. The contents are divided into four sectional categories including: FAMOUS SUICIDES Actress Peg Entwistle’s leap from the Hollywood sign, Oil swindler C. C. Julian, Valhalla Cemetery savior John E. Osborne Sr., Actor Ross Alexander, Actresses Lupe Velez and Carol Landis, Superman actor George Reeves, Actresses Marilyn Monroe and Pier Angeli, Actors Pete Duel and Freddie Prinze, Punk Rocker Darby Crash, San Francisco assassin Dan White, Seattle judge Gary Little, Singer Del Shannon, Actor Herve Villechaize, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Actor Hugh O’Connor, Model Margaux Hemingway, Heaven’s Gate cult mass poisoning, Actor Brian Keith, Punk Rocker Dee Dee Ramone, Film Director Tony Scott, Right-to-Die Advocate Brittany Maynard, Comedian Robin Williams, Rock keyboardist Keith Emerson and Actor Verne Troyer. SHOCKING ABRUPT CELEBRITY DEATHS President Warren Harding, Evangelist Sister Aimee Semple-McPherson, Actor James Dean’s fatal car collision, Soul singer Sam Cooke, Comedian Lenny Bruce, Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, Actor Roman Novarro, Rock singer Janis Joplin and actor John Belushi’s drug overdoses, Actress Dominique Dunne’s strangulation, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s drowning, Marvin Gaye’s domestic shooting, Actress Rebecca Schaeffer’s stalker killing, Rock Promoter Bill Graham’s helicopter crash, Actor River Phoenix’s drug overdose, Jockey Ron Hansen’s mysterious drowning, Actor Haing Ngor’s killing, Sublime’s Bradley Nowell’s drug overdose, Revenge shooting of Notorious B. I. G., Rock singer Layne Staley, Singers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston’s drug overdose, Paul Walker’s street racing crash and Singer George Michael’s outing and premature death. INFAMOUS MURDER SUICIDES Brides of Christ cult, LAPD Captain Walter Auble, Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett, Teenage Orcutt California Freeway sniper, Newhall California Highway Patrol shootout, Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, Richard Trenton Chase the Vampire Killer, Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Lynwood Jim Drake, 101 California Building Massacre, Actor Phil Hartman, Seattle Bus Shooting on Infamous Aurora Bridge, Kyle Huff and the Capitol Hill shooting, John Williams the man of a thousand identities, Bruce Pardo’s Christmas Eve firestorm, Portland’s The Zone nightclub massacre, Jed Waits obsession killing, Publicist Ronni Chasen midnight slaying, Speedfreak mass killing and burial grounds, Seattle’s Café Racer coffee house killings, Survivalist Peter Keller’s family murder, Actor Johnny Lewis’ outburst, Marysville-Pilchuck cafeteria shooting and the vindictive Isla Vista shooting spree rampage of Elliot Roger REPUTED SUICIDE LOCATIONS Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Cecil Hotel Los Angeles, Vista Point Bridge Portland, Aurora Bridge Seattle and the USS Hornet

This edition showcases the effects and consequences of human depravity, frailty and criminal activity. The showcased and photographed remaining structures generally appear nondescript and ordinary, masking their significance and infamy. Throughout the West Coast, these commonplace buildings silently testify to events involving violence and individuals whose acts have scarred others, society and sometimes simply themselves. Their stories remain compelling evidence towards the fragility of the human experience and lives severed abruptly. Once you’ve absorbed the history behind each building, you will never view them with indifference again. Paranormal activity within their confines is commonly reported. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Famous Murders Cases: 101 California Building, Ashkenaz Club, Trailside Killer, Vampire Killer, Ewell Family, Father Eric Freed, Golden Dragon Restaurant, Children of Thunder, Henry’s Pub, Polly Klaas Kidnapping, Rex Allen Krebs, Marin Barbeque, Artie Mitchell, Marin County Courthouse, Oikos University, Dorothea Puente, Ramon Salcido, Unabomber, Weston Family, George Moscone and Harvey Milk, Diane Whipple Mauling and the Zebra Murders. Celebrity Suicides and Shocking Deaths: SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Actor Fatty Arbuckle Scandal, President Warren Harding, Sublime’s Bradley Nowell and Comedian Robin Williams, Bizarre Buildings: Institute for Fallen Women, CIA’s Sex and LSD Playhouse, Condor Club’s Killer Piano, Ghost Ticket Taker, Ghost Ship Warehouse Fire, Patty Hearst Kidnapping Buildings, Peoples Temple Headquarters, Moss Beach Distillery and the Nazi Whittier Mansion. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Famous Murders Cases: Black Dahlia, Nicole Brown-Simpson, Vincent Brothers Family, Cleveland Elementary School, Ned Doheny, Actress Dominique Dunne, Barbara Finch, Singer Marvin Gaye, Heaven’s Gate Cult, Hillside Stranglers, Golden State Killer, Barbara Graham, Phil Hartman, Charles Manson Cult, Menendez Couple, Meridian Salon, Susan Berman, Sal Mineo, Haing Ngor, Ramon Navarro, Elliot Rodger, San Diego State Engineering Department, Santana High School, Actress Rebecca Schaeffer, Gangster Bugsy Siegel, Music Producer Phil Spector, Johnny Stompanato, Dorothy Stratten, Thompson Couple, Van Cleef & Arpels and Wonderland Gang. Celebrity Suicides and Shocking Deaths: Comedian John Belushi, Singer Sam Cooke, Darby Crash, Actor Pete Duel, Musician Keith Emerson, Janis Joplin, Margaux Hemmingway, Whitney Houston, Actress Carol Landis, Actor Johnny Lewis, Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix, Comedian Freddie Prinze, DeeDee Ramone, Superman George Reeves, Singer Del Shannon, Actor Verne Troyer and Actor Herve Villechaize. Bizarre Buildings: Cecil Hotel, and Will Rogers State Park Men’s Restroom, OREGON Famous Murder Cases and Suicides Franck Akin, Ashley Benson, Nancy Bergeson, Bowden Bombed Residence, Jerry Brudos, Dark Stranger Serial Killer, Pioneer Murder, Veronica Dolan, Oregon Prison Director Michael Francke, Michele Dee Gate’s Legacy, Diane Hank, Brittany Maynard’s Assisted Suicide, Lloyolla Miller, Tim Moreau, Roma Ollison and The Zone Nightclub shooting. Bizarre Buildings Crime Boss Jim Elkins Hangout, Erickson’s Saloon, Golden West Hotel, Kell’s Irish Pub, Kelly’s Olympian Bar, White Eagle Saloon, Merchants Hotel, The Open Door Buildings and Oregon State Hospital. WASHINGTON Famous Murder Cases and Suicides Jack Bird, Brides of Christ Founder, Ted Bundy, Café Racer, Ann Marie Burr, Maurice Clemmons, Singer Kurt Cobain, James Elledge, John Fiori, Charles Goldmark Family, Teresa Butz, Capital Hill Massacre, Little Willie John, Judge Gary Little, Lee Boyd Malvo, John Considine, Edwin Pratt, Rafay Family, Red Barn Tavern, Green River Killer, Seattle Pacific University, Layne Staley, Wah Nee Gambling Club, Justice Tom Wales, Radio Activist Mike Webb and Wilson Family. Bizarre Buildings Alfred’s Café, Lou Graham Block, People’s Theatre and G. O. Guy’s Drugstore,

A revised, updated and even more Canadian edition of the classic bestseller. In 1977, The Book of Lists, the first and best compendium of facts weirder than fiction, was published. Filled with intriguing information and must-talk-about trivia it has spawned many imitators--but none as satisfying or successful. In 2005, Ira Basen and Jane Farrow brought together the most entertaining and informative of these original lists and augmented them with homegrown material in the first Canadian edition. Now, more than a decade later, this refreshed and expanded edition gives us even more highly addictive lists, including · Margaret Atwood’s 10 Annoying Things to Say to Writers · 6 Cases of People Killed by God · Jesse Wente’s 8 Films You Should Watch to Prepare for the End of the World · First Sexual Encounters of 17 Prominent Canadians · Cathal Kelly’s 9 Most Compelling Players in Soccer History · 10 People Who Died Laughing Fun, revealing and full of facts you didn’t know you needed to know, The Book of Lists will inspire the list-maker in every reader.

Built during Los Angeles's rapid growth in the Roaring Twenties, the Beaux Arts-style Cecil Hotel was briefly a glimmering downtown landmark until it became one of the most infamous sites of violence and murder in the country. Nicknamed "The Suicide," the Cecil was the eerie location of more than a dozen people taking their own lives going back to the 1940s and '50s. Rumors still swirl that Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, frequented the hotel in the days before her gruesome murder. Serial killer Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez lived at the Cecil for long stays in the 1980s. Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger murdered three sex workers while a guest at the Cecil in 1991. Author Dale Perelman charts the brutal and mysterious history of Los Angeles's most notorious hotel.

What is a hotel? As Caroline Field Levander and Matthew Pratt Guterl show us in this thought-provoking book, even though hotels are everywhere around us, we rarely consider their essential role in our modern existence and how they help frame our sense of who and what we are. They are, in fact, as centrally important as other powerful places like prisons, hospitals, or universities. More than simply structures made of steel, concrete, and glass, hotels are social and political institutions that we invest with overlapping and contradictory meaning. These alluring places uniquely capture the realities of our world, where the lines between public and private, labor and leisure, fortune and failure, desire and despair are regularly blurred. Guiding readers through the story of hotels as places of troublesome possibility, as mazelike physical buildings, as inspirational touchstones for art and literature, and as unsettling, even disturbing, backdrops for the drama of everyday life, Levander and Guterl ensure that we will never think about this seemingly ordinary place in the same way again.

A missing young woman. A Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A perplexing real-life mystery. With stunning new insights and impeccable research, investigative journalist Jake Anderson explores the case that captivated a nation and inspired the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel! Exclusive interviews and photos included. Twenty-one-year-old student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.’s Cecil Hotel—a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. More than a week later, guests’ complaints of poor water quality led to a grim discovery: Elisa’s nude body floating in a rooftop water tank. The only clue was a disturbing elevator video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in a plea for public assistance. As the video went viral, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts. In Gone at Midnight he chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what—or whom—she was running from, offering stunning new insights into one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century. “Outstanding . . . What really happened to Lam may never be known, but true crime buffs won’t want to miss this gripping search for the truth.” –Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW “Extremely detailed and featuring new evidence. . . . Anderson’s thorough research and passionate writing make a fascinating read.” --Booklist “Gone at Midnight is the type of true crime book that you stay up all night reading.” --New York Journal of Books A Fortune magazine“Most Anticipated Books of the Year” Selection A Goodreads Featured Release An Oxygen Best True Crime Book of the Year