Hotel Cecil

Hotel Cecil, also known as the Cecil Hotel, is a historic lodging property in Downtown Los Angeles with a long association with crime, suicides, and other deaths.

Hotel Cecil, also known as the Cecil Hotel, is a historic lodging property in Downtown Los Angeles that opened on December 20, 1924. Over the decades, it gained a notorious reputation for a long association with crime, suicides, and other deaths, and it later became an affordable housing complex. The hotel drew renewed international attention after the 2013 death of Canadian student Elisa Lam, whose case remains a prominent true-crime story.

History

The Cecil Hotel opened on December 20, 1924, in Downtown Los Angeles as a mid-tier hotel for travellers. Its fortunes declined during and after the Great Depression, and it later was repurposed as an affordable housing complex.

Reputation and incidents

The hotel became widely known for a series of suicides, murders, and other violent or unexplained deaths. Its reputation was amplified by the presence of serial killers who stayed there and by later media coverage.

Notable figures and cases

Richard Ramirez lived at the hotel in the 1980s while committing murders in Los Angeles, and Jack Unterweger stayed there in 1991 while he was suspected of killing sex workers. The 2013 disappearance and death of Elisa Lam, a student from Vancouver, became the best-known modern case associated with the building and drew major attention in Canada.

Media coverage

The hotel has been featured in documentaries, news coverage, and true-crime programming. These portrayals have helped turn the Cecil Hotel into a prominent symbol of Los Angeles true-crime history.