The Cecil Hotel

Find out how Los Angeles’s infamous Cecil Hotel earned its grim nickname.

The sign on the building reads Stay on Main. In the fifth season of FX’s American Horror Story, it’s called Hotel Cortez. Its reputation has bestowed upon it the moniker of Hotel Death. But no matter what it’s called, there’s only one name that comes to mind when gazing upon the 19-floor Beaux-Arts tower of terror: the Cecil Hotel.

Even if only half the stories you heard about the Cecil Hotel were true, it would still be enough to send chills down your spine. Since opening in 1924 proprietors of the Cecil Hotel have witnessed 16 deaths that are confirmed by news outlets. The majority of these deaths were suicides.

That’s not even mentioning that one of the hotel’s most recent managers has stated that at least 80 guests met their demise from the start of the new century to the Cecil’s closure due to renovations in 2017.

The hotel has offered shelter to those needing accommodation on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, in addition to providing a considerable amount of residential suites. Through most of its history, the Cecil’s low-cost rooms gathered transients, drifters, people down on their luck, and others looking to escape from something. From reality, or violence, or maybe even themselves.

But like moths to the flame, the Cecil has embraced the destitute in their final moments. Either by their own hand or someone else’s. What is it about the rooms on 640 S Main St that invite such gruesome and tragic displays of desperation?

Did You Know?

• Legend has it that in January 1947, a few days prior to her grisly murder, Elizabeth Short (“The Black Dahlia”) was spotted leaving the Cecil’s bar. A run-in with an LAPD officer in which Short claimed that she was being hunted was dismissed as nothing more than the ravings of a madwoman.
• Despite being the inspiration for American Horror Story: Hotel, none of the season was filmed of location. The interior was a set built on a studio lot at Fox; the exterior was filmed at the James Oviatt Building, also in Los Angeles.
• Interest in the Cecil’s strange history was revived by the Netflix docuseries, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021). The series investigates the mysterious death of Elisa Lam in 2013.

Checking Out Early

Even if the 16 reported deaths that were confirmed throughout the hotel’s history were the only ones, it would still have the reputation that it does.

These aren’t just any 16 murders or suicides. These incidents are truly blood-curdling. It’s as if bloodshed is an amenity offered to everyone who checks in.

Where did it all begin?

Luckily we have a date: January 22, 1927.

It was on this night that Percy Cook, a 52-year old Los Angelino, sat on the bed of his hotel room.

His wife wouldn’t take him back. His son was in the background, watching his parents fight and plead with one another.

That was earlier. Now there was just a dark thought in his brain and a gun in his hand.

The night of the 22nd was the first time a visitor of the Cecil repainted the walls and sheets with brain matter and blood spray. But it was far from the last.

Marital discord must be woven into the linens. After many self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, and just as many guests racing from an umpteen story window to the pavement.

It was October 12, 1962. After a major fight between Pauline and Dewey Otton. The Cecil widened the scope of its victims. Even folks outside weren’t safe.

The Otton’s fight had escalated so much that as soon as Dewey walked out the door, Pauline checked out through the window.

Pauline counted on taking her own life, but a second was never part of the plan.

Between Pauline and the pavement was a man, George Giannini, simply walking with his hands in his pockets. A normal day. Normal until troubled spouses rained from above. George was 65; Pauline 27.

Whatever drives people out of their windows or out of their minds seemingly extends to the Cecil’s exterior.

Evil. Bad luck. The supernatural. Whoever you want to call it cannot be contained. And it never goes away.

Cook, Otton, and Giannini have had plenty of company in the 60 years since George decided to take a walk at the worst possible time of the day.

Vanishing Caught on Camera

The discovery of Elisa Lam’s body in a water reserve on the hotel’s roof is proof of it.

February 19, 2013. The naked body of the 21-year-old Canadian student traveling abroad was found. This discovery came 4 days after her disappearance. The last known footage of Lam shows her in a distraught state. Moving in and out of an elevator. Troubled.

And then she vanished.

Afrer 4 days went by and her body was identified, there was the lingering question of whether the cause was foul play or suicide?

Doctors were given crucial information regarding Lam’s mental health and no foul play was detected in the autopsy. Lam’s death was ruled an accidental drowning. Though no one can ever know for certain, it would be hard to imagine anyone believing that it was an accident.

Lam is one of the many individuals whose fate is left a question mark. An unknown to remain unsolved.

Fortunately for the intrepid traveler the Cecil is closed for renovations and due to open sometime late 2021/early 2022. When it’s welcoming new guests in the near future, you’re more than welcome to test your mettle.

Bleach only cleans out so much blood, and walls never forget the screams, the final gasps of air. The lone gunshot that turns the lights out.

A gutted carcass retains its stench. And the Stay on Main is still the Cecil, no matter how much their PR says otherwise.

If you get the chance to spend the night you can go to sleep envisioning the new Netflix series they’ll make about you.

Sleep tight.